VISION TIMES
VOL.042 OCT 22 - OCT 28 , 2021
PRICE OF FOOD WILL RISE ‘TREMENDOUSLY’: Billionaire Supermarket Owner
$2.00 NY-DC EDITION
49%
Gas Per Gallon
One of the major reasons for shortages in food and other products is the heavy accumulation of shipping containers at the two major California ports.
27%
Propane, Firewood, Kerosene
The COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and the energy crises in Europe and Asia-Pacific also contribute to the supply chain disruption.
6%
Peanut Butter
4% Coffee
19%
Shortage issues are expected to continue into the holiday season as well.
Electricity
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Eggs,Poultry, Fish, Meat
By Ashok Ramprasad Vision Times
Bacon
5.2%
Companies like Procter & Gamble are facing a challenge when it comes to supplying toilet paper and other paper products, especially “in the suburbs and the inner city.” In s the U.S. continues to grapple with the current market condition, manufacturrising inflation, a billionaire super- ers will be on the winning side. market owner has warned that “Why give away something when you don’t Americans will see even more food shortages have to give it away and you make more marand increasing prices in the coming weeks. gin? So I think that now these companies In a recent interview with Fox News, John are going to have record profits in the third Catsimatidis, president of New York’s Grist- quarter,” Catsimatidis stated. edes and D’Agostino Foods, predicts a 10 perTo tackle this problem, the White House cent increase in food prices over the next 60 announced earlier this month that FedEx, days. The upward trend in food prices will UPS, and Walmart will be undertaknot reverse “anytime soon,” he warned. ing more staff shifts to ease the “I see food prices going up treshipping issues. The Port of Los mendously… [CEOs] want to Angeles has committed to 24/7 shifts to step up the be ahead of the curve and delivery of goods the way they’re doing it According to is they’re dropping all recent data released promotions. They are by the Department dropping low-moving of Labor, Ameritems,” Catsimatidis icans are now said. Food industry giants like Coca-Cola, shelling out more Nabisco, and PepsiCo money for goods will prioritize increasand services coming the price of their pared to a year ago. Appliances products, he added. The consumer price
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index (CPI), a major inflation indicator that calculates how much Americans spend on goods and services, rose by around 0.4 percent in September 2021, which is an increase of 5.4 percent year-over-year. When it comes to gas, Americans are paying about 42 percent more per gallon. They’re also paying 27 percent more for propane, firewood, and kerosene; 7.1 percent more for appliances; four percent more for coffee; 19 percent more for bacon; 10.5 percent more for eggs, poultry, fish, and meat; six percent more for peanut butter; and 5.2 percent more for electricity. Catsimatidis noted that oil was as low as $40 a barrel during the time of former President Donald Trump. The billionaire accused the Joe Biden administration of wanting to push up gas prices so high that people might consider switching to electric cars, a move that will be in Chinese interests since “all the batteries” for electric cars are manufactured in the Asian nation.
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NATION
A2 | OCT 22 - OCT 28 , 2021
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Nationwide Driver Shortage Inspires California High School to Teach Truck Driving By Ashok Ramprasad Vision Times
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rucks move roughly 72.5 percent of the nation’s freight by weight, according to the American Trucking Associations (ATA). However, the past decade has seen the country grappling with a shortage of truck drivers. With the supply chain severely impacted by a shortage of truckers, a high school in California is looking to address the problem.
Develop truck driving skills as a career program
Patterson High School in California has become one of the first non-vocational high schools in America to introduce a unique truck driving program as an elective for students. The initiative is part of the school’s Career Technical Education Program that seeks to develop a student’s workplace skills through hands-on training. Dave Dein, a teacher at Patterson High School and former truck driver, is the instructor.
Apart from classroom learning, the truck-driving program also comprises a “lab” section. In order to get first-hand experience in trucking, the teenagers undergo 180 hours of classroom training along with 30 hours of lab
A 2015 study by the ATA found that there was a need for 48,000 drivers. In 2021, the industry was short by 68,000 drivers.
Patterson High School in California offers trucking lessons to students. (Image: pixabay)
sessions held outside classrooms where they get to drive trucks. Students are educated on the fundamentals of the trucking industry and safety. For those students who are interested in pursuing trucking as a career, further training is required once they are 18 years old. As of now, the minimum age for truckers to transport goods across state lines is 21. “A lot of [students] who enroll in the course have never considered trucking as a career… Trucking doesn’t have a great reputation and it comes with a lot of misconceptions about what exactly a truck driver is… If we don’t start promoting trucking to our youth, they only can make decisions on the information that they have,” Dein said to NPR. Some of the misconceptions
include unbearable working hours, hazardous nature of the job, and low wages. As the average age of a truck driver in the U.S. is around 54 years, many are of the view that it is a career option for older people. The thought of having a Commercial Driving License (CDL) prior to graduation is something that the students who enrolled in the program hadn’t even considered. For instance, high school senior Eduardo DominguezSotelo initially thought trucking was not up his alley. But after obtaining a good score on a job assessment test, Dein contacted him and encouraged him to take up the course. “In the end, it actually ended up being a good fit for me,” Dominguez-Sotelo said. A recent graduate of the Patterson High School CDL program,
Isael Medina, told Fox News that he was inspired to pursue a career in trucking after attending Dien’s class. “What motivates me is how Dien told me there’s a shortage of truckers, and I really enjoy this career path… So it’s not mostly about the money, it’s mostly just about helping out my community,” Medina said. According to Dein, the average age of people entering the industry is 38 years old. This means that many look at the job as a second or third career option. Lindsey Trent, co-founder of the Next Generation in Trucking Association revealed that 25 percent of the truck drivers are nearing the age of retirement. Instead of being a second or third choice, Trent wants youngsters to consider trucking as their first career choice.
UCLA Requests to Drop Online Student for Not Submitting His Vaccination Status By Victor Westerkamp Vision Times
U
niversity of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) student, Christian Walker, received a phone call from an unidentified senior demanding he upload his vaccination status or be expelled from college. Walker, who happens to be a conservative influencer with 161.8 thousand followers on Twitter, recorded the conversation and shared it on his Twitter account. “You are calling to tell me you will drop my classes after we’ve already paid $70,000 for the year if I don’t upload something about my vaccine status when all of my classes are online,” Walker is heard saying in his video. A UCLA official responded, “Correct.” “Got it.” responded Walker.
“All of my classes are online. I don’t step onto campus. I’ve already paid. We’re a week into classes. My university just called to tell me they are dropping my classes if I don’t report to them about my vaccination.” Walker commented on Twitter.
