A few years ago, LinkedIn screwed up big-time, and millions of user passwords got leaked. And now LinkedIn is prepared to pay each eligible screwed-over person a truly tiny settlement in one of the most arrogant and insulting settlements for digital duncery yet.
When Texas native Jonathan Chen moved to New York City to attend college, he was struck by how many homeless people filled the streets and subways — and even more so by the significant number of people who tuned into their headphones on their commutes instead of paying attention to these people in need. He wondered if there was a way for people to stop using music as a barrier and start using it as a way to help those asking for assistance right next to them. Then, he decided to create one.
As a freshman at New York University, Chen founded One Reason Recordings in 2012. The national 501(c)3 organization makes albums out of songs donated by independent music artists, then sells them to raise money to address social justice issues.
Each year, ORR focuses on a different issue. So far, the team has addressed water scarcity, homelessness and medical miracles. ORR announced this month that it will address food insecurity in its 2015 campaign.
Chen, now 21, comes from a family dedicated to charity work, and began volunteering alongside his mother when he was 4 years old.
“It was always about giving back, no matter how much we personally had,” Chen told The Huffington Post. “We did charity work almost every weekend as I grew up, and it just became something I loved to do.”
When he arrived in Manhattan, Chen not only felt a desire to find a way to give back in his new community, but also to address the poverty and homelessness — and subsequent desensitization to it — he saw every day on his way to class.
“You see tons of people who are homeless on the streets of New York, and for me, that was really shocking and surprising,” Chen said. “Being from Texas, that’s not something I normally see. So that initial culture shock really got me thinking that for people in New York, this is something that is so common — people just pass by as if it was normal — and I was wondering if I could change that.”
Noticing that the majority of commuters were listening to music on their smartphones, Chen made it his mission to turn that distraction into a source of social impact. He began collaborating with independent artists looking to build an audience as well as make a positive impact on the world.
At the beginning of each year, Chen and the ORR team begin fielding individual song submissions from artists who feel strongly about the year’s campaign topic and are willing to donate their music. After making their selections and mixing and producing the CD, ORR spends the rest of the year selling the collaborative album digitally and on the NYU campus.
“I love what music can do,” Chen said. “I think it transcends boundaries and really breaks down barriers for people from any ethnicity or religion or race. Anyone can really love and understand music without having to understand what the lyrics mean. They can understand the concept behind it. It’s very universal.”
Cover of 2013 album, Collecting Droplets
ORR selected water scarcity as its first social justice issue to address, and partnered with charity: water for the duration of 2012. Their campaign led to the debut of their first EP, Collecting Droplets, with a variety of artists sharing music that spoke to the impact of clean water around the world. Through CD sales, ORR raised $5,000 for charity: water, which went toward the installation of a new water well in Ethiopia.
Cover of 2013 album, Foundations
The organization tackled homelessness in 2013, creating the Foundations album and leading a clothing drive. By the end of the year, ORR, in coordination with Food for the Poor, was able to fund the construction of a home for a struggling family in Haiti as well as donate $12,000 worth of clothes — more than 4,000 articles of clothing were donated from people in 12 different countries.
Cover of 2014 album, A Child, A Bear, & A Red Balloon
ORR’s 2014 campaign was about miracles — specifically, about the modern-day perception of miracles being connected to the medical field. After selling that year’s album, A Child, A Bear, & A Red Balloon, ORR donated $6,000 to Children’s Medical Center in Dallas to fund dental implant surgeries for children born with cleft lip syndrome.
So far, upwards of 80 percent of the donations from ORR have stemmed from music sales alone, turning a digital craft into a real, physical impact. Running the organization costs about $1,800 each year, according to Chen, and every other penny raised goes to the cause of the year.
This year, Chen is focusing ORR’s social impact efforts on hunger. Chen is a food studies major who also consults in the food and restaurant industry, so he said he is particularly excited to address the issue of food insecurity. ORR has partnered with Stop Hunger Now for the campaign.
As the organization grows — it is now run by 30 students and professionals on a volunteer basis — it is expanding its product offering in hopes of reaching an even bigger audience. ORR has already begun selling T-shirts designed by a collection of independent artists and has partnered with Epic, a watch company that donates water filters to Haiti after every sale.
To listen to One Reason Recording’s albums online for free — or donate to charity by downloading them — click here.
To take action on pressing poverty issues, check out the Global Citizen’s widget below.
Photo credit: Shao-Chun Wang/123rf.com
Wait a minute. Isn’t it ‘Time’s running out — hurry up’?
After all we pride ourselves on how fast we can do things and how much we can get done in a day. We have to, right? No time to waste, so much to do, and we’ll never finish it all if we don’t speed up. Lots of folks are counting on us, so we have to handle as much as we can, as fast as we can.
