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Chika Sakashita (Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety) at the Official Side Event "Enhancing policy, action and accountability for safe mobility" at the International Transport Forum's 2023 Summit on "Transport Enabling Sustainable Economies" in Leipzig, Germany on 26 May 2023.
Upon founding the Light Foundation, Matt dreamed about starting a camp where young men could learn lifelong skills that would help them be R.E.A.L (Responsible, Ethical, Accountable, Leaders). For its 10th consecutive year, the Light Foundation’s premier program, Camp Vohokase has done just that.
Each year, Matt chooses four incoming high school freshmen from an at-risk community and asks them to commit the next four years to our leadership program, which includes 10 days at Chenoweth Trails each summer. There are always 18 boys in camp, four from each grade level, with each group coming from a different part of the country. Those locations, all with a connect to the Light Foundation, include Greenville, Ohio, where Matt grew up; Woonsocket, Rhode Island, close to where Matt holds his signature fundraising event; New Orleans, Louisiana, where a like-minded charity had asked for help; West Lafayette, Indiana, where Matt attended Purdue; Gloucester, Worcester and New Bedford, Massachusetts, all close to where Matt played during his NFL years; Hammond, Indiana, where Matt’s wife Susie grew up and identified a need for support; and new this year, Washington D.C, where the treasurer of the board resides.
The young men are required to keep good academic standing, complete a yearly community service project back home, and check in with our head counselors on a frequent basis. Program Director Edgar Flores tracks the kids’ progress year-round. He also does quarterly visits in order to foster the ongoing relationship between the campers, their class, and the foundation. By interacting with them in their own space, we can learn more about their behaviors and how those connect with their personal situations. By entering their homes, we often have the chance to stand as a united front with their parents or guardians in ensuring they’re doing exactly what they need to do to succeed. These visits are critical in reassuring to the young men that we are committed to them and serve as a true support system and not just a summer camp counselor. Not to mention, we have a lot of fun! They bond over some good grub and connect about what’s going on in their lives at that moment. Past day trips during a visit have included: Dave & Buster’s, paint balling, laser tag, amusement parks, farms, and bowling. We do try and balance the fun with more educational opportunities like volunteer community service projects, visiting local museums, or making a college visit for some of our juniors and seniors.
In return of having a good academic standing, the campers spend ten days among nature enjoying all that our beautiful facility has to offer whether it be skeet shooting, woodworking, canoeing, archery, fishing, dirt biking, etc. Despite all the fun we have here, the young men are responsible for daily chores, site visits to area businesses, and the completion of a service project around Darke County. Each night of the stay is reserved for fireside chats. These chats are structured to help create a dialogue about the very real and difficult issues these young boys face back home.
For a lot of these kids, all they need is an opportunity. We use the outdoors as a real teaching tool and a way to get kids to open up. And with us, these kids aren’t given anything. We make them work for everything they achieve. But through that they understand and value hard work, they learn work ethic, and they become proud of what they do, and want to share their accomplishments. Our hope is that after four years, each young man graduates from the program ready to become leaders in their own communities, equipped with the necessary tools and a heart for service.
In the past 11 years, 30 at-risk young men have graduated from Vohokase Cultural Leadership Camp with the tools to tap into their greatest potential as people and community leaders.
This image is excerpted from a U.S. GAO report:
www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-416
MEMORY SUPPLEMENTS: Clarifying FDA and FTC Roles Could Strengthen Oversight and Enhance Consumer Awareness
a) Dietary supplement sales includes all sales, including memory supplements.
This image is excerpted from a U.S. GAO report:
www.gao.gov/products/GAO-19-705SP
Science & Tech Spotlight: Hypersonic Weapons
Note: The air enters the inlet at a speed greater than Mach 1. It is then compressed by the engine geometry, and combustion occurs at supersonic speeds.
In the aftermath of yet another fire at the aging US Steel Clairton Coke Works facility near Pittsburgh, community members and organizations collaborating with the Breathe Project hosted a press event calling for clean air on June 20, 2019 at the base of the historic US Steel building in downtown Pittsburgh.
Here is a press release from the Breathe Project setting the stage for the event:
### FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 20, 2019
Contact: Debra Smit, 412-760-7677
dsmit@breatheproject.org
Clairton, Mon Valley, Squirrel Hill Residents and Environmental Activists to Hold Press Conference on the Doorstep of U.S. Steel Tomorrow
Pittsburgh, Pa. – Clairton, Mon Valley, Squirrel Hill residents and regional environmental organizations invite media to a press conference outside the USX Towers on Thursday to send a clear message to U.S. Steel that #EnoughisEnough.
