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WHO, FB vs. online vaccine misinformation

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People were killed by measles viruses like this one — it could have been prevented.

Vaccine misinformation: WHO Director-General on Facebook and Instagram

by Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

 

The World Health Organization welcomes the commitment by Facebook to ensure that users find facts about vaccines across Instagram, Facebook Search, Groups, Pages and forums where people seek out information and advice.

Facebook will direct millions of its users to WHO’s accurate and reliable vaccine information in several languages, to ensure that vital health messages reach people who need them the most.

The World Health Organization and Facebook have been in discussions for several months to ensure people can to access authoritative information on vaccines and reduce the spread of inaccuracies.

Vaccine misinformation is a major threat to global health that could reverse decades of progress made in tackling preventable diseases.

Many debilitating and deadly diseases can be effectively prevented by vaccines. Think measles, diphtheria, hepatitis, polio, cholera, yellow fever, influenza…

Major digital organizations have a responsibility to their users — to ensure that they can access facts about vaccines and health. It would be great to see social and search platforms come together to leverage their combined reach.

We want digital actors doing more to make it known around the world that #VaccinesWork.

We want innovation that supports healthy behaviors to save lives and protect the vulnerable. So many children whose parents fully support vaccination currently lack access to these life-saving tools.

These online efforts must be matched by tangible steps by governments and the health sector to promote trust in vaccination and respond to the needs and concerns of parents.

Let’s not miss more opportunities to prevent the spread of some of the world’s deadliest diseases.

 

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Bendib, The Wall

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bendib
Editorial cartoon by Khalil Bendib -- OtherWords.
 

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Editorials: Nito and his party; and The gun nut right

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nito
Nito Cortizo amidst other shadowy politicians. Photo by the Presidencia.

Where is Nito at?

First thing President Cortizo did, he took out a $2 billion loan – then started to use it to pay off debts inherited from the previous administration. The national budget for this fiscal year is more than $1 billion short in revenue collections as it is. The latest thing he did, he told the nation’s assembled mayors and representantes that no, their request for $20,000 for each mayor and $10,000 for each representante to buy hams, turkeys and toys to distribute for those of their constituents on special lists, and to subsidize Christmas parades, has not convinced him to allocate one nickel for those traditions.

Will Ricky Martinelli, Odebrecht or someone else come up with the cash that won’t be coming from the national coffers? If not this might disrupt the Sexual Buffalo’s usual style, which is to distribute picnic hams for Christmas.

(Legislator and representante Sergio Gálvez, the self-proclaimed “Búfalo Sexual,” might have his moniker more reasonably translated as “Stud Bull” but the transliteration is more fun. MEANWHILE, President Cortizo has put in an order through the Ministry of Agricultural Development to import some actual breeding bulls, to improve the productivity of Panamanian cattle ranchers.)

Cortizo’s party swept the local races this past May, a much more convincing stomp than his narrow win in the presidential race. So if he was saying no to the crude Martinelista demagogue, he was ever more so denying the request of municipal elected officials of his own party.

Does it tell us where he is headed in his relations with the National Assembly, which his party and its junior partner MOLIRENA control? On the legislative front the PRD, nominally a member of the Socialist International, is moving in far right directions – railing against immigrants, against Panamanian citizens of ethnicities they dislike, against the press, against homosexuals, against music radio; and on the other hand promoting a registry of miscarriages so that women and girls who miscarry might be thrown in prison and talking rhetoric very much like that of Spain’s neofascist Vox party, words that could be written by Steve Bannon and which are eagerly broadcast by Vladimir Putin’s RT channel. Will he say no to Zulay and the rest, too?

The emerging style is that Cortizo doesn’t make dramatic pronouncements, that mostly we will know where he stands when he’s put in a position to say “yes” or “no.”

 

The gun nut right and their ugly ruses

So, some white guy who built a shooting platform atop his shack to go disrupting the calm of his neighborhood in Odessa, Texas brandished his weapon in the course of an argument with a neighbor. When she called the police, they wouldn’t come. Seems like in a neighborhood where people mostly live in trailers and shacks, when a woman with a Spanish surname complains of an assault, the authorities in Odessa side with the white assailant.

So the guy gets fired from his job, goes literally ballistic at a traffic stop, kills seven other people, physically wounds at least 21 others, emotionally traumatizes yet others, before the police ram his vehicle in front of a movie theater. And the police chief whose officers couldn’t be bothered to deal with an armed aggressor before says he can’t figure out the motive, but that the cops ended the confrontation in front of a theater might have something to do with it. And the mayor blamed it all on video games.