Yet while it’s satisfying to rush around checking stuff off the list, getting projects done, cooking good meals, grabbing time for exercise, remembering to call Mom and on and on, there are costs to the Hurry Habit. Here are some painful prices I’ve paid:
I’ve achieved a great deal in my life, but most of it has happened in fast forward mode. After all this time, I’ve found a better way that is actually producing far better results while giving me a new sense of peace and well-being. Here’s how it happened.
Six months ago sitting our hot tub, I was deeply discouraged and asking myself why yet another tragedy had happened to me. For the past year and a half, I’d been suffering severe back pain, couldn’t sit longer than 10 minutes, and felt helpless because I could no longer do what I wanted and needed to do. Yet finally I had found a way to cure my ruptured disc without surgery and return to a pain-free life.
But now my knee had gone out, and I could no longer walk. I had to figure out why. I realized that there was a lesson I hadn’t learned from my back pain, so I was being given another chance. But try as I might, I had no clue what it was.
Suddenly my mind stopped chattering, and I realized I needed to quit trying to figure it out. I became still, looked up and listened. Really listened. And then it came to me.
Time’s running out — slow down!
I took time to digest what I’d heard, then argued with it for a while, and finally chose to take it seriously. Since that time my mantra has been Slow down. Rushing to an appointment, afraid I’d be late, angry at the traffic, stuck at a red light, I’d remember. And I’d breathe, look up into the blue Colorado sky and enjoy the moment.
I’ve learned that hurrying doesn’t help — in fact, it actually slows me down. The faster I go, the longer it takes me to do things. Mistakes happen, I do stupid things, and I lose track of what I’m doing. Hurry up — you have to get this article finished in the next hour only leads to worry, fear, and distraction. Try writing something sensible, let alone useful, in that state of mind.
So here are the key lessons I’ve learned about how to get more done by slowing down. I ask you to consider what I’m sharing and take a moment to think about how you’re doing on each one on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest.
As a result of remembering these lessons I’ve come to believe deeply in my New Paradigm for this year: I’m so happy being who I am — just as I am!
The difference these guidelines have made to me is indescribable. All I can say is that the stresses I listed at the beginning of this piece have disappeared, I’m achieving far more and doing it happily, and my relationships with my family and friends are much more enjoyable and far more loving.
And this experience is what I want most for you, friend. So while Liking and Sharing this article are much appreciated because you’re spreading the word, what matters most is you putting these lessons into practice in your life. Please.
Be in touch with questions about how to slow down or share insights about what you’ve learned when you’ve done so. Either scroll to the bottom to the Comments section or contact me directly at jinny@bestyearyet.com.
For more by Jinny Ditzler, click here.
For more on life lessons, click here.
For more about Best Year Yet, click here.
P.S. To make your Best Year Yet® plan, you can also choose one of these options:
For over 10 years, Kanye West has consistently created various pop culture trends across the world. And with the recent release of the Grammy Award-winner’s exclusive apparel and sneaker line with Adidas, he was also among five luminaries honored this year during the eighth annual BET Honors ceremony.
The prestigious event, which was taped last month in Washington D.C. and aired on the network Monday night, recognized West for his creative efforts by honoring him with the show’s Visionary Award.
During his acceptance speech, Kanye spoke on racism and recalled a previous conversation with his wife, Kim Kardashian, where she revealed how her father, Robert Kardashian, reacted to being called a “N***a Lover,” after discovering the racial slur written on his Bentley around the time he served as one of O.J. Simpson’s defense attorneys in the infamous 1994 murder trial.
“She never saw her father curse, get mad, he was the most laid back human being. And he went so crazy and tried to chase the people down,” West explained. “And she sat there crying saying, ‘Dad, you’re going so crazy?’ And he said to her, ‘one day you may have a black child…a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful black child…and it’s gonna be hard. You’re gonna see how hard it is.’ So true enough, we deal with racism, because there are different races. Or the micro of it is that we focus on the different races, as opposed to the macro, which is the human race.”
West went on to say: “The bit of sound bites that everyone loved from last year that got taken out of context, or misunderstood, did come from a place of saying, ‘yes, part of the reason why I’m not allowed to be empowered is because of race, because of people’s perception of celebrity,’ because all they want to present to young black men is the idea of making it to the league or making it to be a rapper, but not the idea of becoming an owner.”
Check out Kanye West’s “BET Honors” speech in its entirety in the clip above.
A ketchup and French fry plant exists. You can pluck the fresh dipping sauce straight from the vine, and dig up those crispy potato wonders simultaneously.
