In-Sight Publishing

2022-03-29

An Interview with Katherine Soucie of Sans Soucie Textile + Design

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/08/09

What is the importance of ethical fashion to you?

The importance of ethical fashion to me is based upon a holistic circular approach to designing, producing and consuming fashion and textiles in the 21^st century. It is system that involves a consideration of our environment in its entirety — our resources; use/reuse/recycling of these resources, respectful modes of production that does not exploit cultures, modes of production, humans and/or animals and a focus on the development of alternative business models that will encourage the further development of the local production and consumption of textiles and clothing.

What is the importance of sustainable fashion to you?

The importance of sustainable fashion is more than just buying fabric made sustainably. It is a social and moral responsibility. In the 90’s when I was in design school, I was told I couldn’t do what I wanted to do because there was no market.

Flash forward 20 years and after 13 years of establishing my design studio and practice I am doing it. I believe that it takes more than just using resources that are deemed ‘sustainable’ to claim yourself as sustainable.

Yes, it is important that we address resources – they are finite. I however believe that sustainability begins with creative use and reuse and using materials that are already in existence or are by-products from other industries to produce new textiles, garments and accessories.

We have way more materials in our environment than we can even possibly consume and we are the first society in history to exist that has had to create landfills to deal with our waste. I think sustainable fashion is informed by ones’ value system, knowledge and experience and the design decisions that are made are driven to contribute to the greater good in some way.

I believe sustainable fashion is meant to be specialized and should be approached in this way. I think the more important element to sustainable fashion is telling a story that needs to be told.

What is Sans Soucie Textile + Design?

Sans Soucie Textile + Design is a zero waste textile and design studio established in 2003 in Vancouver, Canada that specializes in transforming pre-consumer textile waste, specifically waste hosiery produced in mills in Canada and the USA.

This material resource is dyed and printed using low impact dyes and inks before it is remade into new textiles for clothing, accessories and 3D forms. We use and reuse all the water, waste ink, threads and offcuts from our process into our bespoke made to order limited edition collections.

What makes the company unique?

We transform pre-consumer waste hosiery into new textiles that are produced anywhere else in the world. We produce by-products from this material resource into cultural products that are 100% Made in Canada. We also a supplier of waste textiles to textile artists and craftspeople who work with our waste textiles to produce jewelry, rugs and fine art.

What other work are you involved in at this point in time?

My current schedule includes costume designing, public speaking and educating on the value that waste textiles has to offer as a creative material resource in craft and design, and mentoring various sustainable projects globally.

What meaning or personal fulfillment does this work bring for you?

Knowing that I am creating something that will live beyond my years on this planet and that fact that I contributing to the greater good.

With regard to ethical and sustainable fashion companies, what’s the importance of them now?

I think we have a long way to go but the movement has been started and in my opinion there is no looking back. I have spent time in the Southeast of the USA where the majority of textile and clothing production existed prior to offshore production taking over in the latter of the 20^th century.

From my experiences, the impact of this departure was necessary. Although they are still trying to recover from this loss, the people and of these environments were exploited and underpaid.

A revival is occurring in this area and are operating from a more mindful, sustainable approach. The sad thing is that what left the USA and Canada has only repositioned itself offshore and continues to exploit cultures, humans and animals. The Fashion System as we know it is deconstructing and has been for some time.

The more awareness that is created on the issue will pave the way for ethical and sustainable to grow and be the future of fashion.

Thank you for your time, Katherine.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

2022-03-29

An Interview with Christman Hersha of Noble Denim

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/08/08

Tell us about yourself – familial/personal story, education, and prior work.

I graduated from Ohio University in Athens in engineering– from there, I moved to Austin, TX to play music. I played & toured with my band, and worked as an Audio Engineer & publicist for artists for about 6 years. I got a little burned out at the slog and late nights– so I moved back to my home state of Ohio with my wife.

There, I met my soon to be close friend Chris Sutton. He’s the creative director and designer at Noble and the company was his brain child. We actually started playing music together (surprise) and had a really good go of it. We worked very well together creatively and practically, and he asked me to help him launch Noble.

I pretty much handled the operational side, and he handled the product & creative side. I had a natural inclination to computers, programming, organization and basic ‘left-brain’ stuff… so stepping into the role of C.O.O. felt very natural.

What is the importance of ethical and sustainable fashion to you?

It just feels like the right thing to do. Sourcing ethically and running our business with sustainability at its core was among some of the first tenants we put in place. Chris, his wife Abby (our CEO, and biggest advocate for sustainability) and myself started down that road early.

It was a need we saw in 2012 when we founded Noble– there weren’t a lot of denim companies or clothing companies for that matter who were successfully doing everything the way we thought it should be done. In truth, there are a few parts to it: sourcing, production & transportation.

A company like Patagonia (who we all very much enjoy) does a phenomenal job in their transparency and sourcing. But their factories are in Asia– even though they are run properly, that is a long way for those goods to travel to meet their American customers, and that is done on a container ship that spits out a massive amount of CO2.

We wanted to make things ‘closer to home’, source them sustainably AND work to find smaller factories that were hit hard by NAFTA. We felt that those three pieces would help us make our product the cleanest, most sustainable and ethical out there.

What is Noble Denim – source of its title, and its mission, productions, and vision?

Noble was the name of Chris’s grandfather. Not only does it have a personal connection to him, but the word itself sparks a lot of pre-existing feelings in people– ethics, quality, altruism. It seemed a perfect name to create a vivid idea of the product, along with that personal touch.

Its mission has been the same since we started– to make premium garments, in the most sustainable and responsible way possible. We leave no stone untouched in this pursuit (from organic inks or recycled packing materials, carbon offset shipments, sourcing within 200 miles, etc.).

We started doing all the sewing ourselves in our Cincy workshop, but quickly became overwhelmed at the demand… so at that point, we looked for help and learned about all of the factories around the Midwest who were highly skilled, but under worked due to NAFTA and companies moving operations to overseas. We decided to embrace that network wholeheartedly.

You’re a co-founder of Noble Denim. What is the importance of collaboration and teamwork with the creation of new companies?

Simply put, a single person can’t do everything. If they try, they certainly can’t do everything well. Chris and I were lucky at first since we both specialized in VERY different areas. He– with the eye on design, skills at the sewing machine and visual communication & me on organizing, problem solving, commerce and web.

That still wasn’t really enough though, and his wife Abby, and Chris’s college buddy, Sam, joined the team once we formally incorporated. They all brought very clear and unique skillsets to the table. We could all go about our own tasks without butting heads really at all– we trusted one another to be the master of their domain and still very much enjoy those roles.

One of Abby’s skills is understanding people, and bringing people together. So through her structure, we’ve all become a very tight-nit and comfortable team. That collaboration was so important at the beginning (and continues to be important).

What things become easier with co-founding a company?

You know that everyone has skin in the game, so the motivation is steady with all the partners. Since all of the partners head up different specialized departments within Noble, we can always lean on each other and rely on each other to get stuff done. That is incredibly refreshing.

What other work are you involved in at this point in time?

Noble isn’t for everyone. It is a premium product, made for someone who knows what they want. It probably wouldn’t be a great jean for someone who has never owned a pair of Raw denim. It is a lifestyle and requires a lot of devotion to make that pair of Raw jeans your own.

Plus, you probably wouldn’t notice all the extra features and thought we put into certain areas to make them more durable or comfortable. We realized this from the beginning, but we still had the dream to create sustainable garments for the masses. So, we started a sister-brand: Victor Athletics. It has taken up pretty much all of our extra time, and it’s awesome.

Victor makes vintage-inspired ALL organic athletic wear for men and women. All sourced and made in the USA (even the cotton is grown here). As I mentioned, it is a lot easier to acquire organic knit fabrics in the US than denim. With Victor, we use the same code of ethics as Noble, but decided to price the items direct to customers (so no wholesale, no extra markup for 3rd parties).

We wanted to take the barrier of entry WAY down for someone to get a USA made, organic cotton garment. So far, it has been met with open arms. We launched Victor via Kickstarter and to this day it is the 3rd highest grossing fashion Kickstarter campaign of all time. That was a big help in granting us affirmation on the idea.

Victor just turned 1 in the spring and we’ve been able to open a brick and mortar store in Cincinnati that doubles as the Noble Denim workshop. We offer custom hems, denim repairs and special small batch releases there, as well as stock all the Victor stuff. It’s been pretty fun.

What meaning or personal fulfillment does this work bring for you?

I think the validation that people WANT what Victor and Noble make is pretty awesome. It has been a passion of all of ours to create sustainable garments, and now we are able to make them for the connoisseur (noble) and the general public (victor).

With regard to ethical and sustainable fashion companies, what’s the importance of them now?

Since we started down the long road of making our product ethically, we’ve watch the climate of the garment industry shift. It is much easier for new companies to start up with very little funding, and the ‘field’ is that much more saturated.

Some follow what we’ve done and attempt to make their products close to home, but we still don’t see a large push for creating organic products. That was one dream of ours that we still strive for…we’d like to offer much more organic fabrics, but the fact is, they are incredibly difficult to source.

We’ve been able to offer organic knits and a basic indigo selvage… but as for different weights, colors, washes, it isn’t easy. Cone Mills in N. Carolina for example used to make organic denim, but stopped because the demand didn’t match their standard conventional denim. They have no plans to start up again.

This is certainly disappointing from a sourcing standpoint, but we still try to push the envelope and our customers do respond to it. Our organic products have sold very well and we are always getting requests for more options. I think this is one area we will continue to focus on to differentiate ourselves from the masses– plus, it is right on par with our mission: to create the highest quality garments, in the most sustainable way possible.

Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

Glad to know that this idea of sustainable fashion continues to gain traction! Hopefully it isn’t just a trend and people will continue to vote on how they want businesses to run with their dollar.

Thank you for your time, Christman.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

An Interview with Sukhdev Hansra

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/08/06

Tell us about yourself – family background, personal story, education, and previous professional capacities.

I am a British Indian. My father and grandfather came to England in the 1960’s, as my grandfather was part of the British Army. At that time, being in the British army allowed families to resettle in the UK.

We are a close knit family. I have one brother, who is married and has three boys (the oldest of whom is in university). My family all live in one family house in Reading, England. I still have a room there too.

Unlike my family, I decided to live and work in various places in the world. I wanted to see more of the world than Reading or the UK. I have lived and worked in the US, Dubai and England predominantly, but have also had short stints in Colombia (travelling) and Lithuania (working for the UNHCR and teaching English).

My parents have no formal education (not even high school). My father is the oldest of three, and my mother was the oldest girl in her family (2 boys, 4 girls). As such, and in keeping with India at that time (and even now), they had to help with family work. My father worked on the farm and my mother looked after her younger siblings.

My father came to England at the age of 16 with GBP 3, no English and no education. Through hard graft he taught himself mathematics that would help him run a business, English and reading to a rudimentary level (though he still can’t write). After a number of labourer jobs, he started his first shop, and from there he went on to be quite successful as an entrepreneur.

I tell the above story because I also wanted to be an entrepreneur, but in a different way. As my father never had an education, he valued it higher than anything else. He wanted to make sure I had an education.

My father was also quite strict. I did well in school, and then went on to get my first degree, a Bachelors in Computer Science focusing on Artificial Intelligence from Aston University in Birmingham. I thought I was going to be a neural network engineer at the time, but that never materialized.

I took a year off to go live and work in Lithuania. During that time, I planned out what my next 10 years should be: complete my year abroad, Masters (1 year), and then work in several 2 year stints to gain the skills I needed.

So I worked as an IT consultant in London and Boston and with projects in Tokyo (2 years), strategy consultant in London and with projects in Paris (3 years), MBA (2 years) and then in finance in investment banking in New York and London (actually 3.5 years).

You can see that some of the jobs were longer than the 2 years I envisaged. This gave me a grounding in how to organize and run companies, as I had a good understanding of IT and ops, marketing, and finance.

During this time, I tried to volunteer my time to worthy causes. I used to work as the finance director at Yaa Asantewaa in London, a black arts charity, for 2 years, and at Junior Achievements in New York giving classes on everyday living.

When I moved to Dubai, volunteering became very difficult due to the restrictions on good causes and foundations, so I decided with my business partner at Isthmus (Javier Cervino to start up social impact projects instead (see below).

Along the way, I have helped to start-up a number of companies, both as a partner, and as a consultant for others. The most prominent is a finance consulting company, Isthmus Partners, which is a corporate finance company that has been operational since Feb, 2009 in Dubai.

I have also helped to started up The Carbone Clinic (see below), which has been a major part of the last 3 years for me. Chanzez is a startup that I have been working on for the last year, which is in its initial phases.

As stated above, along the way I picked up a degree in Computer Science from Aston University, a Masters (ADMIS) from the London School of Economics, my MBA from Columbia business school in NY (majoring in finance and economics, and entrepreneurship), and my CFA.

On the personal side, I live and work in Dubai currently, and am married to Marina.

What is the importance of ethical fashion?

First, we need to ensure we are speaking the same language. For us ethical fashion is clothing that is produced with labour that is provided appropriate working conditions, paid fairly and are managed assuming the dignity of workers. This is our main focus, and sustainability is a longer term objective.

This is important on a human level. I think everyone can agree with that, but many are happy to turn a blind eye, as it is too difficult and entrenched as a problem for any one individual to think they can help.

On a business level, this is important too. It reduces staff churn, increases productivity and helps service levels. This is not simple academic babble – we see it in the project we run. Ethical labour standards are the first thing we look for in each of our social impact projects, and we grow out from there, as you will see in how our clinic operates (see below).

What is the importance of sustainable fashion?

For us sustainable fashion is production, use and disposal of clothing in a way that will have the least impact on the Earth.

As sustainable fashion impacts so many people (through purchases and production), but also the earth (through the whole lifecycle of growing fibre such as cotton through to production with the use of chemicals through to disposal of clothing) it is an industry that needs a more sustainable production cycle. It is not even a question to ask why, but how and when can we help.

We are new to the sector, so we are still learning how to ensure sustainability. Essentially, we are focusing on one small part of the production cycle, but hope to vertically integrate over time, so we can be responsible for the whole cycle for our products.

How that happens will evolve over time. We are realistic about the learning cycle for us, as well as for the market and production.

Our current focus will be to purchase organic material, and not use chemicals in the process of cutting, sewing and packaging. We are still working through our supply chains, so this will be our first aim. Later, we will look at weaving and growth of cotton itself, but this is a longer term goal.

You work with start-up companies that have social impact. What companies?

Our main success story has been The Carbone Clinic in Dubai. This is a clinic for children with autism. We helped start this clinic because we saw the need (in the autism field), and the poor way in which services were provided in the region (no regulation, few qualified staff, and many clinics that operate purely as a money making scheme).

We are not a charity, a strictly for-profit company, an NGO or a non-for-profit company. We are a hybrid. We operate like a for-profit company. Therefore, we are as efficient as possible. We are competitive on market rates, salaries, and compete with everyone else in the market. The difference is what we do with the profit.

The majority of the profit goes towards raising awareness of autism, paying for services where parents of children cannot afford services (on a means tested basis), and helping to influence government policy (through trying to regulate Applied Behaviour Analysis correctly, as a treatment for autism).

With this method, we are never in a position of continuously asking for money, as we generate funds with which to run our social impact programmes. The minority of the profit is used to pay shareholders, as we do need to attract investment.

We also ensure internally that we run well provisioned staff. That means a lot of investment in training. As well as all the normal training employees should expect from a clinic, we also fund Masters programmes, the cost to become board certified, etc.

We do this with our administration staff also so our accountants become chartered, our IT staff upskill in new technologies, etc. Our staff also get real progression opportunities through promotion once they show they have aptitude for the next level and have taken advantage of the training we provide.

This mix of running like a pure for-profit company, having a social impact project funded by the profit and ensuring our staff are treated properly is evident in all our projects. We find that it helps both improve productivity and reduce churn of staff. People who work with us stay, grow, and ultimately make our services better. Over three years, the clinic has gone from a startup to being one of (if not the) most prominent autism clinics in the MENA region.

We also work with start-ups as consultants that want to make a social impact. For instance, we helped to finance Talah Board, a wood board production company that produces OSB board from palm tree waste (the fronds that are chopped off). 95% of this waste is either incinerated or dumped into landfills.

Talah Board will be able to take at least 20% initially of this waste to produce new wood board that can be used for multiple purposes, predominantly in concrete form work to start with in the development of new buildings.

We are also involved in the due diligence and financing of new bio fuel companies.

Why those companies with social impact?

We are looking to start social impact projects in a number of sectors. The important thing is to find markets that are large and where the impact is wide reaching. Healthcare, education, textile production, farming, and energy are all sectors that we would be interested in.

Your recent venture is Chanzez. What is Chanzez?

Chanzez is a clothing production company, which aims to initially produce ethically, and then look at more sustainable practices across the lifecycle of its clothing production. We expect people to want fashion, rather than need fashion. We aim to fill this gap in the mass market. So we are not looking to be high fashion or to produce eclectic designs.

We aim to fulfil the staple clothing functions, with designs that are contemporary and appeal to the masses. This means t-shirts (to start), jeans, button down shirts, etc. We will look to produce for men (first batch), women and children.

We are looking to produce on a mass scale, so we can sell at fair prices. Though our production costs will be higher, we aim to be profitable by reducing other costs such as marketing spend. We also are looking to make less in profit, but enough to attract investors.

What other work are you involved in at this point in time?

See above

What meaning or personal fulfillment does this work bring for you?

That is a complex question. I firmly believe this type of work is a duty. I have the skills I have because an immigrant moved to an unfamiliar country where he had no money, could not speak the language and could not get a job that would pay him fairly.

That immigrant’s hard work gave me my education. I could use it to gain just for myself: I work in finance (which is a dirty word in many circles), which pays well. Why spend the time to do start social impact projects?

A couple of things:

1) It would be unfair to all those that were born into a country of no opportunity and whose parents did not have the chance my parents had (what little chance that was) for me to use my skills purely for personal gain. Using the skills, I have learnt for only a fraction of my time to help start social impact projects is not really that taxing on me.

2) I am fortunate. I like what I do. I don’t have a 9-5 job. Some people would find my job tedious and boring, but I like finance, economics, and negotiating contracts. I enjoy organizing, working through organizational structures and process charts. I like working with people and helping to train them. So I don’t see the work as a chore.

3) I used to think that I needed A, B and C to be happy. Over time I have realized that it is not A, B and C that makes a person happy, but the pursuit of A, B and C. It is the desire to get up and have purpose. Achieving A, B or C ends the journey. Ends are never as good as beginnings or the middle (I find). Also, I start thinking of A, B and C as less necessary.

With regard to organizations/companies, and so on, like Trusted Clothes and Chanzez, what’s the importance of them to you?

I think there should be more organisations out there like Trusted Clothes and Chanzez. Once there is a critical mass of such organisations, they will have a greater say in how things are done. What matters in this world is the power wielded by companies that have the ear of consumers.

That may be unfortunate, but in the large part true. So once companies that produce ethical and sustainable products have enough of a market share, suddenly things will start to change. For that to happen, ethically minded companies and organisations need to appeal to the masses, not by preaching, but by just doing.

Create the products people want regardless of how they are made. Make them sustainable and ethically in the background. People don’t really want to know how they are made, and don’t really care. Making the products people want is what is important. Companies should produce them ethically regardless.

So the importance of these companies is not as individual organisations, but as a market share. It doesn’t matter they do not relate, or even if they compete against each other. The point is that they have to become a larger piece of the overall pie.

Thank you for your time, Sukhdev.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

An Interview with Anna Sundari

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/08/05

Tell us about yourself – family background, personal story, education, and previous professional capacities.

I was born and grew up in England. I spent a lot of time in Brighton, Glastonbury, and Southwest England. When I left school, I qualified as a hairdresser. I started travelling at the age of 20. I went on a trip to Australia. I was travelling, meeting amazing people, and studying philosophy and spirituality. I went to India at the age of 21. I started making jewelry and leather accessories. The business has expanded after that. I have always been into working with natural fabrics. I have one brother and one sister. Both are younger than me. They are in London. My parents live in the countryside.

What is the importance of ethical fashion?

It is to support the communities and not sweatshop labor. My ethic is that we work in an environment where everyone is happy and paid well. We a have a relationship with the people producing our line, our clothing.

Also, we are working more with natural fabrics. We are trying to find more sustainable fabrics. Fabrics that can be more of a solution rather than part of the throwaway fashion industry. We aim to make clothes that don’t fall apart. That doesn’t go out of fashion. Fashion is such a quick industry.

What is the importance of sustainable fashion?

It is making clothes that don’t fall apart. That are biodegradable and won’t pollute the planet. Cotton pollution is one of the biggest polluters in the world. It is finding more natural fabric solutions rather than contributing to the problem. We don’t want polyester fabric.

(Laugh)

What is the inspiration for Sundari Creations – and its title?

Sundari is a Sanskrit name. It was given to me about 10 years ago. When I was doing yoga in India, it means “Beautiful.” The whole Sanskrit name means “divine mother of inner beauty.” It is more commonly known as “beautiful.” When you break down “beautiful,” it means “Be-You-To-Full.” The whole concept of the line is to feel complete, to feel themselves to the full, and to feel confident.

What makes Sundari Creations unique?

It is to have more cutting-edge designs and using natural, sustainable fabrics. A lot of the natural clothing is often plain and simple – not so creative. It is our mission to create cutting edge designs with natural fabrics. It is targeting a wide range of people, too. For people that live in the cities, practice yoga or dance. It targets adventurous spirits as well.

It supplies wholesale clothing, jewelry, and accessories. Why these products in particular?

I am creative and love using different materials. We are more specialized with the clothes and the jewelry. The accessories are a fun product to make. It’s, for me as an artist, a fun material to make products with. I use leather because its strong lasting and natural and a by product. That’s part of the idea. It is working with natural fabrics. Fabrics that is strong. It’s because I am creative and like different materials.

(Laugh)

You have an offer of $1,000 for minimum orders. How does this improve the livelihoods of small businesses?

We give a small starting price because it is not a huge investment for small businesses. We do have to have a minimum because it’s easier for our production house and everyone involved. We have to dye the fabric and print it. We need minimum orders to keep it realistic.

You have a close relationship with pattern makers, seamstresses, and tailors, and do not have products from sweat -shops. How does this improve the ethical considerations for the products – consumer and suppliers?

It helps to pay more attention to the way that our clothing is produced. A lot of the stuff from the high street stores these days we have no idea where the products are coming from. I know that when something is sold for less than a fiver (£5). It costs me more than that to make.

So, whoever is making that item, they may not be being paid that well. When you’re buying clothes, it is important to consider how that item is produced. Animals have been mistreated, especially when demand is high. It is important to start noticing where our clothes etc coming from, where they are made, the fabrics etc.

The main value seems to be fairness. If someone is working in a condition, making a product, they should have adequate pay and fairness is part of that. Also, it is important to know what conditions are like for the person – to be more involved at that level. Obviously, the consumer can’t be involved at that level, but they can do some research at least – if they have the time. (Laughs) Support smaller labels and local designers.

What is the importance of that close relationship with the producer to you?

I love the people that I work with. I support them. Not just because I love them. I want to have fun, have good communication, and know everyone’s happy. Like in England or America, you want everyone to feel happy and feel appropriately paid for his or her work. In Asia and other places where a lot of clothes are made, there are people that are mistreated.

Conditions aren’t always so great. Everything these days in made in Asia, China, and Vietnam.

For me, I enjoy having the good relationship with my staff and know that they are happy, enjoying what they are doing, and everyone is getting paid right.

What other work are you involved in at this point time?

Mainly, I am working on clothing and designs. Also, I teach yoga, which I do volunteer for deprived children in the community and the neighborhood. I do some healing work.

What meaning or personal fulfillment does this work bring for you?

I love being creative. I am more, and more, working on the ethical and natural fabrics. I am trying to support the market for Eco ethical clothing. For the clothes, I feel that it is hopefully going to be part of the solution to the environmental problems that the fashion industry is creating.

Fashion, without plastic materials. I like that aspect. I feel like I can help be part of the solution making sustainable clothes. I love to express the creative side. I love to express my spirit and sharing what I’ve learned. It is being healthy and present. I think yoga is great for everybody. If you do a bit each day, you can feel vitalized by getting the circulation and energy moving. The healing, its good to help one another.

What is this healing?

I do many healing modalities such as Reiki and Theta; it’s a life style and adds to healthy living.

With regard to ethical and sustainable fashion companies, what’s the importance of them now?

It’s great. They are promoting ethical fashion. It is important in the current times with consumerism as the reality we’re living in, where things are mass produced and not really made to last. Trusted Clothes is great because they are supporting the same beliefs as me. They are making a change for people to be more aware of what they’re purchasing, what the materials are made from how it’s made, where it’s made. Is it what they really, really want or is it because it is a bargain and cheap? It changes the way we look at things to something more serious.

Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

I don’t know.

(Laugh)

I think I’ve said it all. I promote holistic healthy lifestyle. That my label and designs are part of the holistic lifestyle. It is all, in essence, the same thing. It is looking good and feeling good. Eating well, everything is part of that.

It is good to eat well, eat healthy food, and know what you’re wearing. Be healthy. That’s what I’m communicating.

Thank you for your time, Sundari.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

Collective Action

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/08/05

To begin combating large problems, we need to collaborate and work together.

The nature of large-scale problems can be solved through collective action. Collective action via the small contributions multiplied over people.

Multiplied over, this can mean use of things that produce carbon to combat climate change or global warming. It might not mean the best economic system at the moment. But it does provide a survivable future for the next generation.

Upcoming generations will be dealing with the same issues as us, but with science we can make great progress. Collective action, scientific and not-so scientific, has compounding effects. It changes the policy, law, and production of society.

The production and energy consumption of energy as well as the production of the goods and services that consume that energy. That means moving from something like hydrocarbon producing energy sources to less hydrocarbon producing energy sources, or even solar or nuclear power.

If we can work together, get our ‘house in order’ and collaborate on small networks and small scales, we can have an impact that brings great change. It’s a bit like ‘think globally and act locally’. Every single contribution towards a common goal counts.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

The Hidden Workforce

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/08/04

There’s the nature of child labour in all its hellish combinations.

One example is child slavery. It’s a subset of it. Child labour is estimated above 200,000,000 children. That’s 18 times the number of children in Canada as a whole. It’s ‘jaw dropping’.

The kids in child slavery are a much smaller number and going through some of the most severe forms of degradation, humiliation, abuse, and exploitation. They might not know better either. But we do.

And that’s the point. If the world leaders don’t, and citizens don’t, do something about it, few others can or will.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

Hopi Textiles and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

Who are the Hopi – and basic “indigenous” definitions can help, sort of, but everyone’s different, peoples and persons?[i]^,[ii]^,[iii]^,[iv]^,[v]^,[vi] Glad you asked.

And while we’re at it, what are natural fibres? Also happy you asked. Natural fibres differ from synthetic or man-made fibres, can be plant or animal fibres, the plant cells as eukaryotic or non-prokaryotic, and both animal and plant fibres can be composted whilst synthetic or man-made fibres cannot decompose.[vii]^,^[viii]^,^[ix]^,^[x]^,^[xi]^,^[xii]^,^[xiii]^,^[xiv]^,^[xv]

But first, let’s chat about indigenous peoples a bit – indigenous peoples throughout the world continue to be under tremendous and forced pressure – which reflects ‘deep, systematic and widespread’ rights violations of indigenous peoples in the world – from the outside, and at times in violation of the international agreements such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which, in Articles 1 through 3, states unequivocally[xvi]:

Article 1 Indigenous peoples have the right to the full enjoyment, as a collective or as individuals, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms as recognized in the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights law.

Article 2 Indigenous peoples and individuals are free and equal to all other peoples and individuals and have the right to be free from any kind of discrimination, in the exercise of their rights, in particular that based on their indigenous origin or identity.

Article 3 Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.[xvii]

The international violations of rights have localized representations in the national contexts of many, many countries including, for brief examples, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Guyana, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, and even numerous examples throughout the continent of Africa.[xviii]^,^[xix]^,^[xx]^,^[xxi]^,^[xxii]^,^[xxiii]^,^[xxiv]^,^[xxv]^,^[xxvi]^,[xxvii]There are hundreds of millions of indigenous peoples throughout the world (some say 370 million and others say more than 400 million, and the numbers could be much lower or much, much higher) and the violations of human rights would be travesty enough, but this kind of violation stacks with human rights and, thus, becomes an issue for more than one single group of people.

So it leads to a joke, darkly, if you can name a letter, you’re likely to find a country name that starts with that letter with indigenous rights violations in addition to likely human rights violations as well, and the examination provided in the end notes is not even close to comprehensive. It’s a simple alphabetized listing. Not complex, in short; that means the issue can be graspable by most people most of the time, which compounds its…bad-ness.

And that Article 1 pertains to the United Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Two of the key documents in the international community.[xxviii]^,[xxix] What do they say? Well, the UN Charter can be read article by article, and it is a fundamental document, but the Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrines many of the collective values of the species. Take the preamble alone:

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.[xxx]

The consistent reference to a common people simply means a unified global citizenry (mirrors much of McLuhan with the Global Village) and to the rights and freedoms is simple music to my, and very likely their and everyone’s, ears and hearts, and minds, or in that great German song by, the greatest constructor of baroque sound, Johann Sebastien Bach: herz und mund und tat und leben or “heart and mouth and deed and living.”[xxxi]^{,[xxxii],[xxxiii],[xxxiv],[xxxv]}

By the way to avoid possible confusion, this is a document, or these are documents, rather, that pertain up to the present and through the United Nations, that is, they’re active now. And Articles 2 and 3 of the freedom and equality for indigenous peoples (as with everyone) and the freedom for self-identification with their own culture, and the “self-determination” to do so, and, thus, the summarization of rights, privileges to culture, and the choice to one’s own culture, that is, to pick one’s own culture and live by it: full stop, period, exclamation point.

Let’s go back to the first article, there’s the description about enjoyment of all, not one or some or most, but all – that is, every individual and identified collective/group, of the human rights (as people, as human beings, after all) And furthermore, these do not limit in any way to these kinds of contexts, because the nature of the problems of violations of rights (or, at least, universally agreed upon privileges for the long-term, first peoples in a land descendants) of indigenous peoples is an international issue (one feels like stating a crime) with the agreements made, tautologically, internationally; not in any national context alone, but in the generalized manner in which these are portrayed.

And take the subsequent earliest stipulations about the right to live their lives as they see fit:

Article 4 Indigenous peoples, in exercising their right to self-determination, have the right to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to 4.Resolution 217 A (III). 5 their internal and local affairs, as well as ways and means for financing their autonomous functions.

Article 5 Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinct political, legal, economic, social and cultural institutions, while retaining their right to participate fully, if they so choose, in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the State.[xxxvi]

That includes the culture and identity expressed through the production of textiles. This means the natural fibre world penetrates into this world of the Hopi (one of my favorite cultures on the planet at the moment).

So they have the right to live through their culture as they see fit insofar as individuals or groups within their community do not have their own human right or rights violated en masse or in small, and the possibility for their own way of life to be violated, and this is the cool part because of the neat art in their own community. So who are the Hopi, in brief?

The Hopi Indians, who live in the arid highlands of northern Arizona (located in the southwestern part of the United States), have inhabited the same place for a millennium, far longer than any other people in North America. They are not only the oldest dwellers in this land but are considered by most other Indians to have a wisdom, a knowledge of things, beyond average comprehension. Peace-loving and knit tightly together by clan relationships, they are intensely spiritual and fiercely independent. Their all-pervading religion is a many stranded cord that unites them to their stark, and beautiful environment.[xxxvii]

As with most cultures, they have a particular religion that represents their collective socio-cultural context and history and cosmology. They have a complex series of ceremonies, and chamber to do this called the kiva with the religious life surrounded by and devoted to the purported Kachina or Katsina spirits.[xxxviii]

And if you look at their intricate and unique textiles and designs, you can see, possibly, why I love that culture.

Or the more particular clothing style indicated in this image a dance in progress. That image is indicative of some of their foundational cosmology and philosophy of life, which is?

When people first emerged into this Fourth World, they asked Maasaw (the Earth Guardian) if they could live here. Maasaw offered a bag of seeds, a water gourd, and a planting stick, and explained that the people’s way in the Fourth World would be hard, but that the his way would provide a long and good life. Therefore, the ethic of self-sufficiency became the root of the present day Hopi people.

The Hopi trace their history back thousands of years, making them one of the oldest living cultures in the world. Hopi are a diverse people; the ancestoral Hopis, Hisatsinom (people of long ago), are known as the “Anasazi,” “Hohokam,” “Sinagua,” “Mogollon,” and other prehistoric cultural groups of the American Southwest. Some of the Hopi villages are among the oldest continuously occupied settlements in the North American continent. The remoteness and expanse of Hopitutskwa (Hopi land) has isolated the Hopi people from the outside world and has helped to preserve the culture.[xxxix]

I could be wrong on the interpretation because I am not an expert on the culture and people, but am intrigued by them. They could very well be one of the oldest civilizations or cultures to date alongside the Jewish and Chinese traditions, but founded in the Western hemisphere as opposed to the Eastern.[xl]

And some of their foundational philosophy and clothing seem to come out of a certain isolation from the rest of the world, sort of.

This was a weave from some of the Hopi themselves such as his man here.

This particular man’s story reflects some of the violations of individual rights instantiated via international stipulations given before:

Prior to contact with the U.S. American Government, Hopi men and women had one name given first at birth, and later as part of a religious society initiation. The name Duwahoyouma is associated with the Sand-Snake Clan as his initiated name. As the U.S. policy in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s was intended to “civilize” the Hopis, Kikmongwi Tawaquaptewa and his brothers were sent to the Sherman Indian School in Riverside California. It was during this forced educational period that Duwahoyouma’s name was changed to Charles Fredericks. Tawaquaptewa’s name was changed to Wilson Fredericks. And so the name Fredericks was falsely created as a proper name for the Bear Clan brothers.[xli]

They even have fancy pants experts with prestigious degrees come in and conduct research as well. One can assume. But if you observe the two people here, the lovely and intricate patterns of blues and orange, and green, and yellow weaved is simply lovely, I feel. Look closer; no pretense. I highly suggest looking more into them. And as noted by Fredericks, “we are still here.”[xlii] An echo across the indigenous people’s throughout the world: the dead, and the gone, and the living and violated.

[i] Hopi. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[ii] Hopi language. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[iii] Cultural Survival. (2016). Who are Indigenous Peoples?.

[iv] Who Are Indigenous Peoples (2016) states:

According to the United Nations, there are approximately 400 million Indigenous people worldwide, making up more than 5,000 distinct tribes. Together we are one of the largest minority groups in the world, spanning over 90 countries. While Indigenous Peoples total only about 6% of the world’s population, we represent 90% of the cultural diversity.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES HOLD 20% OF THE EARTH’S LAND MASS. THAT LAND HARBORS 80% OF THE WORLD’S REMAINING BIODIVERSITY.

First peoples Worldwide. (2016). Who Are Indigenous Peoples.

[v] Who are indigenous peoples? (2016) states:

It is estimated that there are more than 370 million indigenous people spread across 70 countries worldwide. Practicing unique traditions, they retain social, cultural, economic and political characteristics that are distinct from those of the dominant societies in which they live. Spread across the world from the Arctic to the South Pacific, they are the descendants – according to a common definition – of those who inhabited a country or a geographical region at the time when people of different cultures or ethnic origins arrived. The new arrivals later became dominant through conquest, occupation, settlement or other means.

United Nations permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. (n.d.). Who are indigenous peoples?.

[vi] Who are indigenous peoples? (2016) states:

At least 370 million people worldwide are considered to be indigenous. Most of them live in remote areas of the world. Indigenous peoples are divided into at least 5000 peoples ranging from the forest peoples of the Amazon to the tribal peoples of India and from the Inuit of the Arctic to the Aborigines in Australia.

Indigenous peoples do not necessarily claim to be the only people native to their countries, but in many cases indigenous peoples are indeed “aboriginal” or “native” to the lands they live in, being descendants of those peoples that inhabited a territory prior to colonization or formation of the present state.

International Working Group for Indigenous Affairs. (n.d.). Who are indigenous peoples?.

[vii] natural fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[viii] man-made fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[ix] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15). Animal Fibres.

[x] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15). Plant Fibres.

[xi] Bailey, R. (2016, April 25). Plant Cells.

[xii] eukaryote. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xiii] prokaryote. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xiv] Bailey, R. (2016, April 25). Plant Cells.

[xv] University of Illinois Board of Trustees. (2016). The Science of Composting

[xvi] United Nations. (2010, April 22). Rights Violations of Indigenous Peoples ‘Deep, Systemic and Widespread’, Special Rapporteur Tells United Nations Permanent Forum.

[xvii] United Nations. (2007, September 13). United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

[xviii] Brazil’s treatment of its indigenous people violates their rights (2013) states:

Not since the dark days of Brazil’s military dictatorship, when the indigenous people were regarded as “obstacles to progress” and their lands were opened to massive development schemes, have they faced such an assault on their rights.

The fortuitous discovery of the landmark Figueiredo report, which documented appalling crimes against Brazil’s tribal peoples during the 1940s, 50s and 60s and led to the creation of the tribal rights organisation Survival International in 1969, has re-ignited debate, and serves as a warning at a time when the denial of land rights and killing of indigenous people continues.

On one side is an intransigent president whose unilateral view of development looks set to turn the Amazon into an industrial heartland to fuel Brazil’s fast-growing economy. On the other there are Brazil’s 238 tribes, determined to defend their hard-won constitutional rights and protect their lands and livelihoods for future generations. Tellingly, Dilma Rousseff is the only president since the fall of the dictatorship in 1985 who has not met with indigenous peoples.

This is a battle for the rule of law and the right to self-determination, a cornerstone of the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. As the Coordination of Indigenous Organisations of the Brazilian Amazon, or COIAB, recently stated: “The current government is trying to impose its colonial and dominating style on us … [it] has caused irreversible harm to indigenous peoples using bills and decrees, many of them unconstitutional.”

Watson, F. (2013, May 29). Brazil’s treatment of its indigenous people violates their rights.

[xix] UN human rights report shows that Canada is failing Indigenous peoples (2015) states:

Indigenous peoples and human rights groups say that a new United Nations report on Canada’s human rights record should be a wake-up call for all Canadians.

The UN Human Rights Committee, which regularly reviews whether states are living up to their obligations under the binding International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, today made more than a dozen recommendations for fundamental changes in Canadian law and policy in respect to the treatment of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.

The Committee was so concerned about issues of violence against Indigenous women and the violation of Indigenous Peoples’ land rights that it called on Canada to report back within one year on progress made to implement its recommendations on these issues.

“Today’s report shows that we need action now on our collective agenda for closing the human rights gap,” said Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde. “It is significant that a report on human rights in Canada focuses so much on Indigenous peoples and Indigenous rights. This speaks to the extent of our challenges and the urgent need to address them. The report is yet another call to action for Canada to work with First Nations as partners to realize our human rights, including our Aboriginal and Treaty rights.”

Amnesty International Canada. (2015, July 23). UN human rights report shows that Canada is failing Indigenous peoples.

[xx] Violations of Indigenous Peoples’ Territorial Rights: The Example of Costa Rica (2014) states:

This study explores the issues of widespread illegal occupation of indigenous lands on a national scale. Approximately 6000 non-indigenous persons are occupying at least 43% of the areas belonging exclusively to indigenous peoples.

The study presents a comprehensive analysis of the multidimensional nature of the law regarding indigenous peoples’ lands, territories and resources, along with its relationship to their cultural integrity and survival. This is explored in detail with reference to three particular territories: China Kichá, Térraba and Salitre. In addition, the relationship between territorial rights and the right to self-government, self-representation, effective participation in decision-making and the legal personality of indigenous peoples is explained.

The authors examine the issues in the light of Costa Rica’s obligations under national legislation, as well as the country’s obligations under international law. Special attention is given to the case law of the Inter-American Commission and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

MacKay, F. & Garro, A.M. (2014, February 17). Violations of Indigenous Peoples’ Territorial Rights: The Example of Costa Rica.

[xxi] Inter-American Court condemns Ecuador for violating rights of indigenous people of Sarayaku (2012) states:

Ecuador and all other signatories of the American Convention must establish processes of free, prior and informed consultation before initiating any projects that could affect either the territories of indigenous peoples and communities or other rights essential for their survival.

This was confirmed in the sentence released today by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, regarding the Kichwa People of Sarayaku v. Ecuador case. The victims were represented by the Association of the Kichwa People of Sarayaku (Tayjasaruta), Ecuadorian lawyer Mario Melo and the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL).

In the words of CEJIL’s Executive Director Viviana Krsticevic, “the sentence issued by the Inter-American Court on the Sarayaku case represents a real milestone in the defense of the rights of indigenous communities on the continent, as it establishes much clearer rules regarding the right to prior consultation in relation to development projects with consequences for the survival of these peoples”. The Ecuadorian legal representative Mario Melo asserted: “this sentence requires the Ecuadorian State to regulate the right to prior consultation established in the Ecuadorian Constitution of 2008, in accordance with the highly detailed standards set out in International Human Rights Law”.

CEJIL. (2012, July 26). Inter-American Court condemns Ecuador for violating rights of indigenous people of Sarayaku.

[xxii] Continued Human Rights Violations against Indigenous Populations in Guatemala (2013) states:

On May 10, 2013, Guatemalan ex-dictator Jose Efraín Rios Montt was sentenced to 80 years in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity in an historic case. With this incredible achievement, it may appear as though the state of human rights in Guatemala is drastically improving. However, human rights violations, violence and oppression at the hands of the government remain the lived reality of Indigenous communities around the country at this time. Under the administration of the current president and ex-general in the war, Otto Perez Molina, there has been a resurgence of violence against Indigenous communities, especially those who are defending their lands against exploitation by international mining and dam companies.

Cultural Survival. (2013, May 16). Continued Human Rights Violations against Indigenous Populations in Guatemala.

[xxiii] Indigenous peoples’ rights violated and traditional lands in Guyana threatened by mining (2013) states:

At the beginning of 2013, indigenous peoples in Guyana are becoming increasingly alarmed over continuing and growing disregard for their legitimate rights by miners and government agencies and gross rights violations which have been endorsed by the judiciary in two recent cases. In 2012, the mining lobby publicly attacked indigenous peoples’ land rights in the Guyanese press and pledged to oppose recognition of customary lands. Meanwhile, the government agency responsible for regulating the mining sector appears to be accelerating the issuance of mining permits and concessions on Amerindian customary lands, despite the fact that these same lands are the subject of legal actions in the courts seeking recognition of traditional ownership rights and/or unresolved village applications for land title and title extensions.

Akawaio lands desecrated and rights trampled

Recent events and court rulings on mining conflicts on Akawaio Village lands in the Middle and Upper Mazaruni are tragic examples of this blatant violation of indigenous peoples’ rights by the mining sector. In response, Akawaio leaders and communities are standing up for their rights and challenging mining encroachment on their traditional lands and waters. For the past year, Kako Village in the Upper Mazaruni District has been forced into a court battle brought against them by a miner when they refused her entry to the Kako River to start a mining operation. The Village leader (Toshao) has also been cited for contempt of court and now faces possible imprisonment after his people took peaceful direct action to prevent the miner from entering their land in contravention of a court issued injunction that the miner be allowed to proceed unhindered.

Forest Peoples Programme. (2013, February 18). Indigenous peoples’ rights violated and traditional lands in Guyana threatened by mining.

[xxiv] Bell, L. (2015, March 18). Indonesia’s indigenous people still suffer human rights violations, says report.

[xxv] Indigenous Rights Are Still Violated in Mexico: CNDH (2016) states:

In Mexico indigenous peoples are still victims of violations of human rights because of discrimination, inequality, and poverty, President of the National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH) Luis Raul Gonzalez Perez said on Monday.

During the opening ceremony of the Summit for the International Day of Indigenous Peoples, the state official said that despite the government’s efforts to address the issue, including constitutional reforms, these had not been properly applied in practice.

Quoting an estimate from the National Social Development Policy Evaluation Council, Perez said that seven out of 12 Mexican indigenous persons were in a situation of poverty – and this figure barely changed in recent years.

He called on Mexican authorities and society to respect human rights of indigenous peoples, saying laws need to be properly implemented.

“We energetically disapprove any kind of exclusion, discrimination or marginalization against indigenous peoples, whether authorities commit them out of action or omission,” he said.

Recent statistics showed an increase of modern-day slavery cases against indigenous peoples. One of them was reported by the Ministry of Labor earlier in March, involving 200 Tarahumaras, rescued from subhuman conditions.

teleSUR. (2015, August 3). Indigenous Rights Are Still Violated in Mexico: CNDH.

[xxvi] Violation of Indigenous People’s Rights in the Philippines (2015) states:

Indigenous communities in the Philippines are in a continuous struggle to protect their history, culture, & their ancestral land from outside forces like the government, foreign corporations, & other invasive groups. Filmmaker & activist Hiyasmin Saturay, Vennel Francis Chenfoo of BALSA Lanao, Sister Ma. Famita Somogod of Rural Missionaries of the Philippines-Northern Mindanao Region (RMP-NMR), & Amirah Ali Lidasan are shedding light on the human rights violations faced daily by these communities (like the Lumad & Moro people) & urges others to join the fight in preserving their culture.

Kababayan Today. (2015, August 11). Violation of Indigenous People’s Rights in the Philippines.

[xxvii] Indigenous peoples in Africa – a general overview (n.d.). states:

Indigenous peoples in Africa are discriminated against by mainstream populations and looked down upon as backward peoples. Many stereotypes prevail that describe them as “backward”, “uncivilized” and “primitive” and as an embarrassment to modern African states. Such negative stereotyping legitimizes discrimination and marginalization of indigenous peoples by institutions of governance and dominant groups…

…The main problem faced by indigenous peoples in Africa is land dispossession, which is caused by a number of factors such as dominating development paradigms favouring settled agriculture over other modes of production; establishment of national parks and conservation areas; natural resource extraction; agribusiness etc. The land dispossession undermines indigenous peoples’ livelihood systems, leads to severe impoverishment and threatens the continued existence of indigenous peoples. Legal frameworks promoting and protecting indigenous peoples’ lands are very weak or non-existing, and policies are most often negatively biased against indigenous peoples and tend to undermine rather than support their livelihoods…

…Indigenous peoples in Africa are often victims of violent conflicts. In eastern and western Africa there are numerous violent conflicts between nomadic pastoralists and sedentary farmers as well as inter-community conflicts between pastoralists themselves. These conflicts are further exacerbated by effects of climate change and increased competition over natural resources, and they lead to massive suffering, impoverishment and displacements. In countries such as Niger and Burkina Faso the situation is extreme involving organized massacres of entire villages. Indigenous peoples are also victims of abuses committed by the military and armed militia groups…

…Many indigenous women in Africa face double discrimination since they belong to marginalized indigenous communities while often also suffering from traditional cultural discriminatory practices. Indigenous women in Africa suffer from many forms of marginalization and human rights abuses including violence, sexual abuse, harmful cultural practices, exclusion from decision making processes, lack of access to education etc.

At the same time, indigenous women in Africa play a key role in the protection and reproduction of indigenous cultures and societies and for the welfare and upbringing of their children and families. Strengthening indigenous women’s participation in decision making processes, land governance/ management structures, conflict resolution fora as well as enhancing economic empowerment opportunities for women is therefore an important aspect of strengthening entire indigenous communities.

International Working Group for Indigenous Affairs. (n.d.). Indigenous peoples in Africa – a general overview.

[xxviii] United Nations. (n.d.). Charter of the United Nations.

[xxix] United Nations. (2007, September 13). United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

[xxx] United Nations. (n.d.). Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

[xxxi] Marshall McLuhan. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xxxii] Baroque Music (2016) states:

Baroque music, a style of music that prevailed during the period from about 1600 to about 1750, known for its grandiose, dramatic, and energetic spirit but also for its stylistic diversity.

One of the most dramatic turning points in the history of music occurred at the beginning of the 17th century, with Italy leading the way. While the stile antico, the universal polyphonic style of the 16th century, continued, it was henceforth reserved for sacred music, while the stile moderno, or nuove musiche—with its emphasis on solo voice, polarity of the melody and the bass line, and interest in expressive harmony—developed for secular usage. The expanded vocabulary allowed for a clearer distinction between sacred and secular music as well as between vocal and instrumental idioms, and national differences became more pronounced.

Baroque music. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xxxiii] Western painting. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xxxiv] Johann Sebastian Bach. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xxxv] BWV 147 Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (1723) states:

First Part

Chorus (S, A, T, B)

Heart and mouth and deed and living
Must for Christ their witness offer
Without fear and falsity
That he God and Savior is.

Recit. (T)

O thou most blessed voice!
Now Mary makes her spirit’s deepest feelings
Through thanks and praising known;
She undertakes alone
To tell the wonders of the Savior,
All he in her, his virgin maid, hath wrought.
O mortal race of men,
Of Satan and of sin the thrall,
Thou art set free
Through Christ’s most comforting appearance
From all this weight and slavery!
But yet thy voice and thine own stubborn spirit
Grow still, denying all such kindness;
Remember that the Scripture saith
An awesome judgment shall thee strike!

Ambrose, Z.P. (1723, July 2). BWV 147 Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben.

[xxxvi] United Nations. (2007, September 13). United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

[xxxvii] Restoration. (2016). About the Hopi.

[xxxviii] Ibid.

[xxxix] The Hopi Foundation. (n.d.). The Hopi Way.

[xl] Spengler. (2014, January 10). Common traits bind Jews and Chinese.

[xli] Fredericks, M. (2015, May 16). Provenance of a Hopi Textile.

[xlii] Provenance of a Hopi Textile (2015) states:

A travelling photographer took this photo that shows the two blankets used as a prop for a publication. Duvanyumsi, Anna Fredericks was an expert weaver of the Hopi wicker plaques in her own right. The child Deliah was about two years old. The blanket on the right was given to a granddaughter for her college graduation present by Anna. Both textiles were woven by Duwahoyouma. The youngest child of Charles and Anna Fredericks passed away in 2014 at the age of 109.

One blanket, one man, one family, many generations live on today as represented by two woven Hopi textiles. We are still here.

Fredericks, M. (2015, May 16). Provenance of a Hopi Textile.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

Sustainability through the Bio-Degradation of Cellulose

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

And then there was a thought: I was thinking about it, and reflecting on the fact that I knew that natural fibres are made of either plant fibre or animal fibre.[i]^{,[ii],[iii],[iv]} Plant fibres are those composed of cellulose.[v]^,[vi] Animal fibres are those comprised of proteins like amino acid arrangements.[vii]

And then that got me thinking about sustainability and the cycle of growth, harvest, manufacture, distribution, and decomposition of the fibres, and so this one’s going to be a bit winding, just for fun and because I think it’s important for this particular topic and reasonable for this article.

Growth is what they do naturally. Harvest is either dehairing the coats off the animals or cutting and gathering the crops for the plant fibres.

Manufacture is the creation or construction, or more precisely the often textile weaving and knitting by rural and indigenous peoples (sometimes both as the same time), of clothes and other practical necessities of life (many times fashionable).

Distribution to many, many areas of the world that have these things in demand because, in general, if there are many, many, workers for something then there are even more consumers (paid wants or free needs) for these same things.

Lastly, decomposition is the recycling aspect of the natural fibre lifecycle as I call it, which becomes fertilizer to be used to lead into the growth cycle once more.

And I’ve been thinking about cellulose, and didn’t know how it broke down, and so I looked into it, and found some neat things.[viii]

Cellulose: what is it? How’s it related to sustainability? How does it break down?

So, to begin at the beginning, naturally, what is cellulose?

Cellulose is a long chain of linked sugar molecules that gives wood its remarkable strength. It is the main component of plant cell walls, and the basic building block for many textiles and for paper. Cotton is the purest natural form of cellulose. In the laboratory, ashless filter paper is a source of nearly pure cellulose.

Cellulose is a natural polymer, a long chain made by the linking of smaller molecules.[ix]

That’s going to take some unpacking; so, pretty please (!), bear with me. Everything has a history. Everything exists in a context.

Cellulose is no different, but there’s a different definition of context here. The history is wherever the cellulose comes from and the context is the decomposition of the material for us.

First of all, sugar molecules are the “numerous sweet, colourless, water-soluble compounds present in the sap of seed plants and the milk of mammals and making up the simplest group of carbohydrates.”[x]

Second of many, chained together sufficiently, they can develop the strength typically seen in trees, for instance, and, thus, can be, by deduction and implication be viewed as a lot of the reason for the construction materials for plants in general and their strength.[xi]

Plant cells are eukaryotic as opposed to prokaryotic that don’t, which means they have membrane-bound nuclei (nucleuses?) and organelles.[xii]^{,[xiii],[xiv]}And organelles themselves are busy-bodies, they create hormones, enzymes, and provide energy for the cell too; it’s almost a jack-of-all-trades or jane-of-all-crafts.[xv]

Plant cells, quite simply, make up the constituents of the plant fibres. So plant fibres are made of non-prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells, and cellulose in the plant fibres are links of smaller molecules. And there go, nature tends to repeat patterns in slight novelty.

From this, we can develop the general form of the nature of nature, or the “nature of things” based on what works, is efficient, and is generalizable as a seeming methodology of biology (maybe).[xvi]^,[xvii]

How’s it related to sustainability?

You asked for it (rhetorical). Sustainability is a bit like wellbeing or ethics, and in fact, a consequence of comprehensive and coherent, and careful, reasoning of the two together – ratiocination.[xviii]

Wellbeing is basically a search for better or worse ways to live with a preference for the better ways of living; ethics is pretty much the practice of better or worse ways of treating one another, and there’s plenty of ethics on hand to try and describe these things.[xix]^,[xx]

It’s keeping things going for ourselves in self-interest, for kin and others in rational self-interest, and for other living things and their life support systems in an assertive, pro-active, and constructive Golden Rule ethic – pretty straightforward, I suppose.[xxi]^,[xxii]

Sustainability has to do with the generalized application of these ideas with respect to our relationship, in a standard interpretation, with the environment and one another. Right there, the intersection, apparently a popular term (or ‘intersectionality) in academic circles, of wellbeing, ethics, the Golden Rule, and sustainability; take sustainability as the practical outcome of these ideas in simultaneity.

And keeping a market or trade system, an environment, sets of habitats, cultures and lifestyles, and peoples of all stripes with wellbeing and acting ethically towards one another, the nature of the interrelationships becomes the nature of sustainability. If one does not keep these in some manner of framework, some theoretical and practical structure capable of persistence, then sustainability is pretty much a nil possibility.

The lifecycle of natural fibres takes this into account with a market system for textiles (for example), far reduced impact on the environmental devastation caused by climate change or global warming through low carbon ‘footprint,’ and this reduced impact permitting the continued flourishing of habitats and ecosystems, the rural lifestyles of people that don’t necessarily want to lose their way of life for a more modern and high-technology lifestyle, and trade between people tends to reduce tensions among them and that increases wellbeing.

Those baseline considerations, in the order of presentation before, for these aspects of sustainability and cellulose, and cellulose itself can biodegrade, as the basis for natural fibres.

But how does it break down?

It begins with enzymes for the systematized, evolved, and natural degradation of cellulose from plant cells.[xxiii]^{,[xxiv],[xxv],[xxvi]}

[i] natural fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[ii] man-made fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[iii] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15). Animal Fibres.

[iv] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15). Plant Fibres.

[v] Ibid.

[vi] Nutrient Review. (2016). Cellulose.

[vii] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15). Animal Fibres.

[viii] Nutrient Review. (2016). Cellulose.

[ix] Senese, F. (2015, August 17). What is cellulose?.

[x] sugar. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xi] Ibid.

[xii] Bailey, R. (2016, April 25). Plant Cells.

[xiii] eukaryote (2016) states:

any cell or organism that possesses a clearly defined nucleus. The eukaryotic cell has a nuclear membrane that surrounds the nucleus, in which the well-defined chromosomes (bodies containing the hereditary material) are located. Eukaryotic cells also contain organelles, including mitochondria (cellular energy exchangers), a Golgi apparatus (secretory device), an endoplasmic reticulum (a canal-like system of membranes within the cell), and lysosomes (digestive apparatus within many cell types).

eukaryote. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xiv] prokaryote (2016) state:

any organism that lacks a distinct nucleus and other organelles due to the absence of internal membranes. Bacteria are among the best-known prokaryotic organisms. The lack of internal membranes in prokaryotes distinguishes them from eukaryotes. The prokaryotic cell membrane is made up of phospholipids and constitutes the cell’s primary osmotic barrier. The cytoplasm contains ribosomes, which carry out protein synthesis, and a double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) chromosome, which is usually circular.

prokaryote. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xv] Bailey, R. (2016, April 25). Plant Cells.

[xvi] Gatehouse, J. (2013, November 18). The nature of David Suzuki.

[xvii] CBC Radio-Canada Curio. (2016). The Nature of Things.

[xviii] Ratiocination (2016) states:

1: the process of exact thinking : reasoning

2: a reasoned train of thought

ratiocinative play\-ˈō-sə-ˌnā-tiv, -ˈnä-\ adjective

Merriam-Webster (2016). Ratiocination.

[xix] Well-being (n.d.). states:

noun

1.a good or satisfactory condition of existence; a state characterized byhealth, happiness, and prosperity; welfare:

to influence the well-being of the nation and its people.

Dictionary.com. (n.d.). Well-being.

[xx] Ethics (n.d.). states:

The field of ethics (or moral philosophy) involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior. Philosophers today usually divide ethical theories into three general subject areas: metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics. Metaethics investigates where our ethical principles come from, and what they mean. Are they merely social inventions? Do they involve more than expressions of our individual emotions? Metaethical answers to these questions focus on the issues of universal truths, the will of God, the role of reason in ethical judgments, and the meaning of ethical terms themselves. Normative ethics takes on a more practical task, which is to arrive at moral standards that regulate right and wrong conduct. This may involve articulating the good habits that we should acquire, the duties that we should follow, or the consequences of our behavior on others. Finally, applied ethics involves examining specific controversial issues, such as abortion, infanticide, animal rights, environmental concerns, homosexuality, capital punishment, or nuclear war.

Fieser, J. (n.d.). Ethics.

[xxi] The Golden Rule (n.d.) states:

The most familiar version of the Golden Rule says, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Moral philosophy has barely taken notice of the golden rule in its own terms despite the rule’s prominence in commonsense ethics. This article approaches the rule, therefore, through the rubric of building its philosophy, or clearing a path for such construction. The approach reworks common belief rather than elaborating an abstracted conception of the rule’s logic. Working “bottom-up” in this way builds on social experience with the rule and allows us to clear up its long-standing misinterpretations. With those misconceptions go many of the rule’s criticisms.

The article notes the rule’s highly circumscribed social scope in the cultures of its origin and its role in framing psychological outlooks toward others, not directing behavior. This emphasis eases the rule’s “burdens of obligation,” which are already more manageable than expected in the rule’s primary role, socializing children. The rule is distinguished from highly supererogatory rationales commonly confused with it—loving thy neighbor as thyself, turning the other cheek, and aiding the poor,

homeless and afflicted. Like agape or unconditional love, these precepts demand much more altruism of us, and are much more liable to utopianism. The golden rule urges more feasible other-directedness and egalitarianism in our outlook.

Puka, B. (n.d.). The Golden Rule.

[xxii] Teaching Values. (2009). The Universality of the Golden Rule in the World Religions.

[xxiii] Jin, X. (2010, November 28). Breaking Down Cellulose.

[xxiv] Nutrient Review. (2016). Cellulose.

[xxv] Bailey, R. (2016, April 25). Plant Cells.

[xxvi] enzyme (2016) states:

a substance that acts as a catalyst in living organisms, regulating the rate at which chemical reactions proceed without itself being altered in the process.

A brief treatment of enzymes follows. For full treatment, see protein: Enzymes.

The biological processes that occur within all living organisms are chemical reactions, and most are regulated by enzymes. Without enzymes, many of these reactions would not take place at a perceptible rate. Enzymes catalyze all aspects of cell metabolism. This includes the digestion of food, in which large nutrient molecules (such as proteins, carbohydrates, and fats) are broken down into smaller molecules; the conservation and transformation of chemical energy; and the construction of cellular macromolecules from smaller precursors. Many inherited human diseases, such as albinism and phenylketonuria, result from a deficiency of a particular enzyme.

enzyme. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

The Importance of Vermicomposting for Sustainability

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

Do you ever wonder about vermicompost? Me neither, barely knew what the word meant, so I looked it up. But it’s important, and especially because it’s a simple concept to swallow. Vermicompost: “composting with worms.”[i]^,^[ii]^,^[iii]

But wait, there’s more! It’s a lovely story of sustainability, and lust with Wormeo and Compostiet. And as with many of these narratives, I go to the substantial, authoritative source of Encyclopedia Britannica, and this time on worms, which states:

any of various unrelated invertebrate animals that typically have soft, slender, elongated bodies. Worms usually lack appendages…Worms are members of several invertebrate phyla, including Platyhelminthes (flatworms), Annelida (segmented worms), Nemertea (ribbon worms), Nematoda (roundworms, pinworms, etc.), Sipuncula (peanutworms), Echiura (spoonworms), Acanthocephala (spiny-headed worms), Pogonophora (beardworms), and Chaetognatha (arrowworms).[iv]

Phyla are basically the major subgroups of animals or a scientific means of classifying animals via the discipline of taxonomy that is devoted to this process or cataloguing life – the rest pretty much follows from this idea.[v]^,^[vi]^,^[vii]

And so that’s the groundwork, and the scientific framework of the currency of vermicomposting: worms. What kind of worms, and stuff, are needed – like the ingredient list in a recipe for proper composting?[viii]

You need worms, a container, and bedding. One of the basic means of composting is cold composting, or throwing things onto a pile and waiting for them to decompose, which natural fibres will do and synthetic or man-made fibres will not, where natural fibres count as animal and plant fibres.[ix]^,^[x]^,^[xi]^,^[xii]

Cold composts are different than hot composting, and cold composts are slower at the process of decomposition of the relevant biodegradable stuff but they are easier to get going with those three basic parts – a bedding, a worm, and a container.[xiii]^,^[xiv]^,^[xv]

There can be discussions, and so on, about trade-offs between time spent and output of the eventual fertilizer post-decomposition of the animal or plant fibres. However, the basic concern remains about effort versus output.

Lower effort and lower output, a direct correspondence, for the cold composting; a greater effort and a greater output for the hot composting. Take your pick, the other bits will come from there.

If you’re in a lazy season, or don’t have heavy-lifting assistance to shovel the compost or whatever into a pile and do all of the fine work, then cold compost might be the one for you.

If not, and if time, then hot compost is the one for you, especially if you have a deadline for the need for fresh fertilizer for some vegetable plantation in the home garden.

Now, to the main course, as it were, the bedding, the container, and the worms. The bedding is simply the stuff on top of the ground from which the to-be composted material can then be placed for decomposition over time, which can newspapers, vegetable and fruit peels, leaves, so on, and so on.[xvi]

The container is the container, bit tautological, but true! Next, are the worms; so you’ve decided on the bedding, and the kind and style of composting, and the arrangement for the bedding and the compost, but next in the actual vermicomposting.

Well, that’s the sticky part. What kind of worm. Is it a common worm that is pervasively used because of it’s efficiency for human agriculture, or a bunch of different ones for specific tasks and for the breakdown of particular materials?

The answer is straightforward and two words: red worms, or red wigglers.[xvii] The great thing about them is their level of productivity within the soil because they can “swallow great quantities of organic material, digest it, extract its food value and expel the residue as worm castings.”[xviii]

And some of the basics about vermicomposting, one of the great uses for them, and highly relevant to the sustainability minded and ethically conscious of us around here at Trusted Clothes (and all of the great fellow writers, who’s stuff you should check out, seriously!)

I mean, there’s lots of great material out there to be composted, and this includes all of the natural fibres such as plant fibres – alpaca wool, angora wool, camel hair, cashmere, mohair, silk, and wool, and animal fibres – abaca, coir, cotton, flax, hemp, jute, ramie, and sisal.[xix]

And, I think one of its main benefits, is the increased capacity to compost at a faster rate and end up with fertilizer that is more nutrient-rich, which can be used to provide rich soil to grow plant fibres, for instance, or grow the crops that feed the animals that then go through dehairing. Each as part of the different harvesting processes for natural fibres. But, there’s lots of non-vermicompost methodologies, too.[xx]^,^[xxi]^,^[xxii]

So, to vermicompost or not to vermicompost, that is the question.[xxiii]

[i] Planet Natural. (2015). Using Worms.

[ii] Green Action Centre. (2016). Vermicomposting.

[iii] [TED-ed]. (2013, June 26). Vermicomposting: How worms can reduce our waste – Matthew Ross.

[iv] worm. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[v] Encyclopedia of Life. (n.d.). Animal Phyla.

[vi] BBC. (2016). What is a phylum?.

[vii] Taxonomy (2016) states:

Taxonomy, in a broad sense, the science of classification, but more strictly the classification of living and extinct organisms—i.e., biological classification. The term is derived from the Greek taxis(“arrangement”) and nomos (“law”). Taxonomy is, therefore, the methodology and principles of systematic botany and zoology and sets up arrangements of the kinds of plants and animals in hierarchies of superior and subordinate groups.

taxonomy. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[viii] solid-waste management (2016) states:

Another method of treating municipal solid waste is composting, a biological process in which the organic portion of refuse is allowed to decompose under carefully controlled conditions. Microbes metabolize the organic waste material and reduce its volume by as much as 50 percent. The stabilized product is called compost or humus. It resembles potting soil in texture and odour and may be used as a soil conditioner or mulch.

Composting offers a method of processing and recycling both garbage and sewage sludge in one operation. As more stringent environmental rules and siting constraints limit the use of solid-waste incineration and landfill options, the application of composting is likely to increase. The steps involved in the process include sorting and separating, size reduction, and digestion of the refuse.

solid-waste management. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[ix] natural fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[x] man-made fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xi] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15). Animal Fibres.

[xii] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15). Plant Fibres.

[xiii] Almanac. (2016). How to Compost: Hot and Cold Methods.

[xiv] Vegetable Gardener. (2009, February 10). Composting Hot or Cold.

[xv] Kitchen Gardeners International. (n.d.). Which is better: hot or cold composting?.

[xvi] Fong, J & Hewitt, P. (1996). Worm Composting Basics.

[xvii] Red Wigglers (2016) states:

The most common type of composting worm! As they feed, Red Wigglers (Eisenia foetida) swallow great quantities of organic material, digest it, extract its food value and expel the residue as worm castings which are very rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and many micronutrients. Under ideal conditions, E. foetida can eat their body weight each day. They also reproduce rapidly, and are very tolerant of variations in growing conditions.

Planet Natural. (2016). Red Wigglers.

[xviii] Ibid.

[xix] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2009). Natural Fibres.

[xx] Planet Natural. (2015). Using Worms.

[xxi] Green Action Centre. (2016). Vermicomposting.

[xxii] [TED-ed]. (2013, June 26). Vermicomposting: How worms can reduce our waste – Matthew Ross.

[xxiii] The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (2016) states:

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.–Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember’d.

Shakespeare, S. (n.d.). The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

Ending Violence Against Women and Natural Fibres

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

Natural fibres, as opposed to synthetic or man-made fibres, have a long history, and as with most things that tend to gain traction over the long haul.[i]^,^[ii] They, well, develop many, many associations with lots of unlikely things and people. That include famous people, prominent places, various associations and organizations that are purposed one cause or another, and so on and so forth. In the case of moral causes such as the international campaign to end violence against women, it’s come along the way of many people and organizations throughout the world.

And in the midst of these interactions, whether with individuals or groups, they’ve found allies. Let’s take, for example, the specific relationship, relevant to Trusted Clothes, of natural fibres, textiles, and so on, and the international campaign to end violence against women.

First, some information on the international campaign to end violence against women; and then, second, some information about the relationship between the two – ending violence against women and natural fibres. Who’s involved? Innumerable individuals and multiple prominent organizations. Amnesty international is, obviously, an international organization with sectors devoted to women’s rights as fundamental in and of themselves, and as an extension of humans rights as well.[iii]

An organ of the United Nations called United Nations Women devotes substantial resources to this endeavour as an international organization bound by various agreements amongst member states of the United Nations.[iv]

What’s the United Nations, exactly? The United Nations was founded in 1945 throughout the world via international agreement as a replacement for the League of Nations.[v]^,^[vi]

Countries – 193 of them – that are a part of it are called member states, and these, in varying numbers, are a part of the main bodies, bodies, and various committees: General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Trusteeship Council, International Court of Justice, the Secretariat, and others.[vii]

Everyone’s leaders are, in most cases most of the time, aiming to contribute to the flourishing and wellbeing of their respective, and other member states’, citizens and the solution to pervasive problems, such as violence against women. Why wouldn’t they?

We have International Women’s Day, Women’s Equality Day, and Women’s History Month, but the serious work comes from organizing, planning, and implementing on the national and international stage as opposed to small contributions through celebrations. Also, United Nations Women has been up to some neat things, and saying just as good, positive things of high morla calibre. Like what?

Women’s right to live free from violence is upheld by international agreements such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), especially through General Recommendations 12 and 19, and the 1993 UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women.[viii]

Here they’re talking about more the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which seems self-explanatory as an attempt to substantiate the end to the violence against women through human rights claims – where women’s rights are human rights.[ix]^,^[x]

It’s tautological.

Or their General recommendation No. 12: Violence against women, which states “legislation in force to protect women against the incidence of all kinds of violence in everyday life (including sexual violence, abuses in the family, sexual harassment at the workplace, etc.)” in its primary stipulation.[xi]

Even General recommendation No. 19: Violence against women, which states “Gender-based violence is a form of discrimination that seriously inhibits women’s ability to enjoy rights and freedoms on a basis of equality with men,” and that’s pretty unequivocal.[xii]

Or take the February 23, 1994, Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, too.[xiii] Another self-explaining document for the prevention of violence against women.

And onward into the United Nations Women Commission on the Status of Women, further details in the endnote, but another high-level and international compilation and coordination of efforts for the end to violence against women – a global problem.[xiv]

Finally, this comes to home, for many of us reading here, the Government of Canada has implemented actions in five main areas including:

Support for Victims of Crime[xv]

Protecting Aboriginal Women and Girls[xvi]

Combatting Human Trafficking[xvii]

Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls[xviii]

Addressing Family Violence[xix]

So it’s national, and definitely international, and ubiquitous – everywhere. Where does this lead? I think into the aspects that are relevant to the textile industry and natural fibre materials harvest, manufacture, and distribution network, too.

And with all of these taken into the general accounting of the issue concerning the war, or the fight (ironic terms), or the international efforts and movements, and organizing, to end violence against women as much as possible (no utopia expected), it can, and does, relate in its own way to textile industries and their associated materials.

It can be the small stories such as those reported by UN Women reported on some of the on-the-ground activities for the benefit of women, as follows:

In Colombia, through the business venture ‘PROVOKAME’, rural women produce, market, and distribute biodegradable plates made from natural fibres, recycled paper and seeds that may germinate after disposal.

In Uganda, BanaPads Social Enterprise employs young rural women to manufacture and distribute sanitary pads produced from natural agricultural waste materials. The enterprise provides young entrepreneurial ‘champions’ with a complete start-up kit of inventory, training and marketing support.

No need to comprehend the deep details of the geography, culture, people, or the style of manufacturing, but the important point from these two examples is the bottom-up organizing of by rural women in terms of “natural agricultural waste materials” and “biodegradable plates made from natural fibres, recycled paper and seeds that may germinate after disposal.” That’s so cool.

This is the kind of thing that Trusted Clothes is about; and not only that, these are windows into other activities and people doing the same or similar things all over the world with natural fibres and other environmentally conscientious and ethically conscious materials.

It can be the big stories, too, such as an entire people. For instance, Amnesty International reports on the indigenous peoples of Colombia and, in particular, the “principal economic activity of the Zenú is agriculture and beautiful weaving with natural fibres. Like other Indigenous Peoples, the Zenú have suffered grave human rights abuses as they have sought to defend their territory and their rights.”[xx]

One can imagine their human rights being violated in this way, and as with many areas of violation of fundamental human rights, there’s concomitant violence against women, and children.

[i] natural fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/natural-fiber

[ii] man-made fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/technology/man-made-fiber.

[iii] Amnesty International. (2016). Women’s Rights Are Human Rights.

[iv] UN Women. (2016). Ending violence against women.

[v] United Nations. (2016). Overview.

[vi] League of Nations. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/League-of-Nations.

[vii] United Nations (UN). (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/United-Nations.

[viii] UN Women. (2016). Ending violence against women.

[ix] United Nations Humans Rights Office of the High Commissioner. (1979, December 18). Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women New York, 18 December 1979. Retrieved from http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CEDAW.aspx.

[x] Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Convention-on-the-Elimination-of-All-Forms-of-Discrimination-Against-Women.

[xi] United Nations Humans Rights Office of the High Commissioner. (1989). *General recommendation No. 12: Violence against women.

[xii] United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. (1992). General recommendation No. 19: Violence against women.

[xiii] United Nations General Assembly. (1994, February 23).Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women.

[xiv] United Nations Women. (n.d.). Commission on the Status of Women.

[xv] Government of Canada: Status of Women Canada. (2013, December 5). Support for Victims of Crime.

[xvi] Government of Canada: Status of Women Canada. (2013, December 5). Protecting Aboriginal Women and Girls.

[xvii] Government of Canada: Status of Women Canada. (2013, December 5). Combating Human Trafficking.

[xviii] Government of Canada: Status of Women Canada. (2013, December 5). Preventing Violence against Women and Girls.

[xix] Government of Canada: Status of Women Canada. (2013, December 5). Addressing Family Violence.

[xx] Amnesty International. (2015). The Peoples.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

Up, Up and Away

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

First things first – as always super-duper quick, here’s a crash paragraph in natural fibres:

Natural fibres differ from synthetic or man-made fibres, can be plant or animal fibres, with plant fibres being made of complicated sugar arrangements called cellulose (which enzymes have a hard time breaking down because of their arrangement) and animal fibres being made of amino acids for proteins, with the cellulose as simple long chains of sugar molecules, and the plant cells as eukaryotic or non-prokaryotic, but both animal and plant fibres can be composted whilst synthetic or man-made fibres cannot decompose (There!).[i]^,^[ii]^,^[iii]^,^[iv]^,^[v]^,^[vi]^,^[vii]^,^[viii]^,^[ix]^,^[x]^,^[xi]^,^[xii]^,^[xiii]^,^[xiv]^,^[xv]

Synthetic fibre production continues to increase in contrast with the natural fibre industry.[xvi] What does this mean for the present and the future? What’s its history? Here’s a fantastic summarization of much of the information about its historical context and their demand in the international marketplace of fibre goods – natural vs. man-made, but it’s a bit dense and with a note on the origination of synthetic fibres (who am I to speak, though?):

artificial silk using cellulosics by De Chardonnet in France in 1892. Regrettably the business declared bankruptcy in 1894! However, not to be discouraged, the industry continued to develop other cellulosics and acetates until the arrival of nylon, which was discovered by Wallace Carothers at DuPont in the 1930s. His discovery brought the first truly MMF to the market. Initial applications including military uses during World War II and replacing silk in women’s hosiery. Nylon was followed by the ICI development of polyester, discovered in the early 1940s by two British scientists working for Calico Printers.

From these early beginnings the MMF industry was born, and through continuous development it recorded demand in 2014 of 55.2 million tons (122 billion pounds) of synthetic fibre, in addition to man-made cellulosic fibre demand of 5.2 million tons. The natural fibre industry, including cotton and wool, has a demand of 25.4 million tons.[xvii]

Chardonnet trained under Louis Pasteur as a civil engineer and began the development of artificial fibres in 1878, and six years later in 1884 got a patent on a fibre.[xviii]^,^[xix] But wait, there’s more! In the Paris Exposition, in 1889, he presented the rayon productions to the public for the very first time; after which, he began to bring about the first factory for the first commercial factory, “Société de la Soie de Chardonnet (“Society of the Silk of Chardonnet”) in Besançon,”for the world’s first commercial synthetic or man-made fibre called Chardonnet silk.[xx]

So, that’s the time it started and was then mass produced for public consumption, and now we’re here with the issues of environmental degradation and pollution, only thirteen years from 1878 to 1891, literally. As noted, the business declared bankruptcy in 1894, but mass industry comes out of our mass demands (or our ancestors) and alternatives were discovered and made by them.

Anyway, that’s a far cry from the present. Why is it a far cry from the present? Because the industry has changed and gone from Chardonnet silk to cellulosic acetates, to nylon, and even polyester, and the polyesters are becoming dominant (did you see the close-up of the chart at the outset?), that is, synthetic fibres are dominant.[xxi]^,^[xxii]^,^[xxiii]^,^[xxiv] Take, for instance, the latter parts of the description about the 2014 sales in the millions of tons.

That’s 55.2 million tons of synthetic fibre were sold compared to 25.4 million tons of natural fibre, which comes out to 55.2/25.4 or a synthetic or man-made fibre sales to natural fibres sales ratio of 2.2:1. That’s a lot, and that’s even the low number because if you take into account the other materials such as the man-made cellulosics and add that number to the synthetic fibres, then the ratio’s representative disparity is even higher.

So, take, for example, once again, the 55.2 million tons of material and add that to the 5.2 million tons from the man-made cellulosics. So that’s 55.2 plus 5.2 and comes to a sum of 60.4 million tons, which becomes 60.4 million tons of synthetic or man-made fibres to 25.4 million tons of natural fibre, or 2.4:1. That’s pretty amazing, and it’s likely greater at this point in time.

The article continues to say that the polyester synthetic fibre is the main one “, but nylon, the oldest MMF, still plays an important role in the fibre business with 4 million tons of global production in 2014”; and thinking about it further, China represents about “69 percent” of the global polyester production and, therefore, the greatest demand is for polyester, the greatest production is in China, and the most fibres being produced are synthetic or man-made ones with an enormous weighting towards polyester, and so the Chinese workers are producing the most synthetic fibres in the world.[xxv] That means the centre of the non-natural (though everything is ‘natural,’ technically) fibres is in one country, and it’s going up and up in both demand, and thus production.

And so polyester is the issue, but it’s pretty close to it, and the nature of the synthetic production line is continuing forward. As of 2014, it was at a 2.2 to 2.4:1 ratio between synthetic or man-made fibres or natural fibres. Also, an issue going forward, but these do need some more consideration for the 2015 and 2016 years going forward.

We cannot predict with utter certainty, but can see the centralization of much of the world’s production in the synthetic or man-made fibres from one country, China, and the, though disparate, surprisingly close nature of the two types of fibres in sales, at least on a gross analysis. Unfortunately, the utilitarian attitudinal stances towards production and consumption have gone for the narrow utilitarian analysis with the value in the short-term pleasure and ease of synthetic fibres via polyester (mainly) – and like those old corny cartoons gone up, up and away.

[i] natural fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[ii] man-made fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[iii] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15). Animal Fibres.

[iv] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15). Plant Fibres.

[v] Nutrient Review. (2016). Cellulose.

[vi] National Institutes of Health: U.S. Library of Medicine. (2016, April 5). Amino Acids.

[vii] National Institutes of Health: U.S. Library of Medicine. (2016, April 5). What are proteins and what do they do?.

[viii] Senese, F. (2015, August 17). What is cellulose?.

[ix] sugar. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica..

[x] Bailey, R. (2016, April 25). Plant Cells.

[xi] eukaryote. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xii] prokaryote. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xiii] Bailey, R. (2016, April 25). Plant Cells.

[xiv] enzyme. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xv] University of Illinois Board of Trustees. (2016). The Science of Composting

[xvi] Textile Fibre Industry. (2015, February 3). Man-Made Fibres Continue To Grow.

[xvii] Ibid.

[xviii] Hilaire Bernigaud, count de Chardonnet (2016) states:

Hilaire Bernigaud, count de Chardonnet, (born May 1, 1839, Besançon, France—died March 12, 1924, Paris) French chemist and industrialist who first developed and manufactured rayon.

Trained as a civil engineer after completing scientific studies under Louis Pasteur, Chardonnet began to develop an artificial fibre in 1878. Obtaining a patent in 1884 on a fibre produced by extruding a solution of cellulose nitrate through fine glass capillaries, he worked for several years on the problem of reducing the flammability of the new substance. At the Paris Exposition of 1889 he showed rayon products to the public for the first time. Soon afterward he opened a factory, Société de la Soie de Chardonnet (“Society of the Silk of Chardonnet”) in Besançon, which in 1891 began to produce the world’s first commercially made synthetic fibre, sometimes called Chardonnet silk to distinguish it from other forms of rayon.

Hilaire Bernigaud, count de Chardonnet. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xix] Louis Pasteur. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xx] Textile Fibre Industry. (2015, February 3). Man-Made Fibres Continue To Grow.

[xxi] Ibid.

[xxii] cellulose acetate. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xxiii] Nylon (2016) states:

Nylon is a polymer—a plastic with super-long, heavy molecules built up of short, endlessly repeating sections of atoms, just like a heavy metal chain is made of ever-repeating links. Nylon is not actually one, single substance but the name given to a whole family of very similar materials called polyamides.

Woodford, C. (2015, November 12). Nylon.

[xxiv] Polyester (2016) states:

Polyester, a class of synthetic polymers built up from multiple chemical repeating units linked together by ester (CO-O) groups. Polyesters display a wide array of properties and practical applications. Permanent-press fabrics, disposable soft-drink bottles, compact discs, rubber tires, and enamel paints represent only a few of the products made from this group.

Polyesters most commonly are prepared from a condensation reaction between an organic alcohol (containing hydroxyl [OH] groups) and a carboxylic acid (containing carboxyl [COOH] groups).

polyester. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xxv] Textile Fibre Industry. (2015, February 3). Man-Made Fibres Continue To Grow.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

Brief Ethical Notes on Plant and Animal Fibres

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

I hesitated a bit on the title of this piece as “Plant vs. Animal Fibres” or “Plant versus Animal Fibres” because these do not seem at odds to me, but, rather, at differences with the massive synthetic or man-made fibre industry.[i]^,^[ii]^,^[iii]^,^[iv]^,^[v]^,^[vi]^,^[vii]^,^[viii]^,^[ix] All under the rubric of textiles and fibres. And I only intend this as a general comparison and reflection between the two general categories with respect to sustainability. No okie dokie this time (you’re welcome!), just kidding okie dokie here we go:

Natural fibres themselves are very hairlike material from an animal, vegetable, or mineral (!), which can then be turned into various fabrics and yarns.[x] And this breaks up into the plant and animal fibres, as a general principle of division or classification. If you take the title “natural fibres,” then you can imagine two divergent branching lines for “animal fibres” and “plant fibres.” Subtleties follow from there. Some redundant starters are plant fibres come from plants and animal fibres come from animals, but what animals? What are the main ones in other words?

For the animal fibres, the core ones are alpaca wool, angora wool, camel hair, cashmere, mohair, silk, and wool; for the plant fibres, the central fibres are abaca, coir, cotton, flax, hemp, jute, ramie, and sisal.[xi]^,^[xii]^,^[xiii]^,^[xiv]^,^[xv]^,^[xvi]

Plant fibres, as pointed out to me by a more knowledgeable-on-the-subject woman friend, have a lower carbon output in the whole harvest and production cycle, which makes sense, I guess.[xvii]^,^[xviii]^,^[xix]^,^[xx] I think about cows and methane output, whereas plants, I would think, do not have that level of output.[xxi] That does a few points to plant fibres over animal fibres right off the bat.

Some concerns to my mind with the animal fibres is that you’re dealing with, though generally cognitively limited, a somewhat thinking, instinctive, and feeling being with pain receptors, a central nervous system, and so on and so forth, and this leads right into proper treatment of animals.[xxii]^,^[xxiii]

They’re de-haired and sheared by the professionals, the farmers, and then the particular proteins are gather from the batches. And we here at Trusted Clothes do have concerns about the nature of the ethical acquisition and creation of fashionable goods. Cognizant, more or less, animals deserve due consideration.

Plant fibres, on the other hand, do not have issues to do with pain – no nervous system and no pain to be felt.[xxiv] By that moral calculus, it matters less, and only matters insofar as it’s a resource for other living things with a strong preference for cognizant beings. It’s an argument for tacit expansion of the moral sphere. But since animal fibres might cause less suffering, then plant fibres might be the more ethical choice in the decisions over the sustainable.

Animal and plant fibres come in many shapes and sizes – no surprise plus and even with the bonus cliché. But their uses can differ, and they’re being seen, together, as increased replacements for the synthetic fibres based on increased knowledge about the pollution in the environment.

So even under and below the synthetic versus natural fibres aspects of the industries, millions of tons of the man-made fibres, or synthetic fibres, thrown into the trash heap and not recycled to ruin possible decent life for our collective descendants, the natural fibre basic divisions, animal and plant fibres, might have additional ethical consideration based on the potential for pain of farming animals rather than plants for fibres. We have the technology. We have the demand. Can we make the consideration?

[i] natural fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[ii] man-made fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[iii] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15). Animal Fibres.

[iv] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15). Plant Fibres.

[v] Bailey, R. (2016, April 25). Plant Cells.

[vi] eukaryote. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[vii] prokaryote. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[viii] Bailey, R. (2016, April 25). Plant Cells.

[ix] University of Illinois Board of Trustees. (2016). The Science of Composting

[x] natural fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xi] natural fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xii] man-made fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xiii] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15). Animal Fibres.

[xiv] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15). Plant Fibres.

[xv] Bailey, R. (2016, April 25). Plant Cells.

[xvi] Bailey, R. (2016, April 25). Plant Cells.

[xvii] University of Michigan: Centre for Sustainable Systems. (n.d.). SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS SELECTION TOOL: LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF NATURAL FIBERS FOR AUTO APPLICATIONS.

[xviii] Time for Change. (n.d.). What is a carbon footprint – definition.

[xix] Bio-based News. (2015, April 8). Carbon Footprint and Sustainability of Different Natural Fibres for Biocomposites and Insulation Material.

[xx] O Ecotextiles. (2011, January 19). Estimating the carbon footprint of a fabric.

[xxi] US EPA. (2016, April 15). Overview of Greenhouse Gases.

[xxii] nervous system. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xxiii] pain. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[xxiv] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15). Plant Fibres.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

A Lesson on Comprehension, and the Inuit, and Textiles

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

I have noticed that some of the benefits about writing seriously and sincerely about a subject does do something to learning. It motivates, and guides. I don’t know about you, and it might be similar for some of you. You need less of a threshold for it than me. And kudos to you for it if so. But there’s a sense in which the process of writing something seems to inculcate a love for something, knowledge breaks barriers – which makes barriers likely signs of ignorance, ruh roh.

Its principles are simply wonderful: ethical, sustainable, and fashionable. And so I think I’ve hit upon a niche past the point of writing about the Hopi. Their textiles. Their rights. Their status as indigenous persons and peoples. And if you think about it more homeward bound, I come to indigenous persons and peoples in Canada. I feel as though you can relate with the idea and reality of indigenous peoples. Its title is relevant to hundreds of millions of people after all.

You might think about the Maori in New Zealand, or the Blackfoot or Iroquois in the United States, or the First Nations, Inuit and Metis in Canada. What one matters the most? It depends on the individual, I guess. And as I learn about the ways and customs of each, I like most that I’ve seen or read about a bit.

But I gave my ace of spades with the Hopi, I think. Probably to do with the language use of these peoples and persona and linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf’s controversy about it, and with the involvement of Steven J. Pinker too. You can look at that whole thing here.

So there’s that. But there’s more, always (?, probably). So let’s have a look at one national example, relative to Trusted Clothes (Ontario, Canada) and myself (British Columbia, Canada). That leaves three main groupings: First Nations, Inuit and Metis. What d’ya think? Let’s do Inuit, the far north of one of the hugest, biggest plots of land in the world. Canada: Home.

There are about 135,000 Inuit in the world, self-identified. That’s a large minority of the country with only 36,000,000 peeps, and the size of a decent sized city. They fall within the standard societal classification of indigenous peoples along with the, as noted before, Metis and the First Nations. Each have their own subdivisions as well.

So there’s also that. It’s unlike the Hopi who have only ten or twenty thousand in their total population. There’s some dark history to depict that narrative, the unfortunate narrative. I don’t know about this particular photo with respect to tribes and nations and so on, but these are definitely Norse fighting and killing Aboriginals, and vice versa.

So who are the Inuit? Encyclopedia Britannica says these can be people with the title Innuit, Inuit, or Eskimo. One might need to bear in mind sensitivities about particular words and their associations for some people, and even that consideration can depend on personality and context too. These people relate to the Aleuts, and are basically the chief inhabitants of the Arctic north of Canada, Greenland, the United States, and even Russia.

Of those 135,000 that live in the Arctic north, there are about 85,000 in North America and 50,000 in Greenland, and some super-minority in Siberia. And as with many, many peoples throughout the world, whether European or African or Australian or Latin America or South American, or Indigenous for that matter, these populations are diverse within themselves. Not only between their grouped selves.

The self-status of the Inuit can be Inupiat, Yupik, or Alutiit, too. And that basically into the meaning of the basis of the differences but unity. In that, the translation, into English, is pretty much “the people” or, more properly, “the real people.” That makes senses, I think. What do you think? It could be a bit of an issue with the kinds of individuals within the group. We’re all human after all, right?

So the same pluses and minuses of grouped and community living should come out cross-culturally. The name Eskimo was given in the 16^th century by the Europeans to the those in the Arctic. That could be a point of contention. I wouldn’t feel well if I was given a name against my will from another group, likely. Eskimo itself is a reference to snowshoes – not “eaters of raw flesh. The culture developed in landscapes and geographic environments akin to Siberia. Very cold, very snowy, long winters.

What about the clothing, Scott? Okay, okay, (or okie dokie), it’s great. Clothing isn’t just fashion. It’s survival too. It’s a way to keep from the bitter cold. That’s an important question about adapting fashion, right? What’s the kind of stuff that can help with that kind of extreme weather? Our genomes as a species haven’t changed substantially in over 200,000 years. So we’re not like polar bears or something that has these adaptations of thick winter coats, but our tool use is a major advantage to adapt more rapidly to the environment.

The main types of clothing material used by them are furs and skins. Over enough time, this becomes instantiated in culture. It becomes a means of connecting with ancestors emotionally from person to person. It’s a way to connect to the earth, and a sort of edificative or spiritual practice to make one’s own clothes. I feel. Though I’d be bad at it, but from many of their persons’ points of view, I suspect a consistency there.

The Inuit textiles can come and scarves which one can see. For instance, see below, the various text off of the Inuit. And I don’t know about you, but one of the more interesting things to note about the textiles is that today, as with most cultures, you can probably note the consistency amongst the cultural productions and the milieu in which a society or culture lived and worked and created these objects.

And as discussed about the environment and the need for survival as a primary and then the fashion of the culture as a secondary, the clothing and textiles and materials themselves are going to reflect this necessity for survival. So, you can look at some of the aspects of the scarfs the tubes the hats coats and so on. And many, many aspects of this or simply reflection of the dire need to not be cold and stay cozy-ish warm. Or to simply ass on the cultural stories, mythologies, traditions, lessons, allegories, etc, onto the next generation:

And one of the little cool things I have noticed, if you look at the clothing and the styled, lovely frizziness, it’s bot fashionable and functional. If I’d be in the freezing cold, and with the biting nature of the cold, I’m trying to prevent that from hitting me too much. It’s to buffer the wind chill and the regular cold.

For instance, temperatures in the Arctic north weather in Siberia, Canada, Russia, and elsewhere can be an issue. So if it is something to do with survival pressure and basic needs, the ability to keep a consistent a culture from which individuals within a group, that is, this particular indigenous culture, then passing on the cultural rituals rights to making skills and textiles is really key. And these simply aren’t things that had occurred to me off the bat. It’s these kind of small things, realizations, and readings, and so on, that I feel are humbling.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

One-in-a-Millian – Moral Duty to the Environment

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

Provocative, non-controversial question: do we have a moral duty to the environment? (Yes.) I think there’s a definite literature on the nature of moral development and the ability of individuals to meet those ethical standards. I feel as though there’s a certain sense in which the generalized moral development of an individual reflects groups, societies, and onward.

Do you agree? That is, is there a reflection of the individual to the society? It seems intuitively either right or on the correct path, doesn’t it? And that in turn likely reflects a certain perspective on sustainability and the environment.

There was a psychologist, or maybe a moral/ethical psychologist, by the name of Lawrence Kohlberg once upon a time. No individual tends to deserve grand claim to fame or some cult of personality around them, so please bear that in mind, it’s the ideas that matter much, much more to me – though an important person to the discipline of psychology.

I came across him whilst doing research for various academic paper and poster presentations. And I liked the thought. I like the idea of justice. That means just people, just societies, and so on. Why do I think this? I think I feel, and think, this because of the inclusion of compassion within this idea of justice. Why compassion? Well, that’s a bit tough, and we can get to it in gentle time. ‘Cause its super-duper important as a thought experiment (blegh!), or imaginative playful thing-a-majig (hooray!), on the environment.

He developed six stages in three levels of potential moral development for human beings. Of course, any model of a person will tend to be quite limited, but it’s a neat concept. It included the general levels of pre-conventional morality, conventional morality, and post-conventional morality. Straightforward enough.

As the chart shows above, the pre-conventional morality derives from obedience and punishment and then individual interest. So stage 1 is about avoiding harm and gaining pleasure. Stage 2 is pretty much about whatever’s good for me is good for me, and that’s all that, right? It’s the absolute consumer, maybe. What do you think? I bring these for reflection, not as someone standing at the pulpit or podium to make some grand statement.

Conventional morality is about person-to-person and the larger societal morality.

That means stage 3 deals with the approval of one’s peers, one’s groups, one’s larger social network. Stage 4 deals with the general authority and is really, deeply around the concepts of not being that proverbial squeaky wheel. Who wants to be that, right? So that’s’ all o’ that one.

And the post-conventional, a pretty darn cool one for the neat kids, it’s about equal consideration and treatment of individuals and then actions and thoughts in accordance with universal principles – like compassion and love, fairness, equality, and justice, and so on, I think. I’m sure you can think of others, and more.

And that brings about stage 5 with the social contract and that contract about, “Okay, I made a deal with you. You made a deal with me. We respect one another as equal parties in this endeavour with respect to consent. You have given me your consent. I have given you my consent. Now, we can get down to business in these social endeavours.”

Stage 6 is pretty much the moral geniuses. Those around us with absolute moral autonomy and authority derived an internalized, highly developed moral center. That brings us back to the original point about children and adolescents and adults. There are definite, fluid stages of moral thinking, changes for them.

And as kids grow up, there’s a definite advance in their awareness and treatment of others. And when I think about it, there’s a definite trend towards concern for oneself, one’s family, one’s kin, one’s principles, and so on. This, I think, can quite easily be thought of as a general expansion of some moral consideration – an expanding compass, as if becoming more precise, moving more northward. Not perfection, not ungrounded idealism, but a sense of development.

Think about the gruesome lives of ancient major civilizations in treatment of those thought of as non-persons. Who? You know who and how many and in what ways. It’s an old, ancient, continuous struggle for justice. And I’m pretty certain you can think about exemplars, really great examples of the people that show these principles in action and deed and thought.

For me, I think of John Stuart Mill, who, in an extraordinarily important essay, said quite frankly, directly, and with a definite moral force. He co-wrote this with his wife, Harriet Taylor Mill, and I think his daughter Helen, too. Their closing paragraph from On The Subjection of Women:

When we consider the positive evil caused to the disqualified half of the human race by their disqualification — first in the loss of the most inspiriting and elevating kind of personal enjoyment, and next in the weariness, disappointment, and profound dissatisfaction with life, which are so often the substitute for it; one feels that among all the lessons which men require for carrying on the struggle against the inevitable imperfections of their lot on earth, there is no lesson which they more need, than not to add to the evils which nature inflicts, by their jealous and prejudiced restrictions on one another. Their vain fears only substitute other and worse evils for those which they are idly apprehensive of: while every restraint on the freedom of conduct of any of their human fellow-creatures (otherwise than by making them responsible for any evil actually caused by it), dries up pro tanto the principal fountain of human happiness, and leaves the species less rich, to an inappreciable degree, in all that makes life valuable to the individual human being.

Whether international women’s rights, or the individual person’s development morally, there’s the continuous progression forward, with occasional regression.

And the sustainability of the environment, too. The animals’ suffering and general wellbeing and the ability of every person to fulfill some general capacity and natural talent if they have it, and then to cultivate it and use it as they see fit. For millions of people, that’s the basic ability to weave thread, or harvest plants, or shear animals.

But this is a common thing, I feel. It’s simply matter of making those small steps for us, and our descendants, or others’. And the modern face is increasingly becoming other animals’ wellbeing and the generalized health of ecosystems. On of the ways Trusted Clothes is interested in pursuit of this is in the fact of the mistreatment of people, even kids. There’s a better quality of life in certain ways with modern technology. But there’s still the fundamental right and choice. People can choose how to govern their own affairs, lives, communities.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

Military and Synthetic Fibres

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

Where in the world do the military clothes go? Like that old Carmen San Diego song…

It would seem ironic, but fitting, that the industry devoted to the defense of a nation and to aggress upon other nations would imply that the men and women in uniform would be contributive to the major devastation on the planet.

Perhaps, we can call this a covert, and unacknowledged, war on the planet, which contributes to climate change or global warming, pollution of the water and environment through the addition of synthetics, man-made, fibres aka “non-biodegradable materials” or just Ice Cube – in the biz (who did use the word biodegradable in some lyrics, in unrelated news), into the landfills and the oceans. Can we declare a war on that, too? You betcha. So how about a war on the war on the environment? But it’s covert. Okay, how about an overt war on the covert war on the environment? That’s enough of that.

That’s the question I want to ask with respect to the military and it’s clothing. In fact, it has to do a lot with the recycling cycle for the synthetic fibres or the man-made fibres, and the massive amount of men and women of uniform that wear clothing that is built to withstand to the pressures of combat, particular pressures of combat, that can result in clothing that is a very resistant to bio-degradation simply because they’re synthetic, which is the aforementioned issue.

One of the main fibres for military application came from World War II on December, 1941, where the War Production Board stated all nylon production is permitted for military use. Nylon even replaced Asian silk for the material used to produce parachutes. That’s pretty cool. I think there’s a sort of domino effect, where the purchase of one type of fibre begins to cascade throughout an industry – whether some small area or the military at large, just idle speculation.

Take, for instance, the extension into other military supplies, ponchos, ropes, tents and ties – and even for the production of higher-quality American currency. And so, since this the outset of the war, cotton has ruled as a dominant fibre – as more than 80% of the fibres used turn out to be cotton.

Even up to the present, specialized combat fires are needed for the strenuous wear and tear of combat and environmental pressures on them, all of this is not to say that don’t do cool things. In fact, the current forms of combat units and military clothing, and fibres throughout military applications, are pretty remarkable.

Let’s take one particular example call Aramid, those kinds of fibres are a particular class of strong heat resistant synthetic fibres that have use in the aerospace and military applications. Early experiments the 1990s, in vitro experiments, showed that it had some of the same affects on particular cells in the body as did asbestos, this raised the carcinogenic implications of the clothing, possibly, to the wearer. In other words, it can, does, or did have serious effects on human body based on being worn since the 1990 research showed some of this.

Although, there was a further research into 2009 that did show that inhaled particulate matter of this kind of fibre did not pose a particular threat to the body because it could be quickly cleared from the body. Nonetheless, it does have a large use within the military, and in general, because it’s general output is within the 40,000 to 50,000-ton range possibly more.

So, that’s a little look into the military and fibres. Bear in mind, especially when Uncle Sam wants you, as one of the most generalizable rules of thumb or heuristics for comprehension between the synthetic, or man-made, fibres and the nature fibres deals with decomposition. If a fibre can decompose, then it’s, typically, natural; if it cannot, it’s, typically, synthetic or man-made. And that means the military is contributive to the non-biodegradable material pollution in the environment.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

More Casual talk on Camel Hair

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

Back once more with respect to finding out, what, Scott? Camel hair! What is camel hair? Well, for one, it is made out of… Camel hair. It is different than any kind of specific categorization of camel hair or animal hair or some kind of other thing. However, the basic premise does stand that is that camel hair and, therefore, it is a natural fibre.

