Trudging through thick mud, a 14-year-old boy entered Berlin via the Rosenthaler Gate. He had walked, most probably barefoot, from his hometown of Dessau some hundred miles away. Frail, malnourished and hunchbacked, he would in time become one of Jewish historys most famous characters. The year was 1743. Berlin was under the firm control of King Frederick II The Great, a self-declared supporter of the Enlightenment who became the first European ruler to formally declare more than two decades before the American Declaration did similar:

All religions must be tolerated. Every man may seek spiritual salvation in his own manner.

Perhaps young Moses Mendelssohn trudged through the Rosenthaler hoping to encounter that tolerance in his quest for knowledge. Or perhaps he was struck by the confusing irony that, as a Jew, that gate was his only legal point of entry into the free city. The gatekeepers log that day simply read: Today there passed six oxen, seven swineand a Jew.

The Rosenthaler Tor, 1860. (WikiCommons)

The subsequent decades saw unprecedented Jewish assimilation into the upper circles of Prussian society; an era that produced household names such as Rothschild and Oppenheim. In time, Napoleon Bonaparte himself would ride triumphantly through the city, bringing in his wake the French Revolution and its glorious promise of Liberte, Egalite et Fraternite. Jews crowded the streets to catch a glimpse of their saviour.

The glimpse was short-lived. At the Congress of Vienna following Napoleons surrender in 1815, dignitaries met to redraw the future. Jewish representatives, formally invited to attend, had just one request: Let not the gradually increasing tolerance and equality of the preceding decades be an illusion. Let not European nations enlightened, progressive and finally at peace fail to grant us the universal liberty that had still failed to clearly form on the horizon.

German delegates responded with derision. Peace, freedom, opportunity: these were commodities to be enjoyed by the Jew in theory rather than practice. After all, his place was through the Rosenthaler with the oxen and swine. This derision rapidly led to the Hep-Hep! Riots, which swept through a country yearning for revised legislation free of meddling French influence, to rewind the Jewish story back to the squalor and humiliation of the Middle Ages.

Eye-witness accounts and police reports surrounding Hep-Hep! made clear that the rioters were comprised of the entire spectrum of German society; from illiterate peasants to cultured professionals. Jew-hatred united people who otherwise would not have been seen dead in each others company.

Etching of the Hep-Hep! Riots in Frankfurt, Johann Michael Voltz (1819). Notice the well-dressed rioter at the right of the etching. Notice also how there is little overtly Jewish about the victims: They are German in theory, but not in practice. (WikiCommons)

But the uprising of 1819 carried another, far more sinister characteristic: The governments official position was that the riots were illegal. After all, Jews were card-carrying citizens too, right? Wrong. Local authorities showed little to no interest in dispersing the mobs unless their violence turned fatal. Jews could be insulted, their homes and businesses trashed and their families beaten, but no further. You see, deaths make headlines; and even Germany in 1819 was concerned about its public image in the newspapers of the civilized world. The Jew must remain equal in theory, but never in practice.

This abysmally, impossibly complex contradiction granting the Jews life but hating them for living was captured perfectly by socialite Rachel Varnhagen. She was very much the epitome of the Jewish Enlightenment story: A convert to Christianity, friends with Mendelssohns daughters and one of Berlins most sought-after women. Varnhagens Jewish soul still tugged at her heartstrings when she cried:

What should this mass of people do, driven out of their homes? They want to keep them, only to despise and torture them further!

The contradiction persisted unresolved for decades, until a kangaroo court brought it to the attention of the entire world. Alfred Dreyfus, like Mendelssohn, Oppenheim and Rothschild, was a success story; living proof of the indisputable fact that the Jew was fully welcome in society: Dreyfus was wealthy, well-educated, and the only Jewish officer in the French Armys General Staff.

But then, the facade fell. French counter-intelligence became aware of a spy in the General Staff headquarters who was passing crucial information to his German handlers. The investigation was a farcical fait accompli: Who else but the Jew? Dreyfus was arrested on false charges of treason in October 1894. Within 3 months he was convicted by court martial, stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devils Island, all to the backdrop of a frenzied throng chanting Death to the Jews!.

The wheels were turning. In January 1898, author and journalist Emile Zola published his famous letter JAccuse! on the front page of LAurore. It caused an uproar. Dreyfus was summoned back and offered an official pardon, but not the full exoneration that would have restored his rank and admitted quite openly we are sorry. He, like Varnhagen years earlier, decried the same contradiction: The Jew was free to live, but hated for living:

The government of the Republic has given me back my freedom. It is nothing for me without my honor.

The Degradation of Alfred Dreyfus, 1895 (WikiCommons)

Elsewhere in the crowd that day was another journalist who, like Zola, was profoundly affected by the events unfolding in the center of civil, enlightened Paris. That man was Theodor Herzl, and those events were the labour pains accompanying the birth of political Zionism a desperate attempt to resolve that age-old contradiction. Herzl lampooned it superbly when he wrote:

We are naturally drawn into those places where we are not persecuted, and [yet] our appearance there gives rise to persecution!

But to my mind, no-one captured its essence more elementally than Max Nordau, the brain behind the First World Zionist Congress in 1897. His address is well worth reading in its entirety. For now, here is its essence:

In order to produce its full effect, emancipation should first have been completed in sentiment before it was declared in law. But this was not the caseThe emancipation of the Jews was not the consequence of the conviction that a grave injury had been done to a raceand that it was time to atone for the injustice of a thousand years; it was solely the result of the geometrical mode of thoughtIn this manner, the emancipation of the Jews was pronounced, not through fraternal feeling for the Jews, but because logic demanded itThe men of 1792 emancipated us only for the sake of principle.

Equal in theory, but not in practice. In word, but not in deed. Almost precisely two centuries after Moses Mendelssohn first encountered that contradiction on his way into Berlin, Hannah Arendt caught one of the last trains out before the borders closed noose-like around Europes emancipated Jews. In exile, she completed her biography of Rachel Varnhagen. And thus, the Jewish story came full-circle, driven in a downward spiral relentlessly and inevitably toward a Kristallnacht whose destruction and screams echoed those of Hep-Hep! over a century prior.

That story, propelled onward by this Great Contradiction, reached its heartbreaking conclusion when the peoples of Europe stood by in silence as millions of its free and equal Jewish citizens trudged in thick mud, frail and malnourished, through the gates of the gas chambers.

The story of how little Jewish lives mattered for so much of history is one that needs to be heard. It is the story of how racism insidiously persists, hidden beneath the clouds of contradiction in an ostensibly open and free society. Jewish history matters.

It is a cautionary tale of how a society can be legally, politically and philosophically against racism. But that amounts to almost nothing unless at grassroots level, the population sings from the same hymn sheet. Unless, as Nordau so brilliantly put it, public sentiment matches private principle.

A friend once asked me: What is the difference between tolerance and acceptance?

I gave a simple analogy in response:

Imagine you have a sore throat. You try to rest up, drink lemon tea, and wait patiently until it goes away. You tolerate the sore throat because, well, it cant be helped. But at the same time, youre pretty happy when it goes away and certainly wouldnt wish it stuck around longer than necessary.

Acceptance is a totally different level of thinking. It means appreciating something. It means being reluctant to see that thing disappear. It means regret if it does.

Tolerance is what we show sore throats. Not people.

People who we tolerate we welcome into our lives through the Rosenthaler with the oxen and swine. And we are just as glad to see the back of them. People who we accept we welcome into our homes, through the front door. And we are sad to see them go.

Acceptance requires us to ask hard-hitting, brutally self-honest questions. Do I value that person? Do I celebrate the fact that we are different, and seek to learn from them at every opportunity? Do I desire for them to be fully-integrated members of my society, because I cannot imagine it being better for their absence?

Acceptance manifests itself in many forms. But it is not, as Mendelssohn, Varnhagen, Dreyfus, Nordau and Arendt understood, to be found in laws and policy. Acceptance cannot be legislated. It can be found in the heart of the Average Joe on the street; in a solidarity that exposes leaders as frauds and elevates ordinary people into heroes. It can be found in the courage to take a stand and turn theory into practice, word into deed, principle into sentiment.

It can be found in ordinary stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Like Louis I, Grand Duke of Baden, who barely months into his reign risked everything by moving in with a Jewish family in Karlsruhe, stopping the Hep-Hep! rioters in their tracks. Like Caroline Brock, a run-of-the-mill American who simply took the time to ask her black repairman about his experiences in our accepting society. His story has to date been shared online by close to 160,000 people.

I am a 45 year old white woman living in the south, and today was the first time I spoke frankly about racism with a

Caroline Crockett Brock - , 30 2020

The story of Black Lives Matter is one that should be all too familiar to us as Jews. For centuries, we were Europes sore throat. Tolerated, but never accepted. Granted life, but despised for living. A contradiction between sentiment and principle eventually cleansed from the map to the thunderous sound of civilized silence.

It took a Holocaust to teach the enlightened world the difference between reluctant tolerance and loving acceptance. And there is a painfully long road still to walk out of Auschwitz to reach the dream of the Promised Land.

It is our duty and indeed our heritage as Jews to walk that road hand in hand with those who deserve to hear unequivocally: Your Lives Matter.