The governor of Texas expressed weariness and annoyance at having to hold press conferences after mass shootings in his state. The next day, a bunch of new gun laws that he signed went into effect. One of the prohibits certain religious denominations. Any religion that bars people from bringing weapons into their midst during worship services is now illegal in Texas, until the federal courts strike it down as the likely will. Peaceful faiths prohibited. No Quakers, no Amish, and now with a recent change in church doctrine, no Mormons, allowed to keep guns out of their sanctuaries in Texas.

Such are these days of white supremacist power in Texas at the local and state levels, and in the Oval Office in Washington. Such is the power of the National Rifle Association, a gun sellers’ industry lobby now putting all of its chips on the ultra-ultra-right.

Do we politely ignore the deceit and hypocrisy, so as not to drive readers away? Do we search for ways to more creatively curse these people? What responsible media do in such a situation is to urge people to register and vote, and to give people information that will help them do so. Batman isn’t coming to the rescue. You are, or nobody is.

garbo

Mr. Hitler was big on me. He kept writing and inviting me to come to Germany, and if the war hadn’t started when it did, I would have gone and I would have taken a gun out of my purse and shot him, because I am the only person who would not have been searched.

Greta Garbo      

 

Bear in mind…

It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others.

John Andrew Holmes

Not everything that is more difficult is more meritorious.

Thomas Aquinas

Art is on the side of the oppressed. Think before you shudder at the simplistic dictum and its heretical definition of the freedom of art. For if art is freedom of the spirit, how can it exist within the oppressors?

Edith Wharton

 

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Climate crisis: other options for drowning islands

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idyllic?
RWBrooks/Shutterstock.com

Climate crisis: migration cannot be the only option for people living on ‘drowning’ islands

by Becky Alexis-Martin, Manchester Metropolitan University; James Dyke, University of Exeter; Jonathon Turnbull, University of Cambridge, and Stephanie Malin, Colorado State University

The evidence of the climate crisis is now undeniable. But state responses to climate change often have social and political motivations, rather than addressing the realities of this threat. Since the 1980s, preventative action has been internationally stifled by the industrial agenda of a conservative political agenda which has maintained intensive subsidies to the fossil fuel industry.

There has been a backlash against this lack of impetus in recent times by groups such as Extinction Rebellion, which highlights the need for significant action by wealthy Global North states. These wealthy, industrialised nations – and about 100 corporations largely headquartered within them – have been the largest drivers of climate change via fossil fuel emissions, while baulking at global agreements to provide meaningful climate aid to developing countries.

The idea of drowning or sinking islands has long existed as a way to describe future risks that small island states must confront. But the reality is that these threats affect life in such places today. Many small islands states have chosen to reintroduce previously unpopular resettlement and migration policies in the face of climate change.

This is the story of Kiritimati (pronounced Ki-ri-si-mas) in the Pacific – the largest coral atoll in the world. A closer look at the story of this particular island sheds light on the issues facing those living on such islands all around the world, and the inadequacy of current international policy.

Washing hangs in Kiritimati. © Becky Alexis-Martin, Author provided

Kiritimati

Kiritimati has a dark past of British colonialism and nuclear weapons testing. It gained independence from the UK on July 12 1979, when the Republic of Kiribati was established. Now a complex threat is appearing over the horizon.



Read more:
The atomic history of Kiritimati – a tiny island where humanity realized its most lethal potential


Raised no more than two meters above sea level at its highest point, Kiritimati is one of the most climate vulnerable inhabited islands on the planet. Inadequate action is being taken to protect the people who live there. It is at the centre of the world, yet most people could not pinpoint it on a map, and know little about the rich culture and traditions of its people.

This culture may be set to disappear. One in seven of all movements in Kiribati – whether between islands or internationally – are attributed to environmental change (14%). And a 2016 UN report has shown that half of households have already been affected by sea level rise in Kiritimati. Rising sea levels also pose challenges to the storage of nuclear waste on small island states – a hangover from the island’s colonial past.

Those who have moved become climate change refugees: people who has been forced to leave their home due to the effects of severe climate events and to rebuild their lives in other places, having lost their culture, community, and decision-making power.

This problem will only intensify. Since 2008, intensifying storms and weather-related events have displaced more than 24m people around the world annually, and the World Bank estimates that another 143m people will be displaced by 2050 in just three regions: sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America.