UCLA Response
The tweet gained traction with some 23.4 K likes. So much attention was garnered that UCLA was quick to respond to Turning Point USA, a conservative news outlet that investigated the matter. “We have not yet dropped any student for lack of compliance with University of California vaccination policy,” UCLA spokesperson Bill Kisliuk said, according to the outlet. Kisliuk added that the school “would advise any student who has not done so to confirm their sta-
tus as soon as possible.” Walker followed up on Twitter later that same day, informing his fans about a waiver he had to sign, purportedly in an attempt by UCLA to solve the matter benevolently. “My school just made [me] put in writing the following statement, ‘I certify that I have been informed of the risks of COVID-19 infection including long-term disability and death both for myself and others whom I may expose the disease.” Walker said. The next day, Walker appeared on Fox’s The Ingraham Angle hosted by Laura Ingraham. “Laura, it’s absolutely ridiculous. Yesterday, I received a call, as you heard, from the university,” Walker said, adding that “I then received a message from the health center telling me that I would be subject to financial and other
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consequences… such as being reported to the student conduct office for disciplinary action.” When Ingraham asked whether Walker received a lot of support from his fellow students, he said, “They’re actually cheering this on. They scream at me online, cuss me out that I should just disclose my vaccination status even though I’m not even going onto the campus. They love the mandates, and even though most of them are vaccinated, they are also forced and encouraging everyone to wear a mask in class and while walking outside to different classes. It’s complete derangement.”
Several cases in other universities
In September, a New Jersey student, Logan Hollar, was banned from Rutgers University. Hollar
found out he was excluded from the university’s email system when he went to pay for his college tuition. He hadn’t updated his vaccination status even while he lived in Sussex County, 70 miles from the campus, and never intended to attend classes in person. Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, said it would cut students’ internet access for those who fail to show proof of their vaccination status. Moreover, it fines unvaccinated students $100 a week or $2,275 for a whole semester. Meanwhile, the University of Michigan and Cornell University have penalized students for failing mandatory coronavirus tests by deactivating their access cards to nonresidential buildings. The school also removed access to campus Wi-Fi, course materials, and facilities for non-compliant students.
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VISION TIMES
OCT 22 - OCT 28, 2021 |
A3
‘THE FINAL STRAW’: Pennsylvania School Boards Association Leaves NSBA Over ‘Domestic Terrorism’ Letter By Neil Campbell Vision Times
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he school boards association for the state of Pennsylvania has officially withdrawn from the National School Boards Association (NSBA) in protest over the organization’s letter to President Joe Biden asking for the use of the PATRIOT Act and to classify parents who protest Critical Race Theory and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) mandates as “domestic terrorism.” The Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) made the announcement it had voted unanimously to separate from the NSBA in an internal memo that was made public on Twitter on Oct. 14. “This misguided approach has made our work and that of many school boards more difficult. It has fomented more disputes and cast partisanship on our work on behalf of school directors, when we seek to find common ground and support all school directors in their work, no matter their politics.” The memo says the Association represents 4,500 school board members and 500 school boards across the state.
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The Pennsylvania School Boards Association has withdrawn from the National School Boards Association in Protest after the NSBA’s Sept. 29 letter to Joe Biden asking protesting parents be classified as “domestic terrorism” and to have the PATRIOT Act deployed. AG Garland directed the FBI and U.S. Attorneys in response. (Image: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
In the NSBA’s Sept. 29 letter to the President, the group thanked Biden for supplying funds through multi-trillion dollar spending packages enacted by Democrats during the first 8 months of the new Presidency while characterising protests at board meetings in different locales as “attacks against school board members and educators for approving policies for masks” and “physical threats because of propaganda purporting the false inclusion of critical race theory within classroom instruc-
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tion and curricula.” The Association asked the President to deploy the FBI, DOJ, DHS, Secret Service, and NTAC to combat “acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials,” which the NSBA said should be characterized as “a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”
One example cited in the letter
An instance on June 22 where Scott Smith, father of a 15-year-
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old girl who was allegedly sodomized and assaulted in a high school bathroom by a boy wearing a skirt and self-identifying as a female, was punched and arrested by police at a Loudoun County board meeting while challenging executives about his daughter’s assault. The assault occurred on May 28, yet the boy was not charged until July 8. Afterwards, he was transferred to another school and affixed with an ankle monitor. He assaulted another girl at his new school on Oct. 6 and now faces multiple felony charges resulting from both incidents. In response to the NSBA’s letter, Attorney General Merrick Garland deployed the FBI and U.S. Attorneys offices across the country to “convene meetings with federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial leaders in each federal judicial district within 30 days of the issuance of this memorandum.” “These meetings will facilitate the discussion of strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff, and will open dedicated lines of communication for threat reporting, assessment, and response,” read an Oct.
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4 memorandum published by Garland.
Requesting the position on the NSBA letter
Advocacy group Parents Defending Education (PDE) said it had contacted 47 state school boards requesting their position on the NSBA letter. The group said as of Oct. 18, 18 states, including: • Arkansas • Delaware • Florida • Georgia • Idaho • Kentucky • Louisiana • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana • New Hampshire • North Carolina • Pennsylvania • Tennessee • Texas • Virginia • Wyoming had “distanced themselves from the NSBA’s letter.” PDE noted that California declined to respond. PDE published text of letters received from each Association in response to their inquiries in the Press Release.
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CHINA China’s Nuclear-Capable Hypersonic Missile Test Takes Washington by Surprise A4 | OCT 22 - OCT 28 , 2021
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By Jonathan Walker Vision Times
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hina tested a nuclearcapable hypersonic missile back in August, 2021 according to a Financial Times (FT) report. Individuals who knew about these tests revealed to the media outlet that the rocket carrying the hypersonic glide vehicle flew through low-orbit space and eventually crashed some two dozen miles away from its target. U.S. intelligence officials are apparently surprised by China’s hypersonic missile development. One individual admitted that they had “no idea how they did this.” Two people said that the test shows the “astounding progress” achieved by China in the field. It was far more advanced than American officials realized. The missile test also raised questions on why Washington tends to underestimate the military modernization underway in China.
Performers dressed as military perform in front of a screen showing rockets being launched during a mass gala marking the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party on June 28, 2021 at the Olympic Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing, China. (Image: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
place in July and not August. The FT article came amidst reports that Chinese PLA scientists are researching artificial intelligence (AI) enabled hypersonic missiles. A paper published by Xian Yong and Li Bangjie from Rocket Force Engineering University’s college of war support proposes using AI to rewrite a missile’s software “on the fly.” As a result, the weapon will be granted more decision-making powers. “Using their method, the AI would start work immediately after launch, before the weapon reached hypervelocity, to calculate its position using the signal from the GPS or BeiDou – China’s navigational positioning system – and compare it with the results generated by the on-board sensors to evaluate the actual condition of the hardware,” according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP). Based on this new information, the onboard AI will then create a unique positioning algorithm for the weapon before it enters the cruising stage of hypersonic flight. The study showed that the use of AI can keep hypersonic missiles accurate to about 10 meters or 32 feet. The researchers argue that handing over control of hypersonic weapons to machines will improve accuracy by over 10 times.
The fact that American technology has contributed to the PLA’s hypersonic missile program. -- Michael Gallagher.
