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Another long day trip
This time it was up to Haifa and Acre. I must admit I do like these long coach journeys – purely to catch up on my diary. Again I was behind by two days, and the coach ride made for pleasant journalling. I'm going to go all out and say that travelling is my favourite time for reading and writing. That reminds me – I have to read Naomi Klein's new book “The Shock doctrine” It's been sitting on my shelf for a while now – but I just remembered because Jimmy from ICAHD was going on about how good it is. But I digres....
Just as I finished writing up Saturday's entry we enter into Haifa. Haifa is this huge coastal tourist town. It's very different from Jerusalem. You could see how tourists would come on holiday and have no idea what troubles this country has. First stop was the Bahai Gardens. This is a shrine and gardens which is the most sacred place for those of the Bahai faith.
The Bahai faith is one of the newer religions, and is some form of combination of the major religions. It's all about peace and unity, and so I immediately rejected it due to my bitter and pessimistic, hate-filled ways. The place itself is very pretty – I'll give them that. It's on the side of Mount Carmel. Whoever designed it knew what they were doing – I suspect it wasn't me (but I can't be too sure) But I must admit I didn't really know what I was doing there – for all it's prettiness, I know we have better places in the UK, and I also know that there are more important places to see in Israel. For future trips I would like to scrap this stop – but I'll wait for feedback before I make my tyrannical changes.
The Bahai Gardens is about ¾ way up Mount Carmel, then we went all the way to the top. There was obligatory photo taking. I almost made some crazy self limiting rule to only take photos of important things for this trip (not too sure what those important things are – but I know Haifa wasn't one of them). But sense prevailed and I photographed away. After visiting the Stella Maris church, we had lunch here in this tiny cafe with this great panoramic view of the coast.
As we drove out of Haifa the driver pointed out all the empty shops and houses. Once pointed out they are very noticeable. Basically in 1948 tens of thousands of Palestinians left Haifa as refugees. But they took with them their keys to their houses, and one day they hope to return. So while they wait – the houses have just been left empty.
After Haifa we had a short drive down to Acre. Our driver claimed that Acre is the second oldest continually inhabited city in the world, after Damascus – but us Syria supports know that it's in fact Aleppo. In Acre we just stopped in the Jazar Pasha Mosque. This is a classic Ottoman Mosque in the style of the great Sinan. It was prayer time, so we went in to pray. I immediately saw a gallery level and since one of my main hobbies is to get high, I started to climb the stairs. But I was politely shouted at since this was the women's section. I still wanted some photos though from up there, so I gave my camera to Saleha to take some shots.
After prayers I claimed my camera back and was told that all the girls went trigger happy with it. They all wanted to play with it and took the opportunity. I suspect I shall have a lot of deleting to do – In the back of my mind I'm also hoping that all the photos turn out to be rubbish, so that I can feel smug about my great photography skills.
As we were constantly driving next to the sea the girls asked if we could stop at the beach. In my bitter tyrannical way I of course said no. The girls revolted and did their own bargaining with the guide, who said we could stop for 10 minutes. I can feel my power slipping away – I shall have to engineer something to fix that. Iqbal had even brought a towel with him, after I specifically told him we wouldn't go to the beach. I suspect he is in collaboration with the girls and no doubt would have to be dealt with accordingly.
Back at the hotel there are two things of note. Firstly there are thousands of random bottles in my room. There's something going on with olive oil, black seed oil and some sort of grape honey/oil/jam/elixir. Basically the driver keeps offering various things that we might be interested in buying, and all sorts of combinations of purchases are going on. Sabina is in charge of this – I have no idea what is happening, apart from it's being stored and dealt with from my room. By the way as a beekeeping expert I'm very offended by this description of Grape Honey – I still don't know what it is, but I know it's not honey. Honey comes from bees – not from squeezing grapes.
The second thing is that we invited Salim and his wife Arabiya to share the evening meal with us at the hotel (they are the ones who have had their home demolished 4 times). This gave us the opportunity to further question Salim. I'm very fond of him. He speaks very good English, and comes across as very intelligent. In particular he seems very sincere, and that's important to me. He really got going about the subtle nuances of the Israeli policies and governance. He was very passionate too. He told us in no uncertain terms that now that we know, it is our religious obligation to share the truth, and make sure that others back home learn.