(Pexels.com)

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#JewishHistoryMatters | Eli Birnbaum | The Blogs - The Times of Israel

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Opinion

Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General in an address to staffers at a Town Hall meeting

Protests against police brutality have been taking place in cities across the United States including in New York city. Credit: UN News/Shirin Yaseen

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 10 2020 (IPS) - I want to once again express to all colleagues my enormous appreciation, my enormous gratitude, for your fantastic professionalism, your flexibility and the way you have been able to fully deliver for the people we care for during this period.

And to say that as we hopefully approach a moment in which we might return to normality, that we will do it very carefully and in a phased way, because the safety and the well-being of the staff will be the primary consideration.

But of course, today we are here gathered for another reason. I will not be able to stay until the end, and management colleagues are here to answer any questions. But I felt compelled to give you my testimony in these dramatic moments. We are all shocked by the brutality of the murder of George Floyd.

And we are all impacted and concerned, with lots of events that followed that we have been very attentively looking at. And I think its important to recognize that the center of these is a serious question of racism. Now, racism is abhorrent, nasty, and must be rejected everywhere at any moment, condemned in a clear way.

Racism is the rejection of our common humanity, which is a central aspect against the Charter of the United Nations. So, something that justifies the Charter of the United Nations is the fight against racism.

But I think we need to go a little bit further, and to look into this from an ideological perspective, from an economic and social perspective, and also from a perspective of relations between police, governments and people.

First, the ideological perspective. We are unfortunately entering a phase that some have called the post-enlightenment. Enlightenment is a European concept largely but I think the values of the enlightenment the primacy of reason, tolerance, mutual respect are common to many civilizations and many cultures around the world.

And indeed, it is as if these values are now being put dramatically into question. It is nationalism, its irrationality, its populism, its xenophobia, it is racism, white supremacism, it is different forms of Neo-Nazism, that are apparent in our societies.

And it is clear that in the center of these drives to irrationality, there is racism, and many other things have racist components. We have been fighting a lot against antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred. And in antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred, there is a racist dimension.

Protesters in Brooklyn, New York, peacefully demonstrate about racial injustice. Credit: UN News/Shirin Yaseen

So, racism is in the center of many other things that we deal with and fight against. Its important to recognize that this is an ideological battle, in which it is essential to assert our values, the values of common humanity, the values of the Charter, equality, non-discrimination, mutual respect, and the capacity to support all the movements that fight for these values that are also deeply linked to the affirmation of human rights.

Now, if racism is something that exists everywhere, racism also exists within the United Nations. This is another aspect that I would like to underline today. We have very robust policies in relation to discrimination, harassment, abuse of authority.

There was recently a review of those policies that are in the SG bulletin. But we have not paid enough attention within the Organization to the specific question of racist bias and racist discrimination. Of course, there is a general question of diversity and inclusivity.

When we try to fight sexual harassment, the most important instrument is gender parity. When you try to fight racism, the most important instrument is to have regional diversity and inclusivity in our work. But this is general and of course we are fighting for it.

But we need to go deeper. I think we need to have within the United Nations an honest conversation on racism. We have some instruments already that were decided. We have the united in respect dialogues. We have the inclusion dialogues.

But these are, again, generic. We need to have something specific. I asked the Ombudsman together with the human resources department to prepare, in articulation with the staff representatives, a plan of action for a one-year debate on racism within the Organization, aiming at conclusions that, obviously, I want to listen to and be able to act upon.

I would like to have a chapter on racism in the next staff engagement survey to see if we are able to make progress or not in this regard.

My idea is for there to be a free-flowing discussion. I want people to feel totally at ease through the Ombudsman offices, through the civility caf, through inviting experts to come and do TED talks and through debates that are organized. Ive seen the staff engagement survey, I know that some feel that there is not enough respect within the Organization, that they cant freely express themselves because they are afraid.

I want this debate to be a clearly open, free-flowing debate without any restriction, and Im very much interested in participating. There is also a social and economic dimension in all of this, the central question of inequality in society, the central question of discrimination in society.

And it is clear that diversity is a richness, not a threat. The societies that are diverse can only succeed if there is a massive investment in social cohesion, by governments, local authorities, civil society, churches, against discrimination and inequality.

This is central to our 2030 Agenda, and this is central to the Sustainable Development Goals, and central to the values of the United Nations. So, our values are not only related to the questions of racism as a human rights violation, they are central to the questions of inequality and discrimination.

And these are vital in the perspectives of the work we do in relation to the 2030 Agenda and to diversity. We also need to understand that when we have situations in which social cohesion does not exist, where social protection is not enough, and where we have different forms of discrimination, there are grievances: those grievances have a legitimate right to be expressed in societies.

And for that demonstrations are something that is perfectly normal. It is our role to ask for demonstrations to be peaceful and at the same time to ask authorities to listen to the grievances and for police forces and others to be restrained in the way they handle these situations.

And this is very much at the center of what we have been saying in relation to the recent events and other similar ones around the world. And this brings us to the question of police brutality. One of the central problems that we are witnessing, and its very general, its not only police brutality, it is the difficulty of many authorities to deal with diversity.

The most obvious aspect, which is less evident, but many colleagues have already felt it, is the so-called profiling. But more dramatic than that is, of course, the police brutality in itself. We have seen a murder, but there are many other forms of police brutality that we see around the world, expressing racism.

Police forces need to be fully trained on human rights. Many times, police brutality is the expression of the frustrations of the police officers themselves, as well as of the lack of adequate psychosocial support to them.

Now the UN positions have been clear. The Human Rights High Commissioner has spoken. I have also been very clear in all my messages. Of course, many colleagues would like to be much more vocal and active, and we have the limitations of being International Civil Servants.

But there is one thing that we all can do, which is to spread the UN messages. This can be done by everybody with the tools at their disposal. All of us can multiply and amplify our messages against racism, our message against police brutality, our messages against the inequalities and discriminations that lead to situations like the ones we live in, fully asserting our values.

And Id like to say that I count on our colleagues and on the staff representatives to help us organize an effective internal discussion on racism. Because I think we need to look deeply into it. And we all need to look into ourselves, into our prejudices and do everything possible to eradicate these aberrations from us and from the societies around us.

Read more here:
The Need, Within the UN, for an Honest Conversation on Racism - Inter Press Service

I thought I would be able to start writing about going back out, exploring and shopping. Things didnt quite go that way last week.

We saw all 50 states and over 13 countries banding together to march in protest regarding racial inequality and police brutality. The awareness that came at us across our screens was in reaction to George Floyd and watching appalling actions up close.

It opened up a protest about whats been happening since the abolition of slavery and 400 years before that. It all came to a head, and the cries of enough is enough were heard across the planet.

Think how ordained this awareness came to us fresh off of quarantine where there were no concerts, or sports or vacations the whole world had no choice but to watch what has been happening to black people in America with zero distractions. If that isnt divine intervention, I dont know what is.

As we saw, many of the protests turned into riots. Even more blatant police abuse of power and force against American citizens was endured and captured on film as militarized police were dispatched to enforce curfews and disperse the crowds with force, tear gas and rubber bullets.

However, the results of these protests toward effective change have already been astounding. Changes have occurred that we could have only imagined just a few weeks ago. We are moving toward enlightenment at warp speed.

So now what? Thats what I want to talk about in todays column. Restorative Justice Practices.

For years now, quietly and steadily, there has been a strong movement of its own in developing new ways to address harm and conflict.

Meetings have been organized between victims and the offenders and sometimes with representatives from the wider community.

There have been relationships restored and harm repaired through these quiet efforts within our criminal justice system.

When we saw protests within certain individual states and cities, where police took a knee and marched alongside the protesters this is a direct result of the restorative justice practice training. A stark difference to what we saw in D.C.

The message is this: We CAN change the way our world is and how we react to it, through education. The work is coming together in compassionate action.

I spoke to one such educator, Deborah Sadler, a longtime resident of Cardiff, who taught at San Diego High School, one of the most diverse high schools west of the Mississippi.

Her efforts have sent out hundreds of students who have become leaders in community-building circles. A small career-themed magnet school, the Academy of Law and Justice out of Crawford High School in City Heights, has taken this indigenous wisdom and has shown us that there is hope and strides being achieved between educators and law enforcement.

We are raising consciousness, and the students are leading the way, she said.

Sadler was awarded the Teacher of the Year for her work around this program, and with her guidance, the San Diego County Office of Education has trained thousands of teachers, counselors and support staff.

She is currently developing further training materials in the Art of Restorative Practices to be distributed to other educators, leaders, and police departments countrywide, which also includes crisis intervention training, de-escalating techniques and implicit bias training methods geared to create a culture that promotes respect and engages everyone to be a part of the solution.

People need to know that theres hope. There is work being done between educators and law enforcement to create a world that works for everyone, said Sadler. Thats the God part. A world that works for everyone. Imagine that.

The next steps were outlined in Marianne Williamsons bid for the presidency.

She suggested a Department of Peace that would provide a global acknowledgment of the harm done to human beings compromised and work to repair, restore and renew our current social-economic conditions through reparation.

Sounds like a pretty good idea now.

Susan Sully SullIvan is a spiritually conscious Realtor with Windermere Homes & Estates and is currently enrolled in several Science of Mind mysticism classes. She is a Practitioner in training at Seaside Center for Spiritual Living with an eye on Ministerial school. She has been on a quest for enlightenment since studying to be a Catholic nun as a child.