In particular, an animal fibre, for those that have not been following this particular series, deals with one of the basic premises behind those close to the sustainability movement, even closer than newbies like me. That is, the focus on ethical, sustainable, and healthy fashion with the emphasis on natural – animal and plant – fibres over synthetic fibres. There might be subtleties unknown to me, known to you, or known to the veterans of this trade and business, but I don’t know about them at this point in time. Think for yourself.

So, the main differences are between synthetic or man-made fibres, and natural fibres. Natural fibres divide into animal and plant fibres. Plant fibres are those, at least primarily, made of cellulose and other things. Animal fibres are made of proteins in particular things like amino acids, which makes proteins.

Synthetic fibres or man-made fibres are not made of either cellulose or amino acids/proteins. In fact, when something is not made of cellulose or proteins/amino acids, the bio-degradation of the product will actually not occur because the synthetic fibres that are made by human beings don’t permit it. It’s basically like the way plastics, which are synthetic, do not bio-degrade as far as we know about them. And the ones that are made by nature are made of it because of a common evolutionary history in which the enzymes around it and that co-evolved with it can break these particular things down to their more fundamental constituents.

I want to make the distinction between natural fibres as plant/animal fibres, and synthetic or man-made fibres. You can then make the distinction between those that can decompose more or less, and those that cannot decompose. In other words, this means that the natural fibres can decompose, hot or cold composting, and the synthetic fibres do not.

So with some of that in mind, or all that in mind, we can now discuss some of the aspects of camel hair, which is a particular type of animal hair that can break down and is from camels. Our big ol’ double humpbacked friend! Or single humped buddy.

Camel hair is a fine kind of hair, which is made of an outer and an inner part in terms of its growth patterns. It’s outer protective hair or guard hair, which can be coarse and flexible, is often combined with another kind of fibre called wool – a more common form of fibre. The hair has various applications. You look at the camels and their hair, and their sales.

They do have particular specialty hair that can be utilized as a specialty fibre, which is useful in the textile fibre industry. But it comes from a particular type of camel known as the Bactrian camel, which we did talk about it one article a few weeks ago. It can actually grow to quite long. It is a fair sustainable fibre, which also has an insulating undercoat.

Now, what comes to mind here, the coat itself, which can be used as a high-grade form of a fabric. The fabric is mainly used for knitting yarn, blankets and rugs and many, many other textiles.

The Bactrian camel does remain native to the Eastern and Central Asian areas of the world with the current herd size, according to 2009 estimates, of about 1.4 million animals. Oh! And the actual shearing or dehairing occurs during the time of moulting, the moulting season, which is a period of time between six to eight weeks of shedding.

Yuck! It can hold up to, one of those camel can yield up to, about 5 to 10 kilograms of annual fibre output. That’s quite a lot. In fact, it can actually produce a lot more than one might expect in normal circumstances. The center of the production appears to be in Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and, as seems usual (or so I’m catching on), China and a lot of minor aspects can come out of Afghanistan and Iran.

I find it interesting that it can be centralized to Eastern Asia and the Middle East in terms of its Harvest and production and manufacture prior to distribution to other parts of the world. I’m going to assume that some of the major consumers of the fibre itself, the animal fibre itself, are North American and European in destination or origin depending upon the point of view. The international market shows that there’s about 2,000 tons of coming from China and 500 tons coming from Mongolia according to 1990 estimates.

That’s not much with some of the other estimates of other fibres taken into account. Many estimates coming from Mongolia from peasants or low technology societies that are likely indigenous to that area probably produce money that amounts to millions of dollars or a great amount of their well-being, livelihood, and income might be coming here so that involves the children, adults, and the elderly in terms of their ability to live within their own culture of which, which is one of the fundamental human rights, far as I’m concerned. So, it’s a lot for the peasants and a little for the world – so to speak, and in a literal fashion as well.

Some interesting uses of camel hair can make things like yurts or the houses of the nomadic herders as well as exporting yarns and overcoats and coats and blazers and suits and jackets and sweaters, and even winter accessories such as small things like gloves and hats and scarves to help knit some warm stuff for the body’s outer extremities.

Well, what are the major aspects of this is a mixture with wool? Why would it become mixed with a wool over other possible fibres? That’s a reasonable question, and I asked it myself. Well, it does seem to be mixed with the wool to make it more economical because of the low output of camel fibre relative to international standards of other fibres, which can range from the thousands to the tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands, and even more, tons of material. So, it really, really depends on the area and the type of fibre that you want to take into account.

However, with respect to the global perspective, the 500 tonnes are quite miniscule relative to the rest of the world. Even though, the number of products that are made are quite diverse. The actual amount of them is quite low. Therefore, the admixture between wool and the camel hair is likely for a good reason.

That’s all for now, folks!

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

A Brief Note on Why 2009 was Important

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

Nationally, and internationally in fact, we can see representation of synthetic fibres or man-made fibres in industry, and culture, and social life, and especially in the economy with huge amounts of selling of certain fibres such as polyester, which are produced mainly in China are based on our consumer demands in North America and Europe.

Personally, we can also see the inclusion of natural fibres and economies, and cultures, and social life, especially in our own little way with Trusted Clothes. (Read the other bloggers/writers, they have great stuff! We’ve got many things for all sort of people.) A little way that comes out with a big dream. Our dream is to influence many, many people at some point in the future through our initiatives.

I think that’s a noble goal. I think it’s a good goal. I think it’s a wonderful dream and I think that is something that is possible actualization in the world. And if it can be actualized in the world, but I think that it is worth pursuing. And if it’s worth pursuing then it’s worth discussing. And if it’s worthless cussing, and is worth reading about, and therefore I’m writing now.

Internationally, we can see some more representation of natural fibres with respect to an entire day that was devoted to natural fibres by the United Nations organ called the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. It was the year 2009, and this was an important year, because the International Community recognized the need for sustainable agriculture, manufacture, distribution, and production of fashionable goods throughout the world for all kinds of cultures and economies.

In 2009, they noted that like agriculture, there were multiple aspects of textiles that are a fundamental part of human life, or at least by their claim, since the dawn of civilization. This spans from 5000 BC in Mexico and Pakistan up into the present. This is all this is a very important thing to pursue. Some of the fibres of the included for alpaca, abaca, angora, camel, cashmere, mohair, silk, wool, jute, and multiple others. This included a total of 15 fibres, plant and animal fibres.

They provide a tremendous amount of information about these things that seems relevant still to this day, to me, (I know, I know – it’s only 7 years onward, not even) and this seems of particular emotional valence too many individuals because it is covering a wide swath of a global industry that produces millions of tons of fibres. These fibres have been a part of our global culture, even though the global culture was fragmented and didn’t know about each other and still is to some degree, but this was a part of a larger initiative of human activity that seems innate (I’d hypothesize as an extension of normal human activity, like varieties of dance and writing or linguistic facility expressed in superficial differences in language) because part of human activity includes the harvest, manufacture, and the knitting of flavors for human clothing.

This clothing and then becomes fashionable for men and for women, and for other genders. This diversity then becomes a fashion statement. And this can then be extended to the dawn of the fashion industry.

It is a lot more broadly-based than what I’m presenting here, but it is something that I think is very important. I think it’s very important because it’s a very valuable resource. You can find it here. That’s all that I wanted to express in this particular note because the industry does have representation at the international level.

And anything that is represented at the international level tends to be of importance to many, many actors or Member States within the United Nations. And if it’s represented in the United Nations through many, many Member States, then it tends to have ratification or inclusion on many things that are relevant to the International Community, which means the global community. And that was represented in 2009, which is the why part of the whole deal.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

What is Regenerative Fibre?

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

And we’re back again once more with a very short discussion on natural fibres! It is a discussion around shaking the conceptual apparatuses and foundations of sustainable and ethical and healthy fashion industry as I knew it. I want to talk about something completely new (to me), but a quick little reminder before we talk about regenerative fibres.

So there’s a basic distinction between natural fibres and plant fibres. Some might claim that synthetic fibres are not natural fibres, as in from nature. However, that is completely illogical because everything is from nature. The premises behind are the definition are probably around the idea things from biology – that’s probably what is meant, which is then, of course, true, but words have meanings.

Anywho or nonetheless, natural fibres divide into animal and plant fibres. Plant fibres tend to have cellulose. And fibres are the ones with the amino acids or proteins, which means that the proteins are made of the amino acids. So those are some basic distinctions to be made. Some natural fibres are cotton, linen which is made from flax, silk, wool, cashmere, hemp, and jute which is a basically for carpets mainly.

Synthetic fibres and seltzer synthetic fabrics are kind of plastic fabric, which means they don’t decompose. Natural fibres, and one flat her, actually do not decompose which is an issue in terms of the health of the environment this present point in time because we have a microplastics putting things into the environment that one of the main issues and contributive factors such as these two are the major Schuster for every single nation and the globe called global warming or climate change. Some comments that fabrics are polyester, spandex, and nylon.

Another major distinction to be made between these two is that natural fibres actually have a lifecycle whilst the other one has a one-way arrow which is not a cycle. Natural fibres have a cycle. That cycle basically includes the growth of the plant or the animal, the shearing, or dehairing, of the animal, and the harvest of the plant to get the fibres. And from this, we can then use it to make a very Starbucks and then put that into a particular or any of your most fashion trees. So this stereotyped polar bear might not be sheared or dehaired (that lack of self-esteem trophy goes to camels and bunnies in general), but it is going to shed a tear for its and our environment.

The end result of these productions can then be thrown away to decompose and made into fertilizer, then be used to grow for the plants or the crops for the fields that the animals with the clothing fibre then graze off. (nom, nom, nom.)

Unfortunately, synthetic fibres do not have that. They have a system in which they are made and then they were tossed into landfills or the ocean, which leads to the problem to do with pollution. So, the natural fibre clothing might not last as long, but will leave a definite lower impact on the environment.

Synthetic fibres will last forever or a lot longer because of biology’s inability, as far as w know, to decompose them – so they’ll end up in pieces in the ocean or landfills in one form or another whether bits or pieces. However, the intelligent decision in terms of the environment would very likely be natural fibres at this point time as far as I know.

There’s something I didn’t quite know about, and I hadn’t even covered, but I think that it’s something that is worth covering in this little short article here today. It is something that neither plant nor animal fibre. Therefore, it is not a natural fibre. Rather, it is a non-natural classification of fibre, not even a synthetic fibre. It is a regenerated fibre. Huh?

Basically, it is a natural fibre to begin, or more particularly a plant fibre, that is broken down in terms of the cellulose components of it – in many instances (there are others, apparently). These are broken down by a chemical process.

The chemical process is known as the viscose method. The viscose method involves the breakdown of the cellulose via various chemicals, and then the regeneration of the parts that were broken down with another chemical that then makes a new fibre. In other words, it is a little like removing some particular aspect of something and then filling in the holes was something else of that which was removed.

Some of these things don’t necessarily need to be referred to an ethic of good and evil or morality of right and wrong or even utilitarian analysis correct incorrect choices in particular set of possible futures. One can simply look at the way that products are made via harvesting manufacture.

They can look at the distribution networks. The distribution networks being those who are the source of materials. Those who are the transporters of material. And those are who are the recipients of the material. Out of this, we can then extract a systems-based view about the nature of fibres.

With respect to regenerative fibres, there is a sense in which a plant fibre is first needed because of the cellulose-based nature of the fibre itself. Then there needs to be a reference to the particular type of process that’s required for it called the viscose method. After that, then, the issue then focuses on the material itself, the regenerative fibre.

It might be able to be used in similar or the same fashion ministry. Maybe it’ll be worn by the same people as the synthetic or the natural fibre fashion industry without any ill health consequences. It might be able to be brought into the general consumption that works with the 60+ million tons of synthetic fibres worn by the general public within emphasis on polyester.

Or, the 25.4-million-ton industry of natural fibres with an emphasis on the 15 animal and plant flowers around the world. Nonetheless, it has to focus on the new type called regenerative fibre. Now, please bear in mind as I believe that noted at the outset of the short article, that the nature of the regenerative fibre is something that I wasn’t necessarily familiar with. It has to do with another categorization of fibre.

It is something that is originally a natural or plant fibre. That is, something that was a plant fibre, had the cellulose removed, say, and then had a chemical admixture to become a regenerative fibre.

Now, I’ve mentioned the viscose method a couple times. But what is it? Viscose method includes two parts: extrusion and precipitation. What is extrusion? What is precipitation? Extrusion is simply the act or process of pushing something out, and in this case, I assume, it means the cellulose via some chemical means (too much detail!), and then the precipitation is basically what you get with some of the weather cycle, or the water cycle of the weather cycle.

At the end of it, you will get some regenerative fibre that is capable of being worn by pretty people in ads. (Gasp! Shudder.)

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

Doo Wop; That Thing; The Logics

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

So, once again, we find ourselves in the roles of narrative-maker and reader. Is that breaking the fourth wall, third (?)? I don’t know. There are the aspects around natural fibres to begin with. Do you know about or have you heard about Lauryn Hill? Well, you should. Why? Hell if I know, but I get some joy listening to the music. Been listening to her while writing at times, annnnnd….cue the lyrics:

You act like you ain’t hear him then gave him a little trim
To begin, how you think you really gon’ pretend
Like you wasn’t down then you called him again
Plus when you give it up so easy you ain’t even fooling him

That’s pretty good, right? I think so. Let’s review what we know about fibres. Natural fibres are made of plant fibres, animal fibres, and mineral fibres.

I’ve written on some of these fibres in previous posts, and I had stated that natural fibres have only two categories: plant fibres and animal fibres. However, I was wrong. I recently learned about a new category: mineral fibres.

Civilizations around the world have used natural fibres, such as flax and wool, for millennia. Natural fibres are very different from synthetic, or man-made, fibres. Unlike natural fibres, synthetic fibres cannot decompose, which means they are polluting the environment. For instance, we have 4.54 trillion micro-plastics in our oceans, which affects the lifeforms in this ecosystem. In addition, we have a tremendous amount of plastics from synthetic fibres in landfills as well.

Synthetic fibres dominate – by more than two fold – the fibre industry. Natural fibres have less than half of the productive output in the global marketplace. That is concerning.

The productive cycle of synthetic fibres compared to the that of natural fibres is absurd.

While the production of the synthetic fibres takes time, once created, the fibres move directly on a one-way street to waste, whether into landfills or the ocean. Natural fibres, however, go back into the environment as they decompose, and then we harvest the fibres again.

Climate change is an immediate and ongoing concern. CO₂ in the atmosphere is reflecting light from the sun back into the atmosphere at a higher rate annually. It is capturing certain wavelengths of light that would otherwise bounce off and go back into space. Long wavelength light is absorbed and re-emitted and stays within the Earth. We’re running the dumbest slow-cooker experiment in human history.

This is an alarming set of trends that started with the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution did improve our lives in many ways – in the developed nations. Nonetheless, the continuous burning of fossil fuels is a major contributor in overloading the Earth’s atmosphere with greenhouse gas emissions. Authors of professional reports and in the peer-reviewed academic journal articles have discussed these greenhouse gas emissions and their effect on the Earth endlessly.

Of the experts who are spending their professional time researching the subject, 97% agree on the reality of global warming and its consequences. For instance, we are seeing glaciers and polar ice caps melting, extreme weather events, alarming transformations of the animal and human environments throughout the biosphere, and higher sea levels, which might sink coastal cities around the world by the end of this century.

So, we can see that the popular media, the academic world, and the general populace at large are increasingly throughout the world becoming more aware and active in terms of the knowledge and hoping to contribute to the reduction of the production of carbon emissions in the atmosphere. You may have heard of the phrase “carbon footprint.” That simply points to the measuring of peoples’ contributions to the global warming of the earth. It’s nothing esoteric. Nothing hard. It’s a simple trend line over time based on parts per millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.

This is an extraordinarily strong positive correlation possibly because of the warming of the earth in addition to the concomitant effects that are listed before to do with melting of the glaciers, warming of the earth, sinking of the coastal cities and other populated places (usually the poor places of the world), rising sea levels, and other things. By which I mean, it’s obvious. I think the logic is another issue there was a famous logician named Kurt Gödel.

The formation in geological time of the human body by the laws of physics (or any other laws of similar nature), starting from a random distribution of elementary particles and the field is as unlikely as the separation of the atmosphere into its components. The complexity of the living things has to be present within the material [from which they are derived] or in the laws [governing their formation]

Said Kurt Gödel, which was pretty good, but not as punchy as this one:

But every error is due to extraneous factors (such as emotion and education); reason itself does not err.

Although, he shot himself in the foot with this one in contradistinction to the last one:

Reason and understanding concern two levels of concept. Dialectics and feelings are involved in reason.

Feelings ain’t so extraneous; or even with a hint of the metaphysical:

Either mathematics is too big for the human mind, or the human mind is more than a machine.

Or consider what a man named George Gilder (an American investor) to say about this man:

The progenitor of information theory, and perhaps the pivotal figure in the recent history of human thought, was Kurt Gödel, the eccentric Austriac genius and intimate of Einstein who drove determinism from its strongest and most indispensable redoubt; the coherence, consistency, and self-sufficiency of mathematics.

Gödel demonstrated that every logical scheme, including mathematics, is dependent upon axioms that it cannot prove and that cannot be reduced to the scheme itself.

With all this in mind, natural fibres in the natural fibre cycle, the synthetic or man-made one-way cycle, ethics, sustainability, environmentalism and environmental ethics, other global issues that could lead to ruin, and the importance of straightforward logic and not even the advanced form brought forth by Godel with the two incompleteness theorems, Tarski with the undefinability theorem, or any of the number of logics available (computational, formal, informal, mathematical, modal, philosophical, predicate, propositional, or – gasp! – non-computational).

The reasoning seems pretty clear. And I think if the ethic is pretty clear to, then the logic and reason is pretty clear, and therefore the feeling is pretty straightforward to me as well. It seems like an emotional imperative. Seems like enough fun. Rational does not preclude emotion. What do you think? About that thing? (Or those things.) We can change our habits and be ready for the future, and we can learn about it. Thankfully, it’s not hard to take it all in, that’s just life, right? Hill?:

This life is a process of learning.

And as with everything written, I could be wrong, incredibly wrong – think for yourself and come to your own conclusions. I’m human. I’m a writer. I have biases, fallibilities, and quirks – even some funny ones. My words aren’t gold, nor are they a calf. (And no bull!) Although, I will milk it.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

Set Theory and Natural Fibres

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

So, I want to talk little bit about set theory as it relates to things like categorizations and the definitions of fibres. Set theory is an advanced form of abstraction based around the categorization of things into sets, which are contained in supersets. Supersets contain sets contain elements.

The fundamental units of the sets are elements. A set with an element is called an empty set. But this is some of the strange and weird abstract language that is used to describe this discipline, which is one of the most fundamental domains of discourse for pure mathematics, mathematics, and even physics that describes the natural world.

So, let’s run a little bit of a thought experiment and a simple symbol manipulation experiment with respect to set theory and how we define natural fibres. We can take a squiggly bracket for opening, similar to a parenthetical statement, and a closed squiggly bracket, then we can come up with something like this:

{}

If we take a symbol such as x, y, or z, or actual numbers such as one, two, three, and so on and so forth, we can label those elements. As noted earlier, we can then define the set as the composition of the elements. If we take a set A, we can define it as the most fundamental set, which relates all other sets, which is an intersection of all of them because of the nothingness that contains nothing. Something that contains nothing, in this definition, can then, therefore, relate to everything else. (Huh?) And the Empty Set is such a set:

{} or ∅.

In this case of set A, as an empty set or The Empty Set, will be the representation of it, this means that nothing is contained at this moment in time. If we extrapolate to add elements, let’s say the letter x for an unknown variable, and the number 1for a known variable, we can then have three factors now, we have A, the unknown variable x, and the known variable 1.

We have some fundamental concept sin set theory, too. We have the element, the set, the superset, and the known and unknown variables. Elements make up sets and superset. The latter two do not have much discussion, if at all, in the formalized textbooks, but it’s interesting to note that any set can have elements in them and not know what the precise variable is at that moment in time.

It’s a bit like memory, long-term memory. There’s stuff we know that we know, but don’t have the immediate access it. It’s right at the “tip of my tongue” – so to speak. It’s in our mind, but not known. That’s what I mean. You might have inferred another concept. That a set in a superset is another thing, entirely, which is true: the subset. Let’s put the known variable and the unknown variable into the set now. It will look something like this:

{x, 1}

What else is entailed by this? Two other sets are duplicated or implied by this. One is another set B that contains only the unknown variable x. Another is a set that contains only the known variable, 1. So, we have sets A, B, and C.

Note, the empty set, or the set that contains no elements x, is, thus, intersected between set A, B, and C. If we extrapolate this into the definitions of natural fibres, and synthetic or man-made fibres. We can define natural fibres as set B and synthetic or man-made fibres as set C. Something’s missing here. That’s right.

Set A is the superset of sets B and C. Note, set B and set C are new sets with the same title as the ones before in addition to set A as the superset of sets B and C, the new sets. All of the other definitions of fibres would be elements within A. All natural fibre definitions would be elements in set B.

All synthetic or man-made fibres would be elements in set C. For sake of ease, we can label the old sets A-C the sub-a kind and the new sets A-C the sub-b kind – sub simply means that hyphenated letter placed in front of and below the capital letter representing the set:

A = {}

A_a = {x, 1}

B_a = {x}

C_a = {1}

A_b = {natural fibres, synthetic/man-made fibres} = {B_b,C_b}

B_b = {natural fibres}

C_b = {synthetic/man-made fibres}

See, simple, you can do it, too! You can then infer or deduce properly downwards into subsets and elements that are further composed of these. That’s a small introduction to set theory.

If we were to straightforwardly label the sets themselves, we could come out with him something a little bit interesting with regard to the composition of the definitions. We can replace the F4 mentioned unknown acts and the known one with the titles fibres, natural fibres, synthetic or man-made fibres, and so on and so forth.

It would look something like this: acting like a little bit of a phonics but thought experiment to run! Sorry if this is a little bit of a bore, but I think that this is a viable subject and a very important subject matter and of itself to both think about, pursue, and to play around with as an idea, especially with respect to something else as practically important as natural fibres and textiles. Here’s what I came to with all of that!

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

My Stake in Climate Change is with Everyone Else

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

Climate change is one of the major issues in the world at the moment. Climate change, or also known as global warming, is what some might deem the major problem in the world today with respect to the weather of any particular area of the world and the catastrophes seen via its effects around the globe over many, many decades.

To me, this is an important point in time to keep in mind that I feel like no one individual is necessarily at fault, but that large international entities such as hydrocarbon producing companies and corporations are at fault. At the same time, the consumers, us, seem to be a fault to me as well. So, it runs both ways, in two examples.

This is a major issue for so long, and it is something that I have grown up with. I really can’t, even after a few minutes of pause and reflection and attempts to remember a time without this as something in my life. It just kind of is. Something that I have grown into, something that I have known in more of my cognizant life than not.

And it is something that I haven’t and probably will not be able to escape in terms of its importance to my considerations of both national life and international responsibility. Is this a healthy concern? Is this proportioned a consideration? I ask myself these questions about this topic because it’s something that is not going to disappear, and will likely remain with me until I die.

So, there’s two kinds of response: let the ‘inevitable’ happen or think about solutions. I’m the latter person more often than not. Besides, the former splits into two kinds of folks: the panic-stricken and the complacent. The panic-stricken are the ones that are unable to permit themselves the ability to calm down and think about the variables at play in the situation.

Although, I do know that this is a very relevant feeling and emotion for those that individuals that are worried about the state of the climate. I would feel the same way, if I did not know about the facts of the matter. Facts the matter that we can do things. It is a matter of mindset followed by action.

The complacent are of a similar sort as the panic-stricken because they, in terms of their actions, do not do anything. By not doing anything, they don’t change a thing. When they don’t change anything, it seems marginal in terms of the source of the lack of action. I feel like that is this source of the concern from my side is in light of the fact about the darkness of action of the complacent and the panic-stricken, i.e. without any action.

I do not mean political or environmental or economic activists necessarily. I mean those that would build new technologies for instance. Those that would enact laws in place that are devoted to the well-being and safekeeping of our life-support system, which is important with respect to our own well-being and survival of her children and those that come after us. So,

I’m of the latter form. The kind of person, I feel at any rate, that aims for solutions for increasing the level of discussion. To me it feels like it is a travesty that was thrust onto me and others growing up at this time.

And the issue doesn’t limit itself to groups, I feel, the discussions about groups, discussions about identities and identity politics and so on, are not necessarily the core thing at the moment, even though they dominate young people’s academic lives much of the time.

In fact, these discussions will not be able to be had without the solutions needed for climate change or global warming implemented immediately and in the long-term. So this is something that has been in personal and social life for a long time.

If I don’t get my act together in terms of my own personal behavior with respect to this major issue, then I’ll be letting down in an enormous number of people who are similarly concerned and working towards these issues. I know that if I fail at attempting to adapt to the major issues of the climate in our time, then I will tacitly be letting down others.

Even so, I do feel a little bit concerned in terms of upcoming generations. And I have nieces, nephews, others that I love very much, and this is not only then a concern for me but also a concern coming from me to them. I feel concern for them. I feel concern for others.

I’m trying to do some things within some skills that I have, such as writing and researching, interviewing, and presenting the facts of the matter, but this does not necessarily mean that this is the most productive manner in which to tackle this topic.

For instance, when in attempting to make contact emotionally, one can tackle it constructively and proactively through advice. So, I feel like there are some more things to take other than just the general from this. There can be emotional appeals when reason and argument fail.

And so once we’ve gotten through all of the other issues to do with the anxiety, the complacency, the identity politics, and so on, I feel like the fact of the matter is the way to think about these things. The facts of the matter are not necessarily the most convincing to people.

In fact, I would argue that most people most the time are not necessarily convinced by reason, but, rather, by emotion, emotional appeal, and a general feeling about something of whether it is a threat or not. In fact, I feel as though that might be the reason behind the complacency in terms of its emotional aspects.

It is just so far away. It is so in the distance that it is beyond the horizon of feeling like an urgent thing. However, it’s right here. It’s happening now. So count me, I feel the need to double down on facts, arguments, and some appeals to emotion for individuals.

I disagree with some of the pleas that are made emotionally, but I think that expressing one’s personal perspective, experience, and vulnerabilities and potential helplessness on this issue have their place. And if each of these has a place, then there are different formats from which to tackle climate change.

And good, it’s a very good thing that these avenues exist. I don’t have much else to say, and I don’t have any references, numbers, or block quotes for this particular piece, but I those are some just my own general thoughts, feelings, and reasoning at a very superficial level. I could go onto the tales of brave Ulysses…but I digress.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

Sustainable Fibres – What is Jute?

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

Today’s natural fibre will be jute. However, I want to discuss a novel aspect of this particular series. When you think about it, what is sustainable fibre? To me, it means something that is capable of being circuitous in its production as well as the management of its life cycle.

In that, it does have a life cycle. To be sure, I mean eco-friendly resources, which can sustainably be grown as fibre crops or even with recycled materials. For us at Trusted Clothes, it is something of importance.

We are at a point, and have been for some time, for the need of sustainable solutions in terms of the net human population’s production and consumption patterns. Our patterns of consumption now are not only affecting us now, but will affect those in the future. For those of you with children or grandchildren, that means them. And the population is projected to go up to 9, even 10 or 12 billion people from the current 7.3.

For those of you with loved ones or neighbors or still citizens, everyone, that means them as well. It is a global issue. (Dun, dun, dun!) As with most issues at this time of globalization, it is happening in larger, and larger, amounts. And the changes to the environment will impact on us because we are part of the environment. That is, the environment, of which we are a part, is our life support system. Okie dokie, now some background…

Natural fibres are under the classification of fibres. Man-made or synthetic fibres are under the same classification. Natural fibres can decompose. Man-made or synthetic fibres cannot decompose, as far as we know. Synthetic fibres can include things such as nylon and polyester. Natural fibres can include things such as alpaca, angora, camel, cashmere, coir, and wool. Natural fibres themselves divide even further into plant and animal fibres.

Plant fibres being the fibres that are made mostly of cellulose and come from plants, of course. Animal fibres are those that come from chains of amino acids known as proteins come from animals, even more of course. So to the main course, what is jute?

It is one of the longest fibres and most used of the natural fibres. To some classifications, it can be known as the golden fibre, given that it is has a golden brown color. It is environmentally friendly and one of the most affordable natural fibres around. In other words, those on a tight budget, such as students or most single parents, this can be something to look into for you.

Jute is a bast fibre, and that means that the bark of the plant is what is used for the fibre itself. That is bast. It has been used in history in India for centuries. And it was typically twisted. Sometimes, the fibre was/is extracted for use in fires.

Now, the main producers are commercial growers. It was exported in the 1880s with spinning and weaving in Dundee (Scotland); however, the juice products were replaced by hemp, for instance. And by 1970 and into the late 1990s, jute fibres were replaced by synthetic fibres.

Used to be it an industry of 3 to 3.7 million tonnes per annum for its production but this reduced to 2.6 – 2.8 million tons. None the less, and even in spite of the decline, jute is a prominent fibre probably second only to cotton. As noted that it is environmentally friendly, I have a low carbon footprint and is biodegradable it. It feeds on soil and air.

Therefore, it is good for the air in the soil, and is a good source for wood pole. It does not need any fertilizers or pesticides. We can work this out. And can enrich the soil with micronutrients. It can support fish populations even when there’s a flood. In fact, he can help clean the air because it can assimilate 3 times more CO2 and convert it into oxygen than the average tree.

Now, with this, it is an extract of the white plant. And it typically flourishes in lowland tropical areas where the humidity of about 60 to 90%. Therefore, the consumption of food plants of about 15 tonnes will release about 11 tonnes of oxygen, which is a good thing in the era of global warming or climate change.

Its yield is about 2 tonnes of dry food fibre per hectare. Note, it is also one of the strongest fibres around. Present, Bangladesh and West Bengal in India are the world’s main work or food producers. There are about 4 million Farmers earning their living from this. This supports 20 million dependents. A 1 to 5 ratio for a 5 to 1 ratio depending upon the matter.

And so come we come to the production and trade and uses of you to close off this short article. The production of jute fluctuate depending upon the weather and environmental conditions in addition to the prices of the market for a 2029. India produces about 60% of the world productive capacity of Jude in addition to Bangladesh making most of the rest, as noted for their production.

Most of the exports of Bangladesh can be about half of the Roth IRA. And in most of the food produced by India is consumed domestically in other words it is produced internal to the state. The uses of Judah of being the well-documented up since about the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, which is a couple that was centuries ago, and it has been known that she has been replaced as never before by blacks and Hunt, but it can be used as things like curtains, carpets, rugs, or can be Blended to make other Goods such as lampshades or shoes.

Some of geotextile Zara from juice that are about flexible can absorb moisture come and are biodegradable, and this can prevent soil erosion Landslide well that’s all I’m good for today 1, that should provide a decent picture of what it looks like as a very important favor for one of the most populous nations in the world with the round 1.25 billion people.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

Reflection on Climate Change, Consumption Patterns, and the IPCC

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

I was doing some brainstorming on one of the most prominent and controversial political topics in the current era, which does not equate to a controversial topic within the academic and scientific communities because well over 97% of the worlds climate experts agree that climate change or global warming is real, that is it is happening, and that human beings are major contributors to this problem. When I was brainstorming on this topic, or simply reflecting on it, I was thinking about the nature of the production cycles in the global marketplace and the consumption patterns of billions of people, and the general production of carbon emissions.

If you take a look at the consumption patterns, not only in terms of the raw quantity but also the sheer variety of things that people consumed, the data can seem overwhelming at first glance or on face value. Even so, at the same time, the nature of the general costs of things such as fashion, textile production, and harvesting growth of animal and plant fibres – or production of synthetic or man-made fibres, the data seems more clear because the net numbers have been organized, parsed, catalogued, and put into comprehensive and simplified frameworks. These styles of consumption or consuming patterns dictate the raw CO2 output or carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

As a side note, we have other global issues such as terrorism. For examples, Boko Haram and ISIS, Irish Republican Army and Naxal/Naxalites, and so on, as well as the threat of nuclear war with respect to major nations in the world having large numbers quantities of nuclear armaments prepared to launch. These should be reduced in number because of the threat of possible failures in the computer systems that prevent nuclear launch and other known vulnerability of the systems.

Nonetheless, one of the long-term issues that needs implementation at present and continuing into the near and far future is climate change or global warming. Most nations in the world conceive of this as a problem based on the data provided by such respected international scientific and climatological bodies as the international panel on climate change for the IPCC. Given that this is an international organization; it is known as a scientific intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations with respect to the global community. It was founded in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and United Nations Environment Program.

In other words, it has been producing research for decades. It has been producing reports for about that time as well. There are thousands of scientists and experts that assist the production or writing and outputs of the organization. The reportage of the organization aims to include information on human impacts or contributions to global warming, the consequences of it, and the possibilities or paths for mitigation and mediation for this. In other words, that includes the levels of human contribution, how we affect the environment, and the ways to avoid the worst of this.

Now when I reflect on this further, the nature of things like natural fibres are important because these do not necessarily contributions to the environment. In fact, some fibres such as natural fibres can be either net minimal carbon producing in terms of the total lifecycle, or even net neutral, or even most beneficial net negative in terms of the carbon emission. This is an important fact. Things like synthetic fibres such as polyester, especially, do not by necessity produce zero carbon over their life cycle.

In fact, they can make things worse with such things as heavy levels of productions of micro plastics into the ocean and the landfills. The major threat of climate change, of course, is the fact that when the climate becomes warmer then the oceans become warmer, and anything such as water expands compared to a prior state. Cold things contract; warm things expand.

This has been called anthropogenic climate change because of the high probability or high positive correlation between human industrial activity that is deeply associated with high levels of carbon output through such things as the burning of fossil fuels for high levels of hydrocarbon placed into the atmosphere and, subsequent, warming of the atmosphere. The long way wave length light is not leaving the atmosphere. The carbon is capturing that light and warming the atmosphere, among other things.

So, when I think even further about things like fashion culture and sustainable fashion culture, some that have not been introduced to it might come forth towards it with a certain skeptical nature or mindset, which seems healthy and in most contexts, and might associate typical stereotypes about fashion culture as frivolous, devoted to superficial things, and not of any particular importance. However, one could, quite easily, argue, that the nature of fashion changes when the focus becomes the nature of its inputs prior to becoming fashionable goods. Fashionable goods that are then put on models for fashion shoots or work for them to be walking down runways and wearing them, and so on.

Certain changes in mindset can bring a freshness of perspective, this means things that we thought non-important before suddenly become important. It is a shock to the system. A new perspective for an individual, like you and me. And I think that that is something to reflect on.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

Sustainability Awards – Yes

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

I want to bring something to your attention. Something that came to mind for me from reading. I was reading about the United Nations. I was reading about the United Nations Chief Ban Ki-Moon. And he had pointed out the 10 champions and pioneers of social entrepreneurship for corporate sustainability. I thought, “Cool!”

These aligned or are meant to align with universal principles of human rights, environment, and anticorruption. These are common terms in the United Nations. These, I think, are important awards. I feel as though these get impetus to modern problems. Issues of sustainability. Concerns over climate change. Problems of corruption getting in the darn way of the processes.

We need changes and big ones. And we can scale to the big or small depending on the problem. The founder, Zubaida Bai, created a for-profit social venture called ‘Ayzh.’ It provides health and livelihood for impoverished women throughout the world. Neat, all of it around the UN Global Compact. Ten basic principles, and other stuff, about businesses being sustainable and socially responsible. Important stuff, right?

I want businesses in my society to reflect international standards. If they didn’t, how would that reflect on the country, on the corporation or business, and the citizens that permit it? It’s constitutional democracy with almost unprecedented freedoms and ability to organize socially. Why not organize, socialize, or corporatize (in Bai’s case)? We need to align corporate interests with international principles. Principles of human rights, environment, anticorruption, and labor.

There’s other precedents too. Things like the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals also known as the SDG (almost like a rap group).

All of this awarding and mentioning took place at the Global Compact Leaders Summit. Mr. Moon congratulated 10 major people, rightly. And so the emphasis of the event was on with a strengthening engagement for business and the sustainable development goals. These folks had a vision. They pursued, and accomplished that vision. And that’s not even the half of it, not even close. Because there’s projected to be trillions of dollars to be spent on infrastructure throughout the globe. That’s incredible! It’s an incomprehensible sum of money, especially to most people working regular jobs and not running international corporations or economic ‘powerhouse’ countries. Which means this is money influenced by the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (meant for completion by 2030), I argue money being put to good use.

This would be invested in infrastructure to create a clean-energy, climate resilient, and sustainable set of economies. These awards got me thinking. What about ramping up the scale o this stuff or the small players? Most will never have international recognition. Some will have local recognition. Why not scale our efforts appropriately? Blogs, networks, companies, form committees or working groups to set up sets of awards in categories for sustainable fashion. These all geared towards small players, e.g. new businesses or new models or novel ideas for reduction of carbon output on your local fashion scene, yo.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

Trusted Clothes – Recap – Who are we?

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

Welcome to Trusted Clothes. The clothes we wear have some staggering costs beyond the price tag, and most people don’t even know it. Trusted Clothes is about to change that. Our mission is to empower consumers to understand the issues and hold global retailers accountable for the true cost of clothing.

Our organization has roots dating back two decades, and everything we have done has led to this point. Our background is diverse: we have been involved in everything from pioneering renewable energy projects in Canada to global marketing campaigns for the world’s largest companies. We’ve travelled the world and seen both beauty and despair through the eyes of locals.

We’ve had the privilege of meeting people from vastly different worlds: those who live in poverty, earning $2 a day, as well as billionaires. Now is the time to do something about it. Trusted Clothes is not the start of something. It’s the result of something. The garment industry was the most natural starting point.

In terms of environmental impact, the industry is in the same ball park as fossil fuels and factory farming, making it a significant contributor to global environmental and health issue. Secondly, the nature of the industry and supply chains creates a starting point for poverty and slavery, child labor, human trafficking, abuse, safety issues, and many other very bad things.

We have personally witnessed the evolution of organic agriculture from very small niche farmers in the 1990s to today’s supply chain that covers a wide footprint in today’s grocery stores. Now, almost 20 years later, a similar movement is under way in the global garment industry. And we are in a unique position in history, that we have the ability to help in this transformation and accelerate it.

Our approach is very simple. We are mobilizing a global team of likeminded individuals who can each contribute a piece of the overall solution, which includes: awareness. Raise awareness, celebrate success stories and bring issues to the forefront. Educate: educate consumers to understand how buying behaviors shape this industry. Closing the Gap: transform the industry from within by changing consumer behavior to demand businesses to be accountable.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

A Take on Sustainability

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

Truths bear repetition. It’s the lifeblood of culture change. Truths need legs. I wanted to express more thoughts on why sustainability is important to me. Sustainability is important to me on one level (at least). It’s the international community. It agrees on its importance. Individuals can differ. Some corporations can differ. Even some sustainability groups can differ on ethical nuances like the use of animal products, and which ones, and produced by what means, all decent considerations. I’m kind of democratic in that sense. All views matter, but not all views are by necessity valid. (True!) It’s one big family trying to decide on dinner, and the timer is running out – like climate change or sustainability of consumption patterns.

The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations called 2009 the year of the natural fibre. I use that resource and continue to use that resource for professional work on sustainable fibres and natural fibres. Sustainable fibres link up with the textile industries and ethical fashion. I consider ethical fashion and sustainable fashion connected to sustainability and important as well. I like the idea of sustainability. I find the people involved in this endeavor interesting. I like their stories and narratives. It is a really interesting, rich, and committed community of intellectuals and citizens. All throughout the world invested in one goal: sustainability.

I consider sustainability a straight engineering problem. But I also consider sustainability a crucial aspect of the 21st-century in daily life. We have billions of people on the earth. We have many medical and societal reasons to thank for that fact. That means sustainability on the individual level deals with people. People like myself. People like yourself. Sustainability as an international goal is something that brings it down to the individual level for everyone, including me. I think about fashion. I think about laundry. I think about lights. I think about cars and buses and transportation in general. I think about the consumption patterns for food.

I think about supply chains. I think about the production lines and modes. All of this matters to me. All of this matters because the nature of sustainability impacts every area of human endeavor because every area of human endeavor has waste associated with it. The question then becomes, “Do we want a sustainable future or not?” I think we do. At some level or another, even those that are most against it for monetary and economic reasons, or reasons of ease, they want the same. It’s a bit like a holdout situation, where everyone knows we need to alter at least a little bit in the end.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

More Sustainability Awards – Writing

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

I had another idea. It is related to the notion of awards for the global ethical fashion heroes/heroines/exemplars. And the same idea laid out about the local exemplars themselves. What do you think it could be? I l like the idea of organizations getting together for the same purpose geared towards writers. Writers tend to be in need nearly always; fashionistas an fashionistos are in need too.

People read; folks wear. It’s all part of the same deal. So how might is come about? Well, it’s a little hard, tad difficult, to narrow in on specifics. But the notion seems well supported. Take, for example, the fashion world’s well-published authors. They tend to get the most eye-time. That time is amped up with more exposure. Media coverage begets media coverage.

So once those folks are in the cycle, they stick. It’s like horoscopes and Georgia Nicols in Canada. She has a firm position on the minds of Canadians with her purported abilities. Or the commentators on hockey, there’s some strategy, some gaming, and lots of professional discussion. Highly advanced discussion on a sport. That is more of the same principle: exposure begets exposure. And one way to pass the Canadian cultural torch is through the recognition.

And I say awards. Imagine the Canada Reads fabulous selection of books this year. Imagine (no religion?) the nature of the enterprise of poets and novelists earning awards in this literate country. Many would not be known without those awards. These can be marginalized voices. Individuals are individuals and character content matters, and the same individuals can represent common experiences of communities and groups. Bam! They get known. They get deserved recognition.

And their ability to expand the cultural conversation continues forward. That’s great for everyone. Writers for fashionistas and fashionistos, fancy folk, comes out of this too. Same principle. These individuals can be beacons for the sustainable fashion community. We can award them for productivity, novelty, or creativity of output, timeliness of message, beauty of the writing, or comprehension and delivery of a technical topic. Different categories awarded in blind-to-name-and-associations-submissions (hyphen city, sorry!). That’s the other idea.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

An Interview with Jo Salter

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/08/04

Tell us about yourself – family background, personal story, education, and previous professional capacities.

Hi, I’m Jo and I live in Suffolk in the UK with my husband Rob and two young sons. I grew up in the South of England and have a younger brother, Chris. My Dad passed away from cancer when I was 10 so my Mum had to work really hard to bring us up. She grew up on a farm in Ireland so would send Chris and I over there in school holidays so she could work. We both loved the freedom of life on the farm and running around the countryside with our Irish cousins! My Mum and her family are catholic and I’m sure that her strong beliefs in sharing and duty have shaped my thinking about Fairtrade and justice.

I attended catholic schools and did well enough to get to college and obtain a degree and then I worked for our main Telecommunications provider, BT. I had a number of roles, including technology, channel management, business and marketing. I always had a keen interest in Fairtrade and International Development though and was involved in lots of fundraising whilst studying for a Post Graduate qualification in Development Management in my own time. When the time was right I left BT to set up as an ethical business consultant and then eventually founded Where Does It Come From? in 2013.

What is the importance of ethical fashion?

For me ethical consumerism generally is about inspiring people to make more thoughtful choices. Do I need to buy this thing? How was it made? How much will it be used? What will happen to it when I no longer need it?

Clothing is an area where the last 30 years or so has seen a massive growth in fast fashion, with a huge culture change in the way that most people buy and discard their clothes. Fast fashion is the opposite of thoughtful – people buy on a whim, shop as a social hobby, wear once or twice and then throw in the bin. Brands encourage this behavior through rapidly changing fashions (that’s so ‘last week’) and by offering such low prices that consumer expectation is all about the cheap and throwaway. The effects of this were admirably outlined in ‘The True Cost’ movie – problems for garment producers, the environment and even for consumers, as we become constantly dissatisfied with what we have and be looking for the next fix to make us happy.

Ethical fashion – with emphasis on clean supply chains and justice for garment workers is about re-educating the consumer. You CAN buy beautiful clothes without other people (or the planet) suffering for it.

What is the importance of sustainable fashion?

Similarly, to above, sustainable fashion is really important as it is behind culture change in the garment industry, creating clothing with only positive impacts on our planet and its people and looking at the whole life span of a garment. How a garment is made and what is used to make it e.g. dyes, energy, fibre, chemicals are all so important as well as how that garment will be recycled at the end of its life. There are some fascinating sustainability projects going on looking into different fibre sources (bamboo, hemp, organic cotton), the using of recycled plastics instead of polyester and how to split mixed (polycotton) fabrics at end of life so that the separate elements can be reused or recycled.

What is “Where Does It Come From?”?

Where Does It Come From? (www.wheredoesitcomefrom.co.uk) is an ethical clothing brand that creates beautiful, sustainable clothes with a totally transparent supply chain. Our core ethos is around connecting our customers with their makers and so each garment comes with a code on the label so that the customer can unlock their garment story. The customer can then explore the processes used to create their garment and get to know the people involved in making it. We believe that connecting with your clothes will make people love them more and treat them (and the makers!) with greater respect.

We launched in 2014 with a range of denim childrens’ clothes and have since added organic childrens’ shirts and 15 designs of ladies’ scarves. We are currently in production of adult shirts and are just coming to the end of our crowdfund where pledgers can pre-order a customizable shirt with options for colour, buttons, sleeves and they can even design their own print (www.crowdfunder.co.uk/where-does-it-come-from).

We use traditional handwoven khadi fabric (as promoted by Mahatma Gandhi as part of his Indian Independence movement) and techniques such as block printing. All our clothes are virtually carbon free as the work is done by hand or using carbon energy. Our dyes are azo free (no harmful chemicals) – we would love to use purely natural dyes and this is a balance we have had to make as our customers want bright colours that will last through many washing machine cycles! Our clothes are all made in co-operatives linked to the khadi movement. They have a strong Fairtrade ethos and most of the workers are rural women. The co-operatives ensure that they are supported and paid fairly and that they can work in their rural environments.

What makes “Where Does It Come From?” unique?

The stories that come with our garments make us unique. Customers love finding out about the people who made their clothes and how they live and work. For example, you may learn that your spinner comes from a family that traditionally does not allow women to work, but through working with the co-operative she has managed to change this view. You may find out that your weaver comes from a long line of weavers and has encouraged his children to continue the family tradition. This can altar how you think about the fabric you are wearing. Personalising the supply chain is our unique feature!

You are a mother. How does this change perspective about the future and consumption patterns and the education of the next cohorts?

I love being a mother (plus my sons model for me….) but I’m not sure it really changed my perspective on ethical clothing. It did change my practical thinking on design as I soon found how quickly children grow out of their clothes and so we have implemented a number of growth-spurt features in Where Does It Come From? such as button elastic, adjustable poppers, tunic designs and long length jeans!

Being a Mum has also given me access to other parents and also to schools. I give talks in local primary schools and always find that the children respond very enthusiastically to finding out how their clothes were made and the people behind them. I really hope that the next generations turn the thinking around on sustainability. Education has a lot of power.

I certainly encourage my children to ask questions and ensure that what they buy is driven by their choice and not by that of advertisers or media, or even their friends.

What is the importance of awareness about child labor?

Parents hate to think that the clothes they buy are created by children, but it’s amazing how they can turn a blind eye when shopping, especially if the price is low! This message needs to be really hammered home so that they can’t ignore it – if something is cheap then there is a reason, and you won’t like the reason.

With Where Does It Come From? we focus on the positives i.e. How it IS made, rather than how it is not. However, I think it is hugely important to make customers think about the alternatives and to get them to question. Brands certainly won’t tell you if something is made by children or slaves and if their pay is low and working conditions dreadful. They won’t volunteer facts about waste and toxicity. You need to ask and you need to think about it. If they are not telling you then it is more than likely that you won’t like the truth.

What is Moral Fibre Fabrics?

Moral Fibre Fabrics is a business run out of Ahmedabad, India and our first production partner. The founder, Shailini Sheth Amin, is driven by environmental goals and a keen supporter of khadi production. We got together (via LinkedIn!) when I was exploring ethical fabric production. It was extremely challenging to find producers that could provide the levels of traceability that I was looking for and an initial partnership failed as they just could not provide me with the information I wanted.

Shailini and Moral Fibre Fabrics were producing hand created fabrics using the khadi model and we started discussions on Skype and email. When I explained about the traceability that I was after she was very enthusiastic, which was a different response to the negative ones I had been getting! She wanted to be able to share the stories of the khadi workers and was keen to be involved. Since then we have run 4 productions with them and are currently working on the fifth. Shailini has family in England and has visited several times and I visited Moral Fibre and the co-operatives in April this year. Our partnership is so strong that I stayed with Shailini and her family whilst there.

How has this partnership been mutually beneficial for the cooperative aims?

The co-operatives run very effectively, supporting the rural artisans and creating beautiful fabric that is also naturally environmentally friendly. We have brought the traceability element to their work which means that they now have a channel to share their stories. We have provided the link from the end customer right back to the workers.

There are also the more practical benefits of providing work which ensures that the co-operatives can function.

What other work are you involved in at this point in time?

My work in Where Does It Come From? is focused on funding and creating new ranges, marketing the clothing we already have on sale and running the business. I also spend time on ethical fashion writing articles and giving presentations such as a recent Fashion Revolution presentation in India at a fashion design college. I recently ran a panel event on ethical fashion where we showed True Cost Movie followed by discussion.

I am a member of our local Fairtrade Steering Group and work with others to encourage businesses, shops and schools to use Fairtrade products and to campaign for more awareness of Fairtrade. The Fairtrade market in the UK is growing but shops and supermarkets have to be encouraged to keep it on the shelves. Just as with ethical fashion, people can turn a blind eye to the situation producers find themselves in – we need to keep the message loud and clear!

With regard to ethical and sustainable fashion companies, what’s the importance of them to you?

I’m really enthusiastic about the growth in ethical and sustainable fashion companies. The more brands there are, with lots of diversity on different ethical elements such as Fairtrade, organic, re-use, bamboo etc., the more consumers will become aware of the need to think about ethics in their buying choices. It also means that the ethical fashion market will grow which will give more choice and make consumers more likely to have ‘ethics’ as one of their shopping criteria.

Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

This is a really exciting time for ethical business. I believe that we have reached a peak in consumerism where many people are turning away from the blatant waste and lack of consideration for producers and the negative effects on our environment. Younger people seem to be rejecting the more self focused ideology that has pervaded in the last 20 years or so and even politically there seems to be such a divide between those who want to put barriers up and ignore key global issues (whilst wearing the clothes and consuming the produce created by others!) and those who want more openness and sharing. The next few years will be extremely interesting and, I sincerely hope, enlightening!

Thank you for your time, Jo.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

Canadian Fashion Icons – Jeanne Beker

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/08/04

So, I wanted to explore something new with respect to Canadian culture, briefly to start. That new aspect has to do with fashion icons that we can find throughout our lovely, multi-faceted Canadian culture. One individual that is highly prominent in Canada goes by the name of Jeanne Beker. She is a Canadian journalist, media personality, and fashion entrepreneur. She began her career as an actress with a turn right into radio and television. She has been known on the breaking of the series TheNewMusic and a CityPulse News as an entertainment anchor.

In terms of her education, she was educated at York University. She was married to Bob McGee and they have two children, daughters, named Rebecca and Sarah.

One of her most prominent positions, which has been around for over 27 years and aired in over a 130 countries in terms of its viewership is a fashion show. It is as an internationally syndicated television show host called Fashion Television.

She has been the editor-in-chief of FQ and SIR magazines in addition to the publication of five books. And she has been a contributing editor for such major newspapers as the Toronto Star. This is an exemplary series of accomplishments and work alongside the best Canadian outlets for news and fashion, which to me makes her definitely worthy of a profile. In addition, she has been a featured style columnist for the Globe and Mail and Post City magazine. In other words, she has numerous editorial, and writing style and lifestyle, positions throughout her long career to date.

One of the most impressive parts of her resume is in light of the fact that she had a 2014, or recent, appointment to the Order of Canada for her support of Canadian fashion and the Canadian fashion industry. That’s quite an accomplishment. It’s probably the or among the highest honors in the country as far as I know. As well as this, she earned the 2012 Canadian Award of Distinction from the Banff World Media Festival in addition to an honouring a Canadian Screen Achievement Award for alterations to the manner in which Canadian citizens watch television. These are some of the impressive parts of her resume. So, that should be a good profile to start us off for this new series on Canadian fashion icons, which I believe and feel Ms. Becker is an exemplary model of the fashion culture in Canada.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

An Interview with Adila Cokar of Source My Garment

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/08/03

Tell us about yourself – familial/personal story, education, and prior work.

I’m grateful to be in this an inspiring industry for over 12 years. My experiences range from working with a variety of companies to owning successful businesses. I had a company named ShortStak Boyswear, which was nominated for most innovative new company. After learning about the impact fashion has on the environment, I decided to start my own organic apparel line, called Pur Blankz Organics, which was nominated by Apparel Magazine as a top 40 innovator.

For the past 12 years, I’ve been visiting factories offshore, establishing relationships and understanding the manufacturing process. I’m lucky to work with numerous factories who all give me access to any part of there department to better understand their process.

Over the years many designers have approached me about the production process and how to go about manufacturing. Source my Garment was created to help designer entrepreneurs manufacture overseas, due to many roadblocks that are faced entering offshore manufacturing. My mission is also to help grow smaller factories that are equally responsible. I aim to help both factories and businesses grow and build relationships.

What is the importance of ethical fashion to you?

Ethics is the bottom line; without values a business is empty and the products lacks the right “energy” to succeed.

I spent a lot of time working with the factories overseas. The Rana Plaza tragedy put a focus on transparency. There are a lot of issues with factories. But There are also factories doing good things, not all are bad. I help build relationships. That’s the most important part about ethical manufacturing and transparency.

My mission is to help improve the work-life workers overseas. Manufacturing garments is an art and both skill and hard work go into every pieces that is made; regardless of quantity. Currently Source My Garment is working on a platform to help people managing and working with factories offshore.

What is the importance of sustainable fashion to you?

Source My Garment is a social enterprise; balancing profit and both helping workers offshore and caring about the environment. We help clients build products with minimal impact.

What is Source My Garment?

Source My Garment businesses manage and guide the process of responsibly manufacturing any product made from fabric. We help source, guide manufacturing overseas and deliver your products to your door.

What makes Source My Garment unique?

There’s not a lot of people who understand both ends of the process. I have been on both sides of the spectrum, founded companies and understand the challenges designer face. I also work very closely with factories and also know the struggles they face. Knowing both sides we truly help to grow both sides of the business and help build bridges. I feel like I’m a mediator with helping both parties achieve success.

With respect to building the relationship between producers and yourself, how does one develop that relationship?

The biggest thing north Americans businesses need to understand is that when your working with a factory it is no different than hiring an accountant. It’s a vetting process and relationships are built on building trust. You should pick up the phone and talk to factory, or Skype if you can’t go see them.

Any factory that is taking an order based on minimum quantities is doing that buyer a favor If you’re working on minimums, the factory is only 30% efficient. They are not making as much as they could; so ultimately they are doing the order in hopes the quantities will grow.

They want to start understanding the product, what your quality standards are, and it makes the process easier in the long run. Getting to know them takes time; just like any other relationship.

What is the greatest challenge in founding a business?

I feel like there are so many challenges start-ups face. One if the big ones that stand out is keeping up the pace and cyclical nature of fashion is very difficult; especially if your doing it solo. Start-up continually feel they need to reinvent the wheel each season; but this isn’t necessarily the case. People don’t realize big corporations use the same pattern, and typically only changing material, in order to reduce costs and speed up the process.

Designers don’t realize the amount of work it takes to create one style and the amount of time. To keep up with the cycle, it is so hard. By the time you’ve shipped your first order, you should be placing your next order so you don’t run out of stock.

It’s competing in a well-dominated, long-dominated market. One of the difficulties is adapting to the system in place. There’s economic inertia

Yea! Definitely, the manufacturing process takes a long time as well. Once everyone is done with the product development, they want products right away, but that’s another ball game as well.

There’s sourcing from the factories end. They’re procuring the fibre, weaving it, dyeing it, and so on. That takes a lot of time. And to produce something of quality also takes time.

What other work are you involved in at this point in time?

SMG is building Product Lifecycle Management platform which guides SME’s through the process of responsible manufacturing. Due to the increasing demand for SMG services; it has brought about the idea to scale and automate their process with a Saas (Software as a Service) model. This is a first of its kind platform based on their trade secret. The end to end solution, includes action calendars, workflow charts, approval features, library resources, file management systems and logistics. Based on fair trade values, we enable businesses to transparently collaborate with factories streamlining the offshore manufacturing process. We are currently building our prototype and are looking for investors.

I am also working on a book called The Entrepreneurs Guide to offshore Garment Manufacturing. The Offshore manufacturing process seems to be somewhat of a mystery to many. If you Google this stuff, it’s not there. It’s not taught in the schools. I don’t know how people are going to be able to work with offshore manufacturing with that restriction in knowledge. So, that’s why I’m working on the book.

(Laughs) What meaning or personal fulfillment does this work bring for you?

I feel like this will help many people who are afraid to work offshore and do not know how to build ethical and fair trade products. The more I help educate businesses, the fair trade products will be out there. Consumers will then be able to access fair trade a lot easier.

With regard to ethical and sustainable fashion companies, what’s the importance of them now? In other words, if you take the things that you’ve been saying in addition to the timeliness of the global problems such as climate change, pollution, micro-plastics in the oceans, and so on, then companies with ethical and sustainable aims can make a small effect. And if multiplied over businesses, it might make a moderate, reasonable impact.

It will help improve peoples lives and the environment. We have more power. I feel like the government is leaving it to businesses because I don’t feel like they are doing as much as they could be doing.

I feel like this is something that we can control if we create a product. We can do this in an ethical and sustainable way. We can help give back as well.

Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

I have lots to say.

(Laugh)

Start ups are afraid to work with offshore manufacturers because they are afraid that they going to get bad products that and are unethical. People don’t ever hear the factory sides of the story. They have a side to their story too.

Everyday, large corporations order garments and then default on their payments. They are expecting net terms and not even paying retainers (or 50% deposit – a fair trade policy) to procure fabrics and help pay workers. How are factories going to take thousands of dollars of orders and not have any funds to pay for workers or materials over at least a 3-month period? It makes no sense and is extremely unethical.

Large corporations are putting too much pressure on factories as well. They want something two cents cheaper and decide to change factories. This screws the factory because they’ve invested in the machinery, kept the space on the production floor to them, and invested a lot of time understanding the buyer’s standards.

What I want people to know is that there are two sides to the story, it is rare that a factory will go to all of that trouble to ship a bad product. It is so counterproductive. Why would anyone do that? 9/10 times any factory that is accused of shipping bad product will ask the buyer to return it’s they can replace it. Many reasons, including poor communication can cause issues. But business don’t want to return the products; they just put the blame on them.

I don’t think the factory side of the story gets told.

Thank you for your time, Adila.

No problem!

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

Sustainable Fibres – What is Angora?

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/08/02

So what’s the animal or plant this time?

That’s the funky part. A big giant white bunny rabbit (and it’s not even Easter). Am I kiddin’ you? Nope! You can see it above. Isn’t that cool? So, what is Angora? It’s an Old World domestic rabbit with one main trait. It can grow hair twice as fast as the other rabbits. It is farmed greatly in semi-darkness with hair removed every three months. A single Old World Angora rabbit can produce about 1.5kg per year of animal fibre. Think about that: a rabbit. That’s a heck of lot!

What is the fibre like?

The hollow fibre is the silky white hair of the Angora with standard classification as wool. It’s about 14-16 microns, so tiny, and one of the, supposedly, silkiest fibres around now. So that means it’s soft to the touch. The fibre type makes the hair itself light, water absorbing, and easily dyed.

That’s a picture of a part of France that is really cool. Anyway, where is it made? Who is the major producer? Who is now the major producer?

It’s different than Cashmere. It’s different than mohair. Up until about the 1960s, the main producer of Angora fibre was, in fact, France. That’s pretty neat for such a small country. In other words, things have changed. China is now the main producer of this form of fibre. As a major producer, it outstrips Argentina, Chile, Czech Republic, and Hungary in their production of Angora fibre.

And most of that fibre that is produced in china is only about 2,500 to 3,000 tons. But China itself exports approximately half of its production for processing in Europe, Japan, and even Korea.

What are the major uses of angora fiber? Thanks for asking!

It’s used, typically, for warmth, especially various knitted things such as pullovers, scarves, socks, and glove, and they’re light too! So, no weight burden and warmth benefit, super, and to many, many folks, that makes it ideal insulation from cold weather. So if you have arthritic troubles, or even wool allergies, you can get the same kind of feel without the hassle of allergic reactions, blegh!

But there’s the fact that the angora wool itself can be too fine to provide some consumers’ individual needs at the time, and that means the fibre can be mixed with others. That can increase the elasticity and the ease of feel of the clothing when worn.

What d’ya think?

My opinion: I think this is a neat production line, but with some ethical issues to do with possible cruelty in factories and production lines. It’s an animal of a lower-order, but feels pain! So, maybe, a plant fibre is preferable.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

An Interview with Natasha Taneka

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/08/02

So to start, what’s some of your brief background?

Briefly, I am Canadian. Growing up in five different countries, however, means I have experienced living in the United States, Canada, Zimbabwe, United Arab Emirates, and New Zealand. That experience has led me to develop a passion for travelling and for getting to know people; something that comes easily to me. I have never had trouble picking up and leaving or immersing myself somewhere new. I don’t like to get into the top of anything, slowly, like dipping a toe into a pool. I like to jump into everything.

It is this background that led me to being interested in political science because a lot of the people and places I meet – seemed to me – to come down to politics. I was 13 when I first became aware of the United Nations, at the time led by Secretary General Kofi Annan; an African! The concept of a community of fraternal nations, existing and cooperating in peace had a profound effect on me. I even began to participate in the model United Nations events put on by my school.

In time, however, reality checked in and I became more aware of the challenges inherent in global trade, governance and security. After university I decided to pursue my Masters degree at the University of Auckland focused on immigration and nationalism, and how politicians design policies in their own interests. How, if you’re not local and don’t have citizenship, immigrants and workers are often treated as second class people.

That, in a nutshell, really helped me develop what I always was; an inquisitive person, interested in the concepts of equality and social justice. It helped me discover frameworks for interpreting the world while preserving something of my origins as a dreamer. It also led me to love, with a brilliant boy, another political scientist, working here in London.

Long distance was tough, no doubt about that! In the autumn of 2012, however, I finally moved to London to be with him, but finding my place still wasn’t easy. There weren’t many jobs often in my field at the time, so I took a job in procurement with a major restaurant management firm. At the time, I was hesitant about it, it was so different from the life and career I had pictured, but as I learned more about it, I realised everything in industry is connected, from finance to human and workers’ rights.

The whole supply chain has to be transparent so that, as a company, you’re not screwed over, but also to ensure justice from the producer all the way to the retailer. We want to make sure those tomatoes are coming where you’re saying where they’re coming from, and meet the right standards, while ensuring the farmer isn’t being paid pennies.

The struggle was to find a way to connect the job to my passion for politics. That’s when I started blogging. I was like “Okay, I need to practice writing. I did my Masters, but I am not writing anymore. I’m not getting thoughts out to people who matter.” My blog was born; but originally it started out as something quite different from procurement. I have always been passionate about fashion, so it began as a photo journal of my outfits, travels and thoughts.

It wasn’t until about a year later the bridge between the two began to form in my mind. Where do my clothes come from? Who makes them? Am I contributing to exploitation of people or the planet?

I quickly realised these thoughts weren’t unique. NGOs and activist group were out there trying to find the information and raise awareness. What I am trying to do is use my procurement experience, political knowledge and addiction to fashion to draw attention to the innate influence we all have as consumers.

Your name, in Shona (one of Zimbabwe’s indigenous languages), is Maonei, which means ‘Ain’t seen nothing yet.’ You are grateful to your mom for this name, too. How has this name reflected your personal life?

I think that in my personal life I admit that I get the thrill of learning something new. You think you understand something, and then somebody out of left field says, “Did you look at it this way?” All of the sudden, things change. I am addicted to that feeling, and to sharing it. I could be sitting with friends and we could be talking about vegetarianism, and I would be the one to talk about fruitarianism, and I love getting into those deep, unknown, topics and bringing it to the table.

Sometimes, it is receptive. Sometime, people are like “Natasha, the weirdest, random-est stuff comes out of your mouth.” That’s how I think I embody ‘ain’t seen nothing yet.’ I try to understand all different types of concepts. It is a reminder as well that I need to keep pushing myself.

You love fashion, beauty, and social justice, and you earned a master’s degree in political theory and human security as well. Why these topics and that graduate level degree?

I would say that it’s because I’m an immigrant. I left Zimbabwe in 1997, my childhood there was quite great. My memories were great. I left and then I saw a whole exodus of my family leaving the country, and I remember my first memory of going back and realizing that the place had completely changed, and it’s really made a mark on me seeing people leave home.

We moved to the States. Then my mom’s siblings also moved, and I remember them coming with their backpacks, suitcases, and money (luckily) and living with us to getting a small apartment to then 2-3 years later having their own houses.

Immigration has always been a part of me, and I always want to figure out, “How do you migrate and make a success of yourself?” It is the Canadian story. What is the power of the diaspora? What do we owe to the people we “left behind”? What responsibilities do we have to our new country?

I do my best to question that you have to learn French and English (as you do in Canada), but I don’t know a word in Inuit, the language of our northern indigenous community. As an immigrant, it is a part of my responsibilities to ask these questions. If I am taking my exam for citizenship, I need to be critical about that. It was the same in New Zealand, where my father is also an immigrant. As a result, I was able to study there, and it was there I was trying to figure out why I should do my masters.

The honest answer to that is that graduating from Carleton University there were very few jobs in political science at the time. If I did my masters, I would have a special skill and hopefully my CV would stand out. On top of that, both my mom and dad have PhDs. Education helped them climb the social ladder in Zimbabwe.

I have always been a strong proponent for education. That is another thing that pushes me to do my Masters. Fashion? I don’t want to say it’s just a Zimbabwe thing, but my family likes to look good. Even if it is a shirt, it is the way the shirt has to be ironed or folded. It is the small things.

You can have a nice shirt, but the shirt is not ironed. Why did you get it? They take pride in every little small thing, and this takes time, to the point it kind of was annoying as a kid. I was like, “Can we go?” But I have fond memories of my mom getting ready for work. She always looked great.

Now, since we travelled a lot, I was always forced to be as creative as possible with a small number of clothes. I always loved it – loved it, loved it.

You are of Zimbabwean heritage. How does this influence personal, or even professional, life?

Professionally, I would say it is nice to be able to see that there are a lot of visible Zimbabwean immigrants in good jobs. By good jobs, I mean blue collar and white collar jobs. I do appreciate that when I enter networking events. I will not be the only Zimbabwean. I think that says a lot about the Zimbabwean education system and also the history of Zimbabwe.

The British colonial legacy is still visible. The University of Zimbabwe or University of Rhodesia at the time for instance. They had two campuses. The better one was in Zimbabwe and the weaker one was in Zambia. Even recent statistics says our literacy rate compared to much of Africa is quite high; one of the highest. Professionally coming from a country that values education has done really well for me and for fellow Zimbabweans in the diaspora.

Personally, I went through phases in my feeling about home. At times, I was embarrassed because what I saw in the news was criticism of Robert Mugabe or the on-going economic crisis and the collapse of the Zimbabwean dollar. Not understanding the news doesn’t always present a full story or highlight success.

At the time I didn’t question the stories or the motivations. I thought how backward people were back home. I thought of myself as Canadian. Even when I travelled, people thought I was African-Canadian, a lot like an African-American, but I’m a first generation Zimbabwean African Canadian! Figure that one out!

But that feeling didn’t last. When I went to university and found myself in a group of people from Southern Africa I rediscovered my desire to learn more about Africa and home, something I had been running away from.

I even participated in an African fashion pageant, “Miss AfroCan”, which highlighted African beauty in Canada’s Capital Region. Traditionally, you don’t wear swim suits in African fashion, and this one did not have a swim suit competition, but had a talent competition, for which I wrote poetry. It was glorifying the history of Africa and what it means to be African. For me this was a turning point in rediscovering the worth of my heritage.

You write about thoughtful food. What is thoughtful food and its importance?

Thoughtful food, for me, is that before you eat something think about the journey that it has travelled. It makes the experience of eating more fulfilling if you know where it came from, or if you invest your time in understanding it. Understanding that your body is unique, respecting your body, respecting what you put in it, and what God puts in it, and that is important in the supply chain. People don’t know what that banana went through to come to your plate an what effect you’re having by eating it.

What is the importance of sustainable fashion?

Making a powerful statement without opening your mouth. It is a way to be politically involved without saying the wrong thing. Sometimes, you can be so passionate about something that when you’re trying to explain it someone and they don’t seem to get it and you might say the wrong things, hurting the cause. It is the same with fashion.

You are speaking on behalf of women and men. You are speaking on behalf of the environment. You are speaking on future generations. You are speaking on behalf of something that is universal whether atheistic or religious: art.

Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

I’m really, really happy to have found this movement. I’m so happy to have found Trusted Clothes, to find like-minded people that are working from the ground-up in a very creative industry doing their part. It is fantastic. It gives me a reason to feel like I can make a difference without being overwhelmed. And I love fashion, and so it’s a perfect combination.

I am thankful to see all of the hard work that is going out there. It brings me to tears – the whole fashion revolution. I feel this stuff. I feel the pulse. I feel the energy.

Thank you for your time, Natasha.

Thank you so much, Scott!

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

Sustainable Fibres: What is Cashmere?

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/08/01

Welcome back to another session on fibres!

Cashmere is native to the Himalayas and it has a fine undercoat of hair on the goat. Kashmir is the goat and true cashmere comes from a Kashmir goat. The hair is collected by a comb or shearing a during the molting season of spring. The molting season being the time at which the hair is going to be falling off a boat naturally.

With some sorting out of the fibres, and then some cleaning, this leads to an annual yield of 150 grams per Kashmir goat. The average diameter for the fibres of Kashmir is about 19 or less microns and the top qualifier is about 14 microns. In other words, this is a very fine fibre.

In fact, Kashmir has very small air spaces that can make it warm yet remaining lightweight. China is the leading producer of Kashmir in addition to Mongolia being the producer of the finest fibre. Other producers include Australia, India, Iran, Pakistan, New Zealand, Turkey, and the United States of America.

The uses of Kashmir can be quite broad. However, Kashmir is very expensive. For instance, it takes six goats for one sports jacket. It is favored for baby wear because of its smoothness.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

An Interview with Mandy Den Uijl

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/08/01

Tell us about yourself – family background, personal story, education, and previous professional capacities.

I was born in 1984 in the Netherlands and was brought up in the South. I come from a family of five, I have two younger sisters. My parents got divorced when I was 17 and they are both happy with their new partners. I’m married to graphic designer Sjoerd and we have a 2-year-old son, Logan.

I studied Cultural Heritage and majored in Museology at the Reinwardt Academy in Amsterdam. Due to my battles with depression I’ve never gotten around to get my degree. When our son is older I’m planning to go back to school and learn for a Bachelor degree. After college I worked for an Interior designer, a city developer and right now I’m working as an information officer at a local university.

What is the importance of ethical fashion?

I think it’s important that people know the story behind their clothes. There’s so much unfairness going on in most of the clothing factories where (fast) fashion is produced. Being aware of what you wearing is the first step. Find out how your favorite brands treat the workers in their, mostly abroad, factories. Ask for transparency, open your eyes even though it’s all happening far from where you’re living.

What is the importance of sustainable fashion?

With global temperature and sea levels rising sustainability is high on the political agenda. Producing clothes consumes energy, water, materials and causes pollution. You can choose to go on a low car diet or eat organic but what about your clothes? You can choose to buy organic cotton, secondhand or upcycled. We don’t need half of the clothes that are lying in our closets. I’m trying to reduce my wardrobe little by little till I only have the garments left that I love to wear, fit me well and last.

What about fair trade?

I think the workers in the factories where my clothes are produced need to earn enough to manage their basic expenses. I’ve read so many stories about women who are working as seamstresses struggling to get by. Is it worth to wear a $ 6 – t-shirt when it’s being produced in an unfair way?

What is MomMandy?

MomMandy’s a blog written by a 30-something first time mom. On the blog you can find articles about how she’s trying to balance parenting, work and me time.

What makes MomMandy unique?

What makes the blog unique is that MomMandy opens up about struggling with depression but also emphasizing on the beauty and happiness in meaningful little things. I think the mix between personal stories and everyday subjects like gardening and beauty is appalling to MomMandy’s readers.

You write about having a toddler and balance. What are the key lessons about raising a toddler and achieving balance?

My husband and I take turns in having time on our own. For example, if Logan wakes up at 6 PM on a Saturday one of us gets up while the other gets another hour or 2 of sleep. We take turns in going to the gym while one of us stays home. I try to meet with one of my friends weekly to have some time for myself and enjoy talking about other things then the usual parenting stuff while enjoying a nice cup of coffee. And of course scheduling in a date night every now and then is essential.

We are blessed to have both of our moms living close by. They both love to baby sit Logan. And if they are busy I also have my 2 younger sisters as back up sitters.

You work as an information officer as a university. What tasks and responsibilities come with this position?

I’m working as an information officer till August 31st but I’m also working towards a new job. Right now my tasks are comparable with those of a librarian. I help students and teachers find books and other informative materials.

You battled depression. What are the symptoms?

Depression is an awful state to be in. What I’ve learned to recognize as symptoms are:

Not wanting to meet and socialize with other people

Losing interest in the activities that I enjoy

Having a lot of negative thoughts and sometimes even thinking about death

Losing my temper more easily

Rising level of anxiety

Feeling tired

Not being able to see the beauty in little things

What are remedies recommended by medical professionals?

Talking to a professional about your problems is the best way to start. A therapist can help you find out where the origin of your depression lies. If talking is hard to do you can also resort to creative therapy. There is also no shame in taking anti depressants. Sometimes your body doesn’t produce enough neurotransmitters and medication can help restore the balance.

What was the story behind your own depression?

My depression was triggered by my upbringing in my childhood. My parents didn’t have a good marriage and as a sensitive person I was always aware of the tension and an unsafe feeling in the house. I think my parents did what they thought was right in my sister’s and my upbringing. But for me it wasn’t. Depression is also a common illness in our family so my genes also played a part.

This doesn’t mean that if someone in your family is depressed you are likely to get depressed too. But when you are living in less than ideal circumstances you are more sensitive to developing one.

What other work are you involved in at this point in time?

I’m focusing on connecting with other bloggers to collaborate and work together with. Being creative is also an important thing in my life. It helps me transform negativity into positivity. I like to write poetry and paint.

What meaning or personal fulfillment does this work bring for you?

Expressing my feelings in a creative way is an essential part of my life. I’m not much of a talker so colors, textures and the written word help me to let it all out. Same goes for sports. I try to work out 3 times a week. This helps me connect with my body and develop strength and stamina to have more energy in my day to day life.

With regard to ethical and sustainable fashion companies, what’s the importance of them to you?

It just feels better wearing garments produced in an ethical and sustainable manner. It’s true that these kind of clothes are more expensive. I like to buy second hand, wear hand me downs from my sisters and occasionally browse for sustainable brands during sales.

People can connect via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

I hope that especially the younger generation get’s more aware of sustainable and ethical fashion. The ‘movement’ is growing though. If we keep spreading the word and become sustainable and ethical consumers eventually the companies have to rework their strategies is they want the awareness generation to remain customers.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

An Interview with Dr. Brendan Richardson (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/29

What other work are you involved in at this point in time?

Interestingly, I am giving a paper at a conference in Trinity College, Dublin next week looking at the intersection between participation in or support for Blockadia, and support for Bernie Sanders.

I have been watching social media for the last 18 months. I will talk next week on how in that space, in that intersection, how it has been interesting to see how people have adopted Bernie Sanders as their candidate of choice.

Many might not see Sanders as a mainstream politician, but he has conducted an exciting mainstream political campaign. It does not seem like he will win the nomination for the Democratic party, but even so, people from the Blockadia movement have taken their passion for that movement and moved into the mainstream with it.

Oftentimes, we see movements focused on individual issues for themselves, but maybe there is a growing realization that we need to go mainstream. If we want to achieve change in the medium to longer term, it will be through coalition building as groups enter the mainstream together

I’ll be talking a little bit about that at the conference and I may attempt to continue do some research to see how that whole movement moves onward post-Bernie Sanders campaign.

I am also collaborating with some colleagues in the United Kingdom looking at the issues that arise for consumers once they become aware of their own desire to behave ethically and sustainably.

Because this idea of consumers wanting to behave ethically and finding it difficult to do so has interested me for a couple of years. I have one colleague in Sheffield Management School in the United Kingdom at the University of Sheffield, I have another at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, and they noticed similar issues cropping up in their research. There have been a lot of academics working on this question and problem. We want to collaborate together looking for more details on these questions. That’s going to be my primary research focus for the next 18 months.

Apart from that, I will attempt to achieve that elusive work-life balance. I have a family of 4 kids, two girls and two boys. The girls are in the Irish equivalent of high school. They are busy with studying and social lives. The boys are a bit younger, but they still need time with their Dad.

It is important to me to spend time with them and with their mom. That is the other side of life for me. I hope to continue to give more time to that part of life.

With respect to work, and a more personal question, what personal meaning and fulfillment does all of this work give for you?

What I am trying to do, Scott, is do my job as an academic in a way that I find personally meaningful.

I feel, without wanting to sound excessively idealistic or naïve about it, a responsibility as a teacher to encourage students to ask questions.

I have these wonderful young people. They want to study marketing. What I want to encourage them to do is ask questions about the relationship between marketing and society, I don’t want them to assume that everything is rosy.

Instead, I want them to think about the sustainable economy. What would it look like? How will we get there? How are we going to achieve greater levels of equality and justice? What do we need to do to achieve those changes?

That’s one way I can try to achieve some degree of personal fulfillment. Other ways would be through personal relationships with my partner, kids, and friends – and through trying to share my beliefs in a way that is respectful of other people.

If I try to communicate my ideas in a disrespectful way, then other people will be less likely to buy into them.

It is interesting. In Ireland, there has been a campaign of civil resistance towards the introduction of water charges. A charge for the domestic water supply.

Without going into the details as to whether that was an equitable, just, or appropriate way to make the supply of water more sustainable in an Irish context, it was interesting to see the scale of the resistance that emerged in Ireland.

It was across the board against it. So what I’ve learned from that is that for example, if we were to try to legislate, if governments got together throughout the world brought in new laws to compel everybody to behave sustainably, we might have a backlash. That might be a difficult thing because a great many people might resist.

I’m not saying legislation isn’t the answer. Personally, I think we need a great deal more legislation, to help achieve sustainability. I think the legislation needs to come in a consultative way. I prefer consultation as a means to work with people. I find that works far better.

Another thing, I find involvement with theatre fulfilling too. As an amateur actor, it is amazing. In my limited experience of working in theatre, if you are working with somebody (a director) who wants to work with you, wants to hear your ideas about art and acting in a play, it is interesting how much harder you’re willing to work for a director that listens to how you feel and how you think.

I find that fulfilling. There’s more mutual respect. On a spiritual level, that’s more meaningful. Ultimately, I like to think of myself as a spiritual person. I feel inspired to bring things back to the environmental movement.

I feel inspired by people where their spirituality is a big part of their environmentalism. I find that the most fulfilling orientation of all. Maybe, true spirituality is a spirituality that is respectful of other people – and other people’s beliefs.

Through spirituality, you find the strength to continue to fight for what’s right and the capacity to better absorb the challenges, difficulties, and accept them rather than become broken by them.

What would spirituality be for you?

I’m a Catholic. My wife and I bring the kids to church. We encourage the kids to ask questions. If they feel annoyed by something they’ve heard, we ask them what they think, we tell them what we think, we talk it through.

I can also relate strongly in many ways to the current Pope. I feel an identification with him, especially on the environment. I can identify with his stance on social justice. I can relate to his reaching out to the refugees at a time when most of Europe – and most of the political leaders – are making it more difficult for refugees to reach safety and sanctuary in Europe.

He had the courage to visit the refugees. It is a direct affront to all of these political leaders. All of our political leaders would not dare to offend one another in any way, but he’s different. I like this guy. He seems to have a humility about him.

I can identify much more closely with a Christianity that stands for justice, the environment, human rights, and calls people out on treating ordinary people badly – whether refugees, workers, or whoever.

To me, that is a practical spirituality. I feel called to that.

With respect to ethical and sustainable fashion companies, general denouement statement, what’s the importance of them now?

Any company acting from a strong sense of mission. They have a critical role to play in continuing to build awareness among the general population and continuing to encourage people. They encourage people to change their behaviour without ostracizing or marginalizing yourself from mainstream society.

You can change personal behaviour in ways that are attractive. When it comes to ethical fashion and ethical fashion brands, it matters that we would have a platform through these companies and brands to permit expression of ourselves as human beings.

First and foremost, we cannot alter our own nature in order to achieve a sustainable way of living. We are going to be human beings. We like nice clothes. We want to be fashionable. We still want to express ourselves and our identities through the attractive clothes we buy.

It’s a fundamental of living. I talk to students about non-verbal communication. Clothing is a huge component of it. When we want to present ourselves to other people, we can use body language, but we make choices with the regards to our clothing, shoes, use of makeup, hair styles, personal grooming. So we need ethical brands. One of my favourite, people on this side of Atlantic is a woman named Lucy Siegle. She writes in The Observer newspaper.

I am inspired by her willingness to continue to be an advocate for people. Ethical fashion brands have a dual mission. It is to facilitate self-expression on the part of consumers who want to be able to buy and wear fashionable clothing, but also, it is to engage politically, to advocate. We need it. We need that engagement. We need to be reminded that it’s not enough to run campaigns promoting recycling in the hopes that one’s brand will be perceived in a better light as a result. It needs to be about the cause, not just the brand.

There has to be an authentic commitment. It runs through the whole supply chain and embraces political advocacy. That’s what I see in some of these ethical fashion brands. It’s great.

Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

I was honored to be able to receive the invitation to be interviewed. I really enjoy following the work of Trusted Clothes, the blog, and your social media feed. I hope you guys will continue to spread the word and continue doing what you’re doing. Keep active and keep being an inspiration for people.

I’ve learned that we all need to be reminded that there are other people out there that share our vision for a world that can be a better place. A world that can be a more equitable place, a fairer place, where we can get on with the wonderful enjoyment and expression of being human without that having to be at somebody else’s expense.

It is wonderful to know that there are other good people out there. We all need that affirmation. That’s what makes it possible to go on believing that a better world is possible.Thank you for your time, Dr. Richardson.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

An Interview with Dr. Brendan Richardson (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/29

Tell us about yourself – family background, personal story, education, and previous professional capacities.

I teach Consumer Behaviour in University College Cork in Ireland. I have been here for almost 16 years. In my time, I’ve tried to teach consumer behavior from a cultural perspective, and not a positivistic perspective.

In that way, I have come across ideas and theories, and some interesting movements and people I might not have otherwise come across. For example, for the PhD thesis, I looked at consumer resistance among football supporters.

I used ethnography as the research method. That meant getting out and meeting people, observing people, taking part in what they were doing. That gave me ideas to use for the interviews in presenting the research.

Gradually, over the years, I found myself drawn towards studying consumer behavior, perhaps not so much from organizational perspectives, but from the perspective of individual consumers and consumer communities. Their experiences might not be as straightforward as the glossy consumer campaigns might have us believe.

That was interesting to me. Eventually, that, in a way, has led me to a situation where I feel maybe it is my role as an academic to question things. I have increasingly asked questions. I have asked questions when I see tragedies like the Rana Plaza disaster. They make me ask questions. Questions about the way that society works and how might we change society for the better.

For instance, I have discovered through research into ethical consumer behaviour that it’s difficult for the individual consumer to achieve change.

I have spoken with a number of consumers. When I interview people, I tend not to use quantitative approaches. I tend to sit down with people. I will prepare some questions, but the interview becomes a semi-structured or an unstructured process rather than a structured process.

Using that approach, the exploratory approach, I have learned about the struggles that individual people have when they want to see change. For example, to continue their own personal relationship with something like fashion, they find their options restricted. It might be because of their own financial circumstances because they see ethical fashion as attractive, but unaffordable.

If Also they are expected to purchase certain brands, shop at particular stores, because their friends expect them to shop in a certain way. It is difficult to transcend those boundaries. So, there seems to be these difficulties that individual consumers face.

Some people seem to be able to transcend those difficulties and pursue an ethical course with respect to their love of fashion. Other people find that’s too difficult. They revert to making choice that they would not necessarily make if they were fully free to make choices.

I find that incredibly interesting. It has caused me to ask more questions about the relationship between business and society in general, which is where I am today.

With respect to consumer behaviour, individual consumers’ choices based on their level of knowledge, or the level of coercion they might have with marketing and advertising, what misconceptions might consumers have about the fashion and the garment industry?

So, I suppose people’s misconceptions arise out of this inherent need we seem to have to believe in the world as a benevolent place. As ordinary consumers, we want to be able to trust brands. We don’t look behind the label.

We see these attractive brands. We see these high street labels. Because of what they represent to us, what we allow ourselves to believe what they represent, we create a dissonance with the possible realities of the creation of those clothes.

Problems arise with the ways in which we construct our own ideas about those brands in our minds, because we don’t critically unpack the information given to us in advertisements. We tend to grasp on to those attractive images and relate to the positive images of the attractive models.

I’m sorry. That may sound clichéd, but I don’t mean it to sound clichéd. The issue is one of the orientation that we have to believe in the present image rather than the ugly reality. Maybe, that’s an instinctive thing.

Of course, we believe if there’s a problem that the companies behaviour need to be addressed. I came across this thing in the interviews. I interviewed one woman. I won’t name the brand in question, but she placed huge trust in one brand of cosmetic.

She felt that because she was paying a premium price for this brand of lipstick that this money was being spread at a reasonable distribution throughout the supply chain. Since the product demanded such a price, that the product was being produced in a sustainable and responsible manner.

When she found out that this wasn’t the case, that there’s child labor involved, she was deeply upset by that. Her misconceptions arose from the fact that she was buying a high quality product in a luxury, exclusive retail environment.

She was buying a brand that had advertised itself on the high quality. That’s a combination of things. It created this misconception. When she realized that these things she’d assumed were not the case, she abandoned her relationship with the brand.

That’s one aspect of it. Some things come to mind for there. One is the form of advertising and marketing where they’re not necessarily telling any untruths, but they’re not giving the whole story. You can give an advertising campaign that is shifting the focus to “this will make you feel beautiful, make you feel great,” but at the same time there’s no representation of the exploitative child labor.

So, it’s not necessarily an untruth, or a falsity, but it is leaving out various truths that are important and will influence, based on your story, people’s consumer behaviors. I think that’s an important consideration.

Also, you are a member of the Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment. What is the Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment?

That is a group that was set up a number of years ago as a campaign against a planning application made by a company named Indaver. They wanted to build a toxic waste incinerator on a site in Cork Harbour. Some people refer to them as incinerators. Other people refer to them as waste-to-energy facilities, which, in itself, may be regarded as something of a euphemism.

The group was created to help organize the campaign against the proposal to build this toxic waste incinerator. A lot of people were upset by the prospect of that happening because they didn’t want a huge toxic waste facility developing on their doorstep.

There was apprehension. There were fears about environmental and health consequences. That inspired a broad coalition of people to come together. One of the extraordinary things that has happened is that even though on the first couple of occasions that this company applied for planning permission to build this facility they were rejected; they keep re-applying for permission.

They were rejected on the first occasion by the Irish Planning Authority. On the second occasion they acquired permission, but this was thrown out by the Irish High Court. This was based on a case brought by members of the Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment.

What has happened in the last number of months, the company came back looking for planning permission for a municipal waste incinerator rather than a toxic waste incinerator.

We have been through an oral hearing process as part of the consultation process.

That’s administered by the Irish Planning Authority. We are waiting to hear the outcome of the oral hearing. What has begun to develop from that in the meantime is many people involved in the Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment, whose interest in campaigning against the incinerator was inspired, in part, by their interest in sustainability in general, there is a great amount of enthusiasm among the members for developing Cork Harbour Alliance into a zero waste movement, to turn the Cork Harbour community into a sustainable community.

I am excited by this. Years ago, the whole harbour was a site was for heavy industry. It wasn’t a place for green jobs, sustainable jobs. What has begun to happen over the years, over the last 5-7 years, a lot the new projects and new sources of employment are green jobs.

They are environmentally friendly jobs. They are sustainable jobs. People are keen to build on that. Not only to build on that, they are keen to learn from the experience with attempts to campaign this incinerator as a means to manage waste.

People have become aware. If you’re not going to build the incinerator, if you want to move higher on the waste management hierarchy, what is the long-term solution to avoid this incinerator being built in our neighborhood?

The inspiration for people comes from this. They think, “Zero waste, can we adopt it?” can we cultivate a commitment to zero waste in our community?” The answer people have begun to come up with is that this is exciting and doable. It’s very exciting!

I have found among the friends made through the campaign an interest in the interconnections between other campaigns such as the movement for climate justice on the international stage. In the beginning, people were motivated towards their own local issues.

Nonetheless, people have now begun to see the bigger picture. That’s really good. People can see how we behave affects other people throughout the world, and vice versa. There’s an interconnectedness with everyone.

In itself, that is the thing that makes me feel excited as an ongoing commitment to the Cork Harbour Alliance. If it going to develop in this way, I hope to see this develop in that way. It is going to begin to plug into this wider global movement and community.

I don’t want to overdramatize. I don’t want to suggest this is the local chapter of the Blockadia movement. In Cork, there have been public demonstrations. However, it has not gotten to forms of direct action.

Everything has been ‘by-the-book’. Through people’s experiences, people have become more aware of the connection between Cork and other places around the world. That’s exciting.

I have noticed this too. Even with the small businesses, the owners say, “I do not do this for profit. However, I hope people in the region, or internationally, can see this as the way things can be done.” That’s an undercurrent in an open, honest, positive sense.

Yes! One thing I’ve noticed very, very strongly. The Cork Harbour Alliance has managed in spite of huge challenges to succeed against a big, powerful, international company in some ways. I think community has been resilient because many local businesses have thrown their weight behind it. From their point of view, they see this as part of how their local businesses can continue to thrive, but the way their family and friends can continue to thrive as well. It is something where the local business community – small businesses in particular – are with us.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

An Interview with Linda Chee

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/28

Tell us about yourself – family background, personal story, education, and previous professional capacities.

I have a complex cultural background that reflects the Australian migrant society. I am a quarter Chinese, with a Czechoslovakian mother. To complicate matters further my husband is Latvian. All of these influences manifest itself in my aesthetics and textile influences.

My Slovakian side, my grandmother would beat flax and make linen. The Chinese sensibility is embedded in natural fibers such as silk, wool, cashmere as well as a sense of design that is not a Western paradigm.

My education and working life is embedded in education and have a Masters of Education, teaching and heading an art department for 36 years. My specialization was art history with an emphasis on contemporary Chinese art practice. I worked in Singapore as a curriculum specialist, and wrote a book called “In the Picture”.

Recently I retired, but have continued to pursue my passion for eco dyed textiles and presenting workshops at my studio in Franklin Tasmania, Australia. I love giving workshops; I understand that people learn differently preferring to work with small groups or individuals in unison with my practice and breaking perceptions of textiles and eco-dyeing.

Not everyone wants the same thing out of a workshop, I endeavor to help individuals understand where eco-dyeing comes from and how the process does not impact on the wider environment. I want individuals to enjoy making textiles, with the trust of its origins and its sustainable practices as well as something that is a ‘one of’ unique to their making and understanding of all its components.

Overall it is making sense of where it comes from – the environment where I live, and where the Australian aesthetic comes from for us. It is about translations through the textiles into, sometimes, hand-knitted, hand made and unique.

I chose to live in Tasmania because it is like the end of the Earth. (Laughs). I live in the last municipality before Antarctica. There are only penguins beyond us (Laughs) followed by the white wilderness.

Living on the waterfront with a magnificent view of the trees and leaves I work with gives me a great opportunity to understand their role within the environment and time to contemplate my own work.

What is the importance of ethical fashion to you?

Ethical fashion means that I’m not destroying things. I’m not using someone else as a form of labor making everything myself. I obtain my woven blanks from overseas, only because in Australia, no one can produce the fine weave I want. I create all of my knits, with many hundreds of hours of work in my studio, when someone buys an artwork by me, they can be assured it is a ‘one of’. I use Tasmanian White Gum Wool, Nan Bray’s sheep are shepherded by her and this loving care produces 17.5-micron wool without chemicals connected to the land she in which she grazes the sheep.

Ethical to me is understanding the roots from where my materials come from and being able to tick the box that says I am being true and honest to myself and the environment. As an artist I enjoy producing works that are appreciated and used by others who follow a similar path that I tread

From an ethical and sustainability point of view, I am assured I tread lightly; if I am only taking leaves from the ground or trimming some trees for eucalyptus, nothing is destroyed. I’ve planted my own trees. We have about 4.5 acres, which is about 1.8 hectares. I will have all of the leaves in a few years, I will only need to forage for that special treasured leaf.

I use water from my own springs or the fresh clear creek water. If I need mineral rich water I go a few kilometers down the road or to the nearby ocean. The water along with the spent eucalypt leaves are poured back into the garden providing sustenance for my plants thus completing the cycle, working with nature, rather than against it.

Gently brewed in aluminum or iron pots Eucalypt leaves are like magic; there are complex components within them when combined with materials found in nature or the rusted detritus of the built environments impart vibrant organic colors onto the finely woven fabrics

I go out armed with a pair of clippers, people think, “There she is foraging again.” I only take what I need at a time. I believe this is an Aboriginal principle; take what you need and never destroy what you’ve got.

It will sustain itself because it will re-grow. I will never harm the soil, the land, or the air. This is important as a way you produce. Everything that you produce gets put back into the soil again – or the waste created by you. It is our responsibility to be in balance with nature.

What meaning or personal fulfillment does this work bring for you?

As an artist, as an art teacher, I am married to an artist as well. I realized I was a slow maker and needed to create through a tactile form. I wasn’t a painter or traditional artist. It is part of my cultural heritage. I felt that I could pursue my own aesthetic knowing my cultural heritage with interpretations through the Australian landscape.

I happen to live and work in one of the most beautiful studios, which is designed by award-winning architects, Room 11. What happens is that you work and live in balance it fulfills you holistically; it is emerging back into the landscape in a mental way.

In a balanced studio environment, I could pace myself to create and play every day. I have a sense of place. I’m always engaged with my art making through all of these things. That sense of place is embedded as being Australian, but through the filter of all of those cultural heritages that come with my own background.

These are the aesthetics of the beauty of nature. It sounds cliché, but in the sense of what I understand and have learnt by teaching art, history and teaching children. It made me somebody that is fulfilled, finally, after all of these years. I am not a young person anymore. I am 59.

I can create something meaningful for me and know that don’t have to make thousands on them. Once I was asked this question at the Sydney Makers Faire, the Powerhouse Museum, Australia. He didn’t understand, why I chose to become a slow maker. I saw all of the computers, robots, and amazing things that were there. But that wasn’t me. One at a time, with care and consideration to each creation.

So, those one-offs all have a back-story. Those leaves. Where did they come from? What materials did I use? I can tell a story about the wool too. I connect to people like that.

When I process it, I can tell the whole story. I can talk about micron value. I can talk about the particular trees. When a person takes ownership of that piece, I feel the narrative will become an oral history that will continue over time.

You wrote an article in Trusted Clothes. You described that earlier about eucalyptus. With regard to ethical and sustainable fashion companies, what’s the importance of them now?

Particularly now with the way we’ve handled our world. For a start, ‘there’s the threads’ that people try to wear because it is fashion. Fashion doesn’t necessarily have to be unethical. I think that too many people buy cheaply. I call it ‘cheap plastics, fantastic’.

That’s the way I look at the world. I am at the other end of the scale. I want people to buy less, to buy quality, and to understand where it’s come from, how it’s been made, and why we should wear something that are renewable and sustainable.

You shouldn’t be a slave to a fashion that makes you look stupid. Too often, people are tricked by the advertising that is around. I think we need to be less shallow and understand the back-story and understand what we’re doing, and how we’re doing.

We should use less. ‘Less is more’. It’s plastic fantastic. It’s artificial. It’s about making fashion in unsustainable ways and ruining the end product. It won’t be here for forever. We’ve wrecked our own climate so much. I live in a pristine world down here and I don’t want it destroyed.

I live with people on one island. It is only 500,000 people. It’s unique. I know what it is like living in the city, I lived in a city, Sydney. It’s three million people. Pollution, cars, and a loss of natural environment.

I got annoyed by the way people lived. There was a bombardment of everything. Here, I sit back and if people could do that a little bit more. They would have a more holistic view – what we do, what we wear, what we eat, and how we live our lives.

I’m glad I live in place like this.

Thank you for your time, Linda.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

David Suzuki, Environmental Activist

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/27

Some might see the concern for the future world left for all our descendants. Some might think that an idea of the beyond is necessary for this. Let’s take a prominent example counter to this from a Dr. David Suzuki. He is a well known scientist and communicator of science to the Canadian public. Not only that, he is an activist. He has a great sense of humor too.

A broadcaster, a Canadian university professor, and an environmental activist. It has been said that he has no illusions about life and death and that on the scale of the cosmos the individual is insignificant. Yet, he has a concern for our environment. He is a living testament that shatters that minor undercurrent in Canadian culture.

He has a deep concern for future generations. This is shown in his concern for climate change. He does and has done more than most of us do. I write and I am part of some organizations. Some non-profits, Indigenous/Aboriginal and non-Indigenous/non-Aboriginal collaborative but my contributions so far are beyond compare to his. Suzuki writes and gets out into the public sphere. He uses his Democratic rights to advocate for prevention of the current climate crisis. So what does David Suzuki say about climate change? He views it as long-term weather patterns that are altered through human activity. I would add human industrial activity to specify a point in time.

David Suzuki is a brave person to speak on the nature of the Canadian justice system too when the country had the continuous decline in crime rates, the number of prisons were rising. He even expresses personal regret in the sense that he has contributed to climate change or global warming from his travels. Here is an individual with a deep moral sense of ethical, environmental an social responsibility.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

An Interview with Selina König of ATOYAK

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/27

Tell us about yourself – family background, personal story, education, and previous professional capacities.

For some years now I have been very interested in sustainability, sustainable agriculture, reducing food waste and healthy nutrition. I try to include sustainability in my everyday life as best as I can. It just happened that for personal reasons I moved from Germany to the Bay Area, where these ideas and concepts have a much broader audience. I got involved with ATOYAK through my sister-in- law who is the founder and CEO. Having a business degree and being passionate about sustainability, and helping other where possible, made me the perfect candidate for helping her with ATOYAK.

Family background: I come from a well-situated German middle class family. I grew up it a rather “protected” environment, or a “bubble” as my husband likes to put it. At 17 I left my family for the first time to study abroad in the US. Since then I have lived, studied and worked in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Singapore, and now in the Silicon Valley. Through travelling my horizons were broadened and I started questioning things that seemed natural to me. Since my mom implemented this notion of good and healthy food in me, I started my journey into sustainability with food. Through marriage, I have become a part of a Mexican-American family, which is in many ways the very opposite of the family I come from. It has been a never-ending discovery process and introduced me to ethical fashion through ATOYAK.

Education & profession: I hold a B.A in International Business Administration and a M.A in European studies. My B.A was in cooperation with IBM in Germany, where I completed the degree within 3 years while being an employee at IBM and working on 6 different 3-month assignments during that time. I finished my M.A last summer, which coincided with moving to the Bay Area. Here I work for a tech start-up in the network security industry.

What is the importance of sustainable fashion?

We need to use our resources in a smart and sustainable way, and fashion is just one piece of the puzzle.

What about socially conscious fashion and design?

All people behind a product need to be valued. Not only the brand name and designer, but those who actually produce our fashion. If we recognize them and empower them through our products, we give them the tools to develop themselves, their families, towns, countries.

What is ATOYAK?