Republican Michael Gallagher, member of the House armed services committee, believes that the Chinese test should be a wakeup call for America. “The People’s Liberation Army now has an increasingly credible capability to undermine our missile defenses and threaten the American homeland with both conventional and nuclear strikes…" Gallagher told the FT. Chinese state-backed media outlet Global Times used the FT article as propaganda to showcase the PLA’s prowess. In an Oct. 17 editorial titled, “US should stop eyeing too much on China’s hypersonic missiles and broaden its horizons,” the outlet claimed that China is riding on an “unstoppable trend” of narrowing the gap with the U.S., in terms of military technologies. It claimed that China is capable of weakening America’s overall mil-
itary advantages by “developing military power at its own pace.” “The US generally has the ability to monitor global missile launches. If the FT report is to be believed, it means that there is a key new member in China’s nuclear deterrence system, which is a new blow to the US’ mentality of strategic superiority over China,” the editorial said. At a press briefing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian dismissed the FT report, claiming that China had not tested a missile but a space vehicle. He added that the test was a routine one usually conducted to check the reusability of the vehicle. The test had apparently taken
China showed off a hypersonic missile launch pad during a military parade in 2019. (Image: Getty Images)
Young Urban Chinese Women Not Too Keen On Tying The Knot By Ashok Ramprasad Vision Times
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ommunist China, the world’s second-largest economy, is facing a demographic crisis. With a decline in birth rates and an aging workforce, the country is facing economic and social challenges. The 2020 census showed that China’s population grew at the slowest pace in the last decade since the 1950s. The slowdown in population growth will likely worsen as a recent survey revealed that young urban women don’t want to get married. The survey was conducted by a wing of the Communist Youth www.visiontimes.com
League. Forty-four percent of young urban women and 25 percent of men say that they have no plans for marriage. Many do not believe in falling in love either. In the survey, 2,905 unmarried youths between the ages of 18 and 26 took the poll. When questioned about their “willingness to fall in love,” 12.8 percent chose “not willing to fall in love”; 26.3 percent said, “not sure”; 8.9 percent said they “will not get married”; 25 percent said they were “not sure” about getting married. In total, thirty-four percent do not consider marriage a necessity. Nearly 30 percent of the youths said that they have never been in love.
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When asked for reasons why they do not wish to get married, 60.8 percent stated (Image: Pixabay) that “it is difficult to find the right person.” Another 34.5 percent said they “feel that they do not have the time and energy to get married.” The economic burden of raising children and the financial cost of marriage were other reasons cited by respondents for not tying the knot. The portrayal of unhealthy relationships in media and personal negative experiences led 30.5 percent of the youngsters to say that they “do not believe in marriage.”
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Communist China wants to boost birth rates
In May 2021, communist China launched a new three-child policy, removing the ban on having more than two children per couple. The withdrawal of the two-child rule was the second time in five years that China made a marked change to its population control guidelines. Back in 2016, the Chinese government reversed its one-child policy. It had started in 1979 to restrain the country’s fastgrowing population. The three-child policy was adopted after it came to light that the country had seen the slowest population growth since the ad.ny@visiontimes.com
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50s. Between 2010 and 2020, communist China’s population only grew by an average of 0.53 percent per annum. That’s down from a 0.57 percent growth from 20002010. However, it is likely that the three-child policy will not produce the desired effect. Youngsters now follow a “9-9-6” lifestyle where they work 12 hours a day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. Combined with the increasing cost of raising children, many people are not keen to start families. Plus, young urban couples, specifically those born after 1990, tend to value their careers and independence more than raising a family.
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CHINA
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OCT 22 - OCT 28, 2021 |
A5
Russia and China Escalate Maritime Military Exercises
Workers walk in front of the Evergrande headquarters in Shenzhen, southeastern China on September 26, 2021. (Image: NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images)
By Ryan Wu Vision Times
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n Oct. 15, Russia and China participated in joint naval drills in the Sea of Japan where they practiced how to operate together and how to destroy floating enemy mines with artillery fire, according to a statement by the Russian defence ministry. “The war games are part of naval cooperation drills between the two countries which run from Oct. 14-17 and involve warships and support vessels from Russia’s Pacific Fleet, including minesweepers and a submarine.” Reuters reported.
Offshore Investors in Trouble
Drawing Russia into a confrontation with the US and its allies
as Evergrande Favoring Domestic Obligations
By Ashok Ramprasad Vision Times
W
ith liabilities of more than $300 billion, China’s Evergrande Group is the one of most indebted property developers in the world. Having failed to make payments on some of its debts, Evergrande is making offshore investors extremely nervous. On Oct. 15, the company announced that it would pay interest payments on domestically-issued bonds worth 121.8 million yuan (US$19 million). Since late September, Evergrande has missed three rounds of payments worth US$277 million due on its offshore debts. As such, the announcement has increased skepticism among offshore investors that they are not prioritized when it comes to paying back company loans. Evergrande has so far seen more than half of its 800 ongoing projects on the mainland suspended as it failed to settle debts with suppliers, banks, and retail creditors. The company has not had any meaningful interactions with creditors so far and is tight-lipped on its dollar bond liabilities. According to analysts, Evergrande’s creditors by order of repayment priority are house-
holds who account for 54 percent However, keepwell bonds do of the company’s funding, sup- not guarantee repayment of debts pliers who make up 43 percent of taken. The keepwell structure first emerged in the firm’s liabilities, retail 2012-2013. By creditors, 2020, around banks, and $100 bilfinally bondlion, or over holders. 16 percent Apart from of outstandthe prioring offshore itization of bonds issued suppliers and by Chinese households, companies made use of offshore investors face such strucother legal tures. challenges Ensuring in making the company Evergrande honors promises made accountable for the debt. in the keepwell bonds In China, it is a tough is forbidden -- David Billington task. In one for mainland compasuch case last nies to guaryear, courtantee offshore debts of their units appointed administrators had until they complete a special reg- refused to recognize keepwell deeds issued by the company. istration and approval process. In an interview with Reuters, Keepwell bonds David Billington, restructuring To bypass this requirement when partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & taking on debt, some companies Hamilton LLP, said that offshore set up offshore vehicles. The com- creditors might be better off avoidpany then issued what are called ing attempting to enforce keepwell “keepwell bonds,” which is basi- bonds. Instead, they could put the cally a promise that ensures the offshore issuer company into liqsolvency of the offshore vehicle. uidation or other insolvency pro-
Instead of giving a judgment requiring a payment directly to a bunch of foreign creditors, the Chinese court would just be upholding a promise that a mainland parent gave to its subsidiary, which it failed to perform on”
cesses. “Instead of giving a judgment requiring a payment directly to a bunch of foreign creditors, the Chinese court would just be upholding a promise that a mainland parent gave to its subsidiary, which it failed to perform on”-David Billington
The four-day joint Russian-Chinese maritime exercises ended on Oct. 17. The Russian and Chinese navies practiced minesweeping, shooting at sea targets with naval guns, fleet air defense and communications, among other things.