In Kiritimati, a few mechanisms have been created to help islanders. For example, the Kiribati government has implemented a program, “Migration with Dignity,” with the aim of creating a skilled workforce able to find good employment abroad. The government has also purchased 6,000 acres on Fiji in 2014 to try and ensure food security as the environment changes.

New Zealand has also created an annual opportunity lottery called the Pacific Access Ballot. This lottery is presented as a way for 75 Kiribati citizens per year to resettle in New Zealand. But quotas are not being filled. Understandably, people do not want to leave their homes, families and lives.

The World Bank and the UN, meanwhile, have argued that Australia and New Zealand should improve mobility for seasonal workers and allow open migration for citizens of Kiritimati, in light of climate change affects. But seasonal work is often menial and offers few prospects for a better life.

While well-intentioned international policy is predominantly focused simply on relocation, rather than providing adaptive capacity and long-term support, these options still do not offer true self-determination for the people of Kiritimati. They tend to commodify people, reducing their relocation to reemployment plans.

Palms blow in the wind, Kiritimati. © Becky Alexis-Martin, Author provided

It also means that beneficial local projects, such as the new airport, a permanent housing program and a new marine tourism strategy could soon become redundant. Realistic and affordable strategies to reclaim and maintain the island’s land are needed to prevent migration from becoming a necessity.

Rising up

Encouraging the population to migrate is of course the option with the lowest costs. But we should not fall into the trap of thinking it is the only option. We don’t need to allow this island to drown.

This is not just a human issue – abandoning this island to the sea would also eventually condemn a bird species found nowhere else on earth, the bokikokiko, to global extinction. Other small island states whose existence is threatened by rising sea levels are also home to species at risk of extinction. The Marshall Islands, for example, are home to the coconut crab, which can only be hunted and eaten by the local inhabitants.

International aid could resolve many future problems and preserve this astonishing and beautiful place for humans, nonhuman animals and plants, but the lack of support from wealthy nations makes options like this difficult for residents of small island states to consider. Artificial islands have been created in Dubai – why not here? Many other hard engineering options exist, such as coastal fortification and land reclamation technologies. Such options could protect the homeland of the Kiritimati people while also enhancing the resilience of these places – if international aid were more readily and consistently available from the nations that have driven this climate crisis.

The Dubai coastline, United Arab Emirates. Mario Hagen/Shutterstock.com

At the time of writing, there is neither an internationally recognized definition of the climate refugee, nor are they covered by the UN 1951 Refugee Convention. This maintains a protection gap, as environmental degradation is not defined as “persecution.” This is despite climate change arising due to the complacency of industrialized nations, as well as their negligence in combating its stark consequences.

The UN Climate Action Summit on September 23 2019 may begin to address some of these challenges. But for the millions of people who live in places that are threatened by climate change, the question is about environmental and climate justice. This question should be not just about whether climate change hazards are being addressed – but why those who want to continue to live on small island states often do not have the resources or autonomy to address climate change and other global challenges themselves.The Conversation

Becky Alexis-Martin, Lecturer in Political and Cultural Geographies, Manchester Metropolitan University; James Dyke, Senior Lecturer in Global Systems, University of Exeter; Jonathon Turnbull, PhD candidate in Geography, University of Cambridge, and Stephanie Malin, Associate Professor of Sociology, Colorado State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

 

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CELA & CLACSO, Remembering Immanuel Wallerstein

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iw
Dr. Wallerstein. By Wikimedia Commons.

¡Viva Immanuel Wallerstein!

by CELA and CLACSO

Immanuel Wallerstein has died. His legacy will remain in force and his works will be continue to be subjects of study and criticism. Wallerstein was an enthusiastic researcher since his teens in New York City and later as a student at Columbia University and as a professor at the State University of New York (SUNY). His approaches were original and controversial. Perhaps his concept of the capitalist world-system was the most debated. Even more, his conclusion that the system was coming to an end. In the 1970s, he even announced the decadence and decline of the United States as a hegemonic power.

Wallerstein was a friend of the Justo Arosemena Center for Latin American Studies (CELA) in Panama. He always cooperated with CELA initiatives and was a hard critic of the research that was carried out there. He published his articles in the CELA magazine, TAREAS, with some regularity.