He also talked more about the work ICAHD (Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions) do. So far they have rebuilt 162 houses. It takes them 2 weeks to rebuild a house. During Summer they have what they call Summer camps where they have volunteers from around the world coming to work on the houses. During this time they can get 2 houses done in 2 weeks. Many of us really took to this project, and would like to get involved more. At the very least we talked about how it cost only 10,000 pounds to build one house. I think this is something we are definitely going to do when we get back to Gloucester – raise money for this specific cause. Salim said he'd put a plaque up on the house saying it was from the community of Gloucester.
Our night ended with what seems to be the nightly “donations assessment” meeting. Like I said before, we have quite a bit of money from donations from Gloucester, and we've been asked to look after it, and hand it out in appropriate ways. This is more difficult that it seems for reasons which are both numerous and complicated. The best part of it though is that every time we count the money we seem to have more of it. Many people would say this is due to bad accounting – but we say that it's to do with the blessings of this holy place.
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During my keynote presentation at the Durham Blackboard Users conference (7th January 2014) I asked the audience to draw the 'architecture of participation' for their organisation.
More about architectures of participation here.
~ Basics ~
Real Name: Dean Horace
Alias: Feedback
Age: 60, appears 30
Gender: Male
Height: 6’ 3”
Weight: 201
Eyes: Normally blue but red when channeling energy
Hair Color / Style: Red and flared up
Distinguishing Features: Wooden Sandals and Buddhist prayer beads
~ Attributes ~
Intelligence ***
Wits ***
Resolve *****
Strength **
Dexterity **
Stamina *****
Presence ***
Manipulation **
Composure *****
~ Skills ~
Academics ****
Computer
Crafts
Investigation
Medicine *
Science ***
Athletics *****
Brawl
Firearms
Larceny
Stealth
Weaponry
Empathy ****
Intimidation
Persuasion *****
Socialize ****
Streetwise ***
Subterfuge *
~ Self ~
Powers:
➢Healing Factor****
➢> Retributive Strike (Mirror Energy)***
➢> Retributive Strike (Force)***
Weakness : Pacifist, he will not willfully engage in combat. He would remain put and accept the ravages of hate others would bestow upon him. However altruistic in nature, he’s willing to use his own body to shield others from harm.
Personality: The dean is a very laid back individual, a by product of sorts from the hippy age and the time period that he grew up on. He abhors violence and looks down upon those that resort to it with great disappointment. Dean encourages the pupils of the school to seek less violent and alternative measures to solve situations. Though he is aware that not all share his peaceful viewpoints so he is careful not to come down too hard upon those that falter on the path of peace.
History:
Born in 1948, young dean had experience the end of the Second Great War and lived through the road to recovery. However, he was a happy boy with one minor difference compare to his childhood friends he healed abnormally fast. Dean’s healing factor has always been apart of him as far back as he could remember. His wounds always healed quicker than the other kids, which was a good thing since he loved to roughhouse with his friends and father growing up. His early year progressed normally and he was quite a happy content kid.
Upon growing older and graduating high school, Dean applied to and was accepted into Kent State University to study philosophy. Sadly, while he attended classes, the Vietnam War was progressing. Sickened by the violence and loss of human life on both sides, Dean couldn’t understand how the lessons of WWII could be ignored so soon. Who carried about the communists? Their philosophy didn’t matter. Knowing something had to be done, Dean along with others from the campus gathered to protest the war, the date was May 4 1970. The National Guard came in to stop the protest and all hell broke loose. Student’s forgetting why there were gathered began attacking the guards with rocks which prompted a volley of tear gas. Things continued to get out of hand and ended up with the horrifying sounds of gunfire erupting over campus.
Dean was in the midst of the carnage when it happened. A sudden burning pain tears its way through his chest. Falling onto his knees, blood began leaking from a bullet hole in his chest. By the graces of god, his wound began to close thanks to his healing factor. However, the man who fired the gun collapsed onto his knees as well, holding an identical spot on his chest. The man stared at dean with wide eyes a she was bleeding from a shallow bullet hole. The scary part was, no bullet had been fired at the guard.
Dean’s very own body had unleashed its own Eye for an Eye philosophy on the National Guard member. From that day on, any violence received by his body would be unleashed back upon the attacker. As time went on and Dean became the victim of other attacks for his protests and viewpoints, his body developed new ways to protect itself while lashing out on its own. In time, people recognized his abilities and dubbed him Feedback.
~ Additional Information ~[/b]
This Power comes in two variations, but in essence it is the ability to return punishment received to its sender. Although it does not function against overwhelming onslaughts of pure punishment, this Power can ensure that a mutant's attackers regret their decision to throw down. The Energy variant is a Social Power, while the Force variant is a Physical Power. No roll is required in most cases for either variant.