U.S. Steel must stop unlawful levels of pollution at the Clairton Coke Works from making Allegheny County residents sick – and one of the worst places in the United States to breathe. U.S. Steel must also commit to reinvesting in the Clairton Coke Works and repair its reputation as a chronic polluter.
Thursday, June 20, 2019 - Noon
U.S. Steel Towers, corner of 6th and Grant streets
Speakers
Melanie Meade, life-long Clairton resident
Jaden McDougald – Clairton resident
Patricia Amstead-Daniels, a retired nurse living in the Mon Valley, Glassport, Pa.
Howard Reiger, Squirrel Hill resident, past president/CEO of Jewish Federation of Greater
Pittsburgh
Ruth Fauman-Fichman of Squirrel Hill, an anthropology professor at University of Pittsburgh
Rachel Filippini, executive director, GASP
The press event will express the lack of response from U.S. Steel and public health concerns of many in the region. “U.S. Steel has been an air pollution problem child for the past five decades—continually skirting permit requirements and failing to comply with clean air laws while posting record profits,” said Rachel Filippini, executive director of the Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP). ACHD, Allegheny County Council and County Executive Rich Fitzgerald need to hold U.S. Steel accountable for the air pollution that local community members have had to endure for decades.”
“Enough is enough!” said Patricia Amstead-Daniels, a retired nurse living in Glassport. “It’s time for U.S. Steel to make an investment in the Clairton plant and fix this problem.”
“U.S. Steel is again showing the community that they have not made the proper investments in running a safe plant in Clairton. Both Allegheny County and US Steel should make cleaning up the Clairton Coke Works their number one priority moving forward. We need to hold off on any permits for US Steel to build new projects until they reduce pollution from the Clairton Coke Works,” said Myron Arnowitt, Pennsylvania Director for Clean Water Action.
On Tuesday night, Clairton Mayor Richard Lattanzi appealed to Allegheny County Council, asking for help in addressing the pollution coming from the U.S. Steel plant. Lattanzi is unable to attend tomorrow’s event, but made the following statement: “There are a lot of people in Clairton who have respiratory illnesses. I myself have cancer,” said Lattanzi. “I’m not going to blame anybody or point fingers, but statistics show that there are higher rates of cancer and respiratory illnesses in Clairton and the Mon Valley. We deserve help from county officials.”
The Breathe Project will also thank those elected officials who stand in solidarity with the residents of the Mon Valley and support action on the part of U.S. Steel to clean up the region’s air:
o Sen. Jay Costa: "The Clairton Coke Works is a known, ongoing violator of air pollution standards. The facility has been fined over $4 million, even prior to the most recent violations following the fire. While the plant has taken steps to reduce emissions violations, it must do more and quickly.
o Rep. Sara Innamorato: “Two fires in six months. Our neighbors deserve better and our workers deserve better. #EnoughisEnough: we need protections that put people first.”
o Rep. Summer Lee: “ANOTHER fire at Clairton Coke works. Another incident putting health of residents in the Mon Valley at risk. Another opportunity to pretend it’s not that bad. Mon Valley is in an environmental crisis right now! We need bold political AND labor leadership. Wonder who will stand w/me?”
o Sen Jim Brewster: “We’ve seen a recurring problem with this plant, and it’s time to address it. I have concerns about the health and welfare of the employees that work at this plant, in addition to the people who live in this region. The Mon Valley needs to be kept informed about the air quality so that our health doesn’t suffer.”
o Rep. Austin Davis: “#EnoughisEnough! Disappointed/frustrated that the efforts by U.S. Steel have again come up short! They MUST make proper investments in their existing infrastructure to bring Clairton Coke Works in to compliance with Clean Air standards!”
#
Media Arts Center San Diego (MACSD), in partnership with San Diego Foundation, is celebrating the completion of an intensive filmmaking fellowship program for 12 local youth filmmakers called “THROUGH OUR LENS.” The program asked participants to create short films highlighting local expanded learning initiatives, or after-school opportunities for K-12 students that enhance educational standards and introduce alternative methods of instruction that create well-rounded, civically engaged, and resourceful students. Themes covered in the videos include community sustainability and accountability, environmentalism, music, dance, and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics).
Ooops! So much for accountability and responsibility, not to mention competence. Accidents are just waiting to happen. . . .
abcnews.go.com/GMA/2010_Elections/rand-paul-fires-back-cr...
The Kentucky Senate candidate also criticized the Obama administration's treatment of BP in the wake of the ongoing Gulf of Mexico oil spill. . . . "I think it's part of this sort of blame game society in the sense that it's always got to be someone's fault instead of the fact that sometimes accidents happen."
jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/400904/ron-littlepage/2010-...