Well, sort of. The Grafted Ketchup ‘n’ Fries™ plant from the Territorial Seed Company allows gardeners to harvest potatoes and tomatoes from the same plant.
Territorial Seed Company
It’s a pretty neat concept, considering the two kinds of produce grow very differently: Tomatoes are cultivated above ground and sprout from a vine. Potatoes, on the other hand, are grown from seed potatoes that are planted underneath soil.
Territorial Seed Company
Though it seems peculiar that these two very different plants could thrive together, Territorial Seed writes on its website that the process is all natural, free of genetic modification. The TomTato plant flourishes because tomatoes are part of the the potato family. Making a homemade dish of ketchup and fries (or a potato and tomato bake, patatas bravas or this handsome vegetable medley bake) will be an absolute breeze.
The dual plant ships to the U.S. and can be delivered in either April or May. Get your own here.
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Carbon markets are being established around the world, but how exactly do cap-and-trade systems work? By answering a few questions on cap-and-trade systems, this piece illustrates why and how such systems are being adopted in practice.
What is the point of a cap-and-trade system? Cap-and-trade systems are an approach to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and combating climate change. Market mechanisms, which include both cap-and-trade systems and carbon tax, are preferred by many economists, policy makers, and environmentalists due to their ability to enhance efficiency and innovation. The alternative to market mechanisms is the more traditional command and control approach which includes ambient standards, source-specific emission limits, or technology requirements.
But what exactly is a cap & trade system? Industries covered by a cap-and-trade system have a limit or cap on the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) or CO2 equivalent GHG they can pollute. Cap-and-trade systems usually start by covering big emitting industries such as power plants, but should eventually include the entire the economy, lowering the cap on pollution over time to continually reduce emissions. Companies that pollute more than their limit can buy carbon credits (aka permits or allowances) that each represent one metric ton of carbon dioxide. Companies will purchase these credits if it’s cheaper to buy more credits than reduce their emissions. If companies emit less than their allowance, they can sell their credits to companies that wish to buy more. If it is more cost-effective for companies to reduce their emissions and then sell their allowances, they will do so. Thus, the carbon market is established and credits are auctioned off. One way or another, each year companies have to cover their emissions or a fine is imposed.
How prevalent is this approach? Carbon cap-and-trade systems have been adopted by 39 national and 23 sub-national jurisdictions across continents. The European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is the first and largest in the world, but has seen it’s fair share of obstacles and has not been as effective at reducing emissions as many had hoped. Specifically, the price of carbon on the market has been low and when the price is low, there is less of an incentive to reduce emissions. Yet new carbon markets are emerging, others are maturing, and lessons are being learned. 2014 was a big year for carbon markets: Quebec and California linked their existing systems and a sixth province in China, the country that emits the most CO2 in the world, launched a cap-and-trade system. In the first few months of 2015 South Korea opened the world’s second largest carbon market and plans are in the works for a system in Washington state.
What factors contribute to a successful system? As we have now had time to observe and learn from the various regional and national carbon markets around the world, common characteristics that contribute to the market’s success are emerging. Here are some examples:
Putting an efficient amount of carbon permits on the market. It boils down to basic economics, but is key for cap-and-trade systems. Too many permits on the market will result in low permit prices. The EU ETS ran into this problem due to the decrease in energy demand during the economic crisis. The lack of demand for permits resulted in an oversupply of them, thus dropping the price of allowances. If not enough permits are available, the price will skyrocket.
Credits auctioned off rather than grandfathered in. When a system is beginning, there is strong pressure from industry for a certain number of permits to be allocated for free or ‘grandfathered’ in and we see the amount of allowances given away vary by industry. This may be politically necessary to get the system up and running, but as mentioned above, too many permits on the markets keeps the price of carbon low and reduces incentives to cut emissions.
A floor price or price that one ton of carbon cannot go below. Price floors, or a minimum price per metric ton of carbon, allows for emissions reductions even if the price of CO2 is lower than expected. This also provides certainty and confidence to the market by limiting the volatility of permit prices. The exact price of one ton per carbon will be established by the market and dependent on the amount of permits on the market, but a floor price should be implemented by the government to ensure that the price of carbon is high enough to be felt. The floor should increase annually.
Bring industries in over time. This approach is the norm and it works for political as well as economic reasons. By gradually introducing industries into the system, starting with the most polluting ones, people can get used to the system and any kinks can be worked out. For example, Quebec’s cap-and-trade system covered industrial and electric sectors in its first phase from 2013-14, then expanded to fuel distributors in 2015.