Variation: Mirror Energy- instead of returning the same sort of energy back to its source, this variation returns a different sort (the opposite, if possible)- thus Iceman would find himself blasted by heat, and Dagger would be struck by Balefire. If there is no obvious opposite, then use Energy Force or Heat. This variation costs two freebie or experience points per Rank.
* Force- this variant functions against physical attacks, including blunt force trauma, cutting attacks, and kinetic energy attacks such as Telekinesis, Energy Emission: Kinetic Force, and Sound Generation. Instead of the mutant suffering the damage from the attack, the source of the assault will suffer.
¥ The mutant can return up to 2 Health Levels of damage back to its source. The mutant need not soak this damage. If more than this amount is inflicted, then the mutant must soak ALL of the damage, and none of it is reflected.
¥¥ The mutant can return up to 3 Health Levels of damage.
¥¥¥ The mutant can return up to 4 Health Levels.
¥¥¥¥ The mutant can return up to 5 Health Levels.
¥¥¥¥¥ The mutant can return up to 6 Health Levels.
¥¥¥¥¥ ¥ The mutant can return up to 8 Health Levels.
¥¥¥¥¥ ¥¥ Ten Health Levels.
¥¥¥¥¥ ¥¥¥ Twelve Health Levels.
¥¥¥¥¥ ¥¥¥¥ Fourteen Health Levels.
¥¥¥¥¥ ¥¥¥¥¥ Twenty Health Levels.
Healing Factor (Physical) [AN]
This ability can be an extremely powerful one- although it is not a directly damaging power, it can allow a mutant to stay in the fight for the long haul. Variations of this power can even allow regeneration of limbs, etc. Wolverine, Sabretooth, Deadpool... all have Healing Factors. Usually, no roll is required apart from the occasional Stamina check.
¥ The character can heal one non-aggravated Health Level/round, with concentration.
¥¥ The character can heal one non-aggravated Health level per round involuntarily, so long as he is conscious.
¥¥¥ The character recovers one Health level of non-aggravated damage per round involuntarily, or either one level of aggravated damage or three levels of normal damage per round with concentration. If the character is unconscious, only one Health level per hour is healed (non-aggravated).
¥¥¥¥ The mutant recovers Health as per level three, except that the unconscious rate of healing is as the normal involuntary rate, and aggravated damage is healed at the rate of one level per day.
¥¥¥¥¥ Mutant recovers his Stamina in Health levels with concentration if damage is non-aggravated, or up to three levels of aggravated damage per round. He rolls his Stamina (diff 6) to determine the number of Health levels healed involuntarily per round (minimum of one). He will heal one Health level of aggravated damage per round involuntarily. Mutant will recover from death unless precautions are taken.
¥¥¥¥¥ ¥ Mutant recovers his Stamina in Health levels per round, voluntarily or involuntarily, if the damage is not aggravated, or up to three levels of aggravated damage the same way.
¥¥¥¥¥ ¥¥ The mutant does not require his brain and heart to recover from death, merely requiring a substantial (20%) portion of his body to do so. This portion cannot have been denatured by aggravated damage (heat, acid, etc.)
¥¥¥¥¥ ¥¥¥ So long as the mutant has at least 5% of his body, he can recover from death. This portion need not be all of one piece, so long as it is contiguous, and it can be any formerly living part, including blood or other body parts that contain the full genetic information.
¥¥¥¥¥ ¥¥¥¥ So long as the mutant has at least one undamaged cell, he can recover from death. The cell needs to contain all of the mutant's genetic information, so sperm or ova aren't going to get the job done.
¥¥¥¥¥ ¥¥¥¥¥ So long as a single, undamaged strand of DNA exists, the mutant can recover from death. This may take a while; the strand will act as a virus, roaming about until it finds some appropriate living matter. Once it finds that, the DNA will rebuild the mutant (to the detriment of the host).
I started dieting April 15, 2012. Yes, I remember the day bc I glorified it for so many years. I started bc I didn’t physically feel well a lot of the time & I struggled with body image. We all know the cure for that: DIET & EXERCISE! Right?? I posted about my journey for “accountability” and got so much positive feedback. “You look amazing! You’re such an inspiration! Can you help me too?” I was so excited bc I hadn’t ever moved my body or honored it in anyway prior to that. Fueled by the results & positive reinforcement, I kept looking for better ways to diet and exercise for a few years. Then I found CrossFit, an entire global community of dieters & exercisers looking to do as much of both as possible. Perfect! For over 5 years I learned to micro-manage every seed I put into my mouth and sweat more than I ever had in my life. I was so proud to be a woman that was strong. And I still am. But things started to change eventually.