Property market downgrades
Meanwhile, the Evergrande situation is spilling over into the wider property market, with several Chinese developers finding it difficult to pay back loans. Many of them have been downgraded by credit rating agencies. On Oct. 18, Fitch and Moody’s Investors Service cut the credit outlook or ratings of 18 Chinese developers. According to some analysts, the large-scale downgrades could mean that the era of blind property worship, as a means of stable investment, is nearing an end in China. “As China is lowering the reliance of property and trying to let the air out of the housing bubble and deleverage, we will see defaults for sure and some developers may go bankrupt,” Li Yujia, senior economist with the Real Estate Assessment and Development Research Centre, a research arm of Shenzhen’s government, told the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
This photo taken on December 24, 2016 shows the Liaoning, China's aircraft carrier, sailing during military drills in the Pacific. (Image: STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Of particular note to many Russian military observers is the special emphasis on searching for the imaginary enemy’s underwater submarines and blocking the waters associated with the imaginary enemy’s submarine activity, indicating that the joint maritime military exercises are well targeted. Moskovsky Komsomolets — a Moscow based daily newspaper — said that the Russian-Chinese maritime exercises, highlighting anti-submarine warfare, are particularly beneficial to China. This approach is interested in drawing Russia into a military confrontation with the United States and its allies. The United States, Britain, and Australia have just formed a trilateral alliance called “AUKUS.”
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WORLD
A6 | OCT 22 - OCT 28 , 2021
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UK Schools Deploy Facial Recognition Payments at Cafeterias By Neil Campbell Vision Times
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ine schools in Scotland’s North Ayrshire in the United Kingdom have deployed facial recognition payment systems in student cafeterias as of Oct. 18. The company supplying hardware and software for the roll out says the purpose is to speed up food delivery. “In a secondary school you have around about a 25-minute period to serve potentially 1,000 pupils. So we need fast throughput at the point of sale,” David Swanston, CRB Cunninghams Managing Director told Financial Times.
A demonstration of facial recognition payment systems at a self-checkout machine in Moscow on March 9, 2021. (Image: DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images)
FT says British schools “have used other biometric systems, such as fingerprint scanners, to take payments for years.” The outlet also said CRB claims their system is “more Covid-secure” than both card payments and fingerprint scanners. The system stores an “encrypted faceprint template” locally at school servers to match pupils against its biometric database. In a sales promotional page on the company’s website, an employee demonstrated how the system works during a trade show held on Oct. 14. Students are presented with a food ordering kiosk
that is equipped with a camera. The operator is able to demonstrate how quickly the machine matches a face against its database for the purposes of processing payment. North Ayrshire’s Council were affirmative of the technology in comments to FT, “Pupils often forget their PINs and unfortunately some have also been the victim of PIN fraud, so they are supportive of the planned developments and appreciate the benefits to them.” They claimed that 97 percent of either children or their parents had consented to the use of the technology, which must be opted in. A Frequently Asked Questions sheet on the government’s website says that no other agencies can access the data, which is deleted when children graduate or move away from the school. It also notes that as an alternative, students can pay for their meals through the use of a PIN.
Biometric data is classified as “Special Category Data”
Yet, In the government’s Privacy Notice Statement, biometric data is expounded as “relating to the processing of personal data regarding racial/ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data, data concerning health or data concerning a person’s sex life or sexual orientation.” It notes the legal basis for capturing this data is either “reasons of substantial public interest” or via consent.
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The document notes data may be shared with the Scottish Government, external contractors, private nurseries, social workers, and the UK Information Commissioner, among others. “Education will also make any disclosures required by law and may share information with other bodies responsible for detecting/preventing fraud or auditing/administering public funds,” reads the Notice. It also states that the Council “will only keep an individual’s personal data for as long as necessary.” “After this time personal data will be securely destroyed.”
Biometric technology are on the rise in the Commonwealth
In September, the NHS came under fire when it was revealed its vaccine passport app, which uses facial recognition to verify identities at the time of sign up, shares data with law enforcement agencies. South Australia likewise began utilizing facial recognition for its COVID quarantine app used to enforce its 14-day quarantine rules. The government uses both geolocation and facial recognition at several randomized checkin notifications conducted each day. If a user fails to check in, they will receive a call from the government. If the call goes unanswered, they will be visited by police. In Canada, the federal government intends to deploy a full facial recognition system for all national passport holders by 2023. The Department of Citizenship said in a notice, “Applicants consent to their [passport] photos being used to confirm identity through the passport program’s facial recognition system.” In June, Canada also announced it would create an Office of Biometrics and Identity Management. In a tender for bidding posted on the government’s website, it said the Office was intended to be created “in response to the COVID 19 situation and other operational priorities.”
A Council for Scotland’s North Ayrshire in the United Kingdom deployed facial recognition payment services inside nine school cafeterias on Oct. 18. They say the goal is to speed up food delivery during the lunch break.
Life for the Unvaccinated Made Virtually Impossible in Lithuania By Victor Westerkamp Vision Times
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n a desperate outcry for help, a Lithuanian man shared his insights on social life in his homeland—or lack thereof for the unvaccinated and those without a Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine passport. Known as Gluboko Lietuva on Twitter, he revealed how he and his wife were left bereft of their jobs, income, and social life after the government introduced the Opportunity Pass, which grants access to activities in society for the vaccinated or those willing to get tested frequently. “I’m a very ordinary man,” Gluboko says. “I’ve never cared about politics. I’ve never been to www.visiontimes.com
a protest in my life. In short, I’m not political and I’m not an activist. But I am moral. And what is happening is morally wrong. Deeply, deeply wrong.” “With no Covid Pass, my wife and I are banished from society. We have no income. Banned from most shopping. Can barely exist,” he writes. “My wife and I have been suspended without pay for 4 weeks. We can’t return to our jobs.” “We can’t find new jobs in our professions. My wife and I have very different jobs in very different fields. But all jobs in both our fields now require the Covid Pass. No Pass, no job.” The pass, which is euphemistically called the Opportunity Pass, was introduced in May but was seriously upgraded on Aug. 16 with increased restric-
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Demonstrators take part in a protest as police stand guard on September 10, 2021 in Vilnius, Lithuania. Lithuanians gather for another protest against their government's Covid-19 policies, which include an attempt to introduce a mandatory health pass for access to cafes, shops, public transportation vehicles and other venues. Lithuania has so far vaccinated half of its adult population. (Photo by Paulius Peleckis/Getty Images)
tions against people who did not have a valid pass. Measures in full effect since Sept. 13 include: • Those without a pass can only
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• Separate customer flows for passport holders in pharmacies inside shopping centers. • No indoor areas of cafes, eateries, and bars for those without a pass. • Services at home for a maximum of 15 minutes of close contact for those without a pass. • Passes are required for outdoor and indoor events with more than 500 people. Lithuania is a small European Union (EU) country of 2.8 million people located along the Baltic Sea. It was under Soviet oppression from 1944 to 1990. While Lithuanians managed to cast off the yoke of the communist regime, Gluboko says it is now sliding down to a state of “technocratic health authoritarianism.”