Clearly defined and regulated offset market. A sometimes controversial aspect of cap-and-trade systems is the ability to ‘offset’ emissions or invest in projects outside the cap-and-trade program that reduce, rather than do so directly. Offsets usually take the form of forestry or livestock projects that limit deforestation and methane flaring. Although the offset aspect of the system can be cost-efficient, it is important that these offset projects are regulated, monitored and third-party verified.
New cap-and-trade systems are being implemented using the examples of existing markets and tweaking aspects that proved problematic. For example, in order to prevent a large and inadequate amount of allowances on the market (as was the EU ETS case), the Chinese province of Hubei is attempting to make adjustments in how many credits are allocated after they are auctioned off, after reported emission levels are available. Specifically, RTCC reports that with this approach “companies that emitted more than 120 percent of the level covered by the free permits could seek extra permits, while those which emitted less than 80 percent of their allocation may have permits withdrawn.” Preventing this abundance of permits on the market can prevent a crash in carbon prices as well.
California also used the EU ETS’s low permit prices as an example of what to avoid, when the state implemented a price floor. In California’s first auction in 2012, the minimum allowable bid was set at $10, and will increase 5 percent annually, plus the rate of inflation. In the most recent auction in August 2014, the price floor was set at $11.34, and permits were sold at $11.50 ($11.34 for future permits).
What are done with the revenues from permit auctions? Many people question where the revenues that were generated from the selling of state-owned GHG emission permits go. Governments often allocate these revenues to projects that will further reduce GHG emissions. For example, California’s 2014-2015 budget appropriated $850 million in auction revenue to various state programs, such as sustainable communities programs, clean transportation including funding a high-speed rail, energy efficiency, natural resources, and waste diversion. Governments in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which poses a cap on the power sector in northeastern U.S. states, allocated proceeds to energy efficiency retrofits in low-income apartments and other measures that reduce consumer energy costs.
The expanding carbon market is providing best practices for cap-and-trade systems around the world. A credible and functional carbon market is important in today’s political context, as governments are still apprehensive in establishing strong climate policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. An expanding carbon market can encourage companies that are not yet a part of any cap-and-trade program to voluntarily set an internal price on carbon or to incorporate carbon prices into their management plans, as they anticipate the future market. And of course, reductions in GHGs help countries meet their reduction goals and sets path for addressing climate change internationally.
I was in debt.
Serious debt.
The “how-will-I-ever-pay-this-back?” kind of debt. The kind that haunts you in those moments right before you fall asleep.
And what’s worse: I’d been carrying this unpaid balance for over two decades.
How much did I owe? More than I could write a check for because it wasn’t a financial debt.
Back when I was in my early 20s, I got into real estate. I started working in my father’s office. You probably remember that I was actually really good at real estate — out earning the entire office where I worked in my first year. But what you may not know is it was a rocky start. The other people in the office didn’t like me very much, and I can’t blame them. I was aggressive, arrogant, and alienated myself from all of them within the first week.
Well, all but one.
There was one guy who had been working in that office from the beginning. And while the rest of the office withheld the tips of the trade, or simply snickered when I made rookie mistakes, this guy would pull me aside and in a single sentence, set me straight.
The subtle lessons he taught me in that first year, and continued to teach me throughout my real estate career, made my success possible. Many of the zeros at the end of my commission checks were because of him and many of the lessons I teach today contain traces of the lessons he taught me more than 20 years ago.
No amount of dollars, no extravagant gifts could express the extent of my gratitude.
I owed him.
Big time.
And I had no idea how to pay him back.
Then, after not seeing him for many years, I saw him at my father’s service and had the pleasure of spending a few moments catching up. A proud grandfather now, he told me that his granddaughter had recently graduated from college, at the top of her class of course. She was at the beginning of her job search in the Bay Area and had an eye on a position at a well-known tech company. It was a stretch, especially for a recent grad, but…
Suddenly a thought occurred to me.
Without saying a word about it, I called a few people who knew a few people and got her an interview at the highest level of that well-known tech company (which will remain anonymous — a good journalist and people broker never reveals his sources).
With my strong endorsement, the support of the friend I called, and an exceptional interview on her part, she was offered the position.
She is now working at her dream job, with her dream employer, making twice what she expected and with the added bonus of living close to her grandfather; her mentor and mine.
Though I had hoped to remain anonymous, a few weeks later I received a phone call from the man who had helped me so many years earlier. Through the phone I could hear his voice crack as he expressed his gratitude.
“I can’t believe what you did. How can I ever repay you?” he asked.
“You can’t. It was my delight and debt to do so. We’re even.” I replied.
I always repay my debts.
Do you?
I challenge you to write down the five people who have made the biggest impact on your life the last year or two. Then plot and scheme on how you can do something for them to get, at least, a little bit more even. I’m sure it will be fun and as rewarding for you as it will be to your recipient.