Every morning I’d wait until I pooped to weigh myself naked so that I would know the REAL number. What’s this?? How did my weight go up when I paid someone to tell me exactly how much to eat?! Must have been too much broccoli. I’ll pack food to bring to the pizza party. I’ll go “super clean” before the trip, party, event, etc. Everything I learned about, I tried. When information conflicted, I hedged my bets and restricted more of it. I wanted to be the gold standard and I wasn’t going to let anything mess that up. I even became Precision Nutrition “certified” because paying people to tell me what they learned in that one book - that apparently gave them the legal right to charge people to help them restrict food without any other credentials in nutrition or psychology - wasn’t working, so I opted to just become certified myself. And then the inevitable happened... it all stopped working. No matter what I did, who I paid, the results just stopped. My body began to bloat in ways I couldn’t anticipate, no matter what I added or eliminated. Physical discomfort I didn’t know how to stop. The stress of this sent me spiraling emotionally. The only logical explanation was that I was doing something wrong, that there was something I wasn’t doing, and that I wasn’t doing enough. My mind and time were consumed with how to control my body through food & exercise. Devastated when those around me succeeded with less perceived effort than me. I gave myself no leeway.
In May 2017 I was in the thick of this. I had been single for about a year and was ready to start dating again. I had been strict intermittent fasting, 8-10 hours of eating & 14-16 off, no matter what. I was asked on a date by someone I was actually really excited about. We had met a few years back working a wedding together and he was really cool. We made the date for a Wednesday night. I was coaching early on Wednesdays then, which meant I needed to start eating earlier in the day. 7-5 to be exact. I decided to do this even though I knew I was going out that night. NO EXCUSES!! Unfortunately the 2 drinks I had over the 4 hour date left me absolutely drunk and spinning.
We were having a fun evening up until that point.
I didn’t feel unsafe going back to his place to sober up.
I thought I could trust him.
I was tragically mistaken.
When I came to and stopped him I remember him trying to explain why it was ok that he was doing what he was doing. He really liked me and would be my boyfriend, he said. Date rape is a terrible and confusing thing to have happen to you. It took me over a week, walking around like a zombie, and a very concerned response from a friend when I told her the story, to really understand what happened to me. I broke ties with him immediately and tried to move on. I acknowledged the truth, felt what I needed to, and opted to learn from it. That year I only shot one wedding and it was out of state. I pulled up to the venue and I see him walking towards me. Out of all the videographers they could have possibly hired, they chose him. And I worked with him. I knew I had to. I could not go up to a bride on her wedding day, as she’s getting ready, and tell her I can’t do it. I learned a lot about my strength as a woman that day.
I think it’s important to understand that this happened to me at a time when I least expected it to. I was, and still am, at a point in my life where I consider myself to be a very happy person. I had become self-employed and was enjoying the successes of that. I didn’t view my dieting and exercising as anything bad at the time, and took a lot of pride in my discipline and knowledge. I was happy being single and very selective about who I went out with. I was confident I’d never put myself into a dangerous position again. I felt strong and empowered. It took me a long time to realize how my dieting/exercise routine had contributed to the events of that night. That guy is 100% responsible for his actions that night. It also breaks my heart to think about that version of myself that was so afraid to eat food. A version that weighed her options and chose to drink on an empty stomach and put her trust into her date’s hands.
My best friend got married in August 2019, and I was thrilled to be her Maid of Honor. A very special role with a lot of responsibilities and investments. I cleaned up my eating for months beforehand, and was exclusively strict for the month leading up to the big day. By the time the wedding day came, I was happy enough with my results. I was still struggling with my body image and not looking how I felt I should have with the amount of effort I put in. All that effort paired with the time and money invested into the wedding, I became terrified that if I ate any of the food at the wedding I would either A.) get sick because I knew how my body would react to foods I hadn’t been allowing myself to eat, and/or B.) bloat up and undo all the hard work I’d put in for months to look a certain way. So when everyone else was grabbing slices from the pizza food truck, or sampling the dessert options, I was eating cucumbers and hummus at my table. I wasn’t happy about it either. I felt sorry for myself and made up for it at the open bar. I had a great time at her wedding, but know now just how much more fun and enjoyment I could have shared on this most memorable of occasions.