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WORLD
VISION TIMES
OCT 22 - OCT 28, 2021 |
A7
Deep Voice AI Used to Con Dubai Bank Out of $35 Million By Neil Campbell Vision Times
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form of artificial intelligence that clones voices was used to manipulate a bank manager into conning a company in the United Arab Emirates out of $35 million USD, according to court documents. On Oct. 13, the U.S. Department of Justice filed for an ex parte order in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia involving a criminal money laundering case in the UAE that occurred in January of 2020. The filing, which is sparse in details, states that a branch manager for a bank in Dubai received a call that appeared to be from a client, the Director of an unnamed company, at the same time as several emails that appeared to originate from the same executive and his company’s attorney. The manager was told by the voice, which they recognized as that of the Director, that the company was about to make a business acquisition and needed to move $35 million USD to multiple accounts in coordination with their lawyer, U.S.-based Martin Zelner. It turns out the voice on the other end of the line, according to the DOJ, was a “‘deep voice’ technology used to simulate the voice of the Director.” The money was transferred to bank accounts residing in multiple countries “in a complex scheme involving at least 17 known and unknown defendants.” UAE investigators found two transactions, totalling slightly more than $415,000 USD travelled through two accounts at U.S. based Centennial Bank. The application is to compel Centennial to provide “bank records and information” pertaining to the transactions. An Oct. 14 article by Forbes said neither the Dubai Public Prose-
(Image: Adobe Stock)
cution Office nor Martin Zelner had responded to press inquiries in the case.
StyleGAN AI-created profile pictures used in a Chinese Communist Party Twitter influencing botnet. One of the greatest tells is the eyes of each image are on the same horizontal axis, as shown above.
A distorting trend
Deep-fake AI cognitive warfare and attacks are becoming ever more frequent. In August, the Centre for Information Resilience published a report showing how the Chinese Communist Party had utilized a botnet of fake Twitter accounts to disseminate influence in both the Chinese and English language on the topics of the persecution of Uyghur Muslims, the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic, and gun control and racial justice issues in the United States. Researchers found one of the most prevalent tells was the usage of StyleGAN (Generative Adversarial Networks) created profile photos. One of the strongest tells that the photos were GAN-generated and not of real humans is that the eyes of each picture were always on the same horizontal
(Image: Centre for Information Resilience Report “Analysis of the Pro-China Propaganda Network Targeting International Narratives”)
Deep-fake AI cognitive warfare and attacks are becoming ever more frequent. axis, a fact made painfully clear as the report supported its thesis. In March, TikTok account Deep-
TomCruise? published a trio of videos using AI-generated deep fake technology appearing to show the Hollywood star swinging a golf club, doing a magic trick, and talking about meeting Mikhail Gorbachev. To the naked eye, the clips were very convincing. Their only tells of inauthenticity were found in careful analysis when the video was slowed down, showing that the fake’s sunglasses disappeared for
a few frames after being moved in front of the head.
Cognitive Warfare
A November of 2020 report by Information Hub titled Cognitive Warfare, which describes itself as a study sponsored by NATO’s Allied Command Transformation, talks about how the nature of the technique is to erode the public’s trust, “Social engineering always starts with a deep dive into the human environment of the target. The goal is to understand the psychology of the targeted people.” “Cognitive warfare pursues the objective of undermining trust (public trust in electoral processes, trust in institutions, allies, politicians…) therefore the individual becomes the weapon, while the goal is not to attack what individuals think but rather the way they think.” “It has the potential to unravel the entire social contract that underpins societies,” states the author.
Former USAF Officers Claim Aliens Disabled America’s Nuclear Missiles in the 1960s By Ashok Ramprasad Vision Times
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cientists, astronomers, and common folk alike have been intrigued by recent sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). On Oct. 7, a group of former United States Air Force (USAF) officers announced that they presented evidence that UFOs have breached American nuclear missile sites over the past few decades. The submitted evidence will be used to support the claim that nuclear missiles were “inexplicably disabled” by mysterious crafts flying overhead. Former USAF Captain and nuclear missile crew commander Robert Salas, former USAF captain and nuclear missile crew commander David Schindele, former USAF captain and nuclear missile targeting officer Robert Jamison, and former USAF lieutenant and missile test photographic officer Robert Jacobs will hold a press www.visiontimes.com
A Malmstrom Air Force Base missile maintenance team removes the upper section of an intercontinental ballistic missile at a Montana missile site. The section was picked at random for a "glory trip," or a test launch, at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., in August 2014. (Image:U.S. Air Force photo/Airman John Parie)
conference to discuss the matter on Oct. 19. The panel was organized by Salas, who raised more than $13,000 for the press conference and congressional lobbying through GoFundMe. The officers will present declassified U.S. government documents and witness testimonies as proof of ongoing UFO incursions
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on nuclear missile sites. The ex-officers claim that UFOs disabled weapons systems at nuclear bases. The missiles were even activated by starting launch sequences before the trespassers decided to shut them down. On March 24, 1967, Salas was stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana as the on-duty commander of an underground launch control facility. On that day, all ten intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) at the base became inoperable. Just eight days earlier, on March 16, 1967, another missile launch control facility experienced a similar incident, claims Salas. At present, there is no proper explanation for the unidentified crafts spotted by the officers or the mysterious disabling of the weapon systems. The Oct. 19 press conference was held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Evidence related to extraterrestrials, UFOs, and nuclear weapons is presented to the world.
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The submitted evidence will be used to support the claim that nuclear missiles were “inexplicably disabled” by mysterious crafts flying overhead. UFOs interfered with nuclear capabilities
Lue Elizondo, former head of the Pentagon’s AATIP, previously revealed that he had seen reports of numerous UFOs appearing above highly secure U.S. military establishments. These UFOs, also known as Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), apparently interfered with the country’s nuclear capabilities. “I think, for me, the most concerning not most compelling ad.ny@visiontimes.com
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but the most concerning, are those incidents that involve our nuclear equities… There seems to be a very distinct congruency between UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena), associated UAP activity and our nuclear technology, whether it be propulsion or weapon systems or whatnot. And that’s concerning to the point where we’ve actually had some of our nuclear capabilities disabled by these things,” Elizondo told reporters back in April. Salas and his group hope that Congress will conduct investigations and hold public hearings regarding their claims that UFOs disabled nuclear weapons. The press conference announcement was made just weeks after unidentified crafts were sighted at the Buckley Space Force base in Colorado. Jason Suraci, who lives near the base, managed to take shots of several strange objects that were seen over the Air Force base, which he uploaded on his Youtube channel.
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LIFESTYLE
A8 | OCT 22 - OCT 28 , 2021
WI
LD
VISION TIMES
S E L IB 1
ED ART P
By Ila Bonczek
A
Adobe Stoc k
s the traditional time for harvest, you might guess that autumn is ideal for foraging wild edibles. You’re not wrong. From fruits to roots, and nuts to fungi, fall offers a fantastic array of fun and unusual foods that you can find as you roam about the forest and field. Russian olives Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia), a large spiny deciduous shrub, or small to medium tree with silvery leaves, is readily found throughout most of the US. The drought-resistant native to Europe and Asia was brought in as a landscape plant for use as a windbreaker, but quickly naturalized and is now considered invasive. The Elaeagnaceae family includes autumn olive berry and goumi berry, but is not to be confused with the true olive (Oleaceae). The small (10 mm long) berries grow in clusters and ripen to a bright orange-red. Sweet, juicy, and somewhat astringent, the berries are a good source of flavonoids, alkaloids, minerals and vitamins. The fruit can be eaten raw, added to smoothies, or cooked into jelly. The single seed is also edible. Cedar waxwings, robins, and other birds will harvest them if you don’t, a considerable factor in the continuous spread of this hardy non-native.