ATOYAK was founded with the premise to empower women in small town in Mexico, named Atoyac. This is the town where my husband and his sister grew up in. My sister-in- law, Jackie, had been looking for opportunities to empower the women she knew and found that knitting and crocheting was something most of them knew how to do. Being a designer she came up with a product palette, creating the brand ATOYAK. She wanted to create products that represent her ideas and believes about living sustainable and environmentally friendly.

Its stated mission is to “create sustainable job opportunities that empower women in small towns of Mexico to rise out of poverty and live with dignity.” What are some of the ways that ATOYAK is pursuing this mission?

ATOYAK has given jobs to women who either didn’t have a job, were selling things to make a bit of money, or had other jobs which they could hardly live off. ATOYAK is the best paying employer in town, paying the women wages they would only dream of. It has given them not only economic stability, but also created enthusiasm and hope. Guille, the General Manager was able to send her daughter Fatima, who also works for ATOYAK part time, to finish high school, which otherwise would not have been possible. She also started Zumba classes and was able to spend more time on her health and well-being. But most importantly it gave her the opportunity to go back to school and finish her middle school education.

How can other companies pursue this in general, too?

Every company can weigh the benefits of a bit more profit in its own hands, or investing in society. Because we only become more prosperous in the long run if all of us benefit. Paying fair wages, empowering workers to grow personally and professionally, producing in an environmentally friendly way, stop striving for excess, all these are things every company can implement. In today´s world, most thinks are driven by quantity, not quality. If we go back to owning 3 pairs of good quality and sustainably produced jeans, instead of 10 that are not, we are heading in he right direction.

What other work are you involved in at this point in time?

At this moment only ATOYAK and my full-time job.

With regard to ethical and sustainable fashion companies, what’s the importance of them now?

These companies need to show that ethical fashion can be as trendy, modern and as up to date as the leading fashion companies. They will need to educate especially the young generation and make it ‘hip’ to wear sustainable fashion.

Thank you for your time, Selina.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

An Interview with Emma Ruff

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/26

Tell us about yourself – family background, personal story, education, and previous professional capacities.

I have been passionate about advocating for global issues since a very young age. If I could pin point the exact moment, I would have to write of my 5^th grade endeavors to release hamsters from the corruption caused by the government. While this particular “global issue” was fictitious, I was dedicated nonetheless. I brought people together, to speak about something I felt was wrong, and I wanted to take steps to solve it. My views have shifted to more pertinent issues over the years. Issues related to other parts of my life that I spend much of my time invested in. Areas, such as the fashion industry and design. Since I can remember, I have always been developing a unique personal style. I did this, through snipping, sewing, manipulating pieces of my clothing. I found a true art form in the process of dressing myself.

I felt I could express myself and make an artistic statement at the same time. The art of fashion, is second nature to me. I believe this passion really carried over in my more professional artistic Therefore, as I grew up and became more and more aware of the world, I discovered ugly truths that I found hard to ignore. The same passion and fervor that my 5^th grade self had for animal rights, was developing into another (much more pertinent) global issue. Sweatshops. Mass production. The dark side of the fashion industry. I decided in my final years at University to speak up about the global inequality of the sweatshop industry.

Using visual art and structural fashion as vessels for the important conversation that should be happening. This yearning to advocate, has really consumed my entire lifestyle. I choose to make certain decisions in my life, such as only shopping second hand, to make a statement about the importance of ethical fashion. I want to start the conversation.

What is the importance of ethical fashion?

I think ethical and sustainable naturally fall in line with one another. By becoming consumers who partake in ethical shopping habits, we begin to consider the sustainability of what we purchase. I think the importance of ethical fashion is revealed when we allow ourselves to be conscience of what we are consuming and the companies we are supporting. The clothing industry is so incredibly good at hiding the realities of their inner workings. Fashion is aesthetically pleasing and allows the average human being to feel good, by wearing something they feel defines them or makes them comfortable. We are immune to the realities.

The true cost of the industry. The human aspect. I don’t think this is entirely our fault. To get changed in the morning, is such a mundane task. People may often wonder why they should look any deeper into something that really is not causing them any direct inconvenience. Ultimately, the importance of ethical and sustainable fashion is to install an awareness into the minds of today’s average consumer. I often think about what the world would be like, if people were as aware and open to hearing about the gritty sides of the fashion industry. Would they be as upset as I am? Would they aspire for things to change? I really think they would. That’s where change happens. When like-minded people come together for a cause.

What is the importance of sustainable fashion?

(See above)

What is the importance of ethical fashion advocates to you?

Starting the conversation. By having more people who are not afraid to expose the companies that are using un-ethical methods to mass produce product, we have the potential to be heard. Since I had studied the global inequalities within the industry, specifically in Bangladesh, I have been able to make connections through simply speaking about my work to really anyone that will listen. I’ve proudly begun to spread the contagious checking of the tag. Once you know, about what is happening, the sweatshops, the human factor, there is no forgetting it.

It’s imbedded into your mind. Awareness is truly key. It’s hard to forget about human lives being lost at the cost of us being able to wear that “signature swish” or unforgettable “moose”. I truly wish that people did not feel the need to define themselves by label. If we defined ourselves through our actions and passions, it would be a really beautiful thing.

What was the significance the Rana Plaza factory collapse that killed 1,134 people in Bangladesh?

On a personal level, the impact of the event was heartbreaking. I felt ignorant and completely consumed within myself for not have heard about it, or taken steps to speak up about it. We are connected. We, the consumes support and advocate for brands that were involved here. That were involved directly in this moment of “structural fault” that cost 1,134 human lives.

What a staggering toll. I believe that this collapse, being the largest in garment factory history, brought reality to the front doors of many large brands that are using swift production and cheap labor. The human aspect of the factory worker became very much so real. When the news caught win (for the brief time that it had) here in North America, it was a tainted headline that some would consider “bad press”. I consider it realistic, real press.

What can be done to prevent events like this in the future?

This is an answer that can be explained extensively or very simply. Ultimately, there needs to be a few things happening. Companies that choose to outsource production, need to be in tune with the working conditions and wages that their workers are receiving. Ensuring a safe and sustainable life for these people. There needs to be consistency in how often factories are inspected for possible faults in structure. There needs to be a stronger connection between all parties involved. I am not naïve. I do understand the difficult in this. There seems to be a loss in translation somewhere along the line. The problem is extensive. The problem is present.

I do see possible solution, but only if all people involved choose to see the importance in the need for change. Major companies need to take responsibility and provide humane treatment to the humans connected to the production of their product. Consumers, need to understand who they are supporting. People I general, need to speak up about it. Together, we all hold the responsibility to sustain humanity and ensure things are done in a humane manner.

What was the content and purpose of the senior thesis?

I chose to use visual art as a voice. A voice for those that had lost theirs in the tragic Rana Plaza collapse. I worked with various human statistics related to the event. Bringing the tragedy to the forefront of the viewer’s mind. Making it real. Tangible. I used materials in my sculptural work that were things we associate with the garment industry itself. Things such as hangers, clothing tags, thread, and sewing needles.

Each piece was made to be visually stimulating. The stimulation, would ideally draw the viewer in to discover more about the symbolism behind the piece. Once the symbolism was revealed, I used that as a method to communicate about the tragedy of sweatshops on a global scale. Art is a really powerful thing. We communicate through emotion. Through stimulation. Art ensures that the experience of something such as my pieces, are memorable and hard to forget.

What other work are you involved in at this point in time?

I am involved heavily in the open communication about the importance of ethical fashion and the lifestyle of a conscious consumerist. I have had the chance to speak with so many people about my experience researching the industry and why I believe it’s important to start speaking up about it. I currently working at The Museum of Fine Arts in the Textile and Fashion Department. It has been really interesting working in this department.

I feel the exposure to the industry in this light has proved helpful and beneficial to my own advocating work. I hope to continue my education in the world of design and potentially work within a non-profit. I can hardly imagine a life where this issue is not continually resonating within everything that I do.

What meaning or personal fulfillment does this fashion and design work bring for you?

It brings a great sense of pride to so passionately advocate for something and to install the thought within the minds of consumers. I think advocating for something like this, is hard. It’s a topic that 1) makes people uncomfortable and 2) is so rarely ever spoken of. I find that in my life and work as an artist there is no fulfilment in leading a life that lacks advocacy.

Change does not just happen. It happens when people choose to make choices and use their voice to implement it.

With regard to ethical and sustainable fashion companies, what’s the importance of them now?

They are the voice. We are entering such a time of change. I believe people from this particular generation are aware of their surroundings and impact in the world. People are wanting to be involved with non-profits, with charity work, and with advocacy. We are not standing for corruption. We are speaking out against it. We are a generation of people yearning to change the world for the better. Ethical and sustainable fashion companies are a huge step towards bettering the industry. With more and more people choosing to support them, we just may see that happen.

Thank you for your time, Emma.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

An Interview with Jamie Hayes (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/25

What makes Production Mode unique?

I think the proprietary/exclusive materials. Also, the level of transparency—that I share where the materials come from, who is making the garments, the fact that you can come into our studio and see firsthand how things are made. As well, I would say the quality of the fit. I consulted with a technical designer with many years of experience working with leather to refine the fit. A lot of time and energy spent on these patterns. The fit is good for ready-to-order, and then can be further refined for people that can come to Chicago for a fitting. That’s something a lot of designers don’t offer.

Your inaugural collection consisted of leather that was vegetable tanned from a unionized shop, Chicago’s Horween tannery. Why the Horween tannery for the inaugural collection?

For a couple reasons, one was a happy accident. I was discussing the custom print with Paula. She said, “What color should the base cloth be?” I referenced one of her paintings. She said, “Oh, a hide color.” I had a lightbulb moment. I said, “No, no, you should print it on hide!”

The search began for the best quality leather. Leather is touchy if you’re talking about “ethical” fashion. Some people say that because it is an animal dying in order to produce something it is not ethical. I respect and understand that.

Digging in deeper from there, I found one tannery left in Chicago. I was familiar with it from my former job as a handbag designer, but I hadn’t dug as deep as I did in this case. I researched vegetable tanning– artisanal, traditional way to tan leather that uses organic plant matter such as sticks, barks, and tree extracts. It is a 6-weeks process in contrast to chrome-tanning, which is a 6-hour process.

Chrome-tanning uses chromium, which is a heavy metal and highly carcinogenic. That choice became really clear for me. I didn’t want to use a material that is carcinogenic. That will end up in our waterways or landfills. Also, I learned that vegetable-tanned leather tends to age much better than chrome-tanned leather. So if you think how vintage leather goods get that great patina versus a scuffed, worn out look that is typical nowadays, that’s the difference between a vegetable tan and a chrome tan.

In terms of the quality, design, and aesthetic perspectives, thinking about the planet, the fact that the factory is unionized, it was an easy decision to go with Horween. In addition, it is wonderful. I can travel whenever I want and speak to my sales representative. Since it is a mile from my shop. All of the money stays within the local economy.

All of these things were serendipitous. All of the signs. Each pointed in one direction for the collection. Since Chicago’s fashion industry is decimated at this point, there aren’t a ton of mills here or fabric sales representatives. Horween is the last tannery left in Chicago.

The hides were designed by Paula J. Wilson, executed by Nora Renick-Rinehart, and then stitched by Klezar.

What is the importance of this network of various individuals with different skill-sets to the overall production line for the final products?

We have this cult of artist or the designer. This idea that the person does everything themselves. Even if you’re amazingly talented and good at designing, printing, executing, and stitching, you’re one person. You can’t do everything. Art and design are always done in collaboration, whether people are transparent about that or not.

I am not a screen-printing expert. I am a good stitcher for a designer, but I am nothing like Klezar. I do as much as I can myself, especially at first to educate myself about a process, so that I can better communicate with the team. For example, I did do a few screen-prints on leather. However, there’s no way I could execute anything close to as wonderful as Paula and Nora. It takes years and years of practice to achieve their level of expertise.

A true collaboration becomes better than the sum of its parts. Everyone is pushing each other. Everyone is open to new ideas. Hopefully, what comes out takes you to a place you wouldn’t normally go with your own art work; I like to think that’s what happened with this art collection.

If people want to look more into things, they can look at the showroom/production space, the Department of Curiosities. What other work are you involved in at this point in time?

A couple of things. I am active in the Chicago Fair Trade. I am involved in advocacy work in Chicago. Also, I do technical design for other ethical design companies.

I am involved in Department of Curiosities. It’s the space that I share with another designer, Gerry Quinton. Recently, we designed and launched a line of slow fashion, and ethically made lingerie under the name Department of Curiosities.

Also, I am going to have a pop-up shop at the theWit Hotel in Chicago in the month of August, and a fashion show on August 25th, showing both Production Mode and Department of Curiosities, at their rooftop space.

I’m launching the next Production Mode line in the Fall. I am involved with the League of Women Designers in Chicago. A lot of entrepreneurs designing and working in Chicago, who are thinking about the ethics of how things are produced in their lines.

You mentioned a shared value with Gerry. I suspect this for other collaborations as well. That leaves me to think, “What meaning or personal fulfillment does this work bring for you?”

So much personal fulfillment—that’s really key to me! I have worked in the fashion industry since 1999, but I actually left the field for a few years because I was missing that personal fulfillment. I had to do some soul searching. While I loved the process of design, designing and making clothing and expressing myself though style, I really needed to check in with myself and face what was going on in the industry.

First of all, the ethics–people and the earth need to be respected, and we need to curb our own consumption levels. Also, I needed to question some of the main tenets of the industry. It is common to make the consumer feel bad about themselves and then to think that they can solve body issues, self-image issues, through purchasing things, especially clothing, to make themselves feel better or to distract themselves from the ills in their lives.

I had to dig deeper and think, “What’s the social meaning of fashion? How can style be used in a positive way to build self-esteem, to help a person express their identity and culture – to find out who they are?”

My work post-graduate school has been guided by these questions and issues. That’s been key to me finding personal fulfillment in my work.

For me, fabric, color, textures, line and pattern bring me great joy. I hope to my clients as well. There’s joy in art and design. All of those things keep me going and bring me great personal satisfaction. I feel lucky to do something that I love that is in line with my values. Sadly, I think that’s a rare thing in our culture right now. I wish it weren’t the case, but I feel lucky to be situated here.

With regard to organizations/companies, and so on, like Trusted Clothes and Production Mode, what’s the importance of them to you?

It is to show an alternative to the mainstream. That it is possible to create and purchase ethically-made, well-designed clothing. Also, to get people in the industry to question how things are made, hopefully, to create a sea change.

I look forward to a future where there are no more ethical clothing or aggregator sites like Trusted Clothing. Ethical, sustainable manufacture should be the norm. Until it is, though, we definitely need to keep spreading the word and asking for change in the larger community.

Thank you for your time, Jamie.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

An Interview with Jamie Hayes (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/25

Tell us about yourself – family background, personal story, education, and previous professional capacities.

I started in the fashion industry in 1999 in St. Louis, working at a boutique after college, and sewing after my senior year in college because I wanted something hands-on and concrete. I was studying English literature and while I loved to read and write. It was abstract and alienating for me. My personality type doesn’t mesh with it.

It is nice, at the end of the day, to have a pile of work, see what you’ve accomplished, and in a concrete way. I moved to Chicago to get a second BA at Columbia College in Fashion Design. I was lucky. I got a job in the industry while I in school. It was at a handbag company called 1154 Lill Studio. The company was a real pioneer in mass customization.

As a result, we needed to make everything one-by-one, made-to-order, and with a quick turnaround time – three weeks. We made everything in-house first and then in the Chicago area. It was a lesson in production management and efficiency. I was seeing local manufacturers firsthand, which was rare. Everything was offshoring.

My consciousness was raised in working with contractors and realizing that a lot of people don’t get paid fairly, making friends with stitchers, and hearing their stories of immigration and exploitation in the sewing industry. So, I started asking questions and becoming conscientious.

100% Wool Felt Top and Vegetable Tanned Leather Skirt. Photo is by Jenni Hampshire.

I ended up getting a graduate degree. A Master’s degree at the University Chicago in Social Work. I focused on labor rights in the garment industry. I worked as a labor organizer for a few years in Chicago. Primarily, I was working with undocumented, Mexican population, frontline workers.

I was training on worker’s rights and helping to organize campaigns in the work place. However, I missed working with my hands—the colors and textures in fashion, the more direct creativity that world affords. Following this, I joined Chicago fair trade and became involved in that movement as a volunteer helping to pass a Sweatfree Ordinance in the city and county level in Chicago.

Also, I took on a lot of freelance work with fair trade companies. I worked for SERRV. They sent me to China. I did some work in Peru, in the Lima area. Also, I have done a lot of technical design for local companies in ethical and fair trade fashion. Finally, I launched my own line in January of 2015.

You argue for a living wage for workers. Why is it important for the sustainable and ethical fashion industry?

It is important across the board. I’m focused on fashion because that’s what I do for a living. It is important in a more global level as well. Fashion, clothing, and sewn products are some of the most labor intensive industries in the whole world. It is a ‘race-to-the-bottom’ industry.

Anyone interested in women’s rights, supporting those most easily exploited, eradicating poverty, would do well to look at the fashion industry because that’s the ‘bottom.’ We can find the easily exploited people there.

If these people can be paid well and treated fairly, we can do a lot to improve the rights of women and young girls, eradicate poverty, improve health outcomes, increase literacy, and so on. It is a huge issue. We need to be aware of it. In Chicago, the labor movement speaks of is $15/hour as the living wage.

So, we pay above that for our stitcher. That’s how we gauge that here, but it is different in each city and country based on the cost of living in that place.

To separate two ideas floating around in the conversation, the phrase “ethical and sustainable fashion,” but this belies two separate and related ideas. Ethical fashion on the one hand; sustainable fashion on the other hand. To start, what is the importance of ethical fashion to you?

For me, the importance is the human factor. Nobody should be dying to make our clothes. Even so, 2013 was the deadliest year on record in the fashion industry. If you look back historically, it is similar to the beginning of the 20th century in the US with the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. People die for fashion. That’s ridiculous.

What we’re speaking of when we say ethical fashion is really baseline, sadly. People should make a living wage. A wage that allows them to live on and support a family. To be frank, $15/hour in Chicago would not be enough in Chicago, but it’s better than the minimum wage in Chicago.

Secondly, people should work in a healthy and safe environment. Sadly, that’s not the case in a lot of the garment industry, especially that which is offshored.

What is the importance of sustainable fashion to you?

The issues are similar. There’s overlap, but sustainability refers to the environment and issues affecting the planet. I come out of the labor movement. So, I am less educated about those issues, but even if you’re looking at it from a human perspective. Obviously, we are humans. We live on the planet. There are huge ramifications for everyone.

We are all connected. We should care about what is happening on the other side of the world. It is about human rights. We all deserve basic human rights, and beyond that, the ability to thrive and grow. From the human perspective, the pesticides that are used to grow our cotton, the petroleum that is used to create polyester, the dyes that are used to create the colors in the fabrics … all of these things affect the workers who are applying those pesticides or dyes.

They go into our water supplies. It is about treating out world well. There is huge overlap between issues of sustainability and ethics.

My favorite term is slow fashion because this takes into account the quality of the product and the design. It’s coming out of and inspired by the slow food movement, the tenets of which are to know the provenance of this food or, in our case, the clothing. So, where do our clothes come from? What about the raw materials like the cotton, wool, poly, or leather?

To have transparency about that, to appreciate and value the item, the experience around it, to slow down, buy less, buy higher quality. That’s important information to provide as a designer. Because, to be honest, you cannot do everything perfectly, especially as a small company. You might now know all of the labor conditions in a factory. The factory making your zippers or buttons, but you can choose the highest quality zipper. This can allow the garment to have as long a life as possible.

Sometimes, we have to think about competing issues and balance those all out. Slow fashion is the most honest way to do that as a designer in my opinion.

What was the inspiration for Production Mode – and its title?

(Laugh)

Coming out of the labor movement, I have done a lot of neo-Marxist readings. I was thinking about means of production and the organization of work, and what brings people joy. I was thinking about that when I named the company.

But the inspiration goes way beyond that. At the end of the day, I am a designer. I love fashion. I think we need to make a lot of changes in the industry, but I love clothing as a means of self-expression. It brings me a lot of joy. I think it brings a lot of people on this planet a lot of joy. It’s an expression of who we are: our culture, identity, values. It doesn’t have to be a superficial, passive consumer experience. It could be tailored to fit your body exactly. That’s how it was used for generations—until recently, in fact.

Now, it is a disposable thing. It doesn’t have to be that way. One thing I always want to be a part of the company is the concept of artist collaboration. It stretches me as a designer. It makes sure there is something unique about the product and timeless.

For example, for the first line that I launched, I collaborated with an artist named Paula J. Wilson. She designed an all-over print for leather. Another artist, Nora Renick-Rinehart, executed the print and applied it to leather. It is not something seen often with leather. It is limited edition. It is designed by a well-known artist. So, there’s a whole story. I can trace the provenance of the materials, the print, the execution of the print, etc.

For the next line, which I’ll launch in the Fall of this year, the fabric is designed in collaboration with an artist named Nuria Montiel. It is executed by local weavers called the Weaving Mill in Chicago. They are located about a mile from my studio. I have two industrial dobby looms. It is a collaboration between the four of us to produce the fabric for the line. It can’t be found anywhere else. It was inspired by Nuria’s art work, influenced by the textiles of the Bauhaus movement, and Peruvian and Mexican textile traditions.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

A Short Take on Child Labor

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/23

Child Labor and fashion victims

One of the major issues and ethical fashion is child labor. We can find this in millions and millions of children that are working, let alone in substandard conditions and pay, and often in what might most accurately be termed as slave labor.

Child labor persists in much of the developing world. Children are made slaves to the fashion industry in a literal sense rather than in the consumers’ sense. These children work hard hours even by adult standards from the developed world. They are abused, malnourished and violated- stripped off of their human rights.

The obvious answer is to help these children. We can help them with food, funding, and education. There are several organisations where we can get involved in helping these young children out of these conditions.

Indirectly, we can make better decisions in terms of our consumer choices and support relevant, trustworthy, non-profit/not-for-profit organizations. Consumer choices in terms of clothing, footwear, and any other purchases we make. It’s a necessary thing to do in the modern era.

The children need our help.

Children are some of the most powerless in the fashion garment industry production line and supply chains. And some of the most powerless in the world with each generation.

Imagine that this is your life or that your child was stripped of all possible dreams and hopes for the future because of poverty and having to work at such a young age. Imagine if your child was stripped of human rights and child rights.

To me, it seems not only a sense of children’s rights to not have to work. It seems to me like the right for children to have a childhood. A childhood with proper nutrition, education, love, care, and play. I don’t think children deserve to be working in these conditions, or at all working. It’s ridiculous.

Now, I ask you about child labor. Is deprivation of a childhood abuse? Is interference of regular school attendance abuse? Is this possibly mentally and emotionally harmful? Is it physically harmful to the children?

Do you think they actually have safe regulations for the kids? I don’t think so. I don’t think that these people have adequate provisions of any of these. I think that they have lost their childhood or are in the process of losing it, don’t attend school as they should.

We can see the rise of child slavery world wide. There are hundreds of millions of kids likely working in child labor. I mean, there are estimates that it’s around 200 million total. But how many can actually document properly? It’s a very difficult problem because these are violations of human and child rights by their very nature.

That means that the reportage on the number of them might not necessarily be accurate, and we would have good reason to think of these estimates as lower than the actual rate. I think it’s a travesty. I think this is morally outrageous that so many children are suffering in abominable ways throughout the world.

License

Copyright

2022-03-29

An Interview with Werner Price

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/22

What is the importance of ethical fashion?

Unfortunately, when most people buy items for consumption, we usually tend to look for the immediate benefit. Whether it is that it tastes good, it looks good on us, it will make us thinner or prettier. This is where most people stop but there is more to what we buy, there is an ethical dimension. This ethical dimension is much more important than any immediate gratification.

With every product we buy there are people, or animals or the environment, or all of the above involved. When people are offered beautiful packages and attractive images of the products they are going to purchase they do not think about the ramifications of their actions.

Our world is being shaped by our shopping trends! It is very clear. The moment in which most people become aware of the consequences of their purchases we will see a deep change.

People will be treated fairly and respected, and the environment and animals will not be abused. So ethical fashion, and ethical buying could change the world.

What is the importance of sustainable fashion?

Just by taking a look at the oceans, and at the world as a whole we can come to realize that the current agricultural practices, and the fibers we use for clothing are creating havoc.

Oceans are becoming polluted, fish are dying and we are eating the fish that survive but that are still polluted. Micro-fibers are one of the biggest problems our oceans face. They come from every washing cycle of synthetic fabrics. Has anyone heard of polyester?

Also on land, non-organic cotton is taking huge amounts of herbicides and pesticides that remain on the land and affect the people who are farming those crops. People are dying and are being maimed because of our infatuation with non-organic t-shirts. There should be massive national advertisement campaigns informing consumers about this. If people bought mostly sustainable fashion we would have a different world, a better world.

What is the importance of fair trade?

Fair trade sends a message that we care. We care about people regardless of where they are, where they come from or what their race is. By buying fair trade you can unite families, make sure kids go to school, and raise people above their poverty levels. Fair trade in a way is buying happiness for others, and in the end for you. There is no better pleasure than to give.

What about organic farming?

As I mentioned before, organic farming can make an enormous difference for farmers and the land. Entire families would not be subjected to a dim future or early death because of all the chemicals they are in contact with over their lives.

Sadly, organic crops are not easy to get in many places. This is because there are non-organic seeds that are more profitable for certain companies. Big companies look for profit, not fairness; I believe there could be a happy medium.

What are some of the main lessons you can pass on to new teachers and entrepreneurs?

Have a dream, make it real, never give up and always look at the implication of your dream. Starting a business is tough; it requires time and a solid state of mind. Keep at it, do not give up, tough can be fun!

What about in terms of bringing together the foundation of a company ethic in alignment with sustainability, ethical fashion, and fair trade?

As a company, from day one, you have to have a type of “constitution” where all these values are weaved into every action, though or conversation. Your company has to breath, eat and feel these values. Profits and ethics should not fight each other. Sometimes it might be tempting to turn the blind eye and go for more profit but if you have your “constitution” present from day one you will always be reminded to return to the right path. And you will be happy about it!

What other work are you involved in at this point in time?

I am also the foreign language department chair at a public school. For me it is great to be in touch with kids, it keeps me young and helps me keep my dreams alive.

What meaning or personal fulfillment does this work bring for you?

My work at school is very rewarding, when I see kids having fun and learning I end up feeling like them, energized. When I walk among my students and I realize they can say things in another language because I taught them is a great feeling, I feel like I am doing something good for their future. Regarding my work at our company (It belongs to my wife Maribel, her brother Pedro and me) I cannot be happier! My wife loves to design, I love to work on the website, talking to people, clients and suppliers. I love learning and that is what I do every day!

With regard to ethical and sustainable fashion companies, what’s the importance of them to you?

In the nineties I came across a factory were girls worked long ours everyday. This factory was in Burma; I will always remember their happy faces; these girls felt blessed because they could contribute to their family welfare. They did not know that they could go to school if we change our buying patterns. I thought of them years later when we started Jolly Dragons. For me ethical and sustainable companies, in general, not only those regarding fashion are key to a better and happier world.

Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

I would like to remind people that might not have the purchase power to buy everything ethical and sustainable that there are ways to contribute. Always recycle by sharing clothes that can be still worn but you have no more use for. Buy fewer clothes! Create a list of combinations and you will realize that you will need less, which will mean that you can spent that money in ethical and sustainable fashion. These are little changes that can have a great impact.

Thank you for your time, Werner.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Here and Now: Nothing Lasts Forever

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Northeast Ohio Weddings Magazine

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2021

It can’t last forever. Others have thought such things, in bad times before this, and they were always right, they did get out one way or another, and it didn’t last forever. Although for them it may have lasted all the forever they had.

Margaret Atwood

I’m not a fan of platitudes or sentimentalism… but I am a sentimental person, at times, with occasional sprinklings of platitudinal thought. Never make life dull by doing the same things frequently.

Two platitudes, sentimentalisms, have been “here and now” and “nothing lasts forever.” The first, I heard from a Richard Pryor comedy special, Here and Now. The other, I’ve heard lots, but in passing. It’s not registered, consciously – much.

When I am sentimental, I’m tired from manual labour, at home, sore, recovering, gathering thoughts from the day to begin writing, once more. Simply, I will listen to something by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Corelli, Holst, Sweelink, Sibelius, or Vivaldi, maybe some contemporary music.

Right now, for example, I’m listening to Beethoven’s 6th symphony by the late Herbert von Karajan. Karajan conducted marvelous pieces of classical music. Symphonies open, become a journey, and then close, then mundane life continues again. There is a transience in them, as with individual human lives, particularly, and human life, generally.

My writing syncs with this. I put some sentences down, order them, edit, and, somehow, the article or essay pops up. Some touch-ups as necessary. Which is to say, writing becomes symphonic. There’s a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Harmonies hint at themes. Structure bursts forth. Tones tumble over timbres. Baselines plummet from the heavens. Resonances rise as higher harmonics trot a unified theme. Letters to words to sentences to paragraphs to a singular idea, point. Both arts make the same mark. Neither lasts forever. Transience is permanent. It is the rule, not the exception.

Partnerships follow this theme. They seem best lived with renewal. There is a tale between two people.

Moments do not live in the future. They live here-and-now, do not last forever. A sensibility of the eternal alteration. Living for the story here and now, it honours the records written and the trajectory intended. There is a beginning, a middle, and an end.

In the final act, one protagonist dissipates, as a flame, then another, as the same. They don’t travel to another moment. When a flame snuffs, it simply stops the act of “to be,” of being. An end of a person is the end of the duet.

They don’t go anywhere or anytime, anymore; they lived in some places, for some times. Which is to say, that’s the end of the person. The conclusory note to the symphony, word to the essay. The specialness of the moments comes from the ephemerality.

They’re integrated with the lived past and the projected future. There’s a beginning, a middle, and an end. Flickers of love, courtship, bonds, marriage, births, deaths, funerals, all make a story, the same duo’s mythos.

Their own individual meaning in an ocean of heres-and-nows, where nothing lasts forever. These platitudes seem profound. They speak to a depth about an intimate couple’s relations if reinterpreted. The “forever” is really forevers.

Before their lives, sat eternity, and after their partnership, another eternity or a forever-nothing, an erect monument to their now-eternal non-being. They performed their parts in their play, played their denouement in their symphony, punctuated their novel with a final period, period, period…

Their only real forever is here-and-now. When enacting their “to be,” their only known sits between two eminent marble tablets marked “BEFORE” and “AFTER.” The unique quality of this forever is the love bonded between two to form a one. A continual transforming in their forever, which lasts as long as it needs to – with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

That’s a forever – a heaven – worth existing, for a time.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Chat with Isaiah Akorita – Head, Media Campaign Team, Atheist Society of Nigeria

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/24

cott Douglas Jacobsen: How did you become an atheist?

Isaiah Akorita: I wouldn’t say it was a single day. I was raised in a kind of liberal Christian home and although church attendance was strongly encouraged, I wouldn’t say my family was really fanatic about Christianity. I started having doubts in my University, late 2011 and early 2012. By the middle of 2012, I was sure I didn’t believe any of those things again but I kept going to church for the music. I love classical/opera music.

Jacobsen: How did the family and community react to it?

Akorita: Funny enough, a mixture of indifference and mild alarm. While my brothers were basically indifferent and broached the subject as a matter of curiosity, my sisters were initially a bit alarmed. Obviously, they thought I had become this evil somebody or that university has corrupted me. But they eventually came around when they realised I was still the cool and quiet brother they always knew.

Jacobsen: What is the general perception of atheists in Nigeria?

Isaiah Akoria: It depends on the geographical location. In the mostly Christian south, I’d say most people see atheists as confused people or rebellious sinners who are looking for an excuse to sin without guilt. Some think we have no morals and can’t possibly tell good from evil. In the Muslim north though, atheists are viewed as the literal spawn of Satan. You could be seriously harmed for daring to come out as an atheist there.

Jacobsen: What are main problems of Nigerians at the moment? What are their main focuses? (Are they aligned, in other words?)

Akorita: In order of severity, I’d say Politicians, Corruption and Religion. And no, they’re not aligned. Most ordinary Nigerians are incredibly obtuse when it comes to identifying our real problems.

Jacobsen: How did you become involved with the atheist movement in Nigeria?

Akorita: I’ve always been outspoken about my atheism on social media and offline too. Because of that, I have met plenty atheists both online and offline and it was only a natural progression that I’d be a part of the movement in whatever form it is shaping up to be.

Jacobsen: What do you do for the Atheist Society of Nigeria on its board?

Akorita: I head the media campaign team. I’m in charge of the group of volunteers tasked with publicising the activities of the organisation on various social media platforms and news media.

Jacobsen: What are the more effective means to educate and inform the public on atheism?

Akorita: I think public debates, radio and TV appearances will go a long way into educating the public on atheism in Nigeria.

Jacobsen: Thank you for your time, Isaiah.

Akorita: It was a pleasure. I hope I answered your questions.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

This Week in Women’s Rights 2017–09–24

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017–09–24

“If someone offered you half a billion euros to end violence against women and girls, you’d thank them. Especially if you were acutely aware of the many worthwhile strategies and organisations presently starved for support. Especially if you had seen the diverse and insidious forms of violence — from intimate partner violence to state-sponsored violence — that women have been courageously standing up against for decades.

Conversation with Professor Tina Block on the Secular Northwest

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/24

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You have done research into the secularism or irreligion in the Northwest, including the province of British Columbia and the state of Washington. You wrote on this in The Secular Northwest. What was the primary research question and finding?

Professor Tina Block: I was interested in exploring not only why the Pacific Northwest was and is more secular, but how people were secular, and what that meant in their day-to-day lives. Focusing on the 1950s through the 1970s, I conducted archival and statistical research, along with a number of oral interviews with people who lived in the region, to learn more about the nature and meaning of secularity in the region. I found that residents of Washington State and British Columbia were, in the postwar era, far more likely than those in other regions to reject, dismiss, or ignore religion, particularly in its organized forms. I suggest that this secular culture was created largely by ordinary people in the spaces of everyday life, and that it was experienced differently according to gender, class, and other categories of identity.

Jacobsen: Northwest people have been rejecting organized religion to lose religious affiliation, but have continued to adhere to informal spiritual beliefs. Why have people lost their organized religion here?

Block: People in the Pacific Northwest have been more likely than those in other regions to stay away from religious institutions and to identify as of “no religion.” The reasons for this are complex, and rooted deep in history. Some prominent explanations include: the highly mobile character of the region which, in certain cases, weakened religious ties; and demographic factors (such as, for instance, the gender imbalance of the late 19th century – there were fewer women and families in the Northwest than elsewhere). In my book I point to the significance of cultural constructions of place – the Pacific Northwest has been less religious, in part, because it has been understood and imagined that way. Over time, secularity has come to be seen as part of the Northwest identity, entwined with regional ideals of hardiness and independence.

Jacobsen: Why have Northwest people continued to adhere to spiritual beliefs?

Block: It is important to note that ‘spiritual beliefs’ and ‘spirituality’ are broad concepts that are defined in very different ways by different people. For some, spirituality includes belief in a god or gods or the supernatural; for others, spirituality has very little to do with the other-worldly. The spirituality of Northwesterners was and is broad-ranging – in the postwar decades, many sought spirituality in nature, and understood religious institutions to be separable from, and irrelevant to, their own engagement with the sacred. In my book I found that many who were outside of religious institutions did indeed consider themselves spiritual – but there was also a small but significant minority of individuals who rejected organized religion and were, quite simply, disinterested in, or indifferent to, religious belief.

Jacobsen: Do these two – organized religion and informal spiritual beliefs – tap into a similar, or even the same, human need? If so, what is that need?As as

Block: As an historian who focuses on irreligion and unbelief, it’s difficult for me to do other than speculate as to the relationship of religious institutions and beliefs to human needs. It seems likely that the fellowship and community offered by churches and other religious institutions has been a significant draw for many. My current research, which focuses on atheists and unbelievers in Canada between 1950 and 1980, suggests that many atheists/unbelievers have also sought out the fellowship of like-minded individuals in various ways (including through Secular Humanist organizations).

Jacobsen: What are the near futures of organized religion, irreligiosity, and spiritualism in the Northwest?

Block: The Pacific Northwest is more secular today than it was in the immediate postwar era; the proportion of the population claiming “no religion” continues to grow. At the same time, the Northwest is less distinct in this regard than it used to be – the “no religion” population has grown substantially across Canada and the U.S., which has narrowed the gap, at least somewhat, between the Northwest and other regions. Although it is difficult to predict the future, the decline of organized religious involvement in the region shows few signs of slowing down. I would anticipate that the proportion of the population identifying as spiritual but non-religious (or outside of religious institutions) will continue to grow. My research also points to a long history of religious disinterest and indifference in the region; if past trends persist, it seems likely that the Northwest will continue to be at the forefront of broader secularizing currents, and of the growing acceptance of non-religious ways of understanding and engaging the world.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Exclusive Interview with Stephanie Guttormson - Operations Director for the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/22

Stephanie Guttormson is the current Operations Director for the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science — a foundation she joined in March of 2013. Stephanie was the leader of an award winning student group at the Metropolitan State University of Denver which impressively brought in notable names such as Michael Shermer and James Randi to speak on campus.

Where does your personal and family background reside?

Denver, Colorado, my last name, apparently, is Icelandic. Based on the name, my heritage is Icelandic, Vikings, and those kinds of people — Scandinavian.

If we look at the landscape now, especially in North America, atheism is a rapidly growing movement. From your expert position, what seem like the reasons behind this phenomenon?

In one word for you, the internet. The internet is where religion goes to die. I don’t remember who said that. It wasn’t me, but the internet is where religion goes to die. There’s too many ways to get appropriate facts now. Yes, of course, there’s tons of crap on the internet too, but being able to debate rationally with people and get them to listen to arguments that they wouldn’t otherwise.

Also, they get more exposure to more news about the same facts. They consistently don’t see atheists in the news doing violent things. I would also like to say that it has to do with the Richard Dawkins Foundation having a movement to get people to come out of the closet starting with the Out campaign. Now, there’s Openly Secular.

I also credit people like David Silverman from American Atheists being super open about it as well as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Christopher Hitchens, and James Randi. These are people that I know opened my eyes and open the eyes of a lot of other people.

Listening to these people and working for one of the organisations of probably the most prominent at present, you’ve probably heard most of the arguments. What do you consider the best argument for atheism?

Atheism is more of a conclusion rather than something to be argued for.

(Laugh)

Atheism is what happens when you follow the evidence where it leads, where it leads right now is to the conclusion that there is likely no supernatural force watching over us or any magical force.

Everything we’ve been able to figure out. Everything we’ve been able to verify so far has not been magic. We are still waiting for magic to happen. It hasn’t, yet. All of our progress has been the result of the method known as the scientific method, for the most part.

Even social change, you look at the situation and people think, “That’s not fair. That seems to hurt people. Let’s fix that.” The thing changes and things get better. The more we learn, the more things get better because we’re responding to evidence and the changing situations.

Humans were pretty good at doing that when they the left savannah. Now, we need to get our brains to do it and change our minds with new evidence as the new landscape changes.

You hold two bachelor degrees. One in linguistics. One in theoretical mathematics. Both from Metropolitan State University in Denver. I want to focus on theoretical mathematics because it could be technically defined as a science.

So, when it comes to having a mathematical understanding and know the scientific method more than most, does this seem to provide a bulwark for you to consider these topics of critical thinking, faith healing, and other topics along the range of pseudoscience, non-science, bad science, and real science and making that demarcation?

Religion is not the only thing that benefits from wish thinking and that kind of thing. I really hate grief vampires like Adam Miller. He’s more of a straight-up conman. “Grief vampires” are psychics, mediums, and those kinds of people. I hate them so much.

Anyone promoting any non-scientific idea boils down to a couple of quotes. One is from my friend Matt Dillahunty. He said, “I want to believe as many true things and as few false things as possible.” Also, the other probably is “scientia potentia est” or “knowledge is power.”

If you look at the general public and the method of teaching critical thinking, if you could comment of the state of critical and ways to improve education of critical thinking, what is it?

It is garbage.

(Laugh)

The current state of teaching critical thinking in this country is garbage. I chose to take logic courses and things that challenge or made my ability to think better. I can’t say I wish it were mandatory, but I wish we would encourage it more, certainly. I wish it was a core class to teach critical thinking and its importance.

The fact of the matter is any false belief has potential to do harm because it is incongruent with reality. Those things that are incongruent with reality have great potential to cause harm.

Do you think the work through the Richard Dawkins Foundations assists in the development of critical thinking to a degree?

We would always want to do more, but I think the programs we have help with it. There’s one teaching evolutionary science, where we teach middle school teachers how to teach evolution. Some think, “You’re indoctrinating them with evolution.” No, evolution requires asking a lot of questions.

Kids are interested in it because you get to ask, “Why do cells do that? Why does this happen that way?” Teaching any science, especially evolution, will lead to more critical thinkers.

When you were Metropolitan State University in Denver, you managed to bring Dr. Michael Shermer and James Randi to campus. What was that like getting people that prominent in the atheist, agnostic, and critical thinking movement to come to your university?

That was pretty surreal, not going to lie. That’s the only way I could put it. I was shell-shocked at that age. James Randi put forward a ton of effort to get to Denver. One of my heroes did something for me. That was incredible. I can’t tell you how good that felt. It is hard to put into words.

For those that don’t know, that aren’t as involved in that community. Who are individuals that you would recommend to them, and what particular texts would you recommend to them?

I would recommend Ayaan Hirsi Ali. I would recommend Richard Dawkins, Obviously.

(Laugh)

I would encourage them to find a book, How to Think About Weird Things. That’s a good book. Lying by Sam Harris, that is pretty decent. God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. I would probably have them take any logic book, really, for those that are academically inclined.

They have them in different levels like “Logic for Dummies” all the way to a serious textbook. They all touch on the same things. Also, they should learn on how to be persuasive and how arguments work has been helpful.

What are some of the other ongoing activities and educational initiatives through the Richard Dawkins Foundation?

We have a ton of videos on our YouTube channel. Tons of videos of Richard and other people with loads of information about science and evolution, but everything is in English. There weren’t subtitles in other languages until we had the project to translate as many videos into other languages as we could.

We have many videos now in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and so on. We have lots of languages. This is all done by volunteers around the world. Some of them as far away as Pakistan helping us translate videos. We get a translation and have someone double-check it. It is translated and checked by at least two people.

Even the English videos, we have to do the language in English first for something to be translated back for the translators. Those are some of the most important to get right.

Is there an unexpected large following in the Middle East and North Africa region?

We get quite a bit of people from that region contacting us more to get more involved with us.

What initiatives are you hoping to host and expand into the future for the Richard Dawkins Foundation?

Currently, we are merging with the Center for Inquiry. We’re not planning on launching anything new at the moment because we’re in process of this merger.

You have appeared monthly on the Dogma Debate radio show and the Road to Reason TV show:

I stepped away from both for a bit because I had some mental health stuff to deal with first. I will be back for the Dogma Debate show soon. Same for The Road to Reason TV show. I am booking Richard’s touring now. It takes most of my time at the moment.

Apart from professional capacities, what personal things do you hope to continue for your own intellectual enjoyment?

Next, I am going to start a video. I have a new target. As you probably know, I went after a man named Adam Miller. He sued me because I said he didn’t have magic powers. I won, hilariously. There’s this other little dumb fuck who I found on the internet that I want to go after. He claims to be a medium.

I want him to stop taking advantage of people. He’s a grief vampire. He’s one of these assholes that goes around saying, “Oh, I hear the letter F… coming out of my ass.” You are a smug prick and are taking people who are vulnerable, fucking with them, and taking their money when you do it…You need to stop.

Those people are despicable and immoral. You want to talk about how pseudoscience harms people. You don’t tell vulnerable people things that they want to hear. That can fuck with their emotions, especially pretending to speak with loved ones that they have never met. It is disgusting. It is despicable.

Historically, pseudo-scientific, non-scientific, and bad scientific views had negative consequences. Sometimes very big ones. It’s around now. It has been around in the past. Those around now, by implication, have been around in the past. What are the worst ones that come to mind for you?

Psychics are really bad, but they don’t seem as bad because you see the holes in the wall. The really bad ones are those that take advantage of people, such as John Edwards. They are the worst from an immoral perspective. I think the most harmful are medical ones.

The anti-vaccine movement by far is the most harmful pseudoscience movement that we’ve ever seen. It is followed very closely by chiropractors or any kind of “healing acupuncture.” That kind of stuff. Medical pseudoscience by definition is the most harmful, no question — if you’re talking about harm.

The medical stuff scares me to death. Mostly because we have people here that are extremely desperate to get better. They are putting their money in places they shouldn’t, many times.

Thank you for your time, Stephanie.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Kyle Lumsden, Turkey, Canada, Drugs, and Use

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/08/06

I interview friends, colleagues, and experts, on harm reduction and its implications in Canadian society, from the theory to the practice, to the practical. I am a Member-at-Large for Outreach for Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy and writer for Karmik, Fresh Start Recovery Centre, and the Marijuana Party of Canada. Here I interview Kyle Lumsden, part 2.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: In part one, you mentioned working abroad. Did you notice any differences in responses to drug and drug use compared to Canada?

Kyle Lumsden: I was in Turkey, which is a Muslim country. It is punitive. I was in China too. It has some of the most draconian drug laws. I did not talk about this subject too much. I am confident both of these places are more conservative.

It is more influenced by traditional values and family values. There is more shame, especially in China. If you were known to be some sort of undesirable in trait – fat or do drugs, you are shamed. It is entrenched and deep.

In the West and Canada especially, even places like the Czech Republic, we are more liberal and with talking about drugs.

Jacobsen: Are there differences in the types of drugs and the ratio of their use?

Lumsden: Yes, it is interesting because drug consumption is dictated by culture. When I was doing this research project on alcohol consumption and harm, every single Muslim country has the smallest alcohol harm on the planet.

Russia is very high. Social norms, stigma, history of consumption, and so on, shape consumption rates. In Turkey, people drink less because it is Muslim-majority. People do not accept alcohol in social settings.

In China, people smoke a lot. Cigarettes are cheap. I saw smoking a lot. In Canada, we smoke as a cultural thing.

Jacobsen: You note cigarettes. It is one of the most harmful products around. Both are legal. Do you have considerations on the inverted pyramid on the harmfulness of drugs and legality of drugs?

Lumsden: I do. Economists and the World Health Organization released reports on the global and specific country for the harm of drugs. Alcohol and cigarettes are number one and two. They are followed by marijuana, LSD, and so on.

Tobacco costs Canada about $17 billion per year. Alcohol costs Canada about $14.5 billion per year. Tobacco kills almost 7 million people worldwide. Alcohol kills almost 2.5 million worldwide.

The other substances are not comparable. If you put tobacco and alcohol as diseases on paper, people would say, “This is an epidemic.” People love drinking and think it is fine. It is weird. We have this strong affinity, not so much with tobacco.

Tobacco use has been declining for the last 20 years due to policy and social norms. We made cigarettes more expensive, banned smoking in public spaces, and put those disgusting ads on them. It caused a circular effect.

People will judge you if you’re smoking outside some place. It has not happened with alcohol. I am confident that with these harm costs in Canada alcohol will surpass cigarettes. There are more liberalized alcohol sales policies.

It is interesting how the stigma and the policy can work together. Obviously, all of these other drugs – weed, mushrooms, LSD, even cocaine, and heroine – are not even close. It has been odd to have this tiered system, where the two most subjectively harmful are the most socially acceptable. However, if people did heroine like the drank, I bet heroine would be much worse.

Jacobsen: CSSDP collaborates with multiple organizations. What are some of the partnerships? What are some of the effects you’ve seen of it?

Lumsden: Other groups include the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition. I helped throw a couple of events with the International Centre for Science and Drug Policy. There is a collection of harm reduction agencies. They overlap. They work together. I met a girl who works for a community group in Toronto called the Inner City Family Health Team, which is about alcohol harm reduction for homeless males.

Jacobsen: What about something like the United Nations for drug policy in Canada? Some coordinating umbrella group that every joins and is a volunteer, by consent for joining, leaving at any time. Is that a viability for bringing everything under one roof?

Lumsden: I would like it. I would be happy to join it and contribute to it. I do not consider drugs are popular as a topic. Weed is now. People talk about it without fear of stigma. If I start talking about legalization of heroin, people have bad reactions.

If we go to U of T and try to join a group advocating for those things, people are interested in it. However, they do not want to label themselves. People work in drug policy. Usually, I ask them the question.

I want to work in drug policy or the government. I want an interesting academic job. I do not want to be stigmatized and labeled based on the research. It is ridiculous. I have a needle phobia. I could not do heroin if I wanted to do it. It is powerful and stigmatizing.

Jacobsen: Thank you for your time, Kyle.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Armin Navabi, Mother Mary versus Fatimah

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/08/05

Armin Navabi is the Founder of the Atheist Republic. One of the most popular pages on Facebook for atheists that faced repeated censorship and shutdown from Facebook authorities. He was born in Tehran, Iran, and raised as a Muslim. Now, he is a former Muslim and an atheist living in Vancouver, British Columbia. Here we explore, in an educational series, the figures in the Abrahamic faiths from the view of a leading former Muslim, this is session 2. Session 1 here.

*Audio interview edited for clarity and readability.*

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Why are you comparing Islam and Christianity?

Armin Navabi: Because I see the similarity in the difference of between Sunnis and Shias are like Protestants and Catholics.

Catholics added Mother Mary as a divine figure. Shias added another female figure, which is Muhammad’s daughter Fatimah. Sunnis have a highly revered female figure, which is the favorite wife of Muhammad named Aishah.

They have given her this very high title of “Mother of the Faithful.” They revere her, but not as much as Shias revere Fatimah. Shias consider Aishah with disgust and hate, sometimes, because she waged war against the first Imam, Imam Ali.

So, Aishah is a high figure in Sunni Islam. Fatimah is not only holy, but infallible too, and a role model for all women in Shia Islam. Fatimah is someone people even pray to. When many Shias standing from a sitting position or trying to pick up something heavy, they often ask for help or strength from these Imams by calling out their name. This is offensive to many Sunnis, which see these prayers or worship of dead people rather than almighty God.

I always saw Sunni Islam as obsessed with victory, power, and conquest. Sunni Islam seems a lot more macho and masculine. Shia Islam is obsessed with being a victim and being oppressed. A lot of focus on female figures in Shia Islam. I felt Shia Islam was more feminine and Sunni Islam was more masculine.

Another point of conflict between Shias and Sunnis is that fact that the second Khalifa of the Sunnis, Umar, unintentionally caused Fatimah’s miscarriage and eventual death. To Sunnis, he was this macho man warrior who leads the Islamic army to many victories.

This is the person who took Islam from Saudi Arabia and conquered many lands for Islam, which includes Iran. It is not a center of Shia Islam, which is another reason why many Shias hate Umar.

When Ali refused to pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr, the first Sunni Khalifa, Umar was the one who showed up at Ali’s door and slammed the door open. Fatimah was behind it and pregnant with Ali’s third son, who died from this incident. Fatimah died awhile after this. That is another reason Umar is hated by Shias.

If you ask Shias if what they’re doing is considered worship of Fatimah, Ali, or Husain, they’ll say, “No, worship is only for God.” But if you observe how they pray to these Imams and other figures, you could see why Sunnis might consider it worship. Many Shias mention Ali, Husain, and Fatimah more than they mention Muhammad and Allah.

For example, many Shias consider the dust from Karbala to be holy. Karbala is where Husain, the third imam of Shias, died. It is interesting that I noticed people in Iran bring the dust from Karbala and they consider it holy but have never brought dust from Mecca as a souvenir which might say something about their priorities.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Daniel Greig, Canadian Drug Policy, Responsibilities, and Psychedelics

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/08/05

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: How did you get and interest in Canadian drug policy?

Daniel Greig: My interest is predominantly in the realm of psychedelics. I have, first and foremost, an academic and ethical interest in studying these because they have [a] potential for healing people [that] current medications don’t. So, we should be studying these substances.

I am in Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy on the side [as part of this project]. That’s how I got involved.

Jacobsen: If this is on the side, and now more in the main for you, what are your main set of responsibilities?

Greig: My main responsibility is research on psychedelics.

Jacobsen: What does the main research state on the therapeutic effects of psychedelics?

Greig: For psilocybin, there are a whole bunch of studies. There was one that has earned a lot of press. It finds lasting personality change from the transcendental/mystical experiences.

There s a measurable difference in people’s personalities in the domain of openness after a single use of the substance. The paper that this is in mentions the only comparable finding was 3 months spent meditating in the mountains.

That was the only comparable experimental manipulation to produce a measurable change in personality. It is good compared to other medications, which don’t show [nearly as profound] changes in people’s personality or behaviour.

There are [palliative] medications [that focuses on symptoms]. Psychedelics are not used [in this way and] produce measurable differences, rather than [effectively making people] ‘drugged up’ all of the time. That’s a good thing. People can [heal and] get off them.

Jacobsen: That makes me think. First, that’s remarkable. Second, many Canadians and more Americans don’t believe in evolutionary theory. Of course, evolution happened to produce us. An argument could be made that mind-altering substances could have a co-evolution with human beings.

Maybe, 10,000 years ago with the foundation of the agricultural revolution, even further with the Aboriginal Dreamtime narratives from 40,000 years ‘popping up’.

Could there be a decent argument made from the obvious showcase of changes equivalent to three months of meditation with psilocybin, and that we’re almost ‘wired up’ for these experiences?

Greig: Definitely, the psychedelic experiences are as much a part of the properties of the brain and [our] physiology as [they are of] the drug. People have engaged in ritualistic alterations of consciousness, which have produced similar hallucinations and benefits.

People used psychedelics back in the day. As far as that having some purposeful connection, or humans being wired to take them, you get into a [difficult philosophical problem that isn’t really necessary to consider]. Maybe, it is an interface for human consciousness with the planet, which is a legitimate theory [presented] for co-evolution.

It might be an entailment of [developing] theories, [but] I don’t think that it’s relevant, for or against, the uses of these things in general. The bottom line, they [may] have wonderful effects for the mind.

Jacobsen: What do you consider the core principle or value of CSSDP?

Greig: I will talk about psychedelics first and then the [organization]. It is a new field. There will be more people doing the research in the future. [CSSDP] is good for networking students. It is good for building these longer-lasting networks of [similarly interested] people.

There are a lot of people in the organization like Evan Loster, Gonzo Nieto, Andras Lenart, and Michelle Thiessen. [who are] all interested in psychedelics. It is a good network. We have been able to connect and contribute ideas to each other.

[It is also beneficial to facilitate the advocacy of] youth voice[s] [on issues that effect them]. They are listened to the least.

[When it comes to drug policy], people [often] say, “What about the kids, man?!” Who isn’t for the kids? Advocacy for the youth is another important aspect.

Jacobsen: Where do you hope CSSDP goes into the future?

Greig: I hope it continues to grow. That more networks happen[ing] with other drug policy groups. [Like] MAPS [a growing number of] harm reduction groups. I hope the branches extend [and] I hope [that] facilitate[s] quicker reform for drug policy [as much is desperately needed]

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Kyle Lumsden, Canadian Drug Policy and Chapter Co-Leader CSSDP

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/08/05

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: How did you become involved in Canadian drug policy?

Kyle Lumsden: For a 3rd-year public policy class, I wrote a paper on INSITE and injection sites as cost effective tax payer policy. I got my ‘feet wet’ in 2014. So, I wrote this big research paper. I became convinced through learning about drug policy issues.

There is a show called The Wire. The show got me into drug prohibition and policy at a young age. The Wire is about selling drugs in the city of Baltimore. It got me thinking about the legality of drugs. It has been more of an academic issue.

Last May, I was looking to volunteer places. I went to the U of T volunteer directory groups. CSSDP was there. I was invited to the Support Don’t Punish event. I started with a blog post on drug policy and bill C-2. I started that way. I met Dan last September. I helped him run the 9/20, mushroom event. We co-authored an article on psychedelics for mental health.

I am interested in topics such as mushrooms, LSD, Ayahuasca, MDMA, ketamine, and so on. It is for treating mental health problems. It is an area of interest because things like depression and PTSD are hard to treat.

These are novel and interesting methods to treat them. I am in the process of finishing an article on alcohol-based harm reduction, which is an area of personal interest in harm reduction because alcohol has harmed people in my life. I wrote an article on alcohol harm in Canada and public opinion in Canada for a political science class.

Jacobsen: What tasks and responsibilities come with being the chapter co-leader for the University of Toronto position for CSSDP?

Lumsden: I am on the national board. I am the secretary of the national board. I am the representative to the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition. Each of those have their own things. I have to take minutes of the board meetings.

Now, I will be organizing the agenda for each board meeting. For the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, it is an organization-think tank for drug policy reform. I have to attend a monthly meeting with Donald MacPherson in a steering committee for drug policy.

On the board, I have to attend the monthly meetings. I am on the outreach committee for organizing events. I do whatever they ask of me.

Jacobsen: What do you think is the core principle of the CSSDP?

Lumsden: It is harm reduction and grassroots activism. It is engaging young people. Harm reduction is interesting. I started university at 25. I taught overseas. I am 29 now. I can stay in CSSDP until May, when I turn 30. Also, I graduate in a couple of months. My time with CSSDP is coming to a close.

Jacobsen: With respect to harm reduction philosophy as a model and strategy, what do you consider its core outlook on drugs and drug policy?

Lumsden: It is probably to help people where they stand and to acknowledge individuals do harmful activities and substances rather than moral condemnation and criminal punishment to help them not make the situation worse. It is more pragmatic and realistic; not based on ideology or idealism.

Jacobsen: The opposing position as a philosophy tends to be a punitive or zero tolerance approach. What do you think of its general philosophy?

Lumsden: It is misguided. I am more to the center from most of the people in the CSSDP in terms of political views. My major is in criminology. I have done research in Toronto. I interviewed many police officers. I asked them many questions.

I do not get mad at people that think an arrest is acceptable for drug use, but it is misguided and based on the idea that punishment will change the behavior. Everyone was raised with this view.

It is based on the misguided idea that prisons and punishment reform people, but people do drugs in prison. The time of release from prison is the greatest likelihood of overdose death. Drug crimes are the great forms of recidivism.

When I started the research, it was about the laws fulfilling the intended claims. This philosophy of punishment, in general, does not work for substances.

Jacobsen: Do you consider the preventative part of the harm reduction philosophy or the treatment part more important?

Lumsden: I think the second part. Treatment and rehabilitation are more important than prevention. Prevention is difficult, especially with ‘forbidden fruit.’ I do not know how you can stop teens from smoking pot or becoming ‘blackout’ drunk. It is human nature.

People are born. They take substances. Prevention is important. Substance use does not need to be prevented or treated all of the time. Only 20% of people that try drugs become addicted to them. 80% do not acquire problematic addictions.

Even if they do a line of cocaine, they are not by necessity addicted. If they do it on New Years, does that mean they have that type of addiction? Maybe or maybe not; the focus on prevention and treatment can ignore the fact that it does not need to be prevented or treated. Of course, there are cases where that is needed too.

Jacobsen: Harm reduction philosophy is not only a theory but a practice, too. You mentioned INSITE before. It is one practical example. What practical example across Canada seems like a good success story of the harm reduction philosophy in practice?

Lumsden: INSITE is one. Recently, legalization of heroin-assisted treatment for opiate addicts was announced. The previous system was the methadone clinics. It is a synthetic opioid. It is addictive and can be problematic.

Also, the advice of ‘cold turkey’ or abstinence only for people with alcohol or opioid dependency can be dangerous for them. It needs to be a ‘weaning off’ system with opiates or alcohol.

The second one is part of NARCAN-naloxone training. Basically, the overdose reversal drug that can be used now. It can be acquired by prescription in pharmacies in Ontario. It is an example of a harm reduction philosophy in practice.

It has been a good shift for harm reduction because it is more widespread to save people’s lives in the case of an overdose. Even though, we do not like the fact they have an overdose.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

The Canadian Atheist interviews Dr Meredith Doig

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Rationalist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2019/02/09

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What was early life like for you, e.g., geography, culture, language, religion or lack thereof, education, and family structure and dynamics?

Dr. Meredith Doig OAM: Born and bred in Melbourne Australia. Australia is now a ‘softly’ secular country but was, according to the census, 96% Christian when six separate colonies federated into a united nation in 1900. My family was middle class professional, dominated by medicos – father, grandfather, uncle all doctors. While I did sciences at school, I was also fascinated by Greek myths, psychology and philosophy, so at university, I took Classical Civilisation and Linguistics, while majoring in Pure Mathematics.

Jacobsen: What levels of formal education have been part of life for you? How have you informally self-educated?

Doig: After graduating, I taught maths for several years and then headed off to Europe for my ‘grand tour’: a year in Greece (during the fall on their military junta), a year and a half in Israel, working at a Field School on the shores of the Dead Sea, and backpacking around the rest of Europe for a while. Exhilarating, but my mind was atrophying and so I returned home to build a career.

That career grew so that I became a senior executive in large private sector corporations in the automotive, mining and banking industries. During the last 15 years I have been a professional company director, on commercial, public sector and university boards, and more recently on half a dozen not-for-profit boards.

Jacobsen: The Rationalist movement and set of critical thinking tools and worldview heuristics have been around for a long time. Indeed, the Rationalist Society of Australia has been around since 1906. What are rationalist values? How do these associate with other philosophical worldviews or, simply, sets of cognitive tools for skeptical evaluations of claims about the world?

Doig: RSA bases its policies on universal human values, shared by most religious as well as non-religious people. We believe in human dignity and respect in our treatment of one another. We support social co-operation within communities and political co-operation among nations. We think human endeavour should focus on making life better for all of us, with due regard to our fellow sentient creatures and the natural environment.

We believe humankind must take responsibility for its own destiny.

We believe morality is the natural product of human evolution, not dictated by some external agency or recorded in some written document. But morality is neither static nor absolute. As history shows, our ideas about right and wrong evolve as we learn more about ourselves, the creatures with whom we share this planet and our environment. Our beliefs about what is right and wrong, therefore, should be subjected to periodic reflection and review, using science, reason and due regard for human dignity.

RSA believes the scientific method is the most effective means by which humans develop knowledge and understanding of the physical universe. And we believe human progress and well-being is best achieved by the careful and consistent use of science and evidence-based reasoning.

Jacobsen: Why are rationalist values and ways of thinking important in the current moment with the rise of movements making deliberate assaults on the public through campaigns of misinformation and simply lies for political gain?

Doig: Some years ago I visited a Humanist School in Uganda, one we have been supporting with funds and advice. While there I was asked to give an impromptu lesson to a fascinated class of students. Among other things (like “Why are there kangaroos only in Australia?”), they asked “What is a Rationalist?” I responded with my usual elevator quip of “We’re in favour of science and evidence as opposed to superstition and bigotry” but in retrospect, this was too glib an answer.

What I should have said was: “A Rationalist is someone who believes that the natural world we see around us is the only world there is and therefore we don’t believe in heaven or hell. We believe the best way for humans to improve their lives is through the use of the scientific method – the systematic observation of the natural world – and the use of the human capacity to reason. We believe that as humans, we are responsible for our own lives, not any external Being, Force or Destiny, and we must take responsibility for being good and doing good.”

These three pillars of modern rationalism – the real world of facts, the use of science and reason, and human responsibility – are still the best way to counter fake news, the excesses of postmodernist nihilism, and the worrying rise of populism fuelled by emotionalism.

Jacobsen: What have been the perennial issues or problems facing the Rationalist Society of Australia?

Doig: Since the 1950s the RSA has fought against the perennial encroachment of evangelical religious organisations into our government school system – which is supposed to be secular. But all States and Territories in Australia have exceptions in their Education Acts, which allow for religious instruction (not religious education but doctrinal instruction) for 30 minutes or an hour a week. We have been fighting against these exceptions ever since, with some notable successes.

Also, in Australia we have three school systems: the government system, the “independent” system (which is mostly Anglican) and the Catholic system. Over decades, the Australian public has become used to public funding of the Independent and Catholic systems, defended on the basis of “parental choice”. But of course this is simply using public funds to reproduce religious formation. While we don’t expect to change this entrenched system in the short term, it is something that’s on our long term radar.

Jacobsen: What are some of the newer problems arising for the Rationalist Society of Australia? How can there be assistance from the public, from the government, and other national and international rationalist/rationalist-oriented organizations and public commentators to combat these newer problems?

Doig: Of more recent times, our Federal Government has introducted a major program to fund “chaplaincy services” in the school systems. Chaplains are not supposed to indulge in any religious instruction but there is no monitoring and there are anecdotal stories about evangelical proselytising. We are challenging the National Chaplaincy program in the courts.

Also, over the last few years there was a very high profile Royal Commission into Child Abuse by Religious Institutions which exposed the sex abuse perpetrated by the Catholic church and other religious organisations. We are now campaigning to ensure the findings of this Royal Commission are implemented.

Jacobsen: Who are exemplars in the work of the Rationalists in Australia? Who are perennial – individuals or organizations – agitators for, broadly speaking, unreason or the irrational, e.g., magical thinking, anti-science, fundamentalist ideologies of the nation-state or of faith, und so weiter?

Doig: Our Patrons have been chosen for their renowned contributions to rationalist values:

Michael Kirby AC CMG, is a former High Court judge and long time advocate for secularism.
Professor Gareth Evans AC QC, is Chancellor at the Australian National University and a former Attorney-General of Australia. An advocate for human rights, international co-operation and critical thinking.
Dr Rodney Syme is urologist and advocate for law reform in favour of voluntary assisted dying (which was ultimately successful in Dec 2018).
Professor Fiona Stanley AC FAA, is a world-renowned epidemiologist and former Australian of the Year. She is particularly known for her advocacy of science and an open society.

In addtion, we have two RSA Fellows, recognised for their particular specialist knowledge:

Dr Luke Beck is a law academic at Monash University, with specialist knowledge of s116 of the Australian constitution (the “religion clause”)
Dr Paul Monk is a public intellectual and author, with specialist knowledge of the history of Western civilisation and secularism.

Jacobsen: What books and organizations are other good resources for the rationalist movement? Also, why should rationalists, skeptics, humanists, and others gather together to work on the common concerns of science education, logical thought, critical thinking, secularism, and so on, at an international level in order to coordinate efforts?

Doig: There are too many good books to mention but I would highlight Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now as almost a Rationalist’s bible. Good use of data and evidence, good use of clear thinking and logic.

Why should rationalists etc work together? Some years ago I established an umbrella organisation called “Reason Australia” which brought together humanist, rationalist, atheists and secular groups from across the country.

Unfortunately, it fell apart because of differences in focus among the groups. Instead, the leadership of these various groups now collaborate as and when required, while maintaining our separate identities. This seems to work better than trying to force an amalgamated national group.

Jacobsen: How can people become involved with the donation of time, the addition of membership, links to professional and personal networks, giving monetarily, and so on?

Doig: As a volunteer run organisation, we have limited resources to organise and must priortise our efforts carefully. Apart from becoming a formal Member, supporters can subscribe to our daily bulletin, RSA Daily, which enables us to communicate our views and activities on a regular basis. Donations towards our campaigns are always welcome.

Jacobsen: Any final feelings or thoughts based on the conversation today?

Doig: As our patron Michael Kirby has said, “The principle of secularism is one of the greatest developments in human rights in the world. We must safeguard and protect it, for it can come under threat …”

When I was growing up, religion was simply irrelevant to the way I lived my life; I learned my values from my parents and my school, and got my social involvement from community projects.

But I became aware of the secretive and unaccountable political power wielded by religious organisations – particularly the Catholic Church – in education, in our parliaments, in our health system.

I frankly don’t care what people believe in the privacy of their own minds but I do care when they try to impose their views on the rest of us, particularly using the organs of the state. That’s why I think freethought organisations like the Rationalist Society and the Atheists are so important.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Doig.

Doig: You’re welcome!

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

WWII, Lancaster, Via VR

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/08/09

Silicon Republic reported on some of the new work to remake the Second World War more experiential, more virtual – through VR.

Innovative Waterford and Immersive VR Education are working to recreate WWII in Berlin in 1943. In particular, the bombing raid run done by Lancaster. It is part of a BBC effort to celebrate the RAF. The experience is called 1943: Berlin Blitz to experience the journey of the bombing raid that was at the highest points of WWII.

There will be anti-aircraft shells around the people undergoing the experience with vivid representations of the bombing raid. There will be commentary provided alongside the journey of the bombing.

The Co-Founder of Immersive VR Education, Sandra Whelan, stated, “The Berlin Blitz was an exciting project for us and working with BBC Northern Ireland’s ‘Rewind’ archive innovation team, and the BBC’s central VR Hub has been a fantastic experience… Initiatives like this really allow us to move forward on our primary goal, which is to bring immersive technologies such as AR and VR to distance learning, and to transform the ways in which people all over the world learn about and experience events, both past and present.”

With the provision of a VR experience for the height of WWII, there may also be the possibility to reproduce these experiences for the even broader, general public for vivid educational experiences. VR can be and is be used for educational purposes. In fact, there are a number of companies on the rise to work within this world to develop the technologies necessary to provide immersive education.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

The $90 Billion Industry of VR

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/08/07

One of the biggest and predicted-to-increase industries is the virtual reality and augmented reality industry.

It is estimated at about $90 billion. The estimated value of the virtual reality and augmented reality markets, by only 2022, will be about $105 billion. It is estimated at $90 billion for AR alone. The applications are so wide-ranging that the estimated worth of the entire market continues to expand and expand into the tens of billions of dollars.

The overall price-tag of the market is expected to continue to increase with the work of Facebook to try to have as many as one billion users of the Oculus system. If that pans out, then the overall worth of the market will skyrocket as a result of this important maneuver of the Facebook. Other aspects of this are that the inclusion of Facebook into this will lead to others wanting in on the same technological-financial action.

As reported, “Qualcomm and Apple, for example, both ambitiously rolled out depth sensing capabilities via dueling camera modules. Depth sensing is considered a key ingredient to unlocking useful AR in phones and tablets. Google and Apple, meanwhile, are backing AR via their competing SDKs, ARCore and ARKit. Digi-Capital projects a 900 million installed base for the SDKs by the end of the year, hinting at the coming ubiquity of AR technology.”

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

The Bombing of Hiroshima in VR

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/08/06

Japanese students are working to recreate the bombing of Hiroshima with virtual reality.

It was the time when the world went from its ultimate destructive experiments to the reality of implementation on a nation in a time of war: America dropped nuclear bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan.

Many high students, Japanese ones, are now working feverishly to produce a virtual reality experience of the moments prior to the bombing of Hiroshima. It amounts a before and after of the bombing developed and experienced in virtual reality through the hard work of Japanese students.

The work is meant to remind every one of the possibilities of human technological destructive capacities and to not let this happen anymore. It killed 140,000 people. Then there was another only three days later killing 70,000 people in Nagasaki. Within six days, Japan surrendered; thus, ending WWII, this was dramatic, pulverizing to the spirit, and raised questions to future generations about the prospects of human survival in the era of the atomic bomb.

With the virtual reality headsets, the individuals can go to businesses and buildings that once existed prior to the bombing and then see the aftermath of the atomic glow and expulsion of the living.

For the project, students did the proper study of the photographs, postcards, and even interview some of the living survivors of the bombings. The computer graphics then were matched to these various forms of informational points to recreate the experience of the pre- and post-bombing of Hiroshima with the atomic bomb.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

VR for Space with PlayStation

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/07/28

There is always something happening in the news with the rise in the VR world. In particular, we are finding some of the major consoles producing games at a dizzying pace and, indeed, keeping apace with the rapid technological trends facing us.

According to Eurogamer, the PlayStation VR has a space-based science fiction video game. It is called Detached. It has been claimed as a major experience for those in the VR industry, consumers and makers.

As reported, “The entire game is set in zero gravity, meaning the player character in Detached has a full, six degrees of freedom control scheme; similar to standard 6DoF games like Descent or Sublevel Zero.”

You can walk in all directions with new types of motion not seen in other video game, and facilitated by the VR experience. It is quite wonderful on the face of it. As the technology for virtual reality continues to develop, we will begin to see more and more video game immersive reality experiences akin to this; something apart, even far away, from normal experience and regular physics experienced in everyday life.

“Now, I consider myself to have a pretty steady set of VR legs but even for me, some of the movements here had my stomach lurching. The yawing especially sent my inner-ear into meltdown and I felt rather peculiar for about 5 hours after removing the headset, even though I’d settled into the control scheme after about an hour of play,” the reporter opines.

It has the modern beauty of a well-crafted game and a stunning experience visually, especially with the immersive VR gameplay for the user. Happy gaming!

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Summer’s Waning Months and Return of School

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/07/26

There are a number of things to be excited about for the tail end of the summer season.

One of them is a more moderate climate. Another is the fresh start to all things academic. It provides the basis for a new look on the educational environment. Also, it is a time to snag some sweet deals online to see if there are any cheaper school supplies.

As it turns out, that is true. There are a large number of companies that target this time of the year to see if the customers are prepared out take advantage of the great deals available for them well ahead of the incoming months.

Many of us are and want to make those timelines tight to the sales’ openings because you never know who may be wanting to snag those sales deals ahead of you. In fact,, Google has one at the Google store, you can get up to 3 figures off a variety of items.

Take, for example, the Pixel smartphone, you can get $200 off the phone, which comes with the complimentary or free Daydream View VR headset with it.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

The Macallan Distillery in VR

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/07/21

According to Engadget, the ability to travel to Western European nations such as Scotland can be cost prohibitive, even with the reduction in the total cost in recent decades given the improving efficiency of travel overall.

In the light of these difficulties in travel for some people, they are going to be able to opt for something for cost-effective given their financial limitations in the future; this may be a technology that expands in the 2020s, too.

It stated, “To help connoisseurs live out their dreams of traipsing through its facilities, The Macallan has created the Macallan Distillery Experience. VRFocus describes it as a ‘4D multi-sensory’ group tour that guides folks through the company’s process for making its Single Malt spirit.”

With these virtual reality representations of important venues for many people, including distilleries, world travelers get some time to view the Macallan distillery with the VR technology ascendant in the world now.

“Along the way you’ll explore the Scottish distillery the estate it resides on, learning about the outfit’s history along the way. Visitors will step into a ’15x15x15 cube-like projection structure’ with 360-degree videos beamed to the installation’s walls,” the reportage continued.

In 2016, Macallan was experimenting with some of the more primitive technology for virtual reality simulations of their distillery. It included a 360-degree video with a 12-year double cask liquid. It was scents and wind machines in order to facilitate the illusion of the real world Macallan distillery experience. “It will debut next week in New York at a private event in Brooklyn on the 23rd, and a few days later it’ll take up temporary residence at Grand Central Station, running from the 25th through the 27th, National Scotch Day. Everyone not in New York will have to make do with talking a walkthrough via their home VR devices,” the article announced, “Hopefully if Macallan hands out samples it’ll happen after you take the headset off. Shooting the spirit is kind of beside the point, VR can make you sick while sober and adding booze to the mix can exacerbate that uneasy feeling.”

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

New Video Game Genre with VR in the next 5-25 Years

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/07/11

According to Venture Beat, there has been some reportage on the potential future for the VR environment and technologies.

The London Heist is a game for the PlayStation VR founded in 2016. Now, there is work beginning on the shooter game called Blood & Truth. The lead designer of the newer game has been pointing to the expected or extrapolated developments for the next 5-25 years with the video genre emerging.

A video game genre focused on the VR experience and built for the VR simulations and technologies that are ergonomic for human use.

The article stated, “Speaking at the Develop: Brighton conference (via MCV), Michael Hampden offered predictions for the next 5, 10, and 25 years, saying that VR will soon become more compelling — and then ubiquitous.”

Within and over the years of 2018-2023, we will find an entirely new set of video gaming possibilities becoming more and more mainstream and then entirely mainstream alongside other video game developments.

“Many VR titles today are ports of non-VR titles, but Hampden suggests that new games should be designed from the ground up for VR. He advised developers to start by understanding why they selected VR as a medium and then differentiate their experiences using VR “presence,” surround audio, distinctive input methods, and head tracking,” the article described.

An important step in this development is the consistent and customizable per user VR interface; something individuated for each and every video gamer. Especially important for the motion-sensitive video gamers or “users,” the VR options will work to improve the experiences for even those video gamers to be able to enjoy this new genre. No motion sickness or reactions like this.

These will begin to overlap with the medical sectors as well, think robotic surgery or VR surgery. I could imagine surgeons practicing with the surgeries common to their experience with the VR environments and apps built for medical communities.

“Hampden expects that a consistent design language will be established for VR, and that developers will learn how to use customization — including controller and movement options — to reduce motion sickness and improve experiences for sensitive players,” the article stated, “As a result, the next five years will see VR gain true killer apps, and become more popular in both the mobile and medical sectors. By the 10-year mark, Hampden expects that haptic feedback will be part of the VR experience — and ‘a game changer’ as users will be able to feel objects down to the texture level. This will make VR experiences more immersive, and enable further ‘new genres of VR games to emerge.’”

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

New Innovation for Virtual Business

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/07/02

Oculus rift for business’ bundle is offering a package for commercial use and it includes warranty and license. According to the Oculus site, this week the company dropped the price and announced it in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and Taiwan. The business bundle of Oculus Rift includes Rift headsets, Touch controllers, three sensors, extra face cushions, cables, preferential customer support and a warranty as well as license. The Rift bundle announced a price cut of $900 to $800 as they are competing Vive Business edition ($1300) and Vive pros ($1600 for the full enterprise package).

Tech startup in British Columbia, called Finger Food Studio is solving complex business problems using Oculus Rift business bundle and other VR/AR/MR technology. They are using holographic solutions, cognitive computing and the Internet of Things to improve the ROI of businesses, as a result, they are speeding up the workflow. They are the first company in Canada to become an official Microsoft HoloLens agency partner and also one of the well-known reality companies.

What other innovations do you know about the VR business? Leave a comment below. Also, check out this article written by Ben Lang about how Oculus Cuts Price on Rift Business Bundle, Now Shipping to Four New Regions and it gives us insite vr.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Oculus Varifocal Half-Dome

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/06/30

Oculus Research’s Douglas Lanman, who has since moved to Facebook’s Reality Labs, was at the 2018 SID Display Week event. He was part of a session about 40 minutes long to show the most recent VR hardware developed by his team.

He was talking about the immersive VR environments and the Oculus Varifocal Displays. A varifocal display is also known as a multi-focal plane head-mounted display or an HMD technology. It works to deal with one of the problems inherent in the extant stereoscopic displays.

In the current technology, the user’s eyes have to work to correct for the fixed focal distance. But then there are the changes in the angles of convergence in order to see the 3D content. The content will be rendered at different depths.

The focal plane in these new technologies is dynamically controlled. They can help with visual fatigue and other problems inherent in the older technology of which these ones hope to replace. “It makes for a pretty fascinating watch and, eventually, leads to the Half-Dome prototype that Facebook first teased at its F8 conference last month. This new device has a massive 140-degrees field of view with varifocal optics and more,” the article stated, “We don’t know when/if we’ll see the Half-Dome released as a true successor to the Oculus Rift but hopefully we’ll have more to talk about at this year’s Oculus Connect developer conference. That takes place this September.”

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Google VR Painting System

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/06/26

The Verge spoke on the new Google painting VR experience.

The new VR art tool Tilt Brush allows for a variety of skill settings for the VR painters. The company acquired the VR studio that actually created the Tilt Brush in 2015. Now, it has introduced the multiplayer mode as well as the and a Unity integration to animate drawings.

The article stated, “In its latest update, Google has added 12 new brushes with different textures, volumes, and more sound effects. It has also added a beginner and advanced mode. Users who first open the app will see the main features, and they can press the advanced mode button to access more features. There is no intermediate mode.”

There was also the inclusion of the Pin Tool to permit the user to have something like the Photoshop’s locked layers. Apparently, you can choose particular objects and then lock in place while you then edit around the area. That is actually about as useful as the copy-and-paste function.

That is to say: highly. Then there are also the other ubiquitously utilitarian functions of “select-all” and “deselect,” so that the users “will have an easier time editing a sketch.”

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Home Renovations and VR

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/06/30

Engadget talked about the new technology here. It is using VR technology for the benefit of home decor.

The BBC looked into the world of VR some more with a property show. In it, the homeowners can explore the 360-degree virtual renderings of their houses prior to the renovations. This is revolutionizing the home renovation world.

“In the BBC Two show, Watch This Space, couples strap on VR headsets and see designs from two architects, who have crafted virtual renderings of the remodeled homes. The couples will select a design, then get to work on making their dream home a reality. Production on Watch This Space is underway,” the article stated.

The exploration of this new technology in something important to most people, the look and feel and style of their home, is a relevant step in the mainstreaming of these technologies.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Oculus TV Operational

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/06/25

According to The Verge, the Oculus now has the Oculus TV.

This is a hub for the flatscreen video in VR. It will go “on the standalone Oculus Go headset.” Very cool.

The reportage stated, “Oculus TV was announced at last month’s F8 conference, and it ties together a lot of existing VR video options, highlighting Oculus’ attempts to emphasize non-gaming uses of VR. The free app features a virtual home theater with what Oculus claims is the equivalent of a 180-inch TV screen.”

There will be a number of streaming provisions with video services. These will coincide with some subscription-based platforms including Showtime. Some will be free. Oculus TV has been called a “VR set-top streaming box.”

Oculus is in the works with other companies to increase the number of networks incorporated into their possible services.

However, the article cautions, “The whole idea still has drawbacks: that 180-inch screen, for instance, will look a bit fuzzy with the Oculus Go’s limited resolution. Oculus TV also conspicuously doesn’t support YouTube, which is only available on the Oculus Rift through Steam.”

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Skyrim VR

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/06/24

Engadget spoke on the new VR for the Bethesda hit game Skyrim.

The game had a great update with the incorporation of a VR. It was lauded by others, and others had less than positive perspectives on it. It has been a rather venerated role-playing game in the video gaming world.

“Bethesda’s Skyrim went full VR about seven months ago, and it’s now getting a pretty significant update. That’s a good thing, as not everyone was super pleased with this version of the venerable RPG. According to UploadVR, the title will receive improved visuals, a new main menu and some significant changes to the Move controller configuration,” the article stated.

Alongside the VR updates, there were some patches to improve the visuals of the game. For good reason, as the incorporation of a massive change from a controller to eye-wear, the visuals would need to improve to match the more immersive feel of the environment.

The article continued, “The Move controller will now let you move backwards with the X buttons, swim realistically in water and show hands (instead of Move controllers) when you put your weapons away. Better yet, there’s a new realistic bow aiming option that uses both Move controllers to aim, an adjusted angle for spell targeting, new map markers and several bug fixes.”

There is a full list of updates in the PS4 Skryim. PC has not been given the updated version of the game as of yet.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Valve’s New Knuckle Controllers

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/06/23

Engadget reported on the new knuckle controllers from Valve.

These are the new developments on the new vertical-grip controllers for virtual reality back from 2016. The functional models have been sent out as of 2017. Now, there is another version called the EV2 with changes to the straps, buttons, and sensors. These provide finger motion.

The pressure of touch permits the VR experience of grabbing and squeezing the objects inside of the game.

As stated in the reportage, “Valve originally introduced its vertical-grip “Knuckles” controllers for VR in 2016 and shipped working models to developers last year. Now the company sending game makers another version, the EV2, that has revamped buttons, straps and a slew of sensors that essentially translate finger motion and pressure to let you touch, grab and squeeze objects inside games.”

The changes to the 2016 model for the EV2 are the Steam Controller-style touchpad. It was replaced with a shrunken version, which works with an oval “track button” that can measure the force and the touch.

“That’s flanked by traditional inputs: A joystick (by developer demand, Valve noted in a blog post) and standard circular buttons,” the reportage continued, “The strap is adjustable for different hand sizes and pulls tight to let players let go of the controller completely without dropping it — which could be key for the pressure inputs.”

The new sensors of the EV2 actually track the pressure and the force of the wielder, which may imply some things in the future for the VR developer who wants the players to grab things inside of the real world. Now, the battery life can last about 6 hours. Videos are in the links.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Steam VR Summer Sale

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/06/22

According to the Road to VR, there is an annual summer sale by Steam on some of the best and most popular virtual reality games on the market. The discounts are significant for the annual summer sales.

Some of the top and hottest titles in the VR gaming market are included. If you have a look, you will see both the Oculus and Viveport sales ongoing. As noted, the sales run from June 21 to July 5 with the pricing listed here, directly from the article:

Under $15

∙ The Forest ~~$20~~ $13

∙ Elite Dangerous ~~$30~~ $13.50

∙ Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes ~~$15~~ $6

∙ Space Pirate Trainer ~~$15~~ $7.50

∙ Smashbox Arena ~~$20~~ $5

∙ Final Approach ~~$15~~ $7.50

∙ Dreadhalls ~~$10~~ $7

∙ Serious Sam 3 VR BFE ~~$40~~ $10

∙ In Death ~~$20~~ $13

∙ Vanishing Realms ~~$20~~ $14

∙ Thumper ~~$20~~ $8

∙ FORM ~~$15~~ $8

∙ DiRT Rally ~~$60~~ $12

Rift & Vive Summer Sales Offer Big Savings on Hundreds of VR Titles $15 to $30

∙ Rez Infinite ~~$25~~ $15

∙ Onward ~~$25~~ $15

∙ The Talos Principle VR ~~$40~~ $20

∙ Sairento VR ~~$30~~ $22.50

∙ I Expect You to Die ~~$25~~ $15

∙ Sprint Vector ~~$30~~ $21

∙ Subnautica ~~$25~~ $20

∙ GORN ~~$20~~ $15

∙ The Invisible Hours ~~$30~~ $15

∙ Payday 2: Ultimate Edition ~~$80~~ $15

∙ Project Cars: Game of the Year Edition ~~$82~~ $20

Project Cars 2 ~~$60~~ $24

Over $30

∙ Ubisoft VR Bundle (Star Trek Bridge Crew, Eagle Flight, Werewolves Within) ~~$110~~ $36 ∙ The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR ~~$60~~ $42

∙ Fallout 4 VR ~~$60~~ $42

∙ Crowteam VR Bundle (The Talos Principle VR, Serious Sam VR 1-3, Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope) ~~$200~~ $35 ∙ X-Plane 11 ~~$60~~ $40

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Eye-Tracking and VR Technology Via Forbes

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/06/20

Forbes talked about the new gazing use of VR.

With the eye-tracking technology, I remember one psychology laboratory member working with some of this new technology is traffic research. However, there are some new aspects of eye-tracking technology being combined with the VR technology too.

“Eye-tracking technology is nothing new in itself, but it is gaining rapidly both in scope and popularity as immersive virtual experiences become more widely used both in business and leisure context,” Forbes stated, “This type of technology is a natural fit for VR, as most headsets have inbuilt eye-tracking technology to allow them to deliver immersive experiences in the first place, as gaze is one of the primary ways in which you interact with those types of environment.”

The Swedish company named Tobii Pro is has a new analytical tool coming online. It will be utilizing the benefits of the Tobii Pro VR. Eye-tracking studies plus the integration with the Unity environments will work in the 3D VR contexts.

There will be interesting automated features intended for visualization and measurement of what the user is seeing. This will track the navigations and interactions in the virtual reality.

The Managing Director of CCD Design & Ergonomics talked about the insight of how individual VR users will navigate and work in a virtual space.

He said, “We want to bring evidence into the design process, the visualizations tell us what people actually look at and how their attention is drawn to different design interventions we make. This methodology is so much more powerful than relying on our own intuition about what does and doesn’t work. It also provides a great visual record to demonstrate behaviors to others in the design team.”

The data for the eye-tracking, interaction, and navigation inside of the VR will automate and show “heat and opacity maps” to indicate areas of highest usage.

The article concluded, “With Instant access to eye-tracking analytics, brands, retailers and designers are able to analyze the key influencers of behavior and decision-making throughout the consumer journey, according to Tom Englund, President, Tobii Pro.”

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Microsoft Pulls Out of VR for Xbox

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/06/20

According to The Verge, the large technology and computer corporation, Microsoft, has retracted its plans for virtual reality headsets for the Xbox.

Mike Nichols, the Microsoft chief marketing officer of gaming, stated, “We don’t have any plans specific to Xbox consoles in virtual reality or mixed reality.” He argues that the PC is the best platform for the VR and mixed reality platforms.

This, some argue, amounts to a slow-down of the VR world and technology advancement of Microsoft. Others may fill the gap.

The article reported, “In 2016, Xbox chief Phil Spencer said that the upcoming Project Scorpio console would support ‘high-end VR’ like that available on Windows PCs. Since Microsoft had previously partnered with Oculus to support Xbox controllers on the Oculus Rift, there was widespread speculation that Scorpio might work with the Rift as well.”

This did not occur. Furthermore, one year after that. The corporation decided to roll out an entire line of VR headsets within a few months, at the time. Then the mixed reality announcement came out. But then the at the 2018 E3, Spencer became less excited about it.

“He told Road to VR that although he was ‘long-term bullish’ on VR, it wasn’t ready to come to Xbox yet, and the market was ‘years away.’ Now, Nichols is barely even expressing interest in the platform,” the article said.

There was too much excitement and too early on for the VR possibilities for the Xbox given the market for Microsoft. But Sony through the PlayStation is moving forward to develop its own headset. The article concluded, “Microsoft is still trying to shore up the Xbox One’s shaky position, though, in part because it overemphasized selling the Kinect motion controller early on. It’s not surprising to see the company’s Xbox VR plans slip away — especially since it’s largely focusing on business uses for its mixed reality headsets.”

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Immersion for Better Memory

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/06/19

ZDNet stated that University of Maryland research did one in-depth study. It was on the immersion technology of virtual reality. They, apparently, can help with the improvement of some types of memory better than traditional platforms.

However, these are full immersion technologies. “Published in the journal Virtual Reality, the results show that ‘immersion aids,’ which permit better spatial awareness than desktop screens, draw on the power of spatial mnemonics to aid memory,” the reportage stated.

It was considered an exciting development in the immersive environment research literature. Because this suggests the possibility for the strengthening of memory based on a different technique of teaching: VR.

The article explained, “The researchers administered memory tests to study participants using a classical memory technique called a memory palace, which will be familiar to readers of Moonwalking with Einstein.”

With the memory palace technique, the individuals will mentally arrange objects in their minds for the ability to distinguish mental locations of those objects, and so create a memory map, a palace.

That palace forms the basis of the improvement in memory. “To use the memory palace technique, a person mentally arranges objects or images they want to remember in a location, like a room in a familiar building. Known as spatial mnemonic encoding, the technique permits humans to spatially organize large quantities of information, allowing for better recall,” the article stated.

With the researchers and the study, the participants in the study were asked to navigate a virtual memory palace with various photographs. The images had many familiar faces.

One group of people used a VR headset. They moved their head to view things. Another group of participants used modern desktop computer. They used the mouse and a screen to navigate.

It gives two different methodologies to explore the palaces. As it turns out, the VR group had a better recall of 8.8 percent.

One doctoral student, Eric Krokos and a lead author on the article, stated, “We wanted to see if virtual reality might be the next logical step in this progression.”

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

A Proposal: What is a Proposal?

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Northeast Ohio Weddings Magazine

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2021

When it comes to making the right moves in life, it’s important to mark out the things considered the most important in life, to you. To nearly everyone, these items on a life list include marriage and family, in about equal numbers for men and women in reliable national surveys.

No matter the sexual orientation and gender identity. No issue of the religious identification, or not. No concern to the ethnic background. No thinking about the political affiliation. No thought to the ‘morrow nor the yesteryear of this person, this life-hitch.

Only on the fact of that which is most self-evident to all: the internal instinct towards love, and the exchange of love with another on the most intimate terms. An entirely sincere sense of one person lost, as experienced through two people merely needing to discover one another once more, and then have a capstone in a ceremonial rite of passage.

The other issues simply, as a matter of the tide of personal and collective history, remain secondary. Although connected to the most integral part of most people’s daily lives, the facts of marriage and family.

These, truly, remain the outcome of love played to the tune of personal history. What comes before these outcomes, though? It’s an individual, interdependent assurance of a commitment to make these happen, together.

A sense of sureness in the relationship where the promise is the love will end well by not halting at all. It’s a singular moment of taking a risk, a chance, a leap of hope. This single instance for most will be the proposal, not the times, after it, of a leaky pipe needing fixing on a rainy Fall Sunday at home during the Christmas holidays.

A fleeting period with assorted accoutrements of symbolic love, while centered on the subject of most intense, close desire: the love of someone’s life. While, in truth, a true love, in this framing, amounts to a house of mirrors illuminated by the aperture of the light of love in each others’ lives.

Something speaking to neither the seasonal nor the hormonal, but the instinctive, as if transcendent. The undeniable, ineffable quality of knowing that one knows this person’s worth the drag-out-and-brawl and dine-and-cuddle of a lifelong commitment through the hardships and softships, respectively, of life.

Because the proposal represents both a moment in time and a lifetime. A moment in time of a conscious choice to commit to this person as expressed in a profoundly loving act, as an offer of one’s whole self: ripe, open, belly-up, vulnerable, heart out.

A lifetime as represented in the possibilities of this moment in time cherished, projected into some fantastic future of the ordinary made into the extraordinary. Simply and solely because it’s with the most wonderful other, the half missing needing to be made complete, again. For most people most of the time, it’ll be a guy proposing to a gal. But it doesn’t have to be so.

A proposal represents neither a moment of whimsy nor a culmination of brooding. From the mundane proposal at a late dinner in the local restaurant for young twilight lovers on a tight budget, to a sky-diving extravaganza with a fulminous conclusion of the proposal written on the ground as the twin-souls-in-one land aground, a proposal simply represents a one experienced as a two, asking, “Are you me, too?”

To which an answer, “Yes,” means the single person experienced as two has ended the search, the instinctive love in either has realized its aim, and the tune of personal history may move forward with the assurance of the drag-out-and-brawl and dine-and-cuddle called lifelong love.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

To Men: Baby Don’t Hurt Me

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Northeast Ohio Weddings Magazine

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2021

There are never enough “I Love You’s.”

Lenny Bruce

“Love” is a four-letter word. Love as a subjective experience, also, makes life meaningful. Love makes most – well, hopeless romantics, including myself, where hope springs eternal, in any season, in the strangest of places, between the unlikeliest of people. Even so, love is not a magical-mystical providential happening; the process of falling in love – and so love itself through time – is a natural happenstance of human nature.

It’s who we are, organically: Dogs bark; cats meow; cows moo; bees buzz; birds, generally, fly; rivers flow; people – human beings – love. In a manner of speaking, it’s the ultimate bargain with life. Your parents produced you.

You didn’t have a choice in them. In turn, by the nature of your nature, your existence, you’re stuck with the structure for love. We’re – for the most part – built to love. You didn’t have a choice in the capacity to love. The only question becomes the form in which love will individually manifest in life for you. That’s a personal choice, and depends on temperament, sensibility, and timing (serendipity, luck).

In this sense, love, as a natural occurrence of the world – of our nature, becomes a natural phenomenon bestowed upon us, generously, by the natural world through the process of evolution. The fundamental basis for all life sciences, e.g., medical sciences and biological sciences: evolution via natural selection or evolutionary theory.

Some may posit the explanation of love as a natural phenomenon detracts or takes away from the subjective quality or experience of love. I disagree. We don’t hear bakers complain about chocolate cake after knowing the contents and recipe of it.

Love becomes intellectually enriched with a scientific framework to understand it. You can affirm the feeling of love more fully with proper knowledge. A comprehension of love as a natural process makes love something more easily understandable, accessible, and subject to individual intervention.

We can choose or vet potential/actual partners more accurately, authentically, conscientiously, and responsibly, and so respectfully to them and ourselves. Why waste their time and ours in a poor choice? Most people, in surveys on attitudes and opinions, want marriage and children, which means everyone wants someone who can do life with them.

People tell demographers and attitudinal researchers these things. That’s the baseline. People want a lifelong partner and children, generally. If someone doesn’t want it, then this article isn’t intended for you, not disrespectfully, but, intentionally, as a matter of focus – simple as that. Unless, of course, it simply seems like an academic interest.

Similar to the demographic research and the acknowledgement of love as a profound facet of human nature, love has been studied in the context of marriage and relationships. Drs. Julie and John Gottman founded The Gottman Institute to study love decades ago.

The Gottmans studied love for more than four decades. Both remain world-renowned researchers and clinical pychologists, who, not-so incoincidentally, are married to one another. They wrote a book with Douglas Abrams and Rachel Abrams, M.D., entitled The Man’s Guide to Women: Scientifically Proven Secrets from the Love Lab About What Women. It covers extensively the material covered in this article.

To a scientific approach of the ineffable quality of love in individual life, the book covers some key components, boiled to key points from decades of research, of love for men about women. Two points come to the fore in the empirical study of love.

The quality most or all women want most in a man: trustworthiness. Can I trust you? Can I rely on you? Are you accountable? Do you show up as authentic? Are you safe? Are you dependable? Are you trustworthy? Fundamentally, are you who you say you are, mister? Do you do what you say you are going to do, sir?

The Gottmans put this down to the evolutionary history of the species with women, in mating and reproduction, as acutely far more vulnerable in human pre-history (and current history, in fact) compared to men. Indeed, the qualities of the father remain incredibly important to the health and wellbeing of the family and the offspring of the parents.

Our colloquial negative modern notions about chivalry and knowledge about behaviours labelled as such seem skewed based on the science. These micro-cultural manifestations of ‘chivalrous’ behaviours mark concern and protectiveness, not necessary chivalry. The Middle Ages faded away a long time ago. Same with chain mail as a form of personal protective equipment.

The root of these behaviours reflects the subjective feeling of hotness of firefighters to lots of women. They symbolize, in our cultures, actions of concern and protectiveness, according to the Gottmans.

Similarly, chivalrous acts reflect socio-culturally ingrained behaviours rooted in this deeper orientation to represent trustworthiness. A trust grounded in a vulnerability in historical and current contexts for women (and girls).

“Can I trust you?”, acts of concern and protectiveness, done while respecting boundaries, represent efforts at winning the trust of the woman for whom the ‘chivalrous’ behaviours are intended each time. In a sense, these amount to bids for a positive feedback from the woman in response to the man, “I trust you, a little bit more… a little bit more, a little bit… Okay, fine, a lot.”

Which would, in an intuitive sense (for me), mimic the healthy trajectory of a romance: slow, steady, earning trust, respecting boundaries, built in the smallest of steps, and with the intentions clearly meant for earning the trust of the woman. Yet, what undergirds – sits behind – this idea of trustworthiness?

As it turns out, based on the same scientific account and grounded in evolutionary history, the sense of fear. John Gottman speaks to trustworthiness as a trait women want most in men, which means a character or virtue men must embody for the woman of desire to them.

Men should understand the desire for trustworthiness in them comes from the special relationship most or all women have – all their lives – with the emotion of fear, to the second point of the Gottmans. Men do not share this that much with women, in general. Women remain more acutely dialled into the emotion of fear. The idea of trust of the man may, at base, come from the desire to feel safe – physically, emotionally, relationally.

“Are you trustworthy?” may mean “Am I safe in your physical presence?”, “Can I trust you with my emotions?”, and “Can I trust being in social spaces with you?” Her body, her emotions, her extended life, a sense of comprehensive safety in life from the men – and, in particular, the actual or prospective husband – in it.

Trustworthiness means safe. If she trusts you, then she feels safe with you. You are tuned into her, and meet her where she’s at, which the Gottmans call “attunement.” You tune into one another, feel safe with one another, so trust one another and develop a dyadic space for a journey of intimacy – for a lifetime.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

A One as “The One”

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Northeast Ohio Weddings Magazine

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2021

I believe in the institution of marriage, and I intend to keep trying till I get it right.

Richard Pryor

The One seems like both a myth and a reality. I cannot take seriously, on their individual merit, the claims of a singular “One,” as in the titular name “The One,” divinely breathed into the world directly intended for you. It seems solipsistic, immature.

Some personal evidence for all of us. We’ve, typically, dated more than one person and felt deeply about them. Every similar claim of a soulmate, a kindred-soul, one’s promised, the one-and-only, twin flames, and the like, fall into the bin of The One, to me.

The reasoning is, in fact, rather simple, unsophisticated, so straightforward. The world is big. Lots of people live – and have lived – in the world. You are an individual among those many people in that large world. The odds of finding The One looks about as plausible as the journey to Mount Doom for Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings.