The dangers of diet culture were completely unknown and unheard of in my life until I met my friend Iona. She and her partner run a movement based community in Boston, and I fell in love with them immediately. They used to be Crossfitters so I knew I would be understood there. She would talk a little bit about Crossfit and why she wasn’t doing it anymore and why she had stopped restricting food. Sounded good for her, but I couldn’t imagine not watching what I ate. But we’d keep chatting, and followed each other on social media so I was seeing the things she was sharing on the topic. Some things she shared didn’t sound like me at all. I had never been as great as she was and didn’t feel like our stories were the same. I had started a deep mediation practice at the beginning of 2019 that started to shake the foundation of my food & body beliefs. As I listened more to her story, and as I deepened my own personal awareness, I found myself deeply resonating with her. I was having a hard time putting uncomfortable feelings into words. She recommended two books to me: The Fuck It Diet by Caroline Dooner, and Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole.
It has been a year since I read The Fuck It Diet, and it shook me down to my core. So much of what she was describing sounded just like everything I was feeling. I felt angry at an industry I was a loyal disciple of for years. I felt ashamed of all the preaching in it’s favor I had done over the years. I felt overwhelmed in realizing that all the work I had put into optimizing my body was actually doing the opposite. I knew without a doubt that this was what my body and soul needed. A release from the confinement of diet culture. So I purchased Intuitive Eating and the accompanying workbook, and spent the last year slowly chipping away at the 10 principles of IE. In TFID she mentions that it can take 3-6 months for people to heal from disordered eating, some more and some less. I figured I’d be done nice and quick. Nope. This shit is HARD. So hard. Especially when the world shuts down 1 month into your practice and turns your world upside-down. I suffered a lot during the quarantine, and I did it silently. I couldn’t share my pain, and didn’t know how to. But I kept at it. I knew I couldn’t give up on this, too much was on the line. I moved in with my boyfriend during the pandemic which threw in a whole new twist and added challenges. I started unfollowing influencers & nutrition pages by the dozen. I utilized a food delivery service to help me take the pressure off of thinking about food so much. I was sick of it. I reached out to Iona for support. And I kept at it, even when it felt like I wasn’t making any progress. I kept at it. I knew my life depended on it.
Then some amazing things started to happen. I would put the pint of Ben & Jerry’s back in the fridge instead of eating it all at once. I could eat half my food at a restaurant and easily ask to bring the rest home. A package of cookies went stale in the cabinet because I just didn’t feel like eating them. I started buying new clothes that fit my body now, and even went as far as to go shopping when I felt most uncomfortable and bloated so I knew I could trust my clothes to truly bring me comfort. I can say no when I’m not hungry. I’m starting to be able to truly identify my hunger and fullness cues, and honor them. I’m starting to trust that my body knows what it’s doing and that it knows what size it wants to be. I can trust myself around food now because I know, without a doubt, that I can have it if I want to. Restriction is what leads to overeating, not the other way around. This, by far, has been the hardest but truest lesson I’ve learned in the decade I’ve spent educating myself on fitness and nutrition. I still have a lot of work to do, practice makes progress, and progress is never linear.
I have chosen to share this experience for a few reasons. First, the bravery of my friend sharing her vulnerable yet powerful healing experience inspired me to do the same for myself. This is the biggest hope for this project. We don’t get to choose who we influence, or how our influence is received. But we all have a story, and someone out there needs to hear YOUR story. Second, this has been one of the biggest personal items I have been working on recently and has caused a big upheaval in how I approach my life and my work. I pride myself on being openminded and allowing myself the grace to change my mind. Changing my mind on fitness and nutrition was not something I was expecting, and it is not what big diet culture wants us to believe. It is woven into our healthcare, media, and schools. Third, this is a topic I know millions of people, especially women, struggle with every single day. Fourth and final reason is the intersection of so many things in this experience. Self-worth, body image, sexism, science as a religion. Too much of what we think has been put there by someone else. My hope is that sharing my experience with diet culture, date rape, and orthorexia (eating disorder with the preoccupation with eating healthy food) that someone else will be inspired to free themselves from these cages and live life a little happier. Food CAN be neutral and our bodies do know what they’re doing.
Photo © Tristan Savatier - All Rights Reserved - License this photo on www.loupiote.com/11248250024
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Motor rickshaw transporting holy 5 legged and 6 legged cows.
The two calves in the back had extra legs attached to the top of their necks. This is a birth defect called Polymelia, where conjoint twins starts developing but one twin degenerated completely except for one or more limbs, which end up attached to the other twin.
With cows, the one or two extra limbs are often attached to the top of the cow's neck. This extra legs are shrunken, deformed and non-functional, and they get strange long nails (since the nails on normal cow legs get worn by walking).