Wallerstein was a member of the US Studies working group of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), which published his contributions. He wrote the prologue to its book on the US systemic crisis published in in 2010 (co-edition of CLACSO and Siglo XXI-México) and the section on new conditions of legitimation.

Our feelings of solidarity go out to his partner Beatriz and family. We join all his disciples and friends to celebrate the life of the sociologist, whose work was projected on a global scale.

 

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‘Gay gene’ search reveals not one but many

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The biology of same-sex attraction seems to involve a host of genes. Photo by Dewald Kirsten/Shutterstock

Not one but many “gay genes” — and no way to predict sexuality

by BrendanZietsch, The University of Queensland

It has long been clear that a person’s sexual preference – whether they prefer male or female sexual partners, or both – is influenced by his or her genetic makeup. The most straightforward evidence for this is that sexual preference is more likely to be the same in identical twin pairs, whose genetic makeup is identical, than in non-identical twin pairs, who share only around 50% of their genetic makeup.

What has been elusive is knowledge of what specific gene, or genes, are involved. A 1993 study found male sexual preference was influenced by a particular gene on the X chromosome, which the media naturally dubbed the “gay gene”. But a later study did not replicate this finding, and subsequent follow-ups yielded mixed results.



Read more:
Born this way? An evolutionary view of ‘gay genes’


The problem was that these studies were too small to draw confident conclusions. There are millions of parts of our DNA that commonly differ between people. That means finding the genes associated with sexual preference is like finding a needle in a haystack.

So an international team of researchers, which I led, set out to tackle this problem. Our results are published today in Science.

Forceful approach

Our approach was simple: brute force. All else being equal, the larger a study, the more confident we can be in the results. So instead of sampling a few hundred or a few thousand individuals – as in previous genetic studies on sexual preference – we used a sample of nearly half a million.

To obtain such a large sample, we used data that had been collected as part of much broader projects. These included DNA data and responses to questionnaires from participants in the UK (as part of the UK Biobank study) and the US (as part of data collected from customers of the commercial ancestry firm 23andMe who consented to answering research questions about sexuality).

The downside of using these huge data sets was that the studies were not specifically designed to find genes for sexual preference, so we were limited by the questions participants happened to have been asked about their sexual behaviour. For both UK Biobank and 23andMe, participants reported whether they had ever had a same-sex sexual partner.

A person’s DNA essentially consists of millions of letters of code, and the letters differ among different individuals. So, to make a complicated story short, the next step was to test at every DNA location whether one letter was more common in participants who reported any same-sex partners than in those who reported only opposite-sex partners.

Not one gene but many

What we found is that there is no one “gay gene” – instead, there are many, many genes that influence a person’s likelihood of having had same-sex partners.

Individually, each of these genes has only a very small effect, but their combined effect is substantial. We could be statistically confident about five specific DNA locations; we could also tell with high confidence that there are hundreds or thousands of other locations that also play a role, although we couldn’t pinpoint where they all are.

Participants in the 23andMe data set answered questions not only about their sexual behaviour, but also attraction and identity. Taking all the genetic effects in combination, we showed that the same genes underlie variation in same-sex sexual behaviour, attraction, and identity.

Some of the genes that we could be sure about gave us clues about the biological underpinnings of sexual preference. One of those genes, as well as being associated with same-sex sexual behaviour in men, was also associated with male pattern balding. It is also near a gene involved in sexual differentiation – the process of masculinisation and feminisation of biological males and females, respectively. Sex hormones are involved in both baldness and sexual differentiation, so our finding implies that sex hormones may be involved in sexual preference too.

Other findings further reinforced the extreme complexity of the biology underlying sexual preference. First, genetic influences only partly overlapped in males and females, suggesting the biology of same-sex behaviour is different in males and females.

Second, we established that, on the genetic level, there is no single continuum from gay to straight. What’s more likely is that there are genes that predispose to same-sex attraction and genes that predispose to opposite-sex attraction, and these vary independently.

Because of the complexity of the genetic influences, we cannot meaningfully predict a person’s sexual preference from their DNA – nor was this our aim.

Possible misinterpretations

Scientific findings are often complex, and it is easy for them to be misrepresented in the media. Sexual preference has a long history of controversy and public misunderstanding, so it is especially important to convey a nuanced and accurate picture of our results.

But people tend to want black-and-white answers about complex issues. Accordingly, people may react to our findings by saying either: “No gay gene? I guess it’s not genetic after all!” or “Many genes? I suppose sexual preference is genetically fixed!” Both of these interpretations are wrong.