The reality of the matter seems to come from those simple observations. Statistically speaking, lots of people existing in a big, wider world means lots of people would be sufficiently compatible with one another. Lots of ones looking for The One, whether by need or cultural push.

Yet, we’re all the product of successful reproducers of one kind or another. We didn’t pop into existence as a rabbit out of a hat. This leads to the idea of the trait of ever-hopefulness as ingrained in most of us, in this life domain.

It’s a bias in perception, not a bad thing, in fact. It facilitates love, marriage, mating, and family. The stuff of a persistent culture and society, not to mention the personal health and longevity benefits of those things.

In a big, wide world with lots of people, it shows the fact of the case: We matter, individually, little in a realistic, healthy view, but we each have deep feelings that matter much, personally – and interpersonally.

The positive side of this realism emerges in the more open landscape of possibilities. When taking personality, financial stability, income, kindness, maturity, emotional stability, social status, honesty, trustworthiness, physique, and so on, into account with oneself, many ones exist suitable to you.

Your own unique self and qualities, achievements, sensibilities, ethics, and so forth, make for something idealized by another person out there. Someone as a one who, in fact, could become The One. The mythology about The One sits with the stunted view of the world and oneself in it.

The reality of The One can be expressed in the number of marriages lasting for decades every year in this region of America, or the country as a whole. One estimate is 38,690 weddings happened in Ohio in 2020 at an average cost of $17,899. That’s a lot of ones spending a lot of money.

Someone who they deem The One to become hitched for a possible lifetime. The loss of the idea of The One shouldn’t take away from the realization of finding and falling in love, or the reality of love when one forms the identity of The One with someone. Because, as you look at The One for you, they’re looking back at a one, who they deem to be The One, too.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

A Little Elbow Grease for Love

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Northeast Ohio Weddings Magazine

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2021

The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.

Glenn Gould

Breathe-in, breathe-in, open the diaphragm, breathe-in more, and slowly let the air leave as the emptying space naturally compresses the chest, breathe-out more, and then emotionally decompress… self-soothing is a highly under-rated skill.

It takes time to develop, but it can make a whole world of difference in a number of areas in life. Self-soothing is a main component of maintaining a sense of internal, physiological calm. A sense of serenity in life. It’s an art, for sure, but it’s an art with science to support it.

The Gottman Institute posts about 5 ‘secrets’ to self-soothing. One is control of breathing, so deep and even breathing. Another is finding muscle tension and dealing with it. It’s holding tension in each muscle group and then releasing it.

The third is letting tension flow from the muscle groups to feel the heaviness. The fourth, as like the third, is letting tension flow to feel the warmth. The last is meditate and focus on a calming vision or idea.

These short methods can count as a five-part set of ‘secrets’ for self-soothing as self-care. When used consistently or well enough – no need for perfect, when the time of real conflict comes forward, you can be prepared physiologically, not as in a defense, but as in a sense of preparedness of mind.

As a matter of fact, a “preparedness of mind” becomes a preparedness of body, too, because the impacts, fundamentally, sit with the physiological arousal of intimate, interpersonal conflict between partners or spouses.

Men and women differ, socially in upbringing and biologically if male and female sexes taken as a baseline. When it comes to interactions between couples, their physiological and psychological reactions differ, on average, as well.

Between 1980-1983, Drs. Gottman and Levenson studied physiological flooding and its impact on the ability to communicate for couples. This information comes from The Gottman Institute. Physiological flooding is excess arousal of one’s physiology. Frequent excess arousal of the body can lead to deterioration of a couple because harmful acts can ensue, repeatedly. These degrade a partnership. Be wary, my friends.

These repeated experiences can lead to a state of hypervigilance in the relationship. Why hypervigilance – not a great signal? It’s back to a feeling of fear. Dealing with a physiologically flooded person or as a physiologically flooded person, it’s traumatic. The experience becomes punishment rather than a moment to resolve an issue and grow closer. You ‘grow’ apart, in other words.

When physiological flooding happens, you need to self-soothe. Fundamentally, never forget, we are animals. The human animal has rational faculties, but impulses, instincts, drives, non-conscious motivations, and limits to each of them. Healthy patterns in each – balance, homeostasis, harmony – requires practice.

Imagine a fight expected with a partner – past or present, the rush of adrenaline kicks in, the pumping of the heart, the explosion of affect and action at once. You’re – or your partner is – feeling unpleasant or are unpleasant to be around, or probably both. You or your partner may simply shut down and stonewall.

Men are far more likely to stonewall. It is the feeling of emotional implosion rather than explosion. When a woman, more often, attempts to connect with her partner and then he stonewalls, he loses out on a bid, by her, to connect on something.

Emotions are not good or bad to women in general. They just are. The men may be taking this as a bad thing, but the reaching out is a bid for connection on the profound and the subtle emotions. Women must understand about men: They have a harder time and take a longer time coming back down to baseline, calming down, after an argument. It’s biological hardwiring.

Men must understand about women: They take shorter periods of time to recover from stress in their cardiovascular system. To explode or implode in the presence of a love subject is tragic, the conscientious practice of self-soothing can make a world of difference to avoid these small tragedies from escalating into a big one of divorce.

That’s why self-soothing is important to inculcate into daily life and practice. At the height of an inevitable relationship argument, breathe, imagine a calming place or idea, do not try to get even, do not become haughty and arrogant, and don’t become a victim, there’s a reason based on the event.

What happened? An argument happened, which means, a healthy occasion in any relationship because, in some sense, there isn’t indifference. You both still have some skin in the game. So, you both care. Care enough more than that to leave for twenty minutes to self-soothe, come back collected, and reconnect when calm.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

A New Era for Couples

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Northeast Ohio Weddings Magazine

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2021

Recent years have seen an explosion of male joblessness and a steep decline in men’s life prospects that have disrupted the “romantic market” in ways that narrow a marriage-minded woman’s options: increasingly, her choice is between deadbeats (whose numbers are rising) and playboys (whose power is growing).

Kate Bolick

Coupledom has been the dominant form of human relation for thousands of years. So much so, it is considered “traditional,” as in “traditional marriage.” Further, it has been a union formed amid community affirming the utility of dyads – two joined together as one – for a functional social community. Other relations exist. Yet, couples form a bedrock. We see this sanctified, sacralised, and offered as a propitiation to some divine authority in transcendentalist traditions.

Indeed, we see this formally reflected in globalist or international documents in the United Nations with individual human rights as one form of international human rights and group rights as another.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights from the foundation of the United Nations calls the family“the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.” International secular rights consider the family fundamental while transcendentalist traditions consider the family basic too.

Whether given from the various interpretations of scripture and commands from the divine or negotiated through global human institutions, families, typically dyads, have been considered objectively morally correct or universally ethically right. With the unprecedented, in recent global history, decline of marriage as a stable institution of society, it makes weddings, as celebrations for a future marriage, an inherently unstable prospect.

One instability emerges from the decline of the “traditional” in the idea of the “traditional role” for males as men and the expansion of possibilities in the concept of the roles for females as women, more side plot expansion for males as women and females as men in advancement of trans rights.

Men as the breadwinner. Women as the homemaker. Now, women as frowned-upon homemaker and smiled-at-career-creator. Men stuck in a double bind as irrelevant breadwinners or shamed “deadbeats” and “playboys.” Incentives have changed. Institutions need to meet the challenges of this phase of human life. In this scenario, the previous dyadic stability of traditional marriage becomes practically and theoretically unstable with a lack of balance.

The current generation and the last generation, perhaps the generation before the “last generation,” set forth changes from a society based on families and dyads into one based more on monads, e.g., singles, bachelors, bachelorettes, spinsters, deadbeats, playboys, and so on.

With this “explosion of male joblessness” and a ‘disruption of the romantic market,’ maybe, we need a new framework. One where marriages change into a dynamic coupling between two souls, as before, while with more constructively expansive possibilities for the duo.

Something fitting for sophisticated and educated modern women, and men with more time to explore emotional and familial life in new ways. The Monad Era is unstable for community life and children’s lives – the next generation. This is our bestowed curse on some of them for a short time.

Weddings will not go out of style in such a new world, but weddings can match the feel of this new global culture. One of eroded, if not incinerated, traditionalism, and so expanded possibilities in a fresh landscape. Where, couples can explore their love in new and varied ways – making the landscape of weddings and marriage exciting, fun, and full of new hope rather than the dull, banal, echoed claps of a single instrument symphony seen in the transitional today.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Ode to the Online

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Northeast Ohio Weddings Magazine

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2021

Jory Hoppy and Crystal Jones are the vanguards of dating and mating in the modern era. A digital, virtual generation bound by no geography or borders because of the pervasiveness of technology, including in romance.

Love becomes an open arena of exploration for men, women, and the non-binary alike. No racial/ethnic, age, income, educational, religious, or other barrier truly exists in this electronic landscape. Hopper and Jones are twin-flames who happened to find one another in, formerly, the unlikeliest of places.

But now, after two years together, they have been deeply in love and in pursuit, one for the other, due to the accessibility of the online environment. The modern twist in this love story is the meeting on a social media platform.

Hopper and Jones met on Facebook of all places. They were, in fact, on a dating group and felt at home with one another. Things hit off, immediately. That initial spark, beginning sense of “meant to be” was there from the start. What’s unprecedented, it happened through virtual personas.

That’s new in the history of dating. It’s entirely new in the world of mating and courtship. It’s both ordinary because this is the norm, now, as another major option, but it’s a profound shift in the most intimate process of falling for another person.

Hopper and Jones are a lovely example of the modern world. Two loves forming a singlet for two years and counting. Jones is from New Jersey. Hopper is from Cleveland, Ohio. They plan on getting married May 14, 2023, at the Ariel Pearl Center in Brooklyn, Ohio.

They have some lovely photos (see interspersed in this article – done at the Cleveland Art Museum). These two are genuinely in love with one another. We at NOWM wish them the best and are happy to give another story of true love found in another avenue.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Wedding Bands and Rings: Bands and Rings as an Androgynous Culture

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Northeast Ohio Weddings Magazine

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2021

Wedding bands, traditionally speaking, get seen as a woman’s thing. Something for women. It’s decidedly not for men. The reasons for this are several. Part of the issue comes from basic cultural stereotypes. Another is a confluence of factors. It comes down to the conflation of terms.

Whether wedding bands or wedding rings, the neutrality of the language should allow an easing of the culture into allowing men and women to take part in this tradition more equally. Americans love marriage. Why not share the loving expressions equally?

For example, a wedding band is different than a wedding ring. A wedding band can be worn by men and women, as a wedding ring can be worn by men and women. Often, the wedding band and wedding ring can be conflated items.

When people say, “Wedding ring,” they mean, “Wedding band”; when they say, “Wedding band,” they mean, “Wedding ring.” In either case, though, most often, both terms are used to mean the wedding ring.

Culturally, it is assumed as more important to the woman, to the female partner, to the wife, in contrast to the man, the male partner, or the husband. So, commentary will be directed to the idea of women.

It will directly be stated about or spoken about the woman when speaking of either a wedding band or a wedding ring. Both will associate with the wedding ring and the woman. It’s in all the shows. It’s in much of the media.

Wedding bands and wedding rings are seen as women’s things because weddings are seen as women’s things. So, there’s a lot of work to break down some of the cultural assumptions. Because there seem to be indications the men wouldn’t mind that much.

In that, men simply wouldn’t mind if given the chance. However, there’s a stigma to men being too gung-ho about weddings in general. So, if you are partnered with a man, then one thing is to make space.

Or if you’re a man reading this, then you can request some room. The idea is to get some social legroom to stretch out and try new things, including considering wedding bands. If this is truly important as a couple, then this is something requiring reflection.

We all come with cultural and social baggage. Our collective thou shalts and thou shalt nots governing our lives. How we present ourselves, live our lives, choose our path, and select partners if we do, it’s about inertia and individual choice.

Yes, we have baggage. No, we don’t not have a choice; we have choices. That’s where these cultural norms can be questioned, individually, and in relationships. How do we want to present our best selves to the public, to friends, to the family?

In reality, with an opening of the flood gates on so many gender conversations, wedding bands or wedding rings seem like an easy question. It’ll be one of those things most easily adapted. For one, many women and men may want to see this as a gal thing.

However, many men are likely more passive and open to it. They simply don’t take the initiative because they’ve imbibed the message of weddings as a woman’s thing. It’s something out there for the taking by both men and women.

It’s just going to take a minor decision individually and as couples. Because they’re wedding bands and wedding rings. They don’t have a gendered expression in the language. They have a gendered manifestation particular to cultural interpretations.

So, it’s only a matter of changing the culture or those manifestations of gender in the culture. No alteration of the language necessary. In this sense, wedding bands and wedding rings can be seen as an androgynous culture. Neither for men or for women, but both.

While, most commonly, it’s expressed as something womanly rather than manly. More realistically, it should be seen as something consequential financially and androgynous culturally. Rings can cost a lot. But they can mean even more to the men and the women in relationships.

And that’s the end game in what matters, regardless, finding some meaning in love with a partner.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Profile of a Bridal Fashion Designer

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Northeast Ohio Weddings Magazine

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2021

Sebrina Love is a bridal fashion designer who founded Sebrina Love Bridals. She was inspired by the movie “A Princess for Christmas.” She is from The Bronx, New York, originally, and moved to Long Island at about 12-years-old and then back to the Big Apple – New York City – later. She used to design clothing with dolls and has been a choreographer, dancer, dance instructor, and costume designer.

In the design of shoes and gowns for bridal attire, she incorporates sensibilities around her Middle Eastern and Native American heritages. Her business offers custom clothing orders for various occasions, including coats, dresses, sweaters, swimwear, and tops. The designer line is called “Girl Candy by Sebrina.”

Love strives for a sense of the unique and the unconventional in her design styles. Product turnaround time is between 2 and 4 weeks, express shipping and production are available. Sebrina Love Bridals is a true love and passion for her. She wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. Her designer collection can be set for petit to plus size, and maternity curves. No matter the height, shape, or size, Sebrina Love Bridals is here to help a woman look her best for the big day.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Love at the Cove: Make memories that will last forever at Atlantis’ crown jewel hotel

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Northeast Ohio Weddings Magazine

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2021

If you seek a destination wedding or honeymoon in a spot where you’ll feel pampered and well taken care of from the moment you walk into their koi fish, marble fountain and waterfall filled outdoor lobby, The Cove at Atlantis is the place for you. Enter, and you will get a dreamy getaway of pearly white sands, the most unbelievable couple’s massage you can imagine and an open seascape of clear blue water as a lovers’ delight.

Some wedding destinations can be so chic, so coordinated, so consummate, so lovey-dovey, so match-make-y, so modern marriage-y. Travel becomes a packaged deal with the wedding itself. Why not have a lovers’ getaway – taking some time to enter the magical world of the imaginary made actual?

The Cove is such a place. It’s a place with the blue water of the Caribbean and soft sand twinkling white as the stars in the midnight sky. It feels as if the stars aligned, and the sand was set in preparation for the ceremony of a union of souls.

The Cove’s ceremony site can seat 100 people at the ceremony and 150 at the dinner. All the most luxurious provisions are available for the honeymooners or the soon-to-be-wedded. The Cove comes with two private beaches with personal butler services, luxury suites with balconies, and wide ocean views from the floor to the ceiling.

The main pool, the Cove Pool, has cabanas with their own private pool and a Bahamian artistic sensibility and a fun party atmosphere. The pool also has several rentable day beds, including four beds in the middle of the pool.

Interested in doing a little bit of gambling, but don’t want to make the long trek to the main casino? No worries. The Cove comes with poolside gaming, or if you’re sun weary, you can head to Sea glass, a private gambling area onsite. When you get hungry, you will find delectable beachside dining. Chef Julie Lightbourn of Sip Sip and Michelin star Chef José Andrés of Fish will provide outstanding food services to set the gustatory tone for the newlyweds. Fish is a true gustatory delight…every single thing on the menus is fresh caught and prepared in a delightful, memorable manner that will having you craving it again and again.

Forget something? The Escape Boutique provides exquisite clothing and souvenirs.

The Cove is a perfect getaway romance of a lifetime for two tying the knot. You can also book a special private sunset speedboat tour with beach dinners and/or a special couples massage at the luxe Mandra Spa.

Art lovers can take a stroll to Antonius Roberts’ Sacred Space sculpture series at the Cove peninsula’s tip.

If you truly don’t want to worry about anything, May 2022, the Cove offers the ‘Love is Here’ getaway package. Guests get a daily breakfast for two and a dinner at any restaurant of their selection, and a late checkout for the mornings when it is difficult to leave the paradise of a rest well-spent in bed.

If you are looking for a carefree fun, luxurious place to propose, wed or honeymoon, travel down to enjoy the aesthetics of the Bahamas, the wondrous natural beauty of the Caribbean, and the world class wedding services at The Cove at Atlantis.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

3 Places for Men… to Get Suits and Ties in Northeast Ohio

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Northeast Ohio Weddings Magazine

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2021

What is a man without a suit? As far as I can tell, it’s a casual man. Personally, I think those men can be a wee bit too casual for comfort. At least, when it comes to important events, men should wear something formal or, at a minimum, semi-formal.

You can’t show up in a flamingo onesie. Just, no; life should be fun, stylish, not crazy. Weddings, and everything around them, should be an entertaining affair with each suit properly – ahem – suited to the event of the hour.

In Northeast Ohio, there are plenty of men’s suits distributors and tailored suit providers. In future articles, as a writer for Northeast Ohio Wedding Magazine, I’ll be working to bring a men’s perspective or information important for men to the forefront: “Hi, I’m Scott Jacobsen, Man-in-Residence.”

The stores here don’t represent a ranking, nor do they represent a comprehensive list. And, I am saying this as a Canadian, as a young man foreigner, who happens to speak (mostly) the same English as you.

If you want to rent a suit in Canada, you’re probably looking at about 150CAD (115USD). Same process as in the U.S. You go to a store with rentals and pay the price to get an appropriate rental. You simply need to balance the consideration of the price of the suit against the price of the rental.

A purchase of a suit might cost double a rental to start off decent. It rises after that point when you’re looking at the best quality and style. Because there are so many great distributors and providers of men’s apparel relevant for the big day.

To start, here are three, those with a certain pizazz catering to different tastes for men.The three are: Balani Cleveland, Davide Cotugno Executive Tailors, and the Whatknot Bow Tie Company. Balani Cleveland is one of the stores devoted to everything. Davide Cotugno Executive Tailors is focused on jackets and lightweight fabrics or better known for them. Whatknot Bow Tie, of course, is known for bow ties.

BALANI Custom Clothiers – Suits, Tuxedos, & Shirts

Balani Cleveland is an exciting place to shop for suits and tuxedos. It’s one among a large number of locations for Balani. Also, as an entire company, it has won a large number of awards for its branding and quality of tailoring. Awards aren’t everything, but awards can help guide choice. It shows a reputation.

It has been named “One of the Top Six Tailors in the World” by J.W. Marriot Magazine ; “Top Custom Shirt Maker” by Men’s Magazine ; and, “Best High-End Tailor” by Chicago Magazine. It’s both a competitive brand and a respected, award-winning one, too.

For the men out there, one thing definitely unwanted for a wedding day is either an untailored suit or a lack of focus on quality. Imagine a baggy suit, how will this look on the wedding day? How about an ill-begotten tie poorly suited to the style of the suit itself?

What about a color design best fit for a funeral, or a keg afterparty from a work conference? People and cultures have standards for events and occasions. You should too. Your wedding or a buddies wedding should be no different. Balani Cleveland can help you.

Its success largely derives from two generations of experience and development. They have a legacy spanning back to 1953. It started in the European fashion mills and grew to several cities, including Cleveland, Ohio.

If you’re looking for some of the best in the world, locally situated in Ohio, Balani Cleveland is the place. They have suits, tuxedos, jackets, shirts, slacks, outerwear, even complete custom wedding suits. Balani Cleveland is a comprehensive prime time for men’s style and grooming.

Davide Cotugno Executive Tailors

Davide Cotugno Executive Tailors is a longstanding business rooted in Italian and British culture of the famous Davide Cotugno. He learned tailoring from his father, Giuseppe Cotugno. It’s a family affair.

So, men, you may be a heavier set or more lean. No one’s body is perfectly proportional, which is where the point of a custom suit regardless, a custom, tailored suit can do wonders for you. It can be a source of both pride and positive self-presentation. How do you want to look – to come off in public – in social settings?

A good suit, well-fitted, can do as a good as freshly cut hair styled in the local fashion for men. For Ohio, it’s right in line with the mainstream of America. Men, on big days, including weddings, should wear suits. Why not make it tailored, purchased locally, and suitable for Ohio?

They have earned awards including The Tailor & Cutter Magazine Exhibition Gold Medal for Fine Tailoring | Best Jacket, The Strongbow Trophy | Best Jacket, Coronet Trophy | Best Entry in Jacket Class, and The Wain Shiell Trophy | Best Entry of Lightweight Fabric Clothing.

Davide Cotugno Executive Tailors represent an admixture of long experience in Italian and British culture-based and steeped in America. Its locale in Ohio will be sure to help with the requisite needs for the big day.

It’s a place with a long family legacy and a history of award-winning jackets and lightweight fabric for clothing. You can specialize the clothing to this fit. In that, you can focus on jackets and lightweight fabrics through Davide Cotugno Executive Tailors.

The Whatknot Bow Tie Company

The Whatknot Bow Tie Company has formal bow ties, all year bow ties, spring bow ties, accessories, and tee shirts. We’ll focus on the bow ties. It has some African design styles, more colorful and bold in markings.

Bow ties aren’t the event and don’t make a wedding as much as a suit or a tux does, but bow ties are a nice accessory if you prefer those over regular ties. However, for other men at the event, these can be appropriate. There are expectations, socially and culturally, as to what men can and cannot wear.

Unless, your family and bride are extraordinarily lenient and the occasion becomes one of the highly customized weddings, e.g., Star Wars weddings, Star Trek weddings, and the like. Then you can customize and deviate from norms as much as you’re permitted.

However, in most circumstances, you’re working within well-defined limits. The groom, typically, will not wear a bow tie. Whereas, the groomsmen can wear a tie. Although, if you look around, there are some bow tie based weddings.

Besides, even if you’re not explicitly going to buy something for a personal wedding, (or a funeral, there’s nothing wrong with having a bow tie or a set of them. In that, you can use bow ties for a wide variety of occasions.

It started in Cleveland, Ohio in December 2012 under Mark A. Mathews. Matthews couldn’t find any bow ties appealing to him. Eventually, he had an idea. He decided to simply make bow ties by hand. Ones that he would find appealing. He bought a sewing machine on Craigslist and learned how to sew.

Over time, he began to develop the business and purchased a brick and mortar store in downtown Cleveland. This place stands out for its unique and nearly sole focus on bow ties. It contrasts with the others.

Whether comprehensive tailored suits or bow ties for individual uses, weddings would be a different affair without these companies. If you’re mindful of a man’s needs or your own as a man, you’ll need some accessories. No need to look far. Ohio has the right spots.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Born to do Math 40 – Metaprimes (Part 6)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Born To Do Math

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/16

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: Any kind of theory needs to explain how something as chaotic as the guts of a star can be involved in the processing of information, which, I guess, implies a kind of looseness in the – what you’re calling – the axioms.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: There’s probably a better term, but it comes to mind because we were in a math context at the time. So I used the term.

RR: Or it is a bootstrapping thing where order arises…

SDJ: Okay.

RR: …in proportion to a systems capacity for order. So things are always fuzzy on the edges.

SJ: You’re walking along the beach. You have your ice cream. You drop your ice cream. Okay, it is slopped on the ground. Five second wait, you pick up some of it. You end up stepping in seagull poop. The water comes and washes that away. It smooths out the sand. There’s some more order there.

RR: Yea. But quantum mechanics is the most powerful tool that we currently have that is really about addressing order in a world of incomplete information.

SDJ: It is a bit like a physics of association.

RR: Yea. Under quantum mechanics, you only know what you can know via association.

[End of recorded material]

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Born to do Math 39 – Metaprimes (Part 5)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Born To Do Math

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/15

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: That’s really cool and sparked two thoughts for me.

Rick Rosner: It is cool if it is true, but is a decent line of inquiry. But it could be bullshit.

SDJ: It is fascinating. I hadn’t thought of that before. Assuming the axioms as true, taking them on hand, applying them in an IC framework, you get a minima and maxima in different domains. Minima in principles. Let’s assume them. A set of simple principles, then you derive a universe. That universe begins to develop higher-order combinatorics. You get lots of information from that.

Then you have maxima in terms of how far the processing goes based on the amount of information that is there. And those, to me, tap really neatly into a lot of things we’ve been talking about over the last couple years about IC, about digital physics. For instance, you assume a couple things. You get primes and metaprimes, but there’s a limit on how far you can go with them based on limits in processing. It is semi-neat.

RR: What that brings up to me is that, you need a—for the universe to be an information processor, for it to be true, or for it to be a map of the information in an information processor, it needs to informationally efficient in some ways. It also needs to be super messy because when we look out at the universe. We see great order. We also see huge messiness. What goes on in a star or in a star that’s run out of fuel and exploded and restarted, exploded again, it looks sloppy.

We are highly ordered on Earth, but messy, drooly, meat machines. There’s a mixture of deep order and associated with that is complexity in the form of messiness.

[End of recorded material]

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Born to do Math 38 – Metaprimes (Part 4)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Born To Do Math

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/14

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: You can’t have two sets of adjacent primes except 3, 5, and 7 because one of those numbers is going to be divisible by 3, but you can have two sets of twin primes with the middle one kind of missing out of 5 consecutive odd numbers like 11 and 13, and 17 and 19. There are a whole bunch of other things that kind of come off of this conjecture. That there is an infinity of primes that differ by 4 or differ by 6 or any kind of relationship like that.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: That’s interesting. That’s interesting.

RR: I suspect, but have been too lazy and undereducated to do anything with it. That the way of setting up the primes via metaprimes. That is, that the numbers exist via their relationships among themselves prohibits prohibitive principles. That is, that there is not enough information. There’s just enough information to define the ratios among the various primes to infinite precision, but to set up a deal where there isn’t an infinity of twin primes would require superimposing more information on those ratios.

It would require a little extra cooking. I doubt there’s extra information among those ratios to shut down the twin prime business. All of those statements that there’s an infinity of these special primes will turn out to be true if they’re of that type because there’s not enough information in those ratios on the number line to plug the all of holes that you need to plug. So you make sure that every time you have a prime you don’t have another prime two steps down the number line.

[End of recorded material]

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Born to do Math 37 – Metaprimes (Part 3)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Born To Do Math

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/13

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: As you know, math assumes axioms. So this is assuming some axioms. So one that comes to mind—well, even before that, when you’re talking about – as a premise to this appendix to the previous discussion. It was codeless information in the universe with an example to metaprimes and the axioms that are being assumed here are a) the prime sequences and b) [Laughing] the metaprime sequences implied within that.

So it is not necessarily codeless. Is it? Or if it isn’t, how?

Rick Rosner: I’m not saying that it is. I am saying it is a way of defining words by their relationships to each other, via the integers and their relationships to one another. I would think it has implications in terms of things like the Twin Prime Theorem, which is that – or postulates. It is not a theorem. It postulates that there are a limited number of primes that differ only by 2, like 3 and 5, 5 and 7, 11 and 13, 29 and 31.

SDJ: Is it the Twin Prime Conjecture? It is just coming to me now.

RR: Theorem, Conjecture, sorry. There’s no biggest pair of twin primes. You can always find a biggest pair, which is the same as saying there’s an infinity of them. You can’t – to be clear—there’s only one set of primes that differ by 1, which is 2 and 3. There are no more primes that differ by 1. That would require one of those numbers to be even and each of those numbers is divisible by 2.

But you can have a bunch of numbers. People conjecture that there is an infinity of them that differ by 2: 100 and 103, you can’t have 3 in the row except for 3, 5, and 7.

[End of recorded material]

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Born to do Math 36 – Metaprimes (Part 2)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Born To Do Math

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/12

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: A is 2 and B is 3. And then in the most compact representation, now, you can go either A^2 or C. In our setup, in the natural numbers, it goes A, B, A^2, 2, 3, 2*2. And then you can, again, ask whether the next number is C or AB. So at every point, you’ve got a choice to make between throwing in another prime or throwing in a composite. There’s always a new set of composites based on the next—

The numbers begin to become defined because of the relationships you’ve already specified.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So I see two things there. The linguistic representation would probably be conditionals. If this, then this, and if this, then this, and if this and this, then this and this, and this continues indefinitely for primes, twin primes, sexy primes, and so on.

RR: The most compact set of relationships is the natural numbers because there is a value at every possible node on the number line. Every point on the number line that is created by adding 1 to the previous number.

SDJ: Why not integers as well? Why not add integers on the number line?

RR: I dunno. The next simplest or next most compact representation is probably—is, I dunno if it the next most compact, but another easily seen representation that is pretty compact is the primes minus 2. The set of primes without 2 as a prim, and then your pattern goes A3, B5, C7, A^2 – which is 9, D – which is 11, E – which is 13, AB – which is 15, and that’s generates the set of odd numbers. If you carry it out so that whole deal is as compact as it can be.

[End of recorded material]

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Born to do Math 35 – Metaprimes (Part 1)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Born To Do Math

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/11

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: The number line itself and integers themselves while they appear infinitely precise can be seen as being defined by a bunch ofrelationships among the various numbers.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So what does that mean, affirmations of some things and negations of other things based on information relative to other things?

RR: Well, the number line is the most compact—the set of natural counting numbers is the most compact set of numbers that are defined by their set of ratios to each other. The distribution of primes and etc. There’s a system of metaprimes, I guess, you’d call it. You can make a choice at any point whether the next number should be a prime or a certain kind of composite number.

SDJ: You published something about this in the 90s.

RR: Yea, but it’s the numbers defined by their ratios to each other based on how you answer the question, “What number comes next?” Numbers whose value has not yet been exactly defined.

SDJ: If I may interject to get more precise on what you’re saying, if you take the question and then you provide an answer, would the verbal or the linguistic representation of that be in conditionals or direct statements to provide the proper interpretation of the information there, of the associative landscape?

RR: The way you set it up is: Prime number A. You don’t know the exact value it takes, but the next number in your number line can either be A^2 or B – in the most compact number line it is B.

[End of recorded material]

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Born to do Math 34 – The Universe’s Shortcuts

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Born To Do Math

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/10

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Same with the universe? So it takes shortcuts. We talked about this before.

Rick Rosner: Yea, it is probably having stuff on the margins fizzle in-and-out of existence, which is probably how the universe having bootstrapped itself. It is probably how the universe creates information. It bootstraps itself on the margins based on incorporating new information. That’s how time plays out. It’s the moment-by-moment marginal accumulation of further information, which is reflected by an increasing order in the universe.

The more information the universe is able to marginally accumulate moment-by-moment, then the more order and space and matter it encompasses to embody that information.

[End of recorded material]

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Born to do Math 33 – Entropic Arguments

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Born To Do Math

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/09

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: That you have entropic arguments. You can argue things about entropy and order that show why the world is not crazy. It is orderly. That the odds—this is a fairly common example. The odds that you would suddenly suffocate because all of the air molecules in a room randomly suddenly decide to be where you’re not. The odds of that happening of that are so low that it wouldn’t happen in a quadrillion lifetimes of the universe.

Yea, they might rush someplace else, but there’d have to be a reason. If you’re in an airplane, and then hole gets punched into the fuselage, then there’s a reason all of the air rushed to one place. So in general, we exist in a world where things happen for a reason and random action doesn’t generally – unless things have been set up like a coin toss. Chaotic randomness doesn’t happen. Things generally have causes.

One reason we will run into randomness making us suffocate is we don’t live long enough to be threatened by random motion of air molecules. We are limited creatures – limited in space and time. There’s the viral lady that says, “No time for that!” We don’t have time for that in our 70, 80, 90 years on Earth. We have to take shortcuts that reflect the extreme probability that ignore the extreme improbabilities.

We can deal with entities as if they are precisely existent because we don’t have time to deal with the tiny improbabilities that might make non-existent.

[End of recorded material]

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Born to do Math 32 – Louis de Broglie

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Born To Do Math

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/08

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: In the 1920s, Louis de Broglie found that everything has a wavelength, which is an uncertainty in space that is inversely proportional to its mass. So it is like an exercise in a beginning physics class to calculate the wavelength of a baseball or the uncertainty in space of a baseball because a baseball has like – I dunno – 10^29^th atoms or something. I forget. Anyway, its uncertainty in space is super tiny – to the point where you’ll never, ever, have to worry – in practical terms – about the uncertainty in space of any macroscopic object.

We are able to walk through the world barely ever experiencing the deep spatial uncertainty of positions of objects in space. I mean, we can make errors ourselves about where things are, but the universe itself is not entirely sure where things are, never comes into play, or almost never. Almost every aspect of the world in which we live has that tiny uncertainty that is so small that we are never aware of it.

We can use numbers, which are perfectly exact to represent things. That you look at the newspaper and you see a house with a 3-car garage. There are tiny uncertainties in everything that you are looking at, whether a house is a house or a garage is a garage or that set of 3 garages is really 3. You can imagine ridiculous situations in which that comes into question, but in reality houses are really houses and our ideas of houses conform to houses and garages to garages.

Weird variations of that never come into play. So we’re able to use precise shortcuts in a world that is not perfectly precise, but is precise enough for our purposes.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: I like that.

[End of recorded material]

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Born to do Math 31 – Effective Theories & Set Theory

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Born To Do Math

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/07

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: When I was thinking about this theory we were talking about off tape, the new set theory. Usually, there is the labelling of things by letters: a, b, c; x, y, z. Those get clumped into two sets. Where the “a, b, c” is Set A, and the “x, y, z” is Set B, those together become Set A and Set B with an ampersand, &, or an “and” sign together, and can be made into a higher-order Set, C.

Those imply, simply by formalism, definite information, but if you could—

RR: —Yea, but even though nothing is definite, we couldcan use definite as a shortcut, definiteness as a short cut.

SDJ: Oh! I was going to get to that. Something a little bit new. So we list them (off tape) probability-by-probability on a chart. If one were to take that into context of effective theories in physics, so rather than describe every single aspect of every particle in a cloud, you describe basic physics and the math behind what makes a cloud works in interaction with stuff around it, and then you can make the set theory elements and the sub-sets effective theories themselves so that you can predict the effective theory of one hunk of cloud with another hunk of cloud. That might make it easier to simulate, if not easier to conceptualize.

RR: You mean one nebulous object interacting with another nebulous object.

SDJ: Yea! So you can have a lot of use of effective theories here.

[End of recorded material]

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Born to do Math 30 – Isomorphism – Minds & Universe

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Born To Do Math

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/06

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: Yea, but that’s a tough order.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Yes, that is a very tough order [Laughing]!

RR: Because you have all of these different forms of information. For any information processing theory of the universe, there would have to be analogs, physical analogs, for what is going on in our experience of information processing, and in the physics of what processing the information. That’s just—it is at the very least as complicated. So yea, the universe isn’t 0 and 1 proposition because everything is smeared together in quantum mechanics. So what look like 0 and 1 propositions are only approximately or imperfectly 0 and 1 propositions because under the math of quantum mechanics, there’s virtual stuff going on all of the time, ghost stuff, that helps structure the world. Stuff that is not quite real, but has real impact on real interactions. Real interactions are themselves smeared into everything else. Particles are only approximately their own selves.

To some extent, every other particle. Every interaction is to some extent there is a lot of tacitness going on. The universe via QM acts as if stuff happens. The definiteness with which things happen or have happened is all part of this associative net of somewhat nebulous entities in a somewhat nebulous space, which reinforce each other’s imperfect actuality by mutual interaction. The universe bootstraps itself into existence by having a lot of interactions among a lot of particles. More than 10^80^th particles all shooting other particles – both real and virtual – at each other to kind of reinforce each other’s actuality with no perfect, immortal completely definite—God doesn’t have a peg board upon which things actually exist. Things can only exist by establishing histories of interaction with a zillion other things.

[End of recorded material]

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Born to do Math 29 – Duality

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Born To Do Math

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/05

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: I would add to that then, some thoughts, maybe a thought. The duality of particles and waves, where an electron can be a particle and a probability cloud. It can be a 1 or 0 in a particle context, but as a wave, as a probability cloud – as we’ve been calling, it might not necessarily be. So maybe there’s a duality in information interpretation. Both definite and probabilistic, at the same time: “both… and.”

Rick Rosner: I agree with that.

SDJ: I had ideas about information before. A couple of days ago, a few days ago, one was information can be taken as stuff now. Stuff being processed in the moment, like working memory. Other can be stuff to be used later. Another one is not only stuff to be used later, but also to be used in some interpretive frame to be used to predict something into the future. Then there’s the “both…and” of that, which is an implied past and a possible future.

Two more, I think, one is a nothingness of information. Stuff destroyed or never existent. And the last one is the information—well, it is a meaninglessness form of it. Stuff that is uninterpretable in any framework. These layers of definitions of information in addition to the “both…and.”

RR: So you’re talking about a bunch of information in the context in with which we experience information as conscious information processing entities.

SDJ: Yea, and given the similar physics, you should be able to extrapolate to the universe.

[End of recorded material]

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Born to do Math 28 – Slingshot Deal

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Born To Do Math

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/04

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: In a slingshot deal, the satellite is only temporarily having its trajectory changed hugely by Jupiter. The two bodies come together and then they each go on their way more or less separately. There is no gravitational locking. If there is a part before, then there is a part after.When you have a gravitational locking together, when a bunch of matter comes together and can’t get away later, that locking together-

The lock happens because those interacting particles, objects, bodies emit energy to the rest of space – could be in the form of heat. It will mostly be in the form of electromagnetic radiation. Two things crash in space. You might have like debris go flying away, but you’ll have a lot of heat emitted from friction in the form of light – electromagnetic waves to radio waves, and so on. So gravitational aggregating is locked into place via electromagnetic interactions.

So even something as gentle gravitational locking together, gravitation has only 1/10^40 the strength of the other forces of nature. It is hard to detect gravity unless you have two super macroscopic objects interacting, at least one macroscopic planet-sized object. Two billiard balls are not going to suck each other together via their mutual gravitational attraction. The force is too gentle and you could say nebulous.

But it isn’t quite the right word. It is too soft and squishy and just not powerful. But! That gravitational interaction might be locked in and/or codified by electromagnetic interactions, which are themselves kind of 0 and 1 or the have the potential to be 0 or 1 interactions – either an atom emits a photon or it doesn’t. Either an electron falls into orbit around a nucleus via the emission of a photon or it doesn’t. So that seems like a possible 0 or 1 proposition.

[End of recorded material]

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Born to do Math 27 – LSD for 4 Times (Part 3)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Born To Do Math

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/03

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: I’m trying to talk to the janitor and keep my shit together and explain that I must’ve fallen asleep! But he is all lizardy and saying words to me, and I don’t understand them.

[Impression of non-word words by Rick Rosner.]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So that can happen. But that implies the information processing. That leads to three things: definite states, computers, and how the universe is not like that as an associative structure as a map of information and how that might imply a new set theory.

RR: I don’t know if it is a new set theory.

SDJ: Adapted.

RR: We’ll have to talk about the different forms of information that the universe might encode or might be incorporated into the universe. And at some point, we might have some yes-no/0-1 situations. For instance, one way that the universe contains information is via the clustering of matter. And much of the clustering of matter, and all of the large-scale clustering of matter is gravitation, but the way that gravitational clustering is locked-in—

Before we were taping, you were talking about a slingshot maneuver. Where you can shoot a satellite at Jupiter or something, and the satellite whips around Jupiter and receives a boosts by moving in a hyperboloid, hyperbolic, trajectory around Jupiter. In a slingshot deal, the satellite is only temporarily close to Jupiter and having its trajectory changed hugely by Jupiter.

[End of recorded material]

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Born to do Math 26 – LSD for 4 Times (Part 2)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Born To Do Math

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/02

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: That if I could read at 2,000 words a minute without LSD. What could I do with a night of having my perceptions blown out?! It—it didn’t go well.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: [Laughing].

RR: I take the LSD. I hide in the bathroom as the library closes. As it turns out, I am completely paranoid about a janitorial crew.

SDJ: [Laughing].

RR: My perceptions are pretty whacked at this point. I’d see a garbage can on wheels where there hadn’t been one before. Then I would get hungry, and would go down to the basement, and I knew how to reach into the vending machine to get stuff without paying for it.

SDJ: [Laughing].

RR: I would pull half of a burrito, only a torn half of a burrito during the extraction process [Laughing]. Ate half the burrito, it didn’t make me feel a whole lot better. I freaked out. Finally, I gave up, and had to go find a janitor. At this time, your processing is all messed up because everything is moving slowly. My freaking out probably took like 5 hours. By the time I go find a janitor, and begged to be let out of the building [Laughing], it is almost sunrise.

SDJ: [Laughing].

[End of recorded material]

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Ask A Genius 25 – Informational Cosmology

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/12/03

As a preface to all of this, we’re two guys having fun, think for yourself on this. Regardless, if it’s true, then it’s true, conceptually with a little math at the moment. Informational Cosmology is an extension of BB cosmology, which comes from digital physics, not entirely…

Let me interrupt you right there, one problem with digital physics is that no one has made a convincing argument as to how it matches up with the daily business of the universe, the moment-to-moment business of the universe.

At some point, people can say the universe is a giant information processor or giant computer. There has to be a scheme that fits how our electrons locking into orbit around protons looks informationally.

What are protons locking together in nuclei through fusion? What is that informationally?

This is for large-scale cosmic structures as well.

Yea – what’s a black hole informationally?

Galactic groups, clusters, superclusters, filaments, even the Cosmic Web.

Yea, and what are we? We’re people doing people stuff. But how does people doing people stuff fit into a scheme where the universe is a computer. Does that mean if our minds are information processors then do we have primitive homonculi little people – Minecraft version people doing Minecraft business? It’s hard to say. But IC, at least, offers a framework for saying this might be a deal.

A conceptual mapping with a little math at the moment.

Conceptual because I’m shit at math. I’m okay at math. I’m a guy who when I was supposed to be taking math classes. I was in a bar and being a stripper. If anything offended me in a math or physics class, then I would blow it off and take a dance class to be a better stripper. My founding in Hamiltonians, action potentials, and quantum matrices is bad. If I weren’t so bad at math, there might be more math and less energetic hand waving.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Ask A Genius 24 – The Future of the Big Bang

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/12/01

Scott: If you look at the Big Bang, one thing that might puncture holes in it is if you find extremely large, young objects in the universe or things not expected in the early universe.

Rick: Obviously, according to the Big Bang, time started with everything as a single point-like object and then rapidly expanded to a hypersphere that expands everywhere until we have the size of space that we do now, which is something like 30 billion light years in circumference or diameter, or some damn thing with an apparent age of 13,800,000,000 years.

In a big bang, everything had to begin with a certain level of homogeneousness. Otherwise, you get clustering or swathes of the universe where all of the matter is clustered. You need exactly the right amount of anisotropy, tiny clumpiness, to get the galaxies that we have today.

What you wouldn’t expect, and this would be a fairly convincing disproof of standard Big Bang cosmology, is a lot of old junk in the early universe, by “old junk,” I mean collapsed matter. Matter that takes a long time to collapse. For a star to burn out and collapse into a black hole, depending on the size of the star, takes tens of millions to tens of billions of years.

That process takes a long time. If you find black holes in the early, early universe, there are chances to have black holes like the matter clumped up in a certain way, but that tends to go against the expected clumpiness such as finding a bunch of black holes.

If a large percentage of dark matter, assuming that it exists and there are good arguments for it, neutron stars, black holes, brown dwarfs, old burned out stuff, then somebody would have to raise his or her hand and say, “This stuff looks like it’s older than what we think of as the first moment of the universe.”

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Ask A Genius 23 – The Future of Genetic Engineering 3

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/11/29

Scott: What about the business of genetic engineering?

Rick: Genetic engineering will be a gigantic industry. I don’t know if one or more companies will dominate the industry as Apple has dominated its segment of the hardware industry and Microsoft has dominated software.

Companies that can successfully do genetic engineering will make money. It might start with the ability to extend lifespans, even indefinitely. The ability to change drives and abilities, that stuff is going to be more valuable than real estate or cars, or anything.

Some economists have tried to calculate how many extra months or years of life are worth to people, and that’s a tough calculation to make, but the answer is at its roughest a hell-of-a-lot.

If you are 70 years old, and you have assets of a million-and-a-half dollars as bunch of Americans and others in developed countries have earned or saved to pay for their retirements, those people might pay 5% for each of those accumulated assets for each extra year of healthy life.

I think if you do the math on that right there, then that’s trillions of dollars. Companies will try to get that money. So, a lot of other stuff like a bunch of genetic engineering will be market driven, which is both good and bad.

It will lead to the same kinds of weirdnesses and excesses that other market driven industries offer. When people in the 60s talked about what we might use computers for, it was serious. It had nothing to do with the Candy Crush games or the Angry Bird stuff.

It had nothing about what people do with computers all of the time. We can extrapolate that among the side stuff of genetic engineering of extending lives or curing disease. There will be a lot of foolishness, awesome foolishness.

If people can make dogs that use them, then people might make dogs with hands. They might open refrigerators to get bottles, whatever’s in the bottles like olives.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Ask A Genius 22 – The Future of Genetic Engineering 2

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/11/27

Scott: What about some negative perceptions of these results of genetic experiments on people and animals? It’s a truism that every thing about an organism has a genetic component. The results of tweaking will have an effect in some way or other as a logical consequence. Culture, in general, freaks out about it.

Rick: Maybe, one way of showing people that genetic engineering is the work of the Devil. Until the perma-puppy eats your face while you’re asleep, but let’s assume that they won’t do that except in horror movies, a cute, smart puppy that lives for 30 years is going to be fairly irresistible, even by conservatives.

There will be a lot of it. The more radical things predicted in science fiction won’t come along for a long, long time. Things like life extension, increased resistance to disease, increased abilities, and so on, are all going to become available. We won’t know exactly which abilities will be easily boosted and which will be tough.

We don’t know the genetic basis for various abilities. You can imagine that if we’re going to have people colonizing Mars, then those people should be genetically tweaked to do better in conditions on Mars.

If we’re going to terraform Mars, which is a project that will take hundreds of years to transform Mars’ thin atmosphere without people having to live in a dome, we’ll need people to live in the Earth equivalent of high altitudes and be more resistant to radiation. The trip to Mars will not have the atmosphere to block the radiation.

You might be less susceptible to cosmic rays.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Ask A Genius 21 – The Future of Genetic Engineering 1

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/11/25

Scott: What about the future of genetic engineering – crops, animals, or people?

Rick: Let’s talk about people. Science fiction says we’re going to do a lot of it. Rich people will own it at first and use it to make their kids extra special, which is felt by many including the writers of this stuff to be anti-egalitarian, anti-democratic that rich people get to hog the resources. Nothing is a bigger resource than your own characteristics.

Other stuff said by science fiction is that gender fluidity will be more easy. Young punky people will use genetic engineering to radically transform their bodies to freak people out like people wearing piercings do now. I have a seen a goth teen a couple times, or a rebellious teen, transform him or herself into a version of T-rex. Some of that stuff will come to pass.

Some of it won’t. There’s going to be, once any of this stuff gets going to any extent, particularly in America a conservative backlash saying people are messing with something best left to God. People will start doing it to pets and to farm animals, which is a way to do it at a more genetic level that which we’ve been doing for thousands of years anyway.

Dogs, cats, and all domestic animals are products of genetic engineering, even though we didn’t know how genetics worked for most of the time we were doing it. They were still genetic products. The products and will get weirder and more radical, sophisticated, within the next century. With pets, we will get perma-puppies like permanent puppies or kittens for their entire lives, even having 30 year lives, extended lives.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Ask A Genius 20 – The Future of Clothing

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

What about the future of fashion?

Future fabrics will be able to do a lot more than they do now. Already, you see fashion shows where people wear clothing that is made of LCDs, primitive versions of video screens so that they can display moving images on the clothing. In the future, that will be more and more doable.

People will take advantage. Clothing will progress. There will be the natural fibre and polyester clothing. Clothing that is made of the same stuff that clothing has always been made out of, but clothing will become made out of a bunch of new engineered materials that can do a lot of new stuff. Athletes wear clothes that are supposed to take sweat out of the body when that’s what you want.

But it’s still pretty primitive. Eventually, you’ll have clothing that is electronic or bio-electronic that will be able to change imagery or characteristics based on whether you’re hot or cold, or whether it’s raining or not, and then competing with more engineered clothing you’ll have people with all sorts of genetically engineered abilities to make their skin do a bunch of new stuff.

It will further change our relationship with clothing. Clothing has always been in addition to being protective for modesty. It has been a social signifier. That should continue to be a thing, but it will get really weird. There’s a show on Netflix now called The Get Down about hip hop beginning in the late 70s.

One of the themes is the rivalry or competition between disco, which is super glam, and hip hop, which is a different set of signifiers and not mentioned in The Get Down is punk coming out at the same time. You’ve got three new forms of musical and clothing signifiers that are semi at odds with each other.

Also, you have new and to people not in those worlds really weird set ups. The future is going to offer more of that stuff, crazy new signifiers.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Ask A Genius 19 – The Future of Children’s Rights

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

What about the future of children’s rights – organisms in development?

You have two perspectives. One is the march towards slow and reasonable equality across the centuries. Children’s rights are inherently limited by children’s not being fully developed. LA is full of reasonable parents trying to reason with kids that aren’t yet at the point of reason. Kids being told to be quiet in a library or being told to leave instead.

A granola mom attempting to have a dialogue with this kid who can’t dialogue instead of taking more practical action, just going outside. Restaurants, it’s the same deal. Outside of kids’ inability to be fully competent, we have a trend towards granting respect to humans of all types.

On a larger, longer, and weirder timescale, you have genetic engineering, advances in medicine, changes to society, and what that will do to the presence and the role of children 100 or 200 years from now. As people live longer and longer because medicine gets better and better, children will have fewer and fewer children, and many will have them later in life.

It could be that people don’t have children in their own wombs. It could be that a child is something you set up and have outside of the women. A lot of different stuff can happen. In the near term, kids will get respect and rights that are in line with their rights and how to manage those rights.

We don’t have kids working 80 hours a week working on weaving looms, losing fingers and arms. Although, there is still some of that going on at times. There is slow and positive progress towards children not have to go through that kind of labour.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Ask A Genius 18 – The Future of LGBTQ+ Rights

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

What about the future of LGBTQ+ rights?

People will grow more accepting in most places, where people are going to hold back for cultural or religious or political reasons. The US Red States are a reliable way for conservative politicians to rile up a big chunk of their constituencies and getting them worked up about how the US is skipping off to hold hands with Satan if you let trans people pee in certain bathrooms and such.

On average, even in the US, tolerance is increasing. To the extent that I am attractive at all, I think that I have been attractive to gay guys rather than women. Gay guys have sent me more signals that I’ve been able to understand as receptive than I have perceived getting from women.

So, back in the 80s, there was a trans person who was super attractive. Very much my type except that she’d been born a man, I struggled with wanting to make out with her because I was afraid that the male flesh that I assumed was still between the legs or pretty much knew was between her legs because I knew her during other parts of her life when she was a he, and she went back and forth depending on what she was doing.

Now, thirty years later, I think if I were 26 again and everybody else or everything else was the same. I think I would make out with her and not worry about any junk. That probably doesn’t say much, but things do slowly change in me as well as society.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Ask A Genius 17 – The Future of Women’s Rights

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

What about the future of women’s rights?

From a science fiction perspective, in the medium future, gender will entirely be a matter of choice, which will be at least a century from now, probably closer to at least a few centuries.

Gender will be one of a couple or a few things that people will have complete control over how they appear in the world gender wise, and in a lot of other ways.

So, gender will have a lot less inherent implications. When you can choose what gender to be, there will be very little in the way of superiority of assigned gender. If gender is as simple as whether you decide to wear a hat or not, nobody’s going to make the, or only idiots will make the, argument that hat wearer’s are inherently better than non-hat wearers.

However, during times closer to our own, gender has grown more fluid and in many parts of the world acceptance of gender fluidity has grown. The general trend is for people to believe in gender equality. There are plenty of unconscious and quite a few conscious biases still in place, but they have lessened on average over time.

The tasks in nature and early civilization required a particular gender or seemed to favour a particular gender such as hunting vs. gathering. If that was even how it would split gender-wise, then tasks would favour one gender over another. They have been fading or have been colonized by the other genders.

It’s a slow and not-always forward march towards equality an enlightenment.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Ask A Genius 16 – The Future of Writing

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

What’s the future of writing?

Before discussing the future of writing, we need to discuss the present of writing. To go back to the past, in Shakespeare’s time and before, nobody had established hard rules for spelling, for instance. People took the best shot at how words should be on paper based on how it sounded.

People used to stick in extra letters. Shakespearean words came in a bunch of different spellings.

In later spellings, people started building dictionaries and different rules for spellings to get things consistent. Writing between Shakespeare and now has gotten pretty formalized, but within the texting era writing has split into the formal writing that we’re used to.

The writing used for business communication and literary writing, and then there’s this texty writing that is chaotic and serves to get your point across often with typos and misspellings and with whatever auto-fill or spell check on your phone thinks the word you’re going after should be.

Everybody is okay with that. Younger people are more okay with the chaotic kind of writing that comes out of texting to the point where older people or people who use punctuation come across as assholes for putting periods at the end of words, texts, and emails. Present writing has split into the writing that we’ve been used to for a couple hundred years now.

It is structured and chaotic for the moment. That comes from your thumbs being used for quick communication. There’s a smearing into each other with more formal writing being more and more affected by typos because people can’t be bothered.

We’re at an exciting and annoying point in writing.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Ask A Genius 15 – The Future of Scientific Experimentation

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

What about the future of science? What principles, values, and so on, will be a part of it? How will technology influence the potentials of science and scientists?

Up to now, we’ve had great success figuring out stuff about the world using our brains. Our symbolic and information processing technology. Our biological technology, which means our brains.

Plenty of people now are saying our brains have near infinite capacity, but the more brain research that’s done. Then it’ll be seen that our brains are finite in their capacities. We built a world around those abilities to find regularities in the environment, to dissect what is going on, and figuring out how to exploit the way the world is made to our advantage.

In the future, we are going to augment our current abilities. We are limited in what we can do and what we can think about, and what we are able to add on to the brain. As we more intimately couple data processing and storing capabilities to our thought capabilities, we will be able to think thoughts and do experiments that are much more data intensive.

I always think of the example of Stephen Hawking. When he was unable to use his hands, which meant using blackboards, paper, and keyboards, he had to figure out a symbolic language for physics that would fit inside of his head so that he could keep doing physics with ideas and symbols that he could manipulate mentally.

That’s a powerful, but limited, arena. In the future, as we extend that arena and make it more precise in a number of ways, scientific ideas and experiments will become much more data heavy and much more intricate. We’ll be able to encompass more variables. We’ll be able to tease out subtler relationship.

Currently, our most beloved scientific ideas are really short: E=MC^2, Maxwell’s four laws, Newton’s laws of gravitation, and inverse square laws. In the future, we will come up with law-like things that are really complicated, but that may describe things going on in the world as the simple laws we have now.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Ask A Genius 14 – The Future of the Ethos of Science

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

What about the ethos of science? Principles, values, what about things like ‘simulatability’? The ability to simulate natural processes to conduct experiments.

Science has always been a search for simplicity. Because we’ll be able to handle complexity better in the future doesn’t mean that it’s not still a search for simple laws. Whether the universe turns out to be built on simple laws, or principles, or not, our number one goal in science is to figure how the universe works, or how whatever the universe is part of or part of a set of, what the general principles are.

Those principles may turn out to be simple with a bunch of emergent complexities. We’re going to want to figure out the most efficient ways to characterize those principles. What you and I have been doing by talking about how the universe might be arranged is that what can or has to exist is what doesn’t have self-contradiction.

Which means that you do get stronger emergent properties, things can exist in a nebulous way, in a half-assed misty, blurry, way for things that don’t exist for long or don’t have a lot of information, but systems as universes have more and more information, then the things in the universe become more and more highly defined.

So, that more hard-edged principles and laws emerge from higher sets that contain larger amounts of information.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Ask A Genius 13 – The Future of Sex 1

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

You wrote about the end of sex. What about the Future of Sex?

Sex is a primary drive. We evolved to want to keep reproducing and having kids. Those that survive have those drives to reproduce and survive. Our lineage goes back probably a billion years. Sex is often contrary to individual interests. If we want to survive for as long as possible or maximize our odds of survival as individual organisms, sex goes against that.

Sex is a perverse drive. In that, it works against us. As we move into the future, many people will try to control it once that becomes possible to make it a more tractable drive. One that doesn’t have to work against us. It doesn’t have to make us misbehave, where we hear every year powerful people being brought low by their sex drives. Old guys who married young women who are after their money and the former or the rest of the family gets screwed over. Once we have the power to control that, a lot of people will control it.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Ask A Genius 12 – The Future of Food

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

What about the future of food?

Food will continue to be delicious and will probably continue to get more delicious. Although, we might be reaching some limit there. How much greasy, salty, sweet can you pack into food? It will slowly be engineered to be healthier. That’s been a slower process because there’s less money in selling healthy food than selling delicious food.

People are more motivated to buy the delicious. In the farther future, people will start to be able to get rejiggered to crave food that is less unhealthy. Food of the future looks pretty good. It will be as or more delicious than now. It will slowly get less for us. We will have more ways of fighting the harm that terrible food causes or rejiggering ourselves to not crave terrible food as we do now.

So, it’s a sunny picture. In America, you have a third of the population being obese and close to half of the population being overweight, which is not a problem. If you hate looking at fat, then that’s your problem and seen as fat shaming. The only actual problem aside from the aesthetic one, which is justifiably taboo, is being fat makes people not live long.

America is working on a whole spectrum of treatments to help overweight older people. It’ll help people live longer, healthier lives. The obesity epidemic will succumb to technical remedies. There will be ways to eat food without absorbing all of the calories. I take carb and fat blocks and fibre gummies.

The trouble with carb and fat blockers is that they cause horrible intestinal distress because you have gruesome poops. The problems caused by unhealthy eating will eventually be pretty decently addressed. People will tend to be on the heavy side, but it won’t kill us and eventually what we want out of food and what food will give us will be more in line with health.

It’ll be in the next 60 years.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Ask A Genius 11 – The Future of Wages

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

What about wages? Things have been thrown around like Universal Basic Income and Guaranteed Income.

That will be anathema in America because that’s socialism. There have been countries that have extensive ones. Nordic ones, Finland have substantial cushions for employment and maternity leave. People that pay high taxes and get a high degree of social services.

People that seem happy, except in the dead of winter. The Sun hasn’t come up. And everyone’s drunk all of the time. They have beautiful blonde people sex and make future beautiful alcoholics. You’re going to see the functional equivalent. The Idiocracy equivalent of Guaranteed Minimal Incomes, which is food and clothing proportionate to income.

They cost a quarter of what they did 100 years ago. Our improved technology made it cheaper to make food and clothing. That trend will probably continue as with the trend of falling hours and levels of employment because of technical improvement.

It’ll be easier to get by on little or no income, though it won’t be great. That’s always been a miserable thing. More and more people will be forced into the position of not being what was once considered fully employed, which is the Idiocracy situation – except people won’t be stupid. They’ll be smarter. They’ll be freer to pursue their own interests and enlightenment, but I don’t know. It will be less miserable to be poor in the future in highly developed countries in contrast to the 1930s, where all you had was the movies and folding up newspapers to cover up the holes in the soles of your shoes and eating casserole to get by.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

An Interview with Daniela Degrassi of Annaborgia

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/21

To lay some groundwork, tell us about your background such as family – how your context came about, upbringing – how you came to be, education – where you gained expertise, and professional experiences – where and how you built a reputation.

I could write a book about my life, but I’ll give you the quick version! I come from a non-wealthy family living in a sea side village in Northern Italy. When I was growing up, my mom couldn’t work full time as she had to take care of my sister with special needs. My mom was very giving, but also quite submissive. As a result, growing up I developed a strong sense of independence that made me want to seek building a life away from my small-town reality. I was fascinated by big cities that to me rhymed with independence. In my twenties, I moved to Milan and felt at home right away. That’s where I met my ex-husband and together we moved to the United States after he received a dream job opportunity. We embarked on a great adventure in the country that is known to make dreams come true. Soon after, my sister followed me to the United States after both my parents died way too young. While playing mom to my sister, I explored my growing need to express my creativity and I stumbled into photography, which quickly unfolded like the perfect fit for my character and personal responsibilities. I briefly went to college to study the media and started my own freelance business focusing on lifestyle, portrait, and wedding photography. Fifteen magical years followed, filled with indelible memories and building strong friendships and relationships with many of my clients. In fact, one of my past clients is now my business partner at Annaborgia!

Due to my sister’s health, we moved back to Italy in 2011, and with more time on my hands, I was hit by another creative strike. I fell in love with fashion to the point that I started researching how to start a fashion label. That takes us to the current days, where I divide my time flying back and forth between Italy and California to make yet another dream a fulfilling reality. In California, I have connected with San Francisco Sustainable Fashion Designers and together we are raising the awareness on Ethical Fashion locally and beyond.

You are the Founder and Creative Director for Annaborgia. What was the inspiration for Annaborgia? What tasks and responsibilities come with the position of creative director?

Working as a wedding photographer for over a decade had a clear impact on why I created Annaborgia and its particular market. Designing clothes is an amazing way to express my creativity, but I also want the whole project to be more meaningful, to be socially helpful. The Annaborgia line is ceremony friendly and gives brides and bridesmaids the great convenience to repurpose their looks after the wedding. The line is designed for women that are conscious about the impact of fast fashion on the environment. When I married, in 1994, there was not much talks about sustainability, but even then, I wasn’t interested in purchasing a dress that I’d never wear again, so I opted for a cocktail dress that I was able to wear many times again. It was actually special to re-wear a dress that had so much meaning to me. I strongly feel the wedding fashion is in need of a big transformation if we want to make weddings more sustainable going into the future.

During the development stages and a year into our launch, Annaborgia was relying entirely on my decisions, from the designs (while listening carefully to the expert feedback of our sample and product development team) to business operations. I am so thrilled to have welcomed Karen Canaan as my business partner this summer. She is an experienced lawyer and a true fashion expert and it’s been way easier to share the fun and burdens of a start-up with her company.

Annaborgia is vegan couture. What is vegan couture?

Our textiles are all vegan, meaning that no animal product or sub-product is used to create our designs. Remaining truthful to my vegan lifestyle, I opted to work with synthetic fibers, which I sourced carefully so that I could still offer the quality and feel of high-end textiles like silk. Our designs are hand or partially hand sewn to give them a couture touch. We’re very proud of our signature Japanese satin poly that is used in most of our designs; it’s a high-performance, non-wrinkle textile processed without toxic dyes.

What makes Annaborgia unique?

Annaborgia is unique in its simplicity. Our minimalist lines and classic palette transition easily from day to evening, spring to fall, wedding day to resort.

Annaborgia is an ethical luxury brand – with an emphasis on cruelty-free and toxic-dyes-free fashion – for conscious fashionistas. What defines ethical luxury brands and conscious fashionistas?

For a business, use of the term “Ethical Fashion” includes many different ethical standards, including those affecting the environment, labor rights, and the avoidance of animal sufferings. At Annaborgia, we make our best efforts to follow all these ethical standards, while creating a long-standing luxury garment. The “Conscious Fashionista” is our ideal buyer; someone who loves style, but with the same intensity cares for the environment, respects animals, and is concerned about labor rights and therefore, considers all these aspects when shopping.

One part of ethical fashion comes from luxe minimalist designs for each season. You have all women on staff. How does this inform the minimalist styles for each season?

We’re actually trying to veer away from the seasonal concept of fashion collections. Our concept is to build a capsule wardrobe collection (and keep adding to it) of essentials that will never go out of style, making Annaborgia the go-to brand for women that are not interested in following short lived trends. This is also a way to empower women to focus on more important issues within the fashion industry. Women are naturally nurturing and sensible, and so far, they have been the main force of the “Slow Fashion” movement.

You have hopes to influence the wedding fashion industry as well – to make it sustainable. How might this extended plan of action work out in the next few years?

It’s hard to break rules in the wedding industry. It’s a well-oiled machine and the mainstream bride dreams of a princess like wedding day. It’s only natural. We’re here to support a small (but growing) portion of the public that wants to integrate sustainability into their important day, and all the unconventional brides that are not in tune with the “classic wedding attire” concept. I think we need valuable alternatives for this minority, and by offering styles that can be easy to transition into everyday life, we’re actually adding more value to their investment. In a few years, I want to look back and see Annaborgia among the pioneers of the Wedding Fashion Revolution.

The creativity begins in Italy with you. It is developed in the San Francisco Bay Area. Why Italy and San Francisco? What are the operational steps in this developmental process?

When I am in Italy caring for my sister, I find some time to design, and with the help of a pattern maker I study with, I make the first prototypes. Then I let my skilled Californian team develop the final patterns and samples. Our in-house team is equipped for small production runs and we rely on local manufacturers for larger orders. We love to support local businesses! Being close to our manufacturers also allows us to have better control on quality standards.

What meaning or personal fulfillment does this creative work bring for you?

Besides the excitement of seeing my ideas brought to life, I think the ethical aspect of offering a cruelty-free product is a major drive. As a Vegan, I have a way to show the world we can dress with style without having to harm animals for our own frivolous needs.

With regard to companies like Annaborgia, what is its personal and professional importance to you?

Vegan companies do not just offer cruelty-free clothes; they tend to promote an outlook on a cruelty-free lifestyle. It’s like we have a moral responsibility that goes beyond simply selling clothes.

Annaborgia has a blog, too. What is the content and purpose of the blog?

I write about Annaborgia’s designs and milestones, I share personal thoughts on ethical fashion related issues, and I feature interviews with wedding experts or vegan lifestyle influencers. At Annaborgia, we share with our readers why we are so passionate about a cruelty-free lifestyle and if we can inspire and influence them to incorporate cruelty-free choices into their lives, it’ll be a small contribution to make us feel like we’re going into the right direction. It’s important to me to make a difference in this world, especially in these troubled times where humanity seems to have lost their way. With our Ethical Fashion we are simply saying “do no harm.”

Thank you for your time, Daniela.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

An Interview with Rhea Hamlin

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/21

Tell us a little bit about your brief background, education-wise, personal, and how you ended up getting into this business.

I took the 2 + 2 program, which is two years of college and two years of university. This program allows you to get a degree and a diploma in a certain program. At Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC), I got my business administration diploma with a concentration in marketing. After NSCC, I transferred to Mount Saint Vincent in Halifax and completed my Bachelor of Business Administration with a major in marketing and a minor in management.

During the summer months between my studies, I started working at a historical museum called Ross Farm Museum as a museum interpreter. It was through this job where I was introduced flax and linen. I knew a little bit about flax and linen and a little bit of the history regarding it in Nova Scotia coming into my position.

After completing university, I was looking for work in my field. I came across this post on social media that someone shared. The post was for a small business in Port Williams who was looking for a marketing and communication specialist. I thought, “That’s interesting.” I did not see a closing date for the position. I decided to apply just in case they were looking for someone;

Luckily, they were, and I became part of the team in February of 2015. I find the experience fascinating. It ties my interest in natural fibers, as a knitter, into in my education background into one position. It keeps me busy and keeps me on my toes, which is good.

With respect to the flax farming itself and for organic linen, you have written some articles for Trusted Clothes. For an overview, what is the process for farming flax and how that gets made into organic linen?

I grew up in a small town called New Ross, Nova Scotia.

Growing flax is quick. It only takes about 100 days to go from seed to harvest. Last year, we had one acre. This year we are increasing our production to 5 acres of flax with a few small test plots of new varieties. Our field is in the middle of the transition from conventional to organic. We are not using any spray. We are just growing. Once in bloom, the plant will have this lovely purple-blue flower on it. Once it has the flower, it will change its focus on growing tall to developing the seed. Once this occurs, we watch it carefully because once the bottom of the plant starts to change color and the leaves start to fall off, that’s when we want to harvest it. Once it is harvest, dried, and is retted it is ready to process. Retting is a natural process that will allow the woody shieve to be removed from the fibres. You can either dew rett or water rett.

At TapRoot Fibre Lab, we dew rett which can take about 3-6 weeks. We will test the flax it to make sure it is retted. When we test it, we take a couple of stems and bend it. What we’re looking for is the ability to separate the fibres on the inside of the plant from the shive. So, when we bend it, we want to see the shive separate the fibres. So once corrected retted, wecan start to process it.

The great thing about flax is that it is 100% bio-degradable. Even though we are processing for the long line linen fibres, we are developing products out of every by-product. For example, the dust can be added to compost. We are working on developing a log out of the shive. Our short line linen will be used to produce raw fibres, 80% short line linen and 20% wool blend, roving and yarn. Our long line linen will be used to generate silver, yarn, raw fibres, and eventually fabric and clothing.

To begin processing, you start with the breaker, which breaks the stem of the plant – so you can separate and keep the integrity of the fibres intact. Once broken, the fibres are scutched to remove the shive. After the scutcher, the linen fibres are taken to the hackler where any remaining shive, knots, and tow (short line linen) is removed. After that, you have hackle long line, which will go to the intersect or to produce silver for the spinner. We’re in the middle of designing of our six pieces of equipment that will take flax and turn it into organic linen. At the moment, we have the ripper, the breaker, and the sketcher, and we’re working on building the hackle.

What meaning or personal fulfillment does this bring for you?

I enjoy watching the project grow and blossom. We have come a long way in the year that I have been here, and it is interesting to see the responses that we have been getting from people.

Individuals who have been following our journey from the very beginning. We have a tiny but dedicated team, and it is nice to see that individuals in the industry have been following our journey and are looking forward to our journey. As a knitter, being able to use natural fibres that are locally produced and sold is critical to me. I love how my work at TapRoot Fibre Lab is promoting the production and use of natural fibre.

TapRoot Fibres, how did that title originate for the company?

Patricia Bishop and Josh Oulton own another business called TapRoot Farms. TapRoot Farms is Community Share Agriculture farm in Port Williams, Nova Scotia. Patricia always had a desire to not only grow food on her farm but also grow clothes. TapRoot Fibre Lab was developed out of this desired.

With regard to companies like Trusted Clothes and TapRoot Fibres, what’s the importance of them to you?

They are important to me. I believe there is an educational awareness around the importance around choosing sustainable fibres. I think these organizations are doing a great job helping build a consumer base of educated and informed consumers. These customers will make an informed decision to buy clothing using sustainable fabric.

Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

I am honored that Shannon approached me to guest blog for Trusted Clothes on behalf of TapRoot Fibre Lab and that she’s interested in what we are doing farm here. We are a small team of six here on the farm working towards growing clothes on the farm. We may be small, but we’re dedicated. I feel the honor to be included among the other guest bloggers.

Thank you for your time, Rhea.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

An Interview with Tamara Stenn (Part Two)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/20

What is social entrepreneurship?

I am writing a book. I finished writing that introduction. (Laughs) Basically, I am defining it as a business that addresses a social need rather than a monetary one – keeping it really simple. The social need can be expressed in many different ways. It could be environmental. It could be human rights. It could be giving to a particular charity. It could be making goods accessible to a population that might not have access. It could be having worker ownership.

There’s many different ways worker ownership can be realized. The main thing is there is a piece of intentionality where the person isn’t out there to make a profit. They are out there first to do some social good.

How can sustainability be built into the Social Entrepreneurship model?

That’s what I’m working on right now. I’ve developed it. I’m trying to make it comprehensible. It is the Sustainability Lens. It takes the work that I’ve done over the last 20 years. I’ve done a lot of work with Indigenous models through studying down in Latin American, where the United Nations is working on Indigenous models of governance and sustainability.

Also, looking at Circles of Sustainability, I am a fellow with that project with the United Nations. A lot of the people working with these models are political economists. They are not business people. The difference is I am a businessperson as well.

I am taking this model and seeing how this working different models. These common tools that everyone uses realize their companies. I find that once you put that lens on top. Everything pops into place for sustainability. Because you’re a social enterprise doesn’t mean you are a sustainable company.

Sustainability deals with growth, which is a huge issue right now in the area of social entrepreneurship. How do you deal with growth? What does that mean? Because, right now, the assumption is growth means success. That’s not always the case. Our trees don’t grow to the moon.

That’s the same with business. Not every business needs to be gigantic, how do you know the right size for your business? That’s a part of sustainability. Looking at energy and resources, how is that being used? What is being made? That’s part of a sustainable enterprise and not part of social enterprise.

What are you spending your time and resources on? And why? There’s nuances that come out there. How wisdom is sourced and given back to the community? It includes a lot more collaboration. This is what happens when sustainability as it impacts all of us because you can have the most wonderful, perfect business that is the epitome of green.

Next door, you’ll have a big contaminating factory. The quality of life for the people in that region will not be good. They will not have a sustainable lifestyle. There’s a pollution. There’s the people that don’t have enough, even though your business is perfect.

So, the idea of sustainability is breaking that down and working together in systems. You have a nice model for your business. But to be a sustainable business. You need to be integrated in your community. What are we doing to help mitigate and support this community to something more balanced?

That becomes exponential. You keep getting this circles that get bigger and bigger and bigger. You’re looking at a state, then a country, and then a region. When everybody is on this sustainability mindset, you start making decisions that benefit all. That’s the difference.

What other work are you involved in at this point in time?

I teach Social Entrepreneurship at the college and am currently authoring a book (academic text) on how Sustainability can be built into a Social Entrepreneurship model.

What meaning or personal fulfillment does this work bring for you?

It’s been a great experience having this connection and sharing it with others. We have brought scores of people to Bolivia to meet the knitters and have brought the knitters here to the US too. These exchanges remind people of how much more similar we all are then they think and helps people to want to collaborate and cooperate more. I find this very satisfying.

With regard to organizations/companies, and so on, like Trusted Clothes and KUSIKUY, what’s the importance of them to you?

We are all in this together – by all sharing information, educating others and having honest, open dialogues, we can collectively work to make our world a safer, just and happy place in which everyone can live.

You have been interviewed as well. People can listen to this in a podcast. You have written for Trusted Clothes, too. Let’s plumb more depths in academic work, especially the impressive Fulbright work. Your research on gender and sustainable development for the Fulbright Scholarly Exchange. It has been that since March, 2015. What is this comparative study on the impact of fair trade?

Basically, it is looking at the impact of quinoa – farming and growing quinoa – on the rural people that live in the quinoa region.

What are the findings so far?

It is a 3-year study. Fulbright likes to pay you to do something that you know anything about. I went last year never having worked in quinoa. I was familiar with it. My mother grows quinoa. I know what it looks like.

We eat it here. I am near the region where it is grown, but I never specifically worked there. It was great. I got to know the people. Basically, there were a lot of different things going on. There was an educational revolution going on.

So, all of the people on the countryside became literate. That impacted their ability to negotiate contracts. Quinoa used to be a disadvantaged food. It was shunned. When the Spanish came and colonized Bolivia, they made quinoa growing illegal because they wanted to have their own crops grown – wheat.

They banished quinoa, but it still continued to exist. It was considered sacred crop given to the Andean people by the gods. It grows in remote areas. It is a national grain. People eat it almost every single day.

It was usually marginalized as ‘peasant folk’ food. With the push towards quinoa and the great discovery of ancient grains, quinoa became trendy and very popular. The Bolivians are pretty smart.

They realized that there was demand for the product. They valued it. They set their own prices. They are used to working collectively. They have these strong cooperatives. They did this all on their own. The government didn’t get involved.

Because they are literate, they can negotiate contracts. They created a rural area called Challapata. It became the quinoa Wall St., where they did all the pricing for world markets. They were developed there because Bolivia had the quinoa market.

They were the largest producer in the world and kind of the only producer. For years, they were really able to take advantage of this competitive advantage that they had. They’d raise their prices 20% every year because they could.

What happened was reverse migration because these were the poorest areas of Bolivia, people started coming back who had migrated to Argentina, to Buenos Aires, to Santiago, to Madrid in search of other work.

They are coming back now, farming land that was left fallow, and building parts of the village that are falling apart. They ended up earning more than the middle class in Bolivia. All of the money made was reinvested into real estate or vehicles. They didn’t go into debt.

After 3 or 4 years, the rest of the world caught up with them and started to look at ways for them to join the quinoa market because it was lucrative. Peru had a chemical program. An industrialized program supported by the government and working with USAID to do a non-traditional chemical quinoa production in their lands. Their desert.

Because it grows in desert environments. That was successful enough that I knocked out the market for the Bolivian quinoa. The prices completely crashed. So, I was there during the price crash. Now, the market has stabilized.

The Bolivians refuse to sell their quinoa at low prices. That drove the prices up again. Now, there’s been a differentiation, where organic and fair trade are important. You can get higher price for it.

Bolivia – because of the constitution, people grow it anyway because that’s, in a way, the law. They have a competitive advantage with that because the Peruvian quinoa is not organic or fair trade. There’s consumer education, too. Consumers don’t know the difference between the different quinoas.

You noted the gods. According to the traditions and mythologies, what gods?

There’s a story about some women that came down, kidnapped some boys to this paradise. They got homesick and wanted to go home. They sent them with a sack full of seeds. That was the quinoa. They have multiple gods and god-like people.

I’ve seen some psychological studies, where in the development of children the animistic and spiritualist beliefs seem innate. Children are hardwired to see spirits in the world. They are innate animists in a way. The argument that has been by some is that if you leave children alone. They will invent some polytheist pantheon. It’s some evolved framework for conceiving of the world. Anywho, Bolivia provides 45% of the world’s quinoa.

They are producing more quinoa than ever. A lot of it is traded in the common market for everyone’s use. Their export prices are much different than the in-country prices.

They produce tens of thousands of tons, according to the FAO.

They do. All by hand. (Laughs) They are really hardworking people.

When I think about the first year-and-a-half of your study for the Fulbright Exchange, with the 3 years in total, what are the specifics predicted for the last year-and-a-half?

I have no idea. That’s the nice thing about it. It evolves. I chose a model called Circles of Sustainability that was created by the United Nations as a starting point. I’ve been a fellow on that project.

I’m having help guide me. It is a survey-based, participatory model. One of the nice things is I have all the cell phone numbers of all of the people that participated. I can go back and contact the people that took part in the study.

I am going to have them and redo the study. I am going to do it two ways. I am going to have them think about how it was back then a year-and-a-half ago. I will compare to how they think about the past and the way they reported it when it was happening.

So, that’s something that one of my cohort’s ideas. I am going to work with current groups of people to see the baseline of things now. I do ethnographic research. Some of it is participatory appraisals. It is being there, observation. It is seeing what comes up. I have the survey too.

Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

I want to thank people for joining in with KUSIKUY and helping to spread the word, every re-tweet, share, link, like, $ donated… helps with educating people about the alternatives to the clothing industry, supporting the knitters, and growing the KUSIKUY message/example. There are good, ethical, safe, clothing options in the world.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

An Interview with Tamara Stenn (Part One)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/20

Tell us about yourself – family background, personal story, education, and previous professional capacities.

I grew up in NY and come from a long line of entrepreneurs. I am a bi-lingual (Spanish/English) social entrepreneur, sustainability trainer, Fair Trade business owner, Fulbright scholar, author, and academic.

I founded the sustainable luxury brand, KUSIKUY, which has been knitting together opportunities and elegance in the Bolivian Andes since 1996. I teach sustainable, social enterprise development at both Mount Holyoke College and the SIT Graduate Institute – specializing in local-global entrepreneurship. I live in Vermont and mostly grow my own food.

What is the importance of ethical fashion?

We are a single species on a single finite planet. Being mindful of how our decisions impact others and our planet is important. The garment industry is one of the most polluting and destructive industries in the world – of both the environment and people.

Thousands die in sweatshop accidents each year, millions more are affected with poor health, disease and contamination from textile chemicals and pesticides, farmers commit suicide over low fiber prices. More info: http://truecostmovie.com/. Ethical and sustainable fashion is an alternative to this cycle of devastation and destruction.

What is the importance of sustainable fashion?

It respects the earth’s resources and people’s talents in carefully making quality clothing that lasts.

What about fair trade?

There are good resources that define the standards through principles on this, but some include:

It creates opportunity, builds capabilities, grows relationships, connections and improves wellbeing for all.

What is KUSIKUY?

It’s a Quechua word – means “make yourself happy” and started as a post Peace Corps project for Grad School – 19 years later, still going strong!

What makes KUSIKUY unique?

I think the handmade nature of the product with knitting needles, and its Bolivian source of production. Its 100% alpaca yarn. It has been blessed with a ch’alla – ceremony and wishes. Finally, it is home based with independent production.

KUSIKUY products are for men and women. What is your favorite design?

Arm socks!

You took a 7-year hiatus to earn a doctorate in economics, raise two children, and write a book about the experience, and become a university professor of sustainable development. What were the main lessons from these experiences?

The importance of leadership, family and patience – things all work out and there is time for it all. Through their export work the knitters gained tremendous leadership, time management skills and confidence in themselves.

KUSIKUY has a Kickstarter campaign as well. There’s a wonderful and informative video for those without the appropriate background on the narrative of the company and the work that it accomplishes. The campaign web page states:

Building on the heritage of Andean art and our 18 years of experience working in Bolivia, we created the world’s finest glitten, a glove/mitten, hand stitched from the king’s alpaca, that custom forms to your hand and is guaranteed for 5 years. Each glitten takes 12 hours and 2,000 stitches to make by hand with knitting needles, love and blessings.

The aim is $10,000. If you could have, say, $20,000, what would be the expanded set of initiatives for KUSIKUY?

Yes – our goal with the re-launch is to gain an audience and recognition for our next stage – the launching of our hand knit sweater for Fall 2017. Any extra earnings for the Kickstarter will be invested into the 2017 sweater development.

You’ve known the workers in Bolivia for 18 years. How does this positively impact the production cycle?

We have a long relationship with producers and are like family. This history makes it easier for us to enjoy working together and celebrate our successes together. It also makes for easy production and methods –we know how to work together.

What about providing a human sensibility to the company and its exported image to the public?

We work to build bridges between producers and users. Bother are very curious about each other and would enjoy knowing who each other were – at least to say thank you. We work on building that personal experience.

I noticed every Bolivian was a woman in the Kickstarter video. Same with yourself. Many discussions abound on the international stage with respect to women’s rights and the relationship of sustainable and ethical fashion to the millions of workers in these countries that produce the garments for countries such as Canada (I’m by Vancouver) and the United States (You’re in Vermont). More exist on the local platforms, too. What is the importance of sustainable and ethical fashion, and fair trade, for international women’s rights?

Women are the main workers in the textile industry and also the ones taking care of the family and of reproductive age. It is important for future generations that women are safe, healthy and well cared for – so the home environment is positive for the children and the women themselves enjoy a quality of life they deserve.

With respect to the Kickstarter campaign, there are some nuances.

With the Kickstarter, we are celebrating the heritage of the women we’ve been working with for 18 years. It is celebrating the work that the herdsmen have done in preserving the fibres that they’re working with, thousands of years ago the Incas, before them the Tiahuanacos. It took a long time to develop and build the absolute best Alpaca fibres in the world. Bolivia has preserved those herds.

In Peru, there were government programs that tried to differentiate colors. Things shifted in the herds and the fibre quality has gone down. Bolivia has maintained that tradition. What we wanted to do was recognize that, to give a shout out that this is something incredibly special, over the last 18 years of working with the people in Bolivia. I have seen more and more companies switch over to Alpaca mixed with acrylic.

Products that are knit on looms and losing that heritage tradition. I value the tradition so much with the knitting needle, the ‘click, click, click,’ and that Alpaca fibre that is not adulterated with acrylic, chemicals, or modified in different ways. That’s what we’re celebrating with our Kickstarter. We’re giving people access to this amazing heritage with one of the last companies in the world with handmade gloves and knitting needles.

This lets the women pay attention to what they’re doing. We realized this is taking 12 hours a glove. While they are making the gloves, they are thinking about who is going to be wearing them. Imagining that person’s life, knowing from television that it is someone that is busy and running around in this fast-paced world of skyscrapers and subways, they are in the countryside in a timeless place. It is winds and mountains.

Tremendous skies above the tree lines, it is a different world. For them to be in that world and to be knitting those thoughts into those gloves as we move into our busy life in the Western hemisphere, it is an amazing transition. I wanted to preserve that story. What I’ve observed is as people buy KUSIKUY products, they tend to save them and use them for years. That’s why we have the 5-year guarantee on the gloves. I find most people easily save their gloves for five years. They become favorite gloves.

I wanted to build that connection with people. My doctoral research brought that up on both ends. Consumers and producers want to know who each other are, that’s what our Kickstarter is about. It is an opportunity to connect with the knitters and support them. We are hoping this will lead to us developing more connections via smart phones. We want to do sweaters next year. It is bringing that thoughtfulness and care to the public. You can’t get that anywhere else.

Any advice for young entrepreneurs?

Sure! So, I teach entrepreneurship. Constantly, I am working with young entrepreneurs. They are the most innovative and fun folks to work with. My advice to them is don’t worry that someone is going to steal your great idea because chances are someone is thinking of something you’re thinking of and that’s an ally.

That’s going to be someone you can work together with. It will be a lot of work. Also, if you already have that idea, and someone else does it, they won’t know it as well as you do. That’s something my students ask me. They say, “If someone else has it, then someone else will do it, then they’ll take it.” Even patents, nowadays people aren’t even worried about patents and trademarks. They go out and do it.

Any advice for new mothers, or parents in general?

Find a way that it all works together. My kids have always been a part of my business. So, they’re right there with me in it. I have seen some parents keep their kids out of the business. I don’t think that’s good. I grew up in a long family of entrepreneurs.

We grew up talking business around the dinner table. That’s what made it so easy to be drawn into entrepreneurism myself. I think having it as part of the family culture is great. When there’s trips and trade shows, you can figure out a way to bring the kids along as well.

What are some of the things that can be done on the international stage to improve the lot of women? You noted some of the things in the Kickstarter campaign video. Some things that are concrete.

I think Bolivia has pulled ahead in that. They re-did their constitution in 2009. In the Spanish language, everything has a masculine and feminine with the adjective forms. Instead of saying, “All People,” like in the United States with equal opportunity. In Bolivia, they spelled it out, “Men and women are equal.” Men and women, by doing that, they created a tremendous amount of recognition of the woman’s role. Now, they look at both.

In the USA, we haven’t had that happen, yet. I have been around working with mentorship groups. You probably know the criticism of Silicon Valley is the amount of men that are out there as entrepreneurs right now.

I think it’s not so intentional. Guys saying, “We are going to have a club and not invite women.” It needs to be mindful of needing women there. The mentorship group that I have been working with, Valley Mentorship. It is on their radar, where they are intentionally looking for ways to be more attractive and accessible to women.

I think that’s what Bolivia has been doing already within their constitution by being mindful of gender on both levels. I think that’s something that can be done, but it is being mindful of where are the women in the room. Or, do we have the same number of women as men in this conversation?

What is keeping the women away? We need a space for them because they can bring things into here. We don’t know.

In America, there’s a lag time between law changes and cultural changes. One of the most prominent is the Emancipation proclamation. It takes a century for the Civil Rights movement to follow this law in the culture. The inertia of history is a factor. Blacks, Native Americans, women, and white men without property didn’t have the right to vote for a long time. In a democratic system such as the American, that defines an individual, as a member of a collective (gender, ethnicity, and so on), as a non-citizen, or, more properly, a non-person. To your point about including men and women in the constitution of Bolivia, there seem to be lag times in America due to historical baggage in some ways. That might explain the “behind” part for America.

Yea, it is still 2-to-1 men to women with new enterprises coming forward. For every woman, there’s two men that have started that enterprise. That’s current data. There’s something that’s keeping us out of the entrepreneurship. Having that diversity, right? There’s the gender diversity, ethnic diversity.

With entrepreneurism, if you’re starting a new business, it’s easy to be thinking of yourself. I think looking for that diversity on the front sign is good at shaping a new business and bringing in creativity.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

An Interview with Danica of Wild Tussah

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/19

Tell us about yourself – family background, personal story, education, and previous professional capacities.

I grew up in the middle of nowhere Maryland, USA where I always had a passion for travel and learning about cultures different than my own. My Dad frequently went overseas for work, and brought back beautiful handicrafts, which sparked my interest to understand the meaning behind them and how they were created. I often found myself bringing these in for ‘show and tell’ – proud of his travels.

After high school, I made my way to George Mason University in Virginia where I studied Marketing. I had done a semester in Australia and fell absolutely in love with it, so moved here permanently after I finished my degree.

I still continued to dabble in Marketing professionally, but found my passion for working with weave artisans after I went on a 5-week trek through South East Asia, and made good friends with my Black Hmong tour guide in Sapa, Vietnam. She had explained to me that this ancient textile-making tradition was on the verge of going extinct. This triggered the idea to move to Vietnam for a year and work with these artisans directly.

What is the importance of sustainable fashion?

Sustainable fashion has the ability to solve bigger social issues in society, which I find so powerful! It can be a solution to poverty, bad working conditions, human trafficking, environmental-issues, loss of cultures and so much more.

You are the founder of Wild Tussah. What is it?

Wild Tussah preserves ancient weave cultures through incorporating artisan textiles in sustainable handbag designs. We also partner up with other designers who use our textiles, and tell our artisans’ stories.

What are your long-term goals for Wild Tussah?

Long-term we plan to expand the weave communities we work with to other countries, and to track how Wild Tussah is making a difference in our artisans’ lives.

Your weavers are the Lu people, the Cham people, and the Hmong people. Who are the Lu people?

The Lu people we work with are a unique, remote group who live in the northern mountains of Vietnam. They are known for their black teeth dyed with a black-honey shrub and benzoin resin paste. It can take them 3-6 months to make the vintage skirts we use in our handbag designs as it is both woven and embroidered.

Who are the Cham people?

The Cham people we work with live in Ninh Thuan Province. You can find quite a few beautiful Cham pagodas around Vietnam including Po Nager in Nha Trang. Often their textile motifs represent what they see around them – trees, animal footprints, fruit and vegetables.

Who are the Hmong people?

The Hmong people we work with live in northern Vietnam, and are usually the trek guides you come across in Sapa. Frequently they are more fluent in English than Vietnamese as they often interact with travelers. Their textiles are made out of cotton and hemp.

Why did you select them as the weavers for Wild Tussah?

I first selected the Lu after I came across this beautiful Lu weave in a local Saigon shop. No one there could tell me what ethnic group it belonged to, so after doing a lot of research and speaking to my Black Hmong friend, we were able to figure out who it was from. Lu weaves are stunning in person – very modern and elegant looking compared to other weaves.

Next I decided to work with the Cham as I had met a Cham weave storeowner who had a passion for her culture. Her enthusiasm for this traditional handicraft really lit a fire in my belly. Her son, Jaka, was also able to give me a tour around their local village and introduce me to other weavers in their community.

Lastly, I added Hmong weaves to my shop because they practice an amazingly intricate dyeing process for the hemp and cotton threads they use, which very few ethnic groups have been able to maintain.

Mr. Viet does you leather work. What makes his productions of particular note for Wild Tussah?

We decided to work with Mr. Viet after receiving handbag samples from approximately 7 other handbag makers. They didn’t make their bags as well as Mr. Viet, so we ended up choosing him as our go-to handbag maker. Plus, he seemed quite interested to learn more about the textiles we use in our handbag designs.

You have a love for culture, fashion and design, humanism, and sustainability. What makes these of particular interest to you?

A lot of social issues I care about can be solved through understanding these, and can translate into real solutions to make a positive difference in the world.

As an expatriate in Melbourne, Australia, does this affect professional work at all?

Living in Melbourne has allowed me to grow Wild Tussah, connect with other like-minded designers, and stay a close flight away from my artisans in Vietnam. The city is full of culture and art to draw inspiration from!

What other work are you involved in at this point in time?

Besides Wild Tussah, I also work with other social businesses and help them with their marketing strategies.

What meaning or personal fulfillment does this work bring for you?

I absolutely love the opportunity I have to connect with people outside of my normal every day life, like my weave artisans, and getting the chance to meet other people who also value sustainable fashion.

Through creating these designs and getting them into the hands of people who care about culture preservation and alleviating poverty, together we are able to decrease human trafficking rates across the Chinese border and keep a beautiful ancient handicraft tradition alive.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

A Take on Sustainability

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/18

The truths on sustainability bear repetition.

It’s the lifeblood of culture change. Truths need legs. I wanted to express more thoughts on why sustainability is important to me. Sustainability is important to me on one level (at least).

I consider ethical fashion and sustainable fashion connected to sustainability and important as well. I like the idea of sustainability. I find the people involved in this endeavor interesting. I like their stories and narratives. It is a really interesting, rich, and committed community of intellectuals and citizens. All throughout the world invested in one goal: sustainability.

Sustainability as an international goal is something that brings it down to the individual level for everyone, including me. I think about fashion. I think about laundry. I think about lights. I think about cars and buses and transportation in general. I think about the consumption patterns for food. I think about supply chains. I think about the production lines and modes.

All of this matters to me. All of this matters because the nature of sustainability impacts every area of human endeavor because every area of human endeavor has waste associated with it.

The question then becomes, “Do we want a sustainable future or not?” I think we do. At some level or another, even those that are most against it for monetary and economic reasons, or reasons of ease, they want the same. It’s a bit like a holdout situation, where everyone knows we need to alter at least a little bit in the end.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

An Interview with Fiona Armstrong-Gibbs

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/18

Fiona Armstrong-Gibbs has worked in the fashion and footwear industry for nearly 20 years. She is a fashion lecturer, writer, currently researching social enterprise in the fashion industry and is involved with Oka-B footwear as their UK distributor. Her co-authored book Marketing Fashion Footwear: The Business of Shoes is due for publication later in 2016.

Tell us about yourself – family background, personal story, education, and previous professional capacities.

Born near Liverpool in the early 1970s, not a particularly prosperous time in the north west of England but my parents were hard workers and wanted a better future for themselves and us, at the age of 4 we moved to the Middle East where my dad worked in computers in the oil industry – a new and innovative sector which paid well for expats at the time. Returned to the UK at 11-year-old. While prospects in the North West weren’t much better, the UK in general had a better economic outlook particularly in the south. Our family stayed in the NW but dad worked down south during the week for several years, after which worked in Spain and recently retired from a job in Switzerland.

I always wanted to work in the fashion industry, made dolls clothes, my own clothes and reworked and styled clothes for school friends. Was never a question that I was going to do anything else. I made the assumption I was going to be a fashion designer because I didn’t know there were any other jobs that you could do in fashion. I never knew anyone that had worked in it. Through school I did ok but although it was a good school it did not nurture my type of creativity or entrepreneurialism, it was a traditional academic girls’ grammar school and I was quite unique in my ambitions, even setting up a bespoke accessories company that recycled classmates’ jeans into drawstring backpacks – from what I remember they were quite popular!

I went on to a general arts pre degree foundation course but soon realised that I was better at talking about fashion than I was actually creating it. My undergraduate degree is in History of Art and Design with Fashion history and theory and my masters, of which I was one of the first to study in the late 1990s is in fashion marketing and promotion. Although marketing was not necessarily a new role in the industry it was being recognised as a growing area to study. I completed that course in 1998 and moved to London. London in the late 1990s was booming in the fashion industry. It was an incredibly exciting time in terms of the industry’s creative and commercial growth. Commercially many trends were quite minimalist but it was the era of the mega brand, Gucci revival, Prada Sport and real innovators like Alexander McQueen and John Galliano were being globally recognised in couture and high end fashion.

Fashion was a cool industry and wasn’t something that stayed out on the edge for quirky misfits. This growth coincided with the real democratisation of fashion. First Zara who managed to appropriate key trends from the catwalk and produce them quicker than the brands themselves could – it was literally magic in front of our eyes and not only that, we could afford to buy these things too. There was also much more access to counterfeit goods. The internet was not widely used to buy fashion so there was a certain exoticness and desirability about being able to get a knock off LV monogrammed bag from a friend of a friend who had managed a quick dash to Canal Street NYC during a business trip to the US.

So for the first time a regular consumer could dress like a well off designer fashionista and I don’t think anyone really cared where the goods came from – or though that people were being harmed – so long as we could emulate a look from the growing legion of celebrities…

One of my first jobs was assisting the wholesale manager at the newly established ready to wear company Jimmy Choo. This was a typical example of the democratisation of fashion. Jimmy Choo was and still is a bespoke craftsman with a small team who would make bespoke personal orders for royalty, celebrities and very special occasions – weddings etc. A way to bring this to the masses if you like was to mass produce it. Which is what they did – albeit to the highest quality and made in Italy it was still RTW, meaning that anyone with a couple of 100 pounds could by shoes that were also worm by Princess Diana.

We were all pretty consumed by this desire for fashion and some now say that it is the marketers that have ruined true creativity in fashion, in the quest to have lifestyle brands and so everyone can have everything we’ve taken the soul out of true craftsmanship and are forcing people to make and buy things that they don’t need. There is no real value in it anymore.

What is the importance of ethical fashion?

Ethical fashion style or ethical fashion business?

On a basic level I guess you mean clothes etc made in a fair way with materials that do not harm the environment? I think one of the problems with the term ethical is that it means different things to different people and ultimately it boils down to personal ethics and there is nothing more personal than our individual view on what is fashion – so you have a double anomaly which will be as unique as it is individual – what is ethical fashion style for me may be very different for you.

We’ll never pin this down because it’s too big.

I worry that it is still being seen as a niche or subsection of fashion for a certain person that puts personal values ahead of personal style.

For me I’m interested in businesses that are run in an ethical way, fashionability and style will follow. But this is about the core of a business and what is its purpose. The vast majority of businesses exist to make money for the people that have taken the risk in setting it up. They will look for a return on their investment of time and money so unless the person who has set it up or is in charge prioritises ethical behaviour and can convince shareholders and customers to measure that as a success I think we are a while off.

What is the importance of sustainable fashion?

For me ‘sustainable fashion’ is about a product or service that can make enough money to fulfil its objectives in a fair way over the long term without harming people or planet in the process. This should be the way that every new product and business in the fashion industry approaches innovation, development and change – and if not we are not going to have an industry that lasts much longer.

You have been in the fashion and footwear industry for about 20 years. What are the major lessons that can be passed on to people new to that industry?

Know what are your values and beliefs when you enter into the industry. Make sure you take full advantage of the knowledge that is offered to you in internships, university etc – this is your chance to build your ethical foundations. If you say you are anti-fur and then take a design internship at a company that uses fur in their collections, then ask yourself are you really anti-fur? How much do you know and understand your values? Most people are appalled at the working conditions in factories in places such as Bangladesh but as a junior designers or PR for a fast fashion company do you really know how transparent your supply chain is. If you are too scared to ask the question for fear of being sacked – a) is this really the career you want and b) – imagine how scared a machinist in Bangladesh is? She can’t afford to ask the same uncomfortable questions and probably has much more to lose than you –so, ask the question.

You lecture and write on fashion. What is the general content of the written and spoken work?

I write about the business of fashion particularly from an educational perspective. As an academic I do try to keep my own personal bias and beliefs about ethics to one side but prompt students to think for themselves, offering facts and issues for them to explore themselves. I see huge potential in the next generation to make a change, many students know that there is so much in the fashion industry that is wrong but are overwhelmed and don’t know where to start. Hence the know your own values above.

You research social enterprise in the fashion industry. What is the specific content and purpose of this research?

The term ‘social enterprises’ is very broad and in various forms they have been around for years – such as co-ops. For the most part they are a type of business that has a dual return on investment – meaning that the time and money invested must return benefits that are both financial (i.e. it should be sustainable) and social – so people must also benefit in a wider sense. My current research is based in the UK and looks specifically at a new legal structure called a Community Interest Company. There are now over 12,000 CICs registered in the UK representing a variety of sectors from music production and childcare to arts organisations and housing providers, all agreeing with the fundamental principle of asset locking any financial surpluses and using them to benefit their community rather than paying out to shareholders or personal investors. I am exploring the role that this type of business model could take in the Creative sector and hope to focus on new and existing fashion companies who want to use this structure.

You are involved with Oka-B footwear as well. What tasks and responsibilities come with this collaboration?