In India, when a calf is born with extra leg or two, this is like winning the jackpot: those 5 legged and 6 legged cows are seen are very holy, and the owner will parade them around and receive donations from Hindu devotees.
These two calves (one with 5 legs, and the other one with 6 legs) were transported around the city in this specially designed motor rickshaw, covered with images of the famous "Sai Baba" (not sure why).
For more info about Polymelia, go to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymelia.
Photo taken in Varanasi - also known as Benares (India).
For more info about Varanasi, go to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varanasi.
If you like this photo, follow me on instagram (tristan_sf) and don't hesitate to leave a comment or email me.
The toaster has a bad example of feedback. The knob that adjusts how long it toasts stays where it is during the toasting and you can never tell when the toast is about to be ready until it jumps out.
Nature did put on quite a show. Clear skies, millions of stars, including the milky way visible to the naked eye.
Thanks for viewing and your comments and feedback.
I have a new iPod! This was taken using the FaceTime camera. This was also uploaded to Flickr directly from that iPod. Pretty cool little device!
Fine Art name " Pursuit of Light "
"PURSUIT OF LIGHT PhotoStories SERIES " is set of photographs from SDBWP SunDeep Bhardwaj World Photography . It means "In search of light " . This set is a fine art photography resulting after curation of photographs clicked while playing with light effects through window or door into another space in a fort in India in perfect camera setting with a full frame equipment Canon 5D Mark II using fine lenses by Canon 100-400 mm 4.5-5.6 L IS , 17-40 2.8 and 50mm fixed focal in the process of recording images. The process requires proper understanding of light in its fine form with right setting to capture the light . Fine art results after you have spent enough years perfecting art of photography and its curation and understanding all elements of recording best image and only and only when your heart mind and soul says so with your audience and experience that you are ready to name it as Fine Art . The location here is "The Pink City of India" Jaipur , Rajasthan during my Honeymoon in India when i was on a Honeymoon Tour to Golden Triangle covering AGRA DELHI JAIPUR in UP CAPITAL & RAJASTHAN respectively called as GOLDEN TRIANGLE TOUR . Then i headed to Leh in Jammu & Kashmir for more Photostories. A photographer hardly stays without camera even on Honeymoon tour. God bless All
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Yeah, I guess I am (stuck up).
Lost an in-class debate yesterday. We randomly picked opponents, and it so happened that the two strongest groups were pitted against each other. My team came close, but we lost by 1/2 pt. Individually though, I beat the other guy by 6 points.
Slightly sore about the outcome because we had the popular vote (people's final stances), but in essence lost the electoral vote (debate quality). I need to figure out a way to clone myself for these bloody group projects.
What hurts the most, though, is losing to some unoriginal management major douchebag.
Many thanks for all your positive feedback on my July 4th coverage of two great Frederick events! CraigShipp.com and twitter.com/CraigShipp
Feedback received for TEDxTempe 2010 from @heisenthought on Twitter:
Test of a questionnaire Anroid application, to be used for observational feedback in a research case study.
During my keynote presentation at the Durham Blackboard Users conference (7th January 2014) I asked the audience to draw the 'architecture of participation' for their organisation.
More about architectures of participation here.
Hello,
I've tried some new stuff and you can find my feedback here , I hope it's useful.
Marissa McInturff
During my keynote presentation at the Durham Blackboard Users conference (7th January 2014) I asked the audience to draw the 'architecture of participation' for their organisation.
More about architectures of participation here.
During my keynote presentation at the Durham Blackboard Users conference (7th January 2014) I asked the audience to draw the 'architecture of participation' for their organisation.
More about architectures of participation here.
U.S. Army Africa photo by Sgt. 1st Class Kyle Davis
U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) hosted its second annual C4ISR Senior Leaders Conference Feb. 2-4 at Caserma Ederle, headquarters of U.S. Army Africa, in Vicenza, Italy.
The communications and intelligence community event, hosted by Brig. Gen. Robert Ferrell, AFRICOM C4 director, drew approximately 80 senior leaders from diverse U.S. military and government branches and agencies, as well as representatives of African nations and the African Union.
“The conference is a combination of our U.S. AFRICOM C4 systems and intel directorate,” said Ferrell. “We come together annually to bring the team together to work on common goals to work on throughout the year. The team consists of our coalition partners as well as our inter-agency partners, as well as our components and U.S. AFRICOM staff.”
The conference focused on updates from participants, and on assessing the present state and goals of coalition partners in Africa, he said.
“The theme for our conference is ‘Delivering Capabilities to a Joint Information Environment,’ and we see it as a joint and combined team ... working together, side by side, to promote peace and stability there on the African continent,” Ferrell said.