HOLLYWOOD — The Federalist Papers may be out, but “Captain America” is in.
China’s top education authorities have recently launched a campaign to curb the teaching of “Western values” in universities through primary texts that promote individual liberty, rule of law, an independent civil society and distrust of political authority. Yet Chinese audiences flock unbothered to such Hollywood films as “Captain America,” “Transformers, “Hunger Games” or “Spider Man” which, in their essential message, impart, even if only incidentally, the very Western values censorious authorities are trying to purge from the official curriculum.
Can it be lost on these Communist Party stalwarts that the subversive memes of individual liberty, self-organized “civil society” groups and anti-authoritarianism are spread far more by Hollywood movies than scholarly texts? If a picture is worth a thousand words, a blockbuster film is surely worth quite a few textbooks. And so are all the American TV shows so popular in China, from “House of Cards” to “NCIS” and the legal drama “The Good Wife.”
Those who remember the Cultural Revolution and the ubiquitous propaganda that built-up Mao’s cult of personality certainly know that whoever controls the narrative sways the society. As Plato noted long ago, “those who tell the stories rule society.”
But don’t they also grasp that ordinary middle class moviegoers or TV viewers in a mass society buy into a narrative not so much by a considered weighing of ideas as on what image they identify with emotionally and want to be associated with? Isn’t that why Brad Pitt’s visage can be seen on billboards all around Shanghai selling Cadillacs?
A person’s worldview is constructed more emotionally than rationally by what works for them metaphorically. And metaphor is the métier of movies. Images are the currency of their realm. Images rule dreams and dreams rule actions.
Just as the Silicon Valley libertarian ideology of individual empowerment is encoded in social media products like YouTube, so, too, the very message China’s authorities worry about — the individual or non-government “civil society” groups righteously standing up to authority and power — is embedded in the Hollywood medium going back to Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” or “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”
While the Federalist Papers address the division of powers, an independent judiciary and popular elections, at least they respect political authority (Thomas Jefferson was an admirer of Confucius). But, for Hollywood, making fun of political authority, or fighting against it, is a time-honored, audience-pleasing trope.
If you emerge from a Beijing cinema into the usual toxic haze and read the People’s Daily reports about peasants in some small village once again losing their land to corrupt officials, how else can you interpret “Avatar” than as a call for people to stand up to the greed of rapacious state-backed developers who are ruining the environment?
Often, the most subversive message is incidental. Back in the early 1960s when a group of Hollywood executives visited Jakarta, then Indonesian President Sukarno told them, “I see you as political radicals and revolutionaries who have greatly hastened political change in the East.” He went on to say what he meant in those days when East Asia was largely undeveloped:
“What the Orient sees in a Hollywood movie is a world in which ordinary people have cars and electric stoves and refrigerators. So the Oriental regards himself as an ordinary person who has been deprived of the ordinary person’s birthright.”
Similarly, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali women’s rights activist known for her outspokenness against political Islam, traces one early epiphany in her teenage years to a B Hollywood movie — “Secret Admirer”– she saw in a Nairobi cinema with her sister, sneaking out when they were supposed to be studying the Quran. For the first time, she saw a boy and a girl kiss on screen, something entirely outside of her life experience in her Muslim clan.
As the media sociologist Manuel Castells has noted, venturing into another reality through movies is not “cost free.” Glimpsing an alternative reality can either prompt innovation — “I want to live that way” — or provoke reaction — “that way of living is dangerous and a threat to my way of life.” Surely, this insight accounts for the strange and elusive mixture of love and loathing American mass culture evokes around the world.
In this respect, films are a powerful influence. However waning American might is in other respects, and however influential other film industries are becoming, the attractive soft-power of Hollywood movies still reigns globally (with the exception of India’s Bollywood).
In fact, Hollywood is going even more global in order to thrive — in no small part because cable and TV are displacing its home audience at the box office.
China is already Hollywood’s second largest market after the United States, and it’s projected to become the largest market by 2020.
“It used to be that as much as 50 percent of the total box office for a film would come from the U.S. and Canada, but it’s not the case anymore,” Stan Rosen, an expert in Chinese politics and the relationship between Hollywood and China, told USC News. “It’s gone down to 30 or 35 percent. Now, a blockbuster film will make as much as 70 percent of its return outside of North America.”
China jumped ahead of Japan as the second-largest film market after North America in 2012. In 2013, China’s box office receipts tallied $3.6 billion — a 27 percent increase over the previous year. Then in 2014 China’s box office sales hit $4.8 billion. He estimates that China will overtake North America as the top movie market in the next 10 years.
Indeed, the entertainment world as a whole is becoming more globally integrated. America’s second largest theater chain, AMC, is owned by a Chinese company.
Disney is no longer the quintessential image factory of Mainstreet America, but a global company that banks on China for its impressive revenues, not only from films like “Frozen” but from theme parks such as the one it will be opening soon in Shanghai.
The same is true for the other American media giants from Universal to Time Warner and Comcast.
Thanks to the vastly improved and ever more powerful computer tools available at much cheaper cost, even smaller, independent filmmakers are going global, pulling together talent and technical expertise from around the world with the ultimate aim of achieving international marketability. One good example is the sci-fi short “ATROPA” by American filmmaker Eli Sasich, who used storyboard and concept artists from across Europe and Canada with visual effects done in Germany, eventually linking up with New Zealand-based production companies, Pukeko Pictures and Weta Workshop, working to turn the short into a feature film that would appeal to audiences everywhere — including China.
For now, China limits foreign film imports to 34 annually — of those, 14 must be either IMAX or 3-D — with endless possibilities for exposure if a film is produced in conjunction with a Chinese partner. China builds out an astonishing 13 new movie theaters a day.
This ever more tightly tethered relationship of global entertainment operates in a global public square that trade, the planetary reach of the media and the spread of technology have created. It is in this new space of power where images compete and ideas are contested; it is where hearts and minds are won or lost and legitimacy is established. It is a space both of friction and fusion where the cosmopolitan commons of the 21st century will be built — or not.
China’s integration into this global public square has been part and parcel of its modernization. As President Xi Jinping himself acknowledges, “The more developed China becomes, the more open it will be. It is impossible for China to shut the door that has already been opened.”
Despite this pledge from the top, will China’s ideological watchdogs turn their focus sooner or later to further limiting Western films and TV shows as well as textbooks? Already, “The Big Bang Theory” has been curbed, and gnomes in China’s relevant ministries are also insisting on script rewrites in co-production deals.
China has now climbed to the top ranks of the global economy. Its government has delivered for its people over the last 30 years, lifting hundreds of millions from poverty. It has a 4,000 year-old continuous civilization that has outlived most of the ancient empires in the West and elsewhere. Surely a civilization with such a proven capacity to endure can confidently absorb what it wants from the modern West and leave the rest.
But if President Xi sincerely means that China cannot shut the door to the world, then he ought not try to control what information people are exposed to — whether in a university textbook, a movie screen or in a Youku video. You cannot after all “seek truth from facts” if the authorities censor the reality of today’s global interdependence and cross-pollinating flows of information.
The Cultural Revolution days of an autarkic closed information loop when the Communist Party could dictate a narrative for an isolated and impoverished society are over for China. To believe otherwise is to undermine the very links to the rest of the world that have enabled China to become the ever-more prospering world power it is today.
Nathan Gardels is editor-in-chief of The WorldPost. Mike Medavoy is an Oscar nominated producer of such films as “Silence of the Lambs,” “The Terminator” and “Black Swan.” They are co-authors of “American Idol After Iraq: Competing for Hearts and Minds in the Global Media Age.”
I am not the straight dad. I am the gay uncle.
The 4-year-old in question is my nephew, Nathan. In my unabashedly biased opinion, he is the most remarkable little fella on the planet — smart, funny, cuter than most kids his age, and absolutely destined for amazing things. He is obsessed with hockey, Star Wars Legos, Rescue-Bots and Sponge Bob Square Pants. He loves cars, Iron Man, Transformers and R2-D2. His backpack is adorned with Spider Man, his t-shirts are branded with Avengers and his fairy wings are pink and green, with sequins that shimmer and dance if the light catches them just so…
It started in October, when his dad, Chris, took him shopping for Halloween. Nathan desperately wanted a Captain America costume, but also positively and absolutely needed to have a set of green and pink fairy wings. He is, like most 4-year-olds, prone to rash decisions and changing his mind at a moment’s notice, so Chris was hesitant to shell out for a set of green and pink ferry wings that may or may not have been forgotten about in six or seven minutes — no matter how fabulous they were. They decided to wait, check in with Mom, and come back in a few days.
Chris says he wasn’t surprised that Nathan wanted the fairy wings because they had something similar at daycare that the kids ran around in all the time. “I know how quickly he changes his mind, so I thought it was best to wait. If he was still asking about them the next day, and the one after that, it’d be a different story.”
It was a different story when Nathan announced that he wanted a dress.
Unfortunately, one of the first thing that crosses most people’s mind when they hear that a little boy asked for a dress is that he must be gay.