Fruits Fall fruits are like the final collection of summer sun, packed into a colorful wrapper. Bursting with flavor, they provide an abundance of vitamins and antioxidants to help us stay healthy through the colder months to come.
Japanese barberry, introduced to the Americas as an ornamental, has become invasive. Both native and non-native species can be found in the Eastern U.S., and have edible red berries in the fall.(Image: Lazare Gagnidze via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0)
Barberry (Berberidaceae genus)
) A 3.0 BY-S
Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is a very tropical-looking fruit for its native temperate climate of North America. A small broadleaf deciduous tree, or large shrub, the once-abundant pawpaw used to be more widely harvested. Deforestation has caused the population to dwindle, but you can still find pawpaws in some moist understory conditions, or better yet, you can plant some in this preferred habitat. The mango-shaped yellow fruit has a custardy texture and a sweet, banana-esque flavor, owing to its true tropical relatives, Annona, Custard-apple, and Soursop. As a climacteric fruit, it releases ethylene when ripening, afterwards dropping from the tree. Pawpaws can be collected after falling, or picked slightly under-ripe and allowed to finish at room temperature. The highly perishable ripe fruits will only last about a week in the refrigerator. Fruit should be enjoyed when soft, and some prefer to let the skin turn brown for a richer flavor. Both the skin and the seeds are poisonous, so be sure to only eat the custardy flesh. Wikimedia Co mmons CC BY -SA 2.0)
s CC mon Com edia Wikim
Barberry (Berberidaceae genus) is a small thorny shrub commonly found in the understory of wooded areas or overgrown fields. Japanese barberry, which was introduced to the U.S. as an ornamental, can be distinguished from the native species in that its thorns are presented in singular form, while the American barberry (Berberis canadensis) thorns come in sets of three. While the plant itself is poisonous, the small red berries are edible. Barberries can be eaten raw, or steeped in hot water to make a fruity tea. The tart red fruit is high in Vitamin C and contains trace amounts of their signature immuneboosting compound “berberine,” making it a good choice for the start of cold and flu season. In large amounts, berberine is toxic, but the small amount found in a handful of berries can be considered a therapeutic antioxidant.
Pawpaws
(Image: Plan t Image Libra ry via
ze via gnid re Ga Laza age: . (Im
Japanese barberry, introduced to the Americas as an ornamental, has become invasive. Both native and non-native species can be found in the Eastern U.S., and have edible red berries in the fall.
Pawpaws were once an important source of food across North America. The sweet custardy fruit is mainly enjoyed by the critters these days, but if you are lucky to find some, savor the flesh and plant the seed.
To be continued.
CHINA BE FORE COMMUNISM
“My heart has wings when watching this. I couldn’t be happier.” —Samantha Imlay, dance studio director
NOV 20–21 State Theatre New Jersey ShenYun.com | 888-90-SHOWS (74697) www.visiontimes.com
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WISDOM
VISION TIMES
OCT 22 - OCT 28, 2021 |
The Power of Mind –
A9
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Negative Thinking Can Have Serious Consequences By Lucy Crawford
Many people are aware of the placebo effect, but few perceive that the counter-placebo effect may be just as powerful. In medicine, it is worth keeping this in mind when you step into a doctor’s office.
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he words and mannerisms of a doctor can send a negative message to a patient, and his or her power of suggestion can easily shape your own thinking.
Man dies from the idea of Cancer Clifton Meador, a retired physician and author of 13 books, has long pondered the potential role of the anti-placebo effect. Although many in the medical community are aware of the placebo effect, few have
The effects and countereffects one’s thoughts When one’s health improves due to positive thinking, this phenomenon is called the placebo effect. Conversely, when the same mind adopts negative ideas, it produces an undesirable effect called the “nocebo effect,” which can cause one’s health to deteriorate. Meador said, “He died with the idea of cancer, but not from cancer. If Londe did not die of cancer, then what did he die of? Did he die because he “believed” he was going to die? Thirty years after Londe’s death, this case still lingered in Meador’s mind: “I thought he had cancer, he thought he had cancer, everyone around him thought he had cancer …… Did I inadvertently deprive him of hope?” This haunting case of the antiplacebo suggests that doctors, parents, teachers and other authority figures may be guiding us to believe their negative beliefs, effectively squashing our hope.
Intentions affect health and every aspect of life
People's thoughts, intentions, and values can shape their destiny.
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thought about its therapeutic implications, he says. If positive thinking can get you out of depression and heal your injured limbs, then what effect does negative thinking have on your life? In 1974, Meador had a patient named Sam Londe. He was a retired shoe salesman who had esophageal cancer, a disease considered terminal at the time. Londe was treated, but everyone in the medical community “knew” that his esophageal cancer would return. So no one was surprised when Londe died just a few weeks after his diagnosis. Although everyone assumed he had died of the cancer, an autopsy showed that what cancer was present in his body was minimal and definitely not enough to kill him. He had two or three spots on his liver and a little on his lungs, but there was no trace of the esophageal cancer that “would surely return.”
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Positive and negative thoughts don’t just affect one’s health; they af fect ever y aspect of people’s lives. Henry Ford said the same thing about productivity and the role of intention: “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.” Beliefs are like filters on a camera that change the way the world is seen, and human physiology is designed to match those beliefs. When people truly recognize the tremendous impact of their thoughts or beliefs, they hold the key to freedom. Although we cannot easily change our genetic blueprint, we can change our thoughts! Bruce Lipton, Ph. D., in his book The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, & Miracles, introduces an experiment of two streams of consciousness where two sets of plastic filters, one red and one green, were used. “In my lectures, I provide two sets of plastic filters, one red and one green. I have the audience pick one color and then look at a blank screen. I then tell them to yell out whether the image I project next is one that
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When one’s health improves due to positive thinking, this phenomenon is called the placebo effect. Conversely, when the same mind adopts negative ideas, it produces an undesirable effect called the “nocebo effect,” which can cause one’s health to deteriorate. generates love or generates fear. Those in the audience that don the red “belief” filters see an inviting picture of a cottage labeled “House of Love,” flowers, a sunny sky, and the message: “I live in Love.” Those wearing the green filters see a threatening dark sky, bats, snakes, a ghost hovering outside a dark, gloomy house, and the words: “I live in fear.” I always get enjoyment out of seeing how the audience responds to the confusion when half yells out: “I live in love,” and the other half, in equal certainty, yells out: “I live in fear” in response to the same image. Then I ask the audience to change to the oppositecolored filters. My point is that you can choose what to see. You can filter your life with rose-colored beliefs that will help your body grow or you can use a dark filter that turns everything black and makes your body/mind more susceptible to disease. Now it’s your choice to live a life of fear or live a life of love. But I can tell you that if you choose to see a world full of love, your body will respond by growing in health. If you choose to believe that you live in a dark world full of fear, your body’s health will be compromised as you physiologically close yourself down in a protective response.” For thousands of years, saints like Buddha Shakyamuni and Jesus have been sharing this same vision with the world. Modern science is also beginning to recognize that is not merely your genes that control your life; your powerful beliefs and convictions can have an overriding effect. One’s thoughts, intentions, and values may be what shape one’s destiny.