Read more:
Differences between men and women are more than the sum of their genes


Sexual preference is influenced by genes but not determined by them. Even genetically identical twins often have completely different sexual preferences. We have little idea, though, what the non-genetic influences are, and our results say nothing about this.

To answer further questions the public might have about the study, we created a website with answers to frequently asked questions, and an explanatory video. In developing this website we drew on feedback from LGBTQ outreach and advocacy groups, dozens of LGBTQ rights advocates and community members, and workshops arranged by Sense about Science where representatives of the public, activists, and researchers discussed the results of the study.The Conversation

Brendan Zietsch, ARC Future Fellow, The University of Queensland

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

 

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Gandásegui, Máquinas para promover la corrupción

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privatización

Las APP son ‘máquinas’ para promover la corrupción

por Marco A. Gandásegui, hijo

En el mundo entero donde se ha experimentado con la privatización de las cuotas de los asegurados o con las asociaciones público privados (APP) han fracasado rotundamente. Durante el gobierno de Martín Torrijos (2004-2009) se aprobó una ley que le entregó al sector privado la administración de los recursos del programa de Vejez de la Caja de Seguro Social (CSS) que quebró casi en el acto. Ahora está pasando por la Asamblea de Diputados un proyecto de ley que crearía las APP. En el seno de ese órgano del Estado casi no hay debate, en los medios de comunicación apenas se informa sobre su existencia y el gobierno mantiene un silencio ensordecedor.

El proyecto tiene tres características claves que cada panameño debe conocer. En primer lugar, es una forma de trasladar recursos del erario a sectores que aducen tener privilegios (por haber financiado la elección de quienes ocupan cargos públicos desde el presidente de la República hasta el Representante de Corregimiento, pasando por Diputados y Alcaldes). Segundo, las asociaciones público privados son una herramienta política que socava el sistema de libre competencia propio del capitalismo. En tercer lugar, las asociaciones son prácticamente unas ‘máquinas’ concebidas para perfeccionar y legalizar la corrupción.

Todas las instancias políticas del país – Presidente y demás – existen para servir a la República y sus ciudadanos. Se le autoriza a las ‘autoridades’ electas para cobrar impuestos y recibir todo tipo de tributos (peajes, etc.) para cumplir con la Constitución: Educación gratuita, servicios de salud para todas las personas que viven en territorio nacional y garantizar una vivienda decente a todas las familias. Ni bajo la presente constitución (1972) o las anteriores se ha cumplido porque los gobernantes tienen otras prioridades y reprimen a quienes exigen cuentas.

Con las APP, el presupuesto nacional de 25 mil millones de dólares será compartido con personas o empresas que se consideran superiores a los panameños comunes. El sector educativo (por ejemplo) que recibe menos de mil millones de dólares al año para servir a casi un millón de estudiantes, compartirá esos fondos con personas ‘privadas’. Hace varios quinquenios los gobiernos se comprometieron a destinar el 6 por ciento del presupuesto al sector educativo. Es decir, duplicar el monto gubernamental destinado a la formación de los panameños de mañana. En vez de diseñar un plan para el sector educativo, aumentando el presupuesto, improvisa creando oportunidades de negocios en un área estratégica para el desarrollo nacional. El llamado ‘sector privado’ no tiene como objetivo principal educar sino incrementar sus ganancias.

Los dueños de los colegios de la capital se beneficiarán significativamente. Incluso, en las áreas más remotas del campo, la escuela-rancho recibirá un monto para pagarle a un individuo o empresa que pacte con el gobierno una APP. Con los recursos ya aprobados para la descentralización, incluso el representante de corregimiento repartirá recursos a sus allegados para brindar cualquier servicio en combinación con el gobierno sin garantías de calidad o rendición de cuentas.

Las APP son un salto al pasado colonial. Regresamos a los tiempos en que el rey, gobernador o corregidor repartía favores a sus amigos más leales. Durante la colonia estaban vigentes las instituciones feudales que operaban como una pirámide donde el rey en forma soberana decidía quienes se beneficiaban de las riquezas que producían los indígenas, los esclavos y los demás trabajadores. Estos a su vez no recibían pago alguno a cambio. Las constituciones modernas rechazan estas arbitrariedades y crean la figura de la República (donde se supone la igualdad entre todos los ciudadanos).

El presidente Laurentino Cortizo dice que la ley de las APP no se aplicará en la Autoridad del Canal de Panamá (ACP) o en los sectores de salud y educación. Se olvida que en la ACP ya se está aplicando un reglamento que lo permite. Ya están caminando 4 proyectos tipo APP en el área del Canal y hay otra media docena preparándose. Le falla la memoria cuando no recuerda que quienes promueven las APP con más entusiasmo son los que quieren explotar los sectores salud y educación. El presidente Cortizo tiene que leer el proyecto de ley.

La falla principal de la propuesta de las APP es la corrupción que lleva incorporado en el articulado de la ley. Será la herramienta favorita de los políticos para repartir recursos del erario, para hacer nombramientos y caer en prácticas de nepotismo.

Marco A. Gandásegui, hijo, es profesor de Sociología de la Universidad de Panamá e investigador asociado del CELA.

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La extrema derecha seudónima / The pseudonymous far right

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¿martinelista?
Translation of tweets by “Twitaso”: 
Above:
Martin Torrijos, Juan Carlos Varela, Nito Cortizo have delivered Panama, have permitted the sovereignty of this country to be compromised by the UN, Agenda 2030, the communists, the queers, the international power elites and [Pope Francis].
Below:
THEY ARE UNMASKED and it’s left to me to mention in passing Bobby Eisenmann’s [marijuana escapade].

International far-right smear campaign reaches into Panama
Campaña internacional de desprestigio de extrema derecha llega a Panamá

from the Twitterverse / del universo de Twitter

neofascist
So who is this? It may well be false, but look at the flag that’s displayed.
Entonces, ¿quién es? Bien puede ser falso, pero mira la bandera que muestra.

Traducido:
Twitaso retwitteó Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
Estamos siguiendo de cerca la tormenta tropical Dorian mientras se dirige, como de costumbre, a Puerto Rico. FEMA y todos los demás están listos y harán un gran trabajo. Cuando lo hagan, hágales saber y denles un gran agradecimiento, no como la última vez. ¡Eso incluye al incompetente alcaldesa de San Juan!

 

The attack is on the PRD, the Panameñistas and the independents — almost everyone but the Martinelistas and the neofascist xenophobes. But, like much of the pseudonymous alt-right propaganda campaign in the 2016 US elections, this stuff appears to be coming from abroad. The rhetoric and issues of focus are of the Steve Bannon /  CitizenGO / Vox variant.

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El ataque es contra el PRD, los panameñistas y los independientes, casi todos menos los martinelistas y los xenófobos neofascistas. Pero, al igual que gran parte de la campaña de propaganda seudónima de alt-right en las elecciones estadounidenses de 2016, este material parece provenir del extranjero. La retórica y los temas de enfoque son de la variante Steve Bannon / CitizenGO / Vox.

 

Editor’s note / Nota del redactor

Above you see a number of strident accusations and these are not published with the belief that they are true, nor to make you believe that they are true. Quite to the contrary, this is scurrilous and largely fictitious garbage. But it is newsworthy to notice the electronic propaganda campaign that is being directed into Panama.

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Arriba ves una serie de acusaciones estridentes y estas no se publican con la creencia de que son verdaderas, ni para hacerte creer que son verdaderas. Por el contrario, es basura escurridiza y en gran parte ficticia. Pero es noticiosa la campaña de propaganda electrónica que se dirige a Panamá.

 
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¿Wappin? From one soul to others / Desde un alma a otras

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miss reeves
The honorable Martha Reeves, former Detroit city councilwoman whom you may better know as a musician. The soul music scene was part of the civil rights movement scene, helped score some victories and is passing on the torch to younger generations to defend what remains, regain what has been lost and move ahead. Whatever generation you are, if you are a US citizen living in Panama and your soul is in the right place, register and vote from abroad.

From the editor’s soul to yours
Del alma del redactor a la tuya

Soul music – in the greater sense, with all of its precursors, successors, covers and derivatives – can save your life. It has kept your editor going through some horrendously bad times. Perhaps it’s buzzardly old stale, something to which the younger generation just can’t relate. But I think it will cycle around again, especially among the smarter and most tasteful of today’s youth.

Does it translate? Perhaps it’s difficult to transliterate. But the range of emotions, the basic human conditions and yearnings, those are universal. Is “blue-eyed soul” iimproper cultural appropriation? Is it fitting to notice the sleazy operators who produced so much of this wonderful music, and so miserably exploited those who composed and performed it? Or those investors who took the exclusive rights in court cases, or by having the most powerful search engine monopoly that nobody could afford to challenge? Don’t miss the hypocrisy in this playlist, either.