We live in a rampantly heteronormative world, where little boys are supposed to do little boy things and little girls are supposed to do little girl things. Any deviation from this norm is, more often than not, greeted with derision and fear. Because nonconformity to established gender norms is highly stigmatized around the world, it is difficult to pinpoint exact numbers. However, most studies have found that a vast majority of men who wear women’s clothing are heterosexual, not gay. The perception is far different. Attitudes are changing, but slowly, and definitely not quick enough for this protective father.
“Did it cross my mind? Of course it did. But not for the reasons you may think. I don’t care if he’s gay, I really don’t. I care that he has an easy life and growing up gay is not an easy life.”
Chris’ brother, my husband, was mercilessly bullied as a child because he was different. More effeminate than the other boys, shy, quiet, and labeled as a “queer” at an early age, his primary school years were filled with physical violence and unimaginable torment.
“There’s nothing crueler than a schoolyard full of kids, they’re like a pack of hyenas circling their prey. I witnessed, first hand, the kind of Hell my brother went through and I don’t want that for Nathan.”
Chris is in no way homophobic or intolerant. He was his brother’s best man when we got married and is the closest thing I have to a best friend. We jokingly call each other “fag” with no intent to harm and our differing sexualities have little or no consequence on our family’s dynamic. He is a good man and a loving father whose only concern is for the well-being of his son. I admire and appreciate his honesty when talking about these sensitive things.
Eventually, after Nathan kept pressing, his mom Julie took him shopping and he now has a dress.
As it currently stands, with dad at least, Nathan is not allowed to wear his dress in public — to be fair he’s not allowed to wear his Optimus Prime onesie in public either. “They are costumes,” Chris says. “And costumes stay at home.”
He is not prepared for his son to be a social experiment. There is an inherent, biological need to protect his son. Whether Nathan is straight or gay, or some combination thereof, a cross dresser or a drag queen or just a little boy exploring what makes him tick, it only matters that he is allowed to do it safely. If leaving the dress or the fairy wings at home keeps him from being bullied, or teased or made to feel like there is something different or wrong with him, Chris is ok with the ramifications. “People can say whatever they want, that I’m ashamed or embarrassed or whatever. It’s not about my reaction, because I honestly could care less. It’s a boy in a dress, so what? It’s about other people’s reactions and how that affects Nathan.”
It’s a different story with mom. “I’ve taken him out wearing all sorts of things. I don’t care. He wore his dress to the library the other day. He just likes to play dress-up. It’s fun for him. Right now, he likes princesses and princess dresses because they are pretty and fun to play with. Next week it might be a Chewbakka costume. It’s no big deal.”
When faced with this dichotomous reality, Chris tries to explain why it exists: “Julie didn’t have to deal with the same situation I did, with my brother. She’s more inclined to believe in people’s inherent kindness than I am.”
They both understand that it is bound to happen, sooner or later, that someone bursts his bubble. It might be a group of kids his age that whisper and snicker and point. It might be a look of disapproval from a family that looks remarkably similar to their own. It might be an “in your face” sort of thing, where some obtuse troglodyte decides to stick their nose in where it doesn’t belong. Eventually, some ignorant, narrow-minded, do-gooder is going to say to him little boys aren’t supposed to wear dresses. It doesn’t matter how, it matters that it is coming: “that moment” when Nathan is made to feel ashamed because he is not conforming to society’s preconceived gender roles.
The collective “we” that make up Nathan’s family are doing everything in our power to raise a well adjusted, free thinking, non judgmental young man, who is, above all else, happy. It’s easy, within the context of our small group. It’s when you bring in the rest of the world that it gets a little dicey.
“We can do everything within our power to protect him from ignorance,” Chris says. “We can instill in him a strong sense of self and provide an unflappable support structure, but when “that moment” comes… well, it’ll be up to Nathan… how he reacts. If he’s made to feel ashamed or bad about himself, is it wrong to try to delay that as long as possible?”
He doesn’t have anything to worry about, yet.
The other day, after some quality Uncle Robbie time, I asked Nathan about his dress.
“Do you pick out your clothes for school or does your Mommy?”
“Meow.”
He’s really into pretending he’s a kitty right now.
“Hey kitty cat,” I tried again. “Who picks out your clothes in the morning?”
“I do.”
“Do you ever wear your dress to school?”
He looked at me like I’d grown a second head. “No.”
“Why not?”
“It’s too pretty. I don’t want to ruin it.”
A dad and his little girl just walked into the coffee shop where I am sitting and writing. She is wearing a black leather jacket and a pink tutu with tights. Two people in line have already smiled at her and remarked at how pretty she looks. She is lapping it up. Nobody bats an eye. Life goes on.
And now, a dad and his two sons… They are decked out in soccer gear; cleats with socks up to their knees, Man U jerseys, the whole nine yards. Someone just asked them if they can “bend it like Beckham.” The boys are shy. Everyone is laughing. Life goes on.