Three goals of this year’s conference were to strengthen the team, assess priorities across the board, and get a better fix on the impact that the establishment of the U.S. Cyber Command will have on all members’ efforts in the future, he said.
“With the stand-up of U.S. Cyber Command, it brings a lot of unique challenges that we as a team need to talk through to ensure that our information is protected at all times,” Ferrell said.
African Union (AU) representatives from four broad geographic regions of Africa attended, which generated a holistic perspective on needs and requirements from across the continent, he said.
“We have members from the African Union headquarters that is located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; we have members that are from Uganda; from Zambia; from Ghana; and also from the Congo. What are the gaps, what are the things that we kind of need to assist with as we move forward on our engagements on the African continent?” Ferrell said.
U.S. Army Africa Commander, Maj. Gen. David R. Hogg, welcomed participants as the conference got under way.
“We’re absolutely delighted to be the host for this conference, and we hope that this week you get a whole lot out of it,” said Hogg.
He took the opportunity to address the participants not only as their host, but from the perspective of a customer whose missions depend on the results of their efforts to support commanders in the field.
“When we’re talking about this group of folks that are here — from the joint side, from our African partners, from State, all those folks — it’s about partnership and interoperability. And every commander who’s ever had to fight in a combined environment understands that interoperability is the thing that absolutely slaps you upside the head,” Hogg said.
“We’re in the early stages of the process here of working with the African Union and the other partners, and you have an opportunity to design this from the end state, versus just building a bunch of ‘gunkulators.’ And so, the message is: think about what the end state is supposed to look like and construct the strategy to support the end state.
“Look at where we want to be at and design it that way,” Hogg said.
He also admonished participants to consider the second- and third-order effects of their choices in designing networks.
“With that said, over the next four days, I hope this conference works very well for you. If there’s anything we can do to make your stay better, please let us know,” Hogg said.
Over the following three days, participants engaged in a steady stream of briefings and presentations focused on systems, missions and updates from the field.
Col. Joseph W. Angyal, director of U.S. Army Africa G-6, gave an overview of operations and issues that focused on fundamentals, the emergence of regional accords as a way forward, and the evolution of a joint network enterprise that would serve all interested parties.
“What we’re trying to do is to work regionally. That’s frankly a challenge, but as we stand up the capability, really for the U.S. government, and work through that, we hope to become more regionally focused,” he said.
He referred to Africa Endeavor, an annual, multi-nation communications exercise, as a test bed for the current state of affairs on the continent, and an aid in itself to future development.
“In order to conduct those exercises, to conduct those security and cooperation events, and to meet contingency missions, we really, from the C4ISR perspective, have five big challenges,” Angyal said.
“You heard General Hogg this morning talk about ‘think about the customer’ — you’ve got to allow me to be able to get access to our data; I’ve got to be able to get to the data where and when I need it; you’ve got to be able to protect it; I have to be able to share it; and then finally, the systems have to be able to work together in order to build that coalition.
“One of the reasons General Ferrell is setting up this joint information enterprise, this joint network enterprise . . . it’s almost like trying to bring together disparate companies or corporations: everyone has their own system, they’ve paid for their own infrastructure, and they have their own policy, even though they support the same major company.
“Now multiply that when you bring in different services, multiply that when you bring in different U.S. government agencies, and then put a layer on top of that with the international partners, and there are lots of policies that are standing in our way.”
The main issue is not a question of technology, he said.
“The boxes are the same — a Cisco router is a Cisco router; Microsoft Exchange server is the same all over the world — but it’s the way that we employ them, and it’s the policies that we apply to it, that really stops us from interoperating, and that’s the challenge we hope to work through with the joint network enterprise.
“And I think that through things like Africa Endeavor and through the joint enterprise network, we’re looking at knocking down some of those policy walls, but at the end of the day they are ours to knock down. Bill Gates did not design a system to work only for the Army or for the Navy — it works for everyone,” Angyal said.
Brig. Gen. Joseph Searyoh, director general of Defense Information Communication Systems, General Headquarters, Ghana Armed Forces, agreed that coordinating policy is fundamental to improving communications with all its implications for a host of operations and missions.
“One would expect that in these modern times there is some kind of mutual engagement, and to build that engagement to be strong, there must be some kind of element of trust. … We have to build some kind of trust to be able to move forward,” said Searyoh.
“Some people may be living in silos of the past, but in the current engagement we need to tell people that we are there with no hidden agenda, no negative hidden agenda, but for the common good of all of us.