I really believe that you should practice what you preach and the fashion industry is changing so rapidly that sometimes the only way to do this is to continue to work in the industry as it evolves. My company imports and re sells Oka-B in the UK. We are responsible for the brands distribution and marketing here. I talk to my customers both retail and wholesale and am involved with all the day to day challenges this brings. It has been a brilliant experience – as someone who started out communicating with clients via fax and phone seeing the shift to email and then online sales and now social media – there is no better way to learn than by doing it. How customers engage with social media and the amount of quantitative data about customers is at the touch of a button now – years ago you would be lucky to see it updated and faxed on a weekly basis. It’s hard work and I have a huge empathy for any fashion start-up today, even though we are based in the UK we are subject to so many global challenges.

You co-authored Marketing Fashion Footwear: The Business of Footwear. What is the argument and evidence for the narrative and content of the text?

The footwear industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in apparel over the last 15 years or so, fuelled by fast fashion and our avaricious consumer appetite, students are now looking for specific texts about this sector and how it works. Footwear has responded to fashions cycles and trends but it is still a different industry in terms of its design, construction and manufacturing processes. How we consumer and use footwear is also different in terms of motivations and emotions. We hope that it will be a text that supports both students and new entrants to the footwear market and gives them confidence to find a fulfilling job in a very exciting industry.

What other work are you involved in at this point in time?

I love supporting and spreading the word about new ways of doing business and companies that challenge the status quo – always on the lookout for a new or better way of doing things in the fashion industry.

What meaning or personal fulfilment does all of this work bring for you?

I get huge satisfaction in seeing people connect and collaborate and prosper and if I can intervene to make that happen I will.

With regard to ethical and sustainable fashion companies, what’s the importance of them now?

There is no future for the fashion industry as it is today if there is not a paradigm shift to a better way of doing things for everyone in the supply chain. China has an aging population and will run out of cheap labour, if it hasn’t already. We can’t keep ‘racing to the bottom’ of the labour pool and squeezing profit margins. The next generation of businesses have to believe that profit can be measured in other ways such as healthy people and a healthy environment. We have to be better and we all have a huge responsibility to create the confidence to do it.

Any, feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

Don’t make ethical fashion niche – it should underpin every element of the industry and become the norm. To do this we need to keep raising the profile of what the good people do, find your allies and get on with it. Every single retweet, like and blog article discussion can add together to make a very loud noise.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

An Interview with Adrien Taylor

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/17

Tell us about yourself – family background, personal story, education, and previous professional capacities.

I’ll keep it brief. (Laughs) Because I’m not that interesting! I’m from New Zealand. I’m 26. I studied here all through high school and university. I’m half-French. I have lived in France for a few years growing up. Basically, my background is in journalism. I was in TV journalism for 4 years, until I decided to quit about a year ago. I pursued my passion for business, sustainable business in particular.

I decided to quit the career job in TV journalism and attempt to make my own thing, and grow it from nothing.

What is the importance of ethical fashion?

It’s extremely important to me. These days it’s unacceptable to claim ignorance on any product that you buy because we are more connected, more glued up, than ever before. We know how clothes in general are made in developing countries. We know the working conditions in general are not great. We know making clothing is incredibly resource intensive.

We know that waste is a huge issue. We know all of these things. You have to be blind to not see it shared on Facebook. The knowledge is out there and claiming ignorance is not cool anymore. Having said all of that, the next logical step is to make the moral decision to consume better. I think we’re seeing more and more people who are demanding that.

So, that’s fantastic. It is something that I am very passionate about, and not just for clothing, but for coffee – anything. Any resource or product, it is incredibly important to think about where it comes from, how it’s made, and what is the social and environmental impact of that product, of you buying that product.

So, that’s, basically, what ethical fashion means to me. It’s another part of wanting to be a better consumer and wanting better products in a more just, environmentally friendly way than products have been up to now.

What is the importance of sustainable fashion?

Sustainability is crucial in the 21st century. Absolutely everything that I do, and everything that we should all be demanding from businesses, because we’ve only got one planet. We aren’t taking good care of it. We can’t afford to not take care of it. As far as we know, it is the only planet we can live in at the moment.

So, all businesses in the 21st century need to be economically sustainable and environmentally sustainable. The two need to go hand-in-hand these days. So, the garment industry is incredibly resource intensive, e.g. producing cotton. We are in an age where there’s throw away fashion. People want tomorrow’s fashion yesterday.

People only holding onto clothes for a very short amount of time. It is not acceptable, not cool. It is an incredibly unsustainable way to consume. We need to consume less. That applies to our clothes.

What we’re trying to do with Offcut is consume more efficiently. So, basically, taking something that would otherwise end up in the landfill and not generating any new fabric, it’s using the bits that are leftover to create a valuable product.

It’s a very small step, a very small part, of a larger issue, but I think it is something that we should be demanding from all clothing manufacturers that we buy from.

What is Offcut for those that don’t know? What makes it unique?

Offcut is a cap company at the moment. I could extend into other things. Basically, it started from a very simple premise. My father, who is retired now, used to be in the curtain industry. I went to his warehouse last year here in New Zealand.

I asked dad, “What do you do if these bits of perfectly brand new fabric are too small to be made into curtains?” He said, “We pay someone to come pick them up a couple of times a year and bring them out to the landfill.” Then it really started from there.

I thought it was a ridiculous thing to be doing in the 21st century to be throwing out a perfectly brand new resource. I looked at a lot of curtain fabrics that weren’t really my cup of tea as curtains, but thought they’d make really good caps.

And the good thing about caps is that the panels, the individual panels, are very, very small, and so we could use bits of Offcut fabrics from a variety of different suppliers in the garment industry, curtain industry, upholsters, and a whole bunch of industries.

That’s where the idea started 7 or 8 months ago. Basically, it has grown from there. We make 5 panel caps from Offcut and discarded fabrics destined for the landfill. We plant a tree with every cap sold in partnership with Trees for the Future.

What is Trees for the Future?

Trees for the future is a great American-based non-profit, which works with farmers in sub-Saharan African countries to grow and plant trees with them, for them. Fruit trees, it’s the awesome benefits of offsetting carbon dioxide, sequestering carbon dioxide, but they also provide fruit and income for families in developing countries in Africa.

It’s a fantastic partnership. It’s a fantastic charity. We’re very proud and pleased to be working with them to make the small step of sponsoring a tree for every cap sold.

Now, you have a co-founder and a dog. What’s their relation to the theme of Offcut Caps?

Yea! We’ve got a co-founder who’s a dog. He’s the CEO. He’s Pedro the dog. We believe he is the world’s first dog CEO. We’re very proud of him. We’re an equal opportunities employer. The three of us founded Offcut last year.

Matt is my best mate. He lives in Dubai. Pedro is another good mate of ours. The three of us got together and thought it was a good idea. We decided Pedro would be the best, not person, but dog to lead us. He became CEO.

I love hearing these individual stories. It’s not only the company, the logo, and the advertising. There tends to be a narrative for each company.

Yea, that’s right. I think we’re trying to create a strong story. Obviously, we are trying not to take ourselves too seriously. We take what we do seriously, but we don’t take ourselves seriously. We are not planning to change the world with caps. It’s just caps, but Offcut could be an example of what a company can be in the 21st century.

We are building a financially viable business from other peoples’ waste. The hope is that we can serve as an example for people much smarter than myself that can make real differences with renewable energy or electric cars. Other sustainable initiatives. We think that’s fantastic. That’s the whole point and the Offcut business model.

That’s why the CEO is the dog.

Let’s get to the denouement, with respect to other projects, what other work are you involved in at this point in time?

I do freelance journalism work. I co-directed a film, a climate documentary, last year. It was called 30 Million. We filmed in Bangladesh. It was four of us. We were funded by the UN. I’m still involved in environmental and climate change communications as part of my passion, raising awareness around climate change.

I run another company that I founded as well last year called Bamtino.com, which is a custom furniture procurement platform. That’s about it. I’m busy with three or four different things at the same time.

With regard to ethical and sustainable fashion companies, what’s the importance of them to you?

I can only speak for Offcut. What’s important for me with Offcut? It is to be a genuine brand. I think, unfortunately, there’s a lot of greenwashing these days. People can see right through it, especially if you don’t practice what you preach. People can tear you apart.

You have to be a genuine brand that stands by what you say you stand by. It is something that I really conscious of with Offcut. With Offcut, I don’t want it to be known as an environmentally sustainable brand. I don’t want people to buy our caps because they like the sustainability side of it.

I don’t think that stands up on its own two feet. I want people to buy our caps because they are the best caps on the scene, or the coolest. The rarest and most limited edition five-panel caps that people have ever seen because they are contributing something positive to the environment. At least, they are not contributing to garments that are costing the planet or people a lot.

So, that’s how I’d summarize it, as to what’s important to me.

Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

We covered everything to be honest. Again, I suppose it is what I was saying before. We are not claiming to change the world with caps, but hopefully people can get inspired by the business model and realize that in every single industry there are resources that we need to be seeing as classified as waste because we’re incredibly inefficient. Most industries can maximize using resources to their full potential.

I do hope to pay myself a salary from this, but, also, to have people look at everything they do in their industry and take steps by saying, “Wait, is there anything that we can do in our industry?” We can, ultimately, maximize our revenues streams. To maximize resources, it doesn’t only make environmental sense. It makes economic sense as well. I think there’s an incredible scope for businesses to flourish if they can appreciate that and maximize resources.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

An Interview with Karen Warner

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/16

Tell us about yourself – family background, personal story, education, and previous professional capacities.

I was born in Edinburgh, in 1969, but grew up in the Scottish Highlands, one of the most rugged and beautiful parts of the UK.

I studied journalism in Edinburgh, then moved to the Shetland Islands, in the far north of the country, for my first job. I intended to stay about a year, thinking I’d move back to the city, but somehow I’ve never really left. I worked at a local newspaper then was one of the founding members of a news agency, writing daily articles for the UK press. A lot of our stories were about the North Sea oil industry, and following the Braer Oilspill, which hit the islands in 1993, I co-wrote a book, Innocent Passage, The wreck of the tanker Braer, with my work partner Jonathan Wills.

In my early 20s I left for three months backpacking in China after booking a flight on a whim one wet, dark January. It was my first time out of Europe and I remember arriving in Beijing with no plan, being bundled into a rickshaw and being cycled down the backstreets of the city for about an hour, with no clue where I was being taken. The light, the smells, the different sounds were all so new to me, it was utterly thrilling and I have continued to love travelling on my own.

Within a year of that first visit I had taken a year’s job at China daily, as a “polisher”, editing the stories written by Chinese journalists. I worked there again a few years later, but that time with my husband Pete and son Leo along with me. Living in Beijing in the late 1990s was an amazing time for us; we explored as much as we could, walking and cycling for hours around the old hutongs, the courtyard houses; taking trains, buses and horses and carts to remote towns and villages, often chosen based on a random recommendation or by sticking a pin in a map.

When I was pregnant with my second son Cosmo we returned home to Shetland via a few months in New Zealand. When the kids were small, I decided to retrain as a teacher, which is a job I still do today.

We headed East again as a family in 2008, backpacking across China, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and India for several months. Friends thought we were a bit mad taking our kids (aged 7 and 11 at the time) out of school for so long, but they were up for it and I was pretty sure we’d have some life-changing adventures together. (We did…from being trapped in a car by a swollen river in a deadly flood, to our youngest son dislocating his neck playing football… but mostly our experiences and the people we met were fantastic.)

When the money for travelling ran out, we took jobs in an international school in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. It was set in a botanical garden, but close to China’s massive factory belt, producer of a vast percentage of the world’s manufactured goods. In contrast to these huge factory complexes driven by Western desires for cheaper, quicker goods, we often took trips to small towns and villages where traditional skills were still used to create beautiful fabrics, art, furniture…even simple kitchen utensils, carved from bamboo or a twisted root. Around this time the seed of an idea to find an organic source of exquisite Chinese silk was forming.

We returned to Europe, spending three years teaching in Berlin, where I was again involved in curriculum development within an International Baccalaureate (IB) school, before finally making it back home to our tiny 400-year-old croft house by the Atlantic Ocean last August. Leo has now left to go to university in Glasgow, but Pete, Cosmo and I live here with our rescue cat and two ducks.

What is the importance of ethical fashion?

When I was growing up, ethics and fashion weren’t really ever connected. We bought stuff in Oxfam and other charity shops, but that was more to do with having no money, rather than concerns about the fashion industry. Now, having seen and met so many people on my travels without the advantages we’ve grown up with, and who daily face more challenges than most of us encounter in a lifetime, I have no excuses not to be as ethical as I can as a consumer and producer. Watching an old lady sitting on the street, struggling to sew zips on a pile of jeans, you can’t help but wonder, ‘what if that was my granny?’ We have to try to do the right thing by people, wherever they happen to have been born.

What is the importance of sustainable fashion?

I really applaud the whole “30 wears” idea put forward by Livia Firth here in the UK to encourage people to buy smarter and hold onto clothes for longer. In reality I suspect most people out with the fashion industry and unfazed by trends have many pieces they’ve worn on and off for decades. If something is made well, to last, then it has sustainability built in. If it passes through a second hand shop at least once in its life, then that’s sustainable. Fast fashion never makes it that far.

For me, sustainable fashion is about two or three things. It is about using natural resources carefully, avoiding the use of damaging products and practices as far as possible and it is about having a sustainable workforce of skilled, fairly paid people, who can feel proud of their day’s work. It is up to industry leaders to make sure this happens and consumers to keep the pressure on.

You are married and have sons. How does being married and having sons change perspectives over time?

I have no idea! But they’re all great people, and I’m sure that rubs off on me!

You spend a great deal of time gardening. What is the personal salience of gardening to you?

I find it calming and meditative to be outside, not speaking to anyone, just digging or weeding. I’m an all-weather gardener now I have my own boilersuit and oilskins.

As a teacher, I know how important it is to include gardening, sustainability and the environment in every curriculum. I’ve read worrying reports this year on the vast numbers of young people in the UK who have never experienced being in nature. Studies from Scandinavia are now backing up what seems like an obvious connection between time spent in nature and better communities and lower crime. I never regret a moment spent outside in my garden.

What is your favourite part of gardening?

I love the harvest…going out with a big bowl and scissors and snipping off leaves, herbs and flowers for a gorgeous salad. I’ve also just made my second batch of rhubarb wine and my neighbour Eddie, who is my go-to expert, has just given me his grapevine prunings to turn into Folly wine. Home-grown food and wine with friends, in the garden. Nothing nicer!

What about favourite kind of gardening?

Here in Shetland I love trying to beat the wild weather, like the regular hurricane-force winds that liven up the long, dark, winter, so we can really enjoy the garden during the almost constant summer daylight (we’re above 61 degrees north here…in line with Anchorage and St Petersburg). When we lived in Berlin, my gardening was confined to a balcony, although I did manage to squeeze a few pots onto the street below. Berlin was where I first encountered guerrilla gardening and I like to think, were I to live in a city again, I’d be out there, secretly creating little oases among the urban sprawl.

What other work are you involved in at this point in time?

Alongside developing Susurrus, my organic silk pillowcase business, I continue to teach. I’ve just finished a contract in a two-teacher rural primary school, where I taught primary 1, 2 and 3. After the summer holidays I start a new job teaching communication skills to young adults in a local college.

With regard to ethical and sustainable fashion companies, what’s the importance of them to you?

I have a lot of respect for the many ethical and sustainable companies who are now working within the fashion industry, especially those who started out long before the current trend, like People Tree. These companies are creating monitoring systems, standards, markets and expectations that ease the way for the rest of us.

When I set up Susurrus it took me many months to find a source of certified-organic silk in China. That was crucial for me…I wasn’t going to set up this company using silk from just any Chinese producer, even though that would have been simple and a lot cheaper. Part of my idea was to show that good, ethical, sustainable materials and products can come from China.

Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

If only shopping and manufacturing habits could change as quickly as catwalk trends, all fashion would soon be ethical and sustainable. Imagine that…this season’s must-have accessory … a clear conscience.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

An Interview with Dara Ambriz

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/15

Tell us about yourself – family background, personal story, education, and previous professional capacities.

I am a native New Mexican, born and raised in the Land of Enchantment. I come from a tightly knit family full of artists. Living here you can’t help not be one with the rich landscapes, the diversity of the people, the beautiful sunsets and magically star filled skies.

As a girl I was introduced to the opportunity of fashion design as a career, through the gift of Fashion Plates. This gift set was my creative outlet for design, and mixing colors, patterns and textiles on paper. I spent endless hours designing through this medium. I took the next step into actually creating my own clothing after my parents divorced while I was in the fifth grade. When that life event occurred, I spent countless summers with my maternal grandparents. That’s when my grandmother taught me to sew. It was a wonderful bonding experience and helped me to continue my love for fashion and design. This occurred during my early teenage years, in middle school.

Middle School, I feel, is that awkward time, when you are trying to find your own identity while still trying to fit in with your peers. For girls, acceptance and self-esteem play a huge role in your life at this time and for me without a clothing allowance, creating my own clothing was the way for me to create my own style. As I went on to high school, I was serious about following a path in fashion design. My junior year I signed up for the fashion course and club, only to be disappointed when the class was canceled due to budget cuts and the club disbanded due to lack of interest.

Because I didn’t want to leave the state of New Mexico and the lack of designs schools locally, I followed my second love: studying people through psychology and communications. This led me to work in the field of Human Resources and Community Relations. Through this work, I was able to engage and empower employees to assist them develop their leadership skills and impact the community through non-profit volunteer work.

While I wasn’t working in the fashion sector, it was never too far away for me. This role ended in 2013 and that’s when a ticket to New York Fashion Week brought me back to my first love.

Seeing designers bring their creations to life on the world’s stage inspired me to invest into an independent retailer and learn about the business. I learned that I had a keen eye for fashion, buying and styling. I bought out of the Los Angeles market, so I began to appreciate slow fashion, lines that used ecofriendly materials and products that were made domestically or through sustainable manufacturing processes. I loved working one-on-one with customers to help them find the right look. It was incredible to see their transformation, feeling confident and empowered with my assistance. I had built a clientele base, helping people with their shopping and styling needs, and one afternoon I had a conversation with someone who asked me, “Why aren’t you designing?” I thought it was an odd question because he didn’t know that this was a childhood dream, so I responded, asking him, “Why do you say that? You’ve never seen anything I’ve created.” He stated matter-of-factly, “You have an eye for it. You’d make a killing.”

A few months later, I started designing and creating for myself. Being in small business, in order to market the company, I attended many social and networking events (there are countless numbers of them in Albuquerque, NM). Evening wear can get expense and especially when it’s something you don’t wear over and over again. I started making outfits for these events. It was great because I was truly unique in what I wore and received a number of compliments from friends. However, I was never quite sure if they were being just being kind or truly being honest.

Then shop closed. I was devastated and I wasn’t sure I wanted to move forward in this space. I had a conversation with a friend who challenged me. She said, “I’m not going to let you give up on this dream. I want to commission you to create two outfits for upcoming events.” I did and was with her at one of the events when she was stopped over and over again to be told how gorgeous her dress was. It was the perfect market research. That’s when Hopeless + Cause Atelier was launched. It’s a social wear line with a social conscious.

There are three tenants of the line. I want it to be a transformative experience for the wearer by helping them to feel empowered, confident, comfortable while making an impact on the scene (this comes from my background in psychology and communications and I see fashion through that lens). I want people to know who made their clothes and use sustainable textiles and recycled/upcycled materials in the process. One of the companies, I collaborate with is Batiks for Life. The founder, Sara Corry (who also writes for Trusted Clothes), created this company to provide economic empowerment to women in Ghana, Africa while the sales of the batik medical scrubs support health care access to people in that country. I purchase custom batik from her to create my Caprice line. Finally, giving back is hugely important to me. I believe in the work that non-profits do to change the world for the better, so 10% of the sales of each piece benefit a non-profit.

Since its inception, Hopeless + Cause Atelier has grown through word of mouth marketing and it’s moving at the right speed for me. I’ve hosted a couple of runway shows for the local New Mexico market. For the first time this October, the line will be showing outside of New Mexico during FWLA’s (Fashion Week Los Angeles) Spring/Summer 2017 Discovery Session. I’m excited to work with FWLA and out of the Los Angeles market because it will put me closer to more options for domestic manufacturing and sourcing of eco-friendly and sustainable textiles.

You have background in psychology and communications. There are aspects of having a designer’s eye from the story told by you. If someone has a designer’s eye, and if they’re dealing with people a lot of the time, what is the intersection between those two? Between knowing what will look good with a particular individual and for the individual to understand that.

I think you have to understand your clients comfort zone and what they are willing to try. I then push them out, just a bit. I had a customer visit me who I did a stylist session with. She told me she loved black and wasn’t a fan of too much color. Listening to her I pulled a couple of black options. However, looking at her skin and hair coloring I also pulled some earthy tone colors and asked her to try them on just for fun. She did and she was amazed of how good they looked on her. She and I have become good friends and always teases me, saying to herself on the days we get together, “I’m seeing Dara today. I better step up my look today.”

I had another customer send me a wonderful thank you note. It stated, “Thank you again for the beautiful dress. I felt like a movie star and received so many compliments on the dress!!” You can bring your personality through in whatever you wear and it doesn’t have to be drastic. The way that you can carry yourself because of your armor, because of what you’re wearing, has a profound effect on the way you arrive on the scene for an event or a job interview. I am happy that I can provide that kind of service.

Those are important points. When individuals go into an interview and don’t feel comfortable in their own skin, by which I mean the clothes they’re wearing at the moment, it can detract from the full focus of the interview at the moment. If it is some important job interview, it matters.

Yes! I’ve been blessed with countless stories of men and women who have told me how I helped them their look. One woman in particular came back and said, “I got the job. I wouldn’t have done it if you wouldn’t have spent the time with me.”

With regard to organizations/companies, and so on, like Trusted Clothes and Production Mode, what’s the importance of them to you?

These types of companies are helping the general public better understand where clothing is coming from and who’s making it. There’s such a movement around sourcing organic and local foods (the importance of what we put in our bodies). I love that I’m starting to see that happen in what we put on our bodies. Companies like Trusted Clothes, helps create and highlight transparency. I am continuing to learn and comprehend all of it. From fast fashion, like Zara, H&M and Forever21. If that shirt costs $5. How much is the person who is making that shirt being paid? Looking at supply chain.

I’m also looking at the other side. I love high end designers, but if you are charging $300 for a shirt that uses man-made materials and is manufactured in Bangladesh or China. I always wonder, “how much are you making off the garment?” I have a hard time with that. Through Hopeless + Cause Atelier I hope to create price points that people who believe in the slow fashion movement can afford: liveable wages, sustainable practices and investing back into the community.

One of the big things is to your earlier point about transparency. Many people don’t know the supply chain, the production line, and the working conditions for the people that make their garments, especially when it comes to decent pay for them to have a decent life. It comes down to varying considerations. What do you consider valuable? How much do you put on each variable in the eventual calculation? To close, what places would you like to take your company?

I would love to be able manufacture in New Mexico. I would like to slowly grow the line into more customizable, ready-to-wear pieces. There are a couple of manufacturing options and one I found a non-profit organization working with women to transition them out of homelessness. I want to be thoughtful in the growth of the company to make sure it is sustainable. A company that can meet the demands and continues with the tenets of the company set out by me. I am hoping by showing in LA later this year that I can grow in nearby markets like LA, Denver and Phoenix who appreciate the slow fashion movement.

Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

I think by continuing the conversation with writers like you, Scott, Sara Corry and the entire team at Trusted Clothes, slow fashion won’t be a niche market, but instead the norm.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

An Interview with Stylianee

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/14

Before diving into the main conversation, what’s some of your background – personal, educational, professional, and so on? Tell us about yourself.

I grew up in Greece, studied cinema, theatre and cultural management and lived in England and France until I ended up in Luxembourg. I’ve worked mostly in content creation and film/theatre reviewing, then switched to fashion design; that was the moment I realised how creation is something divine. Literally. You are out in the streets and you bump on a girl wearing a dress you have designed. It’s the best feeling ever. That’s why after some time in corporate administration, and after being haunted by this creative quest, and animating upcycling workshops in Luxembourg, I decided to combine purposefully creation and ethics for my startup WHAT.EVE.WEARS.

You have self-defined as an “ethical fashion evangelist” with a passion for “all things sustainable, ethical and conscious” in addition to “raising awareness and advocating on upcycling, recycling, swapping, [and] mending.” What defines each title and activity?

I always loved the environment; already at school I was part of the environmental group, where we were learning about composting waste and going tree-planting. I believe a certain awareness was always in me, but it took a while to make the connection between Fast Fashion and environment and realise that the fashion industry pollutes the environment to such a degree, only second to the oil industry. Not to mention the unjust work practices involved i.e. child labour and all the rest.

What brings these self-definitions together?

All of the above are one thing in essence: trying to buy less, buy better, produce less waste and be conscious to the whole production chain behind the garments and all the products we buy for that sake. Sustainability is all about that. Making sure that the way we are doing things is the right one and does not replenish resources, whether they are natural or human.

These connect to your brand as well. You founded and developed WHAT.EVE.WEARS. You have a blogby the same name. What was the original inspiration for this brand?

The idea behind, as I said, is to create the alternative to fast fashion collections. My love for natural fibres and sustainability took this idea further, and my need to help my home country, made me decide I would like to produce the collection there. Greece, and especially the area of Thessaloniki has a track record in fashion production, even if due to cheap labour in the Balkan area and due to the economic crisis the fashion industry now is not blooming like before.

What about its name?

I was lucky with the name; many people get it and love it! The Biblical Eve, back in the Garden of Eden before eating the apple, was walking around naked. She had no need for clothes, not even for the fig leaf actually; that’s the painters’ invention. I come and make a hypothesis: if Eve would need to wear some clothes back in the Garden of Eden, what type of clothes would they be? And I’m coming up with an answer: Eve would wear ethical and sustainable fashion, garments that are not harming the environment, the animals or the workers involved in their production. It makes sense, don’t you think?

The Spring/Summer 2016 collection is coming up. What is the theme for this particular collection?

It is a capsule collection, no more than 6 – 7 pieces. The theme was innocence with some vintage elements. I’ve chosen earth colours, romantic lace, which gave some sweet, girly pieces. I also love unisex fashion, so I do have two pieces that I wear most of the time, much more neutral and can be literally worn by girls or boys alike.

You gave a talk entitled Ethical Fashion at Ideas from Europe. What is ethical fashion? What is sustainable fashion?

Ethical and sustainable fashion is what we call Slow Fashion and call it this way because it’s the opposite to Fast Fashion. It encompasses countless elements, but the goal is to create a system, which can be supported indefinitely in terms of human impact on the environment and social responsibility (and yes, that is from Wikipedia). This can be translated in so many ways: produce locally, support artisans, create vegan or cruelty-free, upcycle, reuse and repurpose last season stock, buy vintage clothing, work with no-waste patterns, timeless design, polymorphic clothes and there’s so much room for experiment when it comes to using sustainable textiles. It’s a totally new field and a very exciting one!

Exclusive Shot from the upcoming capsule collection: Vegan top made from 100% Organic Cotton, lace and wooden buttons.

What is their importance with salient examples?

The importance of sustainable fashion is quite clear: we are creating a better, more just world of fashion, just for all parties involved. We are aiming for transparency together with the Fashion Revolution movement, because transparency is the only way we can convince corporations to be accountable for their production lines. We encourage customers to ask corporations #WhoMadeMyClothes and we, new designers dedicated to ethical fashion are ready to answer #ImadeYourClothes and show the good working conditions and give every single detail related to ethically sourced materials and the like. The end customer who wears our products can make sure he is not ‘carrying’ the pain of others in his shoulders.

WHAT.EVE.WEARS is on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

We will launch the full website very soon. We are also ready to deliver corporate wear like aprons or t-shirts, all from organic cotton and produced ethically in Greece. Also, our story is well-documented on Social Media, so whoever is interested in ethical and sustainable fashion would find it useful to follow us.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

An Interview with Connie Pillon

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/13

Tell us about yourself – family background, personal story, education, and previous professional capacities.

My childhood experiences compelled me to look for deeper meaning in life, starting at a very young age. However, I was fortunate enough to have experienced an authentic kind of love from my mother early on, which gave me a strong foundation to work with. I was always very interested in the spiritual realm, and have had my share of paranormal experiences.

I was strongly influenced by a few books, such as The Prophet, The Road Less Travelled, The Spirits Book, Mastery of Love, and The Power of Now. I found the work of Carl Jung to be very informative as well, since I personally believe our highest purpose in life is to heal our own shadow.

When I graduated from high school, I felt a strong calling to choose a career that involved helping others, and I enrolled in nursing at the University of Windsor. Although, nursing was not my true passion at the time, I was more interested in creative writing and visual arts. Unfortunately, I was misguided, and believed nursing would be a more meaningful profession, since I would be directly helping others. This was a mistake. I would later drop out of nursing after realising I had made the wrong choice. It wasn’t until much later in life that I realized that I could help others best by following my own passion and purpose, which would have allowed me to tap into an unlimited amount of inspiration.

After dropping out of university, I worked as a housekeeper in the special care section (lock up area) of a nursing home, and then later in a shelter for abused women. I witnessed a lot of death and suffering, and it changed my perspective on life.

I went back to college, although still misguided about what path to pursue. A few life coaching sessions might have been life changing at that point, to help set me in the right direction. However, I ended up eventually graduating from a Business – Accounting program, where I studied economics, accounting, marketing and organizational behaviour.

I went on to work in finance and administration at a non-profit organization called Inspire Health, which planted a powerful seed in me about the importance of incorporating the ‘body, mind, spirit’ connection into the workplace.

I left after having a child, and later went on to work in public practice for several years. After doing bookkeeping for more than fifty companies, where I had to record every transaction that went in and out of businesses, I gained deep insight into how companies operate. A bookkeeper truly sees all. I suffered a lot of workplace bullying and exploitation. This was hard, as I was already highly sensitive, like a lobster walking around with no shell. Equality and ethical business practices became a strong priority for me, and I recognized the need to spread the word about corporate social responsibility. With so many business leaders operating unconsciously, I decided to set up a facebook page called Corporate Conscience to help educate people.

While working in payroll and human resources for different companies, my eyes were wide open to the fact that employee wellness = company wellness. Unfortunately, the leadership styles I witnessed were often damaging to employee morale. I took time to study various types of leadership, and gained a strong interest in coaching. I enrolled in a coaching program at Coaching Cognition, and obtained a life coaching certificate. Coaches are considered to be on the same level as the client, I value the equality in that. They also believe that the client has all the answers within themselves, the coach just has to ask the right questions.

Each of us has a unique set of strengths, I have always been very sensitive to energy, and felt very empathic toward others. I believe intuition is the language of the soul. Life coaching has allowed me to use these gifts to help others.

What is the importance of ethical fashion?

The fashion industry is influencing our youth, and setting the standard for body-image and appearance. It is a great responsibility for fashion designers and clothing companies. May their message be one of self-respect.

Clothing is a necessity, and can be a creative form of self-expression, but it is hard to feel good about wearing clothes made by children forced into slave labour, in a developing country. These clothes might as well be blood-stained from the suffering endured in sweatshops.

What is the importance of sustainable fashion?

If we can bring environmental sustainability into the fashion industry, we will have solved a major crisis, since fast fashion is the second largest polluter next to big oil. Every company should be measuring its carbon footprint.

Companies who are exhausting people and the planet will only experience short-term profits, and also risk getting a lot of negative publicity on social media. Individuals, and other companies are also less likely to invest in businesses with a reputation for having unethical business practices.

What about fair trade?

There are thousands of products that carry the fair trade mark, which ensures that people at the end of the chain, e.g. farmers, are not being exploited.

Consumers can help improve lives in developing countries by purchasing fair trade products. Fairtrade also encourages farmers to use environmentally sustainable practices.

Textile manufacturers are beginning to sign up to the new Fairtrade Textile Standard, which focuses on workers’ rights and working conditions. Factories participating in the program are also offered training on environmental management, social concerns, and health & safety.

You self-define as a life coach, writer, and activist for ethical fashion. In fact, you have some musings, and spoken word and poetry on the website as well. What is ethical economy?

An ethical economy represents a win for all, including consumers, companies, employees, communities, and the environment.

Why these self-definitions?

My intention is to inspire people to become the highest version of themselves both personally and professionally. I hope to make a meaningful contribution to the world through writing and life coaching. I took an excellent program to learn a coaching style of communication, which I find empowers people to find their own inner truth. The secret lies in asking powerful questions. The coaching process can help take people from where they are now, to where they want to be.

I also have a passion for spoken word, it is an excellent way for people to express themselves, particularly our youth.

You run the Facebook page entitled Corporate Conscience. What is the importance of corporate social responsibility – or a corporate conscience (as they are defined legally as immortal persons, by implication of the law)?

Yes, we have all seen how giving a corporation the rights of “personhood”, while at the same time having no personal liability and accountability, can create a psychopathic ‘entity’. However, a corporation can be created by ethical business leaders, and have a system that is built on integrity.

Consumer influence is vital. Thanks to social media, corporations are frequently challenged by the public now. Recently, there have been stories of CEOs taking pay cuts to raise wages for workers, there is an exciting movement toward conscious capitalism.

What other work are you involved in at this point in time?

By day, I work in accounting and administration to make ends meet, it is a practical way to support my family for now, and takes up a great deal of my time. In my own personal journey, it somehow makes sense to work with numbers in order to earn money. I work hard, and it keeps me humble.

It is not part of my spiritual path to make money from spiritual/life coaching, nor from advocating for corporate social responsibility. I would accept donations for life and business coaching under certain circumstances, although it hasn’t happened yet. Money and career success is not the purpose behind it.

What meaning or personal fulfillment does this work bring for you?

All the writing and coaching I have done until now has been voluntary, in the hopes that I am making a positive contribution to the world. This is all I want.

I have worked to plant seeds of empathy and ethics in my everyday life for twenty years now, both personally and professionally. I try to be a living example of the things I write about, and I have made a lot of people irritated in my lifetime as a result. Yet I have also had some very meaningful experiences. I will continue to speak my truth wherever I go, even if it means I am labelled as a trouble-maker once in awhile, for challenging the status quo.

With regard to ethical and sustainable fashion companies, what’s the importance of them to you?

Ethical and sustainable companies can act as role models to business leaders who may later follow in their footsteps. They demonstrate how sustainable business practices are vital for ‘longterm’ success.

Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

Just want to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my story.

I feel fortunate to have been able to make a contribution to the Trusted Clothes blog. It is an amazing organization, that is paving the way for mindful business practices in the fashion industry.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

An Interview with Kestrel Jenkins

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/11

Tell us about yourself – family background, personal story, education, and previous professional capacities.

I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin along the Mississippi River. For my family, being outside and enjoying the natural world was huge. Hiking and biking were our most common pastimes whenever we had a break from helping out at my parents’ restaurant and hotel. I spent a lot of days working with my family – serving customers, cleaning rooms, and connecting with travelers on their way through.

At university, I studied Global Studies, Women’s Studies, and International Journalism. Once I learned about the way that products, ideas and people move around the world, supply chains and their intricacies became hugely interesting to me. Post undergraduate studies, I secured an internship with fair trade fashion pioneer People Tree in London. This experience was my turning point – once I had this glimpse of the industry, I was hooked and all in.

I was humbled to receive a Fulbright Scholarship to teach English in Madrid, Spain for a year. Following this experience, I moved to New York City to work with Inhabitat & Ecouterre. From there, I’ve worked with several publications and companies in the space – including the GreenShows, EcoSalon, Fashioning Change and FashionMeGreen. Today, I also serve on the board of the nonprofit 1to1 Movement, which works to help each person find their own way to change the world.

What is the importance of ethical fashion?

Fashion’s impact on people globally is massive. The garment industry employs around 40 million people globally, 85% of them being women. As some of the lowest paid workers in the world, people working along the global garment supply chain regularly face violations of human rights. It’s not a question of the importance of ethical fashion, it’s the question of how we can all support a better fashion industry that respects the people that work to make the clothes we wear.

What is the importance of sustainable fashion?

The waste that’s associated with the textile industry is mind blowing. Today, the average American generates 82 pounds of textile waste per year. The big bummer about it is a lot of that waste could be recycled.

It’s all connected. In today’s world, buying organic food has become a somewhat mainstream concept. When it comes to clothing, we are still disconnected from the stories. What we wear has the potential to also be a reflection of our values. Farming does not only yield food products; fiber comes from the field as well. The more we can understand these overlapping realities, the more we can be connected to not only what we put in our bodies, but also what we put on our bodies.

What is AWEAR World?

AWEAR World is a platform that inspires us to think about where our clothes are made, what they are made of, and who made them. Through features of real people, their stories and the stories behind their clothes, AWEAR World gives us opportunities to learn more, in a community-oriented way, where we can help each other along the journey.

What makes AWEAR World unique?

AWEAR World empowers us to celebrate the positive ways we can all do something to affect the future of our planet and the humans who live here. Little things matter. While the realities of the fashion industry can be overwhelming and disturbing, we each have the ability to make small choices that can gradually, when tackled together, contribute to big change.

What other work are you involved in at this point in time?

I host the podcast Conscious Chatter which has a focus on fashion and the players in the garment supply chain. We trended on iTunes for two+ months and were featured on the iTunes homepage.

Past guests have included TV host Tim Gunn (HEMP), designer Mara Hoffman (MARA HOFFMAN + MINDFULNESS), cofounder of Fashion Revolution Orsola de Castro (FASHION REVOLUTION), winner of Project Runway Season 8 Gretchen Jones (DESIGNER DILEMMA), Founder of Project 333 Courtney Carver (TINY WARDROBE), author Elizabeth Cline (WASTE), Director of Social Consciousness at Eileen Fisher Amy Hall (SUPPLY CHAINS), organic farmer LaRhea Pepper (COTTON) and more.

What meaning or personal fulfillment does this work bring for you?

Being part of the sustainable / ethical fashion conversation is my life. As cliché as it sounds, helping tell stories about the fashion industry and how we can all play a positive role in its future is literally who I am. It’s something that’s become part of my soul and how I find purpose in my life.

With regard to organizations/companies, and so on, like Trusted Clothes and AWEAR

World, what’s the importance of them to you?

Knowledge is power. The more access to information we have – in an easily digestible way – the more we all have the opportunity to make positive choices that can influence change in the fashion industry and beyond.

License

Copyright

2022-03-28

Dishing Washing Insight and Recycling

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/05

I had an experience. And I thought it might be relevant to you. It has to do with when I was doing the dishes just this late afternoon. I was doing the dishes and it occurred to me: if I’m putting the hot water into a sink, and then the soap, and then mixing it with the soap and throwing in the dishes and all the other junk, and then washing it away, where’s all this going?

It occurred to me that this is probably a very pervasive feeling and thought for other people. But this can be applied to other areas. What do I mean by that? Well, I mean the fact that individuals that use things will tend to be using them thoughtlessly, and I am no different than most of others, or others that aren’t even in this kind of movement.

I missed the very obvious fact that anything that I use will tend to be used in other areas by other people and they themselves will not necessarily know where it goes, why it’s used, and what happens to it. How mindful are we in using and consuming resources that the planet provides?

So here are ways we can recycle water at home:

1. Use a Shower Bucket

The shower bucket is probably the simplest way to recycle water at home. When you turn on the tap for your shower, the water that comes out takes some time to heat up to a comfortable temperature. Next time you’re warming up the shower, stick a bucket under the running tap until you’re ready to get in. You’ll be surprised at how much water you collect!

2. Install a Rain Barrel

Skip that whole municipal water system for watering your garden and collect rainwater instead. Rain barrel setups can be super simple or more complicated, depending on how much time you can invest and how handy you are. The best collection method that I’ve found is setting up the barrel underneath your gutter’s downspout, so it collects the most water when it rains.

3. Create a Rain Garden

Rain gardens take advantage of land’s natural water runoff to nourish the plants that live there. Unlike a regular garden that needs watering, a rain garden is constructed so that it reuses water that would otherwise run off into the sewage systems. The bonus is that by diverting that water from the storm drain, you’re giving your city’s overtaxes sewage system a break.

4. Save that Pasta Water

Next time you’re making a pot of pasta, don’t dump all of that precious water down the drain! Instead, set your colander over another large pot to collect all of that precious H2O. Once the water has cooled, you can use it on your garden or to water your house plants.

5. Save Water from Washing Veggies

Just like when you’re boiling pasta, washing veggies uses water that’s totally re-usable. Place your colander over a large pot to collect the water while you’re washing. You can use your collected water on the garden or for flushing the toilet.

6. Install a Gray Water System

Gray water is waste water that doesn’t contain sewage. Think the water that goes down the drain when you wash your hands or do laundry. A gray water system diverts that water, so it doesn’t go to waste. A good example might be diverting water from your shower drain for flushing the toilet. Grey water systems can get pretty complicated, and just like any plumbing setup, they do require maintenance.

7. Collect the Overflow from Watering Plants

When you water your potted plants, have you noticed that extra water usually runs out of those drainage holes at the bottom of the pot? Don’t let that water go to waste! Place your plants in deep trays to collect that water. You can use the runoff from your larger plants to water the smaller ones.

8. Reuse Excess Drinking Water

Got an almost-empty water glass that’s been sitting out too long to drink? Feed it to a thirsty house plant instead! You can also use unsweet tea on your plants. If the drink that’s been sitting is sweetened, you can pour it on plants in the garden, but don’t use it on house plants unless you like ants!

Our consumption patterns relate to one another in very different ways, but the consumption patterns can be unsustainable. So, it was a moment that actually made me pause and stop washing the damn cutting knife (no cuts!), but, even so, this can hopefully be a little bit of a cutting insight.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

Zimbabwe and Fashion

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/04

I want to talk a little bit today about a topic close to the hearts of many people, but with a little bit of background via provision of context. And it is something of interest to me, too, with respect to the African Diaspora. It’s about an individual nation within the African Diaspora. I want to talk about Zimbabwe and its fashion industry. Zimbabwe is a country in Southern Africa that is landlocked. Some notable areas of the country are the Zambezi River and Victoria Falls in addition to the Patoka Gorge.

The capital is Harare, and the current president of Zimbabwe is Robert Mugabe. He runs the country with a population totaling 14.15 million people. In fact, he’s been President since 1980. That’s a long time. The accepted currencies are the US dollar, the Euro, the Botswana Pula, the Pound Sterling, and the South African Rand. The official languages are English, Ndebele, and Shona. Zimbabwe has a rich, and varied history including a Precolonial Era, the Colonial Era, the Unilateral Declaration of Independence and the Civil War, and the Independence Era.

The climate is tropical. Some of the flora and fauna of the region include evergreen and hardwood forests, and extends to over 350 species of mammals that can be found there, and even 500 species of bird and over 130 fish species. In addition to this, there are some international human rights concerns in terms of the organization positions reports such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch examining violations of rights for food, freedom of assembly and movement, shelter, and even protection of the law.

One of the main points of strength in the country relates to the high adult literacy rate of Zimbabwe within the African Diaspora. According to 2013 reports, the literacy rate is the highest in the continent of Africa at about 90.7% for the adult population although, half of Zimbabwe’s children have not progressed beyond primary school. In addition, some of the wealthier members of the population send their children to independent schools as opposed to some of the schools run by the government. So, with that in mind and in terms of providing a context for some of the culture, not necessarily in terms of pluses and minuses, this, rather, gives a context and complement to the presentation of fashion in Zimbabwe.

This is an interesting topic to me. I believe that it might be of interest to others. Sustainability is a challenge for the entire world. Fashion is a core aspect of her culture. To begin with some of the aspects of Zimbabwean fashion and culture, we can look at some of the historic precedents in the long history of the culture for instance, the traditional fashion and culture.

You can also show marital status with a married woman traditionally wearing a blanket over the shoulders with thick beaded hoops of grass, grass that is twisted. This can also include copper rings or brass rings around the neck, legs, or arms. The colors can range from blues, greens, reds, yellows, and browns. It is an important note that the head covering is an external sign of respect for the husbands. Little girls might wear beaded aprons or beaded skirts. Men can also wear animal skin headbands and ankle bands.

Of course, as influence from West and the Western world through colonialization occurred, the current European and Western set of apparels can bleed into the culture and affect the current generations for the future generations with respect to their choice of clothing. This sense of style can then change over time. This, then, changes the future culture. In other words, the more indigenous and more traditional aspects of them in the Zimbabwean culture has been influenced by the European or western culture, especially in regard to some of the context given before about the Colonial Era. Duly noted, there was a separation between the Precolonial Era and the Colonial Era. In addition, you can note the Independence Day is celebrated by the culture.

Now, with respect to the modern fashion culture of Zimbabwe, many of the citizens and individuals in the country wear, apparently, modern and Western-style clothing as the usual outfit. In other words, very few people will wear the traditional clothing on a regular basis within the country. It’s important to keep in mind stereotypes that might be in one’s mind and then contrast that with the reality. Sometimes true, sometimes false, or at times partially or even mostly true; it depends. Of course, there are the major fashion icons within the country that can then therefore produce aspects of the traditional culture within the fashion culture. Of course, this can also come into direct contact with the mixing and matching culture that seems to me like a large part of the international fashion culture. That’s all for now, thanks!

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

Sustainability 101 – Lights and Laundry

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/01

Let’s take a look today at sustainability tips. Two sustainability tips seem relevant to me. These relate to the overall sustainable and ethical fashion culture, but in your home. You can use different lights. You can wash your clothes more efficiently. These are aspects of keeping one’s carbon output low and pollution low.

Another aspect of keeping things like those low is the home. The ways in which we keep our homes low in energy cost, but still with comfort. I think that some of the aspects of sustainability regarding fashion relate very deeply to one’s home. Aside from one’s clothing, the home is the next most intimate aspect of our own lives. The home is a reflection of self. A home is a reflection of style. Home is also a reflection of conscientiousness. Conscientiousness regarding the environment. Conscientiousness regarding pollution. And conscientiousness regarding environmental concerns over the next few decades for climate change.

What I want to share in this series are some tips for keeping sustainability are your own contributions to the improvement of the environment. The reduction of harm to the environment. Let’s look at two examples. There are lights. Lights in households. There are laundry machines. The lights tend to be incandescent or CFI bulbs – inefficient bulbs.

Laundry machines can be old, outdated, and so inefficient. Efficiency as in the cost per load of laundry for washing and drying based on electrical usage. We live in a very privileged time. Living in a wonderfully privileged society. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. But, to me, responsibility comes with some level of a better life, within reason. Better life can imply taking away the quality of life of people that is here now and other places of the world. Or, another set of people not yet born are just coming into this world. All these things matter. All these people matter. Our actions have consequences. Climate change is one example, and lights and laundry are great examples, I think. And they’re easy fixes!

What about deeper? Sure. You can see this extend into the realm of the home and clothing under the rubric of sustainability. If you look at the incandescent and CFL bulbs, they are typically not very sustainable because they are inefficient, and so environmentally irresponsible. If you refit your house with LED lights as opposed to CFL lights, you can have another, and increase efficiency of about 90%. That’s a great, great increase in efficiency. It is also environmentally responsible. No harmful gases, better and more efficient lights, and lights that apparently can live up to or last long as 20 years. That’s a good thing I think.

The second thing that can be done is changing laundry settings. This is closer to the textile and natural fibre industry, and to sustainability. If you need to heat water, you need to input energy into cold water or room temperature water. That would warm the water and imparts energy. When using laundry, a cold wash might be of use for some types of clothing or some loads of clothing. That can be more efficient. That can be environmentally responsible.

Some other options to do with laundry might be less desirable, but can help. For instance, we can wear clothes longer. We can wash clothes by hand. But, personally, I wouldn’t want my clothes washed by hand. Why? I like the 21st century. Some other aspects can include the use of clothes lines to dry clothes by the sun and wind. That seems a little more reasonable to me, right? It depends on your level of investment. If a heavy effort, you can go full-throttle on throwing clothes on the line and doing a cold wash of laundry. (Depends on the surrounding area’s weather, though.) If light investment, you can do the cold washing of laundry alone and switch some lightbulbs to the LED bulbs. I think that’s enough to get us started.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

Sustainable Fibres: What is Cotton?

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/07/01

Back again to talk a little bit about, and in a little bit of a roundabout way for you, natural fibres! Again, natural fibres are much unlike the synthetic fibres. Natural fibres are divided into three categorizations known as minerals fibres, animal fibres, and plant fibres. Mineral fibres come in in only one form as far as I know, and that form is asbestos. Asbestos is used in many cases throughout homes as insulation for a good thing, but, unfortunately, the bad thing is that it is highly correlated as a carcinogenic material, probably and one might argue conclusively, correlated or causing for human beings.

Cotton is a natural fibre, and sustainable, ethical, and by the lights of Trusted Clothes much more fashionable. Ethical is sexy.

There are many kinds of outputs for this particular fibre, but this will be our look into its production and trade, design and manufacturing, and general uses. Cotton is cultivated as a fibre for textile utilization. The average cotton yield is about 800 kilograms per hectare. But it is almost purely cellulose and with a high level of both breathability and softness, which means that it is a popular natural fibre. Its length can be anywhere from 65 to 10 millimeters.

Its diameter can be anywhere from 11 to 22 microns. It is highly absorbent of moisture and is a comfortable clothing in hot weather. Given that it has a high tensile strength; it is easy to wash with a variety of soaps. It is such a popular production as a natural fibre throughout the world that 80 countries are cultivating it. There are approximately 10 million small farmers that depend on this cultivation of cotton for their basic income. This means their livelihood.

So, the production and trade of cotton produces approximately 25 million tonnes throughout the world per annum, I think. The major producers are Brazil, China, India, Pakistan, the United States of America, and Uzbekistan, which accounts for approximately four-fifths of the world’s total exports of cotton via its production by the aforementioned 10 million farmers. In terms of raw cotton, China has been the major importer, and takes in approximately three to four million tonnes of cotton – circa estimations from 2006, but the main exporter has and continues to be the United States of America.

In terms of the uses of cotton, about 60% of cotton fibre is used for yarn and thread through a wide variety or range of clothing, which means jeans, t-shirts, and even shirts in general, but this can even include underwear and coats. It is used in home furnishings including bedspreads and window blinds, and even washcloths. As noted with multiple other natural fibres in this series on sustainable fibres, the main benefit of things such as cotton is for clothing and other uses in the daily life, in industrial manufacturing, or the fact that they can decompose and have a natural cycle, which I have turned the natural fibre life cycle. That’s all for now!

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

Why Do Ghosts Wear Clothes At All, At All, At All…?

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/06/28

If you look at the popularizations of ghosts, ghost-like phenomena (whatever that means, Scott), and many other things, you can see that most ghosts seemed to have an enjoyment in wearing clothing.

John Keats had a poem called La Belle Dame Sans Merci, which translates by my reading as “The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy,” A few lines as follows:

She took me to her Elfin grot,
And there she wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.

And there she lullèd me asleep,
And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!—
The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.

I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried—‘La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!’

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gapèd wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill’s side.

Thanks for scaring the crap out of people, Keats.

I don’t know about you, but this seems a little bit suspicious to me. Even though these kinds of stories and narratives based on the subjective experiences of individuals (which likely happen) can bring about lovely poetry and tall tales, these seem rather thin in evidence and content other than the elaborations of the reports and the legends and mythos that surrounds them.

I have a natural philosophical bent, so this means that I have a certain bias towards the general scientific and natural epistemological perspective on the world. In other words, my perspective is biased towards modern science, updated natural philosophy, with testability, predictability, and peer review.

If you look at some of the photographs interspersed throughout this article, you can see the clothing that is reported to be worn by these ghosts. It just seems weird. It just seems weird that people would come back in the clothing that they were wearing at the time of their death. Some might speculate that this is some form of immortal soul. How is this an immortal soul taking their clothing with them? Why clothing? Why that clothing from that period of time?

Most of the research I have done on supernatural ghost sightings seem to have them clothed in some type of Victorian-era clothing. Where are the ones in just jeans and t-shirts?

These so called ghosts in clothes have inspired some eerie clothing designs like Dead Castle Project – a Sydney-based label – is well-known for combining a variety of styles in their collections from surf to skate to grunge and its 2012 Spring/Summer collection is no exception. Featuring plenty of black, the models in the graveyards appear disinterested and unperturbed by the fact that they are surrounded by dead bodies inches beneath the surface. This collection by Dead Castle Project is also infused with a slight dose of badass and authority as showcased in the tee-shirt that reads “Cool Kids Can’t Die.”

Paranormal investigators seem to have a hard time telling us why ghosts even wear clothing. So, would people that died then begin to wear just that one outfit? That seems sustainable and within the whole concept of buying less and having better. It would also be the first natural fibre never to bio-degrade – really, really degrade completely and utterly. Textiles in the afterlife, who woulda thunk? That’s all for now.

And as with everything written, I could be wrong, incredibly wrong – think for yourself and come to your own conclusions.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

The Oft-Neglected Mineral Fibre

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/06/28

The how much and the what now? (Yep, me too.)

Okie dokie, it’s another issue of natural fibres, if you aren’t familiar with fibres or fabrics, then see the article below:

Man-made fibres are regenerated and synthetic fibres. Synthetic fibres are manufactured synthetically and do not decompose. While regenerated fibres are an admixture of natural fibres and man-made fibres. In that, regenerated fibres are the ones that are originally plant or vegetable fibres with cellulose in them, and through the viscose method of extrusion and precipitation are given a chemical that gets rid of cellulose in the vegetable fibre. And then by another chemical process have those parts filled in with another chemical so that they then become regenerated fibres. Therefore, the regenerated fibres are a combination of original vegetable fibres and then by chemical process becoming man-made fibres are regenerated fibres.

Man-made, synthetic or regenerated fibres do not decompose. Natural fibres – that’s fibres and animal fibres and mineral fibres – do decompose. There are many methods to decompose things by a hot or cold compost, or with wiggler worms.

So we’re going to be talking a little bit today about mineral fibres. What are they?

They are, or more accurately it is asbestos, which is the only mineral fibre. It is a silicate of many minerals including magnesium, calcium, iron, aluminum, and other minerals. It is, amazingly, rust, flame, and acid proof. And its particles are actually carcinogenic and therefore it has a very restricted use.

What is a silicate? Silicate contains an anionic silicon compound. What is “anionic”? It is a negatively charged ion or any negatively charged atom or group of atoms. That means silicate is simply an anionic silicon compound and a mixture. A mineral fibre from asbestos can be made into something like a mineral wool. They can also be known as a mineral fibre or even a man-made mineral fibre.

Well, isn’t that great? Find out about a new fibre, a good ol’ natural fibre, but it is carcinogenic or cancer contributing or causing. I’m not sure whether if they’re contributing or if they’re causing. And I have to take caution at this point in time about the length of exposure and kind of exposure to the asbestos. However, it might be a little bit like the smoking correlation vs causation argument.

Where the amount of smoke that an individual or population smokes is highly correlated with cancer, which shows that cigarettes are so correlative as to be argued as causative of cancer, maybe the same with these. Although we haven’t found any conclusive evidence or studies to suggest that prolonged exposure of mineral fibres (such as in clothing) can cause cancer, we do absorb toxins through our skin.

That’s an interesting property there’s not much more on these little things. However, I think that it was worth exploring for a little bit. Especially because these are actually used in tremendous amounts of housing insulation, and I think that’s worthwhile as a thing to explore or for yourself. You can simply Google “mineral fibre” and “asbestos” (or Bing or Yahoo, etc, etc) to gain a better idea of this particular natural fibre. That’s all for now thanks for your time!

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

Reverence and the Environment

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/06/27

Do you ever think about reverence? I don’t. So now, I will. If you look at the religious demographic of the world, most people will either have a spiritual, mystical, or religious belief. That means that these people will probably have at some point in his/her life an experience of reverence for themselves, for others, for something outside of human experience.

Perhaps a profound feeling. Something mystical. Something religious. Something unknown that cannot be articulated in words but felt for the people we have in our lives and our surroundings. I think that a lot of the concern for the environment seems to come from two domains. One is a sense of ownership and the other is a sense of reverence. The former is more devoted to the domination and control of the environment, while the latter is based on protection, respect, and interdependency. I think that at some fundamental level, these two ideas are distinct, distinguishable, and mutually exclusive. And that they are unable to be converged or brought together in some relevant practical sense.

Maybe in some sense of higher-order, they can be abstract and brought together. However, I do not think this is necessarily possible at this present time. In a practical sense, I think that the perspective of reverence for nature, or for the environment, is a concomitant of concern for one’s own livelihood. It is remarkable that people will risk their own livelihood to go out onto a boat and try to save a dolphin, or a whale, or some form of cetacean that is assumed to have some kind of cognition like to feel pain. Some might even argue a soul. Although, historically, people have argued that animals do not and are machines, and even more to the modern perspective have extended this to people, and that we are not special in this natural world. That sense of reverence is something that seems to extend into wanting to help the environment and all creatures that live in it.

This is a bit of an evolving discussion. My questions to you: What is your own relationship to reverence and the natural world? And does this reflect an environmentalism? Or does it reflect a concern for the well-being of children in terrible working conditions? Or the fact that slavery exists in this modern world?

Reverence is a nearly fundamental aspect of being a person. However, it may not be the most fundamental thing about being a person. But it does seem to be reflected a lot of times in the ways in which activists – economic, social, political, bring themselves to sacrifice their own well-being up to the point of the potential death for an ideal they consider higher than themselves. (And I would make the term “higher” in some sense very metaphorical and not in any way literal). It’s overused, cliché, and a sort of toss-away term now. So I would argue that reverence is in some way completely natural and evolved as some mechanism for I know not what, but I think that this is now at the present time possibly expressed in concern for others.

And I don’t mean to restrict this to the formal or informal religious or spiritual or mystical communities, in fact, this can be definitely and assertively extended to those that are in the a-religious community such as humanists, skeptics, agnostics, and atheists. These communities themselves have many individuals that promote and advocate some type of practice for self-improvement in many domains. And this is in itself reflective of the sense of reverence for humanity, nature, oneself, or one’s own reason. So, this is not something that is necessarily restricted but I think, makes it one of the things that is universal in all of us.

Because it actually shows up throughout the world and across cultures, political systems and societies. Or in different groups of people throughout the world. (Same species: duh) Do you have your own sense of reverence, Scott? I’ll leave that for another day.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

An Interview with Carolyn Bailey

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/06/24

Tell us a little bit about your background such as education, and some personal and professional experience.

My passion for quality clothing and apparel construction drove me to create the business I now own. Growing up in a rural town across the street from a fabric studio was where I learned quality clothing construction and also where I grew a love for quality fabrics. After gaining a wealth of knowledge and experience in sales, marketing and management as a business woman, this gave me the professional skills to pair with the love I have for quality fabrics and apparel construction to create my company, Treasure Box Kids.

What was the inspiration for Treasure Box Kids – and its title?

The inspiration behind the name “Treasure Box Kids” came from my idea that the clothing my company produces are precious treasures for children. Treasure Box Kids is “Ethically Made, High Quality, Socially Responsible, Children’s Clothing”. My inspiration for the company as a whole is to create quality family heirloom pieces that can be passed down to future generations.

What makes Treasure Box Kids unique?

Our product offering contains styles custom made by Treasure Box Kids in the USA, Independent Designers that make their clothing in the United States and also a new line made in Kenya named Little Maisha, that helps to support women economically. What makes Treasure Box Kids unique is that you cannot walk into any department store or online store and find this exact product mix.

You sell clothing for girls, girls’ dresses, and birthday dresses. Why these products? Where will the product line expand in the future?

Treasure Box Kids began with girls’ clothing because of my preference visually to girls’ clothing. After learning to perfect that niche, it has sparked my desire to expand our lines. Plans are in development currently to include boys clothing as well as to expand the Kenyan line.

What meaning or personal fulfillment does this work bring for you?

Quality, ethically made apparel is my passion. My fulfillment comes from the affirmation that my customers are getting quality outfits as well as the knowledge that the clothing production is not harming anyone but actually helping the economy, the environment and the people producing the apparel.

With regard to companies like Trusted Clothes and Treasure Box Kids, what’s the importance of them to you?

I see the two companies’ goals aligned similarly in regard to excellence in apparel construction and the fair treatment of apparel workers. It is very important to educate the consumer on how apparel is made and also how the people who make our apparel are being treated. The consumer will be more aware and ultimately make better purchasing decisions. Education is the foundation for change and growth in a culture and I see that our two companies can invoke that change.

Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

The impact my company, Treasure Box Kids (a for profit corporation) has on the wider community, is the need for ethically and sustainably manufactured clothing. I plan to be at the forefront of the growing need to help produce clothing that has a positive impact on society.

Thank you for your time, Carolyn.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

What is Silk?

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/06/14

Natural fibres divide into animal and plant fibres. Animal fibres are those that are composed of amino acids called proteins, plant fibres are those made mainly of cellulose. Examples of animal fibres are alpaca, angora, cashmere, mohair, silk, and wool. Plant fibres can be things like in abaca, cotton, flax, hemp, jute.

Natural fibres themselves also differ from man-made artificial and synthetic fibres. These fibres consist of rayon, nylon, acrylic, and polyester. Each of these are unable to decompose.

One such fabric is silk, sometimes called the “queen of the fabrics.” Its original development was in ancient China. Silk is produced from a silkworm. The worm is fed Mulberry leaves, as it matures the worm spins a cocoon.

Once filaments are made of silk, they can have a great strength and can measure from 500 to 1500 m in length, which is quite substantial given the source. The actual form of the woven silk is a triangular structure. Its absorbency is good and it dyes well, and is produced in over 20 countries. These include the major producers, such as Asia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Egypt, and Madagascar. The particular type of industry, in terms of the manufacture of silk from silkworms, is called sericulture.

There are over 1 million workers in China alone with the provision of production for households, and in India, upwards of 700,000, and growing. The production and trade of silk can range from about 100,000 tons to 150,000 tons per annum. Of the producers of silk in the world, China produces 70% of it, with the other more than 20 countries producing 30%.

The price for raw silk is 20 times as much as the raw price for cotton (circa 2008). It does provide a warmth during the cold months and is typically used in fashion such as lingerie and underwear. It is generally used in textiles and upholstery. Silk is diverse and beautiful, lets just try to involve ethics and sustainability when seeking quality!

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

What is Sisal?

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/06/14

Today’s sustainable fibre will be sisal. Sisal is a fibre that is native to Mexico derived from the Agave plant (Yay, tequila!), it is a hardy plant that grows in hot climates. In addition, it is actually able to grow in dry areas that tend to be, for the crops, quite unsuitable. These can be cut or crushed. This is then made into a pulp from the fibres. The average yield is about one tonne per hectare with the yield and the staff of about 2.5 tonnes. I find this to be quite amazing because it is an increase in productivity of about 2.5 times, exactly.

The fibre is illustrious and creamy white according to the Food and Agricultural organization of the United Nations. It can measure up to 1 metre in length, and is very durable as well as having an elasticity component to it. It is not able to absorb moisture easily, but can resist deterioration from salt water. Its main cultivation is in Brazil, China, Cuba, Kenya, Haiti, Madagascar, and Mexico. The global production of sisal is collected in moderately large amounts of around 300,000 tons, with an estimated net value, per annum, of $75 million. 35 to 40% of that 300,000 tons is produced by Brazil at about 120,000 tons. And 5/6 th’s of that produced by Brazil is exported as raw fibre and manufactured goods.

Sisal fibres are made into rope and yarn that is popularly used to make rugs, bags, bath sponges, and even wall coverings. “New products are being developed continuously, such as furniture and wall tiles made of resined sisal. A recent development expanded the range even to car parts for cabin interiors.”

The compatibility and multitude of uses of this natural fibre is simply amazing!

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

“Misquoting” Great Leaders

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/06/08

I would like to explore something about misquotations, as well as two very interesting fellows. I want to start with a picture I came across with a particular quotation about ‘The’ Albert Einstein. It got me thinking quite a bit, it bothered me enough to want to write something about it. But I had to tie this into textiles or sustainability, one thing about Einstein is that he advocated for vegetarianism. How does that tie in with this global warming era and its consequences?

I know that Einstein was a claimant at one point in time, to saying that people should be vegetarians, or that he was, and so might have not explicitly advocated for others, but described himself: “I have always eaten animal flesh with a somewhat guilty conscience.” That picture-meme quote is more descriptive of an ideal rather than prescriptive based on an ideal. And vegetarianism is in the same line as sustainable fibers and a more sustainable lifestyle. Close enough. In that, it is not simply a fashionable thing to do, but rather, it is something that is low in terms of its carbon footprint and possibly even a negative carbon footprint.

And I came across another quotation by a well-known guru, spiritualist, medical doctor, endocrinologist, and popular author.

His name is Deepak Chopra:

If you look at the actual quotations of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, two of the most prominent physicist/cosmologists of the 20th century – and one into the early 21st century, you can find quotations that refute any notion of them believing in either a “God” in the case of Stephen Hawking or a “personal God” in the case of Albert Einstein. Neither seems to indicate that perspective very much implied by Deepak Chopra. In other words, he misquoted them. Simple. So, let’s compare this with two quotations from Albert Einstein:

The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can change this.

And this one:

It was of course a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this, but expressed it clearly. If something is in me that can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.

He is more noted for the structure and mathematical precision of the universe with the and you can now look at a quotation from Professor Stephen Hawking:

Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.

This is a problem. It is a problem in accurate presentation, and it seems to be a common either as a conscious tactic, or unconscious oversight or mistake in automaticity of quotation – or even quoting Chopra in conversation. These things happen, but this seems like a long thought, as a quote. So, that’s something to keep an eye out for not only in the more popular among groups, spiritualists, and like, but also in the world of fashion and claims about the efficacy of certain things. I’ll leave some of the last words to Chopra:

Imagine that you’re looking at an ocean and you see lots of waves today. And tomorrow you see a fewer number of waves. It’s not so turbulent. What you call a person actually is a pattern of behavior of a universal consciousness. There is no such thing as Jeff, because what we call Jeff is a constantly transforming consciousness that appears as a certain personality, a certain mind, a certain ego, a certain body. But, you know, we had a different Jeff when you were a teenager. We had a different Jeff when you were a baby. Which one of you is the real Jeff?

Like. Wow. You know?

As with everything written, I could be wrong, incredibly wrong – think for yourself and come to your own conclusions. I have biases, fallibilities, and quirks – even some funny ones. My words aren’t gold, nor are they a calf. And no bull! Although, I will milk it, if it’s prize goat (or alpaca, or camel, and no can do for cottonmandu). And if gold, I might fleece it, if a winged ram (more the same, more the same).

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

A History of Natural Fibres: Incan Textiles

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/06/03

So, we’re back a little more to talk about the history of natural fibres in one context with an ancient civilization. That civilization is the Incan civilization. These peoples had an extraordinary decorative world, and working textile industry that was representative, as with us now, of status and wealth and other things. They did not have paper money.

Nonetheless, they had used textiles both as a tax and as the currency in their culture. That would seem to have a certain psychological effect on what people valued in that culture. In fact, some of the most prized objects were not gold, silver, diamonds, platinum, and so on. Rather, it was very high quality textiles. Think about that.

These were the crown jewel of value in the civilization. When the Spanish invaded, or euphemistically arrived, in the 16th century, they looted, stole, and plundered textiles in greater proportion than metal and mineral, I think, which is a very interesting note to the previous one.

Textiles were the heart of the empire of the Incan civilization. The dry nature of the Andes, and the burial sites around in the highlands in the mountains of that area have stayed in decent condition for archaeologists and others to look at the textile and cultural traditions via the textiles for examples. They were weavers. Men and women were weavers.

We have talked about some of the other main fibres in the world. These were also used by the Incan culture. For instance, llama, alpaca, and wool in the highlands. The capital of the Incan culture was Cuzco. There were state-sponsored workshops in this particular culture. And the subsidized workers were making the clothing, quite naturally, for the army and the nobility, and, as a speculation, the army most likely protected the nobles alone, the royalty.

There were three classifications of cloth in the Incan culture. There was a very rough one used for blankets and the like. The coarse, or common ones, that were for work in daily life or military applications, and finally the finest cloth was also there for possibly greater than decorative use such as religious rights. Weaving was a highly esteemed craft in their culture. The designs of the cloth had a certain kind of dyed strand embroidery; and the embroidery itself and tapestry was done by either hand or wooden stamps.

They had a certain abstract geometric set of designs in addition to checkerboard motif. The actual patterns by some scholars’ speculation were ideograms and may have had specific meanings.

Those specific meanings could relate to many things. One might think religious rights or cultural values. However, I leave that to the experts and scholars that spend their lives researching this topic. Of course, there are also non-geometrical patterns in the clothes, which might include the aforementioned llamas, or snakes, sea creatures, and even plants, which would be common in that area, maybe. You can see the influence of geographic surroundings on the culture and vice versa. Culture becomes human interaction with the environment, even at times to the extent of changing the environment. It depends.

The designs found on the cloth could likely be reflected in the designs on the potteries for the pottery decorations of the Incas. You can see various animals as with many other cultures such as monsters and half-human figures. These are interesting to say the least. What are the functions of these things? I leave that to you.

Many of the men only wear a loincloth or maybe even a simple tunic. In the winter, when things got quite cold actually, you could see them in a poncho or perhaps a cloak. Women wore more of a body wrap with a waist belt or sash. Both men and women wore cloth hats or headbands in this culture. Clothing, as you might be able to tell from the style and design in the textiles – and for the currency and tax, is a great reflection of the status of someone in a society – such as the reflection it will have on purchases. As with most conquered cultures, they had to pay a tax or a tribute to the central state because they were conquered by the Incas. What happens to civilizations that expand too far, though?

It’s just a short note on the Incan culture and civilization in relation to some of their textiles. It seems interesting to me because the text all that was there were a great influence on both the currency and the status. I like the interrelationship of there.

I like the fact that the currency is related to status, even though this is not even distinct. It is not directly related because as with any culture with currency, maybe. The currency is the means through which one makes their own purchases, and these purchases are reflected in one’s own goods such as clothing. And then, we see the status symbol in the clothing selected from the purchase via the currency. Thank you for your time.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

Sisal and Haiti Agriculture, Culture, and Triumph in Tribulation

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/05/26

I want to talk about some natural fibres in one particular part of the world that is unique, that part of the world is Haiti, which is under a great amount of duress at the moment following some tribulations and trials (or ‘trials and tribulations’ in the early part of 2016) in the country.

But first, I want to discuss or point out some of the basic information around natural fibres in the world, and then that part of the world. Natural fibres are composed of mineral, plant, and animal fibres. They can decompose. Mineral fibres only have one kind as far as I have discovered/learned, which is asbestos. Plant fibres are made of cellulose primarily and come from plants, of course. Animal fibres are composed of amino acids linked together in chains or proteins. Animal fibres come from a variety of fauna including camels, alpacas, and others.

Synthetic fibres and man-made fibres differ from natural fibres in that they do not decompose and are prominently seen in such things as polyester. Polyester being made primarily in mainland China based on consumer demand from Europe and North America, I assume.

With respect to Haiti, they have a proverb that says, ‘Bèf pa di savann mèsi.” The ox does not thank the field. That’s probably true. Or “Bèl cheve pa lajan.” Good hair is not money. For a poor country, which often lacks for the basics of life, then this makes perfect sense. You wear clothes for livelihood or to just have clothing, not as a frivolous garment. What is Haiti?

Haiti is a Caribbean country in or sharing the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic is to East. In 2010, it had a terrible earthquake. That earthquake devastated much of the country, and the country has upwards of 10 million people in it. In Canada, we have approximately 36 to 37 million people. It’s teeny little place with a tremendous number of human beings. The capital is Port-au-Prince. And its official language is Haitian Creole French or French. Recently, a deadly attack was conducted on a Haitian police headquarter as tensions arose in February. The tensions arose and individuals in military fatigues attacked at night in the coastal city of Les Cayes.

Gunmen stormed police headquarters on Monday and killed 6 people in an apparent shootout at a police station. Could the country be close to a civil war? One of the problems with the possibility for the civil war at the present moment is in light of the fact that the country was unable to sign in a new president because it missed a deadline to do so.

The individuals that committed the crime seized automatic weapons. Some of these murderous activities stem from February in terms of a political disagreement for the Caribbean nation. It failed to hold a runoff election. In other words, both deadlines were missed.

How does this relate to the natural fibres? Look at the people, look at the frustration, look at the clothes, it’s all intertwined. One giant interconnected web. Sisal, itself, has actually been used in terms of content materials for furniture and construction in addition to cars and plastics and paper products. The plant is quite hardy and can grow year round in hot climates and even in arid or dry regions that are typically unsuitable for other crops.

It does have a difficult time in growing in very moist or saline, salty, soil. It does show that it is resilient to disease, and it is typically harvested after about 2 years from its original planting and its productive cycle or life cycle can be up to 12 years, in which it can produce up to a total of 180 to 240 leaves for its growth depending on the level of rainfall, the altitude, and the location.

So, this can be of great use to areas such as Haiti in terms of its productive capacity and its capability provide for its own needs with such things as natural fibres. Or by making animal feed. It is interesting to note that the leaves themselves are about 90% moisture and yet still have a rigidity. It seems counterintuitive to me. In terms of its average yield, the dry fibres come to about one ton per hectare. Although, it is reported that East African crop for this fibre can grow up to four tonnes per hectare. That is an astonishing four-fold increase in the amount of fibre that is growing per hectare. What else is Haiti?

It’s a religious nation among many other things with about ¾ as Roman Catholic and 3/20ths Protestant with a sprinkling of Pentecostal, Advent, and the universalist religion of “other.” So, by any reasonable definition, a Christian influenced nation. They have another proverb: “Bondye bon.” Or God is good, sounds familiar? For whatever reason, I don’t know why, but this is bringing to mind Bach’s Cantata 54, BWV 54, for me, which went as follows:

Widerstehe doch der Sünde,
Sonst ergreifet dich ihr Gift.
Laß dich nicht den Satan blenden;
Denn die Gottes Ehre schänden,
Trifft ein Fluch, der tödlich ist.

In Standard English as a translation of the old German, this says:

Stand firm against sin,
otherwise its poison seizes hold of you.
Do not let Satan blind you
for to desecrate the honour of God
meets with a curse, which leads to death.

So, what, Scott? God is good, but Satan is tempting and sin is bad. Well, if it’s this kind of a religious nation, and we have good reason to expect this form of religiosity provide the numbers of the religious or Christian population in its citizenry, then the metanarrative for Roman Catholic and Protestant Christianity incorporate these narratives. Besides, those are damn good proverbs by my reading, and fabulous music by Bach too. It’s like double-bubble.

Sisal is also a major part of agriculture in the north coast region of Haiti. And it is used for rope, wallpaper, rugs, and other daily items of use to citizens of Haiti in various combinations and to different communities. Near the conclusion of sisal’s lifespan, it can grow upwards of 15 feet in height and can have numerous plants and baby plants linked with it.

In other words, it is an abundant source of fibre for the Haitian people. The waste that is not used for ropes, rugs, and so on, is actually used to make, by a particular process, fertilizer or food for animals.

The process mentioned before is called decortication. Decortication is the crushing and beating of leaves by a rotation wheel with blunt knives. Once only the fibre remains, then the fibre is dried to get a high quality fibre by the removal of the moisture in the fibre prior to that the moisturizing process.

After that point, the fibre product is brushed and after that point it is then ready to be used for a variety of products including rope, rugs, wallpaper, and many other things of daily use in homes and various communities in Haiti.

In terms of sustainability and the ethical use of this particular fibre, it is one of the best around, especially for areas of the world where it is poor. It is one of the grand ironies, and not an original point to me or any one individual, that with climate change and global warming. That is, the advanced industrial nations are the major participants in the industries that pollute the environment, and the undeveloped nations or the poor of the world are not and are actually working to improve it. In addition, the indigenous communities of the world are the ones that are partaking in, not the industry, but the social and environmental activism to help with these global problems relevant to their local level.

There were consequences of the Industrial Revolution. We see them today. We see reactions to their consequences, of dead generations’ sins, today. On that same line of reasoning, that ‘grand irony’ of the modern era relates to one of the poorer areas of the world that are even under tremendous political turmoil and at the verge of a possible civil war, and are able to keep an industry that is both ethical and sustainable within the world.

Back to Haiti, and its fibre, sisal produces less carbon dioxide than it takes in and, therefore, it is a net negative carbon producer. It produces mainly organic wastes. To get to the close of this particular article, it is cultivated in many other areas of the world including Angola, Brazil, China, Cuba, Indonesia, Kenya, Mosinee, South Africa, and so on. And the estimated value of the 300,000 tonnes of output is upwards of 75 million dollars. I do not know the currency. It could be Canadian or American et cetera.

And following that earthquake and its own internal problems, which are, quite granted, numerous, there’s always some good, if you look close enough.

And by the light of Bach, and via the hope of Haiti: Degaje pa peche. To get by is not a sin.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

Natural Fibres’ Lifecycle

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/05/26

Cycles are loopy, ideally. Not crazy. It’s a system that feeds back into itself. Pick a circular metaphor, that’s it. It’s not necessarily the most efficient in the short-term. But the bet is on the long term. Sustainable for generations to come, and ethical, super ethical because, this loop provides decent conditions for future generations. I introduce the natural fiber lifecycle, not a new idea – far from it. So, it’s not mine, and I have no idea where the concept (not the title, though,) started out.

Synthetic or man-made fibers might have more productive methodologies in the short-term. But there’s basically a one-way line from production to consumption to waste. I mean, look at the landfills and oceans, global catastrophe case in point. The landfills are stocked with synthetic garbage. The oceans have 4.54 trillion pieces of super-small plastics alone. Our recycling isn’t keeping with the level of intake-outtake. And the waste that falls through the massive gap is non-biodegradable, which means it will be around forever. So we are left with a mess. A big one. Like that proverbial chocolate on the white dress shirt or wedding gown. It ain’t comin’ out, except by drastic measure.

Demand in the fashion industry has caused the production for synthetics to increase. Alas, alternatives exist! Natural fibers, on the other hand, are natural thus involving a cycle! Which includes the input, the processing, and the output. Input, involves growing the plant fibers by proper fertilization and watering. For the animal fibers, there’s getting the right food like grain or grass, and water sources, and even the occasional need for open fields for that grazing.

Then comes the processing which involves harvest for the plant fibers and a shearing or de-hairing for the animals’ fibers. It’s a very different set of processes, the outcome, sustainable product which allows cycles to continue! Then comes the fun part! The fashion guru’s get to make some hip, even beautiful, products that are sustainable and have the environment in mind. I’m no pro, but there are many options. And they are pretty fantastic work. I would be fumbling to make these things with my clubs for hands, but take a short look at some of the other bloggers’ stuff from very recent.

And then comes the last part of this cycle, which includes many, many parts. There’s the cutting and composting route with red wiggle worms (Real name!) and a hot composting to help out. This makes fashion bio-degradable. And then there’s the waiting…stage…that…comes…next.

Fertilizer: that’s the final product that’s used in the soil for plant fibers to grow (with some water) and to feed the grazing grounds that grows the grass that the animals eat – camels, alpacas, stuff like that. And that’s the natural fiber life cycle(s)! Which makes fashion for the conscious minded individual more enjoyable!

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

A Man’s Underwear and Health

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/05/24

You know what they say about a man’s underwear: he wears them. He doesn’t wear them to wear them alone, though. In that, he might have other purposes. What do you think? I think he wears them for health, if he’s conscious and conscientious about these things.

Comfort matters, undergarments matter, but so does health such as reproductive health. In my experience, there are some things men rarely talk about. Nonetheless, the men do at times in Canada – or, at least, maybe, in your county or township. And there’s more than the basic idea of “underwear.” Men have lots of kinds of undergarments; boxer shorts, boxer briefs, trunks, briefs, jockstraps, bikinis, thongs, and G-strings.

That’s a basic visual crash-course in the underwear meant for males. If you scroll or look back up the kinds of underwear for them among the 8 that I know of online – others might exist but I do not know for sure, what’s the problem there? There’s something off about most of them and we’ll get to that in a tiny bit. But what are the testicles, really, and what do they do – in brief?

Testicles are part of the male sex anatomy and sometimes called the testes or gonads. They are two glands that are a main part of the male genitalia. They are housed in a skin pouch and produce one set of gamete cells and one hormone; the male sex cells for reproduction, sperm, and the testosterone, the ‘male’ hormone. Sperm development is best with temperature slightly below that of the rest of the body.

What is the process for semen? According to the experts, the process takes about a total of 7 weeks. That’s something amazing to me. It takes 7 weeks in total. If you look at the seminiferous tubules or the sertoli cells on the diagram above, the germ cells create the sperm. Once gone from there, they move and are stored in the epididymis for maturation for a few weeks, after which time they proceed into and up the vas deferens for admixing with the prostate and the seminal vesicles; That then becomes semen.

What about testosterone? That leaves the leydig cells that are throughout the testicle and the core creator of testosterone for the body. Typical male characteristics that come from the heavy production of testosterone are facial hair, low voice, wide shoulders, and without this the man can suffer from depression, fatigue, hot flashes (men get them too!), and even osteoporosis. You can find out more here.

So what are the health issues? One issue has to do with the innate aspect of the male sex from biology. As with many other mammal and primate species, the innate male sex organ is complicated and prone to problems like most organs and, of course, this includes the testicles. The testicles are outside of the body in human males, and this is the reason why they need to be about a degree cooler, less hot, in comparison to the temperature of the body. Tight underwear can make them too close to the body and even keep too much heat in for that 7-week developmental cycle of sperm and, that means, health sperm or male gamete cell development. Oh, man!

Another issue deals with an intuitive sense of the constriction to the blood flow to the testicles. Tight underwear can cause problems for the testicles themselves by this constriction. Apparently, the loss or reduction of regular circulation in the testicles of men, such as myself, can lead to some major reproductive issues. What does this do? According to the experts that spend their time writing the medical textbooks and websites, it reduces the sperm count of the man that happens to wear these tight garments. Like this:

That’s tight. That’s constricting and it can reduce sperm count, which for many, many men that, likely, want children can be a health issue and reproductive concern. I think it’s a probability issue. If you wish to increase chances of fertilization as a man, then this is something that you need to take into account for the future, especially with the modern reproductive health services – the numerous ones around – that can assist with family planning. Women have their own concerns and issues with respect to reproductive health. Men have their own too; myself included, because I would want to increase the chances of fertility with appropriate family planning for my partner and I (not dating at the moment, single as a lost sock). Most of the time, people want families, and so this seems like a reasonable concern to bear in mind, I feel.

Even further, there’s another issue with a higher surface area for bacterial growth on synthetic materials, which can cause…issues…odor problems. Bacterial growth can cause that, and it is more likely with synthetic materials. And if you have an intimate partner, or consider general genital health, then this can be an even more serious issue. Because I would want to keep my partner included on health things. Why? Well, if married or together with someone, my health, especially sexual health, could have impacts on my partner. And so, continuing with elementary moral truisms such as ‘the Golden Rule’, I would expect the same of them, and so I expect the same of me.

Finally, and one particular point brought to my attention by Shannon, cotton is one of the least moisture absorbing fabrics, and this can cause irritation to the skin, which is also an issue for the health of male genitalia, and ties into the rest of the points. Thanks for your attention…

By the way, please feel free to disagree with any of this. I’m not a deity or anything like that, I did some research, and presented some information and opinions. Does this make me an underwear connoisseur now? Doubt it.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

An Interview with Andrea Sanabria

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/05/13

Tell us a little about your familial and personal background, as well as some educational background.

I spent most of my life in Peru, but I finished my high school in the US. I lived in Minnesota for a year and went back several times after that. I did all of my university in Lima because after high school, I went back to Peru. Though I am not originally from Lima, I’ve lived there for, maybe, 10 years. Finally, I stayed working there in advertising and marketing. After a few years of work, I felt the need to change industries because fashion was actually moving in Peru. Before, the industry wasn’t much in terms of creative fashion – it relied more on manufacture and production. I wouldn’t have really called it a fashion industry, more like industry-suppliers. But at that time, the creative industry was already moving, though in a slow pace.

So I decided to travel to see what the fashion industry was actually like around the world because I knew we were in a very early phase. I decided to move to France to do my Masters in fashion management with thoughts of moving back to Peru right afterwards to help develop the industry there, and build a bridge between the Peruvian industry with the rest of the industry abroad. While I was here in France, I discovered sustainable fashion – which in Peru we didn’t know about.

Now, there is a little bit of it. In Latin America in general, there is a little bit of sustainable knowledge, but people talk about it and don’t really know about it. Here, even though French people consider it not that important or developed, to me, it was like, “Wow!” It’s been eye-opening. So, I decided to stay here to learn more about it.

You are a freelance writer and activist for better practices in the fashion business. How does this play out in personal and professional life at the present?

To be honest, until maybe, two years ago, I was really the regular professional person. When I was in Peru, I would work for several companies in marketing. On the side, I would always do freelance design just for the fun of it. When I moved to France, after school I started working for fashion companies. I was on the regular path I guess. But ever since I decided to fully commit to sustainable fashion and the promotion of sustainable fashion in Latin America, starting my own company of course, I quit any possibilities of a full-time job, and have been doing freelance ever since. I have been freelancing for fashion showrooms, for sales, and everything that has to do with writing. Everything that aligns with fashion and sustainable fashion. I do that nowadays. I am an entrepreneur and freelancer. It’s a mess sometimes. (Laughs)

You have experience in the international market and a specialty for Latin America. And you are a featured author for Trusted Clothes. How does the expertise influence the chosen article topics?

I’ve been checking a lot of blogs and writers that are contributing. They write about their own personal experience, which I think is important to start. I also started to write what it is like to start your own business, and I think it is the first step because you are connecting people that are thinking, “Maybe, I should more interested in this than that.” But in the articles that I’ve been doing afterwards, I’ve been trying to look at it more from a commercial point of view. At how sustainable fashion and practices is something that you can make profit off. Little businesses, and major brands, are looking into it and developing. I cannot not see that with my background.

I’ve studied marketing strategies, greenwashing cases, and successful online startups. So when I see it happening, I immediately do a little research and write about it. The last article, which I wrote for Trusted Clothes, and hasn’t been published yet, is about the shared economy and how it applies to fashion because it’s a big thing right now.

It has taken longer for fashion. So, I wrote a little bit about my thoughts on it, and at the end I always end up mentioning, based on personal observations on the international scene – why it’s happening or not happening in Latin America – how it applies there. Because being from Latin America, and going there once a year, I get to see how the market changes, and then I get to compare it with the rest of the world because I want to say the US and Europe are somewhat aligned. However, I feel Latin America is behind. And I try to state why it is we’re behind or in different states.

I mix my professional background with my cultural background every day. (Laughs)

It sounds to me, like something personal in that way. As another aside, you would know better than I would; have you looked at the amount of carbon footprint from synthetic fibres compared with natural fibres?

Right, I think at the end I do take it personally because of what I have seen. What pushed me is that Latin America produces a lot of raw material that is high quality. I think the first article I wrote for Trusted Clothes was about farming in Latin America because we are changing our ways to become better.

What I think is silly is that we produce high quality coffee, food, and textiles, and it all goes abroad. All of the footprint you’re reducing by changing your ways of production, it needs to be transported to the other side of the world. All your savings went out, again! Actually, we aren’t producing it for us. We’re producing it for them (developed countries). You hardly find those in the local market. Then we get really low quality products imported from Asia, and so on, we follow trends. We follow the American look.

Low quality products from these far away countries coming all the way to Peru… In my logic, this doesn’t make any sense. You’re making high quality fibres and not even using them. You’re sending them far, far away. So, though my idea, initially, was to produce high quality clothing to sell in Europe where people actually care about manufacture… seeing the situation in my country. I figured this was impossible, something had to be done.

In my eyes, we have full potential. We’re just not seeing it. At the end, it’s a matter of misinformation. It’s not a matter of money. The price is not even that high.

You founded La Petite Mort, organic streetwear company, where “la petite mort” is translated as “little death” or as a popular reference to a sexual orgasm. How do these two relate to one another?

The inspiration for the company is, first, to develop an alternative to streetwear, common streetwear, that we wear every day… but in organic cotton. Farther than organic, I’ve chosen to work with Pima cotton. You have several types of cotton. The pima one is the cotton that has a longer fiber. So, when you do the textiles, it’s going to be softer. You notice that immediately when touching a t-shirt. I really want people to relate the brand to the substance. I decided to work with the best that I could find to make these pieces. If you look at the brand, it’s not really about statement pieces. It’s a regular t-shirt, so it better be a good one! I also try to make it very approachable.

The second is also that it’s environmentally friendly. I wanted to develop the brand with a lower impact, of course.

Then, the inspiration for the name brand… la petite mort is, of course, the orgasm. It is actually the moment of the orgasm that lasts maybe half a second. As if you were dead for an instant. It goes farther than orgasm itself. It is the feeling of emptiness – total, ultimate freedom. It is what people look for when they do yoga or meditation, or reach nirvana. It’s just another way to put it.

I chose it because when I learned the meaning of it. I thought, “Wow! This is so true, we all look for this” Even before I had the brand, I had this concept in my mind, back of my mind. So, I decided that when the time came to grab it. I am having trouble with it because the new generations of French do not really understand or make the connection with la petite mort. It’s kind of sad as a name.

Once they get it, they connect to it, some of them. (Laughs) And once you do, it’s hard to forget, right? I don’t do the whole la petite mort when working in Latin America, because French is hard! In Spanish I use the short La P.M. standing for la puta madre, which means something super cool. It’s slang, urban slang.

To me, La Petite Mort, is the ultimate nirvana. There’s no other name to call it. I don’t want to use a yogi name! (Laughs)

Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion of sustainable fashion?

I’m going to say it is a lot of work. Sometimes, I feel like the brand, if I didn’t mention “sustainable,” it would run even better because when you take this approach people immediately back away. I think there is a lot of clichés around it. That’s why when I try to communicate I try to be very soft, very positive, and not to make people feel guilty. To this point, I think fashion has been sold in the wrong way.

I wish there was more of this movement in Latin America. I know there are organizations working on it over there, but the road is still long. So, I take it personally to help raise consciousness. It’s crazy. We are the ones that get affected the most in the developing countries. That’s all that.

Thank you for your time, Andrea.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

But What Can I Do?

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/05/10

I felt like writing a less thinking piece. And more of a reflective or opinion piece, based on a feeling, not so uncommon, and not so profound, but worth its weight in meaning.

Something ‘struck’ me. And it’s the idea of reach. Personal reach, emotional reach, the reach of physical work, the reach into the lives and minds of others, and hopefully (if super lucky) hearts of others, and so on and so forth. How far can I possibly go?

Like, if in this endeavour with such a limited capacity in my own life, what could I do? I’m just a person, like most people. There’s small contributions: getting informed, knowing a bit, reflection on these things talking, writing, et cetera, etc. There’s doing composting – hot or cold – to reduce my personal impact on the environment and eventually on the climate. And I know I’m already bad at that. I know that. So I feel as though, at times, it’s like, “but what could I do?” Well, a good first step is to learn about these things. Good.

What then? Well, I’ve done some of the taking in of neat stuff, and then there’s writing. Writing? Yup, it’s the productive phase past learning about things. I can do some kind of mini-outreach to others through this. I can reference. I can footnote or end note. I can think more, and re-reference (and footnote or end note), and on and on. That’s a great tool to learn, kind of.

But does that matter to folks? I don’t know, quite frankly. I have an intuition that there’s some reach there, but is that good enough? For me: no. What then?

There’s reading other peoples’ work. Other articles. Other interviews, even chapters or whole books. But that takes a lot of time. And time is short with lots of things going on. Many folks have kids, have work – have lives. Or, in other words, have resources being spent, resources which are likely quite short, like time, money, emotions and energy, or other, more personally immediate, things. Even after those things, there’s reflection on all of this together, talking straight about the issues, staying positive, and, maybe, keeping persistent.

Persistent writing, persistence reading, persistent thinking, persistent work in general. That’s a good start, and it skips a lot of the issues around particularities and funky little details.

Is this all too much waving of hands, and wishing the wishes? I don’t know, but can see why it might seem like it. Even with that, it would seem wrong to me in that, even though there’s the “but what can I do?”, there’s also the little voice of “but what can’t we do?” ‘cause it’s an organizational message, a collective and communal effort, a group plan, and a unified network of principles. So I don’t know for sure, and could be wrong, but I think the voice of doubt alone can be replaced by a voice of assurance together.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

A Brief Note on Natural Fibres and Climate Change

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/05/03

Natural fibres split into animal fibres and plant fibres with the animal fibres composed of proteins and the plant fibres of cellulose.[i]^,[ii]^,[iii]^,[iv]^,[v]

These, together, constitute a large set of industries with millions of workers including the textile industry, and they have competition from the synthetic or man-made fibre industry.[vi]^,[vii] One of these is compostable or bio-degradable, and the other is not.

Plant and animal fibres are bio-degradable such as in a cold or hot compost, and synthetic or man-made fibres are not.[viii]^,[ix]^,[x]^,[xi]^,[xii] The one’s that do not biodegrade will tend to end in landfills and the ocean, and will become broke down cubes such as microplastics.[xiii]^,[xiv]^,[xv]^,[xvi]^,[xvii]

The lifecycle of synthetic or man-made fibres are different than the natural fibres because the natural fibre lifecycle is shaped like a loop. And the synthetic or man-made fibre lifecycle is basically a straight line with some looping via recycling.

And with this taken in its full implications comes around to one of the major issues of our time, global warming or climate change.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations via Jan van Dam, the connection between environmental sustainability, climate change, and natural fibres is not necessarily a complicated one. How so?

The promotion of the use of natural fibres as CO2 neutral resource is believed to contribute to a greener planet… The transition towards a bio-based economy and sustainable developments as a consequence of the Kyoto protocols on greenhouse gas reduction and CO2 neutral production offers high perspectives for natural fibre markets… On ecological grounds products should then be preferred that are based on photosynthetic CO2 fixation… Growing of crops results in the fixation in biomass of atmospheric CO2 through photosynthesis and has therefore in principle a positive effect on the CO2 balance.[xviii]

There we go again. A green planet, accordance with the Kyoto Protocol (and likely numerous other agreements), carbon capture, an actual lifecycle for feeding back into its own future generations of growth and product via natural fibres, and even a reduction in the net CO2 in the medium- to long-term. What’s not to like – and there’s plenty more where that came from.

It can be a complex representation of the information. However, the fundamental principles need little thought. Synthetic fibres do not decompose. Natural fibres decompose. What follows? The former become various direct and indirect pollutants and is, therefore, unsustainable and increases the ongoing climactic warming; the latter amounts to a self-sustaining cycle and is, therefore, sustainable and reduces the ongoing climactic warming.

[i] New World Encyclopedia. (2014, December 23). Natural Fiber.

[ii] natural fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[iii] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2009).Natural Fibres.

[iv] Government of Canada: Canadian Conservation Institute. (2015, November 23).Natural Fibres – Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) Notes 13/11.

[v] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2009). Why Natural Fibres?.

[vi] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2009). Natural Fibres.

[vii] man-made fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

[viii] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15). Animal Fibres.

[ix] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15). Plant Fibres.

[x] Almanac. (2016). How to Compost: Hot and Cold Methods.

[xi] Vegetable Gardener. (2009, February 10). Composting Hot or Cold.

[xii] Kitchen Gardeners International. (n.d.). Which is better: hot or cold composting?.

[xiii] New World Encyclopedia. (2016). Natural Fiber.

[xiv] United Nations Environment Programme. (2013). Microplastics.

[xv] Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. (2016).Microplastics and microbeads.

[xvi] WorldWatch Institute. (2015, January 28). Global Plastic Production Rises, Recycling Lags.

[xvii] [National Geographic]. (2015, October27). Are Microplastics in Our Water Becoming a Macroproblem?.

[xviii] Van Dam, J.E.G.. (n.d.). Environmental benefits of natural fibre production and use.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

An Interview with Abena Sara

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/05/03

Abena Sara is a regular contributor and featured author here at Trusted Clothes. Read more about her below through this one-on-one interview with Scott.

Your name is Sara Corry, but you have the name Abena Sara, too. How did this come about for you?

In Ghana, everyone has a ‘day name’ that corresponds to the day they were born. I was born on a Tuesday, so my day name is Abena. When saying it, the stress is on the first A so it’s like AH-beh-nuh – not aBEEnah like most people outside of Ghana pronounce it.

You have a passion for travel, and you’re living in eastern Ghana near its capital of Accra at the moment. How’d you get there? Tell us your story.

That’s a long story, but I’ll try to keep it brief. I was involved with African drumming in Albuquerque, New Mexico where I’m from, for many years. One of my teachers is from Ghana, which piqued my interest in Ghana in the first place. Then, a friend from a drum circle introduced me to a Ghanaian friend who was visiting NM – this was back in 2010. His friend, Godfried, and I hit it off and kept in contact after he went back to Ghana. In 2011 he invited me to come to Ghana and see some of the country, and I went for 16 days. The trip was amazing. I’d never been to a “third world” country and I saw so many things that touched my heart and soul. I fell in love with Ghana, and with Godfried. Then lots of “life” happened for both of us and I didn’t return until 2014, for a month this time. When planning the trip, I started brainstorming ways I could spend more time in Ghana, and the idea to form a business that would allow me to be here more often came to mind. One thing led to another and I realized that my passion is with humanitarian causes and a desire to give a hand up to people who are in desperate situations. In February, 2015 I returned and ultimately spent nine months in Ghana, working on business development – and I’m still here! I’m working on getting residency so that Godfried and I can be together and continue work we’ve started on a project to improve medical care in villages, and of course to develop Batiks for Life.

Your posts always have great photographs of Ghana. What personal fulfillment comes from it?

Yes, I love photography, although I’m really an amateur. I love nature photography most, but I’ve managed to get some nice shots of people here in Ghana. Ghana in general is a very colourful and photogenic country! For me, photography can be a spiritual thing. It’s soul-nourishing to slow down and see my surroundings through the camera lens.

And you’ve lived in the desert for over 30 years. How did this come about for you?

I moved to Albuquerque, NM (high desert in North Central NM) in 1988 (after spending a couple of years there previously). New Mexico’s state slogan is “the Land of Enchantment” and it’s a joke that we say it’s the “Land of Entrapment”! Or like Hotel California, you can check in any time you like, but you can never leave! The land does seem to hold onto people! I do love New Mexico and my family is there, so I’ll be back to visit at some point. Ghana feels like home now though.

What’s a normal day in Ghana like for you?

It’s a rather “chop wood, carry water” kind of life – in some ways a little like camping. I don’t have a huge income so I can’t afford the high rise apartments or fancy gated communities in downtown Accra. Actually I wouldn’t want to live like that anyhow, surrounded by mostly ex-pats and apart from everyday people. So I live in a small town in a small house, draw water from a well every morning, wash my clothes by hand, shower from a bucket of cold water, shop for food at the markets and food stalls, and cook over a little gas canister, just like most people here. One challenge is that I’m continually singled out because of my skin colour, which gets kind of embarrassing at times. But whereas a Black person in a predominately white area of the US might be negatively singled out, here “obrunis” are looked upon as an asset to the community. Sometimes this becomes another kind of challenge, when children come to me asking for money for instance, or when the market ladies overcharge me. Even Godfried has said he gets charged more at the market when I’m with him. To be looked upon as a source of easy money is uncomfortable, and creates a kind of entitlement which is exactly the opposite of what I’m trying to do through my work.

Batiks for life has come a long way, what does “Batiks” mean and where did the name of the company originate from?

Batik is a process of creating a print on cotton fabric, by applying wax to form a design, then dyeing the cloth, then removing the wax. It’s a traditional way of making beautiful fabrics in many parts of the world and in Ghana, there’s a particular way of making batik that’s been handed down from generation to generation that’s specific to this country. One way of making batik in Ghana involves using stamps with symbols known as “Adinkra” – it’s a centuries-old system of symbology with meanings attached to each symbol, kind of like a proverb in a way. So, for instance, you could tell a story through the Adinkra symbols stamped on your batik! I love these symbols, which tell the story of life in all its nuances. The name “Batiks for Life” is partly about the Adinkra symbols used in batik, but also about the intention that sales of our products will support life – from the people in Ghana who make the products, to the customer. Our batik medical scrubs are one of a kind, and bring colour and liveliness into often depressing environments. We have several repeat customers who remark on how their patients enjoy the batik scrubs they’re wearing! Additionally, our mission is to use a portion of our income to support life-giving medical projects here in Ghana. This has been a goal of mine since the beginning of the business, but I never expected to be able to realize this dream so soon. I’ll say more about this below.