Chris and Nathan are here now. He’s wearing his dress and his nails are painted bright red…
During these icy days, you may be feeling an urge to retreat. Wellness retreats have become a source of respite for many people who are in the yoga community. Yoga travel is a safe way for women to travel alone and a wonderful way to have a healthy vacation. Lately, it’s not uncommon to see different kinds of wellness professionals or even office groups organizing wellness retreats. Are you on your way to organizing a retreat?
Whether you are a wellness professional organizing your first retreat or an office manager/HR professional looking to take your company’s next off-site to the next level, this advice will be useful. Offering a wellness retreat is a fantastic way to see the world while taking some serious time to de-stress and do some self-reflection. However, organizing a retreat, especially to an international destination, can be a very difficult.
That’s why I’ve interviewed Ben Crosky and Dan Wilz, co-founders of Yogascapes, a company that organizes off-the-beaten-path yoga travel adventures. By taking over important details like space and other logistics, they help trip leaders to create a better retreat. Their advice comes from years of experience, and is super helpful to anyone attempting to organize a retreat, especially for the first time.
Below, you’ll find the inside scoop on the dos and don’ts of planning a wellness retreat. Read these experts’ advice, and be on your way to leading a blissful wellness retreat!
Bring someone to help you coordinate:
It will be incredibly difficult to plan activities while at the same time checking in and making sure attendees are having a good experience. If you’re thinking about organizing your retreat without the help of a travel company, Dan Wilz recommends bringing along someone to be responsible for logistical parts of the trip, such as food, transport, and money. That way, you as the leader can focus on bringing wellness to your participants.
Yogascapes co-founder Ben Crosky described how the company was created to fill this need and help retreat leaders focus on giving the best experience to participants. “We coordinate meals and make sure all dietary needs are taken care of, schedule transfers and transportation, confirm and reconfirm timing of activities, and do customer service and problem solving. It can be helpful to have someone there to help organize the finances for things like hotels, activities, and food costs.”
Do bring a person to help with logistical duties, or bring a co-leader to take on some of the responsibility of the retreat so you can enjoy yourself a little. Don’t try and do everything by yourself!
Build a relationship with the people who will be running the space:
Ben emphasized that the relationship with the people who run the hotel or retreat center can be the most valuable: They shape the experience, as participants will be interacting with the staff and the venue on a daily basis. He recommends to go down a few days early, especially if you haven’t been there before, to connect with the staff and area. “When your relationship with the venue and the staff is healthy, the retreat leader and all of the participants feel like they are being welcomed home, and in the art of travel, feeling welcomed home is as valuable as it gets.”
Do: Have clear communication. Write about your retreat and link to the venue. Pay on time. Sell out your retreat! When rooms are filled retreat centers are happy.
Don’t: do things last minute. Don’t act from a place of entitlement rather than gratitude.
Create a safe space:
Dan emphasizes the importance of creating a safe space for people to enter and be themselves. Retreat participants won’t be able to come out of their shell and really relax unless they feel safe in the space. As the trip leader, make an effort to help everyone feel comfortable.
Do make sure everyone is prepared and feels taken care of, listened to, and safe. “Sometimes even going on a ‘retreat’ with your team can be a stressful experience so it’s important to have the ‘retreat’ itself be something that people leave feeling more stress free than when they came.”
If you’re planning a corporate retreat, Ben suggests:
Don’t call it an off-site or team building retreat.
Do call it an adventure, or a trip, or an escape. Create different language around your wellness retreats so that people look forward to it.
Explore outside your retreat center
Why travel to a gorgeous destination to spend the entire time on one property? Ben describe his “off-the-beaten-mat” approach to retreats: Take participants off the mat, into the culture. “Add multiple activities so that people don’t feel overwhelmed by the wellness component but rather intrigued by it. “
It’s important that people feel they’ve experienced the space and culture of where they’ve traveled to. Whether you’re going to a hideaway a few hours from home, or traveling to the other side of the world, make sure that you don’t spend the entire time doing wellness activities. Add a component of exploration and adventure, and people will have a more memorable experience. As Dan says, “Our nightmare is to travel and have to be stuck in a yoga studio all day.”
Keep the fun going after the trip ends
So you’ve had an amazing retreat with a group of office mates or meditation students.
Do keep the culture you created alive. Email chains, hashtags, and photo sharing sites are all great ways to keep in touch. Who knows, maybe you’ll all go on another wellness retreat together soon!
Good luck planning your retreat!
Want to learn more? Read The 10 Ways to Get the Most Out of your Yoga Retreat. Photos by Ali Kaukas for Yogascapes.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
