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enactivewebs · 1 year

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16/03/2023

Journaling on first two weeks of ZYU 6.002 online teaching:

Stream of consciousness

The first two weeks of ZBCP6.002 have been a mixture of low energy, stagnation, moments of inspiration and connection and a heightened sense of anxiety. Anxiety about how I’m being perceived, how the TAs are perceiving me and whether I’m being engaging and ‘fun’ enough for the students

The good stuff is that (some of) the students seem to be really enjoying the content and producing really interesting and sometimes original ideas. The boys at the back are still very disengaged. I’m looking forward to being able to go over there and walk around the space, engage with the students in person, face to face and in order to communicate in more non-verbal ways (body language, expressions, occupying the same space and picking up on each other’s ‘vibe’ for want of a better term)

I’ve been feeling a bit uninspired at moments working from home and online, and feeling like I’m just setting tasks and then interacting on wechat - why am I even on an online video call

It’s also difficult to engage with the TAs and form some more rapport and connection in this strange setting where I can’t hear them very well, and we have to conversate in front of the whole class

The TAs have been great though and this week both did awesome presentations on their own creative and teaching practices to give other voices and perspectives to the students.

I also really don’t like how I can see my own face while teaching online - I find this disconcerting and distracting - taking me out of the moment and my body and starting to self-analyse my expressions, how I’m coming across and other negative self-talk

As I write this I realise that a lot is negative, there have also been great moments and perks to teaching online from home. I really enjoy being able to head out for walks (the weather has been relatively good most days) and get some sun. also having the coffee machine at home and being able to set a task and wait for students to ask questions on wechat. Meanwhile I can work on other things in the background

It’s just quite isolating and non-social, especially working from home. At least last year I’d be with my colleagues on the ground at EIT and able to interact with them before, during and after the sessions

Also upon reflection, in order to save energy and be a bit more sustainable, I’ve been not shouting and trying to engage students for the whole 3 and a half hours as it nearly ran me into the ground last year

It looks like my work permit for china may come through in next 2-3 weeks then it’s probably be another 2 weeks before I have my visa and able to book tickets over there. Amping for the food and just being in a different context and seeing and experiencing new things

I think I’ll really be able to get a ‘feeling’ for design education over there more from being immersed in the culture and context. Also, doing some trips to other design unis and schools around Zhejiang and further afield will be great to get even more of a sense of this.

I hope the students are getting something valuable from the approaches, frameworks, activities and new ideas I’m introducing. I just wish I could muster up some more energy and enthusiasm at times. There are moments though

I’ve also been reflecting on the differences in culture and how students, co-workers and lecturers interact with one another. I wonder if these differences will be minimised or increased in a real, embodied context?

The fusion of Aotearoa NZ western/south pacific design approaches with east asian contemporary Chinese views is something that I’m very interested to explore

I also think being over there, I will become less self-conscious and more in the moment while teaching in real life. There won’t be a camera on my face (at least not one feeding back a view to me like a mirror), I’ll be able to focus more on one on ones, group activities and fostering meaningful and genuine interactions and relationships

The food is also something I’m excited to experience, and seeing Shaoxing and Hangzhou and surrounding areas and catching up with mates in Shanghai

Getting out of Hawkes Bay, and the aftermath of the cyclone and flooding will be good. Although it’s going to be tough being away from Mim for 8 weeks or more, and especially hard for her, having a trip at the end to Japan and/or Australia together will be good

We just want some clarity on when I’ll be going, for how long, and then we can get back on with organising our life. This whole year has felt like being in a waiting room, and in limbo/purgatory. With my ankle being kaputt, this trip lingering and continuous change of requirements and plans to get a visa and over there, the cyclone and aftermath - what a stitch up

I don’t really have anything else coming to mind at this moment so I’m just going to stop here for now

Looking forward to feeding off some in person energy with the students, getting off the screen, getting out of my head and into my body, and just absorbing an amazing experience in a very different context to my usual

Fuck yea cunt

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signifying-something · 3 years

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jonathan sims just had to mention daal one time in Thirteen Storeys and my pakistani ass went feral like big up mr jonny sims

#tma #jonathan sims #jonny sims #thirteen storeys #the magnus archives #sasha sienna #non-south Asians may not realise this #but SA kids don’t even like daal that much #we get moody when we hear we’re having it for dinner #like idk why it tastes amazing #but hearing that that’s what we’re having for dinner makes us so angry and like #is there nothing else in the house??? really??? daal??????

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ruanbaijie · 3 years

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thanks for tagging vish!!!! (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) @vishcount

Part I

name: hanyi

pronouns: she/her

star sign: it’s taurus season baby

height: 157cm yes stereotypical small asian girl height (눈_눈)

time: 23:19 at this point

birthday: 14 may

nationality: singaporean

fave bands/groups: imagine dragons

fave solo artists: I don’t really have one...

song stuck in your head: 生而无畏 (sheng er wu wei) by 王子异 (wang zi yi) because it happens to be playing on my phone now lol

last movie you watched: uhhhhhhhh probably shi shen ling??? aka yin yang master with sassy long hair chen kun

last show you binged: alice in borderland

when you created your blog: october 2010

the last thing you googled: glitter text generator (let’s just say... I may have a shitpost planned) ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

other blogs: there’s a dead wordpress but if it’s tumblr, just this one I mash all my fandoms and hyperfixations together like a man

why i chose my url:

how many people are you following: 200+

how many followers do you have: more than me two years ago could’ve ever imagined |ω･)ﾉ

average hours of sleep: 5-6h

lucky numbers: ehm idk I like 4, 9, and 13 - 9 because it’s the last single digit and for some strange reason I love how it can be written as 3x3 or 3^2, 4 and 13 because they’re considered unlucky numbers (4 in the east, 13 in the west) and I’ve decided to adopt them as my favourite numbers as a big fuck you to superstition

instruments: piano, guzheng, guitar

what i’m currently wearing: yellow t-shirt and red shorts

dream job: please ask me 30 years down the road I may (probably not) have the answer then

dream trip: GOD okay so I did a ppt for this before here when I... okay I realise I was doing a similar tag game then but tl;dr, south korea, japan during cherry blossom season, and MANY places in china

fave food: again, see link above for ppt ^ tl;dr, chewy noodles, beef/ pork soups (pho, ramen, bak kut teh, galbitang, etc), cantonese cuisine (I blame my heritage), non-spicy stuff, sweet stuff

top three fictional universes you’d like to live in:

his dark materials: I took a quiz waaaaayy back which said my daemon would be a lion and I was like damnnnn and till today I still imagine a lion walking around with me wherever I go (ʘ ͜ʖ ʘ)

k project: (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)

can’t really think of the last one...

Part II

Last Song: currently listening to 痴情冢 by deng lun aka that song in qing ya ji

Last Movie: (answered above)

Currently Reading: re-reading 2ha and dying all over again

Currently Watching: killer & healer - I think I’m encroaching on painful territory

What is antipoetry to you: wh....whatt??

Currently craving: TRAVEL. YOU HAVE NO IDEA. I NEED TO GET OUT OF THIS COUNTRY.

tagging (if you want to try either or both parts out - or none!): @surii @suibianjie @xinxiaojie @bahoreal @cloudylotus @theghostvalley @storge

#tag game

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reimenaashelyee · 3 years

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Capturing a Portrait

A post I wrote in March and cleaned up. Reposted from my blog (which has more thoughts on craft and other nonsense). About Alexander Comic.

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A year in... and I think I've got him.

Disclaimer: I won't deny it. Alexander is impossible to get an accurate picture of. His personhood is made out of sand and everyone brings their own bottles to shape him into. I don't think my jar of sand is the One True Alexander, nor will it ever be. But the good news is, all the other jars aren't that either. The nature of his (after)life is elusive. That's what it is.

But I think I've gotten a hold of him. I mean this in an authorly, character-study sense. I think I've found something interesting.

In the beginning, I had three images of Alexander that I used as my guide: 1) the journey to the Water of Life with the Servant 2) the siege of Thebes 3) the many faces of Alexander. Later I added a fourth image, tied to Hephaestion. Those are the four ingredients for this brain stew. I let them sit. I let them bubble.

There's also a motif that comes up in the ancient biographies and the Alexander Romances: the pursuit. The drive to do things, see things, be things.

Pothos. Desire. Longing.

For a long time I had this suspicion of a particular type of sadness in Alexander's story. I didn't know the name, but I saw the symptoms: the competitive insecurity with his father, the destructive restlessness, the death/fallout of his friends one by one through his own hands, the death of Hephaestion totally out of his hands, the breakdown of his empire after his own death.

Even in the Alexander Romance, the legendary accounts that make him heroic also double down on that sadness. Alexander, kingship is wicked. Alexander, you'll die and never see your beloved mother/sisters again and that's your problem. Alexander, look at this poor, deformed stillborn child – it represents your end. "From my coffin, show the world only a rag in my hand. Say that in the end I die not with the kingdom I sought, but with scraps." Oh, it turns out that Alexander specifically is not fated for the water of life. The two angels warn him, turn back. "You may conquer the world, but the only land you physically own is the land on which your two feet stand on." But even that land is fleeting.

Pothos. A longing for a goal forever out of reach. A goal already lost in its accomplishment. Death gets to you first.

That was the name of the sadness.

Now, I don't intend to use pothos to absolve him. It is sad, but it is separate from the choices he made (in life and in fiction). I still have every intention to put him in the fire.

But I think I got him. My Alexander.

Pothos is not the most original thing ever. I mean, the ancient historians and the Alexander Romance writers already use it. I totally borrowed it from them. And besides, pothos is a posthumous motif that originates from a storyteller's (well, historian's) analysis of Alexander's life. Objectively, it has nothing to do with Alexander's real state of mind, whatever that may be. But man, that motif is powerful and potent and dazzling. No wonder it survives with his memory.

That's why pothos so core to my project and why it needs to remain a thematic forefront.

Not too long ago, I had a kind of epiphany related to the philosophical attitude of some of the Romances. It started as a spark of familiarity at first. Why does the attitude seem so familiar? I realised that, of course, it's the same philosophical attitude behind some of my favourite stories in media. And those stories happen to be East Asian. Japanese, especially.

Now, I already came into Alexander Comic with my postcolonial South East Asian lens. I grew up with a lot of Asian media that was only for the Asian gaze, with no consideration or need for Western understanding – alongside Western media, both Hollywood and artsy European and in between. So the way I view the world and the way I tell stories will reflect that media diet. Sometimes it tells me things I wouldn't have known if I had stuck to one source of media.