See more here:
Soul on Fire: The spirituality of social justice - Coast News

My friend Adrienne LaFrance in a recent email asked me if much of today reminds me of the 1960s.

Adrienne, a former reporter for Honolulu Civil Beat, now is executive editor of The Atlantic. We had been corresponding about an article/podcast she did on the conspiracy group QAnon.

She asked, Ive been speaking with colleagues who were reporters in the 1960s, about how much today reminds them of 1968 in particular. I wonder what you think of that.

Some of the key differences between 1968 and 2020 are that police today wear body cameras and many of us have smart phones to document injustices in real time. Bad cops have a tougher time now justifying the killing of innocent citizens.

We also have 24-hour news cycles and social media to help advocacy groups quickly organize and publicize their causes in order to combat wrongdoing.

Black Lives Matter protest supporters chant and raise their fists at the Duke Kahanamoku Statue after marching from Ala Moana Beach Park on Friday. They were part of protests held last week all over the country and the globe.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

And most extraordinary, in a way few would have imagined months ago, we are bonded together not just regionally or nationally, but globally, by the shared experience of fighting a killer virus by self-quarantining in our homes for months.

What has affected one of us affects us all.

As New Yorker reporter Adam Gopnik put it, What happens here happens there. A bat may infect a pangolin in Wuhan, and the world shuts down.

There is a heightened awareness of our inter-connectedness in the lockdowns. Weve all had plenty of time to think about our hopes for a better world going forward.

Protesters took to the streets around the world this weekend from Sydney to Seoul and from Paris to Honolulu to protest the brutal death of George Floyd, an unarmed, handcuffed black man, who died while bystanders begged for mercy from a Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on Floyds neck for almost 9 minutes.

In 1968, many protests were local, not joined worldwide. The demonstrations were on college campuses and in big cities, not everywhere like today where they have been launched even in tiny towns and white suburbs.

And in the U.S., the protest crowds of today rich, poor, middle class, multi-ethnic, all ages more closely reflect the face of America.

The Atlantic reporter James Fallows calls 2020 the second most traumatic year in modern American history after 1968 and it still has seven months to run.

In 1968, the country erupted in violent civil unrest after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, followed two months later by the assassination of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.

A young protester standing in front of a row of National Guard soldiers at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. That year, at the height of the Vietnam War, the country erupted in violent unrest following the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy.

Warren K. Leffler/Wikimedia Commons

All this came as the Vietnam War raged on 1968 was a record year for American and Vietnamese combat deaths as North Vietnams Tet Offensive weakened Americas resolve to continue the war.

CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite went on the air on Feb. 27 to urge a negotiated end to the bloodshed.

President Lyndon Johnson watching the broadcast is reported by some to have declared: If I have lost Cronkite, I have lost Middle America. Shortly after, Johnson shocked everyone by saying he would not seek reelection.

More violence followed at the Democratic National Convention in August of 1968 as Chicago police and National Guard troops rifle butted, billy clubbed and tear gassed mostly young protesters assembled by the thousands to call for an end to the war that would continue for another seven years.

There was also a pandemic in 1968. The influenza H3N2 virus, also known as the Hong Kong Flu, killed an estimated 1 million people worldwide, including 100,000 in the U.S. But in the tumult of the times, it didnt gain wide publicity.

Clearly, 2020 has demonstrated some of the same violence and chaos of 1968. But what is happening now is different.

There is no draft, no Vietnam War, no assassinations, no month after month of violent protests. There are sadistic police officers, but cops are better trained today. Most are people who joined local police departments hoping to help others.

In 1968, many protests were local, not joined worldwide.

What is clearly different is that we are burdened with a national leader who is not up to the job.

Whether or not you agreed with their policies, our former presidents were competent, experienced leaders.

There was no chance that the country would end up in the hands of a clown, Fallows wrote in his essay comparing 1968 to 2020.

President Trump has sought to divide us. But the extraordinary months of global self-quarantine have united not just Americans but citizens across the globe.

This weekend that unification showed itself in the singular surge to decry the action of the Minneapolis police officer who pinned his knee on George Floyds neck, while three other officers stood by. Officer Derek Chavin and the officers who calmly watched Floyd struggle and plead I cant breathe have all been charged Chauvin with second-degree murder, the others with aiding and abetting murder.

The eruption of the initial arson and looting in the streets of some cities has subsided into peaceful protests.

In the early days of lockdown, writer Paul Theroux answered my question about what he saw emerging from the time of the virus with this observation: I am fascinated by the fact that this is a global pandemic the whole world all in the same boat. That doesnt happen often indeed I cant remember a time when this was so. I know some good, great enlightenment will come from this.

The enlightenment is we are all in this together despite a president who thinks leadership is setting people at each others throats.

COVID-19 has lifted the veil covering Trumps incompetency in ways that might not have happened in normal times.

Who will forget Trumps bizarre marshaling of police to shoot chemicals and pepper balls on peaceful protesters in Washington, D.C., clearing the way for him to walk to historic St. Johns Church to hold up a Bible that his daughter Ivanka pulled out of her handbag.

Or fail to remember Trump on Friday, happy about the good jobs report, summoning the name of George Floyd, saying, Hopefully, George is looking down right now and saying this is a great thing thats happening for our country. This is a great day for him, its a great day for everybody. This is a great day for everybody. This is a great, great day in terms of equality.

The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows Trumps voter support with his base is eroding.

There are still five months to go until the election. Anything can change.

My friend Catherine Cruz says the virus has shown us the contagion of kindness and the infection of intolerance.

I would add that its also showed us the need for a competent president to lead us to economic strength and racial justice.

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Denby Fawcett: The Shared Trauma Of 1968 And 2020 - Honolulu Civil Beat

Ugo Aliogo

Financial institutions have been urged to provide services and products such as micro-insurance, micro-credit, among others.

A communiqu made available to THISDAY by the Consumer Awareness and Financial Enlightenment Initiative (CAFEi), recommended that for people to be financially included, they must be economically included and have access to decent jobs and decent pay.

It also stated that people should also have access to basic payment system, insurance and credit, as well as financial products that would enable them improve their quality of life and grow their wealth.

According to the communiqu, Expanding branches in the rural areas is therefore not the answer rather a tailored and affordable solution is required to meet the needs and wants of rural customers.

The influence of technology is primary to improving financial inclusion, and such solutions may include deploying agent banking, USSD, and others.

It stated that inclusion remains very low (below 10%) in terms of access to insurance and credit, adding that usage of such products on the other hand, depends on peoples level of economic participation and awareness.

CAFEi also noted that the major barrier to financial inclusion was no longer lack of access to financial infrastructure, but inadequate knowledge about available opportunities and inability of existing financial products to cater for the peoples needs.

The group further explained that in a bid to reduce the financial inclusion gaps, the financial sector may need to redirect majority of the resources spent on infrastructure to financial education and enlightenment.

Fintechs have an opportunity to contribute to improving financial products and services due to their light footprint and innovation. They have however tended to focus on the payment subsector, acting more like pay techs rather than Fintechs.

Untapped opportunities exist in the area of blockchain which may be leveraged to fix the chronic issue of identity management, it added.

Go here to read the rest:
Banks Urged to Expand Financial Inclusion - THISDAY Newspapers

This could have been his moment.

With racial tension boiling over across the United States, African American voices are being heard in a way the nation hasnt seen since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., perhaps even louder. The resonating message is resonating beyond the liberal corners its typically dominated and into the mainstream and even across party lines.

Never has there been a better time for African American leaders to shine.

Imagine how much Andrew Gillum would be in the spotlight right now had he not slipped into the salacious realm of drug use and South Florida partying.

Andrew Gillum: This could have been his moment.

Gillum, once the rising-est rising star in Florida politics, stayed in the spotlight even after he narrowly lost the 2018 Governors race to Ron DeSantis. He was all over CNN as a political commentator. He was the face of Florida Democrats get out the vote efforts. There was even talk of him being a VP contender in 2020.

That was all before police in Minneapolis killed George Floyd in what became a pivotal point in racial tensions nationwide. As a black Democrat in the spotlight, he would have been a beacon of hope for the black community.

As much as the 2018 Governors race was historic few expected Gillum, a progressive Democrat, to topple the establishment machine behind Gwen Graham this time of nationwide protests and boiled over anger over institutional racism could have been Gillums moment.

His greatest political tragedy may now no longer be his infamous night in a South Florida hotel surrounded by booze, drugs and, allegedly, a male escort. Instead, it might be that he is now sidelined because of it.

Even as one of Gillums fiercest political critics, theres no denying he would have been at the front of a now-global movement.

Im no stranger to the dark side. The skeletons in my closet are no secret and are still weaponized by those who seek to discredit me (looking at you Anthony Sabatini). But those experiences, and the rebirth that I experienced when I found love, got married and became a dad, reshaped my life and I believe I am a better man for it.

If Gillum truly deconstructs his past mistakes and excises his demons, I know from firsthand experience that there can and IS a second act waiting for him. Hes too talented too capable too ambitious not to find his way back.

Some will argue his moment has passed, even if he enjoys a full rehabilitation, which I hope he does.