“We say that we are in the information age, and I’ve been saying something: that our response should not be optional, but it must be a must, because if you don’t join now, you are going to be left behind.
“So what do we do? We have to get our house in order.
“Why do I say so? We used to operate like this before the information age; now in the information age, how do we operate?
“So, we have to get our house in order and see whether we are aligning ourselves with way things should work now. So, our challenge is to come up with a strategy, see how best we can reorganize our structures, to be able to deliver communications-information systems support for the Ghana Armed Forces,” he said.
Searyoh related that his organization has already accomplished one part of erecting the necessary foundation by establishing an appropriate policy structure.
“What is required now is the implementing level. Currently we have communications on one side, and computers on one side. The lines are blurred — you cannot operate like that, you’ve got to bring them together,” he said.
Building that merged entity to support deployed forces is what he sees as the primary challenge at present.
“Once you get that done you can talk about equipment, you can talk about resources,” Searyoh said. “I look at the current collaboration between the U.S. and the coalition partners taking a new level.”
“The immediate challenges that we have is the interoperability, which I think is one of the things we are also discussing here, interoperability and integration,” said Lt. Col. Kelvin Silomba, African Union-Zambia, Information Technology expert for the Africa Stand-by Force.
“You know that we’ve got five regions in Africa. All these regions, we need to integrate them and bring them together, so the challenge of interoperability in terms of equipment, you know, different tactical equipment that we use, and also in terms of the language barrier — you know, all these regions in Africa you find that they speak different languages — so to bring them together we need to come up with one standard that will make everybody on board and make everybody able to talk to each other,” he said.
“So we have all these challenges. Other than that also, stemming from the background of these African countries, based on the colonization: some of them were French colonized, some of them were British colonized and so on, so you find that when they come up now we’ve adopted some of the procedures based on our former colonial masters, so that is another challenge that is coming on board.”
The partnership with brother African states, with the U.S. government and its military branches, and with other interested collaborators has had a positive influence, said Silomba.
“Oh, it’s great. From the time that I got engaged with U.S. AFRICOM — I started with Africa Endeavor, before I even came to the AU — it is my experience that it is something very, very good.
“I would encourage — I know that there are some member states — I would encourage that all those member states they come on board, all of these regional organizations, that they come on board and support the AFRICOM lead. It is something that is very, very good.
“As for example, the African Union has a lot of support that’s been coming in, technical as well as in terms of knowledge and equipment. So it’s great; it’s good and it’s great,” said Salimba.
Other participant responses to the conference were positive as well.
“The feedback I’ve gotten from every member is that they now know what the red carpet treatment looks like, because USARAF has gone over and above board to make sure the environment, the atmosphere and the actual engagements … are executed to perfection,” said Ferrell. “It’s been very good from a team-building aspect.
“We’ve had very good discussions from members of the African Union, who gave us a very good understanding of the operations that are taking place in the area of Somalia, the challenges with communications, and laid out the gaps and desires of where they see that the U.S. and other coalition partners can kind of improve the capacity there in that area of responsibility.
“We also talked about the AU, as they are expanding their reach to all of the five regions, of how can they have that interoperability and connectivity to each of the regions,” Ferrell said.
“(It’s been) a wealth of knowledge and experts that are here to share in terms of how we can move forward with building capacities and capabilities. Not only for U.S. interests, but more importantly from my perspective, in building capacities and capabilities for our African partners beginning with the Commission at the African Union itself,” said Kevin Warthon, U.S. State Department, peace and security adviser to the African Union.
“I think that General Ferrell has done an absolutely wonderful thing by inviting key African partners to participate in this event so they can share their personal experience from a national, regional and continental perspective,” he said.
Warthon related from his personal experience a vignette of African trust in Providence that he believed carries a pertinent metaphor and message to everyone attending the conference.
“We are not sure what we are going to do tomorrow, but the one thing that I am sure of is that we are able to do something. Don’t know when, don’t know how, but as long as our focus is on our ability to assist and to help to progress a people, that’s really what counts more than anything else,” he said.
“Don’t worry about the timetable; just focus on your ability to make a difference and that’s what that really is all about.
“I see venues such as this as opportunities to make what seems to be the impossible become possible. … This is what this kind of venue does for our African partners.
“We’re doing a wonderful job at building relationships, because that’s where it begins — we have to build relationships to establish trust. That’s why this is so important: building trust through relationships so that we can move forward in the future,” Warthon said.
Conference members took a cultural tour of Venice and visited a traditional winery in the hills above Vicenza before adjourning.
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