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ART
A10 | OCT 22 - OCT 28 , 2021
VISION TIMES
Ruling Passion, a painting by John Everett Millais, one of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. (Image: Wikimedia)
Pre-Raphaelites Rebel Artists Clinging to Tradition as the Mainstream Approached Modernism (Image: Wikimedia)
By Simone Jonker
T
he Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (also known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was an art movement that appeared in 1848, after the industrial revolution. It was the same year that Marx’s Communist Manifesto was published in London, and revolutions erupted across Europe. The brotherhood considered themselves to be a “reform” movement, seeking to stem the socialist leanings towards progressive modern art, and return to fine detail, rich color and complex compositions of the 15th century Medieval Period. William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti were among the English painters that banded together and founded the group. A short time later, artists such as William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens, and Thomas Woolner joined the three founders to form a seven-member “brotherhood.” Modelled after the Nazarene Brotherhood, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood rejected the Royal Academy’s promotion of eclecticism, sentimentality, and sensationalism, believing that these practices were eroding the standards for fine art. They took the www.visiontimes.com
John Everett Millais’ painting, The Death of Ophelia accurately and vividly captured this tragic moment from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.Millais spent several months painting the river and its banks, before he even began painting Ophelia herself.
art of the late medieval period as something to emulate, focusing on morality, religious subject matter, and great attention to detail. Sombreness, candor, and an appreciation for natural truth were injected into the artists’ works in order to convey their message of truth and morality. They aspired to change art by opposing the mechanical method of Raphael and Michelangelo’s successors, including the
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Pre-Raphaelite took the art of the late medieval period as something to emulate, focusing on morality, religious subject matter, and great attention to detail.
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Mannerists who created work with exaggerated features such as unusual color, elongated limbs, and strange poses. The painters sought to alter the flow of history, which they believed favored a limited range of moral subjects or conventional notions of beauty inherited from the High Renaissance. They argued that artists should offer a model for portraying nature and the human body truthfully rather than idealistiad.ny@visiontimes.com
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cally, and they found the collective confederations of medieval artisans preferable to mid-nineteenth-century academic methods. The Pre-Raphelites were influenced by John Ruskin (1819 – 1900), a Victorian-era English essayist, philosopher, and art critic, who also supported anything that challenged the status quo. Pre-Raphalite art followed the famous statement by Ruskin, in which he exhorts his students to “go to nature in complete simplicity of heart… rejecting nothing, choosing nothing, or scorning nothing; trusting all things to be just and good, and constantly delighting in the truth.” Ruskin praised the pre Raphaelites for their advancements and contributions to English landscape painting, working in Plein air with botanical precision and painstaking detail. The Brotherhood admired the intricacy, color, and complex arrangement of Quattrocento Italian and Flemish paintings, and devised a method of painting thin glazes of color over a wet white ground in order to preserve the jewel-like transparency and purity of colors seen in Quattrocento art. Their focus on color brightness was a response to previous British painters’ overuse of bitumen. Bitumen creates muddy dark areas, which the Pre-Raphaelites detested.
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ART
VISION TIMES
OCT 22 - OCT 28, 2021 |
A11
Helen of Troy is an 1898 painting by Evelyn De Morgan depicting Helen of Troy; it was commissioned by William Imrie of Liverpool. (Image: Wikimedia)
Fading Away, a combination print by Henry Peach Robinson.(Image: Wikimedia) (Image: Wikimedia)
Fine art photography
April Love is a painting by the Pre-Raphaelite painter Arthur Hughes.(Image: Wikimedia)
The artists opted to emulate the aesthetics of the late medieval English stories and early Renaissance Europe. They became wellknown, and eventually criticized for their preoccupation with moral issues like justice and piety, which they drew from contemporary society, Shakespeare, the Middle Ages, and the Bible. While the painters regarded the Renaissance as a marvel, they felt it had taken a wrong turn. They criticized the Royal Academy for allowing painting standards to slip. Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723– 1792,) the founder of the English Royal Academy of Art, was dubbed “Sir Sloshua,” because they thought his broad approach was sloppy and formulaic. Ultimately, the group came under fire for their pietism, archaizing compositions, strong focus, lack of shadows, flattened forms, and wet-white technique. Their aspirations for metamorphosis were dashed, and they opted to sign their work with “PRB” rather than their given names. Rossetti’s Ecce Ancilla Domini and Deverell’s Twelfth Night were featured in the 1850’s Free Exhibition, while The Royal Academy concentrated on Hunt’s ‘A Converted British Family Protecting a Christian Priest from Druids’ and Millais’s ‘Christ in the House of his Parents,’ of which the latter was www.visiontimes.com
deemed immoral. The painting was severely criticized by Charles Dickens, who claimed Millais made the Holy Family look like alcoholics and slum-dwellers, adopting contorted and absurd “medieval” poses. In May 1851, Ruskin backed the Brotherhood and sent letters to The Times supporting Millais’s painting. However, the painting created such a controversy that Queen Victoria requested that it be brought to her for personal assessment. Collinson resigned from the group after the humiliating reaction, and Rossetti swore never to exhibit again. Woolner went to Australia from the United Kingdom in 1852. Hunt traveled to the Holy Land in January 1854 to hone his talents as a religious painter. Ironically, Millais was named
Go to nature in complete simplicity of heart… rejecting nothing, choosing nothing, or scorning nothing; trusting all things to be just and good, and constantly delighting in the truth. John Ruskin
The controversial painting Christ in the House of His Parents, by John Everett Millais, criticized by both the Royal Academy and Charles Dickens. (Image: Wikimedia )
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Grace Rose by Frederick Sandys.
an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1853, thus “ending the PRB,” as Rossetti put it. He was eventually elected President of the Royal Academy, the same organization against which he had fought so valiantly. Though the pre Raphaelites’ fraternity was disbanded, their studies and the moralistic ideals they upheld were not forgotten. Furthermore, Ruskin’s view of natural themes as an infallible subject demonstrated the potential of art and design coexisting.
After the Pre-Raphaelites
Some of the post-pre-Raphaelites forged close relationships with the 1870s Aesthetic and Decadent_movements. Works by Félicien Rops and Joris-Karl Huysmans’ book Against Nature (1884) are prominent examples of the movement. Both violated the Pre-Raphelites basic ideals of naturalism and non-idealism. It placed aesthetics over substance; aiming to elevate taste, beauty, and self-expression; and creating “art for art’s sake.” The Aesthetic movement shaped modern art in the twentieth century, rejected art’s moral duties, and stressed self-expression. ad.ny@visiontimes.com
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Pre-Raphaelitism and early British fine art photography have been the subject of many exhibits in recent times. A public symposium, “Truth to Nature: British Photography and Pre-Raphaelitism,” with lectures by David Coleman, Duncan Forbes, Laura Henrickson, Andrew SzegedyMaszak, and Malcolm Warner, was held in 2011 at the British National Gallery. There is little doubt that the Pre-Raphaelites inspired several photographers, including Roger Fenton (1819 – 1869), a British photographer recognized as one of the first war photographers, and Julia Margaret Cameron, (1815 – 1879,) who was an irreplaceable representative of pre-Raphaelite photography. She was also at the heart of the intellectual and artistic movement (related to the Pre-Raphaelites), which was unique for a British lady at the time. Included was Henry Peach Robinson (1830 – 1901, an English pictorialist photographer renowned for inventing combination printing. These pioneers elevated photography’s mechanical representation of nature to the realms of fine art and painting. Artists and photographers often cooperated and were inspired by the same literature, medievalism in dress and décor, and a love for capturing the light and detail of the natural world, showing that great art is, at its core, essentially, about life.