But its fair to consider another thing. Gillums slip into oblivion, fueled by addiction, came, according to his own words, after he fell into depression following his personally heartbreaking loss in 2018.

His critics asked the question following his Miami escapade: Can you imagine if we had Andrew Gillum in the Governors mansion? The state dodged a bullet, those critics argue.

Maybe we did. Maybe we did for other reasons, too. But maybe, just maybe, Gillums battle with addiction might not have happened had he won. Maybe the loss was too much. Maybe it pushed him into the dark, into the grim world of drugs and decline. If thats the case, he has a path forward.

Either way, this could have been his moment.

___

There is so much going on in the world right now. A pandemic. A national movement to improve race relations. A news cycle that changes so quick a major headline that would have once dominated the news for days is now defunct within hours.

But at our core, we are a political news organization dedicated to providing a deep look into the entire Process. With primary elections for state races just over two months away, its important that we continue that mission, even as we continue following the daily onslaught of headline-making news on protests and virus counts.

The work has already begun.

Take our work this week on the All Voters Vote initiative. Reporter Jason Delgado interviewed several key figures in the debate over whether to open Floridas primaries and found something shocking the issue united Democrats and Republicans, two groups with fundamentally different political ideologies who found common ground in opposing the measure, which will appear on this years ballot as Amendment 3.

Where supporters see an opportunity to involve more voters by putting all candidates on the primary ballot, rather than just those of a single party, Democratic and Republican establishment leaders see a potential erosion of party autonomy.

His table-setting piece lays out both sides of the argument and evaluates data suggesting maybe party politics are exactly why such a move is desired.

In another in-depth piece, Andrew Meacham provides a close-up look at Fiona McFarland, a Republican hoping to reclaim House District 72 for Republicans after Democrats flipped it in 2018. His narrative weaves in and out of the districts history, McFarlands experience in the Navy and her struggles coping with criticism against her mom and chief consultant, K.T. McFarland, who worked for former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

A deep-dive into the candidacy of Fiona McFarland is the sort of thing to expect from Florida Politics. Image via Jacob Ogles

Both are examples of what Florida Politics has become known for: Going deep under the surface of day to day headlines and learning from the people who make politics, well, politics.

Weve only just begun. As the elections draw closer, we want every legislative candidate to know these are the questions we want to ask you all. Just send me an email.

DAYS UNTIL

Last day of state candidate qualifying 1; Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks release 5; Belmont Stakes rescheduled 9; Fathers Day 10; Apple to hold Developer Conference 11; NBA training camp 19; The Outpost with Orlando Bloom and Scott Eastwood premieres 22; NBA teams travel to Orlando 26; Disney World Magic Kingdom & Animal Kingdom to reopen 30; Disney World Epcot and Hollywood Studios to reopen 34; Federal taxes due 34; Christopher Nolans Tenet premieres 36; Mulan premieres 43; TED conference rescheduled 44; NBA season restart in Orlando 50; Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee begins 67; Florida primaries for 2020 state legislative/congressional races 68; NBA draft lottery 73; Indy 500 rescheduled 73; Republican National Convention begins in Charlotte 76; Rev. Al Sharptons D.C. March 78; A Quiet Place Part II premieres 85; Rescheduled running of the Kentucky Derby 86; Rescheduled date for French Open 103; First presidential debate in Indiana 111; Preakness Stakes rescheduled 114; First vice presidential debate at the University of Utah 121; NBA season ends (last possible date) 123; Second presidential debate scheduled at the University of Michigan 126; NBA draft 126; Wes Andersons The French Dispatch premieres 127; NBA free agency 129; Third presidential debate at Belmont 135; 2020 General Election 146; Black Widow premieres 149; NBA 2020-21 training camp 152; Florida Automated Vehicles Summit 159; No Time to Die premieres 166; NBA 2020-21 opening night 173; Top Gun: Maverick premieres 215; Super Bowl LV in Tampa 241; New start date for 2021 Olympics 407; Jungle Cruise premieres 416; Spider-Man Far From Home sequel premieres 512; Thor: Love and Thunder premieres 610; Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness premieres 652; Black Panther 2 premieres 694; Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse sequel premieres 848.

AMERICA SMOLDERING

Enough is enough: George Floyds brother pleads with Congress to act to stem police brutality via Paul Kane of The Washington Post With negotiations on both ends of the Capitol heightening, Philonise Floyd put a personal face on a death that had been, in his estimation, almost desensitized by the recurring loop of his older brothers video-recorded death on TV news. I couldnt take care of George that day he was killed, but maybe by speaking with you today, I can make sure that his death would not be in vain. To make sure that he is more than another face on a T-shirt. More than another name on a list that wont stop growing, Floyd told the House Judiciary Committee. He went on to tell the panel that he was tired of pain, pain you feel when you watch something like that, when you watch your big brother who you looked up to your whole life die, die begging for his mom.

Philonise Floyd, a brother of George Floyd, arrives to testify before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on proposed changes to police practices and accountability on Capitol Hill. Image via AP.

Floyds brother pleads with Congress: make it stop via Catie Edmondson of The New York Times Philonise Floyd, whose brothers death in police custody has inspired two weeks of sprawling protests across the country, made an impassioned plea to Congress to enact sweeping changes to law enforcement in America to address police brutality and systemic racism. I am asking you, is that what a black mans life is worth? Twenty dollars? Floyd asked. This is 2020. Enough is enough. The people marching in the streets are telling you enough is enough. Floyd was the first witness and marquee voice among more than a half-dozen civil rights experts and activists at a hearing called to consider the most expansive federal intervention into law enforcement that lawmakers have proposed in recent memory, which was put forth by Democrats this week.

The army was open to replacing Confederate base names. Then Donald Trump said no. via John Ismay of The New York Times Monuments and memorials bearing the names of men who fought to preserve slavery and uphold white supremacy are facing a reckoning, as demonstrations against police brutality have erupted across the country in response to the killing of Floyd. A Pentagon official said Monday that Secretary of Defense Mark P. Esper and Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy were open to a bipartisan discussion on the topic of removing Confederate names from the bases. Trump was quick to shut down any bipartisan discussions, tweeting, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations.

After killing of Floyd, white liberals embrace ideas that once seemed radical via Greg Jaffe of The Washington Post Among white liberals, the anger and unrest that followed Floyds death have provoked a far different reaction, leading them to embrace positions that only a few weeks ago might have seemed radical or unthinkable. The response follows a pattern that has held for much of the past decade as white liberals have moved dramatically to the left on racial issues. The change in white liberal attitudes, which one journalist described as a Great Awokening, has coincided with the rise of Trumps brazenly racial politics as well as a series of police killings of black men caught on video.

Defund the police? Heres what that really means. via Christy E. Lopez of The Washington Post Since Floyds death, a long-simmering movement for police abolition has become part of the national conversation, recast slightly as a call to defund the police. Defunding the police is not as scary as it sounds, and engaging on this topic is necessary if we are going to achieve the kind of public safety we need. Defunding the police means shrinking the scope of police responsibilities and shifting most of what the government does to keep us safe to entities that are better equipped to meet that need.

LeBron James and other stars form a voting rights group via Jonathan Martin of The New York Times James and a group of other prominent black athletes and entertainers are starting a new group aimed at protecting African Americans voting rights, seizing on the widespread fury against racial injustice that has fueled worldwide protests to amplify their voices in this falls presidential election. Because of everything thats going on, people are finally starting to listen to us we feel like were finally getting a foot in the door, James said in a phone interview on Wednesday. The organization, called More Than a Vote, will partly be aimed at inspiring African Americans to register and to cast a ballot in November.

NASCAR bans Confederate flag at all events and properties via Dan Mangan of CNBC Auto racing giant NASCAR said that it is banning the display of the Confederate flag at all of its events and properties. The announcement is sure to be controversial with a number of NASCAR fans, some of whom continue to display Confederate flags and symbols at racing events even five years after the organization asked fans not to do so. Also, NASCAR removed its rule mandating that racing team members stand for the national anthem. It is not clear how NASCAR plans to enforce the ban.

NASCAR said it is banning the flying of Confederate flags at its races. Image via AP.

Song of the South trends as critics tackle Disney film, Splash Mountain via Richard Tribou of the Orlando Sentinel The debate over Disney film Song of the South reemerged Wednesday as the term began trending on Google, with critics tackling both the film and its presence at the companys theme parks in the form of its Splash Mountain attraction. The 1946 film is considered to be racist by some, a story about life on a Southern plantation, famous for its song Zip-a-dee-doo-dah. It featured live-action including narration from a character named Uncle Remus, but also animated characters like Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox. Walt Disney Co. officials did not include the film among the archival options in its rollout of the Disney+ streaming service last year, with Bob Iger saying in 2019 to not expect it either.

FLORIDA REAX

Calls to defund police could spark Floridas criminal justice reform effort via John Haughey of The Center Square Defunding police wont get an eye blinks consideration in Florida, but a coalition of conservative groups has been questioning ever-increasing state and local law enforcement, courts and corrections costs for more than a half-decade. Sen. Jeff Brandesspearheaded the reform effort by sponsoring numerous bills, including proposals to give judges more discretion in sentencing for drug-related offenses, steer more felons to prison diversion programs, increase monthly gain time inmates earn and permit the early release of seriously ill and aging inmates. All were adopted in the Senate but not in the House.