What kinds of things does Batiks for Life offer, and what is the overall purpose, to you, of the organization?

We started out with medical scrubs, but pretty soon people who don’t wear scrubs were asking for other batik products. They wanted to support our mission, but the product wasn’t appealing to them. So we’re in the process of adding new products that our supporters asked for, like different sizes of bags, yardage of batik fabric, and wrap skirts. Right now our batik artistes are working on some batik wall hangings that I’m excited to put up on the website! I think one of the things that makes our products desirable (in addition to being beautiful of course!) is that customers know that people in this developing country are being supported through their production, and that a portion of income goes right back to the community in the form of healthcare initiatives.

What is the difference between fair trade products and other products?

First off, I want to be clear that Batiks for Life products have not yet been certified as Fair Trade – this is a lengthy process which we will undertake once we are more established. But we do incorporate fair trade business practices – meaning the people who create our products are paid a living wage and work in safe conditions. Actually, they set their own prices and work out of their own small businesses. So there is no concern that they’re being exploited or forced to work in unsafe factories like often happens when sewn products are mass produced in China or other countries.

You contribute to a website on wildlife conservation in the continent of Africa. What is its importance as a website or resource, and the salience of larger efforts to preserve wildlife in Africa?

The website is www.safaritalk.net and is a community of people who support wildlife conservation efforts in Africa. Some people own safari lodges, others are visitors to Africa, and some live on the continent. There’s always interesting discussion about wildlife topics, amazing photography, and reports on places all over Africa. One of the issues that continually comes up is that most of the problems facing wildlife here are economy-driven. When people don’t have another source of income, they will be more likely to poach wildlife. We all know about the plight of rhinos and elephants, but it continues down to the smallest of animals. Poaching here in Ghana is a huge problem because people love bushmeat. Bushmeat can be anything from grasscutter (a large rodent that lives in sugar cane fields), to antelope, to monkey, etc. Anything that moves can be consumed, pretty much. Combined with habitat loss, this has decimated the local wildlife. But, if people have a reason to keep the animals alive, by and large they’ll protect them. Again, it’s economy-driven. So some communities have started wildlife sanctuaries which are tourist destinations and bring money into the community. Ghana isn’t known for wildlife as are East and South Africa, so through my writing for Safaritalk, I hope that more people will see that we too have wildlife (you just have to know where to look!), which will bring in more tourism, and keep these local wildlife sanctuaries, preserves, and national parks alive.

What is the importance of the companies and organizations such as Trusted Clothes and Batiks for Life to you?

I think that people are in a conundrum when it comes to their clothing. We all know that most of what we get at the department store is produced by people who work in a form of slavery – these clothing companies make a huge profit on the backs of impoverished people in the “third world”. Yet while someone may feel bad about supporting these businesses through their buying choices, they don’t know their options. We’re here to show them the options, and to convince people that it’s worth a little extra money to buy something unique and lasting. I value my connection with Trusted Clothes because it reminds me that on top of all the other reasons I’m here in Ghana pursuing this crazy idea of mine, I’m also contributing to a healthier world through promoting sustainable clothing options. Kind of like the cherry on top!

Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

I wanted to back up and say a bit more about the healthcare initiative I mentioned above. Godfried is from a little village in the southeastern corner of Ghana. I interviewed the two nurses who run the clinic – I also write for a nursing website, HireNurses.com – and I’m doing a series on healthcare in Ghana. In doing this interview it became clear that they’re doing the best they can, but are really hampered in their ability to provide healthcare for the village for a lot of reasons. I saw the opportunity to do something to help. It was an initial goal of mine that Batiks for Life would give back to the community through giving a portion of income to health related projects, but I never expected it to happen so soon in the life of the business. For Godfried, it’s also a dream come true because his great-great-grandfather founded the village and so he’s in the lineage of chiefs and very concerned about the welfare of the village. He’s also had an idea in his mind for a long time about leading medical mission trips throughout the country. Well, almost immediately we started getting offers of help that were most unexpected! We’re pursuing these offers and trying to wrap our heads around the possibilities! It’s really exciting and we hope to make our ambitions to help underserved communities with their healthcare a reality.

Click here to read more of Sara’s posts from Africa and Batiks for Life.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

A History on Natural Fibres

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/05/02

Natural fibres have been around for a long time and will continue to be around for much longer. As described by the Encylopedia Britannica, Natural Fibres are “any hairlike raw material directly obtainable from an animal, vegetable, or mineral source and convertible into nonwoven fabrics”[i]

It’s out of the textile industry, or the industry devoted to fibres, filaments, and yarns capable of being crafted into cloth or fabric for the production of material.[ii] That’s a huge industry, international in fact, which is connected to the local economies of many, many developing nations.

And these same developing nations have consumers throughout the world – and our concern is for the sustainable and ethical working conditions. With the strong emphasis on natural fibres production because of their variety and their ability to decompose and not simply accumulate in landfills.

Natural fibres, as utilized in small-scale and rather ancient textile industries, dates back to before the era of recording history.[iii] Flax and wool appear to be the most prominent sources in those times of ‘pre-history,’ which have been found at various Swiss excavation sites dating to the 7^th and 6^th centuries BC; and this coincides with multiple vegetable fibres utilized in a similar manner by ancient peoples.[iv]

Some would claim that the oldest are “flax (10000BC) cotton (5000 BC) and silk (2700 BC), but even jute and coir have been cultivated since antiquity.”[v] The more detailed histories appear to exist with hemp natural fibre, at least as a cultivated fibre plant emerging out of Southeast Asia, which “spread to China” around 4500 BC.[vi]

After this, along came the introduction, or the development/invention of spinning and weaving linen around 3400 – at least, and likely before that time in Egypt based on the archaeological record, and so flax was developed before that time too.[vii] There were even developments around that time in India with cotton (3,000 BC).[viii]

Lastly, we come to China and silk from this ancient era. The manufacture, and one can reasonably suppose distribution, of silk and its associated products came from them. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, it was “highly developed” at around 2640 BC with the “invention and development of sericulture – a sort of silkworm cultivation to get raw silk, wow![ix]

Phew, that’s a lot of information. Part II, we’ll cover some of the more recent history of natural fibres, and how they came to be – stay tuned!

[i] natural fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from Britannica.

[ii] textile. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from Britannica.

[iii] natural fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from Britannica.

[iv] Ibid.

[v] Bcomp Technologies. (n.d.). Natural Fibre Specialists. Retrieved from COMP.

[vi] natural fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from Britannica.

[vii] Ibid.

[viii] Ibid.

[ix] Ibid.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

Sustainable Fibres: What is Camel Hair?

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/04/29

It’s that time again! That’s right a quick recap from part one for those that missed out on natural fibres, a crash course. What did Sustainable Fibres: What is Abaca (I) say?

Natural fibres, as opposed to synthetic or man-made fibres, have a long history, and come in many types.[i]^,[ii]Typically, these include animal fibres or plant fibres.[iii],[iv]

Animal fibres can be things like alpaca wool, angora wool, camel hair, cashmere, mohair, silk, and wool. Animal fibres come from hair, secretions, or wool.[v] Plant fibres can be things like abaca, coir, cotton, flax, hemp, jute, ramie, and sisal. Plant fibres are come from seed hairs, stem or bast fibres, leaf fibres, and husk fibres.[vi]

Which is helpful and a quick description on what is going on with natural fibres, what is its general division within itself – plant and animal fibres, and what even comprises, via examples, those plant and animal fibres. Great! Now, the other fun stuff. Last time we took a peak at Abaca, a plant fibre with lots of neat little uses and history.

Let’s take a look at an animal fibre this time, and this one can be Camel hair; first things first, what is it in general? According to Encyclopedia Britannica, it is as follows:

Camel hair, animal fibre obtained from the camel and belonging to the group called specialty hair fibres. The most satisfactory textile fibre is gathered from camels of the Bactrian type. Such camels have protective outer coats of coarse fibre that may grow as long as 15 inches (40 cm). The fine, shorter fibre of the insulating undercoat, 1.5–5 inches (4–13 cm) long, is the product generally called camel hair, or camel hair wool.[vii]

Bactrian type are, one can assume, a camel from Bactria.[viii] Now, with this kind of encyclopedic description, it can, or might, see a bit overwhelming in terms of the information, but there’s some basic things to pull out of it. One, the specialty animal fibres for the natural fibres, and two, its textile use. Three, the description of the size and characteristics of the hair from camels.

Who supplies it?

According to the Cashmere and Camel Hair Manufacturers Institute (CCHMI), there’s many, many sources that supply the hair including “China, Mongolia, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, New Zealand, Tibet and Australia.”[ix]Those aren’t necessarily a tremendous amount of places, but an enormous land area coverage if taken as a whole especially with a whole continent (Australia) and the largest country in the world (Russia). And who doesn’t like cashmere?

How much is gathered and produced for each yield?

It can vary. But there’s a common range. For these kinds of specialty animal hair fibres, natural fibres, the gathering or the collecting of the hairs occurs in the molting season or the season when animals tend to shed their hair.[x] That means around late spring to early summer. These can fall off in clumps for collection by standard collection methods from way-back-when – by hand (neat).[xi]

Following this, the “coarse hairs and down hairs of the…camel are separated by a mechanical process known as dehairing,” explains itself, which in turn brings about a yield per camel from as low (not really low, actually) as 8 kilograms to as much as 10 kilograms.

What is its utility, and look and feel?

It is lightweight and naturally warm, is a tan colour, and can be made various color through colouring it – and, in fact, takes in the dye about as well as wool does.[xii]

What about the small stuff like the end product and recyclability?

If you go to that website with the table, there’s a wonderful layout of some of the finer points such as garment care, end uses, virgin fiber, and recycled fiber.[xiii] Garment care is basically the means by which garments can be properly cared for, so “dry clean wovens; knit goods may be handwashed.”[xiv]

End uses are the finalized textile uses such as “Men’s and women’s coats, jackets and blazers, skirts, hosiery, sweaters, gloves, scarves, mufflers, caps and robes.”[xv] Not bad, a decent selection with a certain appeal in its ability to be recoloured; hosiery is the one that surprised me, personally. And it is a virgin fibre or non-processed fibre, and it’s capable of being recycled – and as with many of the lovely variety of natural fibres, the forms and uses provide plenty of reason for consideration of the general consideration about, what I might call, the lifecycle of fibres.[xvi] That’s about it for camel hair, in a brief summary.

Closing thoughts?

Synthetic or man-made fibres can end up in landfills or the ocean and are not biodegradable, but the natural fibres have all of these measures, granted with a little effort (but they can be fun!), to send them back from whence they came after they’ve spent or expired their fashionable quotient – sometimes in a season, and other times after a decade of cycled fashion trends (you never know).[xvii]^,[xviii] Come back for part three for the next fibre profile!

[i] natural fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved fromhttp://www.britannica.com/topic/natural-fiber

[ii] man-made fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/technology/man-made-fiber.

[iii] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15). Animal Fibres.

[iv] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15). Plant Fibres.

[v] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2009). Natural Fibres. Retrieved from Natural Fibres.

[vi] Ibid.

[vii]camel hair. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from Britannica.

[viii] Bactria. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from Britannica.

[ix] Cashmere and Camel Hair Manufacturers Institute. (2013). Cashmere and Camel Hair Fact Sheet.

[x] Ibid.

[xi] Ibid.

[xii] Ibid.

[xiii] Ibid.

[xiv] Ibid.

[xv] Ibid.

[xvi] Ibid.

[xvii] man-made fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from Britannica.

[xviii]natural fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from Britannica.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

Microplastic in Wastewater

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/04/28

We talk about the natural fibres and the man-made fibres, but do not take into account as much the water aspects of these fibres. As natural fibres come from plant and animal fibres, by definition, their contents come out of the earth and extract and use water in the midst of their production, whether cellulose or proteins composed of amino acids (of course).[i]

But what about the possibility of problems with water in connection with the synthetic fibres? Take, for instance, the issue of microplastics in wastewater. Microplastics are part of the larger categorization of marine litter – gross – and can be defined “as particles of less than 5mm in size.”[ii]^,[iii]^,[iv]^,[v]

These small bits of plastics can tend to come in the form of pellets.[vi] However, the source of them are separate processes. According to GreenFacts, those are:

deterioration of larger plastic fragments, cordage and films over time, with or without assistance from UVradiation, mechanical forces in the seas (e.g. wave action, grinding on high energy shorelines), or through biological activity (e.g. boring, shredding and grinding by marine organisms);
direct release of micro particles (e.g. scrubs and abrasives in household and personal care products, shot-blasting ship hulls and industrial cleaning products respectively, grinding or milling waste) into waterways and via urban wastewater treatment;
accidental loss of industrial raw materials (e.g. prefabricated plastics in the form of pellets or powders used to make plastic articles), during transport or trans- shipment, at sea or into surface waterways;
discharge of macerated wastes, e.g. sewage sludge[vii]

The per annum increase in the consumption of plastics will not by necessity change overnight, but these can continue unabated in the, at least, near future because of the continued increase in the global consumption of plastics.[viii] That is, circa 2013, 299 million tons of plastic was produced, about 4 percent more than 2012, and collection and recycling of these materials does not suffice to keep up with the pace of these developments, even only a couple years ago, and these plastics complete their journey in landfills and oceans.[ix]

There are about “10–20 million tons of plastic that end up in the oceans each year. A recent study conservatively estimated that 5.25 trillion plastic particles weighing a total of 268,940 tons are currently floating in the world’s oceans.”[x]

This comes back to the industries of natural fibres, biodegradable, and synthetic or man-made fibres, non-biodegradable in the textile and other economic juggernauts.[xi] According to O’Connor’s report (2014), “In fact, 85% of the human-made material found on the shoreline were microfibers, and matched the types of material, such as nylon and acrylic, used in clothing,” she continued, “It is not news that microplastic – which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines as plastic fragments 5mm or smaller – is ubiquitous in all five major ocean gyres. And numerous studies have shown that small organisms readily ingest microplastics, introducing toxic pollutants to the food chain.”[xii]

Many organisms eat these materials and thereby poison the food supply with pollutants. And it’s ubiquitous, that is, it’s everywhere and that means the global food supply chain is being completely filled with trillions of bits of plastic particulate matter less than 5mm small and finding its way into the food chain, which moves up into us.

National Geographic in Are Microplastics in Our Water Becoming a Macroproblem? (2015) provides a good overview of the subject matter at hand with the connection between the manufacture, distribution, and lack of recycling measures, and then the consumption by lower-end animals in the food chain and how this moves into our own food supply chain – bigger things eat on the smaller things.[xiii] It’s an issue for the environment and a major concern for us.

So are these micro plastics accumulating in our bodies?

We don’t know, but there is reason to believe that it is very much likely. And even if it doesnt accumulate in our bodies, do you want this in you? I think, and feel, as with many of you that I firmly do not.

[i] New World Encyclopedia. (2016). Natural Fiber. Retrieved from New World Encyclopedia.

[ii]GreenFacts. (2016). Marine Litter

[iii] Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation. (n.d.). Global Microplastics Initiative. Retrieved from Adventure science.

[iv] United Nations Environment Programme. (2013). Microplastics. Retrieved from UNEP.

[v] Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. (2016). Microplastics and microbeads.

[vi] Ibid.

[vii] Ibid.

[viii] WorldWatch Institute. (2015, January 28). Global Plastic Production Rises, Recycling Lags. Retrieved from World Watch.

[ix] Ibid.

[x]Ibid.

[xi] O’Connor, M.C. (2014, October 27). Inside the lonely fight against the biggest environmental problem you’ve never heard of. Retrieved from The Guardian.

[xii] Ibid.

[xiii] [National Geographic]. (2015, October27). Are Microplastics in Our Water Becoming a Macroproblem?. Retrieved from Nat Geo.

[xiv] [gedwoods]. (2010, May 11). Polar fleece. Retrieved from Fabrics Int’l.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

Sustainable Fibres: What is Abaca?

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/04/27

Natural fibres, as opposed to synthetic or man-made fibres, have a long history, and come in many types.[i]^,[ii]Typically, these include animal fibres or plant fibres.[iii]^,[iv]

Animal fibres can be things like alpaca wool, angora wool, camel hair, cashmere, mohair, silk, and wool. Animal fibres come from hair, secretions, or wool.[v] Plant fibres can be things like abaca, coir, cotton, flax, hemp, jute, ramie, and sisal. Plant fibres are come from seed hairs, stem or bast fibres, leaf fibres, and husk fibres.[vi]

Let’s zoom in a little on one of them, say a plant natural fibre like Abaca.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, it is this:

Abaca (Musa textilis), plant of the family Musaceae, and its fibre, which is second in importance among the leaf fibre group. Abaca fibre, unlike most other leaf fibres, is obtained from the plant leaf stalks (petioles). Although sometimes known as Manila hemp, Cebu hemp, or Davao hemp, the abaca plant is not related to true hemp.[vii]

So it’s a leaf fibre, a kind of hemp without being real hemp. I like that definition by association. Where did it come from?

It’s native to the Philippines since at least the 19^th century, and around 1925 there was cultivation by the Dutch in Sumatra.[viii]^,[ix]Following this, the United States of America’s Department of Agriculture began to establish plantations in Central America along with the smaller operations, commercial ones, in British-run North Borneo, which is now Sabah or a part of modern Malaysia.[x]

What does it look like?

It’s a bit like a banana. Its rootstock produces about 25 fleshy, fibreless stalks in a circular cluster.[xi] Even cooler, every “stalk is about 5 cm (2 inches) in diameter and produces about 12 to 25 leaves with overlapping leaf stalks, or petioles, sheathing the plant stalk to form an herbaceous (nonwoody) false trunk about 30 to 40 cm in diameter.”[xii]

Where do they grow?

They grow in puffy, open, and “loamy soils” with decent ability to drain. Mature rootstock planted in the earliest moments of the rainy season constitute its common means of growth. It takes a 1.5 to 2 years for its plant stalk from each mat to be harvested, and the cut on the plant for the separation for that further growing is at the or to the ground of it – “at the time of blossoming.”[xiii] They’re replaced within 10 years as well.

Finally, what are its uses, and benefits?

For one, it’s environmentally friendly. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Abaca can be utilized for “[e]rosion control and biodiversity rehabilitation” for things such as “by intercropping abaca in former monoculture plantations and rainforest areas” in addition to “minimize erosion and sedimentation problems in coastal areas.”[xiv]

Erosion control is important because without it crop yields can be reduced because of the soil loss due to the water erosion.[xv] Monocultures can have benefits, but necessarily at every given instant of agricultural production and harvesting, and even in most cases there could be downsides.[xvi] So, in general, the facilitation of biodiversity is a net good, and abaca helps with it. Good stuff!

Biodiversity is the opposite of monoculture; it’s lots of cultures, that is, a plethora of biological plant life, for instance; or it “encompasses all living species on Earth and their relationships to each other. This includes the differences in genes, species and ecosystems.”[xvii]

Biodiversity rehabilitation relates to monocultures and the assistive properties of planned agricultural activities through abaca, which means it, according to the Convention on Biological Diversity, can be used towards the purpose of “rehabilitate and restore degraded ecosystems and promote the recovery of threatened species through the development and implementation of plans or other management strategies.”

So it can even help with saving the lives of endangered species, or those animals on the brink of extinction, gasp!

Secondly, it’s used for a vast number of things within or associated with the textile industry including Cordage products – e.g. ropes, twines, marine cordage, binders, cord, Pulp and paper manufactures – e.g. tea bags, filter paper, mimeograph stencil, Handmade paper – e.g. paper sheets, stationeries, all-purpose cards, lamp shades, balls, dividers, placemats, bags, photo frames and albums, flowers, table clock, even fibercrafts, handwoven fabrics, and furniture.[xviii] And even with all of these uses, the darn things are being beat out by synthetic fabrics in cordage products, for example.[xix]

And now? The Philippines continues to dominate the cultivation of Abaca to this day.[xx] And its’ widely used as a fertilizer. That’s all for now, folks!

[i] natural fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from Britannica

[ii] man-made fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from Britannica.

[iii] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15).Animal Fibres.

[iv] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15). Plant Fibres.

[v] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2009). Natural Fibres. Retrieved from Natural Fibres.

[vi] Ibid.

[vii] abaca. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from Britannica.

[viii] Philippines. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from Britannica.

[ix] Sumatra. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from Britannica.

[x] abaca. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from Britannica.

[xi] Ibid.

[xii] Ibid.

[xiii] Ibid.

[xiv] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2016). Future Fibres: Abaca.

[xv] Government of Alberta: Agriculture and Forestry. (2016). An Introduction to Water Erosion Control.

[xvi] agricultural technology. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from Britannica.

[xvii]Biodiv Canada. (2014, July 3). What is Biodiversity?.

[xviii] Textile Learner. (2014). Abaca Fiber (Manila Hemp) | Uses/Application of Abaca Fiber.

[xix] Ibid.

[xx] abaca. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from Britannica.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

What’s the Deal with Natural Fibres?

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/04/26

What’s the deal with natural fibres? Why are they important?

Organic Cotton, Jute, Hemp, Alpaca, Cashmere, Flax, Silk & Wool. Oh My!

So, what’s the deal with natural fibres? Natural fibres are “elongated substances produced by plants and animals that can be spun into filaments, thread or rope. Woven, knitted, matted or bonded, they form fabrics that are essential to society.”[i],[ii]

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, they are “any hairlike raw material directly obtainable from an animal, vegetable, or mineral source and convertible into non-woven fabrics such as felt or paper or, after spinning into yarns, into woven cloth. A natural fibre may be further defined as an agglomeration of cells in which the diameter is negligible in comparison with the length.”[iii]

These can include the fifteen main natural fibres – Abaca, Alpaca, Angora, Camel, Cashmere, Coir, Cotton, Flax, Hemp, Jute, Mohair, Ramie, Silk, Sisal, and Wool, and many others.[iv] That is, natural fibres provide a great variety of possible materials from plants and animals from which to make fibres.

Read more about sustainable natural fabrics here.

Natural Organic Plant Fibres:

The plant fibres include abaca, coir, cotton, flax, hemp, jute, ramie, and sisal. Plant fibres are come from seed hairs, stem or bast fibres, leaf fibres, and husk fibres.

The animal fibres include alpaca wool, angora wool, camel hair, cashmere, mohair, silk, and wool. Animal fibres come from hair, secretions, or wool.

The Government of Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) provides information on four specific examples: cotton and flax for plant fibres, and silk and wool for animal fibres. [v] Cotton and flax are made of cellulose and vegetable fibres. Silk and wool are protein fibres made of a variety of amino acids from animals.

There are some geographic considerations and plant/animal specific information such as the fact that cotton and wool represent the most pervasively utilized vegetable fibres in North America, and silk and wool as they are animal in origin are subject to affects from ageing of the animal.[vi] However, these are highly detailed bits of information best left for the end notes.

Why are Natural Fibres Important?

It’s actually pretty straightforward. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations argues from five “choices”: healthy choice, responsible choice, sustainable choice, high-tech choice, and fashionable choice.[vii]

“Each year, farmers harvest around 35 million tonnes of natural fibres from a wide range of plants and animals…[and] [t]hose fibres form fabrics, ropes and twines that have been fundamental to society since the dawn of civilization,” The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations stated in 2009.[viii]

Throughout the last 50 years, synthetic, or man-made fibres, began to dominate the landscape previously carved out by natural fibres in “clothing, household furnishings, industries and agriculture.”[ix]

Natural fibres, as a means for production and, thus, “livelihoods of millions of people” is adversely effected by the global economic downturn and the increased and ubiquitous competition from synthetic materials; In fact, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations declared 2009 the International Year of Natural Fibres to attests to natural fibres’ importance to those millions of producers and their consumers, too.[x]

Let’s look into their arguments from 2009, which remain as salient as now as they were then.

Natural fibres as the healthy choice. There is natural ventilation from natural fibres. Wool can be an insulator in cool and warm weather. Coconut fibre has a natural resistance against fungi and mites. Hemp fibre appears to show various antibacterial properties as well. What’s not to love?

Natural Fibres: The Responsible, Sustainable Choice.

They remain the source of economic vibrancy for millions of people including small-scale processors and farmers. That means “10 million people in the cotton sector in West and Central Africa, 4 million small-scale jute farmers in Bangladesh and India, one million silk industry workers in China, and 120 000 alpaca herding families in the Andes.”[xi]

Natural fibres are the sustainable choice for the future, and a high technology choice too. That is, the emergent technologies in the coming decades will increasingly be the ‘alternative’ energies such as wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, and others. That is, the oncoming and ongoing green economy. So that means “energy efficiency, renewable feed stocks,” and “industrial processes that reduce carbon emissions and recyclable materials…Natural fibres are a renewable resource,” and natural fibres are, as noted in A How-To On Composting Your Clothes, are capable of decomposition compared to synthetic materials.[xii]

They’re based on high technology with good mechanical strength, low weight and low cost” and are, therefore, “attractive to the automotive industry.”[xiii] Take, for instance, the European example with their car manufacturers utilizing an approximate 8,000 tonnes of natural fibres per year for the reinforcement of thermoplastic panels, which, as with all of the aforementioned information from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, comes from 2009.[xiv]

Finally, and a more minor, but personally importance choice for many people much of the time, natural fibres exist as a fashionable choice, too. There’s a whole area of eco-fashion, or things like sustainable clothing based on clothing for all ages and styles for wearing and disposing, and then, one can assume, for decomposition. The cycle of natural fibre.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

A How-To on Composting Your (Wool) Clothes

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/04/25

So now that we know that we can compost our clothes and with the separation between natural fibres and synthetic fibres, and the multiple kinds of natural fibres on offer are numerous, and these natural fibres come with the benefit of being able to be composted, which does include wool.[i] So this one will be about wool, and with some important information as ‘food for thought,’ consider:

Every year, Americans, alone, throw away 11,000,000 million tonnes of fabric and clothing.[ii] And 99% of textiles remain recyclable.[iii] Traditionally, wool has been used for fertilizer in the district of west Yorkshire.[iv] The issue with wool is that it takes a heck-of-a-long time compost. That’s a concern, and a valid one if time is an issue for your projects.

And that waste is not only of the fibre themselves, but of water, and in an increase of pollution as well.[v] But, and to start, there are some general things that can be done to speed up the process for wool, and in fact other natural fibres.

You can chop up your clothes, especially for big harder-to-compost natural fibres like wool.[vi] Apparently, it’s important according to the Texas Office of Agriculture. If you visualize it, that means the tough material can have more surface area on net, with each and every piece taken into account, for the environment to working on degrading the wool.

If you’re super keen and diligent about biodegradation of the wool, you can, and should, remove the non-biodegradable materials such as the synthetic fibres to permit the complete composting of the compost pile. Synthetic or man-made materials cannot be composted – so any that you do not remove will not go away. You’ll have your compost as compost+ or, maybe, compost- with the additional bits of non-wool in it.

Some more involved things include the creation of a hot compost, the addition of earth worms, and recycling the things that cannot compost.

Hot composts – real quick – these can help with the time management concerns of composting that darn wool! Hot composts contrast with cold composts or regular composts. The kind where you simply throw a pile of bio-degradable materials together and wait – that’s cold composting.

Hot composting “produces compost in a much shorter time. It has the benefits of killing weed seeds and pathogens (diseases), and breaking down the material into very fine compost.”[vii] (Wow!) You can also check out other resources as well.[viii],[ix],[x]

Earth worms can, to no surprise, can help with the compost process.[xi] Worms have been hard at work throughout evolutionary history breaking down materials and returning to the earth once the material came.

Feng and Hewitt said, “Worms eat food scraps, which become compost as they pass through the worm’s body. Compost exits the worm through its’ tail end. This compost can then be used to grow plants. To understand why vermicompost is good for plants, remember that the worms are eating nutrient-rich fruit and vegetable scraps, and turning them into nutrient-rich compost.”[xii] Reason enough? Good, because even if it isn’t, with the other reasons it should be, I think.

So consider a combination of chopped wool bits from the clothing, hot composted, and with earth worms to boot. You’ll have that wool composted in no time! And it’ll be ready for fertilizing, too, very likely nutrient-rich. And if any questions, check out the endnotes!

[i] alderandash. (2012, July 11). Composting Woo.

[ii] Mind Your Waste. (2012, March).

[iii] Fisk, U. (2011, November 7). Is Fabric Compostable?.

[iv] Ibid.

[v] Hearts. (n.d.). Surprisingly Compostable Textiles.

[vi] Ibid.

[vii] Deep Green Permaculture. (n.d.). Hot Composting – Composting in 18 Days.

[viii] Bement, L. (n.d.). Hot Composting vs. Cold Composting. Retrieved from Fine gardening

[ix] Government of New Brunswick. (2016). Building A Hot Compost.

[x] Savonen, C. (2003, February 19). How to encourage a hot compost pile. Retrieved from Oregon State

[xi] Fong, J. & Hewitt, P. (1996). Worm Composting Basics.

[xii] Ibid.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

International Women’s Rights, Farming, and Natural Fibres

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/04/25

International Women’s Rights are, not-so surprisingly, knitted together, intimately, with natural fibres in terms of harvesting and general farming. How is this so?

Well, this, as well, needs a little background with respect to the international community because women’s rights are not limited by national boundaries. It’s international after all. And natural fibres were important enough to devote an entire year to, through a United Nations Organ, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.[i]

How does the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations self-define?

Our three main goals are: the eradication of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition; the elimination of poverty and the driving forward of economic and social progress for all; and, the sustainable management and utilization of natural resources, including land, water, air, climate and genetic resources for the benefit of present and future generations.[ii]

Right there, you have an alignment with Trusted Clothes: ethical and sustainable. A part of this connects to the component relevant to us, and our mission – clothing, especially natural fibre-based clothing.

Take into account, we do not exist in a vacuum. Our lovely, and wonderful, writers, more formal, (bloggers, more informal,) come from all over the world, and that reflects the international character of the explicit calls for provisions for women and for the desire for natural fibre materials for clothing and other productions.

For instance, every year “farmers harvest around 35 million tonnes of natural fibres from a wide range of plants and animals – from sheep, rabbits, goats, camels and alpacas, from cotton bolls, abaca and sisal leaves and coconut husks, and from the stalks of jute, hemp, flax and ramie plants.”[iii] That’s a lot of natural fibre, and many, many sources for its harvest.

How does this tie into the United Nations? It’s Charter. Chapter I, Article 1 of the Charter of the United Nations states:

To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion [iv]

And some of the economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian items of interest relate to things like manufacture and production of materials for clothes and other things. That includes synthetic fibres, and natural fibres. How much?

There are “10 million people in the cotton sector in West and Central Africa, 4 million small-scale jute farmers in Bangladesh and India, one million silk industry workers in China, and 120 000 alpaca herding families in the Andes.”[v] Okay, so we have the major organization, our organization, the UN, and statistics on the number of workers, so what?

Many of these workers are women and, in fact, are as efficient as the men, but do not achieve the same yield rate for the output. That sounds like a paradox, or something contradictory. As it turns out, the reason is not innate or anything like that; rather, it is the amount of resources given to the women in these contexts that limits their yield.[vi] And this connects to international women’s rights how?

International women’s rights become relevant here because no major discernible difference in farming ability from biology, but from provision for production based on sex. In short, environment not biology. That’s the fundamental character of “in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character.”[vii] So, we have to work together, directly or indirectly, for the solution to this inequity.

Even further, Men and women in Agriculture: Closing the gap states:

The most thorough studies also attempt to assess whether these differences are caused by difference in input use, such as improved seeds, fertilizers and tools, or other factors such as access to extension services and education. And the vast majority of this literature confirms that women are just as efficient as men. They simply do not have access to the same inputs, productive resources and services.[viii]

Furthermore, and according to the same authoritative source, women can comprise as much as 70% of agriculture, in Southeast Asia, to as little as 20%, in Latin America, with an average of 43% of the total agricultural workforce in developing countries.[ix]

So we have the United Nations Charter, the Food and Agriculture Organization for the United Nations, Trusted Clothes, millions of workers and so millions of consumers, natural fibres, and women as productive as men but with less yield and lower employment rates. Take at once, this means something quite simple. Women aren’t being included as equally as they could be included in this economic and productivity area, and we’re bound internationally to help out. And there’s a huge industry, and therefore demand, for natural fibres; and that means the concomitant labor as well.

[i] Food and Agriculture Organization for the United Nations. (2009). Natural Fibre. Retrieved from natural fibres.

[ii] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2016). About FAO. Retrieved from fao.org.

[iii] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2009). Retrieved from natural fibres.

[iv] United Nations. (n.d.). Chapter I. Retrieved from UN.org

[v] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2009). Why Natural Fibres?. Retrieved fromnatural fibres.

[vi] The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2009). Why Natural Fibers?: A Responsible Choice. Retrieved from natural fibres.

[vii] United Nations. (n.d.). Chapter I. Retrieved from UN.org

[viii] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (n.d.). Men and women in agriculture: closing the gap. Retrieved from fao.org

[ix] Ibid.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

Ask A Genius 10 – The Future of Money

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

What is the future of money, of finance?

Money as an abstract entity made world trade possible by replacing barter. So, you have some means of containing value. Even if you want to buy something, but don’t have the specific item that the guy wants who is buying something from you, you can have a trade. All transactions become possible.

Since money is abstract, it is flexible and has held up, even with more rapid transactions and more world-spanning finance ongoing. The pace of financial change will keep accelerating like everything else. It will force drastic changes in how value is stored and companies are financed.

One problem that I see that will become more and more of a problem, and will require shifts in how things are done, is that companies that trade in abstract products like media companies may go through their business cycle of ‘boom-and-bust’ faster than the thing can be turned into securities on the stock market.

There’ll still be traditional stores of value like land. There will be oil, applications for oil, even as the world moves away from an oil economy into other means of generating energy. The financial markets may start moving too fast for traditional means of valuing products and companies.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

Ask A Genius 9 – The Future of Popular Culture

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

What about popular cultures in the future? What will happen to celebrities in this future world?

What you’ve seen scripted and on reality TV shows is an opening of all aspects of life to portrayal in the media starting under JFK in the early 60s, it was known to the news media that he was banging a bunch of different people or he had banged some people from time-to-time.

They kept it all quiet. Then Gary Hart, a presidential candidate in the 90s. He was the first guy to get nailed with an affair. Now, when you turn on TV, on ABC match game, there was an implied gay sex joke involving a 10-inch penis. When I was watching TV with my wife, I am amazed at what is part of public discourse.

According to some of the science fiction I read, more and more convincing, Oscar-winning, performances may involve actual sex. Chloe Sevigny in a movie called The Brown Bunny actually blew her director and co-star on camera. She’s still a respected actress. This was part of the performance.

She had an actual penis in her mouth. There was a director named Michael Winterbottom, who is a respected and legitimate director who directed a movie called Nine Songs, where the characters had actual sex on camera and it was part of the story. It wasn’t a good movie or involving story.

However, the trend will be to include everything. Respected actors will have close-to-sex on camera if the story requires it, or if somebody thinks that movie can make another few tens of millions of bucks by throwing that stuff into it. You’ll have Boyhood and Dazed and Confused with people actually growing up over many years.

Eventually, somebody will win an Oscar by playing out their disease on camera. Imagine a Meryl Streep in 12 years comes down with some disease, that’ll take two years to kill her. Somebody would come up with a pitch for her if that was public knowledge.

Media will become more and more inclusive of all aspects of life. It will become more and more intrusive. More and more people will be hooked up to cameras all the time, the way millions of people have blogs now. A million or ten million people will have their lives available to be observed all of the time.

The thing is, TV and the internet are going to emerge into one entertainment hub. People will have their lives examined hosts and purported experts.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

Ask A Genius 8 – Science Fiction as Science Fact 2

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

What’s the middle-of-the-road view about the future?

There’s a couple of things. World War II ended in 1945, which was 71 years ago. People might have the idea that we’ve reached the end of large wars. However, if you look back into history, somebody did a study and the average period between large international conflicts that suck in entire continents is 150 years.

So, we’re not beating any international records in not having a large international conflicts. To the Americans, the early part of the 21st century has looked back. We had 9/11. The Afghanistan War is the longest in US history. We had the Iraq War and its aftermath. None of those things are ending clean or particularly optimistically.

However, if you look at the casualties, Iraq and Afghanistan killed fewer than 5,000 Americans compared to Vietnam that killed 50,000. World Wars killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. Even though, things look dire. The actual net effect on Americans as a statistical whole hasn’t been that miserable, except if you’re looking at things like unemployment.

It is tough to blame our wars entirely for the employment problems that we’ve had. Things look terrible because awful stuff that happens in the Middle East that doesn’t affect that many Americans. Because things haven’t been terrible in truth doesn’t mean they can’t be terrible.

The 20th century was much more terrible in terms of mass death compared to the 21st century. World War I, tens of millions of deaths; Flu Epidemic in 1919, tens of millions of deaths; World War Ii, tens of millions of deaths; Chairman Mao, millions of deaths; Stalin, millions of deaths; we haven’t had that in the 21st century, but could have it.

What if somebody decides to bioengineer something terrible? You could have an epidemic that results in tens of millions of deaths. We haven’t had terrible stuff happen so far. However, looking at history, we won’t get out of the 21st century without some terrible stuff.

It might be a lot of regional wars because of climate change migration, population pressures, and migration, and so on. We’re at 7.3 billion people now. At the end of the century, we’re probably going to be pushing 11 million, and mostly in developing countries. That will put pressure on food production and land ownership.

The bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but it’s easier to attach nuclear materials onto traditional explosive, and then send that into a city and make much of the city radioactive. That would freak out the world. It’s technologically easy. You need the material.

You have to be able to get into a city. Terrorists have shown the ability to get into Western cities. They could set one off and kill many people. The 21st century looks like it might have some scary stuff happening.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

Ask A Genius 7 – Science Fiction as Science Fact

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

There’s science fiction turning into science fact. What things that are science fiction might become science fact?

Gender fluidity, I assume gender roles will continue to be less important. There will continue to be more gender fluidity based on individual decisions and these will be helped along by future medicine that makes such fluidity somewhat easier. Perhaps, somewhat more reversible; back in the 80s, I had the chance to make out with a trans person.

They were very attractive, but I freaked out. I couldn’t help the lump of flesh in that person’s pants. However, if I were 25 again, and I had a similar opportunity, I’d probably make out with that attractive trans person. I think that the overall zeitgeist is pushing in that direction and that medical technology will be increasingly helpful in that direction.

However, it will take a while. It’s not that you will take a pill and your penis will turn into a vagina. That’s one thing. Another thing will be a more pervasive loss of privacy. Equipment that will track movement, whether cameras or social media stuff. It will shift stuff that keep track of who is around and who has gone where.

That stuff will be more and more pervasive. People will have no expectation of moment-to-moment privacy in their lives. If people want privacy, they will have to explicitly set up safeguards for whatever periods of time they need higher levels of privacy. Neither of those things are invention-based science fiction things.

License

Copyright

2022-03-27

Ask A Genius 6 – The Middle Road of the Future

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

What’s the middle-of-the-road view about the future?

There’s a couple of things. World War II ended in 1945, which was 71 years ago. People might have the idea that we’ve reached the end of large wars. However, if you look back into history, somebody did a study, and the average period between large international conflicts that suck in entire continents is 150 years.

So, we’re not beating any international records in not having large international conflicts. To the Americans, the early part of the 21st century has looked bad. We had 9/11. The Afghanistan War is the longest in US history. We had the Iraq War and its aftermath. None of those things are ending clean or particularly optimistically.

It is tough to blame our wars entirely for the employment problems that we’ve had. Things look terrible because awful stuff that happens in the Middle East doesn’t affect that many Americans. Because things haven’t been terrible in truth doesn’t mean they can’t be terrible.

The 20th century was much more terrible in terms of mass death compared to the 21st century. World War I had tens of millions of deaths. The Flu Epidemic in 1919 had tens of millions of deaths. World War II had tens of millions of deaths. Chairman Mao killed millions of people. Stalin killed millions of people. We haven’t had that in the 21st century, but could have it.

It might be a lot of regional wars because of climate change migration, population pressures, migration, and so on. We’re at 7.3 billion people now. At the end of the century, we’re probably going to be pushing 11 billion, and mostly in developing countries. That will put pressure on food production and land ownership.

It might push regions into war. Regional conflicts could coalesce into larger conflicts. Some groups say the odds of a terrorist group setting off a dirty bomb aren’t that low. It’s hard to set off a nuke that acts like a nuke. That does nuclear fission. The bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But it’s easier to attach nuclear materials onto traditional explosives, and then send that into a city and make much of the city radioactive. That would freak out the world. It’s technologically easy. You need the material.

License

Copyright

2022-03-26

A How-To on Composting Your Clothes

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/04/21

Can you compost your old clothes? It turns out that you can do it, but it takes a little work and the right kind of materials. And it depends on your degree of fussiness as well. It needs some background, though.

For example, the EPA showed that, in 2012, 14.3 million tons of textiles were produced by the United States. 2.3 million of that 14.3 million were recovered (a difference of 12 million tons!) and not all of the recovered textiles were reused. So what’s the major division? There’s two major divisions in material: synthetic and natural fibre. Synthetic will not decompose. Natural fibres will decompose.

The synthetic fibres include acrylic yarn, microfiber fleeces, and polyester/nylon fabrics. These will bog down the compost heap without decomposition. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of natural fibre options.

For example, cotton, hemp, linen, pure wool, ramie, or silk will compost over a sufficient amount of time. The reason being that they aren’t some easily broken down toilet paper. They have a durability, which makes them good clothes. It will take time, but they do decompose. In fact, any combination of them will decompose, too.

Some exceptions are cotton t-shirts or jeans. They claim 100% natural fibre material, but this might not be true. It could be, for instance, polyester cotton, which does not break down as easily. You could have the compost heap, plus some not-so decomposed strings.

You can speed up the process by giving more points of contact, that is, ripping them to shreds and then waiting for them to decompose. What about admixtures? That’s a good question. It’s about ratios and kinds of materials.

If more synthetic than natural fibre, then it’s not going to decompose as much. If more natural fibre than synthetic, then it’s going to decompose more than if the ratio was reversed. It’ll depend on how finicky you are, basically.

There’s other consideration to do with not composting stained clothes, depending on what was used to stain it. Don’t compost clothes stained with paint or engine oil, do you want those in your compost heap? Nope.

Next consideration, what about the eventual compost material used for vegetables, growing them. Dry cleaned natural fibres might be an issue and heavy prints, there could be some contamination there.

This extends to slogans, designs, aspects of weaves, fabrics that have been soaked. PVC ink could be printed on them too. PVC plastics will not break down. A further note dependent on the individual level of fussiness about these parts of the decomposing planning stage, and eventual process.

Something that can also help with the breakdown of the natural fibres, because you wouldn’t use synthetics, are adding vegetable or fruit peelings, cuts from the garden, and other wet and more easily compostable items. And keep the natural fibre content to ¼ of the pile, and no more!

And while we’re on the subject of composting and sustainability, try reusing your old clothes, or give them to others to borrow (or even have!). Charities are always in need, and the recipients of the clothes would be absolutely grateful. You can do crafts with it. But, of course, you can always, as in line with some of the information given above, compost the clothes!

License

Copyright

2022-03-26

Brewmaster and the VR Experience in Gaming

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/06/18

Some games are so good that you cannot ignore them. They become immersive and entertaining they feel good. They look sleek.

They draw attention into the game itself through sheer excellence. Apparently, to some reportage, one such game is called Brewmaster. It provides the full VR experience for, well, brewing. The players make gestures, nudges, and movements for the VR experience. Those act as commands for inside of the game.

As reported, “Dungeon Brewmaster is an early access virtual reality game available on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. It’s a clever riff on the job simulator genre that tasks players with concocting potions and poisons to satisfy the clientele of a working dungeon.”

The brewmasters – so to speak – or brewnovices will take their virtual reality headsets and have their avatar take their movements in line with their own. They will work to become a bartender for the customers in the story.

“Gameplay unfolds through the use of gestures and movement. Players will, for example, hold a wriggly worm creature in one hand and slice its head off using a virtual knife or pour the contents of a liquid vial into a simmering pan,” the article stated, “It’s all very intuitive and there wasn’t any learning curve in figuring out how to interact with the tools and ingredients at hand.”

License

Copyright

2022-03-26

New VR Experience with Christina Ricci and John Cusack

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/06/17

Deadline reported, “Two companies — Minds Eye Entertainment and Sky VR — have produced a scripted, live-action 360 cinematic VR experience tied to the release of the Christina Ricci and John Cusack film Distorted.”

The film will be available in VR. That is amazing. It is really cool that this is a possibility, even now. The questions may emerge about the ways in which this plays out into the future for the movie industry. But for this movie, it is quite interesting.

A VR producer, Travis Cloyd, of the film stated, “Sometimes it’s a challenge. You do have to hide the crew because the audience can see everything and everywhere… You have to make sure everyone is hidden so we have people hiding behind walls and whatever our natural sets allow.”

There was a live-action portion filmed and directed by Rob King. Then actors re-shot the VR camera with further dialogue. It seems like an integration process of the technologies together.

Well, first off, the VR portion was shot immediately after director Rob King filmed the live-action portion. The actors, which also included Brendan Fletcher, then re-shot for the VR camera and with more dialogue. Now, it is not very long. “Distorted Reality is a 10-minute film that is going to be distributed through OneTouch VR on Google Daydream, Oculus Go and Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, and iOs. It will also be available in stereo 3D on various platforms like the Littlstar app on Sony’s’ Playstation VR,” the report said.

License

Copyright

2022-03-26

Reduction of Children’s Fears with VR

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/06/16

Pediatrician, or those doctors who work with children, have been looking for ways in which to have children get immunizations. Outside of the concerns of people against vaccinations, the children can cry and scream to not have them.

It makes immunizations and other things difficult for the doctors having to work with the parents and the children when the child is having a tantrum. The fear of needles and so immunizations and vaccinations via needles are a common thing for kids.

Eureka Alert reported, “A pediatrician has come up with an innovative solution to distract children from their fear, anxiety and pain using a virtual reality headset. He is the first to conduct a pilot study, published in the journal Pain Management, using this technique in a pediatric setting.”

There was research into humans having the capacity for limited attention and if distracted then pain will not register as much pain in them. They will feel less pain because of the distraction.

“To date, no studies have looked at virtual reality distraction during pediatric immunizations, so Rudnick decided to put his theory to the test working with two pre med students and co-authors of the study, Emaan Sulaiman and Jillian Orden, in FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science,” the article stated.

The study looked at the efficiency, feasibility, and usefulness. As it turns out, the VR headsets helped with the reduction of fear and pain for the pediatric patients getting the regular immunization shots. The participants in the research ranged in age from 6 to 17.

License

Copyright

2022-03-26

Global Virtual Reality in Healthcare Market VR

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/06/15

It was reported that there will be “vast benefits of Global Virtual Reality in Healthcare Market processes and operations.”

These potential large-scale benefits have been impacting companies in the healthcare sector as the conventional and manual devices continue to give way to the efficient, software solutions. The established players and the new competitors are part and parcel of this market.

This makes for a change in the types of the classifications in the market. If you follow the link, then you will find information about the improvements in the applications, classifications, segmentations, and specifications for the virtual reality market around the world.

Healthcare may turn virtual more into the future. Companies are looking into it. They are also developing other companies that build reports to help in this marketplace as it grows into the future.

License

Copyright

2022-03-26

AR and VR for the Workforce

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/06/14

Forbes reported on the future of AR and VR for the training of the workforce. It will help with the future of the workforce through the development of training systems for the managers to use in line with the employees. It has been characterized as same simulations.

It does not involve some of the risks involved in some training. “The demand for AR and VR in corporate training has caused a dramatic increase in the global market. Statistics show market growth is now projected to reach $2.8 billion by 2023,” the article stated.

The top five benefits for professional development via training with AR and VR are listed by the article author as follows:

1. They make training more innovative and enjoyable.

2. They create experiences that are impossible in any other form of training. 3. They teach through practical simulation rather than theoretical concepts.

4. They offer a practice playground that encourages users to learn from their mistakes.

5. They encourage employees to explore at their own pace and in their own style.

License

Copyright

2022-03-26

Anne Frank Gone Virtual

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/06/13

Recent reportage talked about the time for the utilization of the modern virtual reality technology in order to view the Holocaust victim Anne Frank’s home.

Apparently, the view is available on Oculus Go and Samsung Gear VR for the Anne Frank House VR. The virtual reality exhibition takes those who view the place on a trip into the Secret Annex. It is a “photorealistic detail” of the place.

The house where Frank with parents and sister stayed in hiding between 1942 and 1944.

The article stated, “The 25-minute experience explores all of the hideout’s rooms, which are furnished in the style of the times. The actual Secret Annex is empty now, but the VR furnishings help to give a sense of what it was like for the occupants to live there.”

It will launch with the foundation of the Anne Frank House Museum housed in Amsterdam, Netherlands (Holland). The experience will come inside of two other locations including New York, United States and Berlin, Germany.

All of this will unroll later in the year.

“Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl is one of the most widely read books in the world, and the Anne Frank House Museum draws in over 1 million visitors per year. Frank died in a concentration camp after Nazis raided the Secret Annex and arrested its occupants in 1944,” the article states.

Furthermore, the Develop of Strategy for Oculus, Tina Tran, opined, “One of the most promising and important uses of VR is how it can help us see history and current events from a whole new perspective that is more immersive and powerful than any other medium.”

Duly note, the Anne Frank House VR will be free from the Oculus Store. It will provide an important experience for those who wish to see a piece of crucial history in the Holocaust.

License

Copyright

2022-03-26

Parisian Graduate Students Using VR to Reduce Pain

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/06/12

A bunch of graduate students in France started the “Healthy Mind” initiative to create a VR product to help people who suffer from the pain.

The basic idea comes from the intent to reduce the pain felt by people through distraction in a VR environment. The head of the emergency department at the Saint-Joseph Hospital, Olivier Ganansia, talked about the possibility for the patients to use the technology to distract from pain and anxiety while being treated in the emergency room.

With 20 or more years behind the doctors and the researchers who tests the VR equipment and software, this helps change some of the means by which some facets of healthcare get delivered to patients.

The important point about this particular case comes from the help in the emergency care area. Some are looking to this VR technology as an alternative to the prescription medications some people receive, especially with the opioid crisis ongoing.

The report stated, “One of the leaders of the project, Reda Khouadra, told Reuters that patients put on a pair of VR goggles and are taken to a faraway land while undergoing procedures ranging from stitches, to burn treatment and joint dislocations. Researchers have already found that patients have a higher pain tolerance when using the VR.”

The offer in the VR for pain and anxiety is a guided tour with some interactive options and music. Some have the opportunity to virtually pain and solve puzzles. The Healthy Mind initiative won about $20,000 from the one university in Australia.

The people behind the initiative will be meeting representatives of Microsoft in Seattle soon based on the success of their early products. This type of utility in VR is not something wholly new.

It has been used to take out teeth by dentists, to do tooth extraction. Some have seen noticeable reductions in pain. The researchers, who are from the United Kingdom, wrote some descriptions of their positive research findings.

They stated, “Our research supports the previous positive findings of VR distraction in acute pain management, and suggests that VR nature can be used in combination with traditional [medication].” Howard Rose and Hunter Hoffman work in the bringing in of VR software and equipment into healthcare. Some see help with the phobias and psychological disorders. Hoffman has stated, “Acute pain is a perfect match for VR. You only need it for 20 minutes and it has drastic effects. If you say, ‘go home and meditate,’ not many patients will follow through… But if you give them a VR system and say ‘go into this ancient world and meditate with monks,’ they’re more likely to actually do it.”

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Ulster University Rekindling Old Buildings with Virtual Reality

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/06/10

Ulster University’s own Dr. Joan Condell explained the ways in which museums are going virtual. The university, among others, is involved in an international effort to create a virtual reality or VR environment for the Irish tourist sector.

The report stated, “Managed by Museum Nord, the €2m CINE project has nine full academic partners across Norway, Iceland, the UK and Ireland, funded by the Interreg Northern Periphery Programme.”

Condell talked about the use of VR and augmented reality of AR to sustain and protect the cultural and national heritage. The idea is to help, in part, protect the culture as well as increase the numbers of people who visit the museums.

Condell opined, “Museums are struggling with lowering visitor rates; they constantly have to redo their sales pitch.” One potential solution is to digitize the museum experience. Condell et al will work with the Donegal County Council.

The academic teams working on these AR and VR museum projects will develop interactive exhibitions in the museums.

“In addition, VR could be used to repatriate artefacts from bigger museums,” Condell said, “There may be an artefact in the British Museum, for instance, that originated in Donegal. Visitors to Donegal could see an immersive AR piece; you see and experience it like the object is in front of you, when it really isn’t.”

The initiatives equate to ways in which to bring people together. However, these need to remain realistic.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Preface

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): TrendBT

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018

In reflection on the nature of the scientific discoveries and then the engineering manifestations and technological implementations of the discoveries from science, the orientation throughout much of the scientific historical record remains the purposes and delights of human beings, even the miseries and pains.

With the modern technological waves with the replication of aspects of human intelligence placed in digital substrates and the work towards automation of human drudgery and, at times, creativity, the growth and breadth of human possibilities becomes even greater than at any other time in the history of the world.

We can develop a newfound sense of directions for human possibilities. One of those manifestations is in the increase potency in the not only the quality of potentialities before us but also in the ways to realize what we have in our minds onto the virtual world. A digital representation of our imaginations becoming ever-more real by the year.

With the improvements in the cost-access and efficiency of processing of computers now, we can see the development of a series of new media to help manifest our imaginary landscape. That technology comes in two forms, and others. The interest of TrendBT is an emphasis on the nature of the future technologies and the upcoming, and ongoing, developments in technologies of virtual and augmented reality.

The two technologies relevant for the young adult Millennial population are virtual reality, VR, and augmented reality, AR. The contents of this text amount to the news and educational items from TrendBT meant for furthering not only knowledge of but also the educational content relevant to AR and VR.

Both AR and VR represent novel developments for the technological progress of humankind with applications barely even tapped and only part of the science fiction future of decades prior. Now, even though things can be grubbier because they are manifested in the real world, we live in the science fiction future prior generations dreamed about, of which we can see the new span of possibilities from a higher plateau.

The “what” of “what will come of AR and VR and associated technologies?” like most things with technology will depend on individual human choices for how to best use them for human purposes. As with any technology at present and throughout human history, the purposes of the technology were built around the options and conveniences that these provided for human wants and desires.

The same holds true now. The main question that follows from this need for furtherance of the discussion on AR and VR is what we want to do with this newfound technology and how we want to build them around human wants and desires. Something like a Utilitarian ethic found in John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor Mill would help quite a lot in guiding the purposes of the technologies for the needs and whims of human beings.

Those that expand human horizons and do not limit them. The means by which all human beings can increase their emotional and cognitive reach beyond the mundane, so that the future generations only children now could realize that greater vision of possibilities that

are only in our dreams now, in our imaginative landscape. One which is very different from the prior generations’ imaginative landscape.

The idea of the creation of an entirely new visual and tactile landscape to even elicit real human passions and emotions, sensations, to mimic, in real-time, the movements of the human body and the nuances of the human face such as a grimace, disdain, a smile, joy, and perplexity was completely beyond the imaginations of those who have gone before us.

It gives us a tremendous power and capacity to change our vision of the future in a conscious way. Some are already realizing this and working to develop a human-friendly future with the positive and well-being increasing use of artificial intelligence. It is the same orientation of moral outlook.

How is this going to optimize wellbeing for as many people as possible? How will an expanded vision of human possibility build into this ethical framework? What will most efficaciously bring this about for our shared future, as the geographical landscape of the world continues to close and become tighter in terms of the length of time that both physical bodies and communications between two points is reduced?

Multiply that increase in spatial and informational efficiency over the total and increasing number of people in the world. You can then develop an idea of the power of technology now compared to the past, and the present to any of a number of possible futures.

TrendBT is doing its part in informing some of the current young population in order to produce some serious thinking about the possible positive futures for AR and VR technologies, e.g. entertainment, training of medical professionals, virtual dancing lessons, and so on.

As what prior generations did the to set the groundwork for our present, we too are setting the precedent for the future world now, where this will take us depends on what we do now. Education is always a part of that process, for a shared positive future.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Ask A Genius 5 – Repressive Takeover

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

Let’s take the opposite view, let’s say Western countries tend to be more free and democratic, etc, people can do more here. With greater science and technology, we have power. That can be a positive thing for general human flourishing and expansion of possibilities. What if it doesn’t happen here and happens in repressive areas?

More of this is inevitable, more than people think. Along with the inevitability of tech, there are a lot of large-scale projects that are tech projects. Every big movie involves like a thousand people working on them. In the future, it will be mostly small-scale groups because the technology will allow small groups to do great stuff.

We already have individuals or small groups working together or on their own. Twitter helped take down dictatorial governments in the Middle East. Egypt fell a couple times. I don’t know its state now. It was individuals working on their own with technology thwarting the actions of larger groups.

Tech is small. Tech is as small as a thumb drive or a smart phone. So, you won’t be able to keep it out of repressive countries or repressive places. Developed countries will keep on being free. Although, privacy will increasingly erode. In England, there’s a camera on every street corner and various agencies, or algorithms, are looking for weird behaviour.

Things as trivial as people walking weird. That might betray some suspicious activity. People are going to have to get used to giving up a lot of privacy. Maybe, we’ll have islands of explicit privacy with the expectation of privacy most of the time. The general expectation will be that you only have privacy when you walk into your cone of silence.

When you explicitly set up your own privacy, public life will have almost no privacy. One reason we want America to survive is the values that it was revered and known for in the 20th and 21st century. They have been attacked by demagogues and A-holes in government that are willing to talk tough and act like jerks in the name of American safety.

I hope that demagoguery will be defeated. people can see it is preferable to go with the traditional American values of freedom, everyone having a shot, economic mobility, as opposed to sacrificing that stuff for some illusory safety based on terrorist incidents.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Ask A Genius 4 – The Future

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

What will happen in the next 20-25 years?

One thing is the US will keep getting increasingly terrible for most of the 21st century. I think it’ll get better. In that, we’re talking in mid-August right now in 2016. The odds of Trump getting elected are low, like 1 in 8. If Hillary gets elected, and if she elects some Liberal Supreme Court Justices, then the government starts getting cleaned up.

That means polarization starts being reduced, slowly, and, maybe, the government starts functioning better, which makes it easier for the US to continue to be a place where tech flourishes. Government won’t save us, but government might eff things up.

Among the things under tech that start unfolding, or unfolding faster, are things like medicine. A lot of highly targeted therapies for cancer roll out. Overall, it’ll become less taboo to talk about anti-aging therapies in general. Medicine will become a lot more effective. Mortality will drop.

Food science may make it so that people can eat food that’s delicious, but isn’t as terrible for us. In developed countries, we might be able to see life expectancy continue to move up as obesity doesn’t drop that much. So, the developed nations will be over 90 for men and women.

A couple decades after that. It will be 100. For people that are conscientious, and have the resources to do so, it could go much, much higher into the middle of the 20th century. Other stuff, entertainment and information will be more directly piped into ourselves and out of ourselves.

Some wearables, Google Glass didn’t work because it creeped people out. We will come up with wearable computers. People will be even more connected to social networks than they are now, in more and more intimate ways.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Ask A Genius 3 – Superheroes: Our Last Hurrah

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

There have been a lot of superhero movies as of late. What does this reflect in the larger culture? Does this somehow tie to the future?

One thing to have in good superhero movies is good special effects. It wasn’t possible to have great science fiction movies until Star Wars came out. It was able to deliver convincing and impressive science fiction special effects.

With CG and by spending $200,000,000, and having crews of 2,000 people produce a movie, it has become possible to make a convincing and entertaining movie of superheroes. There’s another thing that comes along with that.

You needed entertainment consumers that have seen enough action that they can actually follow the action in a superhero movie. If you took a viewer from the 70s, he would be completely baffled by the action in the current action movies because it’s so fast, so complicated, and a lot of these movies have 4-on-4 action.

You’ve got individuals in spaceships fighting individuals not in spaceships. There’s a lot of stuff going on. But beyond technical ability, and the educated and interested public, superhero movies represent some kind of ultimate end of what humans imagine for themselves.

The superness of super heroes is still highly human. They have all of these abilities. Yet, they are still completely concerned with human stuff like relationships. You can’t have Peter Parker without his angsty relationships with his Aunt May and he’s feeling bad about getting his uncle killed.

His relationships with Mary Jane Parker and Stacy, and whoever else he’s always got a thing going with – a girl. He’s got work problems. Superman spends most of the day as a human and with a bunch of hassles because he feels the need to be a part of human society.

Fantastic Four and X-Men, most of the time they are dealing with human issues such as relationships and trying to get power rather than fighting bad guys or trying to save the world. Superheroes, it’s similar to Greek and Roman gods. They have ultimate power.

All of the power was expressed in human contexts – having sex, feuding, having offspring, and what’s going to happen in the non-superhero world in the next 20-200, or 500, years is that we’re going to re-engineer ourselves.

We will add to our abilities to think, to our lifespans, and our ability to process information and network with each other. We’ll be able to change what our basic drives are when that suits us. The most ridiculous human drive in terms of messing up and making us do ridiculous things is the sex drive.

Where, what evolution wants for us is to reproduce, find the healthiest partners, partners that are best able to help make offspring and help offspring survive. Often, the drives to reproduce have helped make offspring. They make us go against what we want for ourselves as individuals.

We will have power over ourselves as individuals and over our drives. Huge numbers or percentages of the population will decide to not reproduce because if you can live indefinitely then you want to save resources for yourself. So, the entire human enterprise up until now in history.

You’re able to take the most twisted human in history and hypothesize motivations for that humans actions no matter how weird or horrible based on basic human drives – being resentful that you don’t fit in, wanting power, wanting sex, but the human enterprise is about to become all smeared in terms of drives and actions as we acquire the ability to mess with those drives.

Superhero movies represent our last hurrah for unadulterated basic human drives taken to their imaginary limits.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Ask A Genius 2 – The Next Two Years

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

What will happen in the future – with AI, etc?

One thing that seems to be happening is that people are having somewhat less sex. There’s so much other stuff to do, so much stuff to occupy our attention, which makes sex run down from number one in the 70s to not the awesomest thing to do – to only in the top 10 awesomest things to do for a half hour.

The whole next century is going to be about our relationship with information. We love information. The human evolutionary strategy, our niche versus other animals is that we’re better at exploiting information. Dogs can go after smell information to find run-over squirrels.

Whereas, we use information to come up with theories of everything. A lot of these theories lead to new inventions, products. Over the next 20 years, we will come up with more effective ways to pipe information in and out of our heads. When you look at things that happened with TV, which went from 3 crappy channels to public TV to HBO and the rise of cable channels in the 80s and 90s.

Anything that you want whenever you want it, and close to thousands of entertainment purveyors now.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Ask A Genius 1 – Genius in Pop Culture

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016

You’ve noted a lot of geniuses in popular media, movies, and television. Recently, what’s the deal?

There have always been the kids that wore tennis shoes. Garry Coleman had the 200 IQ. There was Encyclopedia Brown. Now, there’s a flood of geniuses. I would guess that’s because the world is a fast-moving and fast-changing place. Geniuses somehow offer the possibility of making sense of the world, which makes sense in terms of who is selling us the genius.

On TV, it’s CBS, which, over the last 2 or 3 TV seasons, has had about 15 shows dealing with genius. You’ve got Limitless, where a guy takes a pill and becomes a genius. You’ve got Elementary. You’ve got Scorpion, which is a crew of geniuses. CBS used to be, and to a large extent still is, the murder network.

There are many shows about people getting killed. Every murder show has one genius detective or forensic expert. The Mentalist was a genius in his own genius way. CBS is also known for being the network that skews the oldest among viewers. If my theory’s right that people are nervous about how confusing the world is, old people would be even more confused.

They might welcome geniuses more. You have a TV genius explaining what’s going on. And it can be clearly explained by them, which can make older people feel smarter about the world. Also, geniuses have a hipster aspect to them.

Geniuses were nerds. Geniuses had no cachet. They were bullied. For the past 30 years, you’ve had growing numbers of software billionaire geniuses like Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, and others. Now, geniuses are cool. Maybe, CBS is thinking that they can hold the old people and grab the new people with the hipster geniuses.

Some other places include Ron Howard. He is making an Einstein biopic. If you look at the last two Oscar seasons, something like 6 out of 20 best actor or actress nominees portray geniuses. Cumberbatch being in Turing. Redmayne being Hawking. Keira Knightley being a girl genius who wanted to get with Hawking.

They’re all over the place.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Between Two Houses

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Voice Magazine (Athabasca University)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/03/18

The oil downturn and the future knowledge economy means our country has two houses so to speak. One housing the resource-based sector of the economy. Another housing the human capital sector of the economy. I consider both houses’ contents important.

But, I argue, we need a balanced economic plan for the next 5, 10, and 25 years; a plan that leans toward intellectual capital over resources in the long-term. AU can be the road between those houses through education. However, infrastructure for that road, for education, takes time and planning.

Take, for instance, the international trend toward the knowledge economy, which seems to show that national success in the future will require preparation and adaptation to the oncoming knowledge economy via education now (Tsaparis, 2014).

Education is an investment in the nation’s intellectual capital, which is the currency of the knowledge economy. But education takes time. So the next economy’s readiness, founded in education, will also take time.

And by time, I mean a decades-long progression of the relative weighting of the economy in favor of human capital over resources, beginning in the present. And AU, as Canada’s largest online postsecondary institution, seems like one major place to help the country’s transition into this economy of intellectual capital.

The pressure of this is even more intense with the recent economic downturn in Alberta due to oil prices. Furthermore, Alberta’s economic downturn is not isolated. For example, the resource or oil-based dip affected Manitoba as well as Newfoundland and Labrador too (Statistics Canada, 2016; Younglai, 2016).

Bear in mind that while It’s bad, It’s not the worst time for Alberta in its recent economic history. For instance, the current drop in Alberta’s economy is less than the 2008/09 economic dip, and even a bit higher than the 1990 one (Babad, 2016).

Furthermore, Alberta is not alone, because Ottawa has promised at least $250 million in monetary assistance (Varcoe, 2016). Why does this matter? It means we don’t need to panic, but we still need to prepare for the future economy.

Nationally, the economy is deeply interconnected. Big dips in the economic situation have provincial/territorial effects elsewhere in the economic system. So if all of the eggs are in one basket such as resources, then dips or rises in the economy cascade across sectors embedded in it. In other words, Alberta is in an economic dip based on oil, which reduces the economic success of other parts of Canada.

And to buffer the country from these dips in the future, education is the key to a balanced economy. We need to be transitioning into education because education is the access point to quality knowledge and training for this new economy.

AU, in part, can help Alberta, and Canada, rise into the future economy, the knowledge economy, in the long-term with greater reliance on resources in the short-term. To conclude, our strength is resources rather than human capital now.

Taken together, both houses mentioned at the outset, economies need to transition into cognitive work in the future because the next economy lies in knowledge and, therefore, education. AU resides at this juncture.

That is, AU is the road between resources and cognitive capital. A transit system from here, resource heavy, to there, human capital heavy. What we need now is for governments, at all levels, to recognize this, and to realize that funding AU is not a cost, not a drain on their resources, but rather an investment. A way to provide education to those of us for who traditional education does not work.

But they won’t realize until we make them. The road won’t be built without us telling our MLAs that it needs to be done. And if we hope to make the trip between houses, from resources to resourcefulness, they need to know, and soon.

References

Babad, M. (2016, February 2). Ontario’s new prosperity? vs. Alberta’s anguish: The disparity in 6 charts.
Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/top-business-stories/ontarios-new-prosperity-vs-albertas-anguish-the-disparity-in-6-charts/article28505453/?servi.ce=mobile.
Statistics Canada. (2016, February 5). Labour Force Survey, January 2016.
Retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/160205/dq160205a-eng.htmc.
Tsaparis, P. (2014, April 27). Canada must develop our knowledge economy.
Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/leadership-lab/canada-must-develop-our-knowledge-economy/article18229988/.
Varcoe, C. (2016, January 30). Ottawa mulls up to $250 million in aid for Alberta.
Retrieved from http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/ottawa-mulls-up-to-250-million-in-aid-for-alberta.
Younglai, R. (2016, January 31). Men in Alberta bearing brunt of economic downturn.
Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/men-in-alberta-bearing-brunt-of-economic-downturn/article28474273/.

A native British Columbian, Scott Douglas Jacobsen is an AU undergrad and AUSU Council Member. He researches in the Learning Analytics Research Group, Lifespan Cognition Psychology Lab, and IMAGe Psychology Lab, and with the UCI Ethics Center, and runs In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal and In-Sight Publishing.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Meeting the Minds – Dr. Lorelei Hanson, Part II

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Voice Magazine (Athabasca University)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/03/11

Dr. Lorelei Hanson has authored two environmental studies courses and two geography courses at AU. She currently tutors her courses ENVS 200 and ENVS 435, and coordinates those as well ENVS 361 and GLST 243. She took some time to speak with Scott Jacobsen about her work with AU and general outlook in a two-part interview.

At the World Economic Forum, Prime Minister Trudeau discussed transitioning from Canadian resources to Canadian resourcefulness; in other words, going from things such as hydrocarbons to things such as human capital, (i.e., education, skills, expertise, and so on.)

How do you think Canada will need to diversify, whether it be the economy or the environment?

It is very clear from us losing a social license that we need to pay more attention to our environmental performance. For a long time, environmentalists felt like their voices weren’t being heard but I think recent developments show that their role in scrutinizing our energy system has had an impact.

I think It’s also a number of different things converging at once. People are recognizing more and more the impacts of climate change and saying, “You know what, climate scientists are telling us we don’t have very long and we’ve got to do something different soon.”

Those factors are converging and drawing attention to Alberta. One result of this is Alberta having been given the label of producing “dirty oil,” and people saying “no” to Alberta’s current system of oil and gas development.

But we’ve got this valuable resource and there’s no way we will have a completely decarbonized economy in the next couple of decades, so the value of that resource will exist for some time. There’s just no way we can transition over night from our current dependence on oil and gas to another energy system.

But we still need to critically look at that energy system, be innovative, and envision something different for the future. We’ve got to move forward. We can’t rely on our old way of doing things.

With respect to Justin Trudeau I’d want to see him back up his words with some concrete policies and programs that will make a difference. We haven’t seen that yet.

It sounds good, but let’s see how he’s going to move forward and do something about improving our environmental performance in Canada.

At the same time, we have an economy in Alberta, and within Canada, absolutely dependent upon natural resource extraction, and so you have to somehow find a way to transition that economy so that You’re not having people’s lives be devastated in the meantime.

You can’t have a province like Alberta lose 10,000 jobs every month. That’s not sustainable; if we’re going to talk abut sustainability we have to include in that analysis social sustainability.

Also, there’s no one person that has the answer to how to build a more sustainable energy system in Canada, and so the federal government needs to put in place a process to harness and nurture innovation on and good ideas of how to transition Canada’s energy system to be more sustainable.

It is only when we work collaboratively that we will come up with some solutions that work in many contexts.

What are the relevant experts? recommendations or timelines for implementation of the recommendations to solve these challenges?

Right, as I said before, when we talk about an energy system, You’re necessarily talking about, what we’re calling in some academic and professional circles, “wicked issues.”

These are issues that are so complex, cross so many different sectors, and are characterized by indeterminacy in time and scale, uncertainty and interdependency, that they necessarily require collaborative discussion.

These are also emergent issues, so the solutions that we develop for the next couple of years are not the solutions we can apply in the next 15 years. This means that we can’t approach our energy and climate change problems using traditional approaches.

It won’t work to have a small group of experts getting together, framing the issue, and putting forth what they think is the solution. We also can’t apply a cost-benefit analysis to wicked problems.

The conditions we need to examine with respect to energy and climate are continually in flux, and we have to learn to become much more adaptive and collaborative in how we resolve these issues, and That’s why the Energy Futures Lab is set up how it is, as a social learning lab.

It is also why the EFL Support Team purposefully chose 40 individuals from across Alberta that represent diverse sectors. You not only have my environmental and academic voice, but you have voices from the oil and gas sector, renewable energy, indigenous communities, government and community groups.

The EFL conveners purposefully put together this diverse group because they know that we have to learn to find ways to find common values and work together to identify solutions that achieve those values. We can no longer work in siloes.

It is not that we don’t need expert knowledge, we certainly need expert knowledge, but it has to play a role within a much broader collaboration of reaching out and looking at how are these energy and climate change are impacting people and the non-human world differently across time and space.

It also means asking questions such as what are people willing to trade off in order to move forward and what education do we need?

If people start to really recognize and accept a different way doing things, a lot of innovation will arise. But we have such entrenched bureaucracies, processes, and timelines that it will not be easy. It means going against all of those things that we use as our standard measurement tools.

At the same time, we have never faced a situation like this, where we’re in such dire need of doing something different.

So I think the Energy Futures Lab, the people who put that together fundamentally believe that we can dramatically change the way we orient ourselves and go about our business of daily living. we’ll see, right? It is an experiment for sure and it will be interesting to see what will happen in the next 18 months.

What is the direction of this research with respect to AU, and its initiatives relevant to it, for 2016?

I’m a professor at AU and a citizen of Alberta, and energy is an issue of fundamental importance to me, Alberta, and the world. The results that come out of the Energy Futures Lab I hope will include innovations that have an impact.

Of course, that is always the research my colleagues at Athabasca University and at any other university are tying to do. We want to make a difference in the world.

That is why we’re teachers and researchers. And this is one of the most fundamental issues facing our times, and we desperately need to find new ways to address it.
Thank you for your time, Professor Hanson.

For more information

Alberta Climate Dialogue. http://www.albertaclimatedialogue.ca/.
Dr. Lorelei Hanson. Athabasca University, http://envs.athabascau.ca/faculty/lhanson/.
B.C.-Alberts Social Economy Research Alliance:http://www.socialeconomy-bcalberta.ca/.
Energy Futures Lab http://energyfutureslab.com
“Environmental research at Athabasca University will help create a new energy future for Alberta” Athabasca University News. http://news.athabascau.ca/news/environmental-research-at-athabasca-university-will-help-create-a-new-energy-future-for-alberta/.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Meeting the Minds – Interviews with AU’s Educators

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Voice Magazine (Athabasca University)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/03/04

Dr. Lorelei Hanson has authored two environmental studies courses and two geography courses at AU. She currently tutors her courses ENVS 200 and ENVS 435, and coordinates those as well ENVS 361 and GLST 243. She took some time to speak with Scott Jacobsen about her work with AU and general outlook in a two-part interview.

You are an Associate Professor and Academic Coordinator of Environmental Studies at Athabasca University and a Fellow of the Energy Futures Lab. In brief, what tasks and responsibilities come with the associate professorship for AU and the fellowship for EFL?

Like every academic across Canada I have three responsibilities: first, teaching; second, research; and third, community service. Teaching at Athabasca University includes tutoring and coordination. Coordination includes designing, updating, or revising courses, and, as a part of coordination, I also am developing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Studies.

As a Fellow of the Energy Futures Lab, I am expected to attend and actively participate in the in-person workshops. we’re also expected to develop and test out prototypes or innovations that will help us move to a new energy system. And finally I engage with people within my network around energy and the work of the EFL.

EFL comes from The Natural Step Canada supported by the Pembina Institute, Suncor Energy Foundation, the Banff Centre, and provincial government. Your expertise in “critical sustainability” seems relevant with respect to energy and climate change. Can you talk about that?

Critical sustainability is an analytical approach that starts from the premise that there are many definitions and uses of the term “sustainability” circulating, and each of those understandings offer quite different perspectives on and implications for both humanity and the non-human world.

So, critical sustainability is a lens of analysis that that can be applied to interrogate how is it that somebody is using the word sustainability, and what the implications of that are for how humans should interact with each other, as well as how we interact with and impact the non-human world.

As a professor of environmental studies and also an environmental and food activist, I bring that framework to my research and teaching, and how I think about what means to develop a more sustainable and resilient energy system.

How have your past research collaborations with the Alberta Climate Dialogue (ABCD) (Alberta Climate Dialogue, 2016) and the BC-Alberta Social Economy Research Alliance (BALTA) (BC-Alberts Social Economy Research Institute, 2016) influenced your work with the EFL?

Both ABCD and BATA are research projects that are winding down; we no longer have funding for these projects. Saying that, I am still actively involved with both of those networks. With respect to BALTA, we are developing a new research proposal on the role of social economy and social intermediaries in scaling up and down sustainability transition projects.

With respect to Alberta Climate Dialogue I am currently editing a book tentatively titled, Changing the Conversations on Climate Change: Using Public Deliberation to Address the Wicked Problems of our Time, which is a collection of essays that explore the tensions and the trade-offs that exist when you undertake deliberative engagement that addresses wicked issues like climate change.

I bring experience and knowledge about collaboration on issues like climate change and sustainability transition that I developed through my participation in ABCD and BALTA to the work I am now doing with the EFL.

What are Alberta’s, and Canada’s, major energy challenges?

One’s perspective on that question depends very much on who You’re talking to, right? In Alberta, those questions direct us to consider the current state of the economy and the extraction, production, use, sale, and transportation of energy.

When people respond to questions about Alberta’s major energy challenges they often mention that we have to do this in a responsible manner, or a sustainable manner. If we go back to that notion of critical sustainability, for me, the question to ask is who is going to define those terms?

From my perspective, and building from the collaborative work that I did with ABCD and as a member of BALTA, as well as that which I am now doing with the EFL, we want to step back and say, “It is not for one person to define what is Alberta or Canada’s major energy challenge.”

The best way for us a province to respond to that question is to have a much broader discussion that starts with talking about what are the values that we really hold dear within our province and how can we plan an energy system that would work in accordance with those values.

Of course it is even more complicated than that within Alberta, because we don’t get to plan that system all on our own; we work within the context of a larger energy system, both nationally as well as internationally.

So many of the key leverage points in the energy system we don’t have control over. Nonetheless, considering our energy future does demand that we start to look at how we can influence those leverage points.

I think even within the hydrocarbon industry, many of the players there would say that we’ve lost some of our social license to go ahead and do those things that we used to do, whether that is in terms of the extraction, production, or transportation of hydrocarbons; those industrial practices have all come up for criticism, debate, and scrutiny in a way that they hadn’t before.

As a result, we are now having to look more seriously at things like our environmental performance, both in terms of our greenhouse gas emissions, and our impacts on the landscape, such as the impact of bitumen extraction on water sources.

As well we are having to carefully consider how are we impacting communities, and not only within Alberta; it is very important for us to be looking at the impacts of our energy system on communities, particularly disadvantaged communities that have been negatively impacted by the energy development system we have supported and developed in the past.

How can we create a more stable energy system within Alberta, but also across Canada and the rest of the world?

Answering that question raises a whole bunch of issues around social license, greenhouse gases, climate change, and working collaboratively, not only within Alberta but across Canada and with our international partners.

Recently the mayors in Quebec publicly opposed the construction of the Energy East pipeline across Quebec, which says to me that we in Alberta have to pay more attention to building good relations and developing partnerships across Canada because we need to find new trading partners; we have had too much reliance on the United States and That’s gotten us into trouble.

But we need access to tidewater in order to transport our oil and gas to places other than the US. And as a part of that we need to look at how do we create a different energy mix. How do we de-carbonize our economy and allow for other forms of energy production and distribution? That all has to be a part of a discussion about Alberta’s energy future.

Those are very good points, especially the point about diversification of partnerships to create a robust and sustainable set of energy partnerships.

We cannot have dominance on one trading partner; we’ve done that for far too long.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Presidential Interview – AU’s Interim President, Peter MacKinnon, Part III

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Voice Magazine (Athabasca University)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/03/04

Scott D. Jacobsen managed to get some time with Athabasca University’s interim president Mr. Peter MacKinnon. Scott interviewed the president over a wide set of topics, and the result is this three-part interview that we’re happy to present in The Voice Magazine. This is the third part of the series, you might also enjoy the first and second parts.

Coming into 2016, what initiatives should members of the AU community expect in the spring, summer, fall, and winter seasons?

I think the initiative of a presidential search is the single most important initiative on our agenda for 2016. The committee which advises the Board of Governors on this search has been established. It is an excellent committee.

It has conducted consultations already in Athabasca, in Edmonton, in Calgary, faculty staff, with unions, with others, consultations in the community of Athabasca itself. It is very important for this university to identify and to appoint an excellent president.

You engaged with appellate cases in the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of Canada. What have these kinds of experiences at the apogee of the Canadian law system taught you?

Humility, I always thought of it as important for law professors, which I was for 23 years of my life, it was important for you to be anchored, not just in the academy and our law schools, but to be anchored in professional work too.

So, I was licensed to practice law in two provinces: Ontario and Saskatchewan. I sought opportunities. There can’t be too many because you have full-time commitments, as well, to the university, which I did, but I always was on the lookout for opportunities which would broaden and deepen my understanding of law and the legal system.

This included opportunities to participate in cases. One of the first things taught to an individual is humility. You discover sometimes that your best arguments, and the best answers to questions of judges, you discover on the way home from the hearing. [Laughing]

So, the experiences enriched my capacity to teach law and to research in law. It also taught me how diverse the legal world is, and one should approach it with openness and humility.

You do have a literary background, co-editing three books and writing one. (The three co-edited books were After Meech Lake, Elected Boundaries: Legislatures, Courts and Electoral Values, as well as Citizenship, Diversity and Pluralism.)

Your solely authored book was University Leadership and Public Policy. In brief, in terms of themes what were some of the general ideas and arguments presented in these texts?

They were all different. After Meech Lake came out of a conference that I was involved in, and helped organize, in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Meech Lake Accord back in the early 90s, so the goal there was to bring people together.

It was the first major conference after the collapse of the accord. It was to bring people together to talk about “What now?” for Canada given that the Meech lake Accord has not been accepted, and, of course, the book contains contributions of many outstanding Canadians to that discussion.

The second work reflected an interest that we had at the University of Saskatchewan. Both in the department of political science and in the college of law, that we had, in democracy and the meaning of the vote, and electoral boundaries.

How they are drawn, where they are drawn, what influences are at work have a very important effect on the status of the vote, and the effectiveness of the vote, and so, that was a big interest there.

Citizenship, Diversity and Pluralism was the third volume that grew out of a major conference. I was involved in it. It was from the perspective of the year close to 2,000. What does citizenship look like in a world of diversity and pluralism? What do we mean when we talk of citizenship? What are its common and unchanging attributes? What are its evolving attributes?

The fourth volume I wrote here. Looking back, when you are a university president you encounter so many fairly substantial public policy issues. Who should pay for post-secondary education? What should the relationships between universities and governments be? What should the relationships between universities and commercial influences be? How should we appoint our leaders? What should we expect of our leaders?

These are fundamental questions. They are fundamental in universities. They are fundamental public policy questions. And if you were a university president, as I was for 13 years, you have the opportunity to encounter these issues. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to reflect on them, and to write a book. So, those were the influences at work in those publications.

You were the Dean of Law at the University of Saskatchewan for 10 years too. What tasks and responsibilities come along with being the dean as opposed to a president?

A dean is a leader of a particular faculty. You are responsible for the arrangement and the oversight of particular faculty’s academic activities. So, when I was a dean at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Law, I had overall responsibility for ensuring that the college’s academic programs and activities were effectively undertaken.

You’re there. You’re on site. You are there with your faculty. You are there with your students. You participate in the program. Throughout my time as a dean, I taught two courses, and so you are on site, as it were, in the academic work of the college. That’s how I would describe the work of the dean.

In contrast, the president is working for the institution as a whole. You have a broader set of responsibilities. You have a more external role. The biggest difference, I would say, is that you are more distant from the day-to-day teaching and research activities that dominate your life as a professor, and even as a dean.

Your bio says that you were chair of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada from 2003-2005, served for five years on the Science, Technology and Innovation Council of Canada, and continues to serve on the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee on the Public Service; the Chief Justice of Canada’s Advisory Committee to the Canadian Judicial Council; the Board of the Council of Canadian Academies; the Board of the Canadian Stem Cell Foundation; the Board of the Global Institute for Food Security; the Board of Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown, PEI; and as Chair of the Honours Advisory Council in Saskatchewan” (Athabasca University, 2014). This is a very, very broad sweep of both experience and stations.

In terms of the stations themselves, how does one go about acquiring these positions or these stations? Connected to that, what experience, and some of them were for many years, does each teach you?

It should first be said that all of these positions are unpaid positions. They are public service. They are opportunities to provide the service in a particular sphere on activity, and you do not apply for them so much as be open to them. Invitations come along the way.

And if you judge it to be something to which you can make a contribution, it is important that you, where you can, try to do so. So, I see all of these activities to which you have referred, I see them all as public service, and I see them as being areas that my background prepared me to help in.

Lastly, you earned the Officer of the Order of Canada, a Queen’s Council, a recipient of the Canadian Bar Association Distinguished. In addition, you have honorary degrees from Dalhousie, Victoria, U of IT, Queen’s, Memorial, and Regina universities.

Each of these, to have even a single honorary degree, would be enough renowned for someone to be appreciated by the community in addition to take that as a strong accomplishment. However, you have many of these in addition to others of similar or greater stature.

What does each of these, in particular, mean to you? How does this affect personal perspective on the nature of both honors and responsibilities to the community?

You certainly do not do what you do to acquire honors, but they do come along from time to time. And do you appreciate them? Yes. Do you enjoy them? Yes. So, it is nice when you are recognized for doing the work that you do.

That’s what they mean to me. And It’s really that. It is nice to be recognized, but do you not do the work to be recognized. But It’s nice when it comes along. And I have been fortunate in that respect.

Thank you for your time, President MacKinnon.

It’s been a pleasure, Scott.

References

[Athabasca U]. (2014, November 7). Peter MacKinnon – Interim President of Athabasca University.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKC_kEPJB84.
Athabasca University. (2014, July 3). President’s Biography.
Retrieved from http://president.athabascau.ca/.
Athabasca University. (2015, June 1). The Future Is Now: Report of the Presidential Task Force on Sustainability.
Retrieved from http://www.aufa.ab.ca/uploads/1/3/9/9/13991368/2015-sustainability.pdf.A native British Columbian, Scott Douglas Jacobsen is an AU undergrad. He researches in the Learning Analytics Research Group, Lifespan Cognition Psychology Lab, and IMAGe Psychology Lab, and with the UCI Ethics Center.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Presidential Interview – AU’s Interim President, Part II

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Voice Magazine (Athabasca University)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/02/26

Student Scott D. Jacobsen managed to get some time with Athabasca University’s interim president Mr. Peter MacKinnon. Scott interviewed him over a wide set of topics with the president, and the result is this three-part interview that we’re happy to present in The Voice Magazine. You can find the first part here.

Last year, what were some of the major events of 2015 for AU in research, celebrations, or general momentous occasions?

I always cite convocation. Convocation takes place over three days in June. Convocation is a special event at all universities. It has a particular flavor at Athabasca University, in part, because for so many it is the first time students have met faculty members and fellow students in person. They come together to celebrate over those three days. That it’s an open, online university makes a coming together particularly special.

I’ve said in many settings that, in, my academic life, I have attended well over 100 convocations. The convocations at Athabasca University are very special because they feature the individual stories of our graduates and the barriers that they had to overcome to undertake post-secondary education, and I find convocation the most memorable time of the year.

In a previous interview for the Voice, you were asked about the likelihood of a distance-based Law School (Tynes, 2015). What seems like the chances or odds of this at this point in time through AU?

Some excellent work has been done at Athabasca University, especially in terms of mapping how this could be done. We attracted some excellent support from the legal profession and within the university.

To mount a law program, you need support – not only of the university, not only of the community, but of the governance and the legal profession across the country. We are at work there too.

Insofar as AU aims to transition to a research-oriented post-secondary institution, graduate level research seems well-established with undergraduate research in continued development, for example, research groups and laboratories, what initiatives seem ’down the road’ for 2016 to assist in research at AU, especially with the international statements by Prime Minister Trudeau on the necessity for utilization by the international community of Canadian human capital or resourcefulness (The Canadian Press, 2016)?

I don’t see research and teaching as dichotomies. An essential part of the university experience is acquiring a capacity for inquiry, which is what research is all about. We expect academic personnel to be effective in teaching.

However, to be effective in university-level teaching, you need to have a capacity for further inquiry, which is what research is all about. So, in any university course there should be a merger between these two ideas: being taught and further inquiry. Research is part of the life-blood of the institution for all who work in its academic activities.

Something comes to mind. The phrases “lifelong learning” or “education for lifelong learning” seems to mirror the merger of standardized learning and research-based endeavors.
I would add to that, by the way.

In the context of lifelong learning, we sometimes in the university world have been captive to the language of job-ready teaching and graduates – preparation for the world beyond the university. Sometimes, we have overdone the idea.

I emphasize the language of work adaptability in lifelong learning, which may feature more than one – often several – jobs over the course of a working life. Job adaptability means an important creative capacity to adapt to different working circumstances. The university’s fundamental purpose of educating the critical faculties becomes salient.

The age of AU undergraduates in 2010-2011 at least, is around 28-29 and graduate students around 38-39. 2/3rds of which are women. In the World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report, Canada ranks 30th out of 145, and in education, we are number one in the world in terms of that same index (World Economic Forum, 2015).

With Athabasca having 2/3rds of undergraduates and graduates combined as women it appears we’re reflective (more than the national or international average) of international women’s rights metrics, or gender gap rankings. How does online education affect possible attractiveness to women as opposed to men for presentation and accessibility of education?

Online education is important for all. We can reach into rural communities, into homes, into employment settings, and wherever people have interest in furthering their education. Maybe, and I emphasize the word “maybe” because I haven’t done the research that would be required, we have tapped into, in these years, a pent up demand for online education, which has seen a lot of women respond to the opportunity. Now, that is more speculation than evidence, but it is speculation that I would be interested in testing.

You were an undergraduate student, graduate student, and practitioner of law for 23 years. What advice seems relevant to undergraduate students, graduate students, and as those in, or about to head into, their professional life based upon graduation?

[Laughing] Let me respond to your question in this way, my life in university was a simpler life than the ones now. Other than in the summer, I did not have employment commitments during the school year. I did not have family commitments at the time. I remember my pathways as being relatively easy compared to today.

So, in that sense, it would be presumptuous for me to offer advice. What I would say to anyone in the world of education is to be open to the future, to the possibilities of the future, to embracing the different experiences that are afforded through education, and to take maximum advantage of the opportunities to learn, those will remain as fundamental to success in the future as they have been in the past.

You mentioned Nelson Mandela as a hero in a previous interview. Why him?

When you think about the 20th century, and you think the names that come to mind, the great names of the 20th century. What name? What person has overcome obstacles, has achieved mightily, and has done so in such a wonderful spirit of magnanimity? So, with Nelson Mandela, a quarter of a century or more as a prisoner, struggling against deeply entrenched inequality, being instrumental in overturning that inequality, and in setting an example, not of achievement alone, but an example of humanity that I think was unsurpassed in the 20th century, and that’s why I mentioned him.

What seems like something everyone, and another thing no one, knows about you?

Without violating my own privacy from that question [Laughing], I would say that’s a good question. What would nobody know about me? Probably, some of my closest friends would know this, but few would know what a devoted fan of baseball I am. I am a baseball enthusiast. I follow the game closely. And I love the game.

It was the only sport I played reasonably well as a young person. I was a poor hockey player. I was too small for football, or, at least, to play football well. And, when I was growing up, soccer was not a significant North American sport. I played baseball. I loved it. And I love it to this day, and not many people would know that.

References

Athabasca University. (n.d.). Facts and Statistics: Student Demographics 2010-11. Retrieved from http://www.athabascau.ca/aboutau/media/aufacts.php.
Tynes, B. (2015, July 31). Interview with Dr. Peter MacKinnon
AU’s Interim President. Retrieved from https://www.voicemagazine.org/search/searchdisplay.php?ART=10675.
World Economic Forum. (2015). Economies: Canada. Retrieved from http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2015/economies/#economy=CAN.
The Canadian Press. (2016, January 20). PM to Davos: ’Know Canadians for our resourcefulness’. Retrieved from http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/what-justin-trudeau-plans-to-tell-davos/.

A native British Columbian, Scott Douglas Jacobsen is an AU undergrad. He researches in the Learning Analytics Research Group, Lifespan Cognition Psychology Lab, and IMAGe Psychology Lab, and with the UCI Ethics Center.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Trudeau, The World Economic Forum, & Athabasca University

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Voice Magazine (Athabasca University)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/02/26

Athabasca University (AU) is in line with the future of education and the future economy. The future of education credentials, knowledge, and skills. The future of the economy human capital with creativity, education, and experience.

Human capital investments are an issue for students coming out of university, and employers looking for suitable candidates or employees. A salient set of facts for fellow students on track to complete their education at AU when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau represented Canada at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland from January 20th to 23rd to talk about the future economy.

Trudeau’s attendance at international events gives the basis to plan and negotiate with other world leaders for the future economy, and to present the strengths of the Canadian economy. But if the future economy is based on education, then the future of education will be the future economy by implication.

In turn, plans made on a global platform with other nations influence the trajectory of Canadian provinces and territories, and their respective universities such as AU. The WEF gave the opportunity to express the strengths of the Canadian economy.

Trudeau spoke on the shift from weight given to Canadian resources and transitioning more into Canadian human capital, “My predecessor wanted you to know Canada for its resources. I want you to know Canadians for our resourcefulness.”

The WEF meeting was, in part, based on the new and ongoing industrial revolution, the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It builds on the previous industrial revolutions that used steam-, electric-, and information-based technologies.

It will increasingly incorporate cyber-physical systems. Trudeau’s statement described the shift in the Canadian economic landscape from natural resources, “Canada for its resources,” to human capital, “Canada for our resourcefulness.”

Canada remains the most educated, or credentialed, rather, population in the world (Grossman, 2012), and AU is the largest online provider of education in Canada. In other words, AU is the largest online human capital investment in the country.

Insofar as Canadian resources are concerned, the drop in oil prices has hurt the resource-based sector of the economy of Alberta, but not necessarily the human capital sector. Students, in general, express concerns about acquisition of work upon graduation from university.

Employers express concerns over potential workers with relevant qualifications coming out of university. AU could, and should, play an even greater role in this transition towards a more balanced mixed economy: resources and resourcefulness.

That is, AU should perform an important intermediary role in the future of education and, by implication, the future of the economy in filling the jobs (worker concerns) and skills (employer concerns) gaps with the rapid development of this knowledge economy.

Human capital will increasingly become our greatest strength in the province and the country, and the international marketplace. AU resides at this juncture, and Prime Minister Trudeau statements on the global stage align with AUs purposes in education and education’s connection to the economy.

References

Grossman, S. (2012, September 27). And the World’s Most Education Country Is?.
Retrieved from http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/09/27/and-the-worlds-most-educated-country-is/.

A native British Columbian, Scott Douglas Jacobsen is an AU undergrad. He researches in the Learning Analytics Research Group, Lifespan Cognition Psychology Lab, and IMAGe Psychology Lab, and with the UCI Ethics Center.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Presidential Interview – AU’s Interim President, Part I

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Voice Magazine (Athabasca University)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/02/19

Scott: You hold a number of distinctions in terms of educational background, previous stations, and academic and national honors.

In 2014, you spoke on the honor to work for the advancement of the Athabasca University (AU) community, the benefits of online education in provision of education for those that would not otherwise have it, a personal hero in Nelson Mandela, the need for leadership to make vision practical and compelling, and preference for Starbucks, Star Trek, The Beatles, iPhone, and dogs in a previous video interview published online (Athabasca U, 2014).

You spoke on some general issues relevant to the AU community and to let individual members know you.

With some of this background, since arrival in AU as the Interim President, with respect to online education, what similarities and differences seem relevant for some comparisons to the traditional brick-and-mortar institutions?

President MacKinnon: The first differences coming into a position like this one would be the differences in the online university environment compared to more campus-based institutions. Those differences are profound. Here in this community, of the university’s more than 500 academic employees, faculty and tutors, fewer than 10 live in Athabasca.

Our students come here for convocation, and from time to time for some work on campus in laboratories, particularly, but you do not have the same day-to-day, face-to-face, contact with your faculty colleagues, and with your students.

The other difference and the one that, frankly, I prize most about being here is the mission of the university. For me, at least, in an increasingly online dominated world, the openness of Athabasca University is a profound and positive part of its existence.

We never close the doors on anyone! 78% of students tell us that without Athabasca University they either cannot access post-secondary education, or would have more than the usual difficulty in doing so.

Scott: In Davos, Switzerland, from January 20th to 23rd, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke on issues related to the economic impacts of Canada’s resources – wood, coal, and oil – and Canada’s resourcefulness sometimes called human capital.

Now, to relate this to previous statements, if students with the inability to attend a post-secondary institution can attend a post-secondary institution – based on the 78% you mentioned before, how important is Canada’s largest online provider of education to the Albertan and Canadian economies? Of course, the provincial economy embeds in the national economy.

President MacKinnon: That’s a great question. I have strongly believed since coming here that Athabasca University is an important national university as well as an important Campus Alberta university.

If you look at student body demographics, you see students come from every province in the country, and large numbers of them from outside the province. So, yes!

Athabasca University plays an important role, not in Alberta alone, but in the country. In terms of adding to the human capital or the resourcefulness of our population, this is an important university.

Scott: To continue the line of thought from the first question, based on the differences provided, what best exhibit the greatest strengths of online education?

President MacKinnon: A great strength is the reach. The fact is when you can reach into people’s communities, when you can reach into their homes, when you can reach them where they work, when you can reach them wherever it is that they are. Online education provides accessibility and improves and increases accessibility.

Scott: What were your objectives when you took on the interim role?

President MacKinnon: My goal was to certainly contribute in whatever way I could to advancing the mission of this university. When I arrived, it was clear to me that there were some sustainability issues. These are documented in full in the Presidential Task Force Report at Athabasca University (Athabasca University, 2015).

I wanted to put the issues of our sustainability on the record. They were discussed before by the way, long before I came here, but it was important to put them on the record in a disciplined way to be dealt with in a disciplined way. That has been my goal, and that continues to be my goal.

Scott: The Presidential Task Force Report at AU contained four possible options for the future of AU. In terms of the options for the future of the AU community, what seems like the most probable one (Athabasca University, 2015)?

President MacKinnon: Those options were not meant to be exhaustive, or a full list, but they were meant to challenge people to talk about them as some among all the options. They were not mutually exclusive either.

For example, one of the options was to complete an educational review and a business process review. Those reviews are now underway. We expect reports on them by the end of April. So, that option has been implemented.

Some of the other possibilities included relationships with other institutions. Those relationships could be an association, an affiliation, a federation, shared service arrangements, or contracting out arrangements.

Those matters continue to be on the table as potential contributions to our sustainability in the future. Another one: this is a national institution as well as a Campus Alberta institution.

We have eCampusAlberta, a consortium of the universities in Alberta for online learning. We have eCampusOntario, eCampus Manitoba, Thomson Rivers University, (which embraced the former open British Columbia Open University), and TÉLUQ University in Quebec.

We have a lot of provincial initiatives in the world of open or, at least, online education. One of the points the task force report made was that, rather than hunker down behind provincial boundaries, there were opportunities for more in the way of national initiatives that could present a more ambitious Canadian face to the world in open online education.

(Come back next week to see the second of this three-part series)

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Presidential Interview – AUSU

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Voice Magazine (Athabasca University)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/01/29

The last time we talked to the AUSU President was just before the Council held its by-election. This week, Scott Jacobsen has a more personal interview into what makes AUSU President Shawna Wasylyshyn tick.

What is the story prior to becoming an Athabasca University (AU) student?

I had a successful career as a District Sales Manager for a company I loved! I realized that the chances of moving forward from that position or transitioning to a similar one without a business degree were slim, and then I found AU!

I had been studying political science online through the UofS, but transferred to the Faculty of Business at AU and enrolled in the Bachelor of Management program.

What are the reasons for choosing AU over other universities for you?

Flexibility. I have had 3 children since becoming a student at AU and I was able to take full courses while on maternity leave. AU allows me to balance all of the priorities in my life while completing my studies. I am able to continue with my studies while supporting my family and juggling all of my responsibilities!

What tasks and responsibilities come with leadership of the Athabasca University Student Union (AUSU)?