John Mica, the Florida Republican congressman, is a big supporter of the tea partiers. In a speech on the House floor last year, he declared it was his "honor to present their grievances and declaration." Included in those grievances, of course, are loud harangues that the federal government is out of control, sticking its nose in too many places, including private enterprise.
Now flash forward to earlier this week. Mica, taking part in a congressional hearing on the oil spill, had this to say: "In the month of April, the nation lost 29 miners and 11 oil rig workers in two avoidable disasters. Federal agencies failed and federal actions failed to prevent these disasters." He went on to call the Gulf accident the "Obama oil spill."
In other words, it wasn't the private companies - BP, Deepwater Horizon and the mining company - that screwed up. The fault lies with the big, bad federal government for not being big and bad enough.
ecopolitology.org/2010/05/01/limbaugh-enviro-wackos-mark-...
Saying he was 'just noting the timing' of it, conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh suggested that 'environmentalist wackos' may have blown up the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico -- an incident which can already be characterized as one of the largest ecological disasters in U.S. history.
www.grist.org/article/2010-05-20-too-big-to-fail-isnt-wor...
The potential damage from offshore oil accidents is so great that no private industry can assume the full risk. So who assumes the remainder? You, the American taxpayer. Offshore oil companies privatize profit and publicize risk by necessity; it's built into the size of the enterprise and the severity of the possible damage. . .
There's a lesson here about resource gigantism: It is anti-market and anti-democratic. There is no way for costs and risks to be fully internalized (i.e., no way to have a free, competitive market), so government and industry collude to divert them onto the public's back. There's a name for a political system in which government colludes with industry to enrich the owners of capital at the public's expense: corporatism.
Upon founding the Light Foundation, Matt dreamed about starting a camp where young men could learn lifelong skills that would help them be R.E.A.L (Responsible, Ethical, Accountable, Leaders). For its 10th consecutive year, the Light Foundation’s premier program, Camp Vohokase has done just that.
Each year, Matt chooses four incoming high school freshmen from an at-risk community and asks them to commit the next four years to our leadership program, which includes 10 days at Chenoweth Trails each summer. There are always 18 boys in camp, four from each grade level, with each group coming from a different part of the country. Those locations, all with a connect to the Light Foundation, include Greenville, Ohio, where Matt grew up; Woonsocket, Rhode Island, close to where Matt holds his signature fundraising event; New Orleans, Louisiana, where a like-minded charity had asked for help; West Lafayette, Indiana, where Matt attended Purdue; Gloucester, Worcester and New Bedford, Massachusetts, all close to where Matt played during his NFL years; Hammond, Indiana, where Matt’s wife Susie grew up and identified a need for support; and new this year, Washington D.C, where the treasurer of the board resides.
The young men are required to keep good academic standing, complete a yearly community service project back home, and check in with our head counselors on a frequent basis. Program Director Edgar Flores tracks the kids’ progress year-round. He also does quarterly visits in order to foster the ongoing relationship between the campers, their class, and the foundation. By interacting with them in their own space, we can learn more about their behaviors and how those connect with their personal situations. By entering their homes, we often have the chance to stand as a united front with their parents or guardians in ensuring they’re doing exactly what they need to do to succeed. These visits are critical in reassuring to the young men that we are committed to them and serve as a true support system and not just a summer camp counselor. Not to mention, we have a lot of fun! They bond over some good grub and connect about what’s going on in their lives at that moment. Past day trips during a visit have included: Dave & Buster’s, paint balling, laser tag, amusement parks, farms, and bowling. We do try and balance the fun with more educational opportunities like volunteer community service projects, visiting local museums, or making a college visit for some of our juniors and seniors.
In return of having a good academic standing, the campers spend ten days among nature enjoying all that our beautiful facility has to offer whether it be skeet shooting, woodworking, canoeing, archery, fishing, dirt biking, etc. Despite all the fun we have here, the young men are responsible for daily chores, site visits to area businesses, and the completion of a service project around Darke County. Each night of the stay is reserved for fireside chats. These chats are structured to help create a dialogue about the very real and difficult issues these young boys face back home.
For a lot of these kids, all they need is an opportunity. We use the outdoors as a real teaching tool and a way to get kids to open up. And with us, these kids aren’t given anything. We make them work for everything they achieve. But through that they understand and value hard work, they learn work ethic, and they become proud of what they do, and want to share their accomplishments. Our hope is that after four years, each young man graduates from the program ready to become leaders in their own communities, equipped with the necessary tools and a heart for service.
In the past 11 years, 30 at-risk young men have graduated from Vohokase Cultural Leadership Camp with the tools to tap into their greatest potential as people and community leaders.