Nikki Fried says both parties fall short on social justice On Wednesday, Fried said Democrats and Republicans are both to blame for a lack of reforms in criminal and social justice, Bruce Ritchie of POLITICO Florida reports. Im angry, too, and want to be part of the conversation and move the ball forward and make real change in our country, Fried said on a call. But it starts now, it starts here and it starts with conversations like this. Fried, Sen. Jos Javier Rodrguez, and Reps. Bobby DuBose, Tracie Davis and Fentrice Driskell criticized a lack of state Clemency Board meetings and the Amendment 4 implementing bill passed the Republican Legislature.

Nikki Fried says both parties have a responsibility for the problem in social justice.

More protests planned this week in South Florida via Austen Erblat of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel After almost two weeks of social justice demonstrations, more are planned in the coming days. Protesters are drawing attention to both institutional racism and a string of African American deaths in police custody, including Floyd. Some protests over the past few weeks have erupted in violence and arrests, both here and across the country, but most have concluded peacefully.

Shifting from weeks of racial protests to a day of Trump flag-waving birthday rallies on land and sea via Skyler Swisher of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel South Florida Trump supporters are planning to be out in full force Sunday to celebrate the presidents 74th birthday with boat flotillas, a truck rally and a motorcycle ride. The show of support comes after days of Black Lives Matter demonstrations that have spanned from West Palm Beach to Miami. Hundreds of boats adorned with Trump flags and gear will set off Sunday from Sunrise Bay near Fort Lauderdale and head north to Lake Boca. These floating Trump rallies have been dubbed Trumptillas.

Here are the 11 Jacksonville Civil War monuments, markers coming down via Emily Bloch of The Florida Times-Union When Mayor Lenny Curry announced the removal of the bronze Confederate soldier that stood atop a 62-foot pedestal in Jacksonvilles Hemming Park for 122 years, crowds cheered. Then they asked, what else? The confederate monument is gone, Curry announced on the steps of City Hall. And the others in this city will be removed as well. We hear your voices. We have heard your voices. One day later, Currys office has provided an eleven-item list of whats coming down. It includes two additional monuments and eight historic markers. Details are sparse regarding the timeline or where items removed will go, but spokeswoman Nikki Kimbleton said removal will happen over the next few weeks.

Tommy Hazouri: `Era of enlightenment for tackling Jacksonville racial disparities via David Bauerlein of The Florida Times-Union Jacksonville City Council president-elect Hazouri said the city has entered an era of enlightenment that can take the outcry at protest rallies about racial injustice and turn them into actual progress. Hazouri said he will form a social justice committee that will act as City Councils clearinghouse for all legislation on that topic. The committee will start meeting next month. Were going to be the bold new city of enlightenment of all the cities in the South, Hazouri said during a Zoom meeting.

NAACP holds protest to demand permanent removal of the Robert E. Lee bust in downtown Fort Myers via Andrew West of the Naples Daily News A small number of protesters gathered at a Lee statue in downtown Fort Myers. One protester led the group in a chant of, no justice, no peace! James Muwakkil, president of the Lee County branch of the NAACP, said of the statue, It represents racism. It represents hate. Muwakkil continued later, what African Americans have experienced is the same as what the Confederacy represented.

Hillsboroughs sheriff, chief prosecutor talk defund the police with activists via Kavitha Surana of the Tampa Bay Times As people started the second week of marching and speaking out against police brutality in Tampa Bay, Hillsborough Countys sheriff and chief prosecutor addressed issues at the heart of the protests in a Zoom panel with activists, pastors and defense attorneys. First on the agenda: Defund the police, which has become a rallying cry for activists to speed reforming law enforcement agencies. Hillsborough Sheriff Chad Chronister is not a fan. The idea isnt to erase law enforcement agencies, its to rethink their budgets.

Hundreds gather in Orlando to amplify black LGBTQ victims, as community feels left out of recent protests via Cristobal Reyes of the Orlando Sentinel Before Mulan Williams took the microphone to speak before a crowd gathered at Orlando City Hall on Wednesday, she said she asked herself a question: Do I matter? As the black transgender woman looked out at the roughly 200 people in front of her, she got her answer. The people who did arrive to stand in the sweltering heat were vocal in their support. But after people marched by the thousands in response to the Minneapolis killing of Floyd, many who attended the significantly smaller demonstration Wednesday were left wondering whether LGBTQ people are being left out of the conversation.

Spurred by Mayors Facebook post, 200+ protesters gather in Wellington to call for social justice via Kristina Webb of The Palm Beach Post More than 200 protesters gathered outside Wellingtons Village Hall on Tuesday night, spurred to action by a Facebook post from Mayor Anne Gerwig and the recent movement for social justice. Dozens of those protesters filed inside, with roughly 60 speaking during the Village Councils public comment period. With each person allowed three minutes to speak, their comments took about three hours. Their message: Racism is in Wellington. And change needs to happen. Rumors were circulating that day that the Mall at Wellington Green could become a target of looters, prompting the mall to close early and the Palm Beach County Sheriffs Office to add additional patrols in the area.

Palm Beach Sheriffs officers prepare for protesters at the Southern bridge to Palm Beach. Image via the Palm Beach Post.

Wynwood Pride hosts virtual party to highlight black performers, raise funds for BLM via April Rubin of the Miami Herald The first-ever LBGTQ pride was a protest, and this years Wynwood Pride will be no different. After founder Jos Atencio wrapped up the annual celebration in June 2019, he couldnt have imagined that next time hed be coordinating it in the midst of a pandemic and civil rights movement. But as soon as the challenges hit, he and his team adapted, knowing they had to uphold their mission statement to serve the community in the pillars of youth, health and justice, Atencio said. All parts of the virtual festival are free, but hosts ask participants to take action however they can, via donation, signing petitions or educating others, Atencio said, calling the event a digital protest.

SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

@OJPgov: @OJPOVC today announced it has awarded nearly $10 Million in an Antiterrorism and Emergency Assistance Program grant to assist victims of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

@TocRadio: SCOOPLET: Multiple RNC officials tell me this morning that Washington Posts story about hosting the convention in Jacksonville is premature Phoenix, Dallas, Savannah, Nashville, Orlando still very much in the running

@briantylercohen: Trumps first campaign rally, in the aftermath of positioning himself squarely against the Black Lives Matter protests, is in the city of the Tulsa race massacre that occurred 99 years ago and takes place on Juneteenth.

@anthonypedicini: Of men who rise up against the United States in defense of a culture that promoted slavery. @GovRonDeSantis its time. Florida needs not celebrate men who took up arms against their country in the name of slavery. Retire the confederate statue, pls.

@BillGalvano: Thank you @GovRonDeSantis for lowering the flags to half-staff in honor of former Senate President [Gwen] Margolis. @FLSenate

@TomLeeFL: .@DannyBurgessFL has represented his community admirably in the halls of the Florida Legislature & has offered steadfast leadership for Floridas 1.5 million veterans. I am proud to endorse him and look forward to calling him my Senator.

@ShevrinJones: Being an elected official means having obligations to represent all people, and elected officials who dont take action on issues of racial injustice should be called out. #BlackLivesMattter

Tweet, tweet:

CORONA FLORIDA

Key indicators raise concerns among local officials about coronavirus resurgence via Anastasia Dawson of the Tampa Bay Times Local elected officials say the latest coronavirus numbers give them new cause for concern as people are venturing out again and demonstrators take to the streets. For each of the past seven days, every day but Monday, the number of new coronavirus cases reported across Florida has topped 1,000, a pattern not seen since coronavirus in Florida hit its first peak in early April. Tuesday, the state reported 1,096 new patients and 53 deaths over a 24-hour period. The total number of cases in the state hit 66,000.

Several local officials in Florida are seeing some key indications of a coronavirus resurgence.

Another state inmate dies of COVID-19 via the News Service of Florida An 18th Florida inmate has died from complications of COVID-19, the state Department of Corrections reported. The inmate, whose name was not disclosed by the department, is the third prisoner to die from COVID-19 in less than a week. The Department of Health reported that the 18 inmates have died while incarcerated at Sumter Correctional Institution, Union Correctional Institution, South Florida Reception Center, Liberty Correctional Institution, Dade Correctional Institution, Everglades Correctional Institution, Blackwater River Correctional Facility and South Bay Correctional Facility.

Thousands of Floridians abruptly stopped getting $600 federal unemployment. State blames technology concerns. via Caroline Glenn of the Orlando Sentinel For thousands of out-of-work Floridians, the abrupt stop to their weekly $600 federal unemployment checks was a mystery. They had been approved for and been collecting Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation for weeks, on top of their state benefits, but around Memorial Day week, the checks inexplicably ceased. The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity hadnt offered an explanation until this week. Paige Landrum, press secretary for the DEO, said the department identified technology concerns that may have prevented an individual from receiving their Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation payment over the last few weeks and said the department is correcting the issue. Affected workers should start receiving payments again in about five business days, Landrum said.