But enjoy. Understand. Get inspired and dedicate yourself to a better world.

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La música soul, en el sentido más amplio, con todos sus precursores, sucesores, reproducciones y derivados, puede salvarle la vida. Ha mantenido a su editor pasando por momentos terriblemente malos. Tal vez es la música de buitres ancianos, algo con lo que la generación más joven simplemente no puede identificarse. Pero creo que volverá a circular, especialmente entre los jóvenes más inteligentes y de buen gusto de la actualidad.

¿Se traduce? Quizás es difícil transcribir. Pero la gama de emociones, las condiciones humanas básicas y los anhelos, son universales. ¿Es el “alma de ojos azules” una apropiación cultural inadecuada? ¿Es apropiado notar a los operadores sórdidos que produjeron tanta música maravillosa y explotaron tan miserablemente a quienes la compusieron y la interpretaron? ¿O aquellos inversionistas que tomaron los derechos exclusivos en casos judiciales, o por tener el monopolio de programas de búsqueda tan poderoso que nadie podía desafiarlos? Ni te pierdas la hipocresía en esta lista de reproducción.

Pero disfruta. Entiende. Inspírate y dedícate a un mundo mejor.

War – Four Cornered Room
https://youtu.be/WFmCCxMp7BE

The Shirelles – Baby It’s You
https://youtu.be/oKgkDxnG9Z8

Jimmy Ruffin – What Becomes of the Broken Hearted
https://youtu.be/wBrBSSl0OOM

Martha Reeves and the Vandellas – Nowhere to Run
https://youtu.be/RQRIOKvR2WM

Zahara – Mgodi
https://youtu.be/AM7HGx3vQhs

Sam & Dave – Soothe Me
https://youtu.be/0wN1WNlC2mE

Linda Ronstadt – Tracks Of My Tears
https://youtu.be/OYLSvXYp_5U

Kafu Banton – Vivo en el Ghetto
https://youtu.be/bzscZXZRtRI

Supremes – Where Did Our Love Go?
https://youtu.be/qTBmgAOO0Nw

The Beatles – You Really Got a Hold on Me
https://youtu.be/Yd79mi4qlxM

Chris Brown & Drake – No Guidance
https://youtu.be/6L_k74BOLag

The Ronettes – Be My Baby
https://youtu.be/ZV5tgZlTEkQ

Four Tops – Are You Man Enough
https://youtu.be/faaxsHyyIzY

Joan Osborne – What If God Was One Of Us
https://youtu.be/7Gx1Pv02w3Q

Chaka Khan – Through the Fire
https://youtu.be/-g1wTUzAg64

Edwin Starr – War
https://youtu.be/dQHUAJTZqF0

Adele – Set Fire To The Rain
https://youtu.be/Ri7-vnrJD3k

Smokey Robinson – I Second That Emotion
https://youtu.be/mv9cWgkpIZ4

Aretha Franklin – People Get Ready
https://youtu.be/V4cknWqVnVg

Wattstax – Full Documentary (1973)
https://youtu.be/A_P6ZWUJIa0

 
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Kermit’s birds / Las aves de Kermit

0
small boids
White Ibis / Ibis Blanco / Eudocimus albus
Encontrado en Puente del Rey, Panamá la Vieja.

The White Ibis / El Ibis Blanco

photo © Kermit Nourse

This is your quintessential mangrove bird, but here in Panama much more common on the Pacific Side than along the Caribbean coast. Irresponsible development has taken a heavy toll on its habitat. It ranges from the southeastern United States to Peru and Venezuela, and on the islands of the Greater Antilles and our own Perlas Archipelago. Here in the foreground we see the juvenile, and behind it an adult.

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Esta es su ave de mangle por excelencia, pero aquí en Panamá es mucho más común en la vertiente del Pacífico que a lo largo de la costa del Caribe. El desarrollo irresponsable ha tenido un alto costo en su hábitat. Son abundantes en la capital y en la entrada Pacífico del Canal de Panamá. Estas aves van desde el sureste de los Estados Unidos hasta Perú y Venezuela, y en las islas de las Antillas Mayores y nuestro propio archipiélago de Perlas. Aquí en primer plano vemos al juvenil, y detrás de él un adulto.

 


 
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