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HEALTH
A12 | OCT 22 - OCT 28 , 2021
VISION TIMES
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he desire to lose weight has become a norm in our Western society. According to a study by the US Department of Health and Human Services, in 2013 -2016 almost half of the US adults tried to lose weight in the last 12 months, with women representing a higher percentage (56.4%).
This is the result of what has been called “The Diet Culture,” a set of beliefs that glorify thinness, appearance and shape, and goes as far as equating them to good health and well-being. What can seem a harmless preoccupation with food and weight, can be the first manifestations of an incipient eating disorder. Normalized behaviours such as restricting calories, skipping meals, intense physical activity and the elimination of certain food groups; are warning signs of a diagnosable eating disorder that affects nearly 1 million Canadians, according to the National Eating Disorder Information Centre. A person who falls prey to the diet culture may start by simply labelling certain foods as “good” or “bad,” deciding to have a food item depending on its calorie content, wanting to have total control over what they eat during the day by keeping track of the food eaten and planning ahead what they will eat later, and feeling the need to “deserve” to have food by eating less or exercising. The consequences of this restricting behaviour go further by causing the person to feel anxious around certain foods or to resort to binging and emotional eating, which ultimately leads to an unbearable feeling of guilt. A survey conducted by the National Eating Disorders Association found that 35% of dieting becomes obsessive, meaning that the diet mentality can result in an obsession over food that can leave the individual feeling helpless.
Listening to the wisdom of our bodies
no
da Aven a n i l o y Car
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sands of people recover from undiagnosed eating disorders. Tribole and Resch start by motivating the audience to reject the diet mentality. This involves letting go of food labels, fad diets, rigid rules and what is referred to as “fat talk” — that is, negative comments about one’s weight and food choices. Tribole and Resch go on by advising us to give ourselves unconditional permission to eat and challenging what they call the “Food Police.” This means eating what our bodies crave while dismissing the loud dieting thoughts that have been deeply ingrained in our psyche. The idea of giving in to our cravings can cause intense fear and preoccupation, as some people believe that once they have the type of food they have been restricting for so long, they will lose control. However, this is only an anxiety in someone who is yet to discover the magic of trusting the wisdom of our body. Remember that regaining trust and confidence in our bodies is the goal of this process.
Listening to our bodies’ cues for hunger and fullness, and processing our emotions independently of food are key skills to master in intuitive eating.
Retuning our natural cues for hunger
ck
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importance of honouring our cues of hunger. When it comes to hunger cues, all those who have been following dieting regimes in the past may encounter some difficulties as they may have gotten their bodies accustomed to ignoring hunger signals. According to the study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, among adults who tried to lose weight, one of the most commonly reported methods was eating less food (62.9%), Thus, some individuals may have forced their bodies to ignore hunger, a habit that must be broken if we are to tune back in with our body’s nature. Tribole and Resch claim that it is vital to learn two new skills: learning to identify the body’s signals for fullness and learning to cope with our feelings without resorting to food. Learning to feel fullness is particularly challenging when the mind has been granted the power to decide how much we “should” eat according to the diet culture rules. What is essential in this step is to listen to our bodies and be as present as we can when we eat. Reflecting on how e Sto
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g n i t a E e v i t i u t In
b Ado
Nevertheless, there is hope to get out of this trap. In fact, we were born knowing how to eat normally. That is because as children, we ate following our internal cues of hunger and fullness. When we were hungry, we would ask our parents for food and when full, we would push our plates away. There were few restrictions and our preferences may have varied from day to day. As children we placed little importance on what our chosen food would make our body look like, and we would run and play without thinking of how many calories we were burning. That was our natural self; and in the end, the type of foods we ate and how much we moved were mostly in perfect balance. Therefore, the solution lies in going back to our true selves by regaining trust and confidence in the wisdom of our bodies. This approach to eating was first created by dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch in their book “Intuitive Eating.” This framework consists of 10 principles to make peace with food, reach our natural weight and rediscover the pleasure of eating. The practicality and simplicity of these pillars have helped thou-
ITH W CE GH A E U P O R E K H T A M E TS I D D N A D FOO
The two dietitians highlight the
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the food tastes and what our current hunger level is, will help us identify the signals our body uses to kindly tell us that it is no longer hungry. Coping with our feelings is not an easy task when food has long been an excuse to run away from our emotions. When it comes to the emotional realm, there are those who find comfort and distraction in eating, as it may bring them pleasure and even numb their feelings. On the other side of the spectrum, there are those who find emotional satisfaction when they get to eliminate certain foods from their diet or succeed at sticking to a “healthy” diet. These individuals may find more pleasure in eating “correctly” rather than enjoying the taste and texture of food. What this behaviour brings is a sense of control and success that the individual may not find anywhere else in his life. The constant pursuit of these feelings leads the person to measure his worth by the extent to which he sticks to his goals, resulting in intense despair when he fails to do so. The stance of Intuitive Eating in these scenarios is to step back and deal with the source of emotion, rather than using food as an excuse not to deal with underlying issues. Learning to accept our body and improving our relationship with movement are some of the last pieces of advice that Tribole and Resch give. A game-changing mindset is seeing that just the way our bodies have a shoe size that is part of our genetic blueprint, our bodies are meant to reach a weight that is natural to their genetic design. The unconditional acceptance that results from this view, brings about the trust and confidence that are necessary to continue challenging the rampant diet mentality. And in the path of rediscovering the joy of eating, we are urged to make peace with the gift of movement. It is key to stop associating physical activity with weight loss and instead, focus on how it feels to move the body and the pleasure of doing it for no reason. One thing is clear: going back to being intuitive eaters is easier said than done. If a person comes from a history of chronic dieting, it may require immense amounts of patience and kindness with oneself, as well as strong determination to walk through this rocky path. Among the simple actions that can be taken to support the process are unfollowing social media accounts that perpetuate the Diet Culture, starting to eat slowly to allow the body to ingest the food, looking inwards to find thoughts and emotions that require our attention, and paying attention the body to better understand its signals. By trusting that we will give ourselves unconditional permission to eat the foods we desire, we eliminate the feelings of deprivation that often put the body in a fight or flight state. What will take over is a sense of trust and confidence in the wisdom of the body that will result in full acceptance and complete alignment with our nature. By making peace with food and listening to our bodies with no judgement, it will be possible to live a more harmonious life and raise stronger and resilient future generations.
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