Florida seniors get leeway for Bright Futures scholarships via Jeffrey S. Solochek of the Tampa Bay Times When COVID-19 closed Floridas schools, many graduating seniors had a practical concern. They no longer had opportunities to complete the volunteer service hours, or to improve their SAT or ACT test scores, to meet the eligibility requirements for a Bright Futures scholarship. After months of receiving calls and complaints, the Florida Department of Education issued an executive order aiming to address the teens concerns. The order suspends the volunteer hours mandate. Instead, a student may submit a statement from a school counselor or other authorized administrator stating that the student intended to complete the service during 2019-20 but could not.

REOPEN FLORIDA

Assignment editors Agriculture Commissioner Fried will hold a news conference to highlight the June 15 reopening of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) Tallahassee regional licensing office. Joining Fried is Steve Hurm, Director of Licensing for the department, 8:30 a.m., FDACS Tallahassee Regional Licensing Office, 1925 Capital Circle NE, Tallahassee. The media should RSVP to Franco.Ripple@FDACS.gov.

Twice-a-week school among options considered for fall via Scott Travis and Karina Elwood of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel The Broward School District has drafted a plan of school reopening scenarios, which the School Board plans to discuss Tuesday. Schools have been closed since mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic and all education has been done online. Some of the changes considered by the district include continued distance learning, staggered schedules, staggered days of attendance and limited enrollment.

Downtown Miami filled with cautious optimism as recovery begins via Gabriel Poblete of Miami Today Downtown Miami has not been Teflon during COVID-19. Still, there is cautious optimism the urban core could be seeing a return to normal, and some economic development opportunities could emerge from the pandemic. The City of Miami has begun its reopening, and by extension, downtown Miami is starting to liven up again. Shopping hubs like Brickell City Centre and Bayside Marketplace are in full swing. The city has launched its restaurant recovery program, which will allow restaurants to open into the public sidewalks, on-street parking spaces and closed traffic lanes, which helps the smaller eateries in the area that might struggle with social distancing.

Brickell City Centre is one of the downtown Miami shopping hubs that are starting to recover.

As Miami-Dade beaches open after coronavirus closure, people hurry to hit the water via Martin Vassolo and Aaron Leibowitz o the Miami Herald As visitors to South Beach stepped onto the newly reopened public beach, they were asked if they had a face covering and if they wanted to rent a lounge chair. I want to let you know some rules we have in place, Boucher Brothers employee Haizen Forero said as part of his greeting to visitors. I see you have your mask with you. Are you looking to rent today? In Miami Beach, those rules include a ban on coolers, floats and inflatable devices. Across Miami-Dade County, the new rules state that no organized sports, even between two people, may take place. Masks are not required among members of the same household, but no groups of more than 10 people are allowed to gather.

City of Naples votes to fully reopen beaches with limited parking via Karl Schneider of the Naples Daily News Naples City Council unanimously voted to reopen its beaches without any time restrictions during a special meeting. The Council also decided to reopen Naples City Pier and its concessions, the city dock to pedestrian traffic, as well as the concessions and volleyball courts at Lowdermilk Park. Parking restrictions will remain in place, limited to county and beach parking stickers. Mayor Teresa Heitmann and the council members briefly discussed the timeline of the citys beach closures. Most agreed that what counties on the East Coast were doing played into how the city moved forward with its own reopening. Collier and Lee counties both reopened beaches without time restrictions as well.

UCF to say which fall classes will be in-person by July 1 via Annie Martin of the Orlando Sentinel UCF is planning to resume some activities on campus this fall, including in-person classes on a limited basis, and intends to tell students which courses will meet face-to-face by July 1. President Alexander Cartwright told students and employees during an online forum on Wednesday that reopening the campus, which has been mostly shuttered for three months because of the coronavirus pandemic, will require a number of changes, including continuing the online-only format for classes with more than 100 students. Campus life will be much quieter when the fall semester starts on Aug. 24. Most dorm rooms will have a single occupant; fraternity and sorority recruitment will be completed virtually, and social events will be restricted.

Seminole Hard Rock and other casinos reopen Friday via David Selig of Local10.com The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood will reopen at noon Friday along with the Seminole Casino Coconut Creek and Seminole Classic Casino in Hollywood. Hard Rock and Seminole Gaming have made a tremendous commitment to sanitary protocols and a safety-first mentality for both guests and team members, Jim Allen, CEO of Seminole Gaming and Chairman of Hard Rock International, said. Temperature checks for all guests and employees will be mandatory before entry. Anyone with a temperature above CDC guidelines of 100.4 degrees will not be allowed entry. All guests must wear masks or cloth face coverings that meet CDC guidelines. Masks will be provided as needed. Thousands of alternating slot machines will be turned off, to help ensure social distancing.

SeaWorld Orlando reopens Thursday, reservations and masks required via Dewayne Bevil of the Orlando Sentinel SeaWorld Orlando reopens to the public, and officials expect that the animals inside will be happy to have more visitors. The theme park has been shut down since mid-March in response to the coronavirus pandemic. When you close, the attention you give to the animals has to be upped a little bit more than when you had guests here to make sure you do all the enrichment, Jon Peterson, the parks vice president of zoological operations, said Wednesday. A major change is that SeaWorld Orlando visitors must make date-specific reservations online before arriving at the park.

Everything you need to know about MLS, NBA plans to resume their seasons in Orlando via Michelle Kaufman of the Miami Herald Disneys ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando is about to become the epicenter of U.S. professional sports this summer, as all 26 MLS teams and 22 of the 30 NBA teams will resume their seasons there fan-free after the COVID-19 crisis forced leagues to shut down in mid-March. MLS will take approximately 1,200 people to Orlando, a traveling party of about 45 from each team, from late June to early August. Details are expected to be announced in the next few days as many teams, including Inter Miami, return to full-squad training this week.

Walt Disney World ESPN World of Sports is going to be the epicenter of professional sports, for the time being.

USF trustees approve plan to reopen campuses. Masks will be required in enclosed areas. via Divya Kumar of the Tampa Bay Times The University of South Florida Board of Trustees unanimously approved a four-phase plan to reopen campuses in August with protections against the spread of the coronavirus. The plan calls for testing large numbers of students, faculty and staff for the presence of the virus; increased measures to clean and disinfect public areas; and a number of steps aimed at social distancing. Many, but not all, classes would be offered virtually, and students would be required to wear masks on campus in all shared, enclosed spaces, including classrooms. The plan will be sent to the state Board of Governors this week and could be dialed back if conditions warrant.

St. Johns County updates vacation rental plan via Drew Dixon of Florida Politics Tourist-dependent St. Johns County got the green light from Florida regulators for its updated plan to reopen short-term vacation rental properties again after prohibitions instituted during the coronavirus outbreak. The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation signed off on the St. Johns County plan submitted this week. The plan went into effect is in line with executive orders instituted by DeSantis and allows visitors to begin renting vacation properties such as those offered by Airbnb. Vacation rentals are popular in the county in popular tourist spots like St. Augustine and Ponte Vedra Beach. St. Augustine also has a large roster of bed-and-breakfast rentals.

CORONA LOCAL

South Florida restaurants now charging COVID-19 fees to survive, but for how long? via Phillip Valys of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel COVID-19 fees are rapidly becoming the new normal as pandemic-weary restaurants reopen to the public, with surcharges popping up, often to customers surprise, on dine-in food checks. After statewide lockdowns, surging food costs and months of piddling takeout sales, restaurants now face a juggling act, balancing rising expenses against turning off customers. Raising prices now risks alienating the customers helping him survive this month.

South Florida restaurants are beginning to charge a COVID-19 surcharge. How long will that last?

FIU researchers think of a way to speed up a vaccine for COVID-19. Now theres a $1M grant. via Howard Cohen of the Miami Herald Machine-learning algorithms that work with supercomputers to analyze and understand data in quicksilver time could hold the key to finding cures for many diseases, including the novel coronavirus. Thats what Florida International University researcher Fahad Saeed and his colleagues have been developing. Their work was recognized by the National Institutes of Health with a three-year, $1 million grant to help FIU researchers design and develop machine-learning algorithms that allow biologists to make sense of proteomics, the large-scale study of proteins. According to the researchers, the study of proteins is critical for understanding and treating diseases, but there is so much data to analyze and so little time.

Palm Beach County offers rent, utilities relief up to $7,000 via Brett Shweky of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel The Palm Beach County Community Services Department is now offering a rental and utilities assistance program for residents who have been financially impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. The relief program will provide one-time rental and utility assistance to residents who have experienced a loss of income, a decrease in hours, or unemployment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Applicants can only receive assistance once but can apply for multiple relief services. Benefits up to $7,000 are available for applicants who live in apartments, houses, townhouses or mobile homes. Financial assistance will be limited to past due rents or utilities from after March 1 to before Dec. 30.

Palm Beach Council says no to proposed rule to make masks mandatory via Adriana Delgado of The Palm Beach Post In a unanimous decision, the Palm Beach Town Council voted no on a proposed ordinance that would have made wearing facial coverings mandatory. The topic was included in the Councils agenda after several council members received complaints from residents about some people not wearing masks and some businesses not following the CDC guidelines on wearing face coverings, Council President Maggie Zeidman said. All five council members, Police Chief Nicholas Caristo and Town Manager Kirk Blouin questioned how the town would enforce the rule. Councilmember Danielle Moore said making the wearing of masks mandatory would open up an entire can of worms and open the town to possible lawsuits.