The list of tasks and responsibilities in student leadership are much too long to list here! The responsibility is something I take very seriously. On a daily basis, I am required to be the voice of over 25,000 students and ensure that voice is heard.

Often, it means asking tough questions, and at times I have to be more forceful than I like. It’s not easy to walk into a room full of University Administration who are all saying the same thing, and be strong enough to speak up and inform them that students disagree with them.

Thankfully, I’m not easily intimidated and I am inspired by the knowledge that AUSU members trust in me to speak on their behalf.

What is the experience of being a working mother of three, and one step-child, while a student?

It’s busy! The key to my success is to stay organized. Planning ahead is very important and sticking to the plan is essential. I plan everything from meals, kids’ activities, studying and work.

With that said, I have learned to accept that sometimes the plan has to go out the window because a child may get sick or an emergency could come up at work. It’s a constant balancing act.

Any insights into the differences for working-student mothers compared to working mothers, student mothers, or stay-at-home mothers?

When You’re a Mom, your kids come first. Mothers are always faced with the challenge of how to realize their own dreams, while encouraging the dreams of their children. I always say that every Mom is a working Mom, the difference is whether or not you get paid!

Involvement of other parents and grandparents and the ages of children are big factors in the amount of studying a Mom can get done as well. I got a lot more studying done when I had one baby who napped all the time!

Now that my children are aged 5, 3 and 2, it is a lot more difficult to find quiet pockets of time to sit down and study.

Any advice for aspiring students, student-mothers, or working-student mothers with political interests?

My advice to all students is to set a goal, and make a plan to achieve it. Be willing to accept that you may face roadblocks along the way to your goal, but don’t give up. Theodore Roosevelt said “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty? I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Meeting the Minds – Dr. Junye Wang

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Voice Magazine (Athabasca University)

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/01/15

This week, making up for the holidays, we’ve got two installments of our Meeting the Minds column. This interview with Dr. Junye Wang was conducted by student Scott Jacobsen. Dr. Wang has come to AU as a research chair from the Campus Alberta Innovates Program

How did you become involved in Athabasca University?

My basic research is on multi-scale and multidisciplinary modelling. The Campus Alberta Innovates Program (CAIP) program provides long-term funding so that I can focus on development of an ambitious framework: the modelling framework of integrated terrestrial and aquatic systems.

This will lead to a model of integrated watershed management, and recommendations for land- and water-use decisions for Albertans and Canadians.

You are a CAIP Chair, which is different from a Canada Research Chair. What does this position entail in terms of tasks and responsibilities?

The CAIP Chair in Computational Sustainability and Environmental Analytics provides leadership and vision to establish an interdisciplinary research program in the specified area of environmental sustainability and environmental analytics, promote excellence in research, foster national and international research collaboration and contribute to the reputation of Athabasca University in this area as a leading centre of scholarly excellence to attract high quality students and visiting scholars.

What is your professional area of expertise?

It is hard to say what my expertise is. In practice, I have worked/studied on (chemical, aeronautical, energy, and computing) engineering, environments and agroecosystem for 30 years. Although my research work has been applied to very different problems from chemical and mechanical engineering (e.g., fuel cells and gas turbines) to biogeochemical processes in agroecosystems (e.g., soil physics and nutrient cycling).

These modelling work are all essentially based on three types of transports (mass, energy and momentum) and two types of reactions (chemical and biological). Therefore, this may be my professional area.

What is your teaching philosophy?

Because I have worked/studied on different disciplines, I realized that in the world of science and engineering, there were an infinite number of problems to learn, and, of course, it was impossible for anybody to study all of those that were related to his/her fields in one university. Hence, my teaching philosophy is summarized as a Chinese proverb: “Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.”

As a teacher, rather than giving my students the solution to their problems all the time, I would like it to be that my students are capable of analysing and evaluating on their own. Students need to learn the fundamental content of the science and engineering courses. But beyond that I hope to facilitate the acquisition of life-long learning skills, foster critical thinking, and develop problem-solving strategies.

Therefore, instead of searching for and solving all kinds of sample problems, they need to focus on the process of problem-solving in their science and engineering courses, and thus gain the ability to solve any problem whenever they need to do so. This will guide them toward becoming independent thinkers and lifetime self-instructors.

How do you promote capacities/skills of research students as a CAIP Chair?

As a CAIP Chair, I have promoted research-driven teaching and learning at AU. A cutting-edge research project is usually something that faces various challenges. Thus, it is an excellent opportunity for students to acquire the skills of critical thinking and problem-solving through real problems-driven learning.

Through the cutting-edge research projects, research students can be involved in discussions by asking interesting questions on the project or by facing challenging concepts and, sometimes, paradoxes from the real world.

Many cutting-edge research projects require teamwork, which helps students view different problems from different perspectives and disciplines. Thus, students can learn how the theory works and why different expertise and skills from different disciplines are required.

What research are you doing?

The Athabasca river basin (ARB) is ecologically and economically vital for the development and sustainability of northern Alberta communities. Industrial development and climate change are affecting both the ecological sustainability and the well-being of people along the river.

While the oilsands offer huge economic opportunities, much remains unknown about the impact of resource development on the environment and society. My research is to establish a modeling framework of integrated biogeochemical and hydrological processes to interpret data and environmental projections.

This framework will bridge knowledge gaps of dynamic interactions among nutrients (e.g., carbon and nitrogen), water, pollutants, soil and oil sands, vegetation, and climate.

This can deepen our understanding of the integrated river basin systems including, but not limited to, the land and water, which can determine future trends and relationships from multiple land-use activities in the basin.

It can also identify key factors of the cumulative effects of agricultural and unconventional oil and gas production for watershed management. This will provide a new tool for how we might better use land to manage soil, air, and water, and make recommendations for policy and to aid the decision-making of oil companies.

What has your research discovered?

There are also major knowledge gaps in how tailings pollutants will degrade and diffuse through biogeochemical and hydrological processes above and below ground once they are put into a reclamation site.

We are expanding the capacity of agroecosystem modelling and computational sustainability for assessing the environmental impacts of agricultural and unconventional oil and gas (oilsands and hydraulic fracturing) production on the agroecosystem.

Our initialized results have demonstrated that the framework can identify key factors for watershed management across Athabasca river basin, but more work is needed for a policy support tool.

A lot of your research will need interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary efforts. What is the process of incorporating interdisciplinary work in the midst of specialist work like for you?

A river basin is a complex system in which natural processes (e.g., hydrological and biogeochemical) and social processes (e.g., human actives) interact. It is necessary to incorporate interdisciplinary researches if people want to understand such a complex system.

In practice, it is not easy to incorporate different disciplines since researchers work usually on their own disciplines. Though we know these experts from different areas should collaborate to address the problems, different areas may use different methods and terminologies. A question is how different specialists could communicate effectively.

What interfaces are between disciplines? In spite of clear boundaries between different subject courses, there are no such clear interfaces in the real world problems. My multidisciplinary background may help to communicate among different specialists to find these interfaces that foster efficiency collaboration.

Any advice for students on becoming involved in cutting-edge research?

Students can study and apply fundamental knowledge of the science and engineering in cutting-edge research. Cutting-edge research includes processes of innovation and creation. This is an excellent opportunity to help students acquire the key skills of life-long learning, foster critical thinking, and develop problem-solving through the processes of innovation and creation.

They can learn how the theory works and why different expertise and skills are required. Moreover, a cutting-edge research project will promote teamwork and collaboration that helps students view different problems from different perspectives and disciplines. These skills may be more important than single knowledge in future career development and will be of life-long benefit.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Jenna Valleriani, Doctoral Candicacy and CSSDP

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/08/04

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: In brief, how did you get interested in being involved in drug policy in Canada?

Jenna Valleriani: That is a big question! I am in sociology. I was interested in punishment and prisons, which is a natural extension of the consequences for drug prohibition. I was introduced to the medical cannabis program when a friend had back injury. He started talking about this process, where he earned a medical cannabis license.

It was fascinating from a sociological perspective because it was an underground route of access. It was knowing and talking to the right people. That year, I took a course with Dr. Pat Erickson. She is a drug policy scholar at University of Toronto.

It changed my outlook on what I wanted to study. That course made sense to me. Everything made sense. There is theory behind drug policy. I was fascinated by the history of prohibition in Canada and the social constructions around drugs and drug use.

I began narrowing into an interest in cannabis. I followed the story of a friend trying to gain access. It was about 8 years ago when access to medical cannabis in Canada was not as transparent and talked about as it is now.

I found that interesting. After the course with Pat, it opened a new door for me.

Jacobsen: You have a unique perspective. You are a doctoral candidate in sociology and collaborative addiction studies at the University of Toronto. You research transitions into federal medicinal cannabis programs in Canada, new industries, entrepreneurship, and social movements.

You are on the advising team and an advisor for CSSDP. How important is this advanced education and knowledge in advising people? What tasks and responsibilities come with this position?

Valleriani: With the advisory role, it is about mentoring young people interested in drug policy issues. It is about creating opportunities for involvement. People helped me. I want to offer that as well. An educational background is not necessary to take on a role in CSSDP.

We try to encourage all young people to get involved. We want young people who are interested in drug policy. It could be the perspective a drug user or a researcher. We try to take on the perspectives of the people who lives in everyday youth culture.

I am not sure if it is necessarily based on the education, but it might offer being in touch with changes in drug policy and the research around it. That is, it might help from a policy perspective.

I worked with CSSDP for 5 years. Therefore, I have a deep knowledge of the organization and changes in it. I see how we’ve grown. I served on the board for 3 years. I occupied a few different roles. I was the conference chair in 2015, which was our biggest conference. It sold out in Toronto.

I was on a few different committees. I was a vice-chair. The important part to the advisory role is a good understanding of the organizational structure and aims. Many people will ask if CSSDP is about encouraging drug use or attempting to deter drug use.

The answer is neither for us. We are focused on the creation of sound policy around drugs and drug use, and finding ways to promote evidence-based alternatives and solutions.

Jacobsen: What do you consider the core principle of the CSSDP?

Valleriani: For us, it is about youth engagement and empowerment around drug policy issues. We try to facilitate ways for young people getting involved such as starting chapters, dispensing different resources for ongoing policies, finding ways to get young people to conferences, and so on.

For example, for the UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS) 2016 meeting in New York, New York, we sent 10 youth to participate in the meeting. We want to empower and mobilize young people to become involved in it.

We look at policies around drug use and drug users, and how they treat those that do and don’t use drugs. Good policy is bigger than using drugs – it includes good policy for those that choose to not use drugs.

We take a human rights perspective and believe in harm reduction principles. It underlines everything for us.

Jacobsen: What do you mean by “a human rights perspective” underlying everything that you do?

Valleriani: When we are talking about human rights in drug policy, it is an acknowledgement that drug users have voices too. That young people have voices. They can participate. It takes a holistic approach for people’s rights throughout the whole process.

Jacobsen: Where do you hope the CSSDP goes into the future?

Valleriani: I want to see CSSDP grow. We are gaining more recognition with the government as a youth body, which is in tune with things on-the-ground and how drug policy in Canada affects young people here.

I want to see us grow in our outreach with the government. I would like to see us grow in chapter sizes. Also, we have a national board. I want to see this expansion continue.

I want to see the CSSDP grow in its capacity to take on more young people. I would love to see a mentorship program grow out of it for youth interested in drug policy.

I consider a grassroots approach to how we mobilize young people one of the most important things by us.

Jacobsen: Thank you for your time, Jenna.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Heidi Trautmann, Zero Tolerance and Harm Reduction

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/08/04

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Tell us about how you got an interest in Canadian drug policy.

Heidi Trautmann: My sister introduced me to it. She was volunteering. She was on the board. She informed me about the job. Before I applied to the job, I did posters and pictures for her. She thought it would be cool if I worked for CSSDP.

So, I did! I was really lucky to get the job.

Jacobsen: What tasks and responsibilities come along with the position?

Trautmann: One was work for the Support Don’t Punish event. That included videos from the Support Don’t Punish Facebook page and research found on their website. I did event posters such as Mapping the Mind with Mushrooms and the Support Don’t Punish event, and the t-shirt design. I created a drug infographic relating to certain drugs. I am continuing it.

Jacobsen: There are two major strategies. One is zero tolerance. The other is harm reduction. What method seems more reasonable to you?

Trautmann: Harm reduction because you cannot force somebody to give up. If someone is forced with the idea of drugs, they might feel hopeless. Drug use is not a legal issue. It is a health issue, which needs to be tackled in an appropriate way.

Obviously, we do not want people taking harmful drugs. They should not be punished with it. They should be helped to heal rather than surviving in jail.

Jacobsen: With regard to CSSDP, what is its core principle?

Trautmann: It is to spread information about drugs and drug use rather than promote drug use. The purpose of CSSDP is to spread information for individuals without forcing ideals on people rather than what is humane.

Jacobsen: With respect to some of the most vulnerable populations, if we take the homeless, the addicted, and children, and if we take some of the negative impacts seen with them through indirect harms, any recommendations for reduction of harms to those populations?

Trautmann: Volunteering is a good way to reduce harm. People in a higher class than others, more money and privilege, then these individuals could assist in spreading knowledge.

Jacobsen: Where do you hope CSSDP goes into the future – getting more funding, more people, more skill sets, and so on?

Trautmann: I hope, in Canada, if people hear about CSSDP, they won’t have to ask about it. It should be something known to people. People should have more knowledge on drugs and harm reduction.

Jacobsen: Thank you for your time, Heidi.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Nick Cristiano, Drug Policy and Executive Board Member of CSSDP

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/08/04

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: How did you become interested in drug policy in Canada?

Nick Cristiano: I majored in sociology in school, always having been interested in deviance, I became very interested in drug use. My reason for being interested was seeing it. Also, it was a grey area; it was not clearly wrong. Other crimes seemed less grey to me. I was interested in studying drug use because I found that the laws and stigmas arbitrary.

Murder is clearly wrong. Drug use, you need to know the climate to know why it’s deviant. In my masters, I continued research on drug use. I made a commitment to this path. I am happy. I went further than I originally thought.

I became acquainted with both the academic research as well as the stuff happening on the ground. That’s how I became involved with CSSDP. I wanted to move away from studying drug use. I wanted to become involved with an organization where I could build contacts and fight for things important to me.

Jacobsen: What tasks and responsibilities come with being an executive board member?

Cristiano: My position on the executive board is a personnel liaison; essentially, I am the human resources person. I make sure everyone is happy and in pursuit of something interesting to them. We want people to tap into their passions.

You want to love what you’re doing for the organization. Otherwise, you’re not going to do it if you don’t enjoy it. As part of the executive board, I am a vote for most major decisions regarding the organization.

Jacobsen: What do you consider the core principle of CSSDP?

Cristiano: The promotion of sensible drug policy is the core principle here. We want to promote sensible drug policy in communities across Canada. We want to raise awareness and equip people with the resources necessary as activists to speak out against irrational drug policies, mobilize and enact change.

By ‘sensible drug policy,’ we mean policy that is not harmful.

By harmful, we refer to prohibition where drugs are forced into an illegal market with unregulated quality. Many problems come with prohibition, which regulation and decriminalization would solve or minimize.

Jacobsen: Where do you hope CSSDP goes into the future?

Cristiano: I hope we continue to expand our network. We have a strong presence in Ontario and Quebec. I would love for CSSDP to move into remote communities. Remote communities are important because, despite drug problems existing there, they lack resources for minimizing the potential for drug-related harm, e.g. addiction counseling, harm reduction resources, etc.

Therefore, their experience with drug policy is unique and important. They are included in discussions about improving drug policies.

If we have a strong presence across Canada, a big national network, we can work together towards the improvement of drug policy. With the Liberal proposal for legalization, I hope CSSDP will be involved in bringing the youth voice to the decision-making processes.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Andras Lenart, Canadian Drug Policy and CSSDP

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/08/03

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: In brief, how did you get involved with Canadian drug policy?
Andras Lenart: My interest in drug policy stemmed from experiences volunteering at a shelter, where I met many individuals struggling with substance use. Following this, I became interested in the policies surrounding these issues. I saw things could be done to improve policies and the way people were treated. So, I joined CSSDP to collaborate with others on this, and other related issues.

I joined the McGill chapter last September. Andrew and Nancy, two of the McGill chapter members, were starting the McGill chapter and I became involved with it. Then, in December of 2015, I joined the board of directors for the national organization.

Jacobsen: With respect to being on the board of directors for the CSSDP, what tasks and responsibilities come with this position?

Lenart: In addition to serving on the board of directors, I am the international representative for the organization. I [communicate with other youth drug policy organizations around the world, such as Students for Sensible Drug Policy. Together, we are planning an NGO training with different drug policy organizations, to take place in Thailand. We would acquire training in drug policy related issues and fundraising strategies.

I am also the chair of the conference planning committee. CSSDP is planning a 2017 conference in May in Montreal, so I am attempting to organize the logistics with some other volunteers and board members of CSSDP. The project is in the early stages and will develop with more work in the future. We need to find speakers and a location, and then plan the logistics for people coming from the United States and elsewhere. We’ll need to advertise the event and get local press for it.

Finally, as a CSSDP board member, I have been a representative of CSSDP at the SSDP conference. I was also a representative for CSSDP for a consultation held by the Canadian government through the Centre on Substance Use and Addiction too. The Canadian Government was attempting to inform Canadian drug policies. In general, my role in CSSDP is to provide representation for the organization itself. I have to find opportunities and guide the future acts of the organization.

Jacobsen: What do you consider the core principle of CSSDP?

Lenart: The unique aspect of CSSDP [in contrast to other drug policy organizations] is that most of us are students and we are directly representing the voice of youth. Most drug policy organizations do not have youth as the focus.

Jacobsen: Where do you hope the CSSDP goes into the future?

Lenart: There are chapters in universities across Canada. I hope for the organization to spread further and have representation throughout Canada in high schools as well. That is, to have more influence and opportunity in terms of student politics and drug policy, even at a local institutional level.

Here at McGill, we are hoping to have the student body or the student society provide drug-checking services. These harm reduction measures are not on the national or regional level, but it would make a considerable difference in the lives of students attending McGill and provide further impetus for change in other areas of the country.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Heather D’Alessio, Canadian Drug Policy and CSSDP

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/08/03

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: In brief, how did you get interested in being involved in drug policy in Canada?

Heather D’Alessio: My interest in drug policy started out as a fascination with drugs when I was in high school. I was really interested in all aspects of drugs: their medicinal value, their historical significance, their cultural impact.

I’ve always felt they played a large role in the human experience, has been a large influence in the lives of many of my favorite artists, musicians, authors, and even scientists and entrepreneurs. Couple that fascination with my own mental health hurdles, and add the reckless abandon of adolescence, and long story short, I was hospitalized for what the doctors called a drug-induced psychosis (frankly, I don’t think it was induced by the drugs as much as the stresses of becoming an adult, my reluctance to act with any sense of personal responsibility, and the resulting existential crisis that propelled me into ‘adulthood’).

In a hospital, I’d plenty of time to reflect on my situation. It was a really difficult time, and all I could really think about was how bad I didn’t want anyone else to have to go through what I had experienced.

So I began to evaluate the policies that were in place to supposedly protect our youth. Considering so many punitive, prohibitive drug laws are in place on the very basis of protecting children, I was pretty upset about how much they failed to protect me, a vulnerable young person living in a border-town with a heavy flow of illicit drugs being smuggled in and out along the St. Lawrence River.

Upon further introspection, I began to see how much of a role drugs played in my own life, and the lives of those around me. From there, my interest in drug policy just took off.

Jacobsen: How much knowledge did you have beforehand about medical and psychological effects of drugs?

D’Alessio: Most of the knowledge I’d obtained prior to joining the board was more or less anecdotal, coming from my own experiences. Some of the earliest advice I remember my grandma teaching me was not to pick up dirty needles on the street.

My first boyfriend (if even, we were only in elementary) had not only lost his brother to an overdose, but found his body. It messed him up for a long time. I’ve had family members struggle with addictions to (legal) prescription opiates, and I’ve seen my uncle use cannabis (an ‘illicit’ substance) to aid in his recovery from an aggressive form of brain cancer. I also struggled with drug misuse in high school.

I had friends who were more than willing to share, and many a time I was that ‘generous’ friend. I’ve spent a lot of time lamenting poor decisions I’ve made in high school but frankly I didn’t really know any better and it taught me a lot.

I’d always been motivated by trying to educate myself, but being young and naïve at the time I may not have been quite as keen about verifying my sources and statistics as I am now. Especially now that I’m representing the organization, I’m very particular about where I obtain my information from and what sorts of statistics I used to inform my opinions.

Jacobsen: How did you get involved in CSSDP?

D’Alessio: Out of my perpetual curiosity with drugs I’d found CSSDP on Facebook sometime during my high school years, but it wasn’t until I started post-secondary that I contacted the Outreach Coordinator about starting up a chapter at my school, applied to represent them at some international conferences, and ultimately ended up running for the board.

Needless to say, it was a match made in socio-political activist heaven.

Jacobsen: What do you consider the core principle of CSSDP?

D’Alessio: In the most concise terms, I think the core principle of CSSDP is about supplementing evidence and knowledge in the place of stigma and misinformation to create a humanistic approach to drug policy.

What we’re really advocating for here is human rights and public health, which you’d think would be at the center of any effective drug policy (spoiler alert: the current policies aren’t effective). Unfortunately there’s a lot of external interest, political and economic, that are corrupting the majority of policies relating to drugs (in my opinion anyway). It’s created a largely misguided and misinformed public perception of drugs and drug use.

Removing the stigma is a key factor in addressing these issues. Social taboos make it a sensitive topic, but that only causes the problems to fester.

Jacobsen: Where do you hope CSSDP goes into the future?

D’Alessio: In the far future I hope to have eliminated the need for CSSDP by helping to establish effective and sensible drug policies in Canada. Realistically though, there’s a constantly changing landscape of drugs so I don’t know if that will happen, especially on an international level.

Different people using different substances in different settings creates this hugely elaborate web of social, political, and economic issues and it’s quite nuanced. In the immediate future I just hope to see more interest in CSSDP, because where it stands it seems to be a relatively niche interest. My only friends who are interested in these issues are in CSSDP, but all of my friends do drugs in some capacity.

I hope to see more people make the connection as to how these policies are effecting them and why they should care.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Gonzo Nieto, Positive Impacts of Harm Reduction

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/08/03

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What are some local examples that show the positive impacts of harm reduction?

Gonzo Nieto: There’s an organization in Montreal called Group de recherche et d’intervention psychosociale (GRIP). They are a francophone harm reduction group based on Montreal with whom I have volunteered in the past.

They are invited to various events and festivals in Montreal, specifically events where people are regularly using drugs. They have well-trained and knowledgeable people staffing tables at these events, and they provide safer drug use information and answer questions that event attendees may have. This is an important service because many people have not have had an open place to have conversation about drugs and get their questions answered.

Unfortunately, the law prohibits groups in Canada from bringing drug testing equipment to such events, so they are not able to provide that service at this time.

Jacobsen: What about online resources, e.g. forums and discussion groups?

Nieto: There can be a lot of value in online discussion forums and groups. Although, in a forum, you might not know who is speaking or how much weight to put on what they say. It can be hard to ascertain the credibility of the information. It’s important to take things with a grain of salt and not rely solely on what one person said.

Because of the nature of drug laws and the stigma around open discussion on drugs in public and in person, a lot of great resources exist online. The website Erowid.org has provided thousands of people with very open, non-judgmental information about an incredibly large variety of drugs for years.

Outside of forums and discussion groups, many harm reduction groups have also built useful resources online. TRIP, a Toronto-based harm reduction group, is a great example. These groups provide reliable information on drug use. Many people turn to these groups because they provide an open and non-judgmental forum to find information and get your questions answered.

Jacobsen: What national harm reduction experts come to mind?

Nieto: I have to mention the executive director of GRIP in Montreal, Julie Soleil-Meeson. She’s wonderful. The work that she does providing harm reduction services around Montreal is very beneficial, and she is also very passionate about bringing drug checking services into Canada.

As well, I would mention TRIP as a whole. There are many staff there working in a variety of capacities. They are educated, open, and they do great work both onsite and online. From my interactions with them, they embody the attitude that people working in this field need to have to be effective.

Lastly, I would mention Karmik in Vancouver, which is a nightlife harm reduction group. They provide harm reduction services to events and festivals in their area, and they were founded by Alex Betsos, who is a former board member of CSSDP.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Gonzo Nieto, Harm Reduction as Philosophy

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/08/03

interview friends, colleagues, and experts, on harm reduction and its implications in Canadian society, from the theory to the practice, to the practical. I am a Member-at-Large for Outreach for Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy and writer for Karmik, Fresh Start Recovery Centre, and the Marijuana Party of Canada. Here I interview Gonzo Nieto, part 2. Part 1 here.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What is your perspective on the theory of harm reduction as a philosophy?

Gonzo Nieto: Harm reduction works from the perspective that you should meet people where they are rather than tell people what to do or not do. The reality is people will use drugs.

If you solely tell people not to use drugs and they choose to anyway, you’re not the one they’ll come to with questions or if they need support. We need to provide people with the best education tools, strategies, and services with the aim of reducing preventable harms and risks from drug use.

Jacobsen: Is the harm reduction approach the best way to minimize harm on youth?

Nieto: It’s important to note that prevention is a harm reduction strategy, but it falls short when it’s the only strategy. We have to recognize youth use drugs too, regardless of how good your work around prevention is.

Anyone who has gone through high school knows young people are using drugs, whether that be alcohol, cannabis, or other drugs. An educational system or approach that only preaches to not drink or use drugs is not sufficient — of course, that may be a sufficient deterrent for some youth, and that’s good, but others will still choose to try.

I think that the later into adolescence and early adulthood that we can delay the initiation of drug use, the better the health consequences. We know youth who are younger when they start drinking, smoking, or using other drugs are more likely to struggle with substance dependence and have other negative health outcomes.

I think prevention is part of a good harm reduction strategy – for youth and adults alike. The important thing is that work around prevention cannot be based on fear. It needs to be evidence-based by drawing on the available research and presenting it in a way that permits people to make their own decisions.

When we use fear-based approaches, which often rely on exaggeration, people find out sooner or later that the information they were given was false or blown out of proportion. This erodes people’s trust.

If this information comes from a teacher or a close adult, this leads youth to lose trust in someone who could have otherwise been a source of guidance and support on this topic.

Jacobsen: What are some general effects we’ve seen in Canada in practicing Harm Reduction?

Nieto: Broadly speaking, harm reductions strategies allow people to make safer and healthier choices for themselves.

Take cannabis, for example. if people are going to use cannabis, having appropriate information about dosage and what to expect can be the difference between having a negative and overwhelming experience or having a pleasant experience. Similarly, having clear and non-judgmental information about any long-term health consequences, or about substance dependence, can make a world of difference in preventing harm.

By and large, especially if this type of education is provided by the people youth trust, whether peer-based education or the education coming from adults, teachers, and parents, there’s more forethought, information, and consideration behind the decision to use drugs.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Gonzo Nieto, Drug Policy, Medical and Psychological Effects

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/08/02

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: How did you become interested in being involved in drug policy in Canada?

Gonzo Nieto: My interest with drug policy began with my own use, which started with cannabis as a teen. A lot of my peers were using drugs, both in high school and university. That all began to get me interested in the phenomenon of drug use in general.

What really caught my interest was psychedelics, after I had my first experience with psilocybin mushrooms. I began to educate myself pretty extensively about psychedelics. I would spend hours listening to lectures and talks by various people, reading books, and browsing forums and seeing what was there in terms of other people’s experiences.

This got the ball rolling as I began to discover how large and diverse the field of drug policy is, and I fell further and further down the ‘rabbit hole’.

Jacobsen: With respect to personal use, how much knowledge did you have beforehand about medical and psychological effects?

Nieto: Not very much, I didn’t come into drug use in a very informed way. It was youthful curiosity and blissful ignorance that led me to try cannabis and psilocybin mushrooms. These experiences stoked my curiosity, and then I got to educating myself more. When I started smoking pot, I didn’t know much other than that my friends were using it.

When some of my peers were using psychedelics in high school, I mostly recall hearing myths and lies about psychedelics. I remember hearing kids at school say that magic mushrooms make your brain bleed, and that’s why you hallucinate. Silly stuff like that. I remember others saying it was a fun trip, describing psychedelics like the next level up from pot, which I came to learn is not the case — they’re completely different.

But like most people, I wasn’t very well educated about drugs prior to encountering and trying them. I didn’t have good drug education at my school, at least “good” by my standards — what we got was police officers come to our school to scare us about the scourge of drugs.

Jacobsen: How did you get involved with Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy?

Nieto: After I graduated university, my partner motivated me to start writing a column on drugs using the knowledge I had amassed during the previous five years of my undergrad. I began writing a column in the student newspaper, which I called Turning Inward.

The column went really well. Pretty much every time I published an article, it became one of the most read articles in the student newspaper for that week. I continued writing articles regularly for about seven months.

One of the articles that I wrote was called MDMA: A Guide to Harm Reduction. I wrote it because several friends that previous week had asked me questions about MDMA that, to me, were fairly basic because of what I had been learning and reading about. I realized this sort of stuff wasn’t common knowledge for most of my peers.

CSSDP shared my article on Twitter. I contacted CSSDP to thank them for sharing it and to ask how I could get involved. They responded that I should try to attend their conference coming up in Toronto. At the conference, they were electing new members to the organization’s board, so I decided to put my name in the hat.

Jacobsen: What do you consider the core principle of CSSDP?

Nieto: Primarily, I would say the core value is the idea that drug use should not be treated as a criminal justice issue, but rather as an issue of public health and social cohesion.

Jacobsen: Two philosophies compete with regards to how to deal with issues like youth drug use, the zero tolerance approach, and the harm reduction model. Which do you prefer, and why?

Nieto: I stand by the harm reduction model, without question. In the debates around drug use, these two models are sometimes presented as though they are equally valid in some sense, but I think there’s a strong case to be made that the punitive approach is in denial of reality.

That perspective is based on the assumption that some set of actions could be taken which would result in total abstinence across the board. That’s just not true, as demonstrated by the decades that precede us.

Drug use appears to be a core component of the human species. To say that human drug use dates back tens of thousands of years is probably a conservative estimate. Any recorded history of humans shows humans using drugs. It’s not a new phenomenon. What is relatively new is outlawing and punishing drug use, and there’s an argument to be made that the punishments in place for drug crimes cause far more damage to the individual and society than the use of drugs does in the first place.

The harm reduction model recognizes that, no matter how refined the attempts at prevention may be, some people will still choose to use drugs, and there needs to be education and services in place that help reduce the preventable harms associated with that drug use.Harm reduction meets people where they are rather than telling them what they should or should not do. It says, “If you do use, here’s some information and services to ensure your safety and to help minimize preventable harms.”

Harm reduction meets people where they are rather than telling them what they should or should not do. It says, “If you do use, here’s some information and services to ensure your safety and to help minimize preventable harms.”

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Harm Reduction Series, from Theory to Practice, to the Practical

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/08/02

Politics is “context” created by individuals and structures within society, in both formal and informal institutions. Context is defined as, “the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed.”

Drug policy, then, is more than just a set of laws, but the circumstances which shape those laws in our societies. Those circumstances often relate to some of the most sensitive issues – such as drugs and youth activism. Leaders in Drug Policy show the importance of discussing, understanding, and analyzing the impact of bad drug laws and the reasons for drug policy reform.

Drugs are seen as the loci of social degeneration; youth activists are seen as social degenerates.

Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy (CSSDP) examines drug policies through the eyes of youth, citing evidence and inspiring activism. CSSDP is made up of both youth activists interested in drug policy and young people interested in positive reform in society.

From local chapters in universities to advisors to the executive committee, students operate the organization to advocate, demonstrate, and educate about sensible drug policy — drug policy based on compassion, evidence, and science, and the harm reduction model of drug policy reform.These students are Leaders in Drug Policy.

The youth and students that run CSSDP and the drug policy professionals, professors and researchers that inspire them provide context to the problem of prohibition. A minor contribution to the discussion about sensible drug policy, harm reduction, and alternative approaches to prohibition and drug law reform comes from conversations with relevant individuals, from the young activist to the expert professor.

My aim is to continue the conversation through interviews with Leaders in Drug Policy. Throughout the coming months, CSSDP will publish a series of interview articles outlining the thoughts, concerns and insights of board members, chapter members, and other leaders in Canadian drug policy.

This series will provide context to the ongoing conversation, and insight of how CSSDP and it’s partners are moving policy forward, sensibly.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

An Introduction to Harm Reduction, Its Benefits and Application

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/08/02

I am a Member-at-Large for Outreach for Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy. Here is a short introduction to harm reduction.

Harm reduction models are misunderstood by many and unknown to others. The harm reduction model is in opposition, by implication of organizational structure, design, and outcomes, to punitive approaches or the zero tolerance model.

Zero tolerance models intend to punish those that use substances by making an example of offenders. Harm reduction models respect to drug users and work for social justice linked to human rights (Harm Reduction International, 2016; Harm Reduction Coalition, n.d.). Harm reduction implies implementing safety measures for all psychoactive drugs including controlled drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceutical drugs.

In this way, the zero tolerance and the harm reduction models are philosophies about drug use, which implies drug policy, too. The philosophies as the theory. The policies as practice. Harm reduction philosophies accept the inevitability of drugs in society. Their use and abuse.

Harm reduction philosophies emphasize individual substance users, communities, and policies in a singular framework. It contrasts with the zero tolerance approach, where the unification is the punishment of offenders divided into four big consequences for youth, for one instance of drug use, possession, trafficking, or in reality, simply being caught.

The Center for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) says, “Harm reduction is any program or policy designed to reduce drug-related harm without requiring the cessation of drug use” (Erickson et al, 2002).

Rodney Skager of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says the big four consequences for youth within the zero tolerance philosophy are “exclusion from extracurricular activities, transfer to another school, suspension, and expulsion…” (Skager, 2016). Skager claims zero tolerance approaches worsen the issue (Ibid.). CAMH concluded harm reduction should be implemented with “other proven successful interventions for those with substance use problems” (Erickson et al, 2002).

The main divide between the harm reduction model and zero tolerance model, philosophies, or strategies are the emphases on harm and punishment. The former focuses on the minimization of harm to individuals and communities through respect for persons and rights. The latter focuses on punishment for drug users to punish the individual drug user and set an example for others.

To conclude, Bill C-2 An Act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (Respect for Communities Act) (2015) describes the full support of the Canadian Medical Association for the harm reduction strategies with the “aim to reduce mortality and morbidity” in spite of “continued exposure to a potentially harmful substance,” especially with addiction defined as “an illness” and that “harm reduction is clinically mandated” as an “ethical method of care and treatment” (Canadian Medical Association, 2015).

Although this bill has limited harm reduction by making criteria for applicants and limited exemptions for new clinics, we’re excited that more supervised injection clinics are slowly opening in key cities around Canada, that prescription heroin was just approved as a new evidence-based harm reduction strategy, and that there is opportunity for CSSDP to work together with our local communities and politicians towards harm reduction and to raise awareness about what we can do to help!

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Alex Betsos, Harm Reduction from British Columbia through Canada

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/08/01

Alex Betsos is a friend, and colleague through Karmik and Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy, where I am a Member-at-Large for Outreach and Alex is an International Representative on the Board of Directors. Here is an interview with Alex about harm reduction, an educational interview. I trust this helps.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: We met a few months back, last year in fact. Gonzo Nieto, who is a prominent – lots of press in the Canadian news – and well-spoken member of the community, recommended you to me.

You and I had some time, a few months back, to discuss harm reduction and the national organization of students for harm reduction and “sensible drug policy,” called Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy (CSSDP).

You work for Karmik, which is a west coast harm reduction initiative. You’ve been deeply involved with the CSSDP and Karmik, and harm reduction in Canada as a whole. That is our background together.

We conducted a short interview, which didn’t cover enough of your expertise a few months ago. So here we are, and I apologize for having to ask this, but it is an educational interview, what is harm reduction?

Alex Betsos: Harm reduction, in its most basic form, is an acknowledgment that life contains risks, and in order to lessen the likelihood of risks, we take certain precautions. Looking both ways when crossing the street or putting on a helmet are all harm reduction tactics.

Jacobsen: How does harm reduction, as a philosophy, influence Canadian drug policy?

Betsos: Harm reduction offers opportunities in Canadian drug policy, but it’s always a bit tenuous. We’re fortunate to have a government right now that acknowledges the importance of harm reduction even though sometimes it’s just lip-service. It’s important to note that harm reduction in Canada is frequently couched in the four pillars model, which allows parliamentarians to continue prohibitionist thinking with certain appeasements to harm reduction practices and ethos.

Jacobsen: With the National Anti-Drug Strategy of the Harper, launched in 2006, renewed in 2012 and 2014, the emphasis appeared to be more on enforcement. What is the evidence?

We need enforcement, but we need treatment and prevention. The previous Prime Minister Harper said, “If you’re addicted to drugs, we’ll help you, but if you deal drugs, we’ll punish you.” What is the ideal apportioning of funding for the substance use and misuse (or abuse) in Canada?

Betsos: First, the question assumes that keeping drugs illegal is a desirable thing. Ideally, enforcement would be downplayed, and some adaptation of a public health approach to drug distribution would be the real step.

If we have to keep some prohibitionist model, putting resources into harm reduction and treatment would be more useful allocations of this money, and to some degree prevention, however, I would point out that harm reduction can encompass part of prevention.

Jacobsen: What are some of the main organizations, and their mandates, for harm reduction in BC?

Betsos: There are lots. Each region has its own health authority, and within that, there are a variety of harm reduction organizations.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the time, my friend – take care.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Dr. Wayne Podrouzek, Philosophical Foundation of Psychology

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/08/01

Dr. Wayne Podrouzek works as an Instructor for the Psychology Department of University of the Fraser Valley and instructor in the Psychology Department of Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Dr. Podrouzek earned his a Bachelor of Arts in Child Studies and a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from Mount Saint Vincent University, a Master of Arts from Simon Fraser University, and Ph.D. from Simon Fraser University under Dr. Bruce Whittlesea. Here is part 4 of an interview from a few years ago.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What do you consider the prevailing philosophical foundation of Psychology? If you differ, what is your personal philosophical framework?

Dr. Wayne Podrouzek:Wow – you know how to pick your questions.

First, I don’t think there is ONE philosophical foundation in psychology anymore. We are all linked by our methodologies – but even those are much more diverse than before. Not too many years ago, anything that remotely smelled like qualitative methodology was looked at askance by most experimental psychologists. Now, in our own department, we find there are several faculties using these methods, and the rest of us still associate with them, if begrudgingly… (Ok, joke).

Some years ago most of us would likely have identified as some variant of positivism, but now I suspect that, again, it’s much more diverse, and many might identify as cognitive relativists. I don’t even know how many of us would identify as ontological objectivists (philosophical realists) anymore. Actually, this is an interesting question, and I could see an honors project in some variant of this issue.

So, if we’re looking for the kinds of underpinning that really links us altogether I guess (hope) it would be some lip service to the general tenets of “science” and empiricism (although I have to wonder, when in our ethics – provided to us by the tri-council guidelines, developed by “scientists” – we are to ensure the “spiritual” safety of our subjects – whatever that is: I just want some variant of quasi-objective measure of “spiritual well-being”).

Perhaps there are more Cartesian Dualists out there than I would have thought. (Still the issue of measurement, though). There is no specific set of methods on which we all agree, no set of criteria to which we hold ourselves – but perhaps a Wittgensteinian language-game understanding of the word “science” is broadly descriptive, and perhaps good enough.

Jacobsen: To you, who are the most influential Psychologists? Why are they the most influential to you?

Podrouzek: I wish I were better to read in psychology so I could better answer this question. I have great admiration for Skinner. I think he got the short end of the stick in evaluation of his debate with Chomsky (who I think is likely one of the brightest puppies to walk, crawl, or slither on the earth today – although I have always disagreed with virtually all of his psychology – considered “state of the art” when I was going to university: psycholinguistics, the preeminence of syntax, the existence of a language acquisition device, etc.).

I think that Skinner’s contribution to psychology has been undervalued, and that much of his work may well reincarnate later in our history. I really liked the “tightness” of Skinner’s work: methodologically sounds, often insightful while being atheoretic, clever.

I think he was a bit of an idealist and I don’t think his idea of Walden 2 would ever fly, but an interesting idea. I got an appreciation of Skinner’s work when I studied under one of his grades, Ron van Houten.

I was also quite influenced by Vygotsky’s work “Thought and Language.” In particular, he has helped shape my understanding of the relationships between thought, language, semiotics, and pragmatics, in a developmental context.

Of course, there are many psychologists in my own areas that have influenced my thinking. My advisor, Bruce Whittlesea, is certainly one of these. You cannot work closely with someone for a few years without walking away influenced. There are also big names – Tulving, Jacoby, etc. I tend to think about human processing in “Transfer Appropriate Processing” terms (a la, Bransford, Franks, Morris, & Stein).

However, someone who is not so well known, Paul Kolers (Procedures of Mind, Mechanisms of Mind) has most influenced me in terms of thinking about theories of the types of processing that occur in mind. And Gibson’s notion of affordances always haunts my thought when I bend it to thought and action.

A number of philosophers; Carnap (logical positivism), Quine (ontological relativism and the underdetermination of theories), Popper (falsificationism), Nagel (philosophy of science, anti-reductionism re consciousness), Putnam (excellent discourses on reductionism and functionalism), and other philosophers of science (such as Russell) have probably had more influence on my thought about the nature of theories (in particular, cognitive theories) than psychologists.

It’s kind of the difference between methods and substantive areas. The method is paramount; the understanding of the substantive area follows from the understanding of the method.

So, the short answer is gee, I don’t know. It’s all pretty much a swirl.

Jacobsen: Finally, many Psychology students are interested to know, do you know anyone famous within Psychology?

Podrouzek: I’ve met several, and spoken with them, but I would not say that I “know” them. We would not even count as acquaintances, although quite a few are nice and say “hi” to me at conferences.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Dr. Wayne Podrouzek, Controversy, Psychology, and the Nature of Time

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/08/01

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: To you, what are the most controversial areas of Psychology? Why do you (and your colleagues) consider them controversial? What are your personal views on them?

Dr. Wayne Podrouzek:Lol – that’s a good one. I certainly won’t speak for my colleagues because I often play in the sandbox pretty much by myself.

Put 6 psychologists in a room and have them discuss any topic and you’ll get at least 7 positions. Except for perhaps bio, some descriptive developmental, low-end sensation (which is pretty much bio), some social, and some behavioural, most areas of psych are pretty controversial, although there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of controversy – we just choose to ignore the difficulties and bung on ahead.

And, for the most part, it doesn’t matter too much – we live in our little bubbles and every once in a while something we do becomes useful, and the rest of the time it doesn’t matter too much and it’s an excellent theoretical and intellectual exercise. Even in things like method and stats, there are different opinions on what is appropriate and why and how things should be interpreted, and so on.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that in the long run what we do will become incredibly important when we get to a certain point and it becomes integrated. All of it contributes to that corpus of knowledge, and even if wrong is very important. We learn most, I think when we find we are wrong in interesting ways – and that really does entail controversy.

Where I get my knickers in a twist is when what we do has real implications for real people, and we are less than totally rigorous. I remember the “repressed memory” debacle, in which folks were sent to jail on the basis of testimony by psychologists. It turned out to be, what word am I looking for here, ah right, “crap”, and it ruined people’s lives. That has now turned from the repressed/false memory debate into the “dissociative identity disorder” debate. That is pretty controversial (at least in some circles).

And how about the “facilitated communication” debacle (there was, perhaps is still, even an Institute for Facilitated Communication at Syracuse, NY) – again, folks lives were ruined. Now, as before, psychologists fixed that through continued study (although not before being hired by a lawyer to see if it “really” worked), but much damage had been done. But that was a few years ago, and we tend to forget our past errors.

Another area that doesn’t seem to get much controversy, but perhaps should, is the use of a certain measure of psychopathy. They are, as I understand it, being used outside of the parameters in which they were developed, and people’s lives are being profoundly affected by them. One girl (17 I think) was declared a Dangerous Offender and put in prison indefinitely based on misdemeanor crimes and her score on “the” checklist and the testimony of some “psychologist” or other. This was subsequently overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada, but again, the damage had been done.

What I find controversial is, where was the psychological community in expressing outrage over this travesty? Let me guess, the same as we usually hear from the Department of Foreign Affairs, “working quietly behind the scenes”.

The problem with Psychology is the same problem we have with Medicine and biochemistry, just worse. Very few people understand it, and it is complicated stuff (which is why I don’t understand why most folks think psych is some kind of a bird discipline that anyone and his dog could do). Psychologists are human, they want to have their moment in the sun, and money and they say stuff and people believe it – without trying to critically evaluate it, and often in the absence of the ability to critically evaluate it. Sometimes it makes no difference.

Whether the memory is a series of stages or structures or is a set of differentially instantiable processes based on some form of information harmonic in the current circumstance is a very interesting question but is not likely to affect too many folks’ lives in the immediate future. So if people ignore the debate and believe one thing or the other makes little difference. However, the same cannot be said for so many other areas.

So, I guess that I think that much of psych is controversial. But that’s not a bad thing – it’s just that we should acknowledge that much of it is controversial not take ourselves too seriously. We are young, some 130 years old. Much of Physics is controversial as well – as the speed of light the limit of particle movement in the universe outside of the movement of the universe itself? (Although this result seems to be the result of a loose cable connection). Are there bosons? We speak of mass and gravity, but what the hell are they? Do causes always precede effects? What is the nature of time? Lots of debates = controversy. That is the stuff of science.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Dr. Wayne Podrouzek, Psychology Degree, Research Expansion, and Incentives

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/08/01

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Many students graduating with a Psychology degree will not pursue careers in Psychology. What are your thoughts on this?

Dr. Wayne Podrouzek: That’s great – I think society needs people who have the broad understanding of the principles of psychology in a wide variety of positions. Psychologists tend to be quite well trained in methodology and stats, and this certainly enhances their ability to think about things methodological – certainly one of the pillars of good critical thinking.

Perhaps some of those folks with a good educational underpinning in critical thinking could go into politics? That would be awesome. It would be good to have some folks in government who can actually think.

Psychology interfaces well with Law: Again, the methodological and thinking skills can be brought to bear.

Jacobsen: Kwantlen is attempting to expand that research on campus. What are the current attempts to expand research on campus? What is the progress of those attempts?

Podrouzek: I know there is a real push to expand research at Kwantlen. Outside of Psych, I’m afraid I’m not very knowledgeable about what’s going on. However, in the psych department, we have many faculties who have active research programs, within Kwantlen and in collaborating with other universities and agencies. Several have international reputations. Given the level of funding, and our workload in teaching and service, I am pretty impressed with the level of research many of faculty in psych are managing.

Jacobsen: If Kwantlen provided incentives via funding (grants), would you be interested in conducting research at Kwantlen?

Podrouzek: Grants might be nice – along with time release for doing research. However, in my case, a lot of what I need is tech support. Many of the kinds of experiments I want to do require substantial expertise in programming and integrating output from different technologies. I haven’t done any programming for over 20 years now, and everything has changed (and what I did then was on MAC), and I don’t really have the inclination to take a year or two to learn to do it well. I have quite a few (I think) fairly good ideas for studies, but without substantial tech support, I’m afraid, I won’t be the one to be doing them.

And, I’m getting a tad long in the tooth to retool for a substantial research career. It would likely take me 1-2 years to get up to speed in a new area, and that pretty much puts me at retirement age. So, I just like doing what I think is interesting “stuff” with like-minded students, at a very pedestrian pace assumptions, change your methods, and you change your field. Things loosened up considerably. Areas of enquiry and the acceptable methods and what could count as reasonable data become much more encompassing, and thus new areas of psychology emerged. We certainly didn’t have courses on sex, for example, or prejudice, cultural, gender (other than straight up sex differences, other aspects of that field would have been taught in “Women’s Studies”), and the list goes ever on.

When I attended university there were upper level specialty courses in Psycholinguistics (Chomsky) – a brilliant, complex theory of language (particularly, syntax and transformations, and semantics), Piaget and Vygotsky, behaviour, modification (applied behavior analysis), parallel and distributed processing, and other things that are now of historical interest, but at the time were all the rage.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Dr. Wayne Podrouzek, Evolution in Research Interest and Undergraduate Psychology

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/31

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What is your current position in the Psychology Faculty?

Dr. Wayne Podrouzek: I’m currently full time faculty and chair of the department.

Jacobsen: Where did you acquire your education? What did you pursue in your studies?

Podrouzek: I did my undergrad work in Nova Scotia at Mount St. Vincent U, although there is (was) an interuniversity agreement there where many courses can be taken at Dalhousie, Saint Mary’s, or the Mount and simply count at the other universities, so I took many courses at the other schools. At Dal and SMU I did quite a bit of philosophy and religious studies, some bio at Dal, some behavioural stuff at SMU, etc. It’s actually quite a good system. All the universities are within about a ½ hour drive of each other, offer diverse courses, and there are a minimum of administrative obstacles.

I got edjamacated ‘cause I was working with children and teenagers with the equivalent of the Ministry of Children and Families and the Provincial Attorney General (with teens who had been incarcerated) in Alberta and realized that to have more influence I would need some university education (I had obtained a diploma). Mt. St. Vincent had one of Canada’s only two programs for working with children (Bachelor of Child Studies – BCS) and so I sent back there to pick up that credential.

Jacobsen: What originally interested you in Psychology? If your interest evolved, how did your interest change over time to the present?

Podrouzek: As part of the BCS, we were required to complete a substantial number of bio and psych courses, and I became interested in psychology, subtype developmental psychology, specifically child language development. I completed my BCS, then did a BSc Honours in Psych (minors in Math/Stats and Biology), and started a Masters in Education (I picked this up in my last year of my Honours as extra courses) and completed all the coursework but not the project. I was subsequently awarded an NSERC, and some other money, and was accepted into the MA at Simon Fraser, so abandoned my MEd to come out here. I kind of wish I had finished the MEd now – but I really just didn’t see the necessity at the time. Because of its emphasis on counselling and testing I could have used it to become registered in BC – it would have opened some doors. Can’t y’all just seem me as a therapist? Hmmm, that’s scary.

At any rate, I originally went to SFU because it was supposed to get some equipment to do acoustical analyses of language (which at the time was about a $60K piece of equipment called a Sonograph, and today you can do the same thing with an A-D board that costs less than $100), and I had done my Honours Project on “An acoustical analysis of pre-lexical child utterances in pragmatically constrained contexts” (or something like that and wanted to continue that work.) However, the equipment fell through, so I switch to perception. I did my MA thesis in perception on the question of the order of visual processing (what do you process first, the global scene and then analyze for the bits, or the bits first and then synthesize them into the whole scene: the Global-Local question).

I began my PhD in perception, but then met Dr. Bruce Whittlesea, and became interested in memory theory, so I switched to that area and completed my PhD in his lab. I did my dissertation on Repetition Blindness in Rapid Serial Visual Presentation Lists (an examination of the phenomenon that you tend not to see repetitions of words in quickly presented word lists).

Since my PhD I have become interested in how the blind spot gets filled in, subjective contours, retrieval induced forgetting, and for a brief time, the science underlying neuropsych testing.

Jacobsen: Since your time as an undergraduate student, what are the major changes in the curriculum? What has changed regarding the conventional ideas?

Podrouzek: Wow, that’s a hard one – so much has happened in so many areas. When I started as an undergrad (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth with people), the areas then are usually considered the “core” areas now. These included methods, stats, measurement theory, bio, social, developmental, cognitive, and behavioural in the experimental areas, and testing, abnormal, and therapy in the clinical areas. We had rat labs in intro – every student got two rats and we ran experiments on the rats and wrote the experiments up in the lab books (something like doing chem labs. Then we got to kill them). Consciousness was not discussed – that was akin to studying magic. Evolutionary Psych did not exist (although its precursor, sociobiology did). Although Kuhn had published his controversial book “The structure of scientific revolutions”, his ideas were discussed but, I think, not taken to heart by most scientists.

Later, with other philosophers of science (e.g., Feyerabend, Lakoff), publishing works that in some ways augmented his, our assumptions and views of even methodologies changed. Of course, change your assumptions, change your methods, and you change your field. Things loosened up considerably. Areas of enquiry and the acceptable methods and what could count as reasonable data become much more encompassing, and thus new areas of psychology emerged. We certainly didn’t have courses on sex, for example, or prejudice, cultural, gender (other than straight up sex differences, other aspects of that field would have been taught in “Women’s Studies”), and the list goes ever on.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Marieme Helie Lucas, Observed Impacts and Religious Fundamentalism

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/31

Marieme Helie Lucas is an Algerian sociologist, activist, founder of ‘Secularism is a Women’s Issue,’ and founder and former International Coordinator of ‘Women Living Under Muslim Laws.’ We discuss religious fundamentalism and women’s rights. Part 3.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What have been the observed, if possible, measured impacts of ‘Secularism is a Women’s Issue’ and ‘Women Living Under Muslim Laws?’

Marieme Helie Lucas: WLUML definitely was instrumental in putting on the agenda, worldwide, the issue of women’s rights in Muslim contexts. It projected not the usual image of the ‘poor oppressed Muslim woman’ (which was instrumental in justifying military occupations and wars), but that of universalist (believers as well as secularists) women human rights defenders.

As for SIAWI, it performs very similar tasks in a new political context where secularists and atheists are more and more endangered while they become more and more vocal especially among the youth. SIAWI takes part in the circulation of information on the struggles of secularists and atheists in Muslim contexts and in the diasporas by maintaining a website (siawi.org). It gives visibility to the new forces for secularism in Muslim contexts and in the diasporas; it supports struggles and endangered individuals; it produces analyses on secularism in the times of rising armed fundamentalism; it participates in secular gathering and conferences; it challenges cultural relativism in Europe and North America and supports women’s local secular demands.

Jacobsen: What are the historical, and ongoing, problems with religious fundamentalism?

Lucas: There always were reactionary forces aiming at governing in the name of god. Secularism, understood as separation, is the best way to keep them at bay, away from directly exercising political power. Historically, progressive religious interpreters and liberation theologians have been defeated within their own religions.

Jacobsen: Who is your favorite philosopher or scientist?

Lucas: he one who will enlighten us tomorrow.

We must not forget that all philosophers and scientists are grounded into their times. The French revolution failed to grant equal rights to women and executed Olympe de Gouges who drafted a constitution that incorporated women’s rights to the social revolution. So did Darwin. Many otherwise progressive thinkers did not see any problem with colonial exploitation of Africans and slavery. We do not need to throw the baby with the bath water but we definitely have to look for thinkers for our times and our future.

Jacobsen: What about activist?

Lucas: What is the question?

Jacobsen: Any recommended reading?

Lucas: I suggested some books and articles in the foot notes. To those who read French, I could suggest, Bas les Voiles by Chaadortt Djavan, any book by Mohamed Sifaoui, Marianne et le Prophète by Soheib Bencheikh, articles and books explaining the concept of secularism by Henri Pena Ruiz.

English-speaking people need to access original literature that makes the difference between separation and equal tolerance by the state… such a source of confusion in any discussion on secularism… Fight for translations into English!

Jacobsen: Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion about our discussion today?

Lucas: Secularism – understood as separation between state and religions – is today’s best response to growing communalism in Europe and North America, as well as to the murderous armed Muslim organisations that want to impose theocracies and eradicate democracies. As imperfect as democracies are in Europe today, we need to fight for their survival in wake of the growing danger of seeing them replaced by theocracies, in the name of religious rights, cultural rights, minority rights, etc…

Confront the erroneous idea of a ‘Muslim world.’ It exists no more than ‘the Christian world’ or ‘the Crusaders’ that Daesh pretends to destroy…

References

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Marieme Helie Lucas, International Women’s Rights, Empowerment, and Advocacy

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/31

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: As an Algerian sociologist, i.e. as an individual with an expert opinion in sociology, what is the situation for women living under Muslim laws throughout the world?

Marieme Helie Lucas: As varied as one can imagine in one’s wildest guess. It ranges from being able to become an elected head of state, to being closeted between four walls with no education and no rights, and all the intermediary shades in between these extremes. There exists absolutely no homogeneous ‘Muslim world.’

However, I must add a few caveat:

Although very progressive provisions for women existed in different periods of history and in different locations around the world, in predominantly Muslim contexts, we witness everywhere today the rise of fundamentalism, i. e. a political extreme-right which camouflages its power greed behind religion.
Everywhere and at all times (3), women in Muslim contexts fought for their rights, using different strategies, just as we do today: demanding right to education, political rights, freedom of movement, financial autonomy, equal rights in marriage, etc…Religious interpretation was only one of the many strategies they used. The struggle still goes on now, in these very difficult times.
An important new dimension of the struggle now takes place in the countries of immigration. Every right we lose in Europe or North America to the mermaids of cultural relativism heavily impacts the situation in our countries of origin. Conversely, being able to bypass the smokescreen of the ‘main enemy’ to convey to our comrades and sisters back home the reality of Muslim fundamentalism having opened a new front in Europe and North America is part and parcel of building our common struggle beyond national borders. (4)

Jacobsen: What is the general status for international women’s rights, empowerment, and advocacy in these contexts?

Lucas: One cannot look at it in terms of ‘countries’ or cultures. For instance, one can find places where the promotion of economic rights improves women’s autonomy, while FGM is tolerated or repudiation legal, or countries where women enjoyed a notable degree of legal autonomy which is suddenly reduced in practice by the coming to power of extreme right fundamentalists.

One must abandon the idea that there exists a homogeneous ‘Muslim world’ where everything would function under the banner of religion. I believe this idea of a Muslim world, highly promoted by fundamentalists, is derived from that of ‘Umma,’ i.e. the assembly of believers, which exists also in the Catholic Church as ‘Ecclesia.’ In reality, we all know that countries are the location of various political forces and classes which fight for political representation or domination. This is in no way different in Muslim contexts, and religion per se has little to do there – except, as a generally right-wing form of political organisation.

Jacobsen: You are the founder and former international coordinator for ‘Women Living Under Muslim Laws.’ What tasks and responsibilities came with this position?

Lucas: It has been a very inspiring and rewarding time in my life, even if one had to work around the clock while raising small kids and living in poverty – a formative time, too. I came to realise that women’s struggles already existed everywhere in Muslim contexts but that they fought in isolation.Women needed to know about each other’s projects and be inspired by each other’s strategies, and eventually that they could come together on specific actions and/or support collectively the local struggles or initiatives.

The idea was timely and everyone grabbed it across Africa and Asia, quickly gathering together the very best of smart committed women activists.

This network was not a pyramidal organisation, it had no membership, it was a fluid network in which women and groups could step in and take responsibility for specific projects depending on their local needs.

It gathered together in mutual solidarity women who were religious believers, human rights advocates, secularists and atheists.

The tasks of the coordination office were that of a clearing house of information, of a publishing house, of a coordination secretariat for research programmes and for collective projects, of an urgent response/ emergency rescue organisation, of a board – lodging – therapeutic safe place for endangered or burnt out activists, etc… Now that most revolutionary women’s networks of the nineties have been tamed and ‘professionalised,’ my heart goes out to the Women In Black–Belgrade, whose humble coordination still performs so many of these exhausting and exhilarating tasks, under very difficult political circumstances. I salute these great resisters to NGOs normalisation!

Needless to say that, with the growing success of our network, funders were eager to ‘own’ it. There were growing pressures on me to come to my senses and conform to the corporate sector’s norms of organisation, believed – despite the evidence provided by the enormous success and achievements of our very network – to be the only efficient ones. A membership organisation with a classic top to bottom pyramidal structure, ‘professionalised’ activists appointed to specific tasks and responsibilities with afferent titles and fat salaries, and a well-paid ‘director’ (myself), with a clear religious identification, etc…

If you look at funding organisations’ NGOs normalisation plans during the nineties, you will see clearly exposed what I am talking about… I managed to keep them at bay and to protect the revolutionary spirit of the network for 18 years, till I left it.

As an organisation, the network WLUML circulated information on a regular basis; published a very good journal that mixed together sophisticated academic analysis and on the ground information on struggles and strategies of local women’s groups; produced knowledge that was needed to enhance women’s struggles through coordination of collective research; organised cross-cultural exchange of women from one predominantly Muslim area to another, culturally different Muslim areas so that participants could deconstruct the idea of a homogeneous Muslim world by living a very different reality; organised collective support for local actions; organised rescue; etc…

References

1. Knowing Our Rights: Women, family, laws and customs in the Muslim …

http://www.wluml.org/node/588

2 Dossier 23-24: What is your tribe? Women’s struggles and the …

http://www.wluml.org/fr/node/343

3 Great Ancestors: Women Claiming Rights in Muslim Contexts | Women …

http://www.wluml.org/…/great-ancestors-women-claiming-rights-muslim…

4 Dossier 30-31 The struggle for secularism in europe and North America

Click to access WLUML-dossier-30-31-v2.pdf

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Marieme Helie Lucas, Political Awakening, Secularism, and Women’s Rights

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/31

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What was the moment of political awakening for you?

Marieme Helie Lucas:Being born and raised in a colonised country and having lived through a very bloody liberation struggle from French colonialism… there is no way to ignore politics and their consequences on individuals. Moreover, I was born and raised into a family of strong feminists for several generations; let’s say that I fell into the pot from childhood…

Jacobsen: When did your personal and professional attention turn to activism, religious fundamentalism, and women’s rights?

Lucas: Well, prepared by the colonial situation and by my family’s political awareness, I was an activist – as well as a feminist one – since an early teenager, under various forms, depending on the period of time (pre-independence struggle, during the struggle for liberation, after independence, when women’s rights were curtailed by the new family code, under armed fundamentalists’ attempts to impose a theocracy in Algeria in the 90s, etc…). I became a full-time activist in the early eighties, when I left research and teaching in university, and founded the WLUML (Women Living Under Muslim Laws) network. I remained a full-time activist since then. But my academic research was already focused on people’s rights and women’s rights.

WLUML was a non-confessional network of women whose lives were shaped and governed by laws said to be Islamic, regardless of their personal faith. Our research (1) on laws affecting women in many countries – in North Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, West Africa – show that these man-made laws (rather than of divine inspiration) borrow not just from very different interpretations of Islam, but mostly from local traditions, cultural practices, and even colonial laws, when it suits both patriarchy and religious fundamentalism. Over the past decades, we could monitor the progressive eradication of progressive laws and Muslim fundamentalists’ dedication to exhuming, picking and choosing the most backwards and reactionary practices and passing them off as Islamic. (2)

Interestingly, many journalists and human rights organisations failed to understand our sociological and political approach. They focused on the ‘religious’ flavour in our name, thus attempting to force us into a religious identity we never claimed. For instance, they often renamed us as women ‘under the Muslim Law’ (in the singular!) or even ‘under the Islamic Law.’ This recurrent ideological ‘mistake’ speaks volumes about their urgent need to put us ‘under religious/cultural arrest’ and deny us universal rights and our common humanity.

Jacobsen: You founded ‘Secularism is a Women’s Issue.’ Of course, the title provides the general idea. What is the more formal argument to derive the connection between secularism and women’s issues?

Lucas: Secularism is the legal/administrative provision that separates state from organised religions. It was defined during the French Revolution and later codified in the 1905-1906 laws on separation. Article 1 of the law guarantees freedom of belief and practice to individuals; article 2 stipulates that the Secular Republic does not recognise, therefore dialogue with or fund religions, their representatives and their institutions. The secular Republic only knows equal citizens with equal rights under the law.

The concept of separation at that time successfully challenged the political power of the Vatican and the Catholic Church in the French kingdom. (So much for those ignorant writers and preachers who now pretend secular laws in France were designed against Muslims, since there was NO significant Muslim emigration to France at the time of the French revolution).

In the UK, as the King/Queen is both the Head of State and the Head of the Anglican Church, the concept of separation was hard to swallow. This is why they developed a very misleading re-definition of secularism as equal tolerance by the state towards all religions – which indeed involves and ties together the State and organised religions.

This distortion of the original revolutionary concept spread across European countries where Churches had a strong base. In the present context in Europe, we witness an increasing trend to grant in the name of rights – what a perversion of the very idea of rights! – to separate laws to different religious ‘communities.’ This breeds communalism and creates inequalities between citizens, especially women. For instance, some UK citizens may have rights that other UK citizens will not have access to, if they are, let’s say, Muslims. Sharia courts do not grant equal rights to women in the family. All the recent attempts by Muslim fundamentalists in the UK to promote gender segregation in universities or sharia-compliant wills point in the same political direction. Governments are so keen to trade hard-won women’s rights to appease the religious extreme-right!

This is also the situation in the former British Empire. For instance, in South Asia, where the definition of secularism that prevails is not separation, but equal to tolerance by the state. We deplore that even the Left is hardly aware of this unholy colonial legacy …

It should not be necessary to explain here that, within all religions, reactionary forces generally prevailed that justified women’s oppression by god’s will. It is certainly the dominant political trend today, especially but not exclusively among Muslims.

Moreover, when laws are designed as representing god’s intentions on earth, they become un-changeable, a-historical. Theocracy is the antithesis of democracy where laws are voted by the people and can be changed according to the will of the people.

Women always have a hard time in getting patriarchal laws changed according to international standards of human rights, but it is obviously more so when they can be accused of hurting religious sentiments by doing so, or worse, of apostasy or blasphemy – crimes that are punished by death penalty in Muslim contexts.

In Europe today, xenophobic extreme right movements are attempting to co-opt and manipulate the concept of secularism and to use it against citizens of migrant descent, especially those deemed to be Muslims. This certainly does not make the struggle of secular opponents to Muslim fundamentalism any easier. We need to walk the fine line, challenging at the same time both the new religious extreme rights which condemn secularism and atheism, and ‘traditional’ xenophobic extreme rights which are hijacking the concept of secularism to justify their claim to white Christian superiority. Unfortunately the European Left and Far-Left, that should have our natural allies, have not yet understood that they should not throw themselves in the arms of Muslim fundamentalists in order to counter the traditional extreme right parties… thus choosing to support one extreme right against the other. Instead, they should support us, who confronted Muslim fundamentalists in our countries of origin and now have to do it all over again in Europe.

References

1. Knowing Our Rights: Women, family, laws and customs in the Muslim …

http://www.wluml.org/node/588

2 Dossier 23-24: What is your tribe? Women’s struggles and the …

http://www.wluml.org/fr/node/343

3 Great Ancestors: Women Claiming Rights in Muslim Contexts | Women …

http://www.wluml.org/…/great-ancestors-women-claiming-rights-muslim…

4 Dossier 30-31 The struggle for secularism in europe and North America

Click to access WLUML-dossier-30-31-v2.pdf

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Karen Loethen, Parenting Style, Non-Negotiables, and Secondary Characteristics

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/30

Karen Loethen comes from the Midwest of America. She is an open and happy – nay joyous – atheist. She writes, and has for some time. Her core belief, as an optimist, is in the inherent goodness of all people. She has two children and an amazing husband. I asked about interviewing her on atheist parenting, but chose “Secular Parenting” for a more “inclusive” (as they say nowadays) title. So here we are, part 2, just for you.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What are the main concerns regarding parenting style (authoritative, for example) when raising children?

Karen Loethen: Gosh, you’re not asking much, are you, Scott?!

I’m sure the internet has tons of great websites that discuss these styles of childrearing, but I’m happy to give some general concerns for each for you. In psychology, there are four major styles of parenting: authoritative, permissive, neglectful or uninvolved, authoritarian. These four parenting styles represent differing amounts of two major dimensions of parenting: the amount of responsiveness that a parent has to a child’s needs and behaviors, and the amount of control a parent seeks to extend to their child’s behaviors and choices.

Allow me to give you a brief rundown of each of the four styles beginning with authoritarian. As the name suggests, this parent insists on high levels of control and excessively low levels of response to a child’s needs and wants. This parent is often quite strict, has high expectations of their children, and an inflexible set of rules that the child is expected to follow.

Not surprisingly, children of these parents often experience depression, anxiety, difficulty making decisions, secret lives, difficulty making strong relationships, and a myriad of other problems that make emotional maturity a difficult thing to attain. Authoritarian parents, while intending to raise children that reflect well on the parents, sadly can pass along even more serious outcomes like substance abuse, emotional abuse, and unlawful behaviors of many kinds.

Unresponsive parenting might have a goal of raising highly independent children, or it may simply reflect a parent’s inability to raise children with their display of low levels of personal and familial control and low levels of responsiveness to the needs of their children.

This neglectful style of parenting can sadly raise children who have no skill in decision making, in learning to control personal behavior, in understanding what it means to be independent and mature. The children of these parents might be victims of major depression, suicidal feelings, personality disorders of all kinds, substance abuse, confusion about healthy and normal behavior in society, and unable to form close, healthy relationships.

Permissive parenting is when parents respond with low levels of control to their children and with high levels of responsiveness. These parents, probably with the thought that they were giving their children freedom and autonomy, actually neglect to give children something that they desperately need: parents who expect basic rules to followed in the family, essential schedules, reasonable expectations, necessary limits, and logical consequences.

The absence of these parenting essentials create children with oddly egotistical views of the world or children with extreme lack of a sense of self. These children will struggle to form healthy relationships, will indulge themselves while being unable to make healthy, smart decisions necessary for independence, and an overall absence of a basic understanding of social and community living.

The healthiest style of parenting is considered to be authoritative. These parents tend to display medium levels of control, a level that allows for learning and growth, and a warm and responsive atmosphere. Family rules are clear and understandable, parents expect good things from and for their children, and children are supported while being encouraged to be independent.

Children from these parents will often have higher levels of self-esteem because they have been taught how to operate optimally with regards to their own strengths and growth areas. These fortunate children are better able to form warm, lasting relationships and are generally productive members of society.

Jacobsen: Does choice in partner make all the difference in the world? From the perspective of a woman looking for a partner to having, bear, and raise children, what are the characteristics to look for, first the necessities or non-negotiables?

Loethen: Nah. LOL. Of course. Choosing a life partner is one of the most important and difficult decisions a human being will ever have to make. Depending on one’s parents’ styles of parenting, adults looking for life partners might be sadly attracted to immature partners, abusive partners, unhealthy partners of many kinds. I strongly believe that both men and women looking for partners need, always, to work to develop their own healthiest self first. The process of becoming emotionally healthier, working to gain

Choosing a life partner is one of the most important and difficult decisions a human being will ever have to make. Depending on one’s parents’ styles of parenting, adults looking for life partners might be sadly attracted to immature partners, abusive partners, unhealthy partners of many kinds. I strongly believe that both men and women looking for partners need, always, to work to develop their own healthiest self first.

The process of becoming emotionally healthier, working to gain self actualization, sets human being up to make healthier choices in their lives like choosing healthy partners, making smart financial decisions, becoming independent and interdependent, and many other growth qualities that ensure better decision making.

What qualities might one look for?Someone working on their own sense of self, someone seeking to improve themselves, someone who recognizes the necessity of fiscal conservatism, someone with interests and hobbies, someone who shares a similar philosophy to you, someone warm, someone who laughs, someone compassionate, someone who likes you back.

Someone working on their own sense of self, someone seeking to improve themselves, someone who recognizes the necessity of fiscal conservatism, someone with interests and hobbies, someone who shares a similar philosophy to you, someone warm, someone who laughs, someone compassionate, someone who likes you back.

Jacobsen: What are some of the secondary characteristics and attributes the partner must have when considering a partner for parenting with you?

Loethen: It’s extra nice when they are your best friend, when they are kind to strangers, when they love their family…

Jacobsen: Thank you for your time today, Karen – looking forward to next session.

Loethen: Next session? What have you got in mind, Scott? LOL

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Karen Loethen, Secular Parenting, Australia, Brazil, and Being an Atheist Parent

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/30

Karen Loethen comes from the Midwest of America. Now, she lives in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia – say it with the accent in your head. She is an open and happy – nay joyous – atheist. She writes, and has for some time. Her core belief, as an optimist, is in the inherent goodness of all people. She has two children and an amazing husband. I asked about interviewing her on atheist parenting, but chose “Secular Parenting” for a more “inclusive” (as they say nowadays) title. So here we are, part 1, just for you.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Was the move to Australia a decision with the children in mind? Why there over the Midwest, or elsewhere, in any case?

Karen Loethen: Actually, Scott, we no longer live in Australia. We lived in Brisbane Queensland Australia for a year and a half for my husband’s work. We were SO fortunate to have the opportunity to take the kids there and set up a household. It was wonderful and we miss it every day. Our decision to move the kids (ages 14 and 11 at the time) was actually a very, very easy one to make at the time.

As homeschoolers, we are exceedingly free with our schedule and living arrangements. Being in Australia was a phenomenal life lesson for all of us. We also had the chance to move to Brazil at about the same time. We decided to go to Brisbane for several reasons, not the least of which was an opportunity to see an eclipse. There was an eclipse in 2014 and we were able to be in Cairns QLD for the occasion. In fact, astronomy was a huge draw for us to go to the Southern Hemisphere. Lol

But we would definitely have chosen the move to Brisbane for many other reasons had we known better at the time. The secular vibe of Brisbane was wonderfully freeing. We are a homeschooling family and are quite used to being in groups of religious families. While in Brisbane I can honestly say that I don’t even know the religious bent of many of the families we befriended. Religion is simply not a public issue there.

We are now back in the Midwest and happy to be here. We have a new grandchild in the family and she will keep us firmly rooted here in the Midwest!

Jacobsen: What are some bigger differences between atheist, or secular, and religious parenting?

Loethen: Actually the intro is very wrong about this one too…sorry. I definitely prefer the label Atheist Parent over any other descriptor. Many people bristle over the use of the term atheist; I do not. I embrace it loudly and proudly. In fact, secular means activity without religion so many parents consider themselves secular while actually believing in a higher power. So, verbiage notwithstanding, the differences are massive!

I couldn’t and wouldn’t attempt to characterize the labels you have asked about because, were I to do that, about a million people would find fault with the definitions and say That isn’t me! So I will try to answer you with the understanding that the word some remind us that there is no way to characterize people; there is no black and white, but many shades of grey. My responses below come from my own experiences and from real people and situations that I have encountered, in general, with an effort to portray each group honestly and with an effort to avoid extremism in my answers.

In general, though, some religious parents look to their religious texts for guidance in childrearing and sometimes this includes being pro corporal punishment for children, maintaining anti-LGBTQ philosophies, incredibly messed up ideas of healthy sexuality and relationships, teaching of mythology as fact, fear of free thought and intellectualism, and many other points that I find reprehensible.

My personal experience of being in this position is that religions offer a very black-and-white way of looking at the issues of humanity, of not allowing for the many different shades of grey. Of course, there are those religious parents who do not fit into this slice of a definition. Some religious parents are sadly motivated by fear. Fear of offending their deity, fear of losing the blessings of their church or religious community, fear of disapproving family members, and fear of operating outside of an approved, narrow margin of lifestyle, thought, and deed.

Some people who attempt to practice a secular parenting style seek to raise children within the religion and belief system of their choice while being less connected to the doctrine of that religion that troubles them. I would assume that these parents feel a greater sense of freedom to reject troublesome parts of their inherited religion while still embracing the warm feelings that can come from religious belief.

As for atheist parents, I would assume that some of these folks are able to consider each issue independently and come up with a preferred sense of personal integrity and choice. With no institutional connection or alliance, freethinking parents have the freedom, the responsibility to fully explore life issues and making decisions and choices that make the most sense for their families, embracing and celebrating the wonderful shades of gray, and other colors, in the world. Of course, these parents often have to eschew popular approval and/or familial connection for choosing to live outside of the popular mythology.

Jacobsen: What are some smaller differences between secular and religious parenting?

Loethen: Again, acknowledging the many, many parenting styles in the world, my guess would be that the day-to-day prayer, seeking of blessings, belief that a deity is real and involved in life, etc…these things are usually a normal part of a religious family’s life. Books read, conversations had, people chose to be in their circle, the level of freedom to explore ideas outside of their comfort zone…these kinds of things seem to be a few of the places I can come up with this moment where secular families differ from atheist families.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Lawrence Hill, Broom Dancer, R&B, Messages, and Interpretation

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/30

Lawrence Hill is one of Canada’s most distinguished and published authors. In this extensive interview, we discuss everything in Hill’s purview. In his words, “I have to say that I don’t think I’ve ever been interviewed by somebody who had such a profound grasp of such a wide variety of things that I’ve shared, written, or spoken about whether they are personal, professional or things to do with my books or my family life.” This series will explore his life and philosophy, just for you, part 11.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: In the Hill household, you are known as the broom dancer, especially to some good R&B music. You mentioned the playful tone of A.A. Milne’s Disobedience. What R&B music? What is the family reaction to this fun and silliness? What is the relationship between fun and silliness, and good prose?

Lawrence Hill: All great R&B music whether Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, and everything in between. There were several forms of music that dominated my childhood: jazz, blues (thanks to my mother and father), and R&B music. R&B music was ascendant as I entered into the teenage years, which was natural for anyone in my generation. I’m 59. It was a musical household. I played poorly.

My brother went on to become a professional musician. My parents weren’t musicians. However, they played music in the house and sang all the time. R&B, jazz, and blues were staples of our musical expression in the living room and the kitchen in the household. It affected all of the children. My brother, sister, and I were affected profoundly. It emerges in our work too.

Playfulness and silliness is vital. You could not love well without being relaxed and able to be playful. You cannot learn language well if you’re too uptight and unwilling to make mistakes. One key to learning new languages is willingness to make mistakes and make a fool of yourself. Of course, if you’re a child or an infant, you do not need to worry about those things. You haven’t learned those worries.

You have to relax to love well. You have to relax to learn language. In my experience, you have to relax to produce good art. You have to be able to be fun, silly, playful, and to rejoice in life in all of its forms.

If you do not relax, you will not get the most out of your mind. As a writer, you should be rejoicing in human play and the play of language.

I tend to be too serious most of the time. So, people like to see me fool around, dance with brooms, and play with and entertain children – who are now grown. They still like to see it. My father was an incredibly serious man in his role as a human rights activist and historian. He would wind down by watching Westerns, boxing, or track-and-field on television, maybe football.

He would holler at the TV. He needed to relax to be able to go back the next day to work that was often soul crushing. Most people who have healthy balance in life would appreciate and need to be silly and playful. It takes a certain amount of trust to know that the people around you will not judge or despise you because you are letting your guard down in being playful and silly.

Without that, there’s no hope for humanity.

(Laugh)

Jacobsen: If we take The Book of Negroes, The Illegal, Blood: The Stuff of Life, and Dear Sir, I intend to Burn Your Book, you more well-known works at least. What is the main message or set of messages that you wish to get across?

I always have trouble answering that type of question. I do not think about the message with a capital “M” when I write a work of fiction. Let’s set aside non-fiction for a minute, that is a little different. Readers do not like to be preached at or to be told what to think or feel. One stance to take as a writer is to assume that your reader is smarter than you. The reader does not need to be lectured on how to read or interpret things.

People come to their own conclusions. Present the story that you are able to present. Most discriminating readers react negatively to being held by the hand and told how to read, and having everything explained to them. It is dangerous to come to the job with a message to hammer into the heads of your, in my case, readers.

I do not begin writing a novel with the idea of disseminating a set of messages. Most writers of fiction hope that their messages will be a happy byproduct of drama. In my fiction, I meditate on the resilience of the human spirit and the miracle of being caring and loving even after suffering abuses of the worst kinds. Millions of people continue to display that resilience today. It is not Aminata Diallo or Keita Ali alone.

Many, many of them are showing the same resilience Aminata showed in The Book of Negroes. One message is to pause and appreciate the resilience of the human spirit. I do not try to jam that into the prose or attempt to willfully insert a message. I try to write a story. I hope that somehow between the lines the reader will divine the other things.

Jacobsen: Thank you for your time, Larry.

I thank you for your time. I have to say that I don’t think I’ve ever been interviewed by somebody who had such a profound grasp of such a wide variety of things that I’ve shared, written, or spoken about whether they are personal, professional, or things to do with my books or my family life. I’ve been quite astounded by the reach of your work and I can only imagine that you’ve invested a huge amount of time in getting your head around a person’s life and expressions, in this case mine. Thank you for that.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Lawrence Hill, The Holocaust, Syria, Vietnamese Woman, and Aylan Kurdi

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/30

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: If you look at the early 20^th century, we have The Holocaust. Similarly, if we look at the early 21^st century, we have a singular tragedy in the Syrian refugee crisis. 12,000,000 Syrians are refugees, or more. By comparison with the total Canadian population, that is about 1/3 of Canada, at least. That rhetoric of those mentioned and unstated can be damaging to people in a similar manner as with blood or on being a ‘real [fill in the blank]’ (American, Canadian, and so on). These are individual human beings going through extraordinary circumstances.

You worked for the Ontario Welcome House at Toronto Pearson International Airport welcoming refugees at age 16. My sense is deep empathy for refugees from you. Also, something unstated about them. This experience never leaves them. That is, it is important to get compassion right the first time. Related to The Book of Negroes, Aminata’s life is marked forever by the experience of being stolen and enslaved. Her entire travels, life story, and narrative of being taken against her will out of Bayo is ever after marked by this. This was important for The Illegal with Keita Ali as well. How did this and the current Syrian refugee crisis inform the foundation for this novel as the events in Syria progressed?

Lawrence Hill: The refugee crisis in Syria did not inform the writing of The Illegal. Like many Canadians and most people around the world, I was not aware of the buildup of refugees in Syria when I wrote the novel. The novel was finished well before we talked openly in the West, about that particular refugee crisis. However, there were many other refugee crises in the world and they did inform The Illegal.

Jacobsen: We have images of the Vietnamese woman fleeing napalm bombs, Aylan Kurdi, and so on. The phenomenon of genocide neglect is real. Individual images and stories move hearts more than statistics and news reports. How might the arts community humanize the downtrodden, the desperate, the fleeing, and the suffering?

There is a role for every type of person in talking about the downtrodden and the suffering, and in this case the plight of refugees. There is a role for great humanitarians in the field attempting to alleviate immediate suffering in refugee camps. There are advocates working for organizations. They speak up. They tell us the results of studies. There are activists and university professors.

There are lawyers. There are politicians learning a great deal about the plight of refugees. There are endless numbers of organizations from the United Nations onward. They produce reports for the public to read about it. There are people and organizations with things to share. There are journalists. They do a great job bringing the information about the world to us.

There is narrative too. Artists can more intensely, efficiently, and with more ardor, passion, and success than a typical historian, journalist or university professor excite and trigger the imagination. The artist is capable of taking somebody by the collar and saying, “Look at this person. Behold this humanity!”

The role of the artist is to connect with the humanity of the individuals perceiving the art. It is to excite and stir and provoke people.

It is the work that I do in life. It is my contribution. I do not want to overstate it. I do not want to understate the role of the artist. The artist is not unlike the rabbi, the imam, or the priest. A person who evokes the story of humanity to evoke or elicit faith. We all need story to understand ourselves. We need narrative to understand the world and our place in it.

Some of us look to religion. Others look to art for the same thing: guidance. For words that tell us how to be, remind us of the deeper truer values, that set us on the right path. Religion plays a similar role in satisfying a fundamental need to be told a story, how to be, and how to be good in the world.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Lawrence Hill, De-Humanization, Purity, Impurity, and Blood: The Stuff of Life

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/29

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Earlier in the interview, your work, focus, and emphasis in literary work and in personal volunteer work is a humanistic perspective. I was half-right. Not half-wrong, I missed one crucial element. There is a humanitarianism. For example, The Book of Negroes and The Illegal aim to humanize the de-humanized. That is, the contextualization of the humanity of a slave and a refugee, respectively. Did these novels succeed in the humanization of the de-humanized?

Lawrence Hill: I do not know if they have succeeded. I am not the best judge of my own work. Critics and readers are in a better position to judge my work. But yes, I did attempt to humanize the de-humanized in the world. Two types of people profoundly de-humanized in their experiences are those enslaved or subject to war and genocide — people forced to take refuge, often without legal documentation, in countries that don’t want them.

One of the justifications used by people who perpetuate genocide or state-sponsored oppression is to claim that the victims have impure blood, or are inferior human beings. It is almost a precondition to carrying out genocide and massive mistreatment of people. They are not the same as us. They are not human like us. They are less than us. Therefore, we can treat them badly.

In general, people hiding in countries where they do not belong – where they do not have any status as legal residents — are despised by the authorities. It is a negative thing living without legal right in a country that does not want you. You are made to feel base and less than human. You are not welcome. If you are caught, you may be deported. So how do you make a living? How do you care for your children? Who can help you if you are threatened or hurt? I tried in The Illegal and The Book of Negroes to give humanity to people whose humanity has been ignored.

Jacobsen: Earlier in the interview and in the response, you mentioned the purity or impurity of blood. My favourite part of Blood: The Stuff of Life comes from discussion about misconceptions of menstruation. Those conceptions were wrong from modern scientific standards. It was used to see women as inferior. As you document, these wrong theories continue to arise. You showed non-scientific ideas can have terrible consequences. What are your thoughts on the development of ideas about blood through non-scientific ideas as it relates to sexism?

I do not know if we can blame sexism on Aristotle, but he did fulminate about the supposed inferiority of women’s blood and speculate about the reasons women’s menstrual blood makes them inferior to men

As far as I know, the Spanish Inquisition in Medieval Spain represents the first time that a state attempts to link the ideas of blood purity and race and uses this vile connection to perpetuate genocide, torture and deportation.

During the Spanish Inquisition, thousands of Jews and Muslims were burned at the stake, dispossessed or deported because their blood was deemed impure in relation to the reigning Catholic monarchs. Since that time, over and over again we have drawn upon absolute evil notions of blood to ‘whip up’ hatred and justify mistreatment of those that we wish to subjugate.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Lawrence Hill, Prison, Literacy, The Illegal, The Book of Negroes, and Any Known Blood

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/29

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: With respect to the prison population and literacy, how might someone volunteer for prisons in the area?

Lawrence Hill: Often, one of the best things to do is to align with an active, reputable organization. I have been one of many volunteers for a non-profit, charitable group called Book Clubs for Inmates. It distributes books without charge to inmates in federal penitentiaries and organizes book club discussions in those same institutions.

So a person who is interested in promoting reading and literacy among prisoners might choose to volunteer for a group such as Book Clubs for Inmates.

I have recently become a professor of creative writing at the University of Guelph in Ontario, and one form of community service that I have been contemplating would be to be a mentor or teacher of creative writing to prison inmates. That is something I plan to explore.

Jacobsen: The Book of Negroes discusses the narrative of Aminata Diallo. A young African stolen from Bayo, Mali and sailed to America and enslaved. She was the same age as your eldest child at the time. You had nightmares in constructing this narrative. It was painful. In fact, you worked to write past this part, quickly. What were the contents of those nightmares?

People being murdered, orphaned, thrown overboard into the sea, watching their families or villages being burned down. All of the things that happened in the book.

Jacobsen: You’ve volunteered with Crossroads International in Cameroon, Mali, Niger, and Swaziland. To name your protagonist, you used the common Malian name Aminata based on meeting a midwife in Mali. The name means “trustworthy” and Diallo means “bold.” Selecting the name for a character is vital, why this name?

It is vital. It is a beautiful name. It is a common name. It is as common as Mary and Joanne in Canada. I could have chosen another name. It struck me as an immensely beautiful name. It is a mouthful, Aminata, but not too much of a mouthful. In North America, it seems foreign, but accessible. I love the sound of it. All of the vowels. It evokes the name of a midwife who was dignified, splendid, and courageous in her work. With my daughter, it helped me imagine a young woman who was in a way my own daughter.

Jacobsen: Your recent novel, The Illegal (2015), focuses on a man that runs in a literal and metaphorical way. For instance, he was in a place, Zantoroland, where there were great runners. He hoped to join the Olympics. That was shoved to the side in a moment. He was running for life. In one part of The Book of Negroes, I noticed Aminata described African peoples are “travelling people” and moves out of necessity, akin to Keita Ali, throughout the novel from Bayo to Carolina to New York to Nova Scotia to Mali to London. I note a thread through these two texts with movement, history, ownership, literacy, bonds, and survival. Each seems like threads in The Book of Negroes and The Illegal. What were some other threads brought into the novel that reflect personal concerns about the downtrodden for you?

I am interested in movement, voluntary and involuntary. We can agree Aminata’s abduction in Africa, being sent to North America, and enslaved until freeing herself is a form of involuntary migration. She did not choose to leave a village in Africa. She did not choose to move to America and leave Africa. That was involuntary. Keita’s movement in The Illegal might be considered voluntary. He chooses to leave the country. Although, it is a country where he is not welcome. His movement is voluntary on the one hand, but he does not have many options. If he does not leave his country, he will be killed.

In an earlier novel of mine called Any Known Blood (1997), I followed a family of five generations of men who move back-and-forth between Maryland and Ontario. Each generation leaves one jurisdiction and goes into the other over five generations. Those were, for the most part, voluntary as well, but we have people escaping slavery.

For instance, we have the underground railroad. You might see that as voluntary, but attempting to save their lives and freedom at the same time. I am interested in migration, dislocation, and alienation. I have an interest in how identity alters in one’s eyes and in the eyes of those around you, especially as you move across the world or a piece of land. These seem to be continually arising issues: dislocation and marginality.

Many writers have themes to which they return in their books. For example, the Canadian novelist Jane Urquhart writes about people in the Irish diaspora and explores the lives of visual artists, over and over again in her books. My work is preoccupied by dislocation, migration, and alienation.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Lawrence Hill, Friend’s Cottage, Book Burning, and Differences of Opinion

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/29

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: That’s a good coda statement on it. What economic and political philosophy most appeals to you?

Lawrence Hill: I do not believe in unfettered capitalism. I do not believe in the Adam Smith idea. That is, the pursuit of one’s own individual profit above all as necessary to ensure that people thrive in society. Clearly, in pure capitalism, we would see some people abandoned and starving.

For people to thrive, in a loving definition of the word “thrive,” I flirted with ideas of socialism and communism at an early age. I find much to admire in it, but I am not a socialist or a communist. I believe in the hybrid of socialism and capitalism.

I believe that people should be free to pursue their individual economic interests, but that they should support a strong, democratically-elected government that tends to those who are disenfranchised or not thriving, and that focuses on the development and protection of public goods and services such as roads, schools, hospitals, health care, our environment, our water supply, foreign aid and international relations.

I also want to live in a society that embraces and encourages volunteer activity, non-profit groups and organizations serving a wide range of community needs.

Jacobsen: You write at home. You might write at a friend’s cottage. You leave a couple to a few times a year to enter into isolation to write, intensely. You wrote an essay entitled Dear Sir, I Intend to Burn Your Book: An Anatomy of a Book Burning (2013) based on a letter from a Surinamese Dutchman named Roy Groenberg. You wrote back in an “outrageously Canadian” way – with tact and politeness. Based on that tone, in hindsight, what would have been the appropriate response to Mr. Groenberg at the time?

I do not feel my response was inappropriate. There would not have been a point in being aggressive. I do not know if I would have done anything differently, if it happened today. I offered an explanation about the origins of the title of my novel The Book of Negroes in my first email to Mr. Groenberg. He was not interested in explanations, in reading the book, or in talking about it.

He was interested in escalating the conflict. It is hard to talk to somebody who seeks to escalate conflict. There does not seem to be a point. The other possibility would have been to ignore him, and not to confront the issue in an essay for The Toronto Star.

I don’t know if I wrote things perfectly. I don’t walk around with a great sense of pride about it, but I do feel that I reacted to the issue in accordance with my own values. I would not have reacted any differently today.

Jacobsen: On page 31 to 32, you closed:

The very purpose of literature is to enlighten, disturb, awaken and provoke. Literature should get us talking – even when we disagree. Literature should bring us into the same room – not over matches, but over coffee and conversation it should inspire recognition of our mutual humanity. Together. I can’t see any good coming out of burning or banning books. Let’s talk, instead.

Jacobsen: What emotion does book burning evoke you?

Fear and horror, a sense that we are witnessing a precursor to physical violence. It makes me think of people whose anger has run amok and are interested in wreaking vengeance and hurting. It makes me think of the Holocaust during which huge numbers of books by Jewish writers were burned.

It makes me think of a person or a group of people who have decided that there is no point in civil dialogue. It makes me think about people who want to intimidate, silence and hurt others. I am troubled by book burning – even a book that I despise. Every person should be entitled to write a book, or to despise a book, but when we discover differences of opinion, they should be addressed through conversation and debate – not by means of book burning or violence.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Lawrence Hill, Rwandan Genocide, Ethical Philosophy, and Humanism

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/29

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: We have the Rwandan genocide, Cambodian genocide, The Holocaust, and the Spanish Inquisition. Each relates to the ideas about the impurity of others’ blood. It justifies murder and subjugation in the mind of the murderer and subjugator. What other dangers exist with blood being associated with race or religion?

Lawrence Hill: That’s a complicated question. I wrote about this in Blood: The Stuff of Life (2013). In a nutshell, we have these ideas about blood, which are unscientific and unrelated to reality. Even as recent as the Second World War, the American government made it illegal for blood from black donors to be given to white recipients.

Even though, at the time, it was completely understood that compatibility between donor and recipient has nothing to do with race. Do the blood types match? That’s the question. If it’s a black donor and white recipient, or white donor and black recipient, it doesn’t matter.

Politics trump science. It becomes law because there’s fear of black people in white America. Bad science and bad social policies touch on this fear of blacks in white America. If you have wretchedly bad science forming wretchedly bad social policy and political interventions, even if it’s not a matter of genocide, it can lead to foul policy.

Also, it can lead to divisive ways of thinking about people. Over and over again, let’s say people in North America, have come to imagine, erroneously, that race can be equated to blood. That one’s blood parts can be counted up in racial bits. That you might be half black, quarter Japanese, and quarter Korean.

It doesn’t make any sense. However, we talk about racial mixtures. The language about racial mixing comes down to blood quantification. We’ve come to imagine that identity and racial identity can be defined by blood parts, which leads to vicious ways of thinking about people.

Jacobsen: What ethical philosophy most appeals to you?

I don’t have an answer in my back pocket.

(Laugh)

(Laugh)

Clearly, we can draw a great inspiration from the great religious traditions. Not harming people, and showing respect and love is a great start.

Jacobsen: That sounds humanistic to me. Does that seem accurate to you?

Is that opposed to religion?

Jacobsen: There’s humanism in and of itself.

Yes, that is accurate. It is possible to borrow, embrace, and accept the great traditions from religious texts without accepting the religious beliefs on which they are predicated. If I have to go to an ethical philosophy, not doing harm and trying to do good, and not showing hate and showing love toward all people in the world would be a good starting point.

I am going to confess. I don’t know the real meaning of humanism. You might attribute specific meaning to the term. I attribute the meaning in a general way. If humanism means that to you, that is wonderful. However, you might have a more complex and nuanced definition.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Lawrence Hill, Niger, Malcolm X, Alex Haley, Martin Luther King, and Cornel West

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/28

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You worked in Niger. You suffered from gastroenteritis. It kills millions of people around the world every year. It is a prominent killer throughout the African Diaspora. You were given blood transfusions. You nearly died. You have pointed out the important aspect of this to you. What was the importance of this event to you – and the blood transfusion?

Lawrence Hill: It was a turning point, emotionally. It was important because I almost died. Apart from getting over the moment of danger, it provided the chance to reflect on my own racial identity.

Something that had been worrying me until the time of when I got sick at the age of 22. With the illness, I dropped the worry in a nanosecond. I no longer felt anxious about my own racial identity or who I was, or what people saw in me.

I felt no need to worry about it anymore. I came to accept, much more calmly, being both black and white. I had family ancestry spanning two continents. I didn’t have to worry other people’s perceptions of me. It didn’t matter. I knew myself.

It was a significant moment triggered by the illness in Niger in 1979. It took me to a place of emotional calm and confidence with regard to my own identity.

Jacobsen: At the age of 15, Malcolm X was an important influence for you. What was the importance to you? How did that develop over time?

The Autobiography of Malcolm X written by Alex Haley. It was one of the first books for adults that I read. If you read a book that transports you and shapes you in your youth, then you’ll probably never forget it.

Books have a real mark on a young person, if that young person adores the book. You don’t forget it. Malcolm X, as he’s moving through prison, stepping out of prison, embracing Islam, hating white people, and declaring white people were devils incarnate.

He argued white people were devils. He believed that. He mounts a very racist, hateful argument during his early militancy. However, before the assassination, he becomes more compassionate. He envisions a more diverse picture of Islam. He comes to accept through his travels around the world that people of different racial backgrounds can be Muslims.

He was hard to read in print. That is, some ideas were nonsensical and oppressive to me. For example, such as his saying white people were devils incarnate. At the same time, he went to a better place with the diverse image of Islam. I was moved and shaken by Malcolm X’s writings as a teenager. He stayed with me all of these decades.

Jacobsen: Martin Luther King was concomitant with him in terms of the period and the importance. Did he have any influence on you as well?

Yes, I was born in 1957. It was easy to be influenced by Martin Luther King. Even though, I was a boy at the time of the assassination. I’m from a generation that was most affected by Martin Luther King. His message of love and peace, and a color blind world. It allowed people to search and develop regardless of their race, creed, and color.

Also, he was a pacifist. He gave his life to advance the cause of civil rights. He was a hero of the generation. He was essential to my notion of courage, dignity, love, and transcendence of human evil.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Lawrence Hill, Writing, “Giving Birth,” Fiction, and Non-Fiction

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/28

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You take three to five years to write a novel. You let the ideas, the contexts, and the personalities percolate for some time. Does this seem like an aspect of habit or personality?

Lawrence Hill:I let them percolate in a passive way. I’m writing, writing, and writing, and not feeling happy with drafts. I keep writing again, and then rewriting. I take a long time.

(Laugh)

Unfortunately, it takes me that long, 3 to 5 years, to write a novel. I need to feel satisfied with it.

I wish I could write faster, but I don’t seem to be able to do so. It takes time for characters to form, show themselves to me, and to get my head around the story. It is like giving birth on the page to a whole life or a set of lives. It’s hard for me to get my head around all of that and to bring it to the page.

Generally, I write non-fiction more quickly. I take 6-12 months to write a work of non-fiction.

Jacobsen: You used the phrase “giving birth.” That seems to mirror some common themes among many writers. In a way, their book is like a child to them. How do you view your books in terms of their personal importance, especially based on the effort and time put into them?

Hill: I’m using the expressions of my own soul. Each form is different. In general, I try not to rank them in terms of value. It is better for other people to decide which book is better or worse. I don’t want to be in competition with myself.

That is, I don’t want to love any work more than another. I want to love them all in their own way. Each book is part of my mind, heart, and soul at the time of writing. However, once you’re done the production, the healthiest thing is to set them aside and move on.

I might read a translation or adapt a work for a mini-series. And I will tour and give readings and talks. But aside from working obligations, I don’t return to a book once I have finished writing it.

Jacobsen: As you’re writing, it is not a passive percolation. Once done, the books are put to the side. At the same time, as you’ve noted, it takes time to get them out, but you’d rather get them out faster. What seems like the strengths and weaknesses of this writing style?

(Laugh)

The weakness is I’m a slow writer. Some writers might produce 40 or 50 books in their lifetime. That won’t be the case with me. I’ll be lucky to write 5 more. So, I don’t have a body of work as extensive as some.

Ultimately, that’s okay. I work on my own terms. In the final analysis, if I write 10 or 15 books, it doesn’t matter. I am pursuing art in the best way for me. That matters to me.

The upside, it is important to be honest and faithful to yourself. When I write and produce, I work on something that reflects my own heart. It is an authentic reflection of longing, loving, and living. I’ve managed to get in tune with myself. I’ve found a way to express myself that feels authentic and rich.

Jacobsen: You’ve written more works of non-fiction than fiction. Why?

Yes, I have written more non-fiction than fiction. I can write non-fiction faster. That’s the most practical reason. Two of the works of non-fiction were very slight, minor books. They were early career productions. Nobody knows about them. They are not available or no longer in print. They are in Canadian history.

I am proud of them. Even so, they are slight, minor books. If you put those books away, the slate is mixed. It leaves four more substantial books of non-fiction and four of fiction. In general, the works of non-fiction are more focused. They are thinner. They hone in on more specific targets.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Lawrence Hill, Reading a Sister’s Stuff as a Brother

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/28

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Your late sister, Karen, suffered from bipolar disorder. She went to a restaurant, choked, lost consciousness, and died in the hospital 5 days later. How did this life battle with mental illness and then the death affect you?