This image is excerpted from a U.S. GAO report:
www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-452
GENERIC DRUG USER FEES: Application Review Times Declined, but FDA Should Develop a Plan for Administering Its Unobligated User Fees
Note: Approved: FDA issues an approval letter to an applicant when the agency has concluded its review of a generic drug application and the applicant is authorized to commercially market the drug. Tentatively approved: FDA issues a tentative approval letter when the agency has completed its review of an application, but patents or other exclusivities granted to the original, brand-name product prevent approval. A tentative approval letter does not allow the applicant to market the generic drug product until the related patents and other exclusivities no longer prevent approval. Complete response: FDA issues a complete response letter to an applicant at the completion of a full application review where deficiencies are found—the complete response letter describes any deficiencies that must be corrected in order for an application to be approved.
This image is excerpted from a U.S. GAO report:
www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-412SP
SCIENCE & TECH SPOTLIGHT: 5G Wireless
This image is related to a U.S. GAO report:
Combating Wildlife Trafficking: Agencies Are Taking Action to Reduce Demand but Could Improve Collaboration in Southeast Asia
Op 9 juni 2017 vond in de Tweede Kamer in Den Haag de tweede editie van Accountability Hack plaats, een hackathon waar met open data de prestaties van de overheid in kaart worden gebracht. Accountability Hack is een initiatief van de Algemene Rekenkamer en de Tweede Kamer samen met het CBS en de ministeries van Binnenlandse Zaken, Buitenlandse Zaken, Financiën en Infrastructuur en Milieu. De hackathon werd georganiseerd in samenwerking met Open State Foundation. Kijk voor meer informatie op accountabilityhack.nl/
This image is excerpted from a U.S. GAO report:
www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-337
SMALL BUSINESS RESEARCH PROGRAMS: Additional Actions Needed to Implement Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Prevention Requirements
a) The suspension and debarment process helps protect the federal government from fraud, waste and abuse by using a number of tools to avoid doing business with non-responsible contractors; the Suspension and Debarment Official makes the decision as to whether to suspend or debar a contractor. "Suspension" means action taken to disqualify a contractor temporarily from government contracting and government-approved subcontracting. "Debarment" means action taken to exclude a contractor from government contracting and government-approved subcontracting for a reasonable, specified period.
The CredibilityLab at Mishal Pakistan launched the Media Credibility Index (MCI), an initiative started in January 2013 in collaboration with Pakistan Coalition for Ethical Journalism, leading research and academic institutions, and media practitioners. The launch ceremony was held in Islamabad where prominent media professionals, representatives of regulatory bodies, media development organizations and members of the civil society participated. The Index focuses on the relative credibility and believability of various media channels through which content is created.
Addressing the participants, Founder and Director, Ethical Journalism Network, Aidan White said that launch of the Media Credibility Index is a landmark moment for media accountability in Pakistan. In a country where people are overwhelmed by a torrent of information on all sides, and where corruption lurks in all areas of public life, the greatest challenge facing journalists and media professionals is to produce information that is reliable, useful and above all truthful.
The MCI provides fundamentals for analyzing media discourse in the country. By using benchmarks provided by professionals at national and international level, the MCI provides an opportunity to examine how the news analysis and commentary of high profile news anchors contribute to better understanding of complex issues in Pakistan’s robust landscape of journalism and politics, he further added.
Speaking at on the occasion, Dr. Nazir Saeed, Federal Secretary for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage said, “Television has an overwhelming impact on peoples’ decision-making power. The significance of the Media Credibility Index is in its use and ability to highlight content that can empower both the newsmakers and the information seekers; enabling them to create an effective knowledge ecosystem in the country. MCI has the potential of becoming the source for an informed decision making tool in public policy debate. MCI will promote ethical content practices in the country, information that tells stories not just about the powerful, but also about the powerless, and not just about the life of the decision makers, but also about issues concerning the masses”.
“I feel proud of the fact that the Media Credibility Index has been launched in Pakistan and can be a benchmark for other countries in the world for promoting, balanced, ethical and fair journalism practices”, said Dr. Nazir Saeed.
Center for International Media Ethics (CIME) Ambassador for Pakistan, Puruesh Chaudhary said that the index has been developed after an extensive examination of media laws, ethical principals drafted by different media groups, compliance regulations formulated by regulatory bodies and journalistic organizations. The MCI will explore the state of media in Pakistan against six indicators and 20 sub-indices. The results are currently being published on a weekly basis on the Media Credibility Index website as well.
Senior journalist and founder, Pakistan Coalition for Ethical Journalism, Muhammad Ziauddin said that Mishal has incorporated more than thirty code of conducts, principles of ethical journalism, which include currently prevalent seven national code of conducts and twenty four international code of ethics from international regulatory bodies, which have been agreed upon across the globe. He further said, that the codes of ethics framed by the Pakistani media groups have also being included within the index, these entail Jang group’s Geo Asool, Dunya’s code of ethics, Express group’s journalism code of conduct and Dawn Group’s principles and code of conduct.
After reviewing the principles of journalism and codes of ethics for journalists; six media credibility indicators with 20 sub-indices have been developed in order to assess the media discourse and credibility of current affairs anchors in Pakistan. This extensive study entails thirty-five current affairs programming of the mainstream Pakistani news channels. The Credibility of the anchors and content discourse is being assessed on; Professional Competence, Ethics, Accuracy, Balance, Timeliness and Fairness.
Chief Executive Officer, Mishal Pakistan, Amir Jahangir said the CredibilityLab, through its activities will further strengthen the Triple Helix concept, which relies on three main ideas: (1) a more prominent role for the University in creating new though and research processes, bringing them on par with the Industry and Government that form the basis of a Knowledge Society; (2) a movement toward collaborative relationships among the three major institutional spheres, in which information and knowledge policy is increasingly an outcome of interaction rather than a prescription from the Government; (3) in addition to fulfilling their traditional functions, each institutional sphere also “takes the role of the ‘other’ performing new roles as well as their traditional function.
The CredibilityLab at Mishal will be publishing its research on the state of media and competitiveness in Pakistan in collaboration with its partners. The MCI research has been one of the few initiatives in Pakistan, where research work has been collaborated with eleven academic partners in the country, including University of the Punjab, International Islamic University, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Lahore College for Women University, University of Gujrat, Government College University Faisalabad, Islamia University Bhawalpur, University of Balouchistan, Greenwich University and Bharia University.
Mishal Pakistan is the partner institute of the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks, World Economic Forum. Mishal assists the forum in creating the soft-data on Pakistan, identifying Pakistan’s competitiveness challenges. Mishal has also launched Pakistan’s first journalism awards “AGAHI Awards” on the framework designed jointly with the Center for International Media Ethics and UNESCO’s Media Development Indicators.
As a partner institute Mishal has been working closely with the World Economic Forum on measuring Pakistan’s performance on multiple international indices and reports i.e. Global Competitiveness Index, Global Gender Gap Index, Global Enabling Trade Index, Global Information Technology Report – Network Readiness Index, Financial Development Index and the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index.
For more information on the Media Credibility Index (MCI) please visit: www.mediacredibilityindex.com
This image is excerpted from a U.S. GAO report:
www.gao.gov/products/GAO-22-104364
Cybersecurity: OMB Should Update Inspector General Reporting Guidance to Increase Rating Consistency and Precision
"Deutsche Bank Shake-Up Should Improve Accountability" by DOMINIC ELLIOTT via NYT t.co/dnBHY6pDat (via Twitter twitter.com/felipemassone/status/656182648600178688)
New York City Mayor Eric Adams holds a rally with union leaders for mayoral accountability on the steps of City Hall on Monday, May 9, 2022. Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
Governor Phil Murphy alongside Commissioner Christine Norbut Beyer signs A-3707/S-2395 as a key part of the effort to implement the necessary accountability measures to exit from federal oversight of child protective services administered under the New Jersey Department of Children and Families on Tuesday, December 20, 2022 (Edwin J. Torres/NJ Governorâs Office).
This comic is based on the PSLC's wiki page on 'accountable talk' and high school biology curriculum. It is an introduction for students to use Accountable Talk *moderation* moves when having group discussions.
Moderation moves are typically done by teachers in a classroom, but we're trying to introduce students to the idea of moderating their own group discussions.
I didn’t get elected, but we came a very credible second to the incumbent Labour Party and pushed out the more extreme elements of our political system so I’m very pleased with that. Thanks so much to my darling Claire for all her support as always 💚💚
Silver Spring, Maryland, January 24, 2014. The Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition hosted an hour long rally and brief march in downtown Silver Spring to protest ongoing police violence without accountability, most egregiously against people of color. This action was in solidarity with hundreds of similar events nationwide celebrating the true legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King. I counted around fifty participants during the hour I was on the street. Interactions between the heavily armed, bullet-proof vested Montgomery County Police and the demonstrators were generally respectful and peaceful.
This image is excerpted from a U.S. GAO report:
www.gao.gov/products/GAO-19-397
FEDERAL VEHICLE FLEETS: Agencies Have Continued to Incorporate Alternative Fuel Vehicles into Fleets, but Challenges Remain
Blair Glencorse, Founder and Executive Director.The Accountability Lab, Demetrios Marantis, Senior Vice-President, Global Government Relations.Visa, Lindiwe Mazibuko, Leader of the Opposition, Parliament of South Africa (2011-2014).Democratic Alliance (DA), Oscar Onyema, Chief Executive Officer.Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Vasilis Koulolias, Director, eGovlab.Stockholm University at the World Economic Forum on Africa 2017 in Durban, South Africa. Copyright by World Economic Forum / Greg Beadle
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a press conference as he visits the Children's Hospital of Eastern (CHEO) Ontario in Ottawa on Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021. He's joined by Alex Munter, President and Chief Executive Officer of the CHEO, and Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
This image is excerpted from a U.S. GAO report:
www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-33
ELDER ABUSE: The Extent of Abuse by Guardians Is Unknown, but Some Measures Exist to Help Protect Older Adults
This image is excerpted from a U.S. GAO report:
www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-640
INTERNATIONAL FOOD ASSISTANCE: Agencies Should Ensure Timely Documentation of Required Market Analyses and Assess Local Markets for Program Effects
This image is excerpted from a U.S. GAO report:
www.gao.gov/products/GAO-22-104494
Chemical Accident Prevention: EPA Should Ensure Regulated Facilities Consider Risks from Climate Change
Notes: This map does not include one RMP facility in each of Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, Storm surge data are not available for the West Coast and Pacific islands other than Hawaii, and sea level rise data are not available for Alaska.
Representatives of the Council of Accountable Physician Practices
From left to right:
Steven Green, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group
Nick Wolter, MD, CEO, Billings Clinic
Ira Nash, MD, Senior Vice President, North Shore-LIJ Health System
Norman Chenven, MD, CEO, Austin Regional Clinic; Vice-chair, Council of Accountable Physician Practices (CAPP)
William Conway, MD, CEO, Henry Ford Medical Group
Laura Fegraus, Executive Director, Council of Accountable Physician Practices (CAPP)
Robert Pearl, MD, CEO, The Permanente Medical Group and Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group; Chair of the Council of Accountable Physician Practices (CAPP)
Brian Rank, MD, Executive Medical Director, Park Nicollet HealthPartners Care Group
Karen Cabell, DO, Chief Quality & Safety Officer, Billings Clinic
"“Having ready access to a doctor is vital to high quality healthcare. Yet the busy schedules of consumers and physicians alike often prevent timely attention to routine and urgent healthcare problems in the traditional 9 to 5 physician office visit options. Digital technologies can help overcome the barriers to accessing medical care, yet our survey shows that these tools are not available to most Americans,” said Robert Pearl, M.D., Chairman of the Council of Accountable Physician Practices and CEO of The Permanente Medical Group and the Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group. “Healthcare providers must step up our adoption of these common-sense and available solutions if we are truly going to reform healthcare delivery.” - See www.bettertogetherhealth.org for event webcast - Hosted at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health on November 4, 2015
"“Having ready access to a doctor is vital to high quality healthcare. Yet the busy schedules of consumers and physicians alike often prevent timely attention to routine and urgent healthcare problems in the traditional 9 to 5 physician office visit options. Digital technologies can help overcome the barriers to accessing medical care, yet our survey shows that these tools are not available to most Americans,” said Robert Pearl, M.D., Chairman of the Council of Accountable Physician Practices and CEO of The Permanente Medical Group and the Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group. “Healthcare providers must step up our adoption of these common-sense and available solutions if we are truly going to reform healthcare delivery.” - See www.bettertogetherhealth.org for event webcast - Hosted at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health on November 4, 2015
Kamera: Nikon FM
Film: Fuji S-200
Kjemi: C41 photo store developed
- Here is a powerful, interesting, dense and highly valid intelligent conversation for you to consider:
This is Palestine: Former Top UN Official Craig Mokhiber on Israel’s Genocide (Published November 22 2023)
EPISODE SUMMARY
It has been more than 46 days since Israel began its brutal bombing campaign against Palestinians in Gaza. During this period, Israel has killed more than 14,000 Palestinians, including more than 5,500 children in Gaza alone. Thousands of Palestinians remain trapped under the rubble. The Israeli military has deliberately bombed hospitals, mosques, churches, homes, ambulances, and vital infrastructure throughout Gaza. On top of the ruthless bombing campaign, Israel has intensified its blockade on Gaza, blocking the entry of food, water, and fuel and cutting off the electricity supply. Israel has destroyed more than half of the housing units in Gaza, and two-thirds of Palestinians have now fled their homes.
In this episode, host Diana Buttu speaks with the former Director of the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Craig Mokhiber. Mr. Mokhiber breaks down for us how Israel's military attack against Palestinians in Gaza constitutes the crime of genocide.
On October 28, 2023, Mr. Mokhiber took the bold decision to publicly resign from his position at the U.N. for its failure to once again stop the crime of genocide. In this episode, he talks to us about how Israel's actions clearly meet the conditions for the crime of genocide, including proving intent, which is considered the most difficult to prove. We also discuss the role of countries like the U.S. and how they are directly complicit in Israel's war crimes, including genocide. We delve into why it is critical for the international community to hold Israel accountable for its repeated war crimes as a necessary step to stop its 75-year ethnic cleansing campaign against the Palestinian people.
As of publishing, a temporary pause has been brokered, which stipulates a temporary halt in Israel's bombing of Gaza for up to four days and a 6-hour pause in the north of Gaza. The specifics of the agreement state that Israel will release over 150 unjustly imprisoned Palestinian women and children in exchange for the release of 50 Israeli captives.
Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) principles were integrated into the design, implementation and evaluation of all FAO projects.
FAO distributed guidelines on key information regarding livestock, including transportation requirements, ideal weight and feed allocation. These guidelines were provided to beneficiaries during the distribution of livestock.
Read more about FAO and the Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
Photo credit must be given: ©FAO/Rommel Cabrera. Editorial use only. Copyright FAO
Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).
Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions
"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".
The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.
The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.
Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.
Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:
Wet with cool dew drops
fragrant with perfume from the flowers
came the gentle breeze
jasmine and water lily
dance in the spring sunshine
side-long glances
of the golden-hued ladies
stab into my thoughts
heaven itself cannot take my mind
as it has been captivated by one lass
among the five hundred I have seen here.
Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.
Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.
There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.
Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.
The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.
In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:
During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".
Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.
While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’
Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.
An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.
Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983
Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture
Main article: Commercial graffiti
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.
In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".
Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.
Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.
Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.
Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.
There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.
The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.
Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.
Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis
Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.
Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.
Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"
Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal
In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.
Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.
Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.
Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.
With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.
Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.
Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.
Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.
Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.
Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.
Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.
Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.
The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.
I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.
The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.
Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.
Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.
In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".
There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.
Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.
A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.
By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.
Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.
In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.
A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.
From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.
Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.
Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.
In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.
Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.
In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.
In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."
In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.
In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.
In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.
In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.
In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.
To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."
In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.
In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.
Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".
Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)
In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.
Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.
Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.
In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.
Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.
Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.
To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.
When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.
Text reads as follows:
NYTM.ORG IS BLACKED OUT IN PROTEST OF PIPA/SOPA — READ MORE BELOW
WANT TO CALL SENATOR SCHUMER OR SENATOR GILLIBRAND? THANKS TO OUR FRIENDS AT MOBILECOMMONS YOU CAN JUST TEXT THE WORD PIPA TO 877877 AND WE'LL CONNECT YOU DIRECTLY TO WHICHEVER SENATOR'S LINE OPENS UP FIRST.
DEAR NY TECH MEETUP COMMUNITY:
THANK YOU.
This afternoon, over 2,000 of us gathered together to protest an unprecedented attack on the future of our industry and to demonstrate and to defend our love of the open web.
In an effort to combat piracy which we all would like to minimize if not outright eliminate, Congress, at the behest of monied special interests representing the copyright holding industries, is proposing to redesign the Internet. If they are successful, they will not only stifle innovation and investment in emerging technology companies in New York and elsewhere, they will irrevocably damage the architecture of the Internet so as to embolden censorship around the world.
The Internet and related connection technologies have created a renaissance in startup innovation in New York that now rivals Silicon Valley as a hub for economic growth. Tens of thousands of New Yorkers have been inspired to become entrepreneurs creating thousands and thousands of new jobs and offering professionals in many of New York’s traditional industries the opportunity to start new careers participating in the 21stcentury global economy. More importantly, the open web has fostered a new era of reform around the world allowing citizens using the technology to challenge repressive regimes and demand accountability in their political systems.
To be absolutely clear, we totally oppose any piracy of any and all copy righted material, However because of the poor way the language of the legislation is written, there is a very real possibility that that the PIPA and SOPA laws would vastly discourage open innovation, investment, entrepreneurship, and free speech.
This is a classic case of our 20th century government clashing with the realities of our 21st century global economies.
So if you agree with our effort to bring our voices together to fight to make sure Congress does't act in an unilateral and uninformed way, we urge you to call and tweet to our Senators, Schumer and Gillibrand and tell them not to tamper with the Internet.
Instead of sponsoring PIPA Senators Schumer and Gillibrand should be defending the future of New York, free speech, and the open web.
The copyright holding organizations proposing these bills have been gaming the system for decades lining the pockets of politicians with money and using their power and influence as a currency to monopolize their markets.
The Internet however operates in a different kind of currency, the currency of trust and openness.
Today we stand in solidarity with all the other websites around the world who have taken the risk today to shut down or modify their online presence and activities to bring awareness to the issues and to galvanize their respective communities to fight for what is right.
Please join us in the effort to minimize piracy on the web, and help us continue to build the infrastructure for a 21st century New York and a 21st century economy.
Signed:
Andrew Rasiej, Chairman — @rasiej
Scott Heiferman, Founder — @heif
Nate Westheimer, Executive Director — @innonate
Jessica Lawrence, Managing Director — @jessicalawrence
And the entire NY Tech Meetup Board — @nytm
Ousmane Ly, ANTIM, Mali
This session features some of the innovative ICT applications for RMNCH, and highlight efforts of international organizations to foster the use of ICT to better implement the recommendations of the Commission on Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health.
Day 2
14 May 2013
ITU/ J.M. Planche
Milwaukee public school teachers, parents, students and supporters staged a large picket line outside MPS administration building on Vliet Street on Milwaukee's west side late Tuesday afternoon.
The purpose was to protest yet another round of funding cuts to K-12 schools in Milwaukee. Classrooms and students are already suffering the effects of previous cuts including desks that are falling apart and books with spines that need to be taped together. Currently, Milwaukee, a mainly African-American and Latino city, spends less money per pupil than other, richer suburbs like Wauwatosa and Shorewood. Milwaukee is the state's largest school district.
Governor Scott Walker shares at least part of the blame for the messy situation. Over the past few years he's cut $1BN from the state's education budget, including $792 million from K-12 schools. Supposedly, some of that will be restored this year due to a budget surplus. Of course, the teachers aren't holding their breath that this will actually happen. At the same time he was cutting funds for public education, Walker was using some of that money to pay for tuition to privately run charter schools.
Other proposals for dealing with the budget shortfall include ending busing programs thereby forcing students to take public transportation, shifting more health care costs onto employees, and closing schools altogether.
What's happening in Milwaukee is similar to what has been happening in school districts all across the country symbolized by teacher strikes and walk-outs in states like West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky and lately Arizona. Public schools are being deprived of cash and devalued in favor of privately operated charter schools that are not accountable to the public. Our students are being reduced to mere commodities for someone else to make a profit off of. And a real education be damned.
So the priorities are obvious. Walker will give untold sums of money to Foxconn to build a plant in Racine County. Supposedly, this will create a lot of jobs; but that's what the politicians always say because they think that will win them votes come election time. There is some doubt that Foxconn can uphold its end of the bargain. In the meantime, money that went to Foxconn could be used to fund public education.
And then we have the city of Milwaukee. The owners of the Milwaukee Bucks cry poor mouth. Can't make money in the Bradley Center anymore. We need a new arena or we're moving the team to another city. So the city ponies up to placate the poor owners. I read it was $250 million in public funds for a private stadium. Think that $250 million wouldn't make a difference for Milwaukee public schools? And so it goes in this era of privatization and greed run rampant.
Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim A.A. Khan QC and vice-president of Eurojust Margarita Šniutytė-Daugėlienė.
The Government of the Netherlands, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and the European Commission are hosting an Ukraine Accountability Conference at ministerial level at the World Forum in The Hague, The Netherlands, on 14 July 2022.
© Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2022
Roland, one of Santa's accountants, finds it discouraging that Rudolph and the Flight Crew get all the attention. No one ever pays attention to the other support staff. Let the Rednose Reindeer try to balance the budget in this economy and see how much time he has for reindeer games.
Omar Alshogre, Syrian student and detention survivor, addresses the Security Council Arria-formula meeting on Accountability in the Syrian Arab Republic.
Security Council members Estonia, France, the United Kingdom and the United States, with additional co-sponsors Belgium, Canada, Germany, Georgia, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Qatar, Sweden and Turkey holds an informal briefing on the need for increased efforts by the Council to establish full accountability for the most serious international crimes committed in the Syrian Arab Republic.
UN Photo/Manuel Elías
29 November 2021
New York, United States of America
Photo # UN7918177
Op 9 juni 2017 vond in de Tweede Kamer in Den Haag de tweede editie van Accountability Hack plaats, een hackathon waar met open data de prestaties van de overheid in kaart worden gebracht. Accountability Hack is een initiatief van de Algemene Rekenkamer en de Tweede Kamer samen met het CBS en de ministeries van Binnenlandse Zaken, Buitenlandse Zaken, Financiën en Infrastructuur en Milieu. De hackathon werd georganiseerd in samenwerking met Open State Foundation. Kijk voor meer informatie op accountabilityhack.nl/
Sgt. Maj. Joel Collins and 1st Sgt. Daniel Mangrum give a leadership and accountability brief to Marines with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (24th MEU), Battalion Landing Team, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, Headquarters and Services Company, aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7). Iwo Jima is part of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group with the embarked 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (24th MEU) and will support maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th and 6th Fleet areas of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Scott Youngblood/Released)
120329-N-QM601-315
ATLANTIC OCEAN (March 29, 2012)