Palm Beach Chamber will distribute 5,000 masks to town businesses via Adriana Delgado of The Palm Beach Post The Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce will distribute 5,000 face masks to affiliated businesses in town beginning June 22. Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce President Laurel Baker said local businesses can request the number of masks they need, within reason, by sending an email to the Chamber. Businesses can have the masks delivered or pick them up from the Chambers office at 400 Royal Palm Way. The Chamber will receive the masks from UniFirst, a Massachusetts-based textile and uniform company, that seeks to help businesses in Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties get back to work.

Gardens begins next phase of economic relief for local businesses; North Palm cancels July 4 fireworks via Jodie Wagner of The Palm Beach Post In partnership with the Palm Beach North Chamber of Commerce and PGA Corridor Association, the City has announced the next phase of its Economic Recovery Act to assist local businesses impacted by closures due to COVID-19. Phase Two of the Palm Beach Gardens Economic Recovery Act aims to help restaurants, bars, and breweries through the creation of the Food Services Stabilization Fund. The City has allocated $596,000 in aid for eligible restaurants, bars, and breweries with 3-75 employees that have been in business in Palm Beach Gardens for 18 months or more. Funds received through the program will be in the form of a grant that businesses do not have to repay.

MORE LOCAL

Central Florida coronavirus numbers rising; officials arent worried yet via Naseem S. Miller and Ryan Gillespie of the Orlando Sentinel Coronavirus cases in Central Florida have been increasing since the statewide stay-at-home order was lifted in early May, but local officials say its too soon to press the panic button. Although hospitalizations, which are among the key indicators of COVID-19 trouble in a community, have also risen since hitting a low in mid-May, they continue to be below their peak in early April, according to local health systems. Were pretty reassured that this sort of bump, which we had anticipated, isnt anything thats going to overwhelm us, said Dr. George Ralls, chief quality officer for Orlando Health. The most important thing people can do is remain vigilant in the way that theyre socializing.

Families of residents who died of COVID-19 sue Freedom Square retirement community via Kathryn Varn and Kavitha Surana of the Tampa Bay Times The families of two men who died in a COVID-19 outbreak at a Seminole nursing home are suing the facility, claiming their loved ones died due to mismanagement and poor communication. The facility chose to place profits over residents and ignore deficiencies in their emergency preparedness plan and in their infection prevention and control program, the lawsuits say. Its a disgrace, really, not just here but all over the whole country, said attorney Bennie Lazzara Jr., who is representing the families. The numbers are staggering.

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Sunburn The morning read of what's hot in Florida politics 6.11.20 - Florida Politics

Sanctuary and serenity Mazandaran province, in northern Iran. Photograph: Angelo Andreas Zinna/Alamy

Revolutionary Guards pull a family off the road to check for forbidden items in their silver Buick; they find neither alcohol nor music but Gabriel Garca Mrquezs One Hundred Years of Solitude. After passing the copy around, they conclude that politically, it was not a dangerous book. The censors have been less forgiving of Shokoofeh Azars first novel for adults, which was banned in Iran, though many copies have been printed underground. It is now on the shortlist for the 2020 International Booker prize a first for fiction translated from Farsi.

As signalled by the nod to Garca Mrquez, the novel applies magic realism with a Persian twist to Iran after the Islamic revolution of 1979, focusing on one family destroyed by the upheaval. It opens in 1988 as a mothers grief-driven epiphany at the top of a greengage plum tree coincides with the execution of her son, hanged without trial and dumped in a mass grave in the deserts south of Tehran one of fifteen thousand people killed for their political beliefs in the 1980s, alone.

The youths 13-year-old sister Bahar had burned to death in a cellar when zealots stormed the family home in Tehran a mansion filled with Persian poetry, tar music and an uncensored library, from Rumi and Shakespeare to Sadegh Hedayats modern classic The Blind Owl. It is ostensibly the dead girls ghost who narrates how her bereaved parents, Reza and Hushang, her sister Beeta and brother Sohrab, sought sanctuary and serenity in the ancient forests of Mazandaran in northern Iran. As four guards and a mullah pursue them, Sohrab is removed in handcuffs, Reza abandons their forest home, and Beeta, grappling with delusions, morphs into a mermaid in the Caspian sea.

Azar deploys dreams and Persian folklore, from forest jinns to black snow, to mythologise a civilisation devouring itself

Footnotes proliferate: Azar deploys dreams and an encyclopaedic knowledge of Persian folklore, from forest jinns to black snow, to mythologise a revolutions decay and a civilisation devouring itself. The insatiable eight-year Iran-Iraq war, stoked with the flesh of child mine-sweepers, is poignantly evoked through orphan mothers who bury their sons with the small golden bells that are tied around childrens ankles so they wouldnt get lost. In a supernatural revenge fantasy, these ranks of cannon fodder join forces with the disappeared to vanquish the stonily arrogant Ayatollah Khomeini in his subterranean palace of mirrors, his corpse emitting the same stench that all dictators secrete in the end.

Some playful prose, as when Reza and a blue-eyed Italian backpacker find themselves high upon the enlightenment of love, suggests a Farsi Isabel Allende. But the main problem is an ill-conceived, and poorly controlled, teenage narrative (I was nothing but a delusional dead person) more reminiscent of magic realisms New Age spinoff a cloying genre that went global in the 1990s with novels such as Chitra Banerjee Divakarunis The Mistress of Spices. The plot itself suffers from blind alleys (an irrelevant treasure trunk); a premature climax (Khomeinis early nemesis); and a limp ending.

The author, who sought political asylum in Australia in 2011, has said she wrote the novel primarily for western readers. But, despite a catalogue of appalling events, we learn surprisingly little of the history behind the revolution. The shahs Literacy Corps is mentioned, but not his secret police. In place of the historical forces at work in Garca Mrquezs fiction, we have national myth. Bahars immolation is likened to the Arab conquest of Persia, when Islam ousted Zoroastrianism around the seventh century. The family persist in referring to this modern orgy of book burning and killing as the Arab invasion: They came and burnt, plundered, and killed. Just like 1,400 years ago.

The US-based translator, whose name the UK publishers have withheld for reasons of safety and at the translators request, has made a good job of sections. But, too often, it reads like a draft, tripping up the reader. Consider this description of a treehouse: It had a window facing the sunrise and a door facing its setting the suns setting, that is. Or this: Life is precisely that which she and others were prodigiously killing the moment itself.

In the most convincing section, set decades after the revolution, the bereaved father passes morality police and chador-clad women in Tehran, feeling alien in his own country. Detained, he writes a record of his life, investing desperate hope in the power of the imagination to transport him from the stale minds of his captors. Few would quarrel with such a sentiment. Yet to overlook the books flaws risks what South African writers under apartheid, eager for a robust critical response to their art, memorably scorned as solidarity criticism. It would also be regrettable if the claims made for this ambitious but uneven novel deterred even a few readers from venturing further into Farsi literature.

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar, translated by Anonymous, is published by Europa Editions (RRP 13.99). To order a copy go toguardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

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The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree review magic realism in Iran - The Guardian

Cheese curds are a typical Wisconsin food.(Photo: Image courtesy of the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, Inc.)

A true cheesehead knows more than how to identify fresh curds.Any cheese amateurcan squeak the squeak if the cheese curd is fresh.

The path to full cheesehead enlightenment begins with knowledge beyond the curd. Here are 10 Wisconsin cheese facts to begin your journey.

Curd color:Most cheese fanatics know cheese curds are fresh globs of cheddar and should squeak when eaten. True cheeseheads know the difference between white and orange-yellow curds is the addition of a dye made fromannatto seed.

Best fried curds: Two recent efforts declared two different Wisconsin restaurants the deep-fried cheese curd champion. One reportsthe best curds are at Stone Arch Brewpub in Appleton; the other says head to The Old Fashioned in Madison. If you scoffat any list that doesn't begin with "your" cheese curd destination, add a stamp to your cheesehead passport.

True Sconnie cheeses: Curds are undeniably a Wisconsin cheese specialty. It doesn't take a cheese detective to connect Colby to its origins in Colby, Wisconsin. The cheese history buff knows that in 1877 John Jossi started using bricks to press a new cheese known today as, well, brick. Working in Limburger cheese plants led Jossi to use acurd for brick cheese that was drier than Limburger with lower levels of the bacterium linens used to rub the outer rind to develop the flavor.

Limburger loner:Speaking of Limburger, every hunk of thischeesemadein the United States comes from Wisconsin. We can all thank the Chalet Cheese Cooperative near Monroe for keeping stores stocked with this formerly popular but still odorous cheese.

String perfection:Baker Cheese produces nearly 3 million string cheese sticks per day. The St. Cloud-based cheesemaker is a specialist tapped by companies to make string cheese wrapped in their brand name. Almost 90% of the string cheese produced here is private label shipping out to all50 states, Mexico, South Korea and other countries.

Cheddar by age:You don't have to be a cheese genius to know cheddar gets sharper as it ages. Memorize this chart to earn a stamp on your true cheesehead card.

Lots of mozz: Cheddar and curds get lots of love but neither is the big cheese when it comes to Wisconsin production. One third of all Wisconsin cheese made in 2018 was mozzarella. Cheddar was a close second at 20.9%.

U.S. quantity champs:Wisconsin cheesemakers produced 3.36 billion pounds in 2019, which is 26% of the nations cheese.

U.S. quality champs:Wisconsin cheesemakers won the most medals at the 2019 United States Championship Cheese Contest, including 57 best of class awards.

Level up your status:If you want to improve your cheesehead status, stock your fridge with the best Wisconsin made cheeses. Here are the top scored Wisconsin made cheeses at each of the biannualUnited States Championship Cheese Contest. (* indicates overall champion)

Grand master cheeseheads maybegrudgingly offer a tip of theircheese wedge foam hats to anyone whoseexpertise is limited by the knowledge put forth here. Be patient young curdsqueaker, the journey of the full cheese enlightenment begins with a single bite.

Contact Daniel at (920) 996-7214or dphiggin@gannett.com. Follow himon Twitter and Instagram at @HigginsEats.

More: This recipe found on a can of Del Monte corn makes a super easy and surprisingly tasty taco pizza

More: Should you parboil brats? Nope. And science can tell you why.

More: Higgins Eats ingestigative report: These seven frozen pizzas have surprisingly distinct flavor profiles

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Elle Fanning in The Great, Hailee Steinfeld in Dickinson and Elisabeth Moss in Shirley. Composite: Hulu/Apple TV+/Sundance/AP

It is a point in favor of TVs sprawling proliferation that one gets, in the course of a year, both a lush, serious historical drama starring Helen Mirren as Catherine the Great on HBO, and its tonal opposite, Hulus raucous, gleefully brutal The Great, which puts an asterisk right on the title card: An Occasionally True Story. The Great, developed by Tony McNamara, the writer of absurd court send-up The Favourite,cares little for the historical accuracy of the 18th-century Russian monarch. Its Catherine (Elle Fanning) arrives in the backward, hedonistic Russian court as a naive 19-year-old bride in 1761. The real Catherine was 35 and a mother by then, but thats fine free from the constraints of biography or pedantic seriousness, The Greats occasional truth delivers, ironically, a more lasting impression of a real, flesh and blood princess one slowly but determinedly amassing power, enlightened but ambitious to rule.

Its a counterintuitive and refreshing insight the show shares not only with its clear predecessors The Favourite and Sofia Coppolas 2006 film Marie Antoinette but with other recent historical-ish content such as Apple TVs Dickinson, or the new film Shirley. In these absurd, anachronistic or downright fictional depictions of oft-biographied historical figures women frequently defined against the restrictions of their period it turns out that the farther one strays from the record, the more clear and accessible the window into their character.

Take, for example, one of the most effective highlights of The Great: 19-year-old Catherine, cinched in a corset and petticoat, silk shoes squelching in mud, arrives on a battlefield intending to cheer the soldiers with a flushed smile and a box of pastel macaroons. But the bloodied man she meets has lost his fingers and cant grasp the cookie. Ill just pop it in your mouth, Catherine attempts, baffled and floundering. Its pistachio, if thats helpful.

The scene is comically rich for its obscene clash of opulence and suffering the ludicrous macaroon box, the farce that is Catherines sincere scheme to appear helpful. Never mind that the real Catherine was a palace veteran by then, or that cream macaroons were invented in the 1930s. The historical record is absolutely beside the point; the shows razor-sharp reveal is in Catherines laughable naivety, in the archly callous disregard of life, the clash of aloof power with Enlightenment ideals. The real Catherine was, indeed, absorbed by Enlightenment thinkers and a voracious reader who nonetheless consolidated power, a point conveyed with a highly anachronistic FUCK!!!! as she tosses the silly macaroons out of her carriage window on the ride home. Russia cannot continue on this path! she exclaims, a one-stop line of self-serving earnestness.

The Great, like The Favourite, relishes the timeless comedy of bodily messes (the macaroon episode is called Blood and Vomit). A splotchy rash which blooms across Catherines chest becomes its own punchline; Fannings flushes as she errs or storms off feel like characters of their own. The performance draws viewers in; its easy to recall your own storms of emotion in watching Catherine traverse disappointment and ambition even if her naivety is a fiction within an absurd court farce.

Theres a similar drive for relatability underscoring Dickinson, Apple TVs riff on the life of American poet Emily Dickinson, which fills a loose sketch of her biography with half-ironic #feminism one-liners, swearing and a death fantasy starring rapper Wiz Khalifa. The series, developed by Alena Smith, takes some inspiration from the show Drunk History, in which the past becomes sweetly, hilariously companionable through boozy retellings dubbed over celebrity actors. The real Emily Dickinson was an introvert who rarely published in her lifetime; privately, her poetry experimented with form, the better to capture waves in the storm of ones mind. TV Dickinson manifests that creative radicalism externally, dispensing with the poets longstanding public persona shy, reclusive in favor of candid, barbed ambition.

As played by the excellent Hailee Steinfeld, to varying effect (I didnt initially love the show, which felt half-baked in parts, but have warmed to it in later episodes), this Dickinson maintains an affair with her brothers fiancee, calls bullshit on doing chores and manipulates a crush into publishing her poetry. Confronted with a no-girls-allowed rule for science demonstrations at the local college, Emily translates the eras subtext plainly: Maybe theyre so scared that if they teach us how the world works well figure out a way how to take over. Its a weirdly entertaining send-up of the real societal limitations facing Dickinson, giving real talent and ambition, however unarticulated or thwarted or quiet, room to breathe and flaunt.

Dispensing with the facts entirely can be more evocative of said talent, as demonstrated by Shirley, released on-demand this week in the US (its theatrical run scrapped by Covid), a film which rejects the biopic entirely for a fiction mirroring the work of its protagonist, the mid-century horror writer Shirley Jackson. The film, directed by Josephine Decker and based on the novel by Susan Scarf Merrell, takes real-life inspirations for Jacksons work her agoraphobia, her emotionally abusive but co-dependent marriage, her imposing house in Vermont as material for a psychodrama in which a younger couple staying as guests, and the womens hold on reality, combusts under the Jackson roof. The film aims not for accuracy but instead to drop the viewer into a Jackson story, which does far more to dig into the truth of her genius, and to honor her work excavating the ghoulish, terrifying depths of womens insecurities and mental prisons, than any by-the-numbers portrait ever could.

Though in an entirely different register than the two comic series, Shirley presents perhaps the best example of liberated fictions potential as the most effective female biopic. A lifes recounting bound to fact would necessarily focus on constraint, struggle or the negotiation of image and ambition in a mans world. Instead, Shirley centers the authors artistic brilliance, Dickinson revels in the poets real creative confidence, The Great trickily extricates the contradictions of the Enlightened despots position. Its not fact, per se, but whos to say thats not closer to the truth?

Dickinson is now available on Apple TV+, The Great is on Hulu in the US with a UK date to follow and Shirley is released on 5 June digitally and on Hulu in the US with a UK date also to follow

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History remixed: the rise of the anachronistic female lead - The Guardian

Siddhivinayak Temple Mumbai live Tuesday darshan details

The Siddhinivayak temple in Mumbai's Prabhadevi region is one of the most famous shrines in the country. Those who visit the city for the first time, do pay obeisance to Siddhivinayak, the 'lord who fulfills wishes' or the 'lord of enlightenment' or the 'enlightened one.'

Tuesdays or mangalvar are generally meant for worshipping Mangal Moorti Ganpati Bappa. He is called Sukh Karta (giver of happiness) and Dukh Harta (remover of sorrow). Therefore, he is Mangal, meaning auspicious. Devotees usually walk barefoot from their homes on Tuesdays to take the first darshan of Bappa in the morning. It is believed that people's wishes get fulfilled, and therefore, Siddhivinayak is considered as the one who grants people's desires. Devotees pay a visit to Bappa before asking for a wish and after it gets fulfilled too.

The idol of Siddhivinayak is unlike the other Ganesha idols. Here, Bappa looks resplendent in red, has the third eye on the forehead, four hands and the trunk titled towards the right. This is a rare sight because most of the idols elsewhere have his trunk inclined towards the left. Siddhivinayak Bappa holds a lotus, an axe, ajapmala(garland of sacred beads) and a modak in the upper right, upper left hands, lower right hand, and lower left hand respectively. Goddesses Riddhi and Siddhi are seen seated on either side.

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The Siddhivinayak shrine is one of the most visited temples in the country. Thousands flock the temple throughout the week, but Tuesdays are considered more special. The temple is presently not open to the public owing to the lockdown implemented to contain the spread of coronavirus. However, you can take a virtual Darshan of Ganpati Bappa.

You may click this link for the LIVE darshan. http://www.siddhivinayak.org/virtual_darshan.asp

Tuesday's special (early morning Shree Darshan) - 3.15 AM to 4.45 AM

Kakad Aarti and early morning puja- 5.00 AM to 5.30 AM

Shree Darshan - 5.30 AM to 12.15 PM

Naivedhya -12.15 PM to 12.30 PM

Shree Darshan - 12.30 PM to 8.45 PM

Aarti - 9.30 PM to 10.00 PM

Shejaarti (final aarti of the day) - 12.00 AM

Ganpati Bappa Morya, Mangal Moorti Morya.

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Siddhivinayak Temple Mumbai yet to open; check out aarti timings, other details and where to watch it live - Times Now