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Hello Interactors,
I stumbled across a book that picks ten influential economists and teases out elements from each that contribute to ideas circling the circular economy. It turns out bits and pieces of what many consider a ‘new’ idea have existed among notable economists, left and right, for centuries.
The first is a name known to most worldwide, even if they only get their history from Fox News. But had a gun been aimed more accurately, his name nor his global influence would have been a part of history at all.
As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so I welcome your participation.
Please leave your comments below or email me directly.
Now let’s go…
THE DUEL AT SCHOOL
Class boundaries come into focus in college towns as diverse clusters of first-year students descend, mingle, and sort. Such was the case for one young man in Germany. It’s not that he was poor, but to the über he was. Having been born to Jewish parents, he was used to being bullied. Though he thought violence was an absurd remedy for injustice – after all, he went to college to study philosophy and belonged to a poetry club – but he also believed that sometimes one must stand their ground by whatever means.
And so there he stood, 18 years old, with his back to his adversary, about to engage in a duel. As he breathed in, I imagine he could feel the cold pull from the barrel of the pistol pointed to the sky inches from his chin. With each step his pulse must have quickened. He must have felt the gun handle twist in his sweaty palms as he gingerly rested his tremoring finger on the trigger. He knew at any second, he must turn quickly. He must not flinch. And he must not die.
In his final steps I imagine his world must have slowed down. And then, in a blur, he whirled around and fired at his challenger. The blast must have lit his face, punctuated by the sound of a whirring bullet. He felt the skin just above his eyebrow burn. I can see him lifting his shaking hand to his forehead expecting blood. But it was just an abrasion. The bullet had grazed his skull. That bullet was millimeters from ending Marxism before it even started. Had it landed, Karl Marx would have been dead at 18.
My sense is that when most people read the word Marxism, they think Communism. He’s best known for two massive publications, The Communist Manifesto, and Das Kapital – or often simplified and anglified to just Capital. But he eventually distanced himself from the direction Communism and even Marxism had taken. As we shall see, he was a professional journalist for most of his adult life and thus a staunch free press and free speech advocate – two freedoms communist authoritarianism eradicated.
The word, ‘Marxism’, today is often used by some to discredit progressive pro-social political and economic ideas given its connotations to communism. A holdover from American Cold War McCarthyism. It turns the disparaging came long before the 1940s and 50s. It was used the same way in France and other parts of Europe in the late 1800s. So much so that Marx’s collaborator on The Communist Manifesto, Fredrich Engels, once wrote,
“What is called ‘Marxism’ in France is certainly a very special article, to the point that Marx once said to Lafargue [Marx’s son-in-law]: "What is certain is that I am not a Marxist."
Marx’s economic work is less well-known and Das Kapital remains the most accurate and lucid critique of the negative effects of capitalism. Marx was first and foremost a philosopher and his arguments take aim at the moral and ethical implications of capitalistic systems. Which is why circular economic advocates often turn to Marx for their own philosophical underpinnings.
Coincidently, the man credited with capitalism, and whom Marx often took aim, Adam Smith, was also a philosopher. In fact, he mostly wrote about liberal philosophy and relatively little about economics. I wonder if today these two philosophers, who many see representing the left and the right of political economics, would be unsuspecting allies or dueling advisories?
Karl Marx’s first year at university in Bonn, Germany was like many freshmen. He partied a lot. But Bonn was also home to radical politics at the time. Students were heavily surveilled by the police due to semi-organized radical attempts by student organizations to overthrow the local government. It turns out the poetry club he had joined was not about poetry, it was a front for a resurgent radical political movement. Though, having already spent a night in jail for drunken disorderly behavior, Marx may have mostly been interested in the social side of the club.
Paralleling political turmoil was class conflict between the so-called ‘true Prussians and aristocrats’ and ‘plebeians’ like Marx. The near fatal event came about when an aristocrat challenged Marx to a duel. Marx indeed thought dueling was absurd, but evidently, he, like many men in those days, thought it a worthy way to ‘man up’. His dad certainly didn’t think so and accelerated the plan to transfer his son to the University of Berlin to study law.
HEGELIAN REBELLION
While in Berlin, Marx also continued to study philosophy and wrote both fiction and nonfiction on the side. One of his most influential professors was Eduard Gans. Gans had been brought to the university by none other than the influential German philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel had died just four years before Marx arrived in Berlin, and Marx, like many, was fascinated by his work.
After Hegel’s death, Hegelians (as his disciples were called) became divided between Right Hegelians and Left Hegelians. The right interpreted Christian elements in his philosophy seeking to associate his ideas and popularity with the Christian-led Prussian political establishment. The left embraced aspects of reason and freedom of thought they believed Christianity and the Prussian government limited. Gans’ lectures tended more toward the left and so did Marx who joined a radical group of Young Hegelians seeking revolution.
After graduating, Marx left for Cologne, Germany in 1842 to become a journalist for the Rhineland News. He expanded on Hegel’s ideas around the role of government in providing social benefits for all and not just the privileged class. He openly criticized right leaning European governments and his radical socialist views garnered the attention of government sensors. Marx said,
“Our newspaper has to be presented to the police to be sniffed at, and if the police nose smells anything un-Christian or un-Prussian, the newspaper is not allowed to appear."
He also became interested in political economics and became frustrated with other Young Hegelians who continued to focus the movement on religion.
His critical writing eventually got him kicked out of Germany, so he fled to Paris. There too his writing got him in trouble. The Prussian King warned the French interior minister of Marx’s intentions and was expelled from France. On to Belgium he went where he, again, was kicked out. Marx eventually took exile in London in 1850 where he familiarized himself with the writing of Europe’s leading economists, including Britain’s most famous, Adam Smith.
His research passion project brought in no money. Risking extreme poverty for him and his family, he took a job as European correspondent writing for the New-York Daily Tribune in 1850. After ten years, he quit when the paper refused to publicly denounce slavery at the start of the civil war. During that decade, he continued to research in the reading room of the British Museum amassing 800 pages of notes which became the source material for his first successful 1859 book, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. At the time, he was also witnessing firsthand the deplorable conditions London factory laborers endured at the dawn of the industrial age and the destruction of nature with it.
Marx’s primary critique was summed up in a single German word: Produktionsweise which can be translated as "the distinctive way of producing" or what is commonly called the capitalist mode of production. Marx believed the system of capitalism distinctly exists for the production and accumulation of private capital through private wealth, hinging on two mutual dependent components:
* Wealth accumulation by private parties to build or buy capital, like land, buildings, natural resources, or machines, to produce and sell goods and services
* A wealth asymmetry between those who accumulate the wealth and capital (employers) and the those needed to produce the good or service (laborers) in a way that yields the profits needed to accumulate the wealth (i.e. cheap or free labor)
Capital accumulation existed in markets long before Karl Marx and Adam Smith, but the accumulation was limited, including by nature. For example, let’s say I start a garden next year growing zucchini. Zucchini grown in the Northwest United States can become overwhelmingly productive. I would likely yield more zucchini than my family could consume. I could decide to exchange the remaining zucchini for money at a local farmer’s market. In economic terms, I grew a commodity (C) and would be exchanging them for money (M) thereby turning C into M.
Let’s imagine while at the market I am drawn to another commodity that I’m not willing to make myself, honey. I can now use my money (M) to buy a commodity (C1) grown by someone else. The beekeeper could easily take the money I gave them (M1) and exchange it for a good they’re unwilling to grow or make themselves (C2). This chain of exchange could continue throughout the entire market.
This linear exchange of money through markets was common leading up to the industrial age. Money was the value exchanged but the generation of money only happened at the rate of natural production or extraction of natural commodities or by industrious human hands. Wealth accumulation could indeed occur by saving it or exchanging it for something that may rise in value faster than, say, zucchini, like property or gold.
THOSE DUTCH DO MUCH
With the dawn of the industrial age, Marx observed capitalists showed up to the market with large sums of accumulated wealth at the outset. Wealth often came through inheritance, but also rent of property (sometimes stolen, as occurred during colonization) or profits from an existing or past enterprise. This money (M) is then used to invest in the means necessary to produce, or trade, a good or service (C). The capitalist themselves need not want or need their good or service, they may not be interested in it at all. Their primary concern, according to Marx, is to covert their initial investment (M) into more money (M+) through profit made on the sale of the good. They then take their accumulated money (M+) and use it to invest in the production of, or trade with, another good or service (C+).
Due to the efficiencies gained through the advent, invention, and innovation of energy and machines the rate of production greatly increased in the industrial age. And with it profits. This inspired entrepreneurs to take risks into new ventures thereby diversifying the market while creating additional engines of wealth and capital accumulation. Herein lies the Marxist claim on the primary motivation of capitalism – turn capital into more capital through one or many forms of profiteering.
Again, this concept predates Marx or Smith. In the 1600s the Dutch created a market expressly for the exchange of money for a piece, (also known as a stock or share) in a company. It was another way to accumulate wealth for the purpose of building capital. The first to utilize this market in 1602 was the Dutch India Company leading Marx to comment, “Holland was the head capitalistic nation of the seventeenth century.”
Marx predicted the eventual outcome of unbridled wealth accumulation would be monopolistic behavior. Those who accumulate wealth also generate the power to buy out competitors leading to not only consolidation of wealth, but power. And not just economic power, political power too. We all know too well how wealth and power can sway election results and lobbying strength.
Those sucked into capitalism need not necessarily be greedy. It’s the nature of the pursuit of business in a capitalist system to compete on price. This was particularly apparent in what Marx observed. One way capitalists lowered the price of a good was to flood the market with it. The only way to do that is to increase production. But to earn necessary profits to accumulate necessary capital on a lower priced good meant lowering the amount of money spent on capital (i.e. real estate, raw goods, or machines) and/or labor (i.e. employee wages). This led to increasing wealth disparities and further strengthened the asymmetry Marx claimed was necessary in the capitalist mode of production. It’s not necessary to be greedy to win, but you can’t win without competing on price. And too often it’s the workers who pay the price. This was Marx’s biggest beef with capitalism.
Wealth disparities are now the greatest in history and the number of natural resources needed to create low-cost goods in the competitive global race to bottom barrel prices are nearing earthly limits. Meanwhile, as more people are pulled out of poverty and urban areas grow exponentially, more natural resources are demanded. Including for the necessary energy to make, move, and manage the mess we consumers create. We seem compelled to continually capitulate to creeping capitalism.
It leads many to wonder, do we need capitalism? Marx concludes in Das Kapital that capitalism cannot exist forever within earth’s natural resource limitations. But he may be surprised to find that it has lasted as long as it has. To reject capitalism, or assume, as Marx did, that capitalism is a natural evolution on a path toward some form of communal economically balanced society, does not necessitate rejecting markets. Nor does it necessarily imply going ‘back’ to pre-capitalist times, like 16th century Holland.
But it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look to the Dutch. They may be onto something yet again. A Dutch company called Bundles has partnered with the German appliance manufacturer Miele to create an in-home laundry service. Instead of, or in addition to, Miele racing to making more and more washing machines, selling to more and more people, at lower and lower prices, they lease the washer and dryer to Bundles who then installs and maintains the appliances in homes for a monthly fee. The consumer pays for a quality machine serviced by a reputable agent, Bundles and Miele get to split the revenue, and Miele is incented to make high quality and long-lasting appliances to earn higher profits. They’ve since expanded this idea to coffee and espresso machines. It’s an attempt at a more circular economy by reducing consumption, energy, and resource extraction, all while utilizing existing markets in a form of capitalism. It’s a start.
But perhaps not enough of a change for Marx. Or maybe so. In 1872, eleven years before his death and twenty-two years before Miele was founded, he gave a speech in Amsterdam. He acknowledged, “there are countries -- such as America, England, and if I were more familiar with your institutions, I would perhaps also add Holland -- where the workers can attain their goal by peaceful means.” As in his youth, it appears he found violence to be an unworthy course of action for injustice. But also consistent with that eventful day in Bonn, 1836, as he was challenged to a duel, he also has his limits. His speech continued, “This being the case, we must also recognize the fact that in most countries on the Continent the lever of our revolution must be force; it is force to which we must some day appeal in order to erect the rule of labor.”
REFERENCES:
Karl Marx: Man and Fighter (RLE Marxism). Boris Nicolaievsky, Otto Maenchen-Helfen. 2015. Published originally in 1936.
Alternative Ideas from 10 (Almost) Forgotten Economists. Irene van Staveren. 2021.
Letter to E. Bernstein. Friedrich Engels. 1882. [“Ce qu’il y a de certain, c’est que moi je ne suis pas marxist” (Friedrich Engels, “Lettre à E. Bernstein,” 2 novembre 1882. MIA: F. Engels - Letter to E. Bernstein (marxists.org).]
La Liberte speech. Karl Marx. The International Working Men's Association.1872.
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Hello Interactors,
Fall is upon us and so Interplace transitions to economics. I’ll be writing about how location, distribution, and the spatial organization of economic activities interacts with and affects humanity. The current dominant economic model insists on persistent and endless growth despite acknowledgement of its role in climate change, income inequality, and disappearing limited stocks of natural resources. There’s got to be a better way, and I’m on the hunt to find alternatives.
As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so I welcome your participation.
Please leave your comments below or email me directly.
Now let’s go…
FLIGHTS OF NASTY
I attended a panel discussion last Friday on environmental justice. One panel member represented a nearby Seattle community called Beacon Hill. It’s a 6.5 mile long stretch just north of the SeaTac airport putting it on a flight path. Roughly 65% of flights land over Beacon Hill when the wind is out of the south. During busy times, a plane descends over their homes nearly every 90 seconds to two minutes. And because it’s on a hill, they’re 300 feet closer to the noise and pollution.
FAA guidelines require a 65-decibel limit, and Sea-Tac claims they comply, but Beacon Hill is beyond the boundary for which they monitor. Even the U.S. Bureau of Transportation and Statistics reported in 2017 levels in this area were between 40-75 decibels. When residents organized and measured noise themselves, they never recorded any plane below 50 decibels and some hit 80. That’s about as loud as a kitchen blender and too loud to hear the person next to you.
But what this panel member shared, sometimes through tears, is it’s not just the noise but the repetition. With each passing plane the stress mounts in anticipation of the next one. It’s hard to concentrate or hold a conversation. She worries about her son. How much does this environmental stress contribute to his ADHD? His trouble at school. Her husband, who rides his bike most places, suffered from esophageal cancer. How much did the air pollution contribute to his condition?
In the time between planes, the ultrafine particles (UFPs) from the last plane have already mixed with the air they breathe. Jet engines uniquely expel plumes of ultrafine particle pollution. A recent University of Washington (UW) study confirms similar studies in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, New York, and Amsterdam. Flight paths are home to high concentrations of ultrafine particles raining down over unsuspecting victims. In Los Angeles, 90% of school children in the flight path are exposed to these particulates one hour out of every school day.
These particulates are smaller than the PM2.5 typically found from fossil fuel combustion and tire and brake dust. They’re also not as widely studied. Nobody really knows what kind of long-term effects they may have on the human body. However, there is animal evidence showing long-term exposure to ultrafine particles leads to adverse health effects, including neurological. A 2019 study published by the Washington State Department of Health reports,
“UFPs have many unique qualities that make them possibly more harmful to human health than larger particles. UFPs are able to travel deeper into the lung than larger particles. They are also small enough to avoid the body’s attempts to clear particles from the lungs, allowing them to stay in the body longer, to build up, and to cause damage. They can also move from the lungs to the bloodstream and to other organs.”
Evidence of short-term effects on human health are conclusive. The study warns,
“Certain groups of people are more sensitive to UFP exposure. These groups include people with pre-existing heart and lung disease, infants, older adults, people with diabetes, communities with a lower socio-economic status, and pregnant women.”
Beacon Hill is a place where 70% of residents identify as Black, Indigenous, multiracial, or persons of color. More than half speak a language other than English. They’re also flanked by two major interstates and have another smaller airport, King County International Airport (KCIA) (aka Boeing Field), between them and Sea-Tac. The UW study showed anyone living within 150 meters of the freeway would also be exposed to ultrafine particles from passing vehicles, especially semi-trucks on their way to and from Sea-Tac.
In 2021, the Puget Sound Regional Council published a Regional Aviation Baseline Study. There are 27 public-use airports in Western Washington’s Puget Sound region, and the three biggest are Sea-Tac, King County International Airport, and Paine Field just north of Seattle. Scheduled passenger service is only available at Sea-Tac and Paine Field. In 2018 these two airports served 24 million enplanements. One enplanement is a single passenger per airplane. By 2027 they project this number will grow to 29 million. By 2050 it will double, 49 million at the low end and 56 million at the high end.
That’s just commercial passenger traffic. What about cargo? In 2017 540 thousand metric tons of cargo flew through Western Washington. Eighty-five percent goes through Sea-Tac. By 2050, it too is projected to double to 1.5 million metric tons. However, these peak loads are seasonal. During harvest time, Washington State’s value crops, like cherries, increase cargo demands. So how is this increased demand to be met?
FLYING TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN
To assess solutions to growing demand, the 2019 Washington State Legislature formed the Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission (CACC). Their objective is to recommend a new primary commercial aviation facility and additional ways to add capacity to six existing airports across the state to accommodate future demand.
To get an idea for how governments intend to shape outcomes of commissions they assemble, it’s good to look at the backgrounds of invited commissioners. In an era of increased awareness and needs for environmental, economic, and social justice, a good commission should be comprised of a diverse set of points of view and expertise. Especially given the current and historical economic, social, and environmental injustices existing power structures have created.
Through this lens, the list of commissioners is disappointing. Of the fourteen voting members, there are just two women, one person of color, and only one has a background in environmental law. The rest are white men, with one of Asian decent raised in England. Their bios read like a who’s-who of business leaders, economic development advisors, aviation enthusiasts, airport directors and developers, military leaders, and even representatives from Southwest and American Airlines. One member offered no bio at all and seemingly has no presence on the internet.
The remaining twelve non-voting members must then balance this majority of aviation zealots geared toward economic development. Nope. More of the same – former senators, regional transportation directors, air cargo specialists, a member of the Civil Air Patrol, an aviation officer…the list goes on. They do have a state senator, Tina Orwall, who has “20 years of experience working in the public mental health system.”
So, two people out of 26, an environmental lawyer and a left-leaning woman senator, may offer a voice for environmental justice and sustainable economic development. The rest will be fighting for state and federal dollars for airport and economic expansion. While public documents give lip service to ‘community engagement’ and ‘the environment’ history shows there is little likelihood this collection of people will have environmental justice as a top priority.
Every level of government wants the number of flights to increase, despite having goals to reduce carbon emissions. With increased flight traffic comes increased ground traffic, despite also having goals to reduce congestion. If this weren’t so tragic, it would be a comedy.
This is the essence of environmental justice; the unfair exposure of poor and marginalized people and places to harms associated with an economy these people and places are least responsible for – an economy which disproportionately benefits the prosperous and mainstream members of society. It’s an economic model, to which we’re addicted, requiring unlimited growth despite relying on the extraction of natural resources which are limited.
The environmental scientist, complex systems icon, and author of Limits of Growth, Donella Meadows, offers a series of questions these commissioners and elected leaders should ask whenever arguments for economic growth are put forth. She said,
“Growth is one of stupidest purposes ever invented by any culture. We’ve got to have enough. Always ask: growth of what and why, and for whom, and who pays the cost, and how long can it last, and what’s the cost to the planet, and how much is enough?”
Meadows, and many environmental justice activists and scholars, are calling for system change in the fight against climate change.
Reading Washington State’s plans for addressing its aviation woes, it’s clear system change is not on their radar. If Washington’s economy were a plane, elected leaders and assigned commissioners believe this plane can climb to infinite heights.
Imagine a plane gradually ascending beyond its physical limits and the bodily limits of its passengers. Now imagine cries to pilots to please level-off from suffering passengers first and most impacted. They’d be met with quizzical looks and ignored while most passengers would gleefully encourage the plane to climb faster and higher. That’s what it’s like when individuals in impacted communities cry and call for limits on the pain, suffering, and pollution at the hands of our economy.
Apart from a few local elected officials, they mostly are ignored. Most are too busy trying to grow the economy. Which in turn will increase the number of flights to Sea-Tac, the area’s economy, suffering, and the number of premature deaths due to air and noise pollution. Meanwhile, many Beacon Hill residents are too busy holding multiple jobs, too weary from the fight for justice, and too disempowered or discouraged to speak up.
The assembled aviation and business experts no doubt have good intentions, but it’s clear they’re tasked with one thing: tip the nose of the economic plane upwards while steadily increasing the throttle. After all, the model dictates that the state must remain competitive in a national and international race upwards toward a misleadingly infinite extractive consumer economy. This assumes there is no limit to growth despite empirical planetary evidence to the contrary. What’s the worse that could happen? Evidently, so far, nothing bad enough to prompt leaders to change the system.
To be fair, this commission and the Puget Sound Regional Council, do consider the air quality studies out of the University of Washington. They also consider another UW study exploring alternative ground transportation, including high-speed rail. There are other ‘sustainable’ elements the state is exploring, including biofuel and electric planes. However, creating a pipeline of biofuel to Sea-Tac they admit has its own challenges. Though, they pale in comparison to the struggles sourcing enough biofuel to meet demand. So that leaves electric planes, like electric cars, as the great savior.
ANOTHER INLAND LOGISTICS EMPIRE
Just this week, the dream of electric flight made one stride toward reality. A prototype of an electric nine-seater passenger plane successfully took off, circled the airport, and landed. A Washington first and a necessary first step toward certification. The plane was assembled in Washington state, made of engines and parts largely made in Washington state, and by a Washington state company called Eviation. Their CEO, Greg Davis, said “What we’ve just done is made aviation history. This is about changing the way that we fly. It’s about connecting communities in a sustainable way…ushering in a new era of aviation.” He may be right. But when?
When asked if this flying equivalent of a large Tesla, with 21,500 battery cells accounting for half of the plane’s weight of over 4 tons, is ready for passenger flights, he quipped, “The answer is no, absolutely not.” At least he’s honest. I optimistically believe some of our regional transportation problems can be solved by sustainably leveraging the thousands of municipal airports under-utilized across America. But it’s decades away.
Meanwhile, I believe this flight was mostly a PR stunt. The airport chosen for this historic flight was the Grant County International Airport at Moses Lake. Until this flight, most of Washington state didn’t know there was even an airport at Moses Lake. But it’s one of the top choices by the commission for expansion and they’ll need public support to pay for it.
Back in 2016 a group of senators formed a ‘roundtable’ to examine the growing air cargo industry. This is what eventually became the Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission. They noted, “The top five air cargo commodities through Sea-Tac are cherries, seafood, footwear parts, aerospace components, and aluminum alloy and graphite.” All of these serve the Washington economy except for footwear parts which likely serves Nike and the footwear economy in Portland.
Knowing back then Sea-Tac had reached capacity, the attention turned to Eastern Washington. A Spokane roundtable member offered they had “Plenty of capacity and land reserved…to be developed for cargo…”, but then asked “How do we make strategic corrections?” There was a recognized need to make Eastern Washington attractive to air cargo carriers. Building or expanding alone doesn’t lead to success, you need private companies to believe it will succeed. Enter Moses Lake and the Grant County International Airport.
Ideas were thrown out. “Cold storage [for locally grown produce…like cherries and apples]…may be an incentive.” They imagined cargo planes could “Park in Moses Lake then” rail and trucks could “go back and get cargo.” They imagined “This would help open the runways in Sea-Tac,” but wondered “Would this financially work?” Before concluding the ‘roundtable’ they agreed they needed “to hear from businesses and companies.”
So, they commissioned the ‘Joint Transportation Committee’ to conduct a “study of air cargo movement at Washington airports” with a 2018 deadline. In that 2018 report seven airports were identified as targets for expansion, including the Grant County International Airport at Moses Lake which is right smack between Spokane and Seattle…and close to nearby produce.
In 2018, a “Washington State Air Cargo Movement Study” offered this as a recommendation:
“To attract the logistics/distribution market, the State of Washington should promote to individual airports the “inland port” or airport logistics park model…branding themselves ‘Global Logistics Centers.’”
This reminds me of a piece I wrote last year about Southern California’s ‘One Click Buy’ Empire. Moreno Valley, California is building out a World Logistics Center. Forty-five percent of the nation’s imports are already trained, trucked, or flown into this “Inland Empire”, unpacked, sorted, and reloaded onto trains, trucks, and planes then fanned out again across the nation. California’s South Coast Air Quality District estimates the new logistics center will add an additional 30,000 heavy-duty trucks to area roads per day.
Heavy-duty diesel trucks emit 24 times more fine particulate matter than regular gasoline engines. Those living closer to the freeways will be affected more. And we all know who lives next to freeways…predominantly poor and people of color. Just like in Beacon Hill.
This last August the state conducted a survey across six counties in Western Washington seeking input on potential expansion and brand-new airports around the Puget Sound region. From 56-77% of participants, depending on county, said ‘No’ to new airports. Only Paine Field received support for expansion averaging 58% in favor.
Environmental concerns are the overwhelming reason for why people oppose more airports or airport expansion. It seems everyone who can afford it wants cheap and available flights, next day deliveries, and fresh Washington cherries. And those lucky enough to have a 401K or stock portfolio want the market and the economy to grow, grow, grow. But nobody wants more flights or more pollution. That’s particularly true for those already suffering from environmental injustices – like those in Beacon Hill and countless other homes in the path of jets jettisoning plumes of particulate pollution. Far flung fumes consumed by our lungs triggering affects unknown.
How do we change this system so we all can prosper under economic vitality while minimizing the negative environmental and socio-economic impacts? If we’re going to grow, what are we growing and why? For whom? Who pays the cost? How long can it last? What’s the cost to the planet? How much is enough?
This is what I intend to explore throughout this fall as I unpack what I believe to be the front runner for a new economic model: the circular economy. I’ll look at not just the theory but attempts to put it into practice. Perhaps our economy can be like the journey of an airplane after all – take off, level off, land, take off, level off, land – an infinite circle flown within the limits of the plane, the earth, and its occupants.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit interplace.io -
In this episode, I have the coach, trainer, and podcast host Thomas Leamy as a guest.
Thomas Leamy is a global citizen – having traveled to more than 50 countries. His experience connecting with diverse groups of people helped him realize how similar we all are – regardless of nationality, culture, or wealth.
Thomas spent 10+ years working with high-level executives and government officials around the world in the nation branding industry. He led 15 country-scale projects and became a sought-after country director in this field. During this time, his passion for understanding the psychology of high-performing leaders emerged.
After several coaching and training certifications, Thomas now helps individuals, teams, and SMEs understand how they too can perform at their best and reduce the burden of stress. He is originally from Ireland and leads high-Performance Strategy Europe (HPSE) as a business psychology practitioner and trainer. Thomas currently lives in Portugal with his wife and is completing an MSc in business & organizational psychology.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leamy.thomas/
Podcast: One word with Thomas Leamy https://anchor.fm/thomas-leamy
Linktree with different links and resources: https://linktr.ee/t.leamy
Webpage: https://leamy.co/
Links
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When I asked the community for topics for The Anxious Morning, this is one that came up a few times so I wanted to cover it here. It’s a really good question that everyone asks at some point and it will actually dovetail into the two editions that will be released tomorrow and the day after so stay tuned for those.
During an exposure, or when meeting a life challenge that triggers anxiety or panic, you WILL experience anxiety. You may feel all the symptoms that you know and hate. You may feel depersonalized or derealized. You might feel like you can’t breathe or are about to pass out or die. You may be convinced that you will lose your sanity and permanently break. All of these things (and others) can happen while engaging in exposure work.
So what do you do with them? How should you handle them?
The short answer is that you don’t have to handle them.
Well, that’s not really an answer. It’s really the lesson you need to learn from these experiences.
When you experience all those scary and uncomfortable symptoms and thoughts during an exposure, you should basically do the opposite of what you want to do to “handle” them. You will want to run. Don’t. You will want to escape. Don’t. You will want to get help or be rescued. Don’t. You will want to find every logical argument in the world to try to convince yourself that its just anxiety and that you are still OK. Don’t bother. Your lizard brain isn’t listening and isn’t buying your argument.
So when your body and mind are screaming at you to save yourself, be saved, or otherwise run out of this horrible, dangerous, hell-like situation, your response has to be exactly the opposite.
The highlights are:
1. Relaxation (you can be relaxed without being calm).
2. Focus in a more productive direction (you have to practice this)
3. Proper breathing (you also have to practice this)
4. Resolve to bend like a willow tree in a storm, but not break (which in this case we’ll define as running).
As always I have tell you clearly that this advice is not designed for “panic stopping”. I am not teaching you how to build a shield against panic. These is all predicated on the idea that the most successful exposure is the one in which you fully experience and move THROUGH anxiety, fear, and discomfort. Why? Because that is where the recovery lessons are. That’s why.
I can’t go into all the nuts and bolts of exactly what to do second by second in one morning newsletter. But this gives you the general idea. And if you stopped by hoping to find the top five ways to stop anxiety only to wind up disappointed, then this advice is exactly the advice you needed to hear today.
Tomorrow we’ll expand a bit on this topic to talk about Exposure and Response Prevention - ERP.
I just finished reading “What Happened To You” by Dr. Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey. It was suggested to me as a way to help understand the experience of trauma, and I’m happy that I read it. I think I might do a review of the book in a future episode of The Anxious Morning so stay tuned for that.
On Tuesdays (sometimes) I’ll let you know what I’m currently reading. I read quite a bit on psychology and philosophy, but really you never know what I’ll have in my Kindle or Audible libraries! If you’re on Goodreads and into books, you can follow/friend me over there. Here’s a link to my “currently reading” shelf. I’d love to see what you’re reading and what you recommend.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theanxiousmorning.substack.com -
Participating in this episode are Patrik, Martin, Danijel, Linda Karlström and our guest Lady Michèle Renouf . If you enjoy and want to support our work you can send a donation to SEB 5708 35 378 01
1)Intro, Douglas Christie Thoughts on the release of Ernst Zundel https://fakeotube.com/video/4734/douglas-christie---thoughts-on-the-release-of-ernst-zundel
2)In this episode we had the honor to be joined by Lady Michèle Renouf a former beauty queen who followed her conscience and got involved in historical revisionism in the late 1990s and since then has been a strong voice for getting the message out to the public what happens if you question the official narrative in particular historical events. During her time as revisionist she has met and got acquainted with many of the famous names within this scene such as David Irving, Robert Faurisson, Ursula Haverbeck, Horst Mahler, Ernst Zundel, Sylvia Stolz, Monica Schaefer, Alfred Schaefer, Jürgen Graf and many more. During a visit in Dresden, Germany in 2018 she made an unprepared speech of 10 minutes for which she later got prosecuted and risked a 5 year prison sentence for. Fortunately the prosecuting side later dropped the case and Michèle thinks it was because during the trial she would have had several opportunities to speak her mind to a broader public and they didn’t want her to get out with her message on such a big platform. This is just a few of the topics that were covered in this 3 hour long interview.
3)Outro Carl Klang, Rock them in their Ivory Towers https://bit.ly/3sAWJvp
4)Links to this episode:
1. Michèles presentation on video at the Patriotic Alternative Conference of Dr. Gunther Kümel’s Modified Sachs Plan Concept: Way Out of the Migration Disaster:
https://odysee.com/@PatrioticAlternative:f/2022_spring_conference_ladymichele:c
2. The 6 mins video filmed at Michèles Haus fireside in Germany of Berlin Attorney explaining (in German with subtitles) Michèles Dresden Trial victory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-KDbusxopM
3. The ‘table talk’ discussion in a 48 mins video of Michèles Trial Attorney Nahrath who explains this unique victory to Gaza Flotilla hero Joe Fallisi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akXy57vnxaY
4. Michèles Report of 93 years old Ursula Haverbeck’s Berlin Trial:
http://www.heritageanddestiny.com/ursula-haverbecks-latest-trial-lady-michele-renouf-reports-from-berlin/
5. A 12 mins video of an interview in English outside the Berlin courthouse with “Volkslehrer" Nikolai Nerling:
http://www.heritageanddestiny.com/berlin-appeal-court-confirms-12-month-jail-sentence-against-93-year-old-ursula-haverbeck/
6. Michèles DVD list:
http://www.jewishrepublic.com/cd-dvd-list-new.htm
7. On YouTube link the film Michèle made out of a surprise birthday party when she turn the tables instead to celebrate her hosts and those who kept the flame of fairness alive: “Justice in Germany”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZYl6q6m_W4
8. Jailing Opinions website commenced by someone who liked Michèles video of the same name and wished to promote it:
www.jailingopinions.com
9. Michèles own campaign website:
www.jewishrepublic.com
10. Ernst Zundel Setting the record straight (Documentary about his trials in Canada in the 1980s) https://archive.org/details/ErnstZundelSettingTheRecordStraightFullHistoryChannelDocumentary
11. Michael Hoffmans book Judaism discovered by its own texts.
https://archive.org/details/michael-a.-hoffman-judaism-discovered
12. http://www.talmudunmasked.com/ -
The poet Caalaa was sitting in the cell next to the journalist Martin Schibbye at the police station in Addis Ababa. He is tortured daily. Caalaa escapes for her life and ends up alone in a wintry Hälsingland.
During Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson's time in a cell at the police station in Addis Ababa, they could for several days see how prisoners were picked up at the rest yard from an underground part of the police station. The prisoners squinted at the bright light and were in poor condition. At night, screams were heard from the neighboring cells.One of those who shouted was Caalaa Hayiluu Abaataa, a young poet from the Oromo people who was imprisoned and tortured for his regime-critical poems. Martin threw a pack of Ethiopian "Nyala" cigarettes at him at one point and communicated via hand signals when the guards did not see them.
When Martin was released, he never thought he would see Caalaa again. But in December 2012, he received a friend request on Facebook from a refugee camp in Sudan. It was Caalaa who had fled.
The situation in the camp was terrible, friends of his had been killed by Ethiopian security services and gangs of traffickers operated in the camps. He feared for his life and felt that he had escaped from the ashes of the fire.
"I am coming to Sweden" he suddenly writes to Martin one spring day in May. He has been accepted as a quota refugee and he will take a course under the auspices of the Swedish Migration Board and then fly to Sweden. When he lands at Arlanda, Martin meets him and has since followed Caalaa's life as a quota refugee in Färila in Hälsingland. Now begins his real challenge.
#Obs:
The documentary The Boy in the Cell Next door is made by Martin Schibbye in 2015Support the show
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During 5 years we met every morning before dawn, to compare notes from thousands of clients that we have done both coaching and therapy with - looking at the meta-patterns of what tools they need to find balance, joy, pleasure and meaning without impairing any of these for anyone else - a sustainable joyful balance. We believe we found a solution.
Being hypnotists, we decided to make it a hypnotic exploration.
Release date on Amazon is 20220202
This is a PILOT for chapter 1 and we are CURIOUS what it DOES FOR YOU.
Please write your reflections to [email protected]
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On my weekly podcast "FUTURE OROMIA" I had an extraordinary conversation with an outstanding young Oromo girl, who lives in the UK.
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“It's all about the way we think and how we do things make things different. So change our mentality and think positively. Don't be afraid to try something for fear of failing before you even try. Instead of listening to the destructive advice of others who have never tried before. When they advise you to stop trying and scare you by telling you that if you try, you will fail. Just ask them if they have tried what you do now and if not then move on in your fight and one day with your goals set you will be the winner. Take the chance and stay on track in the fight for victory ... '' says Kutube, who was not afraid to try everything and won a lot of what she tried.
Her name is Quxube Jacob, She was born in Oromia and raised in Kenya Kakuma refugee camp where she completed primary school and high school.
Upon completion of her high school in 2014, Quxube started teaching in a local primary school and then joined #FilmAidinternational to learn about basic journalism. In 2015, she moved to the UK (settled by the UNHCR). When she settled in the UK, in less than a month, she began a college study where she studied Business Management.
In 2017 she completed college and joined the University of Huddersfield in the same year to pursue a degree in Human Resource Management with Business Management. Whilst at university, she joined different clubs and University societies to gain extra skills and to meet people from different backgrounds.
Quxube also got a job within the university as Student Associate. She said, ''those roles and activities helped me to grow as a person as it boosted my self-confidence and other interpersonal skills.''
During her final year at university, she started her online business (selling mainly Oromo items) and it is around this time that she also started a Youtube channel.
Quxube says, '' I started the channel to empower youths in my community however, it didn’t attract a lot of people and decided to move on to something else but in the future, I am looking for ways to empower youths. ''
Quxube graduated from university in 2020 with first-class honours in HR and Business management and now she is currently working full time for Kirklees Council as Business Support Officer.
She goes on and tells me that, '' As for my future goals: I want to go back to university to pursue a career in international relations at Lancaster University and to work for UNHCR. I also want to create a platform where I can empower youths in our community.''
Thank you for listening to our podcast, and if you like our podcast and want to hear so many incredible people and their stories, don't hesitate to support us.
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Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show
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This episode is in English
This episode is a recording of the event Nightfall - Queer Talks & Screenings which took place on Zoom in April 15, 2021. Nightfall is a series of events hosted by SAQMI in both online and physical space. The point of Nightfall is to give a place for LGBTQ+ artists and filmmakers to talk about their work and processes - both for finished works and works in progress.
During this nightfall we showed two films: Space is quite a lot of things by August Joensalo, An Ode to Self Exploration made by Sofia Aedo Zahou choreographed by Demba Sabally.
Both films in this programme centered around the experience that we as trans and queer people go through of discovery and exploration of our identities.
Where An Ode to Self Exploration uses the body as a site to explore and project this newfound identity, Space is quite a lot of things dives into the abstract and dreamlike quality of internal exploration so you get this nice contrast between public/private.
Aesthetically there was also a really nice contrast between the two films, with An Ode to Self Exploration in the concrete city landscape and Space is quite a lot of things much more ethereal and natural.
Good to note here that August was using the name Aniina during the time of this recording.
Bridge to Nika & Eliot
After talking to Demba and August more about their processes and visions for their work, we brought in two of those featured in August’s film Elliot - who identifies as non-binary - and Nika - who identifies as a non-binary woman.* Here we wanted to continue this theme of self-exploration within our semi-public semi-private intercommunity space on a more personal level - to deepen the experience of the film. By bringing more personal experiences into the conversation to encourage those in the audience to share their experiences too.
Biographies:
Sam Message (Host)Artist using culture to cultivate a more inclusive, supportive and sustainable LGBTQ+ community. Drag-something working with the surreal, the subversive and the political. Curator specialising in queer and feminist histories. Researcher of queering practice and theory. Evaluator and facilitator working with accessibility and engagement. Activist and active community member and socialite. All singing, all dancing, installations, workshops, tours happenings, the whole package. Currently curating for SAQMI and working on their new organisation Status Queer.
August JoensaloAugust Joensalo is a Helsinki based film director and writer who uses film as a medium for creating relatable utopias for queer and trans people.They aim to find ethical ways to represent queer bodies on image, with a special focus on trans narratives. Through their practice, they propose alternative ways of being and existing in this world – ways that fall outside the binary of language, bodies, and identities. They are graduating from their MFA in Film at HDK-Valand in 2021. Homepage.
Demba SaballyDemba is 24 years old and born and raised in Gothenburg, Sweden. Right now he’s working in retail and studying on the side. He’s always loved to dance and started voguing about 4 years ago, since then he’s competed in Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen and Paris.
Elliot HagströmElliot is a queer and trans student studying education with a specialisation in arts and crafts. Their interests include community organising, visual expression, giving people cool haircuts and cute animals.
Nika Dahlberg-MelinNika (b. 1986) is a visual artist based in Gothenburg, Sweden. She works in the intersection of photography and non-photographic visual languages, including sculpture, drawing, collage, written and printed text, and two-dimensional design.
*During the podcast, Nika was described as identifying as non-binary at the time of recording when in reality she identified as a non-binary woman.
Briefly about the movies that were shown during the evening:
Space is Quite a Lot of Things by August Joensalo2021, 11:25 min, Color, Experimental DocumentaryCuriosity about a world without gender sets a journey through a world of jellyfish and disco uncles, creating space for four trans people to share how they relate (or not) to their own gender, imagine visions of their own queer utopia, and reveal whether gender can be felt in your toes.
An Ode to Self Exploration by Sofia Aedo Zahou2020, 5 min, Color, Hybrid FilmA young man works in his father’s shop when he meets someone who, in the blink of an eye, broadens his perspective of himself and who he can be. An Ode to Self Exploration is a declaration of love for the different identities and nuances that exist amongst us. A short dance film built around the song Mussulo by the artist Mansa.
Credits SAQMI Play:Producers: Anna Linder and Malin HolgerssonDesign and code: Vincent OrbackComposer: Amanda LindgrenEdited and Mixed by Malin HolgerssonHost: Sam MessageOriginal: Nightfall #6 curated by Sam Message and Kolbrún Inga SöringPublisher: Anna Linder
SAQMI Play is produced with the support from The Swedish Arts Council and Gothenburg City.
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Donna and James Winter-Irving from Nagambie in Victoria, Australia, have transitioned from conventional to regenerative agriculture. Initially, it was Donna’s interest in permaculture that convinced her there must be another way to do farming in the dry landscapes of Australia. After attending a course on holistic management, the couple started to apply what they had learned in their own field. During this conversation we speak about the remarkable results they have seen related to both the profitability of the farm and how the land has responded as they have changed how they tend the land. We also speak about how important a community of support is for those making this kind of transition, and how holistic management, as a land practice, differs from permaculture, which is widely known in Australia where this land-based philosophy and teaching was originally invented.
Editing: Magdalena Lindroos
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In the last episode of Small Talks, Benjamin Pohlig meets writer and publisher Fred Taikon who has devoted his entire life to activism been an important voice for the Roma people in Sweden. A large part of his work has been to spread knowledge about the roma language, culture, and life. During Explorations of Now, Fred Taikon shared his experiences, and the history of nomadism, how nomads lived, travelled, and supported themselves in the past.
”The Roma people have been nomads since emigrating from India. During their travel, they have had different types of tents to live in. To make it easier to move from different places, they have had tents that were easy to set up. Some Romas had an animal pulling a cart, or a trolley. Some had donkeys on which they loaded their necessities.
Many people ask, why do these people travel around? Some thought that the Romas thought it was romantic and that they wanted a camp life. But that was not the case, the Romas had to support themselves. And the work they performed they found on the roads. All Romas were craftsmen of various kinds. Many of them were coppersmiths and blacksmiths, which meant that they tinned copper vessels and made plows and other tools for farmers. In recent times, the Romas practiced a so-called ”Spilo”. Where they played and danced for a paying audience, the women were often fortune tellers.” – Fred TaikonExplorations of Now is a collaborative project between Cullberg, Kultivator and The Institute for Future Studies, and funded by the Postcode Foundation. 12-15, 19-22 August 2021.
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Hey good people! During the summer we’ve been listening to some classic material by Hurricane G, Biz Markie (R.I.P.) and Masta Ace and in this mix we’ve put some of their music together with some new releases by Georgia Anne Muldrow and her latest album ”VWETO III”. Shout out also to Tanya Morgan, Freeway, Fashawn, […]
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Året har onekligen bjudit på omtumlande upplevelser så här långt. Därför kände vi behov av en lägeskoll så här i slutet av sommaren.
Är vi på rätt spår? Vart befinner vi oss i förhållande till våra intentioner i början av året? Följer vi vår själs längtan? Och vad är denna längtan?
Ett samtal om våra förväntningar, intentioner och insikter i det stora och i det lilla - nu, då och framöver.
Välkomna att lyssna :)
Avsnitten vi hänvisar till i avsnittet är:
29. Det som var och det som blir
40. Horoskop som själens spegel - Sophias astrologi
42. Återta din urlivskraft, Emma Hultqvist
45. Följa sin väg trots motstånd - Michael Oddane
47-48. Bibeln och sjunde sinnet - Marianne Brunzell
Youtube-filmen som Regine nämner hittar ni via den här länken:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2whJPweTkQ
(Nine Days of Eternity | Anke Evertz: A Profound Near-Death-Experience During a Coma)
Ni hittar oss på Facebook, Instagram och själscoacherna.se -
Sleep is vital for optimal functioning in our body. During our sleep, your organs detox, replace cells, heal wounds and builds muscle tissue. When we have impaired sleep, our hormones are not at optimal levels and it becomes hard to lose weight. In this episode, I talk about why this happens and what to do about it!
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Sleep is vital for optimal functioning in our body. During our sleep, your organs detox, replace cells, heal wounds and builds muscle tissue. When we have impaired sleep, our hormones are not at optimal levels and it becomes hard to lose weight. In this episode, we talk about the causes and remedies for sleep dysfunction.
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