The funny thing about pothos is that this concept of transcience and imperfection is a whole thing in Japanese and Chinese thought. Mono no aware, wabi sabi, kintsugi... (sorry, all Japanese terms since I'm unable to find the Chinese equivalent... due to a language barrier)

The joy and sadness of autumn. The sand between fingers. The idea that nothing lasts forever and that’s why they are beautiful. The brokenness of a thing being its history. It’s not a brokenness be proud of, or to disguise; it’s simply a brokenness that’s just is. Mundane magic.

It's a thing in the non-English West too.

Saudade. Ubi sunct. Hiraeth. Memento mori.

Closer to home, it's what rindu (and sometimes, sayang) means.

I find it fascinating how someone who used to be the king of the world had not only lost his empire, but his own story. We in the modern world have almost nothing from Alexander's time that speaks about him, to him, and from him. Much of what we know is secondhand, either some hundred years after the fact or from someone else not him. A king of the world cursed to be known by everyone and no one.

Admittedly, it's a long dizzying way to obtain a portrait of Alexander... and who knows if this portrait is objectively in line with the real person (probably not! I mean, who knows!). But I think this exploration is part of being an Alexander Romance author.

Nizami said it himself in the first chapters of his own Sikandar Name E Bara: he was a poet overwhelmed with a thousand treasures, desperately trying to find pearls out of them to string into a beautiful narrative. Heck, forget Nizami. Arrian said it too: he had to read through fables and books (Arrian paraphrasingly calls them "trash" in contrast to Nizami's "treasures"), desperately trying to find the best-sounding materials to make his biography of Alexander.*

*the Anabasis is not part of the Romance

At some point in the future, someone will ask me who or what my Alexander is. It won't help that my Romance is neither a straight biography or a complete fantasy, though it includes some of both to paint his portrait. But that's my Alexander. A mish-mash of junk and trash and history and legend. A mosaic or stained glass of foreign words with no equivalent in English.

#alexander comic #long post

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fanficparker · 3 years

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hey!!! i was gone for too long (fuck my exams) but now that i am back i realised you haven't posted anything for at least a month.I was expecting to find you on my dash when i logged back but you weren't there at all and here your blog seems inactive. I miss your fics (I am totally not pressuring you to post, just curious and kinda missing you) also hope you are good.

🥺 thank you anon for this ask, it sort of made my day. About posting... 👉👈 There are about 99.999% chances that I may not be keeping this blog anymore or writing more fics :( I have recently hit a major realisation that I am not that decent of a writer that I was in my head... The notes/comments I used to receive before made me believe that I could have a decent life as a fiction writer in the future but observing the performance of my latest works... It turns out that my beliefs were just delusional. It was not me or my writing that earned those likes or comments. Instead, it was Harrison Osterfield and the fandom's desire to live vicariously through Haz x Reader fics. I am in the transitional phase of my life rn and have to make the right choices to fulfil my dreams of becoming a writer, else I'll basically end up broke. Now that I have acquainted with my delusion, I guess it's time to actually work on the craft, practice, learn, improve & build my target audience considering my place in a third world country as a person wanting to write contemporary south asian romances and thus having a very localised, non-global audience (unless I just bash the third world and accept the first world as the saviour in my future writing and win a pulitzar lol). So yeah, I guess it's time to wake up and exit the dreamish fanfic space to do nightmarish real stuff. Peace out ✌️ also, for everyone who has ever read & supported my work, thank you so much. I can't express how your engagement has helped me move on with my life and work for my dreams. 💖💖💖

#i guess that's it #i thank you all again & can't thank you all enough #riya's blog #riya has mail #ask response #anon replies #love you all 3000 💖💖💖#(i may not be answering new asks/comments if i find it embarrasing or uncomfortable to answer them)#this is basically an imformal goodbye 👋

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tiptoe-ing · 3 years

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Racism and Colourism in the Industry

©Koreaboo

The Constant Push and Pull Between Korean Fans and International Fans

Racism towards foreign members from K Netizen is astronomical and the colourist towards Korean celebrities is equally as bad, but never fully addressed. Many foreigners in Korea have expressed that there’s a lot of inexplicit racism towards them, even more so towards Southeast Asians.

Knowing that fact, it is no shock when we hear that there is racism towards idols from Southeast Asian countries. BLACKPINK Lisa, the groups Thai member and only non-Korean, and despite her being extremely talented, she receives a lot of hate and racism. Ever since her debut in 2016, Lisa has been subject to racist remarks from the Korean public, due to her being Thai, but over the past few months it has been amplified. In February 2021, leaked messages from a group chat revealed immensely hateful, mean and racist comments towards Lisa. They were discrediting her hard work and saying her success was handed to her. The comments went beyond just being rude towards Lisa, but also Thai people in general. This caused BLACKPINK fans, Blink’s, to trend #RespectLisa on social media pages in an effort to stop the hate.

©lalalalisa_m/Instagram

Whitewashing is also a huge issue in the industry. Whitewashing, according to Google, is “deliberately attempt to conceal unpleasant or incriminating facts about (someone or something)”, but in this case it is used by the K-Pop community to describe when someone has been made to look lighter and paler than they actually are. This is something many companies and photographers do when editing their photos, as pale skin is preferred in South Korea.

Many idols have expressed that they were bullied or teased because they had darker skin, and encourage to lighten their skin. Many idols such as SISTAR Hyolyn, Mamamoo Hwasa, CL, SEVENTEEN Mingyu, NCT Haechan, WayV Lucas, EXO Kai, Twice Jihyo have all been affecter by such instances. g.o.d Park Joon is known for having a darker skin complexion despite being full Korean. He was born and raised in California, but once he arrived in South Korea to start his career, he also received a lot of discrimination.

©Hyolyn/Dispatch

©Lucas/SM Entertainment

©g.o.d Joon/Newsen.com

Wether it’s by the company or public, they’ve been pushed to lighten their skin by wearing the wrong shade of foundation or using filters on their photos. Some have even faced insensitive comments from their group members, which were delivered as jokes - not realising the weight their jokes carry. This can be seen as instances of racism, as they are making fun of people who have darker skin. Click Here are some more examples of whitewashing.

It is a constant battle between western K-Pop fans and Korean K-Pop fans. As western K-Pop fans are begging for the end of whitewashing and lightening filters, but Korean K-Pop fans are reluctant to let go of the views they have from previous generations.

Sources:

Koreaboo (2018) ‘Korean Fans triggered after International Fans remove “white-washing” from Idols’ photos’, Koreaboo, 5 December. [Online] Available at: https://www.koreaboo.com/news/fans-outraged-by-idol-whitewashing-controversy/ [Accessed 27 April 2021]

Kpopmap (2018) ‘#STOP WHITEWASHING K-Pop Idols Causes Controvery In South Korea’,Koreaboo, 8 March. [Online] Available at: https://www.kpopmap.com/stop-whitewashing-kpop-idols-causes-controvery-in-south-korea/ [Accessed 27 April 2021]

Sarkar, I (2021) ‘What is #RespectLisa and why is it trending? BLINKs stand up against discrimination towards BLACKPINK's Lisa’, PinkVilla, 2 February. [Online] Available at: https://www.pinkvilla.com/entertainment/what-respectlisa-and-why-it-trending-blinks-stand-against-discrimination-towards-blackpinks-lisa-605977 [Accessed 27 April 2021]

Koreaboo. 2018. Image of Jungkook. [Online] Available at: https://www.koreaboo.com/stories/korean-fans-triggered-international-fans-remove-white-washing-idols-photos/ [Accessed 27 April 2021]

@lalalalisa_m/Instagram. 2021. Image of Lisa [Online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/lalalalisa_m/ [Accessed 18 May 2021]

Dispatch. 2019. Image of Hyolyn. [Online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyolyn [Accessed 18 May 2021]

SM Entertainment. 2021. Image of Luca. [Online] Available at: https://www.smentertainment.com/Entertainment/ArtistProfile/362?Code=None&Page=9 [Accessed 18 May 2021]

Newsen.com. Image of g.o.d Joon. [Online] Available at: https://www.dkpopnews.net/2014/07/happy-birthday-to-gods-park-joon-hyung.html [Accessed 18 May 2021]

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two-browngirls · 4 years

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NEVER HAVE I EVER - NETFLIX SERIES - TWO-BROWNGIRLS THINKS

If you’ve not seen ‘Never Have I Ever’ on Netflix yet, you’ve either been perfecting a new, obscure, artistic hobby or living under your duvet for the past two months of quarantine. Both of which are perfectly acceptable by the way, #selfcarefirst. But this new show has been causing quite a stir in the BROWNGIRL community and beyond that too. Yes, that’s right, white people have watched a 10-part, teen comedy/drama series with a young American Indian girl as the protagonist. It’s been number 1 on Netflix around the world, which is a pretty big deal. That’s why we thought we should write about it. Here are our thoughts...

1. They tried

From our brief but adequately thorough research on the making of ‘Never Have I Ever’, it’s clear that Mindy Kaling’s intentions were good. First of all, the whole idea for the series came about when Netflix approached Mindy Kaling and asked if she would create a show about her childhood. This perspective may explain a lot of the seemingly awkward encounters that Devi (the main character) has with Indian/Hindu culture. As Mindy explains in a telling interview with NY Times,

“There was a comment on Twitter saying, “Oh, great that is totally not how Hindu girls talk.” And I remember being incensed because when my mom used to make us pray before we took the SATs, or before we got on a plane, and I didn’t know all the different names of the gods because no one had taught me.”

Although we’d love Devi to embrace her culture (duh, that’s what Two-BrownGirls is all about!), we accept that it is a journey and a process that’s different for everyone. The moment when she meets a brown guy at Ganesh Puja who explains that only when he went away from home for college did he actually realise that his heritage made him unique, resonated a lot with us. Maybe making this series is a part of Mindy Kaling’s own journey to understanding her identity too?

2. Representation, Relatability and Responsibility

As the conversation around representation on mainstream media continues to simmer, our understanding of artistic freedom has to be incorporated too. The creators of the series were trying to follow an American teen comedy/drama template while pushing the needle on diversity - not an easy task. Think, Mean Girls meets Bend it Like Beckham, you’d think it could go either one of two ways. That’s why ‘Never Have I Ever’ has some teething problems that we think we all (creators included) need to settle into. For example, going too hard on the ‘sex-thirsty’ narrative jarred with us (Devi hadn’t even kissed anyone yet!). Handling Hindu narratives within the context of the Indian political climate and briefly incorporating a character who was ostracised by her whole community for marrying a Muslim are areas that writers of a show this mainstream need to take more responsibility for.

3. Stereotypes much?

Ok, we need to talk about the accents. We thought it was just us but quickly realised that most other people had been finding Kamala’s and Devi’s mum’s grating and their characters two-dimensional. I mean, even Mallika Dua posted her frustration on Instagram stating that ‘no one from India talks like Apu Nahasapeemapetilon’. We honestly thought that some aspects of Kamala’s character, particularly her aloof-ness, were quite insulting to people from India. Man, talk about widening the NRI divide.

There’s been a lot of controversy around diasporic portrayals of Indian elders, particularly when it comes to Lilly Singh’s ‘parent’ characters which dehumanise their experience. This is a careful line that comedy treads. Often it’s most effectively executed when the stereotypes are used to make a social or political statement or change a point of view such as in a number of Goodness, Gracious Me’s sketches. ‘Never Have I Ever’ was trying to lean this way but the character portrayals and accents need more fleshing-out and nuance.

4. Hopes

There’s no news of a season two yet but the series does end on quite a cliff-hanger that leaves a lot of people wanting more! With all the media coverage and heated debates in the brown diaspora, it’s clear that there is an appetite for the show to carry on. It’s great to see mainstream representation and if there is a second season, it would be awesome to see Kaling explore South Asian identity in a more complex and nuanced way. We also hope that there’s room for an interesting non-white love interest, that Devi and her mum work it out and that Kamala moves out!

The creative team behind the show are well aware of their responsibility with how much of a step forward this is for diversity and we find Maitreyi so endearing that it’s hard to be too harsh.

We hope that Mindy Kaling takes on board the feedback from her target audience and uses it to inform some of her decisions moving forward. In her own words, “Those people who watch the show, particularly young Indian-American women, are the people that I want to like it the most. And they’re the ones that are going to be the toughest on me. So it’s one of the biggest things I care about now as an artist.”

#never have i ever #neverhaveiever #nhie #nhie netflix #browngirls #brown girl #south asian women #mindy kaling #the mindy project #south asian diaspora #south asian female

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rewritingtrauma · 4 years

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Permaculture Design Course

We dialled in from living rooms, bedrooms, caravans and gardens across 11 different time zones, from Abu Dhabi to California (with Brazil and Berlin somewhere in between). Our reasons for being here were all unique and yet all similar; concerns for the future; for the mass extinction event and loss of natural habitats; hoping to learn how to live sustainably; how to grow food naturally; how to produce more than we consume; how to change career; how to live without doing harm; and how to co-create a better world for our children and future generations to grow up in. In the context of one of the biggest worldwide pandemics in living history, this group of strangers met in the timeless hinterland of the online meeting room to explore, share, and learn about positive solutions both now and for our futures...

I stumbled across The Permaculture Design Course quite by accident (as I was looking for ways to make my struggling garden thrive rather than merely survive) but, over the course of a month, this unexpected experience changed my life completely... For the first time in 35 years I feel that I have been given access to a toolkit for living - a set of frameworks, processes and principles which speak entirely to what I feel and know to be real and right - for how to be and live in the world in deeply connected, holistic and sustainable ways... At a moment when I was feeling incredibly helpless and overwhelmed by global and personal circumstances, the PDC and this group of wonderful, disparate strangers, appeared “as if by magic” and turned around the whole way I understand myself, my power, and my place in the world. On my ‘rewriting trauma’ journey the PDC has been an invaluable turning point and has provided me with the maps and materials I most need (though may not have been looking for) for going forwards...

Since finishing the course I have been asked numerous times by friends, family and neighbours “What IS Permaculture, exactly...?” And I have responded with numerous answers (according to who was asking, their reasons for asking and the context in which the question was asked) but I would like to take this opportunity to address that question, in the best way I know how, through the precious and manifold ideas and conversations which came up throughout the course. I want to respond to the question “What is Permaculture?” in this way (rather than offer a singular narrative) because I believe this embodies and reflects much more of the essence of what Permaculture is : a set of principles, processes and frameworks for living which can be tailored to the particular and specific answers and solutions each one of us seeks in our own, unique context.

Word bubble formed from the PDC reactions to the question “How do you define Permaculture?” 2nd June 2020

“You can’t have sustainable food production without sustainable everything else.”

Graham Bell, Online PDC, June 2020

June 2020 was an astonishing and deeply challenging month in so many ways… Personally, I was forced to face the vulnerability of my own situation; my reliance on shop bought food and uncertain income streams when, at the very outset of lockdown, literally all of my work dried up, my partner was made redundant and access to food was scarce and difficult. Then there was worse to come. In the late hours of the 16th of June, my cousin Beth died. The news arrived during one of our PDC sessions. She had been battling secondary and primary breast cancer. This is a heartbreak and a loss I am still trying to understand and process (but one which, had I not been held by this group and this experience, would have been so much harder to deal with).

Meanwhile, on the international stage, people were facing so many additional threats and challenges posed by the Coronavirus Pandemic. The death statistics highlighted the social and economic inequalities, both at home and abroad, particularly along lines of race - with a disproportionate number of deaths and redundancies in people from BBIPOC (Black, Brown, Indigenous, People of Colour) backgrounds. We saw deaths in refugee camps sky rocketing. These statistics were a bitter salt in the wounds of exhaustive and institutional racism which we saw enacted again and again from the refugee crisis in Syria and Yemen to the police murders of George Floyd in Texas, Israel Berry in Oregon, Tracy Downe in Florida and many more besides… Some of us white folx, in waking up to the scale and pervasiveness of institutional and embedded violence towards our African, Asian and South East Asian Diaspora friends, that we (I) started to understand our (my) own white fragility and the systems of dis/advantage which many of us have been complicit in. And it was amidst this context of great uncertainty and upheaval that the PDC took place...

Over the course of the month of June, with three day-long zoom meetings a week and a handful of break out/additional sessions in between, we explored (amongst many things); the ideas and inspirations behind Permaculture; the centrality of Observation; Non Violent Communication; Patterns; Input & Output Analysis; Wild Design; Trees and Soil; Guilds - what they are, how they work, making our own; Arts and Culture(s); Landscape; Climate; Planning for the future; Alternative Exchange Economies; Food and Water; Six Coloured Thinking Hats; Plant Families and Nomenclature; Sociocracy; Healing; Cooperation vs Competition; Zones and Sectors; Needs, Wants and Offers… And many more things besides and between.

Though I was not aware of it at the time (though I might have been, had I read the curriculum and course handbook in advance!) almost the entire first half of the PDC was taken up with the co-creation of a safe and productive learning space and culture.

One of the first questions posed to the participants was from Kate Everett who asked “What makes learning work for you?”

I struggled to identify what had worked for me in the past but could instantly conjure what made learning not work: I thought of GCSE revision, 20 cups of tea a day, desperately cramming information into my head… I thought back to how long it had taken me to learn how to tie shoe laces or to put up a tent because of how much heat and anger there was from my father and his father that I couldn’t just do it… I thought of those feelings of shame, humiliation, stress and of shutting down when I was told I was an idiot and a failure… But then, interestingly, so many others in the group articulated similar experiences - “stress, school, competition”…Some people described themselves as lone wolves, others learnt better in groups, some benefited from working together over a problem or by sharing what they were learning… But what all of us agreed upon was the inhibiting effects of stress on learning and the need to enfold experimentation, play, overview and failure in order to make our learning journeys productive and engaging...

“Learning is love”

Graham Bell

Little did we know it at the time but all this information about our individual learning experiences was being observed, gathered and harvested… as we learnt about ourselves and one another we were also learning how to create the best learning (and hence growing) conditions for us as individuals and as a collective. Though we may not have fully realised it as it was happening, we are all in the “inverted classroom” : we had all become the teachers, as well as the students and would learn more from the collective than any single teacher or pedagogy could ever bestow...

Quotes and prompts I collected throughout the course

“A person who doesn’t make a mistake probably doesn’t make anything”

Graham Bell

Mark Shiperlee introduced us to the concept of the Culture Board and we begin brain storming what factors are important to measure our course culture against. The factors we decided were of most importance to integrate into, and develop throughout, the course were;

Positive Solutions

Long & Short Breaks

Gift Economy

Time Keeping

Mutual Respect

Fun

Creativity

Task Setting & Reporting

Inclusion

Group Work

Connect With Nature

Throughout the course we would check in on the Culture Board regularly to determine what stage these various factors were at i.e. Seed; Sprout; Leaf; Flower; or Fruit. For me this was a valuable tool in understanding where the group felt our learning journey was at - which areas were working and which were not. It made this an easy, fluid and almost anonymised process and helped to address both the successes and the failures as we went along, understanding where energy needed focusing. This was one of many visual tools, along with The Life Ethics venn diagram, Six Thinking Hats, OBREDIMET, Looby’s Design Web, Input & Output Analysis, PMI (Plus, Minus, Interesting) Analysis, Importance/Urgency Matrix, and Relative Location which I have continued to use in my own Permaculture Life/Design Processes…

My LIfe Ethics Venn Diagram - i.e. the three main ethics of permaculture”Earth Care”, “People Care” and “Fair Shares” Where they all intersect is the core of Life Ethics

During the course we were also given our own break out Guild groups with whom we had to develop ad present a Permaculture Design Project with (below is ‘an artist’s impression’ of our Guild The Four Acorns - Lynn, Siobhan, Lucy and myself.

“Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple”

Bill Mollison

By the third week of the course, with each one of our guild feeling exhausted by various life stresses (illness, work, family, bereavement, etc) we decided the best and most effective design we could work on was one for supporting each other as a guild whilst we embarked upon our permaculture journeys (the one thing which united all of us was that we wished to continue beyond the course).

We started applying some of the tools and processes we acquired throughout the course to our own visions for the future. We started off with Holmgren’s Permaculture Design Principles;

Principle 1. Observe & Interact

We began our guild process by gradually getting to know one another, developing & discussing project ideas that would tap into all of our needs & aspirations.

Principle 2.Catch & Store Energy

As we were all feeling a bit burnout we realised we needed to do something that would hold space and energy for us as individuals and a collective i.e. catch and store energy by making and holding space for one another. We wanted to encourage each other to feel safe enough to start exploring with new eyes and to assist each other’s courage in the face of major life changes.

Principle 3.Obtain a yield

We all wanted to carry on our development beyond the course and to share permaculture with others - so we asked the questions “How could we support one another in this?” But, in addition “What renewable resources and services did we have that we could use, share and apply?” and “What could we create - the main yield - within this guild?” We decided that the yield we could create in the present, but carrying into the future, was a space full of loving-support, inspiration, challenge and abundance.

Principle 4. Apply Self-regulation & accept feedback & Principle 5. Use & Value Renewable Resources and Services

As we began using permaculture tools to explore our individual designs, these processes enabled us to support and affirm one another; to share wisdom; tell stories; hear, value and integrate one another as individuals in a guild; become energised and strengthened by our diverse experiences, perspectives, knowledge(s), points of view; and to be challenged and strengthened by processes and making compassionate space for learning through failure too... And believe me, we did fail...

Mind Map at the outset of my own Permaculture Life Design exploring my assets, helps/opportunities, limitations, needs, aims and potential tools & processes to employ

“It takes shit... literal shit... but then you get humus”

Siobhan

On the last day of the course all of the individual guilds presented their design projects and it was amazing to see the wealth, depth and diversity of those ideas and the tools and processes (which we had been given throughout the course) put into action. There were design solutions that addressed; food scarcity; social isolation; mental health issues; segregation; alienation; loss of habitat and species; water shortages; poor health; access to education; job losses; seed sharing; community spaces; and so many more big issues. It was staggering.

In such a short space of time this small group of strangers had come together and, with the support of our guides and course leaders, co-created a network of support from across the world, positively enriching one another and the larger ecosystems each of us are a part of. It was a little island of paradise which cultivated an abundance of new perspectives, hope and courage. By showing us what might be possible and - rather than getting too mired in the negative/things we cannot control - looking to appreciate what we have, what we can be and what we can create together, the PDC taught us how diversity and collaboration can help us, both as individuals and a society, develop resilience in the face of the overwhelming challenges of our times.

It was an experience I will never forget and which I hope to keep alive as I go into the future (remembering to regularly use, sharpen and adapt those valuable tools)...

#permaculture #design #PDC #trauma #rewriting #collaboration #culture #diversity #solutions #growth #tools #futreproof #sustainability #food #growyourown #IrisPriest

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sablelab · 5 years

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Covert Operations - Chapter 37

DISCLAIMER: This is a modern AU crossover story with Outlander and La Femme Nikita. LFN and its characters do not belong to me nor do those from Outlander.

SYNOPSIS: Sun Yee Lok contacts Madame Cheung with a new client that he wants her to take care of. She is ready to test the waters with Claire Beauchamp’s pulling power, and outlines her plans for her new protégé. This can only mean that she will be used in some valentine capacity. Claire contacts Jamie with the name of the client that Madame Cheung wants her to entertain, however, James Fraser is not going to let that happen despite what his superiors declare.

Life in Section One is always compelling and none more so that when a target is returned for interrogation at the hands of Section One’s strategist and second in command Madeline. No one is given a second chance and her methods of extorting information are terrifying but successful. THANK YOU for your support of this story of intrigue with our two heroes who live in this clandestine world where there is a continual dichotomy between what is right and wrong and the methods that Section One uses to achieve the eradication of terrorists. Previous chapters can be found ... https://sablelab.tumblr.com/covertoperations

CHAPTER 37

Madame Cheung was extremely pleased with the progress she had made with Claire Beauchamp over the past few weeks. Her attitude had been both receptive and totally embracing of everything that she had taught her hence she was very impressed. The girl was a quick and willing learner and there had been no need to use the normal drugging procedures to convince Claire of her responsibilities to her new life … unlike with many of the other girls who had failed to understand what was required of them. Madame Cheung was convinced Claire was relishing the circumstances that would see her have a lifestyle that would bring her admiration and riches. To her mind, it was also highly possible that Claire would become a jewel in the Rising Dragons’ crown as she was a model student. Sadly, however, Madame Cheung had thought Annalise de Marillac would be that woman, but that was not to be. Although the two women were similar, Claire Beauchamp was very different from Annalise. She was savvy and smart as well as being exceptionally beautiful and a woman with her looks would indeed be an asset for the triad. Claire had been open to all instruction thus far, and Madame Cheung was ready to test the waters with her new recruit to the business as soon as possible. It so happened that the very situation she’d been looking for would arise quicker than she thought possible and from none other than her leader Sun Yee Lok. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Lost in her thoughts about her new protégé Madame Cheung was oblivious to her private telephone ringing in her office. The incessant buzzing eventually registered and broke her from her ponderings. There was only one person who ever used this number and he only used it when something important had arisen. Composing herself Madame Cheung reached for the handset and answered.

“Hello?” “Ah, Madame, my dear … it is good to hear your voice.”

“And you too honourable one.”

“I hear you have been a busy woman.”

“You have eyes and ears everywhere it would seem Sun Yee.” “Yes … Nothing much escapes me if it affects the Rising Dragons. Oliver Chan was all you said and more.” “Thank you ...” She smiled at his compliment for he very rarely gave one. “His recruitment to the Rising Dragons has been most beneficial.” “How did your meeting go with him in Shanghai?” “I was impressed. He will prove to be a useful liaison for us.” “I agree. He moves freely without drawing attention to himself. He can be ruthless yet discreet at the same time.” “Exactly!” “I know our clientele. I am very thorough.” “Yes… you are!” He stated admirably. “I believe Chan is reaping his rewards in Shanghai as we speak.” “He must be enjoying himself ... I haven’t heard from him for a while,” she laughed. “Well I did give him two weeks downtime.” Knowing that the leader of the Rising Dragons always had a second motive for contacting her, Madame Cheung changed the subject then asked, “What can I do for you?” “I have a very important new client coming to Hong Kong next week who I would like you to take care of.” “His every wish will be fulfilled … of that you can be sure.” “I knew I could count on you Madame.” “Who is it?” “ Le Comte St. Germain.” “Ahh … I have heard of him … say no more. He will be taken care of in the best possible way. Does he have any special requirements?” She added reading between the lines. “Yes … as a matter of fact he does.” “I will take care of it. I have the very girl.” “Good … I knew you would!” “Will you be joining us too?” “Possibly … I haven’t met this St. Germain in person and I would very much like to see if he can deliver the goods.” “I’m sure if he is satisfied with what we can offer then he will be most amenable to a working relationship with the triad.” “Yes … I agree ... and with you in particular Madame Cheung.” “Interesting. I look forward to meeting him. You know that your favourite girl will be available sir if you do decide to pay us a visit.” “Hmm? … Perhaps I just might do that then Madame. We’ll see.” “Thank you.” Replacing the receiver into its cradle Madame Cheung sat back in her chair and smiled satisfied at the fortuitous turn of events. Sun Yee Lok’s request was just what she’d been looking for. The fact that her leader wanted this person taken care of in the best possible way during his visit to Hong Kong was beneficial too, plus he’d indicated that he may be of interest to her. This had certainly set her imagination to thinking. What was Monsieur Le Comte St. Germain involved in that would be mutually beneficial to her business as well as to the Rising Dragons? A wry smile bowed her lips as Madame Cheung finally realised what Sun Yee Lok’s underlying message was. Indeed, she was the one who could make his stay as comfortable and pleasurable as possible. She knew exactly who she would use. It was time and Claire Beauchamp was ready. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ As Jamie worked at his desk, Operations’ voice echoed in his office summoning him to the Perch. “Fraser? Briefing ... my office.” “Okay.” Some minutes later after finishing off his debrief, James Fraser closed down his computer, left his office and made his way to the Perch as summoned. Given the nature of her undercover mission, Jamie knew that eventually a large percentage of Claire’s Intel about Madame Cheung’s affairs would play right into Madeline’s hands. It was inevitable that when it did, she would be waiting for such an opportunity to profile a new mission for her. So far there had been little Intel that could place Claire in jeopardy, however, there were no guarantees of avoiding the situation should it arise. Perhaps a situation had already arisen and Operations had called him to the Perch to go over the Intel on the situation thus far. If this was the case, then Jamie knew his leaders had most likely already reached a decision on what they wanted Claire to do. Hence it was just a formality that he’d been summoned there at all. Purposefully climbing the stairs, James Fraser quietly entered the perch. Madeline and Operations were deep in conversation when he entered. Ever the stealth operative Jamie cross the threshold of the Perch without his superiors knowing he was there and it was only when he spoke that they realised he had indeed entered Operations’ office.

“You wanted to see me?” At the sound of his voice, both of them stopped and turned to see their Level 5 operative standing resolutely with his hands clasped loosely in front of his body. “Yes,” Operations replied matter of factually. Madeline stood quietly to one side while Operations began to relay what Claire had discovered about her hostess. “Claire’s connection with Madame Cheung has been eventful to say the least. While at her hideaway, she has been able to gauge significant Intel on the businesses that she runs for the Rising Dragons.” “Good. Did she get what we needed?” “Not quite. She still has no Intel to pin point where the leader of the Rising Dragons will next surface and has been unable to shine any light on his whereabouts as yet.” “And Chan’s Intel was flawed.” Madeline added. “I see.” “Claire’s Intel on Madame Cheung, however, has been excellent so far. It appears her influence is more widespread than we first thought. She oversees exclusive Escort establishments in Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand for the Rising Dragons, but this may just be the tip of the iceberg. We are yet to ascertain the depth and breadth of her dealings in prostitution in South East Asia.” While they had Jamie’s undivided attention Madeline stated, “Despite what Madame Cheung told Claire about her exclusive Escort Service catering for the upper echelons of Asian and European moneyed society … although in part it was indeed true … Fergus has found out that her establishment actually provides for all their pleasures … no matter what … if the price is right.” This intel was jarring to him, but Jamie merely replied with his stoic blank stare. Looking directly at him, she continued … “While some escort agencies provide non-sexual services only, many turn a blind eye to escorts who provide additional sexual services or actively encourage them. Madame Cheung is one of those that do encourage fostering a deeper relationship … for it is then that she gains power over the client and this in turn is the Rising Dragons’ bargaining chip.” “Blackmail?” Jamie surmised. “Yes.” Operations answered. "The death of Chen Wu on the junk was part of this prostitution scheme. Vulnerable women who are dazzled by the thought of making a lot of money for themselves are more than often drawn into a business they have no hope of ever leaving.” “Now that Annalise de Marillac is dead, Madame Cheung is grooming Claire to take her place.” “Claire is the key?” “Madame Cheung trusts her Jamie... that’s why she will do whatever it takes!” Interjecting Madeline further clarified, “She will do what she has to do. We all do. You don’t have to like the job. You just have to do it. Section One is the most clandestine organization on the planet. It's our job to bring down the criminals and terrorists that no one else can get.” James Fraser did not blink an eye as Madeline imparted all this confrontational information as to the real purpose of Madame Cheung’s business. He knew that any profile she had planned would surely involve a Valentine type mission for Claire. However, this was not acceptable for him. He was already drawing up possible scenarios in his mind. Even though Claire was on a deep cover mission she would not valentine herself … of that he was resolute.

Meanwhile ... back at Madame Cheung’s

The conversation that had just transpired with her leader played over in Madame Cheung’s mind. Undeniably, she did have the very girl that could entertain Monsieur Le Comte St. Germain and she was certain that Claire would do whatever it took to captivate this new client. Confident in her protégé’s ability to carry out this challenge Madame Cheung summoned her so that she could outline her plans. Reaching for the phone she said, “Lee would you ask Claire to come here please?” “Yes ma’am ... Right away.” ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Madame Cheung sat at her dining room table, working on her laptop when Claire entered the room and joined her. “Ah! … Good … You’re here.” “Madame ... You wanted to see me?” “Come in Claire … Yes … I have some good news.” “Good news?” Madame Cheung removed her glasses, rose from the table and ushered Claire to the more comfortable wing chairs overlooking the garden. “Come … sit down, I will explain.” Claire took a seat opposite her as she continued. “You've done a great job my dear in redefining who you are since you came here, and I am extremely pleased with the progress we have made.” Madame Cheung beamed at her indulgently. “Thank you ...” “You have far and away exceeded my wildest expectations. That is why I believe you are ready to put all of your training into practise. I have a job for you,’’ she informed her enthusiastically. Without flinching a muscle, Claire engaged in eye contact with Madame Cheung. “Thank you for the vote of confidence … but are you sure Madame?” “Most definitely … you have been my star recruit Claire. You’re more than ready my dear!” Claire could barely hold on to the fixed smile that crossed her mouth as Madame Cheung continued. “I have had a request from my illustrious leader. Come … I will describe your duties for next weekend.” Looking at Claire, she smiled contentedly watching for her reaction. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ “... she will do whatever it takes!” Standing at ease in the Perch, Jamie gave the appearance of complete attentiveness to what his superiors were saying. However, his thoughts centred on the conversation Claire had with Madame Cheung when she’d asked specifically about her duties. Given what Madeline had conveyed, this was especially significant in his plans to keep Claire out of harm’s way. “Will I be required to have sex with these men?” “That decision is for you alone Claire, you may choose to do so or you may not. It is entirely up to you. However, having said that, from time to time there are special requests from some of our clientele, but no one is forcing you to do anything against your free will.” Obviously, this was Madame Cheung’s ploy to soften the impact of any proposal she may put to Claire. The first couple of times she would not be required to go further than required, however, Jamie knew this would not last forever. Claire may eventually be backed into a corner and put into a situation without compromise. She was in trouble … he knew it … Operations knew it and Madeline knew Claire may soon have her baptism of fire at long last. Internalising this last piece of information, Jamie also knew that Claire could be in some danger especially if Madame Cheung pressed the envelope for her to oblige her clients every wants and needs. Madeline’s voice prattling on brought Jamie back to the present as she confirmed what may be required of Claire. “… This form of prostitution often shelters under the umbrella of these exclusive Escort agencies, who supply attractive escorts for social occasions.” “Is this where Claire fits into the scenario?” Ignoring the interruption but with a look that spoke volumes, Madeline continued cognizant of the effect her words were having on Jamie’s psyche, “… Madame Cheung’s customers call her agency … and the act takes place at the customer's place of residence or more commonly at his hotel room. Given the clientele that are believed to be on Madame Cheung’s books … this is not beyond the realms of possibility.” Then, raising her eyes towards Jamie while watching for a response, she asked, “Would you have a problem with that James?” His blank stare gave nothing away of his inner turmoil and replied, “No.” “I suspect that at anytime now Madame Cheung will require Claire to entertain clients that use her services. This could be at her residence or elsewhere by special arrangement. When this happens we will be able to make a move on her and Sun Yee Lok at the same time.” The wheels of motion were turning in Jamie’s head at the thought of what awaited Claire and how he could diffuse the situation for her. “Do we know any names on her clientele list?” “No … Not as yet. The Rising Dragons receive a considerable amount of money from this “business” venture. It is well into the millions of dollars. These are influential men who procure the services of women from Madame Cheung, and many hide under the protection of diplomatic immunity to avoid detection. Some may even be members of the Rising Dragons Triad ... perhaps even Sun Yee Lok himself also.” “It would appear that Claire has ingratiated herself into Madame Cheung’s confidence and trust. As a result, it is crucial that she stay there a while longer,” Operations insisted. “We also need to know who Madame Cheung’s clients are and how they can lead us to Sun Yee Lok. I want results!” “Yes ... Claire is in the perfect deep cover position to infiltrate the enemy long term,” Madeline replied, closely watching for Jamie’s reaction while at the same time twisting the knife a little deeper into his heart. “I have been working on her profile parameters for this continuing mission.” Speaking with authority, Operations indicated that he too, was not open to challenge on Claire’s mission profile. “I agree. Claire will remain with Madame Cheung as long as it is necessary to complete her assignment.” Then looking decisively at his Level 5 Operative he ordered, “That will be all for now Fraser. You may go.” “Thank ye.” Turning without a single glance towards his superiors, Jamie made his way from the Perch and walked towards his office. Meanwhile ...

Claire returned to her bedroom and sat on the bed somewhat stunned with what Madame Cheung had just told her would be required for her “first” assignation. Sighing, she briefly shut her eyes then leaned her head back against the pillow deep in thought. She knew who to contact and immediately activated her small Comm. unit to Channel C. “Jamie?” ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ In the confines of his office, Jamie sat at his desk rubbing his chin and tapping his fingers on his desk. Deep in thought, he worriedly stroked his skin back and forth, until the sound of Claire’s dulcet tones in his ear roused him from his thoughts. “Sass-en-ach?” he answered softly. “Jamie ... Madame Cheung has a new client coming next weekend that she is grooming me to entertain as a personal request from Sun Yee Lok.” “Do ye know who it is?” “Yes … Le Comte St Germain.” “Has she outlined what she wants ye to do?” “Yes.” There was silence from the other end and Claire plaintively repeated his name. “Jamie? I can’t do this!” “Do Operations and Madeline know of his visit?” Jamie replied hearing the entreaty in her voice. “Not yet … but I will have to inform Section of this connection to Sun Yee Lok.” There was a little hesitation before she asked,”What should I do?” “Don’t worry I’ll think of something mo ghràidh,” he reassured her knowing how much of an anathema Valentine missions were to Claire. “Give me one hour.” “I will.” James Fraser set the wheels in motion … but first he needed to know who this Le Comte St. Germain was. “Let me check out the target first before ye tell Madeline and Operations.” “Okay.” She hesitated a little before severing the communication and said, “Jamie? ... I miss you.”

“Me too.” ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* The sound of silence was deafening in two separate locations as two Section One operatives both did what they had to do.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ to be continued

#jamie and claire #jamie fraser #claire beauchamp #jamieclairefanfic #outlander fanfic #covert operations #the lallybroch library #jamieandclairecrossover

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sunshinewarrior11 · 4 years

Text

Heya, just a post about race and ethnicity in the Middle East.

So, I am realising, people think Turks, Arabs and Persians are the same. We are not, please don’t write as so. We speak different languages, are different ethnicities. And the Turks were our (Arabs and Persians) colonisers FOR CENTURIES. The Turkish stuff you think is arabesque is because it was stolen by them.

Please don’t write non conspicuous desert people as Turks, they don’t have a desert. At all. Also, ethnically speaking (not nationality as they do have diversity thanks to colonisations) but Turks are closer to Balkans peoples, Greeks, Hungarians and Mongolians.

Arabs that are pale with light hair and eyes will often tell you, ‘oh yeah I have Turkish in me from the occupancy’. This being said, the Middle East is possible one of the most diverse regions of the world where you will find every combination of skin tone, eye shape and colour, and hair colour and type. Though blonde/red hair is rare, as is light eyes. In my family alone, we got short women barely hitting 5 feet and uncles about 6’5. And all my cousins and I range in skin shade from pale to olive to mixed black. My dad is one of 8 siblings. Both parents brown hair brown eyes, same as his siblings. He had blonde hair and has blues eyes. (We did a dna test as well just to confirm and he came back as 76% pure arab). So you can have fun with how you draw up, but we aren’t white.

Also important point. We (Arabs and Persians) ain’t white, unless your mixed with something (being pale doesn’t count, that’s just white passing). I s2g the only reason we were given that status was so white people could claim Jesus.

Also this is specifically ATLA related. Wa Shi Tongs library being in the desert was ingenious, why? Bc places like Bagdad, Alexandria and various other Arab and Persian cities were hubs of education in the Middle East. With the first university, ever to be opened by a woman in North Africa. Men and Women were (for the most part) educated about the same amount as children. We had some of the most advanced mathematics, sciences, medicines and poets and theologists in the world. This stopped with the Ottomans. They stopped our education systems (that were probably the most advanced in the world before the Ottoman Empire colonised us and we believed in education for all). So, please don’t write Sand Benders as Turks, with Turkish names or any of that.

We are also not south Asian and what happened with the Disney Live Action of Aladdin was abhorrent bc the basically set arabesque orientalism for a theme. I was so happy when they cast an Egyptian to play Aladdin but disheartened learning a south Asian was cast as Jasmine and even saddened more to see that they dressed her in south Asian clothes and did all the Bollywood dance numbers. The story is from the levant and persia. If you wanna tell an Indian story, please do they have a beautiful culture. But the only arab clothes I saw were the rags Aladdin wears. We have such beautiful colourful clothing of our own.

In conclusion, Arabs and Persians are a rainbow of colours. Please please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have, but know I can only speak for where I’m from and even then I’m mixed and grew up away from my heritage. But don’t depict us as South Asian or Turkish because it’s just wrong. Both of those have beautiful

Some clothing references from Abha, Saudi Arabia:

#psa #writing arab characters #arabs #atla #sandbenders #Persians #don’t make these mistakes

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mateushonrado · 5 years

Text

Status Post #7396: My postives and negatives of each season for VLD (part 4)

Season 7

Positives

Shiro being confirmed as an out and proud queer POC amputee and no, I never saw it as queerbait as I knew one of the paladins would eventually end up being part of the LGBTQ+ spectrum.

Keith killing Macidus to save his teammates.

Keith calling Krolia "mom" before she leaves with Kolivan to rebuild the BOM.

Pidge's mother Colleen.

Lance's sister Veronica.

Acxa helping Team Voltron.

Team Atlas. Yes I didn't have a problem with James, Ina, Ryan and Nadia, especially they're three-thirds non-white if you include Veronica, who is Cuban as in that Ryan is black and Nadia is Arab/South Asian [Pakistani due to her last name being a common surname there] (due to her actress being of said ethnicity).

Admiral Sanda's redemption equals death.

Sendak being offed by Keith.

IGF-Atlas becoming a mecha robot not unlike in Robotech and the Delta Command Megazord.

Commander Iverson turning out to be a jerk with a heart of gold.

Lance's "don't you touch her" moment.

Shiro's new arm.

Hunk focus in the second half.

The epilogue and stinger.

Negatives

Adam not having a lot of screentime prior to his death.

Acxa only appearing in two episodes.

Should’ve been longer than 13 episodes, so maybe 20 with seven episodes focusing on the side characters.

Not much focus on Allura and Pidge.

Romelle not having a major role.

Season 8

Positives

Merla finally appeared.

"Day Forty-Seven" being a good character focus for both Ryan and Nadia.

“Shadows” being a Honerva focused flashback episode.

Honerva being the big bad.

Zethrid and Ezor surviving the blast because I knew they were still alive and also redeeming themselves.

Acxa becoming a Blade in the end.

Allurance.

Pidge and Allura interaction in "Launch Date".

Crisis on Infinite Earth-esque storyline.

Team Voltron teaming up with their predecessors.

Zarkon's death equals redemption.

Melenor having a speaking role in her second and last appearance on the show with Kimberly Brooks voicing her.

Vehicle Voltron in the epilogue.

Romelle's role is more expanded than the last season.

Negatives

Like season 7, should’ve been longer than 13 episodes, so maybe 20 with seven episodes focusing on the side characters.

Acxa only had a major role in one episode like in the previous season, though she appeared in more episodes when compared to the previous season.

Allura’s fate in the ending.

The epilogue except for Keith, Hunk and Pidge’s fates.

Olia and Nyma didn’t speak at all, though they did survive.

Some of the characters were OOC, most notably the paladins themselves.

Shiro, Lance and Allura didn’t deserve their fate in the end as in Shiro marrying Curtis despite no romantic interest between each other prior to this, Lance being a farmer in Altea with the implication that he may never find a new love with someone else as he's unable to move on from Allura's fate and Allura ascending with Honerva when really it should've been only Honerva doing so since this was the end of her storyline, especially that the epilogue really PISSED off both LGBTQ+ and POC fans of the show.

No mention or confirmation on Rolo’s fate.

Lotor’s fate as in being horribly scarred and burned, thus KIA as a result of what happened in season 6.

Luca’s death since I feel she should've survived and continued as a rival to Allura, Pidge and Acxa.

Didn't revisit the Altean Empire reality since it would’ve made a great reality for Honerva to enter.

The leaks turning out to be real.

Melenor didn't appear in the final scene.

This article is worth the read on how the epilogue is an OOC strangled by the string moment for Shiro, written by @aralcle.

Didn't really see Allura becoming corrupted by Quintessence like Zarkon, Honerva, Lotor and Luca.

No mermaids or even Dayak appearing with the Coalition.

Lotor didn't deserve his fate. I feel like he could've had a redemption equals death in a confrontation with Lance, ultimately realising what he had become.

Allurance wasn't properly developed.

#voltron legendary defender #vld thoughts

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timeagainreviews · 5 years

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When Rosa met Banksy

Racism in Doctor Who has been dealt with in various ways throughout the years. The Daleks themselves represent possibly the essence of racism. Anything that isn’t a Dalek is inferior and to be hated. But even that is a fantastical portrayal of racism. What "Rosa," attempts to address is something far more insidious- the racism of humanity’s past.

Doctor Who has had its own racism to address before, and amended when possible. Li H'sen Chang is set to be portrayed by Nicholas Goh in upcoming audio adventures with River Song. Casting a man of Asian descent is a step in the right direction from the yellowface portrayal by John Bennett in "The Talons of Weng-Chiang." What will the BBC say if a certain missing episode of "The Celestial Toymaker," is ever rediscovered? Will they own up to the use of a horribly racist slur in their family program?

Regardless of what the show has done, or hasn't done, having done an episode like "Rosa," shows a lot of growth in the show's own identity and execution. So let's talk about that execution, shall we?

In my post "Considering 'Rosa'," I worried that one of the biggest issues would be that Rosa Parks didn't survive without her agency intact. She has, as well as anyone who just had their actual real-life traipsed through by fictional characters can.

The story begins in 1947 Montgomery, Alabama, with Rosa Parks (played by Vinette Robinson who was also in the episode "42," written by Chris Chibnall) sitting on the bus. The bus is segregated between "whites," and "coloreds," as it was in those days. When the “whites” section fills, Rosa is asked to move by the bus driver James Blake, played by a very over the top Trevor White. The scene serves to show not only how segregation on the buses worked, but also how Rosa Parks has had to deal with this bullshit for years. We're also given a bit of foreshadowing when Rosa pauses for a moment, as though she may remain seated.

Fast forward to 1955. After fourteen incarnations, the Doctor still can't really pilot the TARDIS, but as we all know, the TARDIS usually has other plans anyway. Her target was present-day Sheffield, instead, she has arrived in 1955 Montgomery. While landed, the Doctor realises there is a strange trace of Artron energy (ambient radiation from the time vortex) in the area. Which means, of course, she has to explore.

Almost immediately, the crew is served a heaping dose of racism when Ryan nearly gets his block knocked off for returning a dropped glove to a white woman. If not for the interference of Rosa Parks, things could have gotten even uglier. The TARDIS crew are star struck by meeting Rosa Parks, but she doesn't really understand why, as her big history defining moment is still a day away. On a whim, the Doctor gives her a cheeky scan with the sonic as she's walking away. The trace of Artron energy is coming from her. But why?

Back at the TARDIS, we're given a bit of the why. A man, looking a lot like Mac from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," (but in Alabama, so Country Mac?) eyes the TARDIS up and down. We're given the impression he knows this is a sort of time machine. After knocking at her doors, Country Mac tries to shoot the TARDIS with an anachronistic device. The TARDIS's shields hold strong as the resounding "vworp," she emits could easily translate into "Yeah mate, try me." Discouraged, Country Mac walks away.

The Doctor and her friends are treated to more racism after being thrown out of a segregated cafe. I liked that this was used as a moment for the Doctor to take a little responsibility and offer to let her friends stay on the TARDIS. “It’s easier for me here,” she says, acknowledging her own white privilege. Ryan and Yaz refuse on the grounds that Rosa Parks doesn’t have that option.

The Doctor and her friends trace the Artron energy to an abandoned warehouse, where they uncover a suitcase full of knackered timey-wimey instruments. The owner of these instruments sneaks up and chases her and her friends away. Their chase ends in a sort of stand-off between the Doctor and Country Mac. The Doctor and her friends find a hotel to use as a base to formulate a plan. Part of that plan is to learn Rosa Parks’ routine, which requires them to take the bus.

Ryan, being a black man, has to ride on the back of the bus. Due to their situation, it’s an unpleasant necessity, despite the Doctor’s apology to Ryan. In watching this scene, I'm reminded of a moment in John Peel's loathsome Doctor Who novel, "Timewyrm: Genesys." In it, Ace is molested by the Gilgamesh, and the Doctor is basically like "Er... duh... just go with it. Ur. Dur. Uh... It's the culture." (I may have taken license there as it's kind of despicable and I hated that book).

The main difference here is that Doctor does not seem to enjoy abiding the situation. You can see the shame on her and Graham's face as they sit in the "whites," section of the bus. Poor Yaz, who gets referred to as a Mexican for most of the episode, is also pretty torn as she's not even sure what part of the bus a non-black, non-white woman should sit. One of the reasons the Doctor may be so abiding, however, is not in that it's "the culture," but that they're in a very important moment of history, which may be in jeopardy. She’s afraid to tip the balance of history in the wrong direction.

This brings us back to the villain of the episode- Country Mac, or "Krasko," as I'm not going to refer to him. Series eleven has had some pretty wonderful highs. Jodie Whittaker is a lovely Doctor. The companions are all developing decently. Though I would like to see more Yaz, lest she becomes the new Nyssa. "Just gonna nap this one out guys, enjoy your ancient snake gods or whatever." For the most part, I've liked a lot of elements of it, but the villains have been absolute tosh!

So far we've had the Tooth Fairy, some bog roll, and now Country Mac. So who is this Krasko? After being interrogated by the Doctor, we learn he's a former prisoner of the Stormcage Containment Facility (the very same that imprisoned River Song), for some sort of crime that resulted in the loss of 2,000 lives. He's been implanted with a device that inhibits his ability to use violence. So when the Doctor removes the vortex manipulator from his arm, he can only watch in anger. They released him and said: "Keep yer nose clean, kid." He's also super racist.

For some reason, he wants to keep Rosa Parks from jumpstarting the civil rights movement, because "That's when everything went wrong." Right. Sure. How that really affects him, a man from the future is kind of perplexing. Considering the 51st century is when people who use vortex manipulators usually come from, it's like he's saying that for at least the next 31 centuries, black people will continue to sit in the back of buses. He's gotta be really stupid. Which, he's racist, so maybe he is. Regardless, it's a pretty thin premise, but whatever.

I was really hoping for the rest of the episode to explain his motives, but it never really does. All we learn more about him is that he's pretty racist. Man is this guy racist. Hoo-boy, so racist. Yeah, that's about all I got on him. Other than that, his plot is basically what I expected from him last week. Only now that the Doctor has relieved him of his cool little timey-wimey toys, he's forced to screw with time in more creative ways, such as delaying buses, sending the antagonist of Rosa's narrative, James Blake, on a fishing trip, or blocking roads. It's not a bad story device on a Doctor Who level. Pretty much classic in those regards.

The brilliance of Malorie Blackman's script comes in how the Doctor and her companions deal with the issue. I said how I worried about maintaining Rosa's agency could be in jeopardy, but Blackman wisely works around this by having the Doctor and her friends aiding time in secret. They have to thwart Country Mac at every turn, which requires some very basic footwork. Instead of pointing the sonic at a magical machine, or beating the sludge monster with the power of love, their methods are more practical, and visible onscreen. I love that about the script. Getting to see the Doctor and her friends be clever is always a welcome sight. Though watching the Doctor rip her coat as to require Mrs. Parks' service as a seamstress made me die a little inside. I've been working on a Thirteenth Doctor cosplay, and that coat has been the bane of my existence!

On a production level, the episode is also rather praiseworthy. Making modern South Africa look like 1955 Alabama, cars and all, is rather impressive. It has the look and feel of a small segregated town in the south. The cinematography is generally really effective, but if I am honest, it’s got some really annoying tendencies at times. Their shot-reverse-shot dialogue scenes can get really hacky. There are moments when a character standing to the right will be framed left, and a character standing to the left will be framed right. You see it used a lot these days, but they seldom use it in context to the scene. It feels used for the sake of “looking cool.” Another thing I really can’t stand are the extreme close-ups we’ve been getting during scenes of intimate dialogue. They’ve used them in every episode so far, and they’re rather ugly and annoying. Instead of feeling more intimate, I’m left irritated that I can’t actually see the scene. #letcharactershaveshoulders

Another praiseworthy element would be Segun Akinola’s music, once again. I know I keep talking about him, but this stuff is seriously good. Has anyone else gotten a bit of a John Hughes or even Heathers vibe from some of his music? The music during the montage scene reminded me of that 80′s goodness, especially. Though isn’t it a bit sad that Yaz’s shining moment of the episode was in a montage? Give that girl some better screentime dammit!

Perhaps one of the most effective moments in the episode is when the Doctor and Graham realise they have to be on the wrong side of history, in order to protect the future. The bus has not yet reached capacity enough for bus driver James Blake to demand people of colour move to the back. Yaz and Ryan have had to take the brunt of much of the racism, and now the tables have turned. The Doctor and Graham must partake in the racism. They have to use their white skin against Rosa, as much as it pains them, and sit on the bus.

In a lot of ways, the episode strives to portray what it's like to experience racism, and how it affects different people. When the Doctor says "Who's up for a bus ride?" The bus loving Graham's hand shoots up, while Ryan looks less enthused, as he knows what that entails. We spend a large portion of the episode worried for Ryan's safety. Especially after Rosa reminds him that Emmet Till was also a visitor when he was murdered by a lynch mob in Mississippi. Ryan and Yaz are not having a great time, despite the fact that they're travelling with the Doctor. It's a harsh reminder that history has never been very kind to people of colour. Malorie Blackman gives them both a chance at some very powerful character development as the two of them speak on their own experiences. Yaz once again, gets a bit sidelined, sadly. Ryan however, gets to go on his own journey, spending an evening with Rosa Parks, Fred Gray, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Aside from the atrocious American accents (I now know how British people must feel hearing Americans do their accents), my only other major qualm with the episode was the dialogue. It wasn't so much the content of the dialogue, as much as it's hamfisted nature. It seemed choppy and unnatural throughout a lot of it. That’s not to say it was all bad. There were plenty of snappy moments and cute dialogue. The Doctor’s claim that she could be Banksy was particularly funny. The bigger issues were when dialogue was used primarily to expound information. I was reminded of early Doctor Who when Ian and Barbara used their teacher powers to edutain children into learning something about history. But in this episode, perhaps that was a necessity.

Portraying racism in a family show like Doctor Who really does take a bit of education. When Graham hears Ryan say he couldn't remember exactly what Rosa Parks was famous for, he almost has a stroke. It's perhaps more responsible for the show to assume many young people watching Doctor Who won't know who Rosa Parks actually was. I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't know that she and Martin Luther King knew one another. Also, since when don't Doctor Who historicals pack a load of information about their subjects into the episode? It's part of the journey.

Country Mac is sent back in time by his own stupid time displacement gun, leading me to think that perhaps he'll return again. Older, wiser, racister. It's about as exciting a prospect of more Tim Shaw, which isn't much. Like I said with "The Woman Who Fell to Earth," perhaps they'll get more character development when they return?

There's really nothing fun about portraying racism, which by extension made this episode, not a lot of fun to watch. So far, Chris Chibnall's vision for Doctor Who has been a bit on the dreary side. It's got that Broadchurch misery porn stank to parts of it, that I hope it shakes off soon. Next week's "Arachnids in the UK," could be a welcome bit of respite. The small preview reminded me a bit of “Gremlins 2.” It seems like more of a whimsical romp. Then again, so did Chibnall's "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship," and even that was too serious to be much fun. Even still, I'm glad Doctor Who is attempting to tackle some bigger issues. 'Rosa,' isn't a perfect episode, but it's an improvement on some of the show’s past sins, and hopefully, a step forward.

Up Next:

In a day or two- Doctor Who and “The Daleks” Midweek- Twin Peaks season 1 episode 1

#Doctor Who #rosa #thirteenth doctor #chris chibnall #jodie whittaker #bbc #tardis #time and time again

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tumelotulim-blog · 5 years

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Now You See Me The Story of Being A Coconut

Coconut, the moist mouth-watering brown tropical fruit suited for hot days where there’s no breeze always there to fix up a Piña Colada. Not quite the definition of the word that comes to mind at this point as there is a new found meaning of the word that has emerged. You may ask yourself and wonder what is the new found meaning of coconut may be. The word coconut connoting brown on the outside and white on the inside; just another pejorative term alongside oreo and the phrases “acting white”, “speaking like a white person” or “not black enough” directed towards black people who wouldn’t really fit the image of what an ideal black person would be. For decades, portrayals of what different races (mainly people of colour) whether it be black, asian, latin have been conveyed in the media, the portrayals have repeated throughout history in which categorises people of that race to be looked upon based on the portrayals which leads to the development of stereotypes. When the stereotypes recur often the people of the stereotypes that are directed at of that race start to believe that they should be a representation of what society has labelled them as and if not ticking off the boxes of that checklist it leads to a great extent of judgement from others and people from the same racial or ethnic group of what you are.

At the age of twelve moving back to my home country South Africa after living in Cuba for four years and living nine years throughout this period in my life with living in Spain for five years from the age of one till six. This was probably the first time in my life that I had ever experienced the culture and the people of the country with having an understanding of what it entailed. Shortly after being in the country for a few months I had already figured that I was different from most South Africans with the vast difference of my accent from schooling in American Schools, speaking American English and having to get accustomed to the British English which is mostly spoken and understood and by South Africans with substituting the wordings of ketchup to tomato sauce, napkin to serviette, white-out to tipp-ex and many other words. The way I enunciated certain words like water and observing the discombobulated looks on people’s faces when saying water the way I do. Pronouncing my name was one of the biggest challenges because my accent is immediately heard and I knew I would receive scrutiny for not pronouncing the South African way which I still cannot pronounce properly till this day which gives me major discomfort when asked my name in South Africa. Most importantly not being able able to speak my mother tongue, Sesotho, despite the fact not being able to communicate in my mother tongue I have an understanding of what is being said. This lead to a great deal of questioning that I had received from black South Africans about my cultural identity as a South African which I have acquired towards the three years of living there prior to travelling again.

The word coconut is township based word that had widely became used in South Africa by black people after apartheid came to an end in 1994 (era of segregation amongst white people and non-white people) when black people were able to move out of the townships that the government had allocated them to in order to live in suburban areas where children would attend private schools which were often predominantly white or considered white. It is, therefore, a term that township children would describe suburban children that speak English most of the time in an accent that was considered white, share a circle of quite a few white friends or have comfort in the company of caucasian people. Even though the term “coconut” stems from the township I was criticised by people from both ends of the spectrum at the private school that I attended and the neighbours children from the surrounding area of where one of my grandmothers lived. I have been been labelled as a coconut simply for having a larger preference for American programmes over South African soapies and consuming music and pop culture that is considered white as if having pleasure of aspects outside your culture you’ve abandoned and lost sight of where you have come from. Using big vocabulary that apparently no one ever uses in their day to day conversations but the underlying factor always came back to my accent.

In all honesty, it would get heavily infuriating that people can not be open minded acknowledging a person that was not alike to them and are often close minded to the black people that are complete opposite what society has labelled to be, not realising that we are the ones often reinforcing the portrayals that have been carried out throughout history. From my personal experience I have noticed that black people are so quick to help other races with our languages but mock the people from our own group when not pronouncing something the correct way. I cannot recall a memory in which I have been diminished from a person outside of my race of my belonging as a South African and as black person. Through it all I have remained true to myself; my cultural identity is not defined by the way I speak and how much media South African consume but the appreciation of the beauty of the rainbow nation, landscapes, the dialects and cuisine that have made the nation.

Tumelo Tuli M.

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classyfoxdestiny · 3 years

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tata steel: Tata Steel will pursue recycling route to grow in India: TV Narendran

The India business at 20 million tonnes will generate enough EBITDA to take care of the growth that is required in India without having to borrow to support that growth, says TV Narendran, CEO & MD, Tata Steel.

I never thought Tata Steel which is a commodity company will report this kind of robustness in their profit. We are talking to you at a time when steel prices and steel demand is at record high, so acche din (good days) are back but are acche din here to stay? Yes these have been good times for the industry and rightly so. This industry has invested hugely in building capacity over the last many years and we have struggled with a lot of challenges over the last decade. We are seeing more stability in global markets. We are seeing more discipline out of China as far as steel exports are concerned and we are seeing demand coming back because many economies including India are investing in infrastructure and Tata Steel over the last few years has grown in India very significantly. India has always been at world-beating profitability levels from an industry benchmark point of view.

The steel cycle normally lasts for four to five… The steel industry is going through a structural change. The steel prices will continue to be volatile. Secondly, the cost structures are changing because carbon costs are there in Europe. Thirdly, the demand side is showing improvement with everyone investing in infrastructure. So there are some structural changes. Prices will be volatile at a much higher level than it has been in the last 10 years.

One favourable factor could be the new American administration programme of Build America. America is the net importer of steel and they are now looking at creating a new infrastructure. Do you think from a demand standpoint, it is no longer China but the US which is going to create the biggest demand and that is the benchmark which we should use now? In the US, the hot rolled coil prices are over $1,800. So, when we talk of high steel prices in India and the US, the cost of steel is twice that of India. Secondly, the US is not a great market or not an easy market to export into because there is a lot of protection in place. As a consequence, US steel prices will be high. The US is also a big exporter of scrap and that means, scrap prices will continue to be high in the global market. So the US will certainly drive a lot of the sentiment in the steel industry. But it may not be a great market to have access to because of all the restrictions they have.

While the steel cycle may be in a boom in India or China, the problem is Europe. That is a slow moving part for you. You have indicated in the past that you want the European business to become self sustainable. How far is the European business away from being atmanirbhar (self-reliant)? I think it is already there. This year, the European business will be significantly EBITDA positive. It is already PAT positive. It will be cash positive. So they are already atmanirbhar. In fact, even last year, we hardly sent any money to our European business. They are pretty much standing on their own. The Netherlands business has always stood on its own and the UK business is also turning around quite well. You will see much better quarters ahead because in Europe we have a hangover of older contracts with lower prices. A lot of those have been renegotiated or have expired and new contracts have come in. So you will start seeing significant flow through into the bottom line in Europe starting this quarter. Europe is already standing on its own.

Your five-year capex plan shows very modest numbers. It is about $2 billion. Why is that? We have announced that we will complete the Kalinganagar expansion which is 5 million tonnes and had already been announced earlier. We will complete that in the next couple of years. That is our primary focus. Beyond that, we have the opportunity to go to 40 million tonnes in India in our existing sites. We said that it is not part of our capex plan because we have not yet taken it to the board. But we have that possibility. Last year we said first let us get the debt down. Obviously the debt is coming down faster than we had planned. This year also will be strong as far as debt reduction is concerned. That gives us a lot of headroom to expand as and when we want and where we want.

Then there are inorganic growth opportunities in India as well. So from a growth point of view, the India business is committed to go to about 40 million tonnes over the next decade and we have both organic and inorganic growth possibilities to achieve that number. As far as Europe is concerned, the business will take care of itself. The capex required there will be more sustenance capex, improving the product mix, transitioning into a greener future and so on. It is not growth capex. Growth capex will be in India.

In a downcycle, everybody talks about debt. In an upcycle, everybody talks about capex. You have given us an indication of capex, let us talk about debt. In the non-declared capex plan, if you have to expand do you think you will be able to generate enough cash flows to sustain them or could this debt to equity ratio be compromised as you expand? Typically the India business is able to take care of its own growth because the India cash flows have always been strong. In the case of the India business over the last 10-15 years, the lowest point has been 20% EBITDA margin and that is not so visible sometimes because of the consolidated numbers. But the India business is fundamentally strong and can stand on its own even in a downcycle and can take care of its own capex.

Growth in India need not be compromised even in a down cycle. What we have also said is in the long term, we will try to keep the debt EBITDA to less than 2. Today we are at 1.6 and it is going to go down further as we pay our debt but that is a headroom available to Tata Steel, even if we have to borrow. The business at 20 million tonnes will generate enough EBITDA to take care of the growth that is required in India without having to borrow to support that growth.

Unlike IT and a lot of other businesses, the steel cycle is cyclical. This is a boom time which means you would be generating a lot of cash and realisations will be higher. How are you planning to conserve the cash? Primarily, we will pare down the debt. We pared the debt by almost Rs 27,000 crore last year. This year also there will be significant debt reduction playing out over the subsequent quarters. So there is a significant debt reduction plan that gives us the headroom to expand when we want to. We are certainly going to make sure that our balance sheet is fixed for good and we are strong enough to participate and pursue growth opportunities in India. We are committed to growing in India. We are very bullish about the prospects for steel in India and we will invest to grow.

Your annual report mentions that you are looking at lowering your dependence on iron ore and increasing your dependence on recycling. How will this change your operations and the timeline of your capex? What we were basically saying is that while Tata Steel has traditionally been an iron ore and blast furnace based producer, we will pursue the recycling root to grow in India. Our south-east Asian business is totally recycling. It is all electric arc furnaces converting scrap into steel and outsteam products. What we said is particularly for long products business. We will leverage this process. We have already set up India’s first shredder and organised recycling facility in Rohtak.

We are scouting for an opportunity to build a mini steel plant there. We are talking to the different state governments there and we are looking at using this kind of a model to grow in the north, west and south where there is more scarp available than in the east. In the east, where there is iron ore available, our focus will be on iron ore base growth and we have three big sites in Kalinganagar, Angul and Jamshedpur to allow us to grow there. So we will have a mix of both. Iron ore based growth in the east and recycling and scrape based growth in the north, west and south.

There are very few sectors in India which have seen complete consolidation. Telecom is one. Steel is the other one. The reason why I am asking you this question is that you said you are open to inorganic opportunities. Are there any inorganic assets available in India? Not so much in the private sector, but the government has announced plans for

Ispat. We are participating in the process there. There has been talk about RINL, we are waiting to see what the timeline is on that. So we will wait and see what are the inorganic growth opportunities. But in inorganic, we will be more focussed on long products because for flat products, our existing sites allow us the runway for growth and we should look at consolidation differently from flat products and long products. Flat products are very consolidated like you said but long products are 40-50% secondary sector. The bigger players account for less than 50% of the production in India. So there is room for consolidation in long products as well.

We are aware that Tata Steel is now trying to build a branded steel business. As percentage of your turnover, how large is that? What is the difference in terms of your long term contacts with auto companies and other buyers versus when you are selling it in the wholesale market or when you are selling steel or Tata Steel products as a brand? So the whole concept of branding the way we do it today, started about 20 years back. The Tata Steel B2B business is the automotive, oil and gas business. There we focus on high quality products, discerning customers and approval-based business. It is technically challenging to get in and that is where we think we have an edge and we focus our B2B businesses there.

The B2C business leverages the Tata name because that business is about selling steel in single tonnes, one tonne, two tonne, three tonne for somebody who is building a house and that somebody who is building a house is not a regular steel buyer and is willing to pay the premium for Tata Tiscon which is our brand for rebars or Tata Shaktee which is a roofing sheet brand. They are ready to pay 10-20% more for steel which is 5% of the cost for building a house. So the whole business is built on that. It is worth about $2 billion now. We want to target about 20-25% of our revenues coming from B2C business including the services and solutions that we are selling to those customers. So these businesses are stickier as far as prices are concerned because the price depends on local issues and does not depend on what is happening in China or south-east Asia or elsewhere. This has been a strong business for us and continues to grow.

Another addition to that is we are doing almost Rs 100 crore a month of this online. Consumers are coming online and buying the steel. We have a platform called Aashiyana and that did Rs 700 crore business in the year that went by. We will do Rs 1,500 crore this year. It was Rs 300 crore when we started two years back. So we are seeing a different route to market developing, a different way of order generation and fulfilment, which are opportunities we want to leverage.

The steel cycle is good and so whatever is happening in Europe right now, will be overlooked and the numbers and the realisations would be different. But what is the long term plan to ensure that the European business is self-sufficient even in a steel downturn? A lot of actions have been taken over the last few years. In ,Europe we shrunk the business when we first acquired it. It was 18 million tonnes, we shrunk it to 10 million tonnes and most of that shrinkage happened in the UK which was 10 million tonnes when we acquired and is 3 million tonnes now. So between the 3 million tonne plant in Port Talbot in the UK and the 7 million tonne plant in the Netherlands, we have the right sites in Europe.

Our Netherlands plant is one of the most cost efficient plants in Europe. It is well located and structurally strong and should be able to ride the downcycle. It has always done well even in the downcycle. We have had some operational issues in the last few years but now we are back to normal.

The UK is where we have had a bigger challenge and again there a lot of heavy lifting has been done. I think we are better positioned there. While we do not report the UK numbers separately, till last year, they were coming close to being EBITDA positive and now we are very clearly EBITDA positive. Hopefully, this year we will be cash positive in the UK as well. We are better positioned to ride the down cycle in both these places.

We are also talking to the governments because in Europe there is a transition plan being developed by different governments and the governments are willing to support industry because they want to decarbonise and hence they are willing to support industry in this transition. So there are conversations going on with both the Dutch government and the British government to see what the role government can play to help us transition to a green future.

Looking at the demand-supply and especially looking at the demand supply both in India and also globally, how long will it take for capacities to kick in because demand will remain strong that is what indicators are indicating us? The difference between what is happening today and what happened 10-12 years back is that very few countries are adding capacity. Between 2000 and 2010, when demand was strong, China was adding 50 million tonnes a year of capacity. It is no longer happening. In fact, China is cutting down on production, China is reducing exports. The only country which is adding capacity significantly and rightly so is India.

That is why globally there will be a better balance. The big exporters of steel in the world are China, Japan, Korea and Russia. Japan has already said they are going to cut down local production because they do not want to export steel. Korea also is expected to go that way. Russia is also discouraging exports. Globally you will see a better balance in the trade and capacity if added, will largely be in India which is the right place to add capacity because India has good quality iron ore and India needs more investments and needs to create more jobs.

I believe India will emerge as a reasonably large exporter. We are already exporting one-and-a-half million tonnes a month now. India is certainly better positioned to be an exporter than Japan or Korea because we are a lower cost place to produce steel. It is not just Tata Steel, all our peers in the industry also produce steel efficiently and at a lower cost than most of our peers outside the country. When you look at Make in India, the steel industry is certainly an industry which should be backed. We are creating jobs in remote parts of the country and India is a good place to export steel from. I do not see excess capacity being built so fast this time.

There are indications that some ministries are not very happy about the sudden price hikes which have happened in cement and steel and indirect hints have come that industry needs to be more watchful. Could that pour cold water on the brilliant steel story in India? Honestly the answer to rising steel prices is more steel production in India and the answer to more production in India is investments in steel in India and that investment will come if the steel industry is profitable. In the last 10 years, steel and power have suffered the most in terms of financial performance. If we do not have profit, where will the money come to invest and create more capacity and if we do not have more capacity, how do you manage prices in a globally traded product?

The problem of steel prices is not just an Indian problem, it is a problem globally. So unless there is profitability in the industry, investors will not invest in the industry. We should allow the industry to invest and if they have to invest, obviously there would be some years where they have to make some money and deleverage their balance sheet which is what is exactly happening. The steel industry together has announced investments of almost Rs 100,000 crore over the next few years. All of us have announced expansion plans. The money which is being made is getting reinvested in building more steel capacity, hopefully that will help stabilise prices in India but globally if steel prices are strong, that will have an impact on India as well.

Does the industry need entry barriers now? I would like to clarify what entry barriers means. Anybody anywhere in the world can invest in India to build a steel plant. You cannot say that of most countries. Today, if some Indian steel company wants to invest and build a steel plant in China or Japan or Korea, it cannot. So from the investment point of view, we are freer than most countries in the world. The problem was steel was being dumped in India. Import duty for steel was 5% or 2.5% or 0% for some countries with whom we had an FTA. How many industries in India have 0% import duty or 2.5% import duty or even 5% import duty? Very few. So that was a time when the industry said that there has to be some support because tens of thousands of crores have been invested in this industry and because some countries were trying to get rid of 50-60 million tonnes of steel, India cannot be the dumping ground. That was the primary point the industry made and yes the government played a very big role in giving us that support and rightly so. So this industry has come back and is investing in India.

My answer to that question is anybody who wants to participate in the opportunity in India should come and invest in India like all of us and sell in India. That is a great opportunity. It is a land with the government’s ambition of Make in India and we are one of the free-est countries as far as investment is concerned. I would push for that rather than say make steel anywhere and then sell it in India. How do you create jobs in India if you do that?

What are chances that we could see a push back on exports? Obviously that is a government’s prerogative but most Indian companies are exporting between 15% and 25-30% of what they produce which is not so significant. The important point I want to make is a lot of concern has to do with steel being used in construction. Those are long products. They are hardly exported. Most of the exports are flat products. So I am not sure if any export controls will help bring down the long product prices if they are high globally or they are high because of input costs being high. The problem with long products is that 50% to 60% are being produced by the secondary sector. They are struggling with higher input costs so I am not sure if export taxes will help that problem.

What do you think the headline would be on Tata Steel in 2025? Right now the headline is that Tata Steel has reported record profits. Tata Steel is a fundamentally strong company. We have had some challenges for the last 10-12 years. I think a lot of them are getting fixed. We are adding high on a commodity cycle now but you will see us as a structurally stronger and future ready company doing well.

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