Lawrence Hill:It affected me in all the imaginable ways. It took my sister from me. I lost one of the people that I most love in the world. It was a visceral, immediate, loss. Many will face it. It is hard to lose a loved one unexpectedly far before their time. It affected me by taking someone from me that I love very deeply.

Jacobsen: For those that might read this in the future with family members suffering from mental illness, any advice for coping with the emotional pain that might coincide with it?

Hill: My advice: don’t be alone. It is tremendous work emotionally, intellectually, and financially to help somebody who suffers from mental illness. It is alienating if you have to do that alone. If you have a community of people to come and work together in supporting the ill person, it can help.

If you are alone, it can be brutally alienating, lonely, and crushing. However, if you have institutions, nurses, social workers, psychiatrists, friends, family members and neighbors involved with the ill person, everyone can help in their respective ways. It can become less overwhelming. That’s one of the most important things: to build a network. If you are helping an ill person, you will need help too.

Jacobsen: She wrote a book entitled Café Babanussa (2016) and an essay inside called On Being Crazy.You have read these.

Hill: Yes, I read them.

Jacobsen: Did her written work impact you?

Hill: I have been reading Karen’s fiction and non-fiction for decades. It has been a lifelong process. Karen worked on Café Babanussa for 20 years. I’ve been reading it, tuning into her life, commenting on it, encouraging her, and being a brotherly figure by reading her stuff for a long time now. The book was intertwined with her own life. Discussing it became an extension of our sibling relationship.

Jacobsen: One thing that comes from the written word by you. For me, the genuine compassion and open-heartedness in pursuit of real narratives and concern for people. You write on slaves. You write on immigrants. You write on freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of the press. Uncomfortable truths are still truths. The truth matters. To me, this seems humanistic. Universal truths relevant to everyone. What motivates this passion for compassionate truth?

Hill: It’s giving back. Most writers examine issues of injustice, imbalance, or societal wrongs, whether they are tiny wrongs or tiny instances of public awareness. No matter how heinous, tiny wrongs done in the household up to genocides perpetuated on the whole mass of people.

Writers tend to explore inhumanity. Hopefully, to put a stop to it or protest against it, I’m not alone in this. Writing is a profoundly moral act. You’re asserting your morality every time that you pick up a pen and take it to the page. For me, writing is engaging with the world.

Writing is a way of expressing our own humanity, failings, a way of struggling to make sense of life and inhumanity, and to push ourselves to a better place. But when I am at work writing, I don’t think on such a grand scale. Typically, it is pedestrian and manageable. I am burning to tell a story.

Jacobsen: Any religious or secular framework, perspective, or worldview supporting it?

Hill: No. Certainly, not a religious framework, I was raised by two atheists. Those two atheists in turn were raised by two religious people. On my father’s side, my grandfather and great grandfather were both ministers in the African Episcopal Church in the United States.

My father went from being a church minister to being an atheist. I have great interest in religion and people’s perception of religion throughout history. Religion sometimes informs my stories, but I’m not a religious person myself.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Lawrence Hill, Life with a Singer-Songwriter Brother

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/28

awrence Hill is one of Canada’s most distinguished and published authors. In this extensive interview, we discuss everything in Hill’s purview. In his words, “I have to say that I don’t think I’ve ever been interviewed by somebody who had such a profound grasp of such a wide variety of things that I’ve shared, written, or spoken about whether they are personal, professional or things to do with my books or my family life.” This series will explore his life and philosophy, just for you, part 2.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: I’m thinking about your mother reading these stories each day to you. Was there a common author for each night?

Lawrence Hill: She read one a lot. I memorized it. It is by A.A. Milne. One of her favourite poems that we memorized quite young called Disobedience. It says:

…James James Said to his Mother,
“Mother,” he said, said he;
“You must never go down
to the end of the town,
if you don’t go down with me…

On it goes, it is this crazy story about a woman who loses it. It is quite a story.

(Laugh)

Jacobsen: (Laugh)

Hill: It is quite a dark story, actually. Also, it is playful, language-wise. Of course, we ate up Dr. Seuss. The crazier and more playful the language, the better.

Jacobsen: Following that influence from the first professional writer that you met, you were a journalist for The Winnipeg Free Press and The Globe and Mail. How did the time as a journalist at these publications inform the work writing to date?

Hill: It helped me learn, quickly. I learned to edit myself. I was able to call people ‘out of the blue’ and say, “Hey, there’s something I need to understand. You’re apparently an expert in the field. Can you explain it to me?” It made me feel confident approaching strangers and asking them to help me get my head around things that I needed to know as a novelist.

I also learned that words aren’t sacrosanct. That is, my world wouldn’t come to an end if people altered words of mine. I realized everyone can be edited. First and foremost, we can edit ourselves. I learned to write more rapidly and to allow the natural rhythms of thought to percolate unfettered onto the page, and then to come back and edit myself. Those lessons come from journalism.

Jacobsen: Would you consider self-editing one of the most important skills for writers?

Hill: Certainly, it is for me. Unless you’re born Mozart, your first drafts will be sloppy. Mine certainly are, so I have to rewrite my work and work it into shape. Editing is fundamental to progressing through the drafts of a novel.

Jacobsen: How many drafts?

Hill: In a novel, I easily work through ten drafts.

Jacobsen: Now, back to the family, your brother, Dan Hill, is a singer-songwriter. Has this relationship influenced professional work at all?

Hill: First, it influenced me as a person, which influenced professional work in every imaginable way. He is (and was) totally passionate with art. He lived for it. It was exciting to see my brother as an artist doing his thing.

I could see the personal fulfillment for him. It normalized the possibility of achievement in the arts. The idea of going for it, pursuing the dream, and believing in its achievability. His most important influence: being there, seeing him, and showing the possibility for me too.

Jacobsen: Any recommended songs by him for listening pleasure? Songs that you enjoy by your brother.

Hill: I love the song Hold On. It came out in the 70s.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Lawrence Hill, Coming Up and Loving Language

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/27

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: To begin at the beginning, you were born in 1957 in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. Now, you’re one of Canada’s greatest novelists. Let’s explore your story. In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your familial background reside?

Lawrence Hill: It is complicated, like most people. My early ancestors came from Europe and Africa. On both sides, they have been in the United States for many generations. My parents met in 1952 and married interracially the next year.

My family culture spans Africa, Europe, Canada, and the United States. In terms of my family cultural background, Canadian, American, and black and white cultures.

Language-wise, I was raised in an Anglophone family who spoke only English, but my sister and I became enthusiastic language learners. Learning other languages and living in them has become central in my life.

Jacobsen: How did this familial history influence development from youth into adolescence?

Hill: It is difficult for a person to look inside of their own life and say, “This is how my family history influenced my development from childhood to adolescence.”

However, a vivid interest in identity, in belonging, in the ambiguity of culture and race, in moving back and forth between different racial groups: all of these things marked my childhood and adolescence.

Jacobsen: You mentioned your parents married in 1953. What was the origin and nature of your parents’ relationship with each other? Their love story.

Hill: They met in ‘52 in Washington, D.C. and fell in love, quickly. My father had just completed an MA in sociology at the University of Toronto. He went back to live in Washington and to teach at a college in Baltimore for a year. My parents met and married that year. The day after they married, they moved to Canada. They became ardent Canadians and never looked back. They never moved back to live in the United States, although they visited often and took my brother, sister and me with them.

Jacobsen: How did this relationship influence you?

Hill: For one thing, they loved each other. They were opinionated and argumentative, not about domestic things, but about political and social issues. There was always debate around the kitchen table. I was steeped in that culture. A lot of talk, especially around meal time.

Jacobsen: When looking at formal development, in standard major cross-sections in life, what about influences and pivotal moments in kindergarten, elementary school, junior high school, high school, undergraduate studies (college/university)?

Hill: I had a fabulous Grade 1 teacher named Mrs. Rowe. She told us stories every day. I longed to get to school to be sure I didn’t miss any of her stories. My father was a great storyteller. My mother read every day to us. We came – brother, sister, and I – to love the readings.

My parents instilled a love of language and story. I had other great teachers. In high school, they encouraged me to write. I wanted to do it. I told them. They encouraged me, but they didn’t make me.

I was an avid runner and had a track coach. In addition to being my coach, he was a reporter for the Toronto Star. He was the first professional writer that I met. He encouraged me to write better and to expand the range of my reading. These were early formative developers. Adult figures looking on and leading me toward the excitement of writing.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Criticizing Islam, Becoming a ‘Criminal’, Being Tortured, and Leaving Islam

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/27

Waleed Al-Husseini founded the Council of Ex-Muslims of France. He escaped the Palestinian Authority after torture and imprisonment in Palestine to Jordan and then France. He is an ex-Muslim and atheist. Here is an educational series on ex-Muslims in France, just for you, part 1.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: How did they torture you in Palestine?

Waleed Al-Husseini: It was many ways. They were left me standing most of the day and only slept 2 hours with only one meal of food in the afternoon. Some standing on one leg while I’m up on my hands. Sometimes, they left me to stand on small bottles! After it, they made me run to not have marks cos of that. And some beating with electric things, this was 4-month from 10 months I spent in jail!

Jacobsen: What was the purported crime?

Al-Husseini: Insulting the feeling of Muslims, insulting the gods of religion, and making trouble in the society. It was a military court.

Jacobsen: What did you write about? Why were you such a threat with mere words?

Al-Husseini: I had my blog in Arabic, which was, in the beginning, questioning Islam and discussing the issues in the Quran, then I start crisis Islam and Quran and Mohammed’s life and showing that Mohammed was just a man who lived his life in the 7^th century like everyone, and showing that the Quran has nothing special in it. Quran is a product its time and era.

I explained my atheism, and why I’m atheist and why I left Islam.

Jacobsen: With the foundation of the Council of Ex-Muslims of France, what is the main value for the members there? How do you build ties with the international ex-Muslim community?

Al-Husseini: Our values are based on humanity, universalism, and the laïcité values. We are fighting for the right of non-believers and leaving Islam. We fight for women rights; we fight for the civil rights!

How we build ties in the conference, such as the one in London, through this, we make people feel not alone. We give them the power to contact us. For me, I am sure there is at least one ex-Muslim in every family!

But they can’t speak in public because of the danger involved in it. I got arrested. Another got killed. Others still live hidden because someone will kill them. Others are waiting for one of these options.

Jacobsen: Is the problem inherent in the doctrine and principles, figures, and ideals of Islam, or in the surrounding culture, or something else, predominantly?

Al-Husseini: The problem is Islam, even most values in the culture come from Islam. I don’t mean political Islam, Wahhabism or whatever you wish to call it. I mean Islam itself, from the Quran and Mohammed’s life.

Jacobsen: What do those that have not been in the situations you and countless others have been in not get? Why is it crucial for them to understand this?

Al-Husseini: These people only who live in Europe or America. Often, they have never been Muslims. That is why they will never understand it. Even the situation of ex-Muslims, if you told them about this person was killed and another was arrested, they will answer it’s not Islam instead it’s the government. They will assert it is a special case!

These people have little knowledge about Islam and what it is. They just know about Islam and what they hear from their close friends!

Some of them are blind!

Jacobsen: Thank you for taking the time once more, Waleed, always a pleasure, my friend.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Thinking for the Future, Youth Humanism and Passing the Torch

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/27

Marieke Prien is the President of the International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organisation (IHEYO), which is part of IHEU. In this educational series, we will be discussing international youth humanism, part 2.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: When you step down from the role, what will be the main lessons to pass on to the next president in terms of expectations and managing an international presence, which is no small feat?

Marieke Prien: You need a good team and good plans.

Without a working team, you cannot really do anything.

Of course, there will be ups and downs, people who do more or better work and others who do less.

But those should be single cases. In my opinion, people who have not done well deserve another chance and should be provided support if they need it. This support could be help with certain tasks or something boosting their motivation. But if it becomes clear that they are causing more work than they get done, it’s better to ask them to leave the team.

If overally everybody does a great job, is motivated and willing to spend time and energy, and you can trust them, that is the basis you need.

A hierarchy is necessary for productivity and decision making, but in my opinion, this should not be reflected in how people treat each other. For example, everybody must have the opportunity to say their opinion and voice concerns or make suggestions, and we should meet each other as equals.

Regarding the plans, you must have an understanding of where you are and where you want to go.

You must know what is currently going on: What is done or needs to be done in the background to keep things working, to have a stable fundament? And which projects are we doing based on this fundament?

The same goes for future plans. What do we want to do and what is necessary to do this?

Also, the plans have to be consistent with what is realistic. In IHEYO, everybody is a volunteer. Nobody is paid for the work, everybody does this on top of their job or studies. This gives us certain limits. The limits wont stop us, but they affect us.

Jacobsen: What are some of the main ways youth humanists tend to become involved in activism, e.g. in combating religious overreach in culture or law, in coming together for LGBTQ+ rights, and in fighting for the fragile rights of the secular and irreligious?

Prien: These topics are so important for the youth because they affect their everyday life. When you start having more freedoms, you immediately see where this freedom is cut and who is behind that. Becoming adults, the young people get a better understanding and more awareness of what is going wrong.

To be involved in activism, you need connections to other activists (or those who want to become active). Sure, you could do something on your own, but most people gather in groups.

In the beginning, something needs to challenge the person and make them aware of the problem they then decide to fight against. For example, a young person may be made uncomfortable for their sexuality, or they realize a friend is forced to follow stricts religious rules. Then, they try to gather more information and talk to others about the issue. This can be face to face or online. When I was in the USA for a semester abroad, I loved how many clubs the university had that got people involved. This is such a great way to help people become active, and it has a good scope.

The internet is also a huge help. It makes it super easy to find like-minded persons and interact with them, and to potentially plan activities.

We probably all know people who like to post articles and rant online about issues but without going out and becoming actually active. And oftentimes this is frowned upon. While I also believe that working in an organization or the like is way more effective and cannot be replaced, the online activities also do help the cause in that they can trigger fruitful discussions and get people interested in topics.

Jacobsen: On the note of activism, we both know of the attacks on women’s rights ongoing since, probably, their inception, but the recent attack appears to be focused on reproductive health rights. What are concerns for you regarding women’s rights, and especially reproductive health rights from a youth humanist angle?

Prien: One main part of humanism is that it wants people to live freely and make their own decisions, forming their lives and going their ways. Cutting reproductive health rights means cutting this freedom. It takes away women’s authority over their bodies and their life plans. The second point also affects men, though overally the effect is much stronger on women.

So this is one point where cutting reproductive health rights disagrees with humanism.

Another huge problem I see is that many people are unable or unwilling to make a distinction between their personal opinions and emotions (often influenced by their religion), and what may be “right” for others. For example, if you would personally feel bad about getting an abortion, you should still see the other side and accept that other people think an abortion is the right decision, and let them make their choice.

We must make a difference between opinion and fact, and many lobby groups mix these things up, actively misinforming or making false assumptions and relations. For example, some anti-abortion groups try to make people feel bad by saying that contraceptives and masturbation are immoral and against their religion.

Or they say that in the period where abortion is legal in some states, the fetus already has a heartbeat. That is true, but it does not mean that it can feel pain (or anything at all, for that matter), because its brain has not developed for that yet. But the fact of the fetus having a heartbeat is used to evoke emotions in people and to lead them to draw the conclusion that something with a heartbeat surely also feels pain.

As a humanist, I want people to make a choice based on facts and universal ethics, not based on opinions, superstitional beliefs and false statements. And I want people to understand that their personal opinion is just an opinion that does not necessarily count for others.

Cutting the reproductive health rights also causes a lot of other problems. It can lead to huge physical, psychological and social problems. For example, if a woman needs an abortion but cannot legally get one where she lives, she may decide to go through a very unsafe illegal procedure, or spend a lot of money (that she doesn’t necessarily have) to go to a place where abortion is legal.

That being said, of course an abortion could also cause emotional and mental damage. I am not trying to say that one should just get it carelessly. I am just trying to show that while it would be the wrong decision for some, it is the right one for others.

What really bugs me is the hypocrisy many anti-abortion groups or individuals show. They claim that they are pro-life, caring for everyone’s right to live. But they don’t care about the mothers’ lives, they don’t care about the circumstances for babies up for adoption, some even mistreat and judge single mothers working really hard to feed their children. That’s not charity.

Regarding women’s rights in general, things have changed for the better, but the fight is not over. Sadly, many people only point to the successes, ignoring that there are still problems. This also goes for other issues like racism. If you are in the privileged group, it is easy to overlook discrimination. But just because you don’t see it, it doesn’t mean that discrimination does not exist.

I also believe that many people choose to disregard concerns or complaints expressed to them because, if they believed them, they would have to admit they do or have done something wrong.

I wish that people would make more of an effort and listen, open their eyes, have empathy and change their behavior if necessary.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Youth Humanism as a Guide to Development of and Community for the Young

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/26

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You are the president of the International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organisation (IHEYO). I am an editor and contributor to Humanist Voices, and am on the Americas Working Group for IHEYO. I wanted to learn more from your perspective, and in the exploration — for me — educate others. To begin this educational series on international youth humanism — its purpose, contents, and future, what are the demographics of youth humanism?

Marieke Prien: IHEYO’s target group are humanists aged 18–35. This doesn’t mean that people younger or older than that are not welcome, but it is the age group we are mostly working with and for. This is also connected to legal issues, especially at events where people under age would need a custodian.
But in the national organizations, there are also members younger than 18. For example, in Germany, many teenagers join and start being active after having done a humanist coming-of-age ceremony at age 14.

Unfortunately, I cannot say much more about the demographics, such as gender or educational backgrounds, as we do not get sufficient information from the member organizations.

Jacobsen: Who are some allies for youth humanism, e.g. ethical societies and ethical cultures?

Prien: In a broader sense, an ally could be anyone introducing humanism to young people. Family members, teachers or maybe even friends.

But more specifically, there are several organizations that are allies. Sometimes, it is merely the name that is different, sometimes they focus on different topics and measures but have a humanist world view. Some examples would be the Ethical Societies in the USA, the Prometheus Camp Associations in Finland and Sweden, Freethought associations, or Effective Altruism groups.

Jacobsen: As the president of IHEYO, you have unique insights, and responsibility, on international youth humanism, what is involved in organizing the global community? What is necessary to build and maintain one?

Prien: There are two dimensions to this: age and internationality.

Regarding age, it is important to take into account is that the lives of young people can be very unsteady. There is always motion because of changes in school, work, and the social circle. Many people have not settled yet and are unsure about their future. Their daily life can go through quieter periods in alternation with very stressful ones.

Because of this motion, people think twice before committing. For example, the members of our Executive Committee are elected for two years. This means that, to be part of it, you should at least somewhat know how you are going to spend the next two years, if you will still have time and enthusiasm to work with us. This can be scary and discouraging. So I think it is important to show that it is perfectly fine and normal, nobody expects a young person to have their schedule and daily life fixed like somebody who has worked in the same job for 25 years. There will be ups and downs, but that should not discourage anyone.

The other dimension, internationality, also has its challenges but brings this great diversity which I don’t want to miss. I am not only talking about diversity of the people, I am especially talking about the variety of topics and issues we are dealing with as humanists. We have a common base — humanism — on which we build our projects. What these projects are aiming at depends on local circumstances.

To be able to account for this, IHEYO has Working Groups: for Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. Of course a group cannot cover all local topics of an entire continent. But they connect the member organizations and plan actions together, targeting what they feel is most important in their region.

During regular meetings of IHEYO’s group chairs, communication officer, secretary-general and president, we keep each other updated, make plans and take decisions.

This structure allows us to aim at more local issues as well as worldwide ones. I believe it shows the people that their local affairs are taken seriously while at the same time connecting them to a global community.

Common events are of course the best way to maintain a community, the atmosphere is amazing at it brings such a boost in motivation and enthusiasm. But sadly, due to financial and other restrictions, not everybody who is active in IHEYO is able to join, at least not internationally. So the community also relies a lot on social media and other means of communication. We are lucky to live in a time where this is made easy.

Jacobsen: Some general provisions of IHEYO are associations, connections, a new publication (Humanist Voices). Can you describe some of these features of IHEYO in some depth?

Prien: As I mentioned above, there are events organized by us (in cooperation with the local member organizations) which contribute a lot to the community. They usually feature several talks and workshops providing information and know-how to the participants. The program points are held by either our members or external speakers, for example somebody from an Effective Altruism group. So there is a lot people can learn, which makes half of the outcome of the events. The other half is the deep sense of community, the heated discussions, and the ideas and plans people develop together.

I would like to mention that participation is not limited to our members, anybody can join and is very welcome to do so!

Humanist Voices is a blog that we started rather recently. It is a collection of thoughts expressed by different people, a platform for humanists who would like to publish articles, not a publication with a uniform opinion of IHEYO as an organization. We want to show that being a humanist doesn’t mean having a precast opinion that is entirely shared with other humanists. We want to encourage people to be sceptic, discuss, and form their own opinions.

Again — if anybody is interested, you are welcome to join!

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Get Involved via Social Interest Groups

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/26

Men and mental health, we is a guy supposed to find support? I think about the Social Interest Groups (SIGs) hosted by The Good Men Project. It is important to recognize the importance of consistent, regular, and deep conversations with people of like mind. A group based around men’s mental health is one route.

Social Interest Groups (SIGs) are a place where people with similar interests, or intellectual engagements, social ties, and emotional commitments can virtually meet. The SIGs are an aspect of men having an outlet not only with other men but also with women on the same telephone line listening and commenting, which permits open expression and disarming discussions to emerge in an organic way.

If you haven’t looked at the Social Interest Groups, I suggest looking into them. They give a way to open up. It also provides a channel for learning about concerns of other individuals and difficulties in their lives.

Those contexts and environments, and implied emotional commitments can over time show the common themes in the life of ordinary people working through problems current in their lives. Those current problems are not necessarily solved, or even sufficiently covered or spoken about at the moment.

However, there is a sense of feeling less bound by the moment and the constraints of time to reflect, consider, analyze, and come together in a community of people with like mind to provide not solace or solutions but mutual sympathy and solidarity.

I find them helpful for the realization of honest, open conversation, which modern television news channels do not necessarily provide. The morning news media is degenerative from prior standards. The 21st-century is a century of atomization, at least in the early 21st century.

The atomization of people probably makes them feel alone. The Good Men Project effort is to bring us together through channels. It is one way to broach uncommon subjects for more people, not necessarily topics new to the older generations. They had other problems.

But we modern people have our own as well, which are distinct but not less important than prior generations. In that light, I hope you take the time to join one of the social media interest groups of The Good Men Project.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

The World of Youth Humanism Around the Globe

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/25

Marieke Prien is the President of the International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organisation. I am in the Americas Working Group and an editor and contributor to its publication Humanist Voices. Here we discuss her background, work, roles, and views on a variety of topics in an exclusive interview, part 2.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen:IHEYO works on a broad range of initiatives, and with multiple organizations, including women’s rights, education rights, abortion rights, LGBTIQ rights, human rights. What are some of the notable successes in each of these domains?

Prien: Though some events and activities are directly planned by us, our job is more to be an umbrella organization connecting our member organizations.

For example, in November 2015, we held the charity week “Better Tomorrow”. We came up with the concept and asked our members to contribute to projects they thought of and planned themselves.

There are conferences that are planned by IHEYO in cooperation with the respective local member organizations. We provide know-how and funds for the events. Many of our volunteers are active in both IHEYO and their local organizations so cooperation is made easy. Alone this year there were three conferences in addition to our annual General Assembly.

These conferences were the African Humanist Youth Days (AFHD) in July in Nairobi (Kenya), the European Humanist Youth Days (EHYD) in July in Utrecht (Netherlands) and the Asian Humanist Conference in August in Taipei (Taiwan). During each conference, there are talks and workshops that are somewhat connected to humanism.

For example, during the EHYD we had a workshop on Effective Altruism, AHYD had panels about witch-hunts, and the Asian Conference featured a talk about secular values in traditional beliefs. Some talks/workshops are held by member organizations, others by people from outside of the organizations that were invited.

This way the participants can gain knowledge and know-how while at the same time spreading their own knowledge and letting others profit from their experience. Also, events like that are the best opportunity to network and come up with new ideas. We are a growing community, with growing influence, thanks to this.

So it is hard to measure our impact in numbers or clearly defined achievements. We are more about providing the basis for our members’ work and incentives to individuals. A panel like the one at EHYD, with Bangladeshi bloggers who have been threatened and prosecuted because they openly criticized religion, leads to a change of mind in the audience that can eventually bring huge change.

Jacobsen: Any personal humanist heroes?

Prien: This sounds cheesy, but my humanist heroes are the people that put their free time and their energy into IHEYO or other humanist organizations. There is always a lot to do and it is great seeing so many people work hard for this cause.

Especially work in an executive committee involves some boring and annoying tasks, particularly when handling bureaucratic stuff. Behind every meeting and every event, there is someone writing minutes, someone putting data into spreadsheets, someone handling the numbers and keeping an eye on the finances… I am very grateful for everybody who does this as it builds the base for successful projects.

Jacobsen: Any recommended authors?

Prien: I have not had time to read a lot of books lately, but I read many blog articles and can definitely recommend that. There is something about articles written by non-professionals who just want to express their thoughts. Especially when you know the person or they provide background knowledge about themselves.

It is so interesting to see their thought process and how they form their opinions. It helps understand why they have this opinion, even or especially if you don’t agree with it. Also, many blogs allow to comment on articles and possibly discuss with the author, so in the end, everyone can benefit.

Jacobsen: Thank you for your time, Marieke.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Talk on Biology, Machines, Mind, Reality, and “Miracle” with Dr. Katsioulis

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/25

Dr. Evangelos Katsioulis, M.D., M.Sc., M.A., Ph.D., works as a consultant psychiatrist and psychotherapist through online psychotherapy and counseling for Psycall. He earned an M.D., Medical Doctor Diploma (2000), M.Sc., Medical Research Technology (2003), M.A., Philosophy (2012), and Ph.D., Psychopharmacology (2015).

Dr. Katsioulis earned the best performance in the Cerebrals international contest (2009), best performance in the Cerebrals NVCP-R international contest (2003), best performance in physics for the national final exams in Greece (1993), and third place in the Maths national contest in Thessaloniki, Greece (1989).

Dr. Katsioulis scored some of the highest intelligence test scores (SD16) on international record with an IQ score of 205 on the NVCP-R [Rasch equated raw 49/54] in 2002. Dr. Katsioulis remains a member in over 60 high IQ societies. In addition, he is the president and founder of Anadeixi Academy of Abilities Assessment and World Intelligence Network (WIN), and OLYMPIQ, HELLIQ, CIVIQ, GRIQ, QIQ, IQID, GREEK high IQ societies.

Dr. Katsioulis writes articles, novels, and quotes including screenplays – ELLHNAS.com (2008) and TI PEI(2009). Also, he contributed to the web advertisement-management of NAMANIC.com and the web development of Charing Cross Scheme in Psychiatry (2006), Charing Cross & St Mary’s Membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (2006), and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki – School of Medicine – General Biology Laboratory (2012). He lives in Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece.

Dr. Evangelos Katsioulis is a Greek friend and colleague through membership on the Advisory Board of In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal. Here is an interview with him, just for you, part 3.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Do you think biology and machines will merge? If so, how might this happen? Furthermore, how far would integration occur?

Dr. Evangelos Katsioulis: We do control machines (for now), however we cannot control or overcome biological rules. Machines could substitute some missing, mistaken or dysfunctional biological structures, however we are in no position to support artificial life at least for now.

Having in mind the science progress and knowledge advancement within the last century, we may soon manage to understand much more about life and even copy biology principles creating a kind of life. There are no limits in this integration. From your question, I could assume that we both like science fiction movies.

Jacobsen: What is the ultimate relationship between mind and reality?

Katsioulis: Mind is an advanced personal processor, responsible for the perception, reaction and adjustment in reality. We need mind to live our reality. I suppose we all know what is the condition of a body with a non-functioning mind. Reality is an objective and independent set of conditions, events, happenings, incidents, people, principles, facts. Our mind personalizes this objective information to a subjective representation in us.

Mind function is influenced by factors, such as perceptual ability, reasoning, previous knowledge and experiences, psychological status and mental state. For instance, we have all been present in an event and our understanding of what happened may significantly defer from what anyone else present states. So, we need mind to live our reality and we need reality to use our mind.

Jacobsen: You earned the Genius of the Year Award – Europe in 2013 from PSIQ. In your one-page statement on winning the award, you say, “I believe in the power of human mind and my works contribute to the facilitation of mind expressions, promotion of creativity and enhancement of productivity for a better life quality for everyone.

Maximizing outcomes based on the appreciation and utilization of people’s potentials for the benefits of any individual and humanity in general.” What motivates this passion for improving the lot of others?

Katsioulis: Life is a continuous claim of happiness and satisfaction. There are plenty of distractions and attractions in life which can mislead and redirect people causing disorientation, targeting fake goals and resulting to low life quality.

I am passionate with people and communication and that is the main reason I chose to be a Psychotherapist, Psychiatrist and a Founder of some communities and networks.

I believe in self-awareness, self-appreciation, self-confidence and self-determination. Offering people an opportunity to look into themselves and grab the chance to evaluate their lives, attitudes and interests, is a challenge for me.

I have undertaken this procedure myself and I offer the exact same to anyone interested. I support people and I believe in their abilities, talents and specialties. Psychologically speaking, I may provide what I would appreciate to have been provided.

Jacobsen: As a final note to your award statement, you state, “Humans are biological beings, life is a mystery, creation is still unknown.

We live a miracle and we can only maximize this miracle’s impact in every single moment of our existence.” What do you mean by “miracle”? Can you elaborate on the maximization of every moment of our existence?

Katsioulis: Allow me to clearly mention that I do not wish to support any specific religion with my statement. I have the feeling that the advanced and complicated structure and function of life, considering even only a single cell, is itself a miracle.

I am using the word ‘miracle’ since mathematicians have proved that it is rather impossible all cell components to accidentally find themselves in the proper position and start functioning as a cell within the total duration of universe existence. So the time elapsed since the creation of universe supports the non-accidental, thus miraculous nature of life.

The specific rational for this miracle, a specific power, God, destiny, even the nature itself, has been a fascinating topic for many other specialists throughout all human history.

The maximization of our life moments is a quality term, used to define appreciation of our time, life satisfaction and happiness. Since we know nothing about the reasons

Since we know nothing about the reasons of our existence, we may solely take advantage of the fact that we are alive and experience the most out of it. In this context, we need to define what makes us excited and content and we should target and claim satisfaction and happiness.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Discussion with Evangelos Katsioulis on Global Problems and Society

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/25

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What global problems do you consider most important at the moment? How would you solve them?

Dr. Evangelos Katsioulis: Identity crisis is the main global problem. People lost their identity, their orientation, their life quality standards. They don’t care about who they are, they develop personalities based on the mainstream trends, they play roles and they waste their lives in their attempts to adjust to what some few others expect from them and their lives.

People have neither time nor any intention to realize what life is about. They are born and live to become consistent and excellent workers, minor pieces of a giant puzzle for some few strong people’s entertainment purposes and benefits. Therefore, they don’t care about the quality of their lives, about other lives, about relationships and the society in general, about our children’s future.

It is indeed a pity, however it is a fact. Education could be helpful towards self-realization, awareness, knowledge, mental maturity, overcoming any external restrictions and limitations. As I usually say to my psychotherapy clients, the solution to any problem is to make a stop and one step back.

Jacobsen: Generally, many interacting systems operate in societies: political, economic, religious, corporate, educational, and so on. If you could build and run a society, how would you do it?

Katsioulis: I would say no more than what a great ancestor said 25 centuries ago. Plato suggested an ideal society based on the special abilities of the citizens. The most capable ones should be leading the society functions, the strongest ones should help with their physical powers, a meritocracy should be in place.

We should all contribute to the society well-functioning, if we intend to live in the society and benefit out of it. The definition of one’s prosperity should be defined only in the context of the society prosperity. If we act against our nest, how should this nest be beneficial, protective and supportive for us.

We often see people who have no other than marketing skills or powerful backgrounds to guide societies, decide about millions of people, control people’s future, when many capable and talented others live in the shadow. The most important element in any society is the citizen and people should realize their power.

There is no society without citizens, there are no rules without people to follow them. People can claim their right to live their ideal society.

Jacobsen: If you do consider a general moral, intellectual, spiritual, and emotional progression or development, how do you view development from the basic to most advanced levels at the individual and collective level?

Katsioulis: [This is covered above]

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Discussion with the World’s Highest Measured IQ, Dr. Evangelos Katsioulis

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/25

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: How did you find developing from childhood through adolescence into young adulthood with extraordinary giftedness? Did you know from an early age? What events provided others, and you, awareness of your high-level of ability?

Dr. Evangelos Katsioulis: Thank you for your question. Well, I didn’t have any forehead mark indicating that I have any special abilities, so my childhood was mainly full of activities that I enjoyed, such as reading literature, solving math, logical problems and puzzles, getting involved in discussions with adults and having rather many questions.

I can recall an instance that I was a little boy and I made a reasonable for me at that point assumption that given that the white sheep produce white milk, the black ones should produce cocoa milk. I should emphasize that I enjoyed more spending my time on my own instead of socializing, which lasted till my adolescence. Teachers’ feedback was positive and promising at all stages of my education.

At this point, I should mention that I am very grateful to my parents, both teachers of the Greek language, who provided me a variety of mental stimuli and a proper hosting setting for my interests. During my adolescence, I had a distinction in the national Math exams in 1990 and in the national Physics Final exams in 1993 among some thousands of participants.

I was successful to enter the School of Medicine on my first participation in the entrance exams in 1993 and I was one of only six successful candidates who sat for the exams for the first time.

Jacobsen: You scored some of the highest intelligence test scores on record, nationally and internationally. In many cases, you scored the highest. For some of your scores on these tests, I recommend readers to your website: katsioulis.com.

You competed in the Physics National Final Exams (Greece, 1993), Cerebrals NVCP-R international contest (2003), and the Cerebrals international contest (2009). You earned the best performance in all three. In light of this, when did you find your first sense of community among fellow ultra-high ability individuals?

Katsioulis: Thank you for the impressive introduction to your readers. My ranking on the Physics National Final Exams is mainly the result of hard work and personal interest in Physics. Having scored quite well in some IQ tests and contests, I joined many High IQ Societies since 2001.

I noticed that there were some difficulties in their proper functioning minimizing interactivity and subsidizing creativity. Therefore, I took the initiative in 2001 to form a pioneer organization focused on promoting communication and enhancing productivity for the individuals with high cognitive abilities.

This organization is the World Intelligence Network, (http://IQsociety.org), standing as an international collective entity dedicated to foster and support High IQ Societies. Currently, 48 High IQ Societies are affiliated with WIN.

Furthermore, I formed 5 core High IQ Societies covering cognitive performances from the 1^st to the 5^th standard deviations above the mean (IQ 115 to IQ 175, sd 15), (QIQ, http://Q.IQsociety.org), (GRIQ, http://GR.IQsociety.org), (CIVIQ, http://CIV.IQsociety.org), (HELLIQ, http://HELL.IQsociety.org), (OLYMPIQ, http://OLYMP.IQsociety.org), one High IQ Society only for children and adolescents (IQID, http://Child.IQsociety.org) and one only for the Greek people (http://IQsociety.gr).

Last but not least, I started a Greek NGO about abilities, giftedness and high intelligence named Anadeixi (http://aaaa.gr).

Jacobsen: If you could, how would you change the educational systems of the world? In particular, how would you develop an educational system to provide for the needs of the gifted population?

Katsioulis: The development of a more personal, more accurate and proper educational system is one of the target goals of Anadeixi. I strongly believe that not even 2 different persons can have the exact same profiles, characteristics, needs, personalities, interests, abilities, backgrounds and goals.

Imagine the diversity and variety of the students’ profiles if you expand this hypothesis including all the students of any educational system. Any person is different from any other and should be treated as such.

It is rather an unfair, conforming generalization all of the students to participate in the exact same educational program. There should be an introductory level of the basic sciences offered to anyone and on top of this an additional specialized education program based on the personal needs and potencies of any of the participants.

Anyone should know how to read and write, to make simple math calculations and to have some basic awareness of history, geography and the rest main fields of knowledge. However, some of the students have specific preferences and interests and the educational system should take these into consideration and respond accordingly.

Regarding the structure of such an educational system, there could be a 2-dimensional. The horizontal axis may include all the special fields of science, knowledge and interests and the vertical axis may demonstrate the various levels of performance and awareness.

Thus, any participant can be allocated to the proper horizontal and vertical places based only on his interests, preferences, goals and current expertise and awareness. In such an educational system structure, there is no place for any age or other restrictions or limitations.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

The Youth Humanist Movement in the Early 21st Century

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/24

Scott Douglas Jacobsen:What is your familial and personal background?

Mariek Prien: I was born and raised in Hannover, Germany. When I had finished high school, I spent a year in the Philippines for a volunteer service, then moved to Hamburg to study Cultural Anthropology and Educational Sciences. After getting this degree, I moved to Osnabrück and started studying Cognitive Science. Right now, I am in Oswego (New York) for a semester abroad.

I got involved in Hannover’s local group of the youth wing of HVD (Humanistischer Verbands Deutschland, the German Humanis Association) when I was 13 or 14. Since then, I have held different positions in the local and national young humanist organizations and eventually got involved in the International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organization (IHEYO), where I was first elected Membership Officer and now President.

Jacobsen: How did you become involved in humanism as a worldview?

Prien: Pretty much all of my family members are humanists, so you could say my sister and I were raised this way, though I don’t remember the term “humanism” being used. Our parents and grandparents taught us about this lifestyle not only with words but by living and acting according to these values every day. We were encouraged to be skeptical and question things, to think for ourselves, to not prejudge people, to take responsibility for our actions, take care of the environment, and be independent.

Also, my parents love to travel and get to know people from different cultures, and I think my sister and I have definitely profited from that. It made us more open-minded towards new things and different ways of life.

Jacobsen: When did humanism as an ethical hit home emotionally for you?

Prien: Since I was raised with humanist values, there is no specific event or time that marks this. It was simply the worldview I had. You could probably say I found out about the term “humanism” and actively chose to identify as a humanist when I decided to join our local Humanist organization and take part in their coming-of-age celebration. The next step was becoming a member and actively volunteering for the organization. By doing this, I dedicated myself to the cause, so to say.

Jacobsen: What makes humanism more true to you than other worldviews, belief systems?

Prien: I think about these things a lot. Ethics, religion, why do we act and feel the way we do? I try to stay objective about it and approach questions openly. And every time I come to the conclusion that humanism is the right way.

I found that the belief in gods does not withstand reason and never understood why people call religion the root of ethics, morals or values, and why they minimize the horrible things it has caused and is causing. Why do you follow rules that only exist to oppress you? Why would you need religion to love thy neighbors?

Some people will argue that being nice to one another is not a necessity or is even “unnatural”, that not caring about others will not cause them any disadvantages. But this is where love and empathy come in, a wish to live in a peaceful and kind society, something that I believe everybody has somewhere inside them.

To me, humanism is the derivation of being a compassionate and reasonable person.

Jacobsen: You are the President of International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organization (IHEYO). It was launched in 2004. What tasks and responsibilities come with this position?

Prien: As President, I am taking the bird’s eye view. I know what is going on in the organization and coordinate and connect people and activities. There are also decisions to be made, but I always make sure to consult with other committee members first because I want to get to know other peoples’ thoughts and perspectives before deciding on something that will affect the organization and the people involved.

License

Copyright

2022-03-25

Leading Youth Humanist on Gender, Masculinity, and Femininity

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/24

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Gender and sex get mixed up. What is sex, and gender, to you?

Mariek Prien: Just the regular definition: sex is something anatomical, gender is social and a personal identification. Unfortunately, many people do not make this distinction, even though not only does it make sense and is needed, it also makes it so much easier to understand people and their identity.

Jacobsen: You are the President of the International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organisation (IHEYO) of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU). IHEYO is part of IHEU. Religions have ideals, archetypes, figures, gods, metaphors, allegories, to define gender. The roles, responsibilities, and rightness of an image for masculinity and femininity. Humanism may have them too, but do not have a text or holy scripture. Is there a conception of masculinity and femininity in humanism?

Prien: First I must make a distinction between gender and masculinity/femininity. Gender is an identity as described above. Masculinity/femininity are, in my understanding, terms used to say that something, like a character trait or facial feature, is “male” or “female”.

Regarding gender roles, my answer is that no, we don’t really have that. Humanism is about freedom, including that your way of life should not be restricted by guidelines and rules of society (as long as no one gets hurt, obviously). The humanist community is very diverse and everybody is encouraged to choose their role, choose how they want to live, and that nobody gets judged for that choice.

When it comes to masculinity and femininity, most of us probably have some concept of that and the opinions can differ. But I think you could say that these concepts just don’t mean so much, they don’t really matter. To use an obvious example, a woman is not expected to dress in a way that would be described as “feminine”. Obviously, people have different personal taste, but it is just that: a personal taste. Not a rule others need to follow.

Jacobsen: How much does this differ from religious definitions?

Prien: Most religious definitions are very strict in that they divide people into two sexes, equalize them with genders, and appoint roles to those groups. Women must do this, men must do that. If somebody does not live according to this, that’s frowned upon. I am not saying that all religious people tightly follow that, but these are the rules stated in many scriptures, archetypes etc. as you mentioned before.

This division and appointment of roles are what does not happen in the humanist definition.

Jacobsen: If it does, should humanism even have conceptions of masculinity and femininity and good or bad versions of them?

Prien: This is a hard question for me because I am not sure of what to think of these conceptions. They don’t make so much sense to me because I find it hard to make that distinction between masculine and feminine, and I don’t really know what benefits people have from using these terms over others. To me they sound kind of harsh and as if things could be 100% male or 100% female, which they are not. But if we use the words in a different way, to express that, for example, something is more common in males, but recognizing that it doesn’t mean it’s wrong for a female to have that trait, then that’s fine.

So I would say that we do not need the concepts, but I don’t want to go so far as to say that we should actively get rid of them.

Jacobsen: How can a modern scientific view of sex and gender update our views, and so expectations about men and women – scientific because of the humanistic principles and values as the framework?

Prien: If we look at the distinction we made about sex and gender, and recognize that gender roles are for the most part a social construct, then what this view does is take away the expectations we have.

There are some differences between the sexes, simply because of the biology. But the important thing is that these differences don’t exclusively define us, and they don’t make one group better than another. They don’t influence a person’s rights and responsibilities and must not be allowed to dictate our ways of life – a maxim that we are still struggling to live by. We must look at the individual, not at the group we think this individual belongs to. And that’s the humanist principle.

License

Copyright

2022-03-24

When a Phrase Really Strikes You, Again

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/23

I was struck by a phrase from Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka some time ago. It was a phrase around and associated with feminism and women’s rights. I liked it. It sparked a short article, which I am splitting into two for the convenience of reading in paces. Here you go, part 2.

Much of the information I’ve learned or reviewed, in the process of researching and writing this article comes from the comprehensive statements by her.

“Investment into the care economy of 2 per cent of GDP in just seven countries could create over 21 million jobs. That would provide child care, elderly care, and many other needed services.” Mlambo-Ngcuka said.

Women are left behind economically. When women are deprived of the equal access to the jobs market or the training for the jobs market, and I mean this emphatically, societies lose. Maybe, that’s another tacit take away, or even explicit, from the extensive statement by Mlambo-Ngcuka.

A modern problem without a single solution, which needs a multipronged approach. The relatively developed and the undeveloped, and outright failed, states in the early to middle 21^st century might be the ones, most else considered, that provide the implementation of women’s rights through advocacy followed by empowerment. It feels good.

It sounds easy, but, quite frankly, it will very much be a difficult road ahead of us. How do we move ahead and change the situation? How do we forge a new path into the world worth preserving? Identifying the problems – somewhat done, and staking out evolving ideals seems reasonable – more or less accomplished. Solutions, anyone?

I see predictive statements tied to a bunch of “ought to” or “should.” ‘Such, and such, a series of measurements in national performances correlate positively with the health of a nation and the empowerment of women’ – but then I think about it. What does this actually mean? And I kind of know.

These measurements are the basis for confidence in furtherance of women’s rights through these means without specification on the exact means in each case – cultures differ, histories differ, economies differ, and educational and literacy levels differ.

So within the statements by Mlambo-Ngcuka, I feel as though this means the specific solutions within ‘such, and such’ a set of boundaries will improve the economic performance of nations, which happen to, at the same time, improve the implementation of women’s rights. It’s moral if you want moral reasons. It’s economical if you want economic reasons.

But the trend lines are clear.

“More than half of all women workers around the world—and up to 90 per cent in some countries—are informally employed. We cannot ignore them. This sector is just too big to fail.” Mlambo-Ngcuka said, “…Lessons from countries already making change are important to share.

For this Commission, 35 countries have provided input on the review theme of how lessons from the Millennium Development Goals are being reflected in national processes and policies.”

That’s an incredible wealth of information and is the sincere reason for hope for finding specific general solutions to pervasive problems surrounding women’s rights within the international community.

“At the same time, over the last two years, a resounding global gender equality compact has been accumulated, through the Beijing+20 Review, Agenda 2030 itself, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the New Urban Agenda and the New York Declaration on Migrants and Refugees.”

It’s not only an outstanding reason for hope; it’s an outstanding achievement in motion towards equality by the stated 2030 goal, if not the comprehensive by 2186. And the right attitude can always be a good start. So how? Well: “constructive impatience.”

License

Copyright

2022-03-24

Growing Up Gifted, and Being a Geek Before It was Fashionable

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/23

Rick Rosner is a personal and professional friend. I interviewed Rick in an extensive interview on In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, which came to about 100,000 words. Rick claims to have the world’s second highest IQ. He is a member of the Mega Society and was the journal editor, as well Errol Morris interviewed him for the TV series First Person. Here we talk about his background as an exceptionally gifted kid, this is part 6.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Intelligence Quotient (IQ) pervades American culture more than most, based on my reading of the culture, with a litany of reactions ranging from reverence to laughter to skepticism – and serious scholarship.

Many neuropsychological tests developed by those with appropriate qualifications have developed some of the most well-used and researched tests such as the Raven’s Progressive Matrices (RPM) and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS).

However, mainstream standardized intelligence tests tend to have maximum scores at 4-sigma above the norm (160/164/196; SD-15/16/24, respectively). In the development of this work, some independent researchers and test constructors began to make tests for those earning maximum, or near-maximum, scores on mainstream tests.

In the process, tests and societies developed for the high-ability population. This environment set the stage for the flourishing of your obsession: IQ tests. For example, on a high-ability test called the Titan Test – one of the most difficult, you set a record score.

In fact, you earned a perfect score. You have taken much more. What are some of the other tests? In particular, where does your range, mean, and median lie for the set of high-range IQ tests taken?

Rick Rosner: It’s hard to pin down what my actual score might be. It’s silly to even think that people have one set IQ and that it’s precisely measurable. My lowest scores probably reflect less than my maximum effort, and my highest scores probably grant me some extra points due to crazily high levels of diligence plus vast experience with these tests.

It doesn’t really matter unless we want to turn IQ testing into a reality show sport. And we should – why do we have a bunch of competition shows about people cooking from Mystery Baskets and none with IQ showdowns?

Jacobsen: In the testing of intelligence, much criticism exists towards the potential for bias inherent in the tests themselves. For example, the use of an examinee’s non-native language in intelligence tests.

If an individual speaks a different native language than the test provides, they may score low on the verbal section, which may decrease the composite score. To solve this problem, nonverbal/culture fair tests exist.

However, many of these culture fair tests have lower ceilings. What do you see in the future for high-range non-verbal tests? How will this change general intelligence testing and the identification of gifted individuals?

Rosner: Intelligence testing has always been kind of a mess, often arbitrary and unfair. I think the best, easiest thing to do is test kids repeatedly, using a variety of tests. There are plenty of good, long-established tests. Trouble is, school districts are broke and don’t have the resources for repeated testing.

We can hope that tech will make schools more responsive to individual needs. Schools can be a little behind the curve. A century ago, the school was the most interesting part of a kid’s day – it’s where the information was.

Now, with the rest of our lives being so information- and entertainment-rich, the school can be relatively uninteresting, which isn’t helped by politicians and people who don’t like paying property tax starving schools of resources.

The school needs somewhat of a makeover – increasing automation and personalization, which the ongoing tech wave should help make possible. Don’t know if a push for better giftedness-finder diagnostics needs a special push. Would guess that this won’t be overlooked as part of high-tech changes to education.

Currently, a crazy thing is a pressure on a few tens of thousands of high-end students, with endless AP courses and brutal study loads, for a seven percent chance of getting into an Ivy.

When I was in school, the average AP kid took 1.3 AP courses; now it’s more than 7. I assume our weird college admissions system will get somewhat straightened out by technological advances in education or will become weird in exciting new ways.

Jacobsen: You have a great interest in health. In fact, you had an interest in health since a young age. Why the deep interest in the health from a young age?

Rosner: At first, I wanted to build muscles to impress girls. (This sort of worked, but it took many years of de-nerdification.) People were fit in the 70s – clothes were tight and high-waisted. The Arnold Schwarzenegger documentary, Pumping Iron, which came out in 1976, introduced many people to serious muscle-building.

Weight training incidentally introduced me to some healthy eating habits, plus I’ve always been a little fat-phobic and perhaps over-disciplined.

Only much later did I read Kurzweil’s book, Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever, and go from a few vitamins a day to a zillion.

I don’t buy Kurzweil’s entire argument – that the Singularity will happen around 2040, and anyone who can live until then can live forever – but I do think there will be many biotech breakthroughs in the coming decades which may offer extra years of life. I want to stick around – the future is where you can find a lot of cool stuff.

License

Copyright

2022-03-24

Growing Up Gifted, in the Don’t Give a Shit 70s

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/23

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Amidst the busywork of editorials and organization of the material, upon reading Noesis, one article struck me regarding the title and content entitled My Problem With Black People.

At the time, August 1992, other members of the Mega Society argued for the possibility of the intellectual inferiority of blacks. You argued otherwise. In that, by your estimate, all races have about equal intelligence.

Although in defense of all parties involved in the discussion of issue 72, the articles were written in 1992.

Much work written in public discourse has progressed on the issue of intelligence and race: ‘does race count as an appropriate scientific category?’, ‘do IQ tests measure intelligence?’ and so forth. Where do you stand on this issue now?

Rick Rosner: I don’t have a problem with black people – in my juvenile manner, just wanted an attention-grabbing title. I believe that most work which tries to or claims to establish a relationship between intelligence and race has elements of creepy bullshit.

Little good and lots and lots of bad have been done by people who claim that certain races or nationalities are mentally inferior to others.

Intelligence has a fluid relationship with the environment, and all sorts of things can happen during an individual’s lifetime which may or may not bring his or her intelligence to fruition.

Sometimes, being imperfectly adapted to an environment may elicit the expression of intelligence – think of perfectly adapted jocks who never had to learn to think versus awkward nerds who, because of physical imperfection, have to follow the riskier strategy of original thought.

So, people who want to eliminate or reduce the reproductive opportunities of groups that may be considered inferior (according to crappy, wobbly, arbitrary, prejudiced and culturally loaded standards) may actually be trying to eliminate one of the triggers for intelligence – being at odds with one’s circumstances.

More great art has been made by people who are ill-at-ease with their world than by people who are perfectly at home in it.

Furthermore, this is a particularly dumb time for arguments about racial differences in intelligence, as more and more of our effective intelligence comes from our interaction with technology.

Tech is turning us all into geniuses, though it doesn’t seem like it when you see so many people behaving stupidly with their devices. Since World War Two, the average IQ of all of the humanity has gone up by 15 points – the Flynn Effect.

One of the main suspects in this upslope is the pervasiveness of complicated modern culture. Culture and tech will keep getting more complicated, and humans in conjunction with our devices will keep getting smarter.

The tech that’s built into our bodies isn’t too far in the future. More than one percent of the population already has built-in computers – pacemakers, cochlear implants, etc. So who cares about some hard-to-measure few-IQ-point alleged difference among groups when we’re all going to end up being increasingly augmented geniuses?

People who insist on racial inferiority are creeps. We can discuss cultural differences – for instance, there seem to be cultural differences in causes of passenger jet pilot error – but the idea that some races need to be babysat by other races is gross. We’re all going to need to figure out how to work with each (augmented) other as tech reshapes the world.

Jacobsen: How many societies do you have membership inside of now? What use do you get from these societies?

Rosner: Don’t know how many societies I belong to. People ask me to click on things on Facebook, and sometimes clicking means that I’ve joined something. Could be 8 societies, could be 15. I’m not very good at Facebook and don’t live on it, as does your Aunt Angie, with her constant posting of cat and casserole pictures. Currently living on Twitter.

License

Copyright

2022-03-24

This Week In News, A Kevin and Benedict Narrative

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/23

Kevin and Benedict are colleagues. We have written and worked together. They have a podcast called This Week in News with Kevin and Benedict. I like them. Here’s their story. Kevin grew up in Sacramento California, where he conquered his enemies and saved the city from annihilation multiple times. He currently attends UC Berkeley as a Political Science major. He also worked as a heavy equipment mechanic for 5 years before college. He enjoys cigars, hockey (Go Sharks), politics, and saltwater fish tanks. Benedict is a Brit living in the US. Just for you, part 2.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Why should this be entertaining as well? What does this mean for the individuality of news presenters?

Benedict: Also, a lot of news is very voiceless. In the sense that, it seems that the people delivering it do not have a personality. it is partly a conceit of the genre. You are reading from the newscaster and haven’t had time to think about it, necessarily, or present your viewpoint. The best news readers, you get a sense of their personality.

Oftentimes, you don’t. We have more time to plan and think about stuff, and let our personalities do our lifting for us. I say that as though we have fantastic personalities.

Kevin: [Laughing].

Benedict: Because obviously. It is something good about podcasts. Nobody expects it to be about news all of the time. There can be levity. You may be able to help people see things in a new light with its ridiculousness and funniness. It is different than putting yourself on the stage in the spotlight. I am talking into a mic. If people are interested in that, then it’s great.

Kevin: Both of us would agree to an extent. We are pundits. We read the news. We try to give as broad a spread of news as possible for our listeners, but we providing our opinion at the same time. At the core, that’s what a pundit is. It is an opinion-based analysis of the news.

Benedict: It comes with the intent to inform.

Jacobsen: Benedict, you mentioned critiquing Donald Trump now because he or the administration happens to be in power. Kevin and Benedict, do you think that critique of those in power is one of the main roles of “pundits”?

Kevin: Yes. No matter who is in power, those who are reporters, pundits, or whatever role you play, should be questioning the choices and decisions of those in power. They need to be held accountable no matter how you lean politically. President Obama, who I am now a fan of and was not when he was elected, there are a lot of things, which I am generally left-leaning now.

He did poorly or generally flat out screwed up. If he was in power now and continuing them, I would criticize Guantanamo and the drone campaign. There are a number of things, which I think is definitely there to be criticized. They need to be heard, so people have the opportunity to speak their opinion about it. That’s how the decision is made. Politicians, if they want to get re-elected, have to listen to what people want.

Benedict: It is tricky, though. Reporters are good at maintaining the lack of bias. They report on who is in power and the things they are doing or trying to do. I think it is tricky with pundits. The people whose voices get the most amplified tend to be the people who are mostly partisan. So, news networks will invite very pro-Trump or anti-Trump now. It is almost never the same people who were criticizing both Obama and Trump.

They don’t get invited on the news networks if you see what I mean. That’s something good about podcasts and being outside of mainstream, beltway politics. A good thing about being outside the loop of it all is you can be more objective. Kevin and I don’t know any politicians. We talk about what we think when we see stuff. We don’t care who criticize. if people do something silly, then we criticize those who do something silly.

We talk about criticizing those in power. I want to say we should criticize those who want power. You can criticize those who want power, “It would be a bad thing if this person were to take power.” People did this with Trump, and with Clinton. You should extend the criticism to people in active pursuit of power.

Kevin: I have a wall of post-it notes. I write jokes and thoughts on them. One says, “Everyone can be wrong.” It reminds me. We can’t turn a blind eye to people who we like and are on our side when they are wrong. We have to criticize them as well. While we are definitely and have an opinion, and people know what side we’re coming from, we have to retain objectivity. In that, we won’t overlook things simply because we like this person – or they are on our team.

Jacobsen: What are some limitations of the medium?

Kevin: They don’t get to see my beautiful face.

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Benedict: Yes, that’s true. Another limitation is the time taken to make things. We can’t release on the day of a big news story when it breaks. It takes the time to record, plan, and edit everything. We can’t be as immediately reactive. It probably hurts a number of people who listen. It can be a positive too. It gives us more time to think about things and what we’re thinking, and what we want to say on a subject.

Kevin: We record on Fridays and release on Sundays. Being on opposite sides of the country, it is two days later, so it is last week’s news, which is the reason for covering everything from last week. So, we could, if we had the time, record on Monday and then release on Monday. But being me with the editing and trying to fit the schedules together for the recording, it is a major downside to not always be the spot.

Sometimes, when something happens, we will record a 10-minute reaction, and I’ll edit, and we’ll release it. Trying to be up to date with the news in this medium is difficult.

Benedict: It is difficult with this administration and time period because things change so much between a Friday and Monday. Things can get out of date and can be a real problem. Once things settle down, it will be a nicer medium to use.

Jacobsen: Also, you guys have a logo with both of you giving thumbs up in a cartoon format.

Kevin: [Laughing].

Jacobsen: Where did that come from?

Kevin: There is a website called Fiverr, which is awesome. I found someone who does web drawings, cartoons. I went back and forth with them. They drew up a design. They colored it. I like it. It is pretty cool.

Benedict: It is.

Kevin: We sure in the logo that Benedict has hair.

Benedict: He was given an old photo so it looks like I have hair.

Jacobsen: What are your hopes for growth in the future for TWIN?

Kevin: I love doing the show. Benedict, as much as I joke about him, I love him. We have a lot of fun on the show together. We built up a friendship together. I would do it if we had two listeners a week because it is so much fun to do. But as far as growth, it happens slowly over time. We have seen moderate growth. We are releasing a second show, a history show. It is getting some positive feedback.

We really enjoy doing this. Obviously, we want to get to a point where we have patrons enough to cover the costs for the show, but it is not so much that [Laughing] we are worried about all of that. It takes the time to grow a podcast audience. We have a couple of listeners who are very devoted. We have one who live tweets us while on the show. His thoughts while we’re on the show.

The biggest thing for me is the interaction with the listeners and that there are people listening, whether agreeing or disagreeing with us. One thing I would like for growth of the show, I would like to have conservative listeners. Who even though they do not agree, they listen and tell us. So, there is a back-and-forth. That is missing in society. People who disagree and listening to each other. That is something I would like to have as the show grows.

Benedict: In the future, for the growth of the show, I would like to have us do more interviews – as we’re doing more. We can get a few more diverse perspectives. We have started to chat to other podcasters and have them on our show. We have gone on a couple of shows ourselves now. I want to do more of it. It is fascinating to get more perspective – as much as I love talking to Kevin about this stuff. To be able to bring that to people, that is something exciting to me.

Jacobsen: Thank you very much for your time, guys.

Kevin: Awesome.

Benedict: No worries.

License

Copyright

2022-03-24

Wonderful World of the Comedy, Life, and Family of Kelly Carlin

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/23

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: At UCLA, you did graduate magna cum laude with a B.A. in Communication Studies. As we’ve discussed at the start of the interview, you did earn your masters in Jungian depth psychology. Both are caveats to that description.

Kelly Marie Carlin-McCall: Yes, of course. However, I earned my B.A. at age 30. I was 8 years behind my peers, who were already in careers and doing big things in Hollywood. I was scraping myself out of a very insane 10 years of my life with Andrew.

I never doubted my book smarts. UCLA did help me. It helped my self-esteem. It provided the courage to leave Andrew. Creatively, who was what I wanted to be – an artist – in the world, I never gave myself a shot. I felt behind. I am a smart person. I knew that, but I had no courage. No creative courage, it took me more time to get.

It took more time to step into. It took the death of my mother to catalyze that. It took the death of my father, more recently, to do it more. I am writing a book about it now, which is about creative courage. How we get it, how we own it, and what happens when we start claiming our creative lives, I always knew I was clever and smart.

That wasn’t an issue. I didn’t have any cajones to put my ass on the line creatively. I regret that. I regretted it for years. I’m getting over it now only because I am living my creative life.

Jacobsen: Going through the counseling, going through the therapy, and presenting your life in your material, is that part of the healing process for you? Is that allowing you to talk more about creative courage?

Carlin-McCall: Yes, for sure, there was something about me needing to tell my story out loud, which was essential to completing some cycle around that. It was the period at the end of the sentence for me. Having been invisible and silent for my whole life, that was self-imposed in some ways. In some ways, it wasn’t. In others, it felt imposed upon me.

Feeling invisible and silent, to be seen and heard in my story, and to know I could tell it in an entertaining way, in a way people could relate to the universality of it, that I could, finally, say, “This is what I went through. This is what I was. This is who I am. This is what made me.” It has been huge.

The book came out in 2015, a little over a year ago. These things take time. Here I am, I am 53. My book came out when I was 52. Now, I am walking away from it all. I am walking away from my past, away from my story.

Not that I’m cutting it off, or being done with it. However, there’s something to being able to look forward, live in the present moment, and do the work that I am here to do now. I couldn’t fully do that work until I told this story. That might be true for some people. All art is ultimately telling our stories in different forms, in different frames, in different aspects, and with different transparencies.

The memoir is very transparent. A painting, maybe not so, but the artist is always there somewhere. I think we’re all looking to be seen, to say, “I matter. This happened to me. I did this.” To be able to sort through all of that, it is important to know who we are. “How did I get here?” is as much about “Who am I?” than anything else. So, it’s been very healing. Once again, not only going to graduate school and doing your own therapy… [Laughing]

Jacobsen: [Laughing]

Carlin-McCall: …but telling your story. It is a powerful means of healing. The tricky part about writing memoir is you have to be, in some way, a teller and true witness to your story. It has to become a narrative. You can’t be stuck living inside of it because you’re still doing the healing part. I have done a lot of the healing part. I have done 90% of the healing.

I’ve done a lot of healing such as meditation, therapy, and other modalities. The final piece was to present it to the world and to make it useful to the world. That was essential to my healing. I survived all of this. I am lucky. I came out on my own two feet with a sense of who I am and a love, and joy, of life. I want that for everyone on the planet.

If my story can help you work through your story in any way, and make you have a more joyful, fulfilling life, then it was worth every bit of suffering for me, for that to happen. That’s really the healing, ultimately. It is the healing we do for each other when we tell our stories because it helps us feel a lot less alone.

We all have these stories to tell. We have all lived through treacherous moments in our lives, great loss, stupidity, joy, and success. We need to share these stories because we connect with each other. The only way we’re going to get through the next 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years on this planet is by connecting to each other as human beings.

Not ideologies, not profit motives, not how big our bank accounts are, but just humans-to-humans. When we tell our stories, that instantly happens. So, I am very honored to be a member of the tribe that tells the stories of the humans and to have been able to tell my story.

Jacobsen: Thank you for your time, Kelly.

Carlin-McCall: Thank you, darling. It was lovely.

Jacobsen: I appreciate that.

License

Copyright

2022-03-24

Growing Up Gifted, and Nerdy When Being a Nerd was Hellacious

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/22

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: In reading through the available literature of Noesis, i.e. available online, three trends persist to me. One, the range of high-level and engaging material across the arts and science, e.g. the lucid description of relativity by Chris Cole at the end of issue 69 entitled Relativity – A Primer. Two, the mix of the occasional scatological material in the writing, mostly c. 1990-1996.

Three, the length of your time as the main editor from 1990-1996. How did you come into the world of the Mega Society? How did you earn the position of editor for six years? Do you think the journal fulfilled part of the purpose stated in the Constitution to “facilitate interaction among its members and to assist them in gaining access to resources to accomplish their individual purposes”?

Rick Rosner: When the editorship was offered to me, I was underemployed. I’d written for some TV quiz shows and thought that work would continue but didn’t know how to get that work. The publisher of Noesis said I could have the subscription money if I’d edit it. It wasn’t much, but everything helps when you’re a bouncer and nude model who’s trying to cover a mortgage and pay for hair transplants.

I edited Noesis for six years because no one else was clamoring to do it. Towards the end, I started getting TV work again and became even less reliable about getting issues out on time. Other members volunteered to take over.

As an editor, I didn’t do too much editing. Most material submitted to me went straight into Noesis. I may have left out some crackpot submissions claiming to have disproved Einstein and perhaps some angry letters from people who thought they deserved to be admitted to Mega though they didn’t meet the entrance requirements.

Some of the writing you term scatological may have been my writing about myself. While most of the material submitted to Noesis is at a high intellectual level or at least reflects striving in that direction, I was trying to be entertaining and tell the embarrassing and I hope the funny truth about myself.

I eventually became a professional comedy writer, and, without looking back on my writing for Noesis, I’m sure much of it was goofier and more obnoxious (and perhaps more entertaining) than the average article.

I’m fairly pessimistic about the effectiveness of most high-IQ journals, though I’ve seen some good ones. My editorship was at the very beginning of the internet era, so most communication was by snail mail. Now, of course, high-IQ organizations are online, which speeds up the discourse. The Mega Society online journal has some good material and discussions.

License

Copyright

2022-03-24

This Week In News, A Kevin and Benedict Story

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/22

Kevin and Benedict are colleagues. We have written and worked together. They have a podcast called This Week in News with Kevin and Benedict. I like them. Here’s their story. Kevin grew up in Sacramento California, where he conquered his enemies and saved the city from annihilation multiple times. He currently attends UC Berkeley as a Political Science major. He also worked as a heavy equipment mechanic for 5 years before college. He enjoys cigars, hockey (Go Sharks), politics, and saltwater fish tanks. Benedict is a Brit living in the US. Just for you, part 1.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: I wanted to interview each of you together because you’re friends and do some decent work through a podcast. I wanted to explore some of that. You both agreed. What is your brief background?

Kevin: I first want talk about the statement where you said we are friends. We are acquaintances at best. How dare you put my name in with his, interview over!

Jacobsen: [Laughing]

Benedict: Now, we’re going to answer your question. I am originally from the UK. I studied at Oxford University, Spanish and Portuguese. I decided I didn’t want to do anything with that. I wanted to be a journalist or pundit, whatever I am now.

I have done a lot of writing for people for free to get my name out there. I stumbled upon Kevin. Now, we have a podcast. That’s how we got there today.

Kevin: I am from Sacramento, California. I took two semesters of Spanish [Laughing]. I worked as a heavy equipment mechanic a few years after high school. I radically changed my life from being a Right-wing dirt bag to leaning heavily to the Left.

It was a dual change of coming to atheism and realizing everything I ever believed was basically wrong. I was re-examining things and searching for the truth. This brought me there. I was a mechanic for 5 years.

I went back to community college, then got into UC Berkeley, where I am now. Then all three of us were working for an outlet, writing online. We met through there. Benedict was doing a podcast there at the time. It was terrible, I must say. Your form was off.

For a quick moment, can I critique your old podcast?

Benedict: You can if you want.

Kevin: I always wanted to do a podcast, but it was a matter of finding a partner. It is a matter of British accents. I thought, “This is a perfect podcast partner, who can make me sound better.”

Benedict: [Laughing].

Jacobsen: Kevin, you noted the transition from a Right-wing social and political, and so cultural, perspective. Was it all-at-once or slow transition? What was the feeling?

Kevin: It wasn’t all-at-once. It was a gradual thing. It started with some things I believed being chipped away at, starting with climate change. I was a climate change denier. People would introduce me to the facts.

It became more and more apparent that I am wrong here. That something else was going on here. In my mind, and the way I was raised, I had to look for myself and examine things. Once you can do that with one issue, it becomes easier with other things. It was looking at the bottom of it rather than what the Right-wing commentators had been saying all of my life such as the guy who ran The Blaze, Glenn Beck.

I had more Glenn Beck books that anyone should ever have. I had two.

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Kevin: Five years ago, if Donald Trump ran for president, I would have voted for him. That’s how far gone I was.

Jacobsen: What about you, Benedict?

Benedict: I have left-wing tendencies growing up. I go through occasional center leaning wobbles, especially in high school. That kind of time because of the people I was surrounded by at the time. When I went to university, I solidified in left-wing and liberal thinking. At the same time, I came across atheism and being skeptical of stuff and trying to question everything.

I do not think I have changed much. I haven’t had a radical right-to-left swing like Kevin, but I have become more left-wing as I study politics more. Europeans tend to be more left-wing anyway, so definitely in the American sense – maybe for a European perspective too. If anything, I have become more left-wing with time, but probably more centrist than leftist.

Kevin: Was high school your Tory years?

Benedict: Yes, when I write my autobiography, I will become famous and those will be the “Tory Years.”

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Kevin: You had a picture of Margaret Thatcher up on your wall.

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Benedict: Yes, it was when we went through the recession and had a left-wing government, so we felt there must have been some reason for this to be wrong and a change must be necessary away from the established way of thinking. But you could more left-wing than the Labour government had been to that point, I assumed the natural change was to be Right-wing.

It wasn’t necessarily the “Tory Years,” but more like the “We need change” years – from the status quo. An obvious change at the time was to lean more Tory, though I don’t think I’d agree with myself now.

Jacobsen: You founded TWIN or This Week in News with Kevin and Benedict. What was the inspiration for it?

Benedict: I am a very grumpy person. I like to complain the news. I spend too much time thinking other people are dumb [Laughing].

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Benedict: We spend a lot of time critiquing the Trump administration because that’s who is in power. I like to think we’d be critiquing whoever else might be in power. We simply have a lot more to talk about with the Trump administration because they are in power. Do you agree with that Kevin? We are both democrats, but we wouldn’t not critique Democrats simply because they are of our party.

Kevin: I asked, “What will we do when Donald Trump is out of office?” Well, then is the time to start looking at more of the mundane issues, I feel like right now we are in crisis mode. I feel there are many bad and dangerous things. It is important to focus on them. I believe other things are worth focusing on our side when our people do wrong, but there is a limited amount time. It is more important with constraints to focus on Donald Trump and the administration.

It is important to critique people on our side when it is appropriate. We do try to get those smaller stories and criticize people on our side when it is appropriate to do so. We made a point of critiquing Kathy Griffin, people on our side, and say stupid things. In the show recorded today, we talked about how the new Democratic Party slogan is stupid [Laughing]. It is not just news. We try to keep things light and entertaining too.

As a news consumer myself, I like nice and dense news, but I want it to be entertaining as well.

License

Copyright

2022-03-23

Growing Up Gifted, in the Laissez-Faire 70s Era

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/21

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You have a long history with forging identities beginning with entering high school another time, and many more. What motivated this behavior? How long did you pursue this ‘calling’ of entering high school? In particular, how did each experience turn out? How many times did you do this?

Rick Rosner: Though I had started trying to de-nerdify myself as early as ninth grade, it wasn’t effective. In my small town, my classmates were well aware of my nerdiness – there was no erasing that. After years of trying to be cool and failing, I was very frustrated and had something like a freak-out. I decided that I would not leave high school a virgin. So after graduating high school with the class of 1978, using forged transcripts, I went back to high school for a second senior year (class of ’79) with my other family in Albuquerque. I only lasted ten weeks and didn’t come close to even making out with a girl.

A note on inappropriateness: I think standards have changed since I did this. The creepiness factor has increased. But since I was just 18 – still roughly high school age – and barely talked to any girls much less date them when I returned to high school, it was pretty harmless.

1980: Went on a double-date to a high school prom because my girlfriend (who, like me, was in college) had a best friend who was still in high school and thought we should all go to her prom.

Also 1980: I went to L.A. to try to sell my back-to-high-school story to a Hollywood producer. Thought it would help sell the story if I were back in high school at the time. Tried to talk my way into a couple of L.A. schools without any transcripts, just a class of ’81 letterman’s jacket.

I eventually spent several more semesters in high school, but rather than tell about them here, I’ll just tease my forthcoming book, Dumbass Genius, which will detail my more than ten years as a sometime high school student.

Jacobsen: In terms of your ideas related to cosmology and physics, at 10, you began thinking about the universe. The reason for existence.

At 21, you came to a realization. You note, “All the big theories are built around big equivalences.” Namely, your realization of an equivalence between the operation of information in an individual consciousness and the operation of space & matter in the universe. Both have self-consistency.

In addition to this, and later in response to a similar topic in Noesis 58, you state, “I believe in matter and space as information held in some vast awareness…” What do you mean by these? In particular, the idea of a great equivalence. How have you developed the idea from the original equivalence to the present day?

Rosner: I’ve continued to think about this stuff and think I have a pretty good theoretical framework, though it needs more math.

I believe that it’s almost impossible to have a large, self-consistent system of information without that system has some degree of consciousness – probably a high degree. Consciousness can be characterized as every part of a system knowing what’s going on, more or less, with every other part of the system, within a framework that assigns (emotional) values to events perceived by the system.

(Of course, there are processes which are peripheral to consciousness – most of the time, we’re not aware of the finer points of breathing or walking or why we like looking at cat videos and butts.)

Plenty of people think that the universe is a massive processor of information. Quantum mechanics mathematicizes the limitations of the universe’s information-processing ability. Being finite, the universe cannot observe itself with infinite precision.

Jacobsen: Provided the nature of these particular equivalences, especially related to the universe, do you have a mathematical model to represent this equivalence? Furthermore, do you have a layman analogy for this equivalence?

Rosner: I think the most efficient model of the information contained in a complex, self-contained and self-consistent system of information looks like the universe – locally three-dimensional (spatially) with linear time and particles and forces that transact business more or less the way they do in the universe itself.

I don’t believe in the big bang – instead, I believe that what looks like a big bang is kind of a trick of perspective, based on the universe being made of information. Parts of the universe which have less information in common with us are more distant and red-shifted. The apparent age of the universe is a measure of the amount of information it contains (or has in play). Somewhat similarly, train tracks don’t really touch at the horizon.

Kind of picture the universe as being at a slow boil. Some parts are energy-rich and expanding, while other parts are burned out and pushed to the outskirts by the expanding regions, waiting for their chance to expand again.

License

Copyright

2022-03-23

Carlin at Comedy, Home, Life, and Harmony

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/22

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Your mom didn’t bring home stray dogs but brought home stray people.

Kelly Marie Carlin-McCall: [Laughing] She was a rescuer.

Jacobsen: Later, she got breast cancer. As she was healing, you became her nurse. To me, it seems like you took on the role that she had performed for others throughout her life.

Carlin-McCall: Oh, yes! When I brought Andrew into my life, that was my first rescue. I figured if I married Andrew that he would get his life together. That was the co-dependence in me. Nursing my mother was different, this rescuing thing is a pathology.

It is a way of not having healthy boundaries around creating these situations. Being my mom’s nurse, what’re you going to do? It was difficult, but you can’t say, “No.” It’s your mother. No matter how terrifying it is.

Jacobsen: What is the motivation there – to care for strangers that are going through any myriad circumstances that you may or may not know at the time?

Carlin-McCall: It is a deep need to alleviate other people’s suffering. That motivates it, ultimately. At times, it is wanting to heal our own suffering. Maybe, it is easier to do it outside of ourselves with other people. Sometimes, if you get motivated by feeling wanted and needed, that’s part of the co-dependent relationship.

The rescuer role is the one that feels high and mighty because they’re doing the rescuing. However, if that’s unconsciously motivating it, over time, it will become oppressive – the helping. There’s a way to be of service. There’s a way of encroaching your own pathology when you’re helping them.

When I went Andrew went into rehabilitation, the first family therapy group session I attended, I told my story. The therapist said, “You’re sicker than he is.” I took great offense to that because A) I was the victim to his insanity and B) I had taken the high road by being there for him and caretaking for him.

She pointed out the victim and the caretaker role were just as pathological. When it is unconscious, all of that behavior is not healthy because you’re being run by your unconscious scripts. It is only when you can own up and take care of yourself first, and be healthy around that, then you can take care of others in a way that is healthy and real.

Jacobsen: To go back to school, you were clinging to Miss Morgan in school. You were a very good student. Also, you had validation from Mrs. Dresser. She would bring you around and introduce you as one of the smartest kids. You deduced the smartest because she would bring the smart kids out, but you were the only kid brought out.

Carlin-McCall: [Laughing] Yes.

Jacobsen: Another footnote to that is you only ever received one C. Based on the acknowledgments in the interview, and the narrative within the book, I see patterns and themes. We have a highly gifted and talented kid in a troubled surrounding.

So, likely more sensitive to surroundings, emotionally and experientially, and enduring Carlin craziness, but you ruined your SAT scores. Even knowing you were bright, even knowing you had good grades, the SATs were insufficient for Ivy schools. What were the feelings at that time?

Carlin-McCall: Also, the year I was taking the SATs, my junior and senior year in high school, I was in a difficult emotional place. I had depression. I had anxiety. I had an abortion. I was in this abusive relationship with this boy. Taking those tests were hard, I am not good at taking those tests.

It was a blow. Also, I don’t think I could’ve handled going 3,000 miles away from my parents at the time. I wasn’t capable of it. So, it saved me from having to make the choice. Thank God, I got into UCLA. Even though, after two weeks at UCLA, I couldn’t handle it. I was emotionally unfit to handle it.

I didn’t know I was having anxiety and depression at that level. I didn’t know what those feelings were at the time. I felt crazy inside. I felt as though I couldn’t handle anything. I felt something was wrong with me. I had no idea how to ask for help because, on the outside, I wanted everyone to think I was fine and okay.

It was another big theme in my life, by saying, “I am fine. I am fine,” when they asked how I was doing. It was devastating. It made me feel behind all of my peers. I stayed behind because I didn’t go to college until I was 25. That set me up for the next 20 years thinking, “I am behind. I am behind.”

So, any sense of being smart, bright, and creative, and is the daughter of this very smart and creative man, and mom too, was non-existent. I felt as though I fucked it all up.

License

Copyright

2022-03-23

Growing Up Gifted, and Desperately Wanting a Girlfriend

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/21

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You have coined the phrase “lazy voodoo physics”. How do you define “lazy voodoo physics”?

Why resort to this form of considering major interests such as the structure and fate our universe, or existence of other universes, and other concepts arising from 20th and 21st-century cosmology and physics?

Rick Rosner: Lazy voodoo physics is my term for crappy metaphysical theorizing (which I’ve done some of, particularly as a little kid). I prefer to think that my current metaphysical theorizing is less crappy.

It is possible to think about the universe without a full mathematical arsenal. George Gamow, who came up with the big bang, was notoriously unschooled in math.

Immanuel Kant was among the first people to endorse the idea of galaxies, and Edgar Allen Poe offered a reasonable solution to Olbers’ Paradox.

Einstein himself had to be pointed towards the mathematical framework for general relativity by his friends. Trying to imagine the processes of the universe with the math to come later is not voodoo physics. Metaphysics doesn’t have to be voodoo physics, either.

Jacobsen: When did you enter into the world of the ultra-high IQ community? In particular, the Mega Society. In it, once more, you forged an identity. What motivated this resurgence of forging an identity?

For instance, the use of the pseudonym Richard Sterman within the publications of the Mega Society journal, Noesis. To make amends, and needing stating, you did apologize to members and readers of the journal for the false identity portrayal.

Rosner: When I first qualified for the Mega Society in late 1985, I was depressed from a bad breakup and would try to make myself less depressed by doing stupid stuff.

After receiving a score on the Mega Test that qualified me for the Mega Society, I wrote to Marilyn Savant (who must’ve been in charge of membership at the time) and asked, “Hey, can I join your club…and want to go on a date? I’m a stripper.”

Marilyn wrote back and said my score didn’t qualify me for Mega. She had no response to the personal invitation. (Later, my score did turn out qualify me for Mega. My score’s IQ equivalent jumped around as more scores came in and the test was repeatedly recalibrated.)

On the Mega Test, I had tied for the second-highest score in the country. The CBS Morning News called to invite me to be on the show. I asked the producer if I should wear my tux or my loincloth.

She immediately cancelled me for being a crazy person. In my defense, I worked in bars until two in the morning and didn’t wake up in time to see what morning news shows were like. I thought, stupidly, that the CBS Morning News would want somebody really fun. (Fun = loincloth.)

The other people with high scores were two Los Angeles math professors, Solomon Golomb and Herbert Taylor, and the Governor of New Hampshire. People seemed really annoyed that I, a roller skating waiter, stripper, bar bouncer, and amateur undercover high school student, was in their company.

In 1990, when the Titan Test came out, I remembered how appalled at me people were after the Mega.

So I decided to take the test using my girlfriend’s last name instead of my own, figuring that if I did well on the Titan, I could get a fresh start at talking to reporters without being tainted by being the person who shocked people the first time around. If this sounds dumb, it’s because it was.

My Twitter handle is @dumbassgenius because I tend to do a mix of smart and dumb stuff (not usually on purpose). I wasn’t trying to fool anyone for test purposes, I was just trying to sidestep my stupid past.

I did really well on the Titan, finally joining the Mega Society and becoming editor of the Mega Society journal. After a few months, I told everyone, “Hey, I’m the same guy who did well on the Mega Test.”

I don’t think anyone was outraged. (I also took the Mega Test for the second time as Richard Sterman. But I soon came clean.)

License

Copyright

2022-03-23

Home Companion of a Carlin Life in Comedy

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/21

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Then you met Andrew Sutton, who was a 29-year-old cocaine-snorting mechanic. More or less, as far as I got from reading that part of the book, you bared your souls to one another. What was like to you to be able to be open with someone who was older? When a lot of the time, you were trying to be the good kid.

Kelly Marie Carlin-McCall:Yes, it was very heady stuff. Andrew was 10 or 11 years older than me. There was looking up to him with a father-figure part of it. The fact of him being a peer. The sexual relationship, the bonding over the drugs, and the illicit part of that.

Then there were the complications that went along with it, which was ridiculous, crazy, and insane. It showed my very poor choice-making skills at that time. I was not prepared for adulthood and those relationships. My lack of self-worth and the inability to have any healthy boundaries in a relationship with a man. I was so vulnerable in that moment.

Being able to finally bare my soul to someone of the opposite sex was very powerful because all of the other boys in my life, even though they were friends or boyfriends, when you’re in high school you’re trying to pretend that you’re a great person and desperately be liked and loved, it was tough to bear who I really was, and my pain around my childhood and upbringing.

Being able to have someone to relate that to who someone had their own pain in adolescence was a profound bonding for me, it created a safe space. That was our connection initially, Andrew and I. It was the sense of safety and intimacy around that stuff. Unfortunately, it was a ridiculously insane, chaotic situation for me to get into. I didn’t have any ways to separate from it.

All I saw was someone who saw me, adored me, and loved me unconditionally. That was more important than all of the things I was saying, “Yes,” to. I was in way over my head.

Jacobsen: With that relationship, the sex and cocaine and orgasms were sufficient reason to keep him around too, but you did quit, eventually. Up to the present, is there any substance use or misuse, if I may ask?

Carlin-McCall: I drink alcohol. I smoke weed. I don’t smoke a lot of weed. I don’t drink a lot of alcohol. I haven’t used cocaine since 1988. I know it’s around at parties, but I don’t use it. It is not part of my scene. I walked away from it. I am very, very cognizant of alcohol in my life because of my mother.

Alcohol was never really my thing. I don’t really like it that much. I do smoke one hit of pot once per week if a friend is around or there is a party. I am lucky. I am one of those people that don’t have a substance abuse problem.

I have a way of being in a relationship with it, in a conscious way. I can quit for a year or two at times because I find it distracts me. However, everyone has their relationship with it. Others need to completely abstain. Others can have a beer with dinner. I am lucky to be one of those people.

I am lucky to be alive too. The cocaine, it is a dangerous drug. Any form of it. Any offspring of it: meth, crystal, and others. It is a scary drug. It completely hijacks your brain, the dopamine loop. It makes you a slave to it.

It is meaningless to me today. It doesn’t define me. I see other people, who have the genetics for it. It is scary to watch people teetering and playing with that dangerous stuff. I am blessed. It has been 30 years next year since I have seen cocaine. [Laughing] That’s crazy.

License

Copyright

2022-03-23

Onward With the Fight for Women’s Rights, Right?

Author(s): Anya Overmann and Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/21

Anya Overmann and I came across this report on the Freedom From Religion Foundation and its efforts to protect reproductive rights and proper education. Just for you.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation announced the aim to combat another bill designed to attack women’s reproductive rights (FFRF, 2017). It deals with abortion, which, to be fair, is a split issue among women, and the general populace, in the United States.

Based on research into the general public’s views on abortion from 1995-2017, the Pew Research Center reports (circa 2017) that “57% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 40% say it should be illegal in all or most cases” (Pew Research Center, 2017).

However, more than half of American adults do not take an “absolutist” view on abortion. They will be somewhere between most or some of the time in their views, whether pro-life or pro-choice. Note, the terms “pro-choice” and “pro-life” are not formal terms used in the Pew Research Center report, but seem implied to us.

This bill would essentially prevent OBGYN students at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health from training to perform abortions. It’s not just discouraging women from getting abortions — it’s cutting off access to abortions at the source.

The FFRF opposes this bill due to its perpetuation of the age-old attack on women’s rights, as well as restricting the education of medical students at UW. There’s absolutely no secular reasoning for passing a bill like this. All it does is simply reinforce the fact that in 2017 women’s rights are in continued need of strong advocacy and implementation., and protection.

If this bill were to pass, it would set a legal precedent for the rest of the United States, which would open the doors for more significant regressive initiatives. Ultimately reversing not only women’s rights, but scientific and medical progress as well, the FFRF is one of many organizations taking a stand – as they should.

References

Freedom From Religion Foundation. (2017). Freedom From Religion Foundation. Retrieved from https://ffrf.org/.

Grover, S. (2017, July 19). FFRF fights for education and women’s rights. Retrieved from http://www.patheos.com/blogs/freethoughtnow/ffrf-fights-for-education-and-womens-rights/.

Pew Research Center. (2017, July 7). Public Opinion on Abortion: Views on abortion, 1995-2017. Retrieved from http://www.pewforum.org/fact-sheet/public-opinion-on-abortion/.

License

Copyright

2022-03-23

Home is Where the Carlin Is, Comedy

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/21

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: That makes me think of Terry. If I can be indulged, it was one paragraph (and a sentence):

A few days later Terry showed up at our house. I’m not sure why he came – to apologize, to charm me again, to tell me I was a whore? My dad saw him outside the gate at the end of our long driveway. He went into his office and grabbed his baseball bat. As my dad marched down the driveway toward Terry, he said, “You come near my daughter again, I’ll bash your fucking skull in.”

It was the proudest day of my life – my father had finally fathered me.

Kelly Marie Carlin-McCall: Yup, says it all. [Laughing]

Jacobsen: [Laughing] Was that your first experience of feeling truly fathered, or were there other minor events that you did actually feel fathered?

Carlin-McCall: Obviously, my dad would get things for me, or protect me, or stand up for me with my mother at times. He was always teaching me things about the world – politics and the cultural stuff, the ethical/moral compass things. But as far as being a dad who is like “Who are you going out with? Where are you going? Are you going to be safe?”

He would check in with me about stuff like that, but there was never any sense of fear that they would take anything away, like driving privileges, or search my room for drugs. There wasn’t that type of fathering going on, which is what I mean in that comment. The protective father who wants to create boundaries, teach me boundaries, and show me what is safe and what is not safe. That hadn’t shown up in my life up to the point. It had become a type of crisis point.

Jacobsen: There was not only drug abuse and misuse, depending on the term of preference, within the household. In a way, there was an involving you in it. From a young age, you were able to roll and clean cannabis/marijuana.

Carlin-McCall: I couldn’t really roll joints very well, but I definitely cleaned the weed. By watching people, I learned how to roll a joint. When it came to adolescence and knowing how to roll a joint, I was way, way, way ahead of my peers! [Laughing]

Jacobsen: [Laughing]

Carlin-McCall: Because I had been studying it for quite a long time.

Jacobsen: [Laughing]

Carlin-McCall: [Laughing]

Jacobsen: You started smoking marijuana/cannabis at age 14.

Carlin-McCall: That’s when I started self-medicating. I started smoking cigarettes, then started stealing roaches from my dad’s stash. That’s when I started altering my consciousness in order to feel something I didn’t want to feel anymore.

License

Copyright

2022-03-23

Growing Up Carlin, A Comedy Story

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/20

Kelly Marie Carlin-McCall, B.A., M.A. is known for her work in comedy and writing. Here we discuss a wide range of issues in an extensive talk on comedy and life. Here is session 4.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You mentioned this as feeling, with respect to wanting to master school, “the charge of having power over something”. Between the transitional object of clinging to Brenda, to then clinging to Miss Morgan, and then wanting to master school to have power over something, both of those speak volumes to a lack of control you felt in your own life up to 4 years old as well as not knowing what to attach to – other than another caring object or person, in this case, Miss Morgan.

Kelly Marie Carlin-McCall: Yes! Yes, we moved to LA. My mom was falling apart. You need a safe place for the storm. School became that for me. Having a good mind, and being able to master school, and soak it all up, it was a sense of control and power. Thank God! Thank God I had that, who knows where I’d be without that? All of us have to find some sense of stability internally in order to develop into adults. Without that, there can be some serious mental health issues. Attachment disorders and all sorts of things.

I had this true foundation. I knew my mother deeply loved me. I knew my father deeply loved me. I didn’t have a sense of being thrown out on the curb and not loved, but things felt very unstable at home because dad was on the road so much and mom was having intense anxiety and panic attacks. She was self-medicating with alcohol. Thank God, I had 6 hours or so a day with a stable adult to connect to, and an environment that fed me.

Jacobsen: Your father, in an interview with Jon Stewart, described his mother as wanting to control his life. You describe your father controlling whether your mom worked or not, and heavily leaning towards the latter option.

Yet, what I am getting from you a little bit is there was almost the opposite, a lack of control, but that might be because he was on the road and gone so much. I want to get your perspective on if you felt as if there was a lack of oversight and control of you from your parents.

Carlin-McCall: My mother had to be both mother and father because he wasn’t home. She resented that. My dad really didn’t know how to be an adult, let alone a parent. He didn’t have a father himself. He was raised by a single mom and rebelled against her authority. He didn’t want to impose her controlling nature on anybody.

The only thing he asked my mother not to do was work because his mother worked and he had no one around, so he wanted to make sure one parent was around the home with me. My parents were busy getting screwed up on drugs and alcohol. My father was busy with his career. Because I was very precocious and a good girl, there didn’t have to be a lot of parenting.

I didn’t create a lot of a challenge around that. I was great at school. I was a great student. I did what I was told. When there is a lot of chaos in your environment, at least as a kid, my reaction was needing to be in charge of myself. I needed to figure out the rules by myself and live by them. I could discern the rules pretty easily. I was pretty smart. I knew what it was to be a good kid, so I was. My mother used to say, “Thank God, we didn’t have a boy.” She didn’t know what might’ve happened if I’d been a boy.

Jacobsen: [Laughing]

Carlin-McCall: Because in some ways my dad didn’t know how to father, but he did. He did the best he could. He did it his way. He didn’t know how to father like the regular run-of-the-mill guy. He might’ve been great at it if I’d been a boy. But who knows? But that laissez-faire parenting became more dramatic and more of an issue around my adolescence when I really did need parenting and guidance.

My parents were pretty hands-off with me. That was the circumstance of it. They were always there in the end. They were there for lots of things. They protected me, in some ways. They paid for everything. They put me in good schools. They made sure I had what I wanted, but they weren’t good at setting limits with me. That would have been helpful in adolescence, but it didn’t happen with me.

License

Copyright

2022-03-23

Growing Up Gifted, and Pathetically Awkward in the 70s

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/20

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: In terms of geography, culture, and language, where does your family background reside? How do you find this influencing your development?

Rick Rosner: I grew up in Boulder, Colorado, with my mom, stepdad, and brother, and spent a month each summer with my dad and stepmom and their kids in Albuquerque, New Mexico. My ancestors came from Eastern Europe and the Baltics by way of Cincinnati and Shreveport. I’m Jewish, but out west, Jewish cultural influence is somewhat attenuated.

Jacobsen: In Noesis issue 57’s article When Good IQs Happen to Bad People, you describe some of your experience as a kid. Could you elaborate on some of the histories before entering grade school?

Rosner: I showed some signs of being a child prodigy – by the age of about 18 months, I’d learned the alphabet, and by age 3 ¾, I’d taught myself to read at a near-adult level, which was unusual for the era. I was good with puzzles and math – but this wasn’t encouraged. My parents thought I’d do better growing up as a normal kid, which did not go smoothly.

Some non-prodigy stuff – the theme music to Perry Mason scared me – I’d have to go hide behind the couch. My first crush was on Patty Duke on The Patty Duke Show, who I somehow conflated with my dad’s sister, Aunt Janice, whom I saw during summer visitation with my dad in Los Angeles. My first memory is of the Raggedy Ann & Andy curtains and bedspread in my room.

We had a very nice cocker spaniel named Tinkerbell, who died when I was four. (This is before cockers became overbred and high-strung.)

I was terrified of swimming, which was part of my generally being a wuss – had to be peeled off the side of the pool by the swim teacher.

Jacobsen: What about your time in grade school, junior high, high school, and college? In particular, what do you consider pivotal moments in each of these cross-sections of latter portions of your early life?

Rosner: I grew up nerdy and interested in science, deciding at a young age to make it my job to figure out the universe. At age six, I was left with a scary babysitter, which led me to start spinning clockwise, chanting to God and to be sent to my first shrink.

I was uncoordinated. Each year, I’d enter the 50-yard-dash on track & field day, and each year would come in last. (Maybe the other not-so-fast kids knew not to enter the race and avoid the embarrassment.) Even as a kid, I had gross caveman feet with weirdly long second toes. I used to take off my shoe to make girls scream and run away – I liked the attention.

In the 1970s, there was no such thing as nerd chic. If you were nerdy, you were probably lonely. But, like many misguided nerds, I thought my intelligence and niceness would inspire a girl to look past my nerdiness. I spent the second semester of ninth grade building a Three-Dimensional Gaussian Distribution Generator to demonstrate to my honors math class.

The machine dropped a thousand BBs through a pyramidal tower of overlapping half-inch grids into a 24-by-12 array of columns. It was a supercharged Plinko machine with an added spatial dimension, forming a half-bell of BBs, thanks to the laws of probability.

During its construction, I thought, “A girl will see this elegant experimental apparatus, think I’m brilliant, and become my girlfriend.” I completed the BB Machine in time to demonstrate it to the class on the last day of school. No one cared. Of course, they didn’t – it was the last day of junior high, and a dweeb was pouring BBs into a plastic pyramid.

Realizing that my nerdiness was standing in the way of ever having a girlfriend, I began changing myself – lifting weights and wearing contact lenses.

Towards the end of high school, I saw my IQ test scores, which maxed out at about 150. I decided that a 150 IQ wasn’t high enough for me to become the world-changing physicist I wanted to be, so I decided to become kind of a meathead – a stripper and a bar bouncer. At about the same time I was beginning my meathead career, I started to take high-end IQ tests, scoring in the 170s, 180s, and eventually 190s.

I also found out that among the reasons I’d never scored much above 150 on school-administered IQ tests is that the tests themselves don’t go much above 150. (This makes sense – if you’re a teacher or administrator trying to figure out whether a kid needs educational enrichment, it doesn’t matter much whether a kid’s IQ is 150 or 165. With either IQ, that kid will go stir-crazy in a regular classroom.)

I’d never quit thinking about physics, but my new, high scores gave me more confidence that I might eventually be able to theorize productively. Of course, a few points should probably be subtracted from my IQ for basing my life on IQ scores.

License

Copyright

2022-03-23

When a Phrase Really Strikes You

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/20

International Women’s Day is done and gone for the year. But Women’s History Month marches forward into its twilight days until the 2018 version comes around, one of further change, but the issues, concerns, and obligations arise year-round. Also, here’s a bad segue:

‘What a Wonderful World’ was a great song by Louis Armstrong – 26,000,000+ views, wow. Anyway, this song – lyrics and tune – were running through my mind when I came across a phrase recently by the executive director of United Nations Women (UN Women). I thought, “What a wonderful saying.”

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is the UN Women under-secretary-general and the executive director of UN Women. She made a statement at the 61^st Commission on the Status of Women (CSW61). I loved it. Mlambo-Ngcuka called this “constructive impatience.” I’ll explain in a bit. But I loved it because I hadn’t thought about that before. Maybe not “thought about that before,” but ‘thought about in that waybefore.’

It was about a week ago on March 13. Mlambo-Ngcuka spoke in front of group of distinguished internationals. She noted that the Commission included a series of reviews on the progress made for women and girls.

These are ‘barometers’ “of the change – of the progress – we are making on achieving a world that is free of gender discrimination and inequality,” she said,”…a world that leaves no-one behind. It will help us measure achievement of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”

2030, as far as I know it, is the date set for the 50-50 world agenda set by the United Nations (UN). It seems ambitious, and doable, but, gosh, that’s a lot of work. Just take the World Economic Forum (WEF), with its Gender Gap Report, these are annual reports on the equality of women.

I suggest even a skim of them. It is rather remarkable. It’s not a total equality metric, though. Why’s that? Because if women surpass men by more than 50% in a given domain, this is taken as equality, even if the domain is dominated by women at 95%, say.

But given the massively tipped scales against women on numerous metrics, then the analysis from the WEF in the Gender Gap Reports can provide comprehensive, relatively fair, representation of the situation for women, and by implication men.

And by the WEF estimation, the gender gap will not close until 2186. Not much for to do then, so two options: pick up the pace, or make this a legacy project (or both). I like the third tacit option. We need to hand the torch at some point, but can do much, much better than now.

According to the Secretary-General report on the CSW61 session, the “priority theme” was “Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Changing World of Work”. That means economies inclusive of women in ways that can break the cycles of poverty. Women appear to be a linchpin in the inclusive, and I would add sustainable, economies.

In the statement, she continued, “Currently, in the gender equality agenda, we see progress in some areas, but we also see an erosion of gains. The much-needed positive developments are not happening fast enough. We also need to work together to make sure we reach a tipping point in the numbers of lives changed.” How many, and how quickly? That’s her emphasis.

I am paying attention, and in a Canadian context – work with what you know, and try to set an example here-ish and now-ish to give legitimate grounds for changing the world the better outside of my maple syrup wonderland.

Mlambo-Ngcuka talked about the Sustainable Development Goals for a wider vision and renewal of that image for those, especially at the bottom of the global strata. And as you know from a second’s reflection are mostly women and girls.

Young women affected by violence around gender, even sexual harassment in the workplace. And with the recent “Global Gag Rule,” we can be sure the restriction of what Human Rights Watch calls “first and foremost a human right.” So there are examples of the restricted equitable access, which isn’t equitable at all, to abortion and reproductive health services.

“Intersection” is an overused term, almost stripped of meaning and left bereft of substance. But it seems popular, so why change? I’ll use it for sake of ease. The intersection of the sexual harassment, workplace discrimination, varying degrees of inequality seen in the provision of abortion and reproductive health services, and the extrapolation of 2186 as the year for equality by the WEF Gender Gap Report lead to the consistent, if not conclusions then, themes.

She spoke to the additional, specified concerns of other minorities within minorities based on “sexual orientation, disability, older age, race, or being part of an indigenous community.”

These various intersections, even intersections of these intersections – see, fancy and academic – as statistical tendencies might be grounds for more often real rather than perceived mild to major discrimination in these arenas of professional and public life.

Now, what was the phrase in context? Here:

We need swift and decisive action that can be brought about by the world of work so that we do not leave women even further behind.

Excellencies, let us agree toconstructive impatience.

The Sustainable Development Goals give us a framework to work for far-reaching changes. In this session of the Commission we will be able to bring renewed focus to the needs of those who are currently being left behind and those who are currently furthest behind.[Emphasis added.]

The Commission was organised around the needs of women. CSW61 was a high-level international event through the UN with specific emphasis on UN Women. Mlambo-Ngcuka said, “Constructive impatience,” because of the continual denial of human rights to women.

Of course, these rights are newer than, say, the divine right of kings. But how long is reasonable to wait? Millions of women’s lives are adversely affected, so girls and children and families, each day. Change needs to happen. And outside moral, and health and wellbeing, arguments, we can reflect on the economic benefits, which Mlambo-Ngcuka covered in her statement.

License

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: