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ISSUE 132 VOLUME 21
August 27, 2021
SERVING THE CARIBBEAN AND HISPANIC COMMUNITIES!
Brian Benjamin, Son of Caribbean Immigrants Is New York’s New Lieutenant Governor BY JANET HOWARD SPECIAL TO CAW
Garvey Honored on His 134th Birthday....23
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ewly sworn-in Governor Kathy Hochul's made a bold and strategic statement by appointing Brian Benjamin, a Democratic State Senator from Harlem, as New York's next lieutenant governor. This move by Governor Hochul is expected to give her 2022 election plans a strong kickstart. State Senator Brian Benjamin Editorial credit: Ron Adar / Shutterstock.com
continued on page 6
New Protections for Domestic Workers Signed Into Law ....4
Diversity Visa Lottery Winners Might Lose Chance to Come to the U.S. Due to Delays, Trump Policies BY WALTER EWING IMMIGRATION IMPACT
NYC Schools’ COVID Safety Plan ....8
Knowledge is Power when you use it! Get a FREE Consultation! Ask the Lawyer:
Call 855-768-8845
PM Dr Rowley’s Message: Reflection ....2
F
or the second year in a row, many winners of the diversity visa lottery face the prospect of losing their chance to come to the United States because the federal government can’t—or won’t—issue their visas in time. continued on page 15
Five Ways to Get Out of a COVID Funk ....21
Habits that Could Ruin Your Relationship ....19
Brian Figeroux, Esq., Member, American Immigration Lawyers Association
Getting to Know Superstar Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce ....24
PAHO Director Calls for International Support ....3
Suriname President: CARICOM Must Assist Haiti....2
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CARIBBEAN SPECIAL REPORT Caribbean Consulates Anguilla 845 Third Avenue New York, N.Y. 10022 Tel: 212-745-0200 Antigua & Barbuda 305 East 47th Street, Suite 6A New York, N.Y. 10020 Tel: 212-541-4117 The Bahamas 231 East 46th Street New York, N.Y. 10017 Tel: 212-421-6420 Barbados 820 Second Avenue, 5th Floor New York, N.Y. 10017 Tel: 212-551-4325 Belize 675 Third Avenue, Suite 1911 New York, N.Y. 10017 Tel: 212-593-0999 Dominica 800 Second Avenue, Suite 400H New York, N.Y. 10017 Tel: 212-949-0853 Dominican Republic 1500 Broadway, Suite 410 New York, N.Y. 10036 Tel: 212-599-8478 Grenada 685 Third Avenue, Suite 1101 New York, N.Y. 10017 Tel: 212-599-0301 Guyana 308 West 38th Street New York, N.Y. 10018 Tel: 212-947-5119 Haiti 815 Second Avenue,6th Floor New York, N.Y. 10017 Tel: 212-697-9767 Jamaica 767 Third Avenue, 2nd Floor New York, N.Y. 10017 Tel: 212-935-9000 Martinique 444 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor New York, N.Y. 10022 Tel: 212-838-6887 Montserrat 845 Third Avenue New York, N.Y. 10022 Tel: 212-745-0200 Panama 1212 Avenue of the Americas, 20th Floor New York, N.Y. 10036 Tel: 212-840-2450 St. Kitts & Nevis 414 East 75th Street, 5th Floor New York, N.Y. 10021 Tel: 212-535-5521 St. Lucia 800 Second Avenue, 9th Floor New York, N.Y. 10007 Tel: 212-697-9360 St. Maarten 675 Third Avenue, Suite 1807 New York, N.Y. 10017 Tel: 800-786-2278 St. Vincent & The Grenadines 801 Second Avenue, 21st Floor New York, N.Y. 10017 Tel: 212-687-4981 Trinidad & Tobago 125 Maiden Lane, 4th Floor New York, N.Y. 10038 Tel: 212-682-7272 For more Consulate information go to www.cawnyc.com/directory
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Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley’s Message on Trinidad & Tobago’s 59th Independence Anniversary BY CHRIS TOBIAS
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n August 31, 1962, the twin Republic of Trinidad and Tobago gained its independence from Great Britain. Celebrating its 59th Independence Anniversary on August 31, Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley stated that as the Independence Day holiday approaches, people should use the time to reflect and be grateful to be citizens of Trinidad and Tobago. Addressing the country on Brighter Morning with Bhoe on MCTV, Dr Rowley said that while significant progress had been made in 59 years of independence, there were also some missed opportunities along the way. “If we had been better savers during the two periods of boom when there was a lot of money coming into the country, even though we had made significant improvements in quality of people’s lives and developed significant infrastructure, we would have been in a better situation in periods like the current one where we are short of revenue.” “I am also concerned that we did not place enough store in our value system. We have given up a lot of very valuable traditions, and a vacuum exists, especially for young people who are growing up with no appreciation for the role of respect and patience and other things that are important to society.”
With the current changes in the energy industry threatening avenues of revenue, Dr. Rowley explained that the most formidable challenge facing the country was the obligation to maintain the benefits that had been accrued. “I don’t think people are taking the challenges we face seriously. There’s a certain amount of frivolity, and we need society to appreciate its circumstances and get serious on serious matters. There is a blame game accompanied by a sense of entitlement.” Wishing the people of Trinidad & Tobago a happy Independence., Dr. Rowley’s message was clear:
“We should acknowledge and be grateful for being citizens of this country, one of the most comfortable to live in. We should be as patriotic and appreciative as we can to call ourselves citizens of TT. Those who went before us did make significant contributions. Let us go forward with boundless faith in our destiny and defend our ramparts against invaders, whether they be a virus or migrants seeking help. “Tough times don’t last, but tough people do. We will celebrate independence not only for 2021 but for all the years to come.”l
CARICOM Must Do All It Can to Assist Haiti
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is Excellency Chandrikapersad Santokhi, President of Suriname has stated that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) must do all it can to assist Haiti to overcome the challenges it is facing. Speaking during a courtesy call on the new CARICOM Secretary-General Her Excellency Carla Barnett at the CARICOM Secretariat’s Georgetown, Guyana Headquarters on Wednesday, the President emphasized that Haiti must not be left behind. Haiti was struck by a catastrophic earthquake last Saturday which has claimed close to 2,000 lives and a tropical storm on Tuesday that hampered recovery activities. President Santokhi said that CARICOM must work with hemispheric and wider international partners as to ensure that democracy, democratic institutions and the rule of law is maintained in Haiti. He expressed his country’s full support to the integration movement and to the
President Santokhi. Photo: Wikipedia
new Secretary-General, Dr Barnett who took up the post on Monday. The President who was accompanied by Suriname Foreign Minister His Excellency Albert Ramdin took the opportunity to invite Dr Barnett to Suriname.
Secretary-General Barnett welcomed the President to the Headquarters and agreed that Haiti was a priority for the Community and described the situation there as “very painful”. The SecretaryGeneral informed the President that the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) was already engaged with its counterpart in Haiti to assist in the recovery. She also agreed with the other priorities which President Santokhi had put forward which included the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the need for vaccination, the pursuit of post pandemic economic recovery and climate change. Dr Barnett indicated that the Community recognized the importance of the upcoming United Nations climate change conference, COP26 in the United Kingdom, and was organizing to ensure that it would be well prepared for the negotiations.l —CARICOM.org
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THOUGHTS
PAHO Director Reports on Overwhelmed Medical Facilities in Haiti and Calls for International Support to Meet “Immense” Need
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ashington, D.C.: Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director, Dr. Carissa F. Etienne, reported that health facilities in three departments in post-earthquake Haiti are overwhelmed and called on the international community to meet the country’s “immense” need for medical personnel, supplies, equipment, and patient transportation. “In total 24 health facilities suffered damage, mainly first level of care,” she said at her weekly media briefing. “In Grand’Anse, three health facilities were destroyed and two were damaged. In Nippes, we found that one health facility was destroyed and four damaged, and in Sud Department, 14 health facilities have been damaged.” “Our staff is being deployed to the Grand’Anse and Nippes departments to support reestablishing health services at departmental levels,” she said, referring to areas near the epicenter of the 7.2magnitude earthquake. In addition to supporting Haiti’s Ministry of Health and Population, PAHO has delivered essential medicines and other medical and surgical supplies for distribution to health institutions in need. Dr. Etienne called on the global community to meet the “urgent health needs” identified by the health ministry. “What we need is health personnel, supplies and equipment to treat patients with trauma, injuries, acute illnesses, chronic diseases and mental issues,” she said. “There is an urgent need to restore health services mainly in the most affected areas and to ensure adequate water and sanitation to prevent increases of diarrheal, respiratory, and skin diseases.” “Our hearts go out to the people of Haiti, and rest assured that we are doing
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everything possible to assist Haitians in these difficult and hard times,” she continued. “Our priority is to support the operation of health services and help save people’s lives.” Dr. Etienne also sent her condolences to the family and loved ones of PAHO’s international consultant and public health emergencies specialist, Dr. Ousmane Touré, who had been supporting the organization’s COVID-19 response in Haiti since July. “Dr. Touré’s loss is emblematic of the dangers health workers face and the extraordinary sacrifices they have made during this pandemic,” she said. Turning to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Etienne highlighted that recently collected data reveals a “mental health crisis” in the Americas. More people are suffering substantially added mental health problems at a time when services for them are also disrupted because of the sweep of the disease. “Today we are facing a mental health crisis that, if left unaddressed, will have severe consequences,” she warned. “It will not only worsen the mental health burden in our region but also prolong the pandemic’s impact.” She urged countries to increase investment in mental health programs and
called attention to three countries – Chile, Trinidad and Tobago, and Costa Rica – that are successfully doing so. Addressing the pandemic’s toll in terms of illness and mortality, Dr. Etienne reported 1.4 million COVID-19 cases and nearly 20,000 deaths in the Americas in the past week. In South America, most countries are experiencing declining cases, she said. Across Brazil, hospital occupancy is lower than 80% across all states for the first time since November. But elsewhere, cases are on the rise. Fueled by the Delta variant, COVID infections are accelerating across North America. “In Mexico, more than two thirds of states have been deemed at “high” or “critical” risk as hospitals fill with COVID patients,” she said. Both cases and deaths are reportedly rising in Central America, particularly in Costa Rica and Belize. Infections and deaths are increasing across the Caribbean, including in Cuba. Dominica, Guadalupe, Jamaica, Martinique, and Puerto Rico, where cases rose by 49% and deaths increased by 70%. In Trinidad and Tobago, weekly deaths continued to rise.l —PAHO.org
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KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
New Protections for Domestic Workers Signed Into Law
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n August 25, the New York City Commission on Human Rights announced a major expansion of the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL). Intro 339-B, signed by Mayor Bill de Blasio today, extends fundamental employment protections to domestic workers, along with the ability to seek accountability at the Commission. Prior to this amendment, statutory minimums for employer size prevented family caregivers, home health aides, house cleaners and other domestic workers from seeking redress under the same provisions of the NYCHRL that protected other workers against discrimination and harassment. Intro 339 removes those statutory minimums with respect to domestic workers and extends basic employment protections under the City Human Rights Law by: •Providing explicit protection under the City Human Rights Law for a domestic worker, often working as the sole employee of an employer. •Including protections against discrimination and harassment in hiring, firing, and the terms and conditions of employment, with respect to reasonable accom-
modations, and with respect to retaliation. •Giving domestic workers the ability to seek redress under the City Human Rights Law in the same way as most other workers protected under the law. According to the Fiscal Policy Institute and the National Domestic Worker Alliance, more than 200,000 domestic workers live or work in New York City. Labor estimates indicate that the number of domestic workers is steadily increasing at rates higher than other sectors of the labor market. “A Recovery for All of Us starts with protecting working New Yorkers,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “This legislation
establishes stronger protections against discrimination for domestic workers by including them in the NYC Human rights law. I thank Commissioner Malalis and Council Member Rose for their partnership on this critical legislation.” “The NYC Commission on Human Rights fully supports Intro 339-B, which extends employment protections to domestic workers, one of the fastest growing sectors of the service economy,” said Carmelyn P. Malalis, Chair and Commissioner of the NYC Commission on Human Rights. “The Commission worked closely with community advocates to see these protections codified into law. Domestic workers can be
uniquely vulnerable to abuse, discrimination, and many kinds of harassment – with little to no recourse when mistreated or fired. This local law allows the Commission to apply the protections of the NYC Human Rights Law to domestic workers, and we look forward to working with community advocates, partners, parent and family groups, and other groups working with people who employ domestic workers to educate employees and employers about these changes.” This amendment prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of actual or perceived age, race, creed, color, national origin, gender, disability, marital status, partnership status, caregiver status, sexual and reproductive health decisions, sexual orientation, uniformed service, immigration or citizenship status, or status as a victim of domestic violence, or as a victim of sex offenses or stalking. The New York City Human Rights Law prohibits discrimination and harassment based on race, gender, national origin, immigration status, age, and over 25 other protected classes in housing, employment, and public accommodations. If you have witnessed or continued on page 5
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CIVIL RIGHTS
Clarke Issues Statement on Supreme Court Decision to Strike Down the National Eviction Moratorium During a Global Pandemic
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ashington, D.C.: Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09) released the following statement condemning the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the national eviction moratorium: “Housing a human right, and for as many as 11 million Americans facing eviction nationwide, the patchwork safety net of rapidly ending state memorandums and emergency executive orders is not enough to stave off this compounding crisis. The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the CDC’s eviction moratorium is harmful and unnecessary; furthermore, it is logically and morally bankrupt. As cases of the Delta variant continue to rise, I cannot forget since the start of the pandemic, more than 62,000 eviction cases have been filed in New York City Housing Court and New York State’s eviction moratorium is set to expire on August 31st. This decision will have disastrous consequences for my constituents here in New York’s 9th
Congresswoman Clarke Editorial credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com
Congressional District and hardworking American families nationwide,” said Clarke. “Firstly, I am calling for Governor Hochul to extend the New York State Eviction Moratorium until December 31st and to disseminate the housing assistance funds allocated to the state swiftly. Secondly, I am calling on the House of Representatives to reconvene immediately and vote to pass H.R. 4791, the Protecting Renters from Evictions Act. Additionally, I am again calling on my colleagues in the Senate to
take swift and immediate action and pass the senate companion bill so that President Biden can sign this extension into law. Make no mistake, this Supreme Court decision was fueled by hyperpartisan politics and was not a decision made to benefit hardworking American families. This cannot wait, and we cannot yield. It is time for action.”l
Domestic Workers/ continued from page 4 experienced discrimination, call the NYC Commission on Human Rights by dialing (212) 416-0197, or visit the Commission’s website at NYC.gov/ReportDiscrimination. “Domestic employers need guidance to help them be good employers. There is an estimate of one million employers of nannies, housecleaners and home attendants in our city who look to our local government for guidance for best employment practices. Making Intro 339-B a local law is a huge step not only in recognizing the human rights of domestic workers in the workplace, but also elevating the principles of equality and fairness in New York City. As a domestic employer organization, we are committed to partner with the NYC Commission on Human Rights to educate employers about their obligations under this new legislation. When we advance domestic workers rights, we are advancing the human rights of all New Yorkers.” —Tatiana Bejar, NYC Lead Organizer, Hand in Hand: the Domestic Employers Network “As an organization committed to domestic worker justice, we are thrilled to join this powerful coalition of workers, employers, allies, and elected officials in signing Intro 339 into law. And while today is a day for celebration we also recognize that the history of domestic work is a history of exclusion, and the hundreds of thousands of domestic workers across our City continue to face persistent abuse, wage theft, and rights violations. May this victory of passing Intro 339 fortify our commitment to further transforming the domestic work industry and remind us of our collective power when we come together to organize.” —Ben Fuller-Googins, Director of Programs, The Carroll Garden's Association. l
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IN THE NEWS Brian Benjamin/ continued from page 1 New York City is saturated with Democratic voters she will urgently need when she runs for a full term in 2022. He is known as a well-connected player in Harlem politics. Benjamin is now appointed to a role that Hochul previously served from January 1, 2015, to August 23, 2021, until her inauguration. According to the ruling of the state's highest court, it is within her power to name a lieutenant governor to finish out her term without putting her choice to a public vote. While the role of lieutenant governor in New York has long been considered largely ceremonial, the two recent lieutenant governors have become Governor following the resignations of their predecessors. Speaking to the People, Power & Politics Radio Show, State Senator Robert Jackson, who represents District 31, said, "Let me applaud Governor Kathy Hochul for appointing someone who has been a leader in the NY Senate. He has been in the Senate for several years representing District 30. He is our floor captain, meaning he is at the podium leading the Senate when we are in session. He is highly educated, went to Harvard, married, a stable, well-rounded individual who understands what the people of Harlem and the surrounding areas need. He listens to what everyone has to say. I am happy that we now have a partnership with the Governor from
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 26, 2021: Brian Benjamin, Governor Kathy Hochul and Rev. Al Sharpton celebrate at a press conference announcing State Senator Brian Benjamin as Lt. Governor. Editorial credit: Ron Adar / Shutterstock.com
Upstate and Brian Benjamin from Downstate. My congratulations to him." Partners The Governor introduced the incoming Lieutenant Governor, Democratic state Sen. Brian Benjamin, as her "partner" during a press conference in Harlem held Thursday, telling New Yorkers to "get used to that word." "I am so delighted to announce my partner — and the word partner means something to me. Someone who works side by side in the trenches. Someone who will be out there championing our policies and our administration's agenda in every corner of the state, with a real focus on New York City," said Hochul, praising Benjamin. "New York City needs our help, and this individual is someone who's been through the trenches, starting locally
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where he was on his community board, where he worked his way up to the elective office and someone, I've become a dear friend of in the [state] Senate." Benjamin reciprocated with the praise, stating, "Governor Hochul is someone who I have a lot of faith in, and it's not just because we did so many important things together over my four years as being a state senator. It's because of the moments we had and our conversations where I could see inside her heart. "I knew the kind of person she was before she had power. And you could tell a lot about someone before they have that ultimate power. A kind woman, a person of integrity, a person who believes that constituent services matter and believes that it's bigger than us. It's about the people of the State of New York. That is your Governor, Kathy Hochul. "I've got very big shoes to fill because there has been no lieutenant governor who has traveled this state, all 62 counties, working hard. There is no one more ready to be Governor right now than Governor Kathy Hochul. But I'm up for the task," he added. Who is Brian A. Benjamin? Benjamin is the son of Caribbean immigrants. Brian A. Benjamin is the New York State Senator for District 30, encompassing Harlem, East Harlem, and the Upper West Side. He was born in Harlem to a Caribbean mother who came to this country seeking new opportunities. Though they didn't have a college education, his parents were fortunate enough to find well-paying union jobs, which allowed them to provide Brian and his siblings with a middle-class upbringing. After graduating from high school in New York City, Brian sought the quality education his parents had dreamed of providing him, earning his undergraduate degree in Public Policy from Brown University and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
He also serves as the senior assistant majority leader of the Senate. A political progressive, he has focused on criminal law reform efforts such as bringing greater accountability to the NYPD, significantly limiting police no-knock warrants, ending cash bail, ending solitary confinement, not incarcerating parolees for parole violations, restoring the voting rights of parolees, allowing felons who completed their sentences to serve on juries, and passing an anti-chokehold act. He also sponsored and passed the Rainy Day Fund bill, which allowed New York City to set aside funds in a revenue stabilization fund. Earlier this year, he ran an unsuccessful campaign for City Comptroller. Eyes on 2022 Elections Ken Sherrill, a professor emeritus of political science at Hunter College, told THE CITY that Benjamin's appointment signifies that Hochul is focused on shoring up downstate support from Black voters. He noted that two Black New York City Democrats –– New York Attorney General Letitia James and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams –– stand as formidable potential challengers to Hochul in next year's primary. "There are two rules in electoral politics: the first is get elected, and the second is get reelected," said Sherrill. "There's no doubt that that was in Hochul's mind when she chose Brian Benjamin. He's a good campaigner, he's from the city, and he adds diversity to the ticket." According to THE CITY, Hochul's pick may also have to do with her past performance in a September 2018 primary against Williams. Hochul, who narrowly won the statewide primary, bested Williams in The Bronx but lost to him by more than 26,000 votes in Manhattan. In that race, Hochul suffered a bruising loss in 2018 in Benjamin's home turf — areas where Williams won with more than 60% of the Democratic primary vote, according to an analysis by Steven Romalewski, director of the mapping service at the Center for Urban Research at the CUNY Graduate Center. Rangel sees Benjamin as a vote magnet who will help Hochul's chances next year. "One thing is for certain; he'll bring in city votes to help out our new Governor. I don't think he was brought onto the ticket to bring in upstate votes," said former Rep Rangel, who will be supporting the ticket. Rangel represented Harlem in Congress for 45 years. l
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EDUCATION
Schools’ COVID Safety Plan Has Less Testing, Remote Learning for Quarantined Kids BY ALEX ZIMMERMAN, REEMA AMIN, AND CHRISTINA VEIGA, CHALKBEAT
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ith less than three weeks remaining before schools reopen for nearly 1 million students, New York City officials revealed a suite of safety protocols including coronavirus testing and classroom closure policies. Under the new rules announced Thursday, the city plans to reduce the frequency and scale of random coronavirus testing compared with last year, with 10% of unvaccinated people in schools tested twice a month. In a few key areas, the city’s policies are more strict than what federal guidance recommends, including on quarantining and masking. When positive cases do pop up, a single case in an elementary school classroom will prompt all students in the room to quarantine and learn remotely, a policy that is more conservative than guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Vaccinated middle and high school students who are exposed to the virus will not have to quarantine if they don’t show symptoms. The testing and quarantining rules are key pieces of the reopening puzzle because they determine how often in-person learning could be disrupted and may help to curb the virus’ spread.
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Last school year, positive coronavirus cases led to thousands of classroom and building closures, resulting in regular ping-ponging between in-person and remote learning at many schools. Unlike last year, when over 60% of students opted to learn fully remotely, all families are expected to send their children to school in person this fall. That has sparked concern among some parents, educators, and elected officials who have called for a remote option as the highly contagious delta variant circulates and questions remain about its impact on children, though serious illness and death remain rare. Officials also announced Thursday that they plan to expand an existing home instruction program for “medically fragile” students with a range of health conditions, though it is expected to serve fewer than 5,000 students. Health experts have generally said that vaccines and masking are the two most important protections against the coronavirus spreading in schools. Universal masking in school buildings will be required this year, officials previously announced. And on Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said all education department staff will be required to be vaccinated and receive a first dose by Sept. 27 at the latest, two weeks after the first day of school. Still, with no vaccines currently approved for children 11 years old and younger, and approval possibly months away, most of the city’s students will not be vaccinated when schools reopen. (At least 60% of children ages 12-17 have received at least one dose, officials said earlier this week.) Here’s what you should know about the safety protocols city officials announced Thursday: Testing Schools will continue to require students and staff to complete a daily health screening that confirms they don’t have COVID symptoms or haven’t come in close contact with anyone who has tested
positive for the virus. Once on campus, 10% of unvaccinated people will be tested on a biweekly basis. Fully vaccinated people do not have to participate in testing. Parents are being asked to consent to the swabs, which can be done through the NYC Schools Account or by downloading a form. However, it’s not clear whether consent will be required. A city handbook outlining back-to-school policies says testing will include “individuals who have submitted consent.” “It is important that you provide consent for your child to participate in the in school testing program,” the city’s handbook says. Last school year, officials initially required monthly testing of 20% of students and staff then bumped it to a weekly routine in December 2020 after schools were closed amid a rise in COVID cases. Preschool and kindergarten students were previously not included in testing requirements and that will continue this fall. For summer programs, 10% of students and staff at each site were tested every other week, with a larger portion tested when positive COVID cases pop up. Quarantining There will be no set number of cases that will cause a school building to be shut down this year. Entire schools will only be closed if city health officials determine that there is “widespread transmission” of COVID inside of the building, including “multiple sources of infection,” officials said. Entire classrooms will close in elementary schools if someone tests positive, and those children will be required to isolate for 10 days. That policy is more conservative than the CDC recommendation that even unvaccinated students should not have to be quarantined in all cases if they are properly masked and at least three feet away from an infected student and the exposure happened in a classroom. In middle and high school classrooms, vaccinated students will be allowed to return to school as long as they don’t have symptoms, but city officials are encouraging them to get tested for COVID 3-5 days after exposure to an infected person “out of an abundance of caution.” The CDC goes farther and says vaccinated students should get tested following exposure. Unvaccinated middle and high school students who are exposed to an infected person will be required to quarantine but can take a COVID-19 test on their fifth day of isolation. If it is negative, they can return to school after their 7th day of quarantine. City officials acknowledged that the continued on page 9
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EDUCATION
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Schools’ COVID-19 Safety Plan/ continued from page 8 quarantine policy for elementary classrooms is more conservative than what the CDC recommends, and de Blasio acknowledged it would lead to classroom closures. “We will have some classroom quarantines, that’s true, but we’re also gonna see a lot of people able to stay when others have to quarantine,” because of vaccinations, the mayor said. The quarantine rules are a big departure from the highly-debated policy last school year, when just two unrelated virus cases caused whole schools to shut down. That policy, which some public health experts called overly conservative, resulted in frequent two-week closures that disrupted stability for students, working caregivers, and teachers. City officials later changed their policy to close buildings only when there are positive cases in four separate classrooms, but still to close individual classrooms with at least one infected person. “We need to balance all the factors, but we want less disruption this year, while maintaining health and safety,” de Blasio said of school-wide closures. “It’s going to be much more case by case.” Instruction in Quarantine Elementary school students will receive live instruction when their classrooms are closed, according to schools Chancellor Meisha Porter. Entire classrooms will have to close for 10 days.
Mayor de Blasio. Editorial credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com
Middle and high school students who are quarantining will have “access” to remote learning, but it’s still unclear how instruction will work if classrooms are split with some students learning remotely and others learning in person (since vaccinated students without any symptoms will continue to attend in person). Some districts, including Chicago, plan to ask teachers to livestream their classrooms to students at home, but that setup can be challenging for educators to execute and union leaders in New York City successfully opposed that setup last year. De Blasio indicated that the city is still negotiating the details of how instruction will be provided with union leaders. “We’re going to be filling in a few more blanks in the next few days because there’s still a couple of issues being worked out,” he said. “We’re still a few weeks out from the beginning of school.” Masks Masks will be universally required in
Chancellor Porter. Photo: Dept of Education
schools, regardless of vaccination status. That includes when staff and students are outdoors, which is more strict than what the CDC recommends. Federal guidance calls for masks outdoors if people are unvaccinated and in crowded settings or when they participate in activities involving “sustained close contact.” Vaccinated people “might choose” to wear a mask in crowded settings and if they live with someone who is immunocompromised, according to the CDC. The city’s handbook says that there will be designated “mask breaks,” during which students can remove their masks while they “maintain physical distance from each other.” It further adds that students who are not “medically able” to wear masks will be given “alternative accommodations.”
— unless doing so prevents students from returning to school full-time. The education department echoes that guidance in their handbook. That means that some schools will have room to socially distance, while those that struggle with overcrowding likely will not. The city’s guidance says that elementary schools will make efforts to keep consistent groups of students together “wherever possible.” Parents and students have been particularly worried about lunchtime, when students will be unmasked. The guidance also says that schools will use outdoor and other spaces whenever possible, and that meals can be served in multiple locations and across multiple periods.l
Physical Distancing The CDC has recommended that schools maintain three feet of social distancing
This story was originally published by Chalkbeat and republished on August 26, 2021 by THE CITY.
YOU ALWAYS KEEP THEM SAFE. WITH VACCINES, THEY’LL BE EVEN SAFER. CHILDREN AGES 12-17 CAN NOW BE VACCINATED AGAINST COVID-19. Get your child vaccinated for a safe return to school. Children who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 are less likely to get and spread COVID-19.
LET’S KEEP OUR CHILDREN SAFE AND OUR SCHOOLS COVID-FREE. For more information about COVID-19 vaccines and where to get one, visit nyc.gov/covidvaccine. VISIT WWW.CAWNYC.COM FOR THE LATEST CARIBBEAN NEWS, IMMIGRATION UPDATES, VIEWPOINTS, ENTERTAINMENT & MORE!LIKE US ON FACEBOOK @CAWNYC!
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ISLAND FOCUS: HAITI
Assassinations and Invasions – How the US and France Shaped Haiti’s Long History of Political Turmoil BY JEAN EDDY SAINT PAUL THE CONVERSATION
T
he powerful earthquake that struck Haiti on Aug. 14, 2021, followed a long series of natural and human-caused disasters to rock the country. Unfortunately, if history offers any clues, earthquake relief efforts will be complicated by the nation’s recent political unrest. President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated less than six weeks earlier, on July 7. Many Haitians felt hatred for the controversial president who, while running for office, was bribed by the oligarchy that has run Haiti’s economy since the 19th century. Moïse campaigned on a promise to feed the starving population. But he failed to ensure a fairer distribution of wealth. He soon became an unpopular president who increasingly ruled as an autocrat. As a sociology professor who has written extensively on Haitian politics, I predicted Moïse’s assassination. That’s because Moïse remained defiant
in the face of mass protests in 2019, refusing to heed calls for his resignation amid fuel shortages and spiraling inflation. There was also a palpable split between Moïse and powerful business magnates as the country’s economic crisis worsened. Presidential assassinations in Haiti Moïse is the latest of five Haitian presidents to be killed in office since the country’s founding in 1804. Power struggles and strong economic interests, both local and with other nations – mainly the United States – have motivated those assassinations. Throughout Haitian history, the U.S. has been actively engaged in undermining the legitimacy of Haitian leaders who refused to bow to American imperialism. Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Haiti’s founding father, proclaimed the country’s independence from France on Jan. 1, 1804, after a 12-year war. One of his first executive orders was intended to prevent the abuse of land
ownership. It called for a fair distribution of land among racial groups in a country that had won independence because of strategic alliances among Blacks, biracial people and a few white soldiers. Dessalines is often portrayed by mainstream media as a cannibal and assassin. That’s because he was abhorred by white Europeans and Americans – leaders of the global economic system who were intimidated by the Haitian Revolution. Additionally, the elites in Dessalines’ circle disapproved of the power he had concentrated, and they assassinated him on Oct. 17, 1806. His death accelerated Haiti’s political disintegration. The Monroe Doctrine and political assassinations The 30 billion euros in today’s currency that Haitian President Jean-Pierre Boyer agreed to pay France in 1825 as compensation for property losses during the war has destabilized the country. It has also allowed foreign powers to undermine Haiti’s sovereignty. In 1823, the U.S. passed the Monroe Doctrine, which says “that the American continents … are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.” The declaration, meant to keep Europe out of the continent, has justified U.S. interventions in the region. Between 1889 and 1891, the U.S. unsuccessfully negotiated with Haiti to acquire the Môle St. Nicholas port, which would have given it a military foothold in the Caribbean. More than 20 years later, the murder of President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam offered the U.S. the perfect rationale to invade Haiti. On same day as Sam’s assassination, July 28, 1915, Woodrow Wilson authorized the American warship USS Washington to invade Haiti. The U.S. occupied Haiti until 1934. During that occupation, U.S. officials altered Haiti’s Constitution to allow foreigners to become landowners. That change also gave the U.S. control of Haiti’s customs agency and finances. Racial discrimination and segregation were the norm in the U.S. South at the time, and most U.S. Marines sent to Haiti were Southerners, accustomed to Jim Crow. This Southern influence among U.S. Marines played a big role in Haitian history. During the occupation, the U.S. picked only light-skinned Haitians to serve as presidents. And after 19 years in the country, the U.S. left behind a racially divided society that remains intact today. US-trained army The U.S. also trained the Haitian military ideologically to defend U.S. interests.
These forces eventually engineered many coups against Haitian leaders who were popular with locals but rejected by the U.S. Between 1946 and 1950, under the presidency of Dumarsais Estimé, Haiti enjoyed political and social stability. However, on May 10, 1950, Paul-Eugène Magloire, trained during the U.S. occupation, overthrew Estimé and changed Haiti’s political trajectory. Magloire established a corrupt political regime. Then the army provided support for U.S.-backed François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, from his presidential election in 1957 to the establishment in 1959 of his dictatorship. In 1959, Duvalier created the Tontons Macoutes, a paramilitary group trained by U.S. Marines that killed more than 60,000 Haitians. The Duvalier regime, led by Papa Doc’s son Jean-Claude after his death in 1971, lasted until 1986. The Aristide era Between 1991 and 2004, President JeanBertrand Aristide – who won over Haitians with his anti-imperialism – was overthrown twice by the Haitian military. On Sept. 29, 1991, the army, with CIA help, removed Aristide from power for his nationalistic views, and for his attempts to hold accountable powerful business leaders with strong ties to Washington. On Oct. 15, 1994, amid huge protests, the Bill Clinton administration restored Aristide to power, after Washington coerced him to sign l’Accord de Paris, an agreement to reinforce the implementation of market-oriented reform policies in Haiti that reduced local influence over the economy. Aristide was forced to privatize social services and public institutions, and he had to facilitate the entry of foreign agricultural goods into the Haitian market. These moves undermined the economy and compromised Haiti’s social development. In 2000, Aristide again won the presidency. But a February 2004 coup, engineered by Washington and Paris, overthrew him once more. Under foreign influence, Haitian politicians have been unable to develop a stable society for their fellow citizens. Because of their lack of vision and their erroneous conception of political power, they have given powerful transnational forces the opportunity to shape Haiti’s political leadership. Both Democratic and Republican U.S. politicians have imposed on Haitian society a political leadership supportive of U.S. interests but noxious for any nationbuilding project on the Caribbean island.l Jean Eddy Saint Paul is a Professor of Sociology, Brooklyn College
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MONEY MATTERS
11
Is Bankruptcy In Your Future? BY CHRIS TOBIAS
I
n these tough economic times many individuals and businesses are finding it difficult to meet their financial obligations. If your situation is not imminently dire there are steps you can take to ward off a bankruptcy. Establishing and maintaining good credit is not as hard as one might think. First, holding multiple active credit cards is a no-no since this, in essence, leads people to spend more than they actually have, plus interest for the pleasure. This activity can become so out of control that people start to pay off credit cards with credit cards which, in turn, causes a terrible chain reaction. The lesson to be learned here is to develop a budget. Spend only what you can afford and even then, only after the bills have been paid. Second, squirrel something away for a rainy day. A general rule of thumb is to set aside a stash of no less than two thousand dollars in case of an unforeseen emergency. Finally, watch your bank account; don’t allow yourself to become overdrawn. Don’t rely on your bank’s
overdraft to keep you going from month to month. How do I know if I should file personal bankruptcy? Are you calling because you are being sued? If you are being sued, and you own a home, we strongly urge you to speak with us immediately about filing bankruptcy. A bankruptcy filing will stop a lawsuit immediately and prevent your creditors from placing a lien on your home or garnishing your hard-earned wages.
Is your home being foreclosed or is your car about to be repossessed? If it is, very often bankruptcy may prevent the foreclosure action or repossession from proceeding and allow you to consolidate your mortgage arrears or automobile balance and make payments on those debts over time through a payment plan designed by us with your help. If your house is being foreclosed or your car is about to be repossessed, Chapter 7 bankruptcy may not be an option. Chapter 13 bankruptcy may save your house and your car If bankruptcy should come knocking on your door, however, be smart about it. Avoid credit repair scams. Approach it honestly and head on. All outstanding debt must be listed on your bankruptcy forms. Any omissions can be considered fraud and cause your bankruptcy to be discharged without relief. You may also face fines and/or prison. And don’t fear. Contrary to the common misconception it doesn’t take 10 years to recover from a bankruptcy. Within 18-24 months you could potentially qualify for loans and credit under the same terms as if you hadn’t filed for bankruptcy.l
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12
HOME OWNERSHIP
Avoid Water Damage: Three Tips for Protecting Your Property
flood damage to make the appropriate claims as needed. For example, a leaking roof during a heavy rainfall typically does not qualify as flood damage.
T
he best way to protect yourself from floods is to prepare your home and property before any kind of natural threat occurs, such as heavy rainfalls, hurricanes, mudflows and ice jams. However, even problems relating to damaged drainage systems, new development and overtopped levees can cause flooding. Fortunately, to help keep your investments protected, here are three tips for protecting your property against floods 1. Choose a location for buying or building a home that is above street level. Whenever possible, it is recommended to avoid purchasing or building homes in high-risk flood areas. You should look for living areas above street level and away from water sources. If you are choosing an apartment, it is also recommended to choose one that is not on or beneath ground level. Typically, the higher your home is, the safer you will be in case of flooding. 2. Speak to your insurance provider about about getting a flood insurance policy. Unfortunately, many Americans do not
have a flood insurance policy despite the fact that the most common natural disaster in the U.S. is flooding. To get the coverage, Americans typically have to purchase a separate policy through the National Flood Insurance Program provided by the federal government. When purchasing a flood insurance policy, it is crucial that you do your research beforehand to learn exactly what is covered. In the wake of recent natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy, many people quickly discovered the true value of their policy for better or for worse. When getting insurance, here are some questions you need to ask: How much will the policy cost? The
exact cost of your policy will vary between providers, personal information, and risk factors. If you live in areas that are prone to flooding or have a home or apartment at ground level, you may experience higher rates. What is covered under the policy? Flood insurance typically does not cover fences, trees or swimming pools. Additionally, coverage options may be limited for property beneath ground level such as basements. When speaking with your insurer, you should also ask about temporary living expenses, tree removal and spoiled food. What qualifies as flood damage? It is important that you learn what qualifies as
3. Prepare your home to be protected against flooding. The best way to keep your home protected is to have the necessary materials and systems in place before a flood happens. To help keep your home protected, you can: •Install sewage backflow valves. •Ensure that the windows and doors fit perfectly. •Have plywood ready to seal off windows and glass doors. •Have plastic sheets and sandbags handy. •Consider using flood tubes for protecting larger areas. Because disaster can strike at any time, it is crucial to be prepared for the worst. By familiarizing yourself with the risks involved with flooding and how to lessen them, you will stand a better chance of protecting yourself and your home. Need assistance? We will be happy to meet with you and share our guidance. Schedule an appointment today. Call us at 888-670-6791. l
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FAMILY MATTERS
13
Pregnant or Worried About Infertility? Get Vaccinated Against COVID-19 BY MATTHEW WOODRUFF THE CONVERSATION
A
s the delta variant of SARSCoV-2 surges across the U.S., almost 1 in 5 Americans continue to resist getting shots that are widely available, safe and effective – particularly for preventing the most severe outcomes of the virus. While people have many different justifications for not getting the shot, one particularly insidious bit of pseudoscience has surfaced. It is routinely invoked in the contentious debate over vaccine policy in the U.S. and continues to stir confusion and skepticism toward vaccines in young women across the globe. This misinformed argument reasons that the coronavirus vaccines could affect fertility in women by mistakenly triggering the creation of antibodies that react with an important placental protein called syncytin-1. This protein contains minor similarities to the coronavirus spike protein used in all current COVID19 vaccines. Thus, the false narrative goes, the immune system will not be able to differentiate between the two and will
create antibodies that interfere with proper development of the placenta. This argument lacks understanding of how the immune system does its job. As an immunologist who studies COVID-19 infection and the ways it can cause the immune system to turn against itself, this misunderstanding comes up frequently in my conversations with friends, family members and even medical workers who are legitimately concerned about their health and their future ability to have children. It is completely understandable to have questions about how a new vaccine might affect reproductive health. But the
science is clear that getting vaccinated does not put women at risk for infertility. It protects women, their unborn children and their families from a serious disease that, ironically, could in fact affect fertility in men. Antibodies rarely make mistakes The immune system is an immensely complicated network of cells, tissues and proteins that interact with one another – and the outside world. It works to maintain a balanced, healthy environment so the rest of the cells in the body can do their jobs. Among other things, the immune system helps direct fetal devel-
opment, oversees and manages the microbes that aid in digestion and, of course, fights off infection. One of the immune system’s most critical jobs is to differentiate between the body’s own cells and those of outside invaders to prevent accidental attacks on itself. In immunology, this careful selection of responses is called “immune tolerance.” People whose immune systems fail to maintain this tolerance and instead attack their own cells and tissues are diagnosed with autoimmune disorders. These can range in symptoms and severity depending on the tissue being attacked. An example is rheumatoid arthritis – a misdirected antibody attack on soft tissue in the joints. The immune system has a series of checks and balances that are intended to prevent such autoimmune attacks. When B-cells – the cells in the immune system that produce antibodies – are first “born,” they carefully screen themselves to make sure that they won’t target the body’s own organs. That self-screening continues as B-cells patrol the body looking for an infection to fight; if they find something potentially threatening, conitnued on page 14
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14
FAMILY MATTERS Pregnant or Worried/ continued from page 13 like a vaccine, they engage in a highly orchestrated dance with other immune cells. Through that weeks-long process, only B-cells that produce antibodies against the outside invader survive. Bcells with self-destructive potential are killed. Importantly, in parts of the body where it is absolutely critical that the immune system not mistakenly turn on its own cells – such as a developing placenta or in the brain – the entire region is immunosuppressive. This means that the threshold for activating the body’s immune response in those areas is set at an even higher bar. This is not emerging science. These are well-established concepts among immunology experts. and have been for almost a half-century. As a result, it was not particularly noteworthy that a new preliminary study of women with fully developed immune responses against coronavirus showed no activity against the placental protein syncytin-1. Another study unsurprisingly demonstrated that the vaccine does not damage the placenta. COVID-19 is the real threat to the immune system It is important to remember that the COVID-19 vaccines authorized – and in the case of Pfizer-BioNTech, fully
ings confirm that in more than half of severe patients, a large number of antibodies also target their own cells. Simply put: The danger of this kind of “auto-reactivity” in COVID-19 doesn’t come from responding against the spike protein in a vaccine – it occurs when the body has to fight a real COVID-19 infection.
approved – in the U.S. carry the instructions to make the same spike protein that the virus uses to force its way into cells. Regardless of whether a person is infected with COVID-19 or receives a vaccine that emulates part of the virus, the immune system will respond aggressively to the spike protein that the body sees as foreign. Study after study confirm that in people who contract the virus, the majority of the immune response is directed at the spike protein. However, there is one critical difference between vaccination and infection. When you get vaccinated, your immune system has the time to respond under rel-
atively low-risk circumstances. In other words, the immune system senses a threat and begins to build up its arsenal without rushing. But when it is confronted with a severe infection, the immune system recruits every weapon it has, as quickly as possible, to fend off severe infection or death. This is important because we now know that under the severe stress of fighting COVID-19, the immune system fires up an emergency response pathway and begins producing antibodies that are not well selected. Many of these antibodies will target the virus, but our work now under review and others’ published find-
Getting vaccinated protects unborn children Getting vaccinated costs people a couple of days of not feeling 100%. In return, it provides protection from contracting a serious disease with the potential to cause serious illness or death. Being vaccinated also gives crossover protection to an unborn child. COVID-19 infection, on the other hand, puts pregnant women at risk of severe disease, pregnancy complications and death. It may also affect a couple’s ability to have children by decreasing a man’s sperm counts and causing erectile dysfunction. The science is clear, but for me this is also deeply personal. My wife was vaccinated in March, and we are expecting a baby in December. We are both deeply grateful for a vaccine that has given us the confidence to support a healthy pregnancy in the midst of a pandemic.l Matthew Woodruff Matthew Woodruff is an Instructor of Human Immunology, Emory University.
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15
IMMIGRATION Diversity Lottery/ continued from page 1 The 2020 lottery winners are still suffering the effects of restrictive Trump-era policies. Winners of the 2021 lottery are being held back by the Biden administration’s inability to issue diversity visas in a timely fashion. Lottery winners from both years have taken their cases to court. A bill introduced in the House of Representatives would allow lottery winners to remain eligible for their visas even after the end of the fiscal year in which they were selected. The Diversity Visa Program Congress created the diversity visa program in 1990 to encourage immigration to the United States from countries that have been historically underrepresented in the U.S. immigrant population. The program makes up to 55,000 immigrant visas available each year to eligible nationals of such countries. Because competition for diversity visas is so intense, each year’s “winners” are chosen through a lottery. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2020, 23.2 million people filed applications for a diversity visa. (This number includes both principal beneficiaries and their dependents.) The Legacy of the Trump Administration’s Immigration Bans Former President Trump banned travel to the United States from six Muslimmajority countries in 2017. He then
banned most immigration into the country in 2020. These bans effectively shut down the diversity visa program. When the 2020 immigrant visa ban went into effect, roughly 40,000 of that year’s diversity visas had not yet been issued. If the government did not issue those visas by the end of the fiscal year (September 30), the intended recipients of the visas would lose their chance to immigrate to the United States. This prompted several lawsuits by some winners of the 2020 lottery who were denied their visas. In September 2020, the U.S. District Court for the District Columbia ordered the Trump administration to continue issuing diversity visas in a case that consolidated five such lawsuits. The court separately ordered the administration to reserve 9,095 diversity visas for future processing pending the resolution of the case. On August 17, 2021, the court ordered the Biden administration to issue those 9,095 diversity visas from FY 2020. State Department Bureaucracy Under the Biden Administration Even though the Trump administration has come to an end, the diversity visa program continues to suffer under the Biden administration. The State Department is issuing visas to the winners of the 2021 diversity visa lottery at an extraordinarily slow pace. By the end of June 2021, the department had issued only 3,094 diversity visas for FY 2021. Any of the winners of this year’s lottery
who don’t receive their visas by September 30 will lose their chance to come to the United States. The State Department says that diversity visas are being issued so slowly because U.S. embassies and consulates abroad are backlogged with cases due to closures and capacity limits related to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the slow pace of diversity visa issuance also results from the fact that diversity visas are currently assigned the lowest priority level of any visa category. In June 2021, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of more than 24,000 winners of the 2021 diversity visa lottery demanding that the Biden administration issue all of this year’s diversity visas before September 30. The Keeping Our Promise Act Some members of Congress want to provide legislative relief to diversity visa
lottery winners who have been denied their visas. On May 25, 2021, Representatives Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Judy Chu (DCA) introduced the Keeping Our Promise Act (H.R. 3548). This bill would allow lottery winners who were denied a visa because of COVID-19 restrictions or Trump-era travel bans to remain eligible for their visas. The Keeping Our Promise Act would apply to winners of any diversity visa lottery held between 2017 and 2021. It will likely take years to repair the widespread damage that the Trump administration inflicted on the U.S. immigration system. But the Biden administration can and should do more to resume visa processing abroad and ensure that winners of the diversity visa lottery do not lose their opportunity to come to the United States.l
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nHEALTH
nENTERTAINMENT
nRELATIONSHIPS
nRECIPES
Kids Learn Hip-Hop from Haitian Star
Photo Credit: Lauriane Ogay
I
n the last century, dance legends Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, and Merce Cunningham evolved the art form at 92Y Harkness Dance Center, but today, the dance world's rising stars of the dance world will teach New York City's children now, in person. Youngsters can learn hip-hop from Haitian-born Tatiana Desardouin, named Dance Magazine's One to Watch in 2020, and director/choreographer of the Passion Fruit Dance Company, along with other of her company's members. Raised in Switzerland, Tatiana is a professional dancer, dance instructor, dance consultant, choreographer, organizer, curator, with a Master degree as adult educator and a Bachelor in Psychology (University of Geneva). Tatiana won several competitions and is regularly invited to give workshops and judge competitions worldwide. Very involved in the
growth of the Swiss hip-hop scene, she has been teaching and mentoring since 2005, had her own dance school “Le Centre Hip-Hop,” taught regular classes in several dance schools (such as “CFP Arts,” an important arts school in Geneva), and stays involved in the Swiss community through JAIA & FlowFocus ( a non-profit organization providing sessions, parties, workshops and a battle). In 2012, she was one of the four founders of the first Hip-Hop dance company in Geneva called “Continuum.” Tatiana was selected as one of Dance Magazine’s 2020 “25 to Watch.” She also featured in the New Yorker magazine for the “Goings on about town” in 2021. She had the chance to perform at the Madison Square Garden and the Wells Fargo Center for the rock band Arcade Fire, In Electrogynous by Sabela Grimes performed at the University of Columbia, In Where Love lies follow a play written by Nichi Douglas performed at the Martin E. Segal Theater for the Prelude festival (NYC) and at the Public Theater Under the Radar festival (NYC). Tatiana had the opportunity to be Nichi Douglas’s dance consultant for the premiere of that play at The Shed.Tatiana is one of the core dancer of the pioneering street dance theater company Rennie Harris Puremovement since 2016, performing throughout the United States. Since 2021 she is part of the Black Dancing Bodies project with whom she recently did the “Works & Process bubble residency” performing at the New York Library. Amongst other styles, Tatiana specializes in Hip-Hop and Housedance.l
nSPORTS
nHOROSCOPE
Kitchen Corner
F
un in the summer sun can mean anything from poolside play and outdoor exercise to simply relaxing in the shade. While these activities make the season special for people of all ages, the heat also leads to the inevitable: sweat. Electrolytes, critical for the human body to function, are lost via sweat throughout the day. Drinking plenty of fluids, such as water, helps keep you hydrated. However, adding 100% orange juice to your diet can help replace those lost electrolytes in addition to aiding hydration. According to a study published in the “Journal of Nutrition and Health Sciences,” drinking 100% orange juice following exercise contributes to hydration equally as well as water and sports drinks, making the beverage a viable alternative for recovery. “Electrolytes include nutrients such as potassium, sodium, magnesium and calcium,” said Dr. Rosa Walsh, scientific research director at the Florida Department of Citrus. “In fluids, these
Pineapple Orange Smoothie nutrients carry an electric charge, which allows muscles to contract and nerves to transmit signals, and are critical for the human body to function. Plain water contains few if any electrolytes, so you must replace lost electrolytes by consuming foods or beverages that contain these nutrients. Drinking fluids that contain both water and electrolytes, such as 100% orange juice, may help support hydration.” In fact, 100% orange juice contains about 90% water and can contribute to overall water intake. With no added sugar, it’s an ideal way to support hydration by drinking it on its own or by adding it to recipes —Family Features Ingredients 1 glass orange juice 1/2 cup plain almond milk 1 frozen banana 1 cup frozen pineapple 1 teaspoon turmeric 1 scoop walnuts 1/8 teaspoon cayenne 2-3 ice cubes 1 scoop plain protein powder (optional) Directions In large blender, blend orange juice, almond milk, frozen banana, frozen pineapple, turmeric, walnuts, cayenne, ice cubes and protein powder, if desired, until smooth. Portion into two small glasses.l
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19
LOVE & RELATIONSHIPS
10 Habits that Could Ruin Your Relationship 4. Bottling Up Your Feelings Avoid assuming that your partner should understand how you think and feel at every point. The truth is, your partner can't read your mind or understand everything about how you feel. So speak up - communicate your feelings with your partner. This will help your partner understand you better and will create a stronger bond between you two. Also, create an atmosphere where your partner feels comfortable expressing their feelings towards you.
BY MARY CAMPBELL 311DIVORCE.COM
W
hen relationships start, there are lots of butterflies and romantic emotions. There is enough emotional high to keep the relationship mutually exciting and fulfilling. At the time, you feel your partner is just perfect. But after weeks and months together, the emotional high begins to dip, and you start to see that your partner is not so perfect. Successful relationships are not just butterflies and rainbows. It takes deliberate effort from both partners to have a mutually satisfying relationship. Both partners must be committed to making each other happy. Sometimes, one or even both partners might be selfish and unbending. They might be unwilling to make compromises for a happy relationship. Other times, one or both partners might succumb to bad habits that slowly ruin the relationship. In this article, we will look at 10 toxic habits that could make your relationship take a turn for the worse and show you how to avoid them.
1. Trying to be Right All the Time For many couples, this is a toxic trait that can ruin everything. When arguing, avoid trying to prove that you are right or that your opinion is superior. Pay attention to your partner and allow them to express their opinion. Keep in mind that the aim is not to be right, but to come to a point where there is love, peace, and mutual understanding. 2. Comparing Your Partner to Others Comparing your partner to other people can create unrealistic expectations and even lower their self-esteem. Avoid comparing your partner to people around you. Learn to appreciate your partner for who
they are. Instead of comparing them to others, inspire them to become a better version of themselves. 3. Not Expressing Love to Your Partner It is easy to believe that you love your partner the way they want to be loved. The reality is that most times, we express love to our partner based on how we like to be loved. For example, you might understand love to be receiving words of affirmation. But on the other hand, your partner may understand love to be acts of service or receiving gifts. Learn your partner's love languages and express love to them in the way they want to be loved.
5. Holding Grudges The most successful relationships are made up of two forgivers. Your partner will step on your toes at some point. Holding grudges will only lead to anxiety, insecurity, and stress. So forgive your partner, and avoid holding grudges. 6. Spending More Time on Your Phone When having a conversation with your partner, try to listen to them without fiddling with your gadget. Give them all your attention. Create special activities that can help you and your partner bond better. This will make them feel like they are a priority in your life. continued on page 20
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20
TRAVEL & LIFESTYLE
The Business of Travel BY VICTORIA FALK
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he power of the internet has increased our information in regards to what's happening around the world. We're able to meet a lot of people more quickly than ever before. At one time, we were excited when someone could find a business partner who lived in a different state than them. However, nowadays, people on different continents are meeting and forming alliances over the worldwide web. Social media has become an excellent tool to help attract clients and partners, and technological advances are helping them maintain contact with each other through a variety of online meetings. But the fact remains, most people prefer to do business with someone they've met in person. They want to meet potential business partners and get to know them as people first, to see if they like them, before contemplating whether or not to have a business discussion. Therefore, business tourism is emerging as a fast-growing, lucrative niche in the travel industry. Business tourism involves business
10 Habits/ continued from page 19 7. Criticizing Your Partner Avoid constantly criticizing your partner. Avoid snide remarks about their appearance or personality. Instead, appreciate the positive traits in your partner. Learn to give positive and constructive feedback and encourage them to do better, rather than dragging them down. 8. Spying on Your Partner Trust is essential for any successful relationship. Avoid snooping around your partner's phone or belongings. Respect each other's privacy.
people traveling to meet clients, team members, and potential business partners. But it also includes travel for personal development, to attend business events, exhibitions, business meetings, and other professional events. According to recent surveys, London, Hong Kong, and New York remain the top three travel destinations for travelers seeking trade fairs, conferences, and other corporate events.l Victoria Falk, the award-winning CEO of Passionate Travel Inc. Visit: www.passionatetravel.info or call (800) 890-7492
9. Telling lies Avoid telling lies or keeping things from your partner. This is one way to break their trust in you and ruin your relationship. 10. Taking Your Partner for Granted Never take your partner for granted. Appreciate the little efforts your partner makes. Reinforce their place in your life and remind your partner why you love them. Relationships are a blessing. However, maintaining a happy relationship is not easy. It takes sacrifice, commitment, and deliberate effort from both parties to make it work. Avoid these bad habits and commit to improving yourself and your relationship. l
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21
HEALTH
Five Ways to Get Out of a COVID Funk munities currently teeming with active users. Why not take the opportunity to make some online friends? Having someone to talk to makes life a little less stressful, even if they're on the other side of the world.
BY MARY CAMPBELL
D
ue to COVID-19, mental health has been a widespread issue as people find themselves confined to their homes. This drastic change of pace, along with social isolation, is naturally stoking anxiety and squandering motivation. Here are five suggestions to help create a healthy and enticing daily routine. 1. Pick a time to go to bed The body knows when it's being deprived of uninterrupted sleep. It also knows if it's up at strange hours like 3 to 7 in the morning. People who go to bed before 12 a.m. and wake up before 12 p.m. have a reserve of energy that is lost to irregular sleeping patterns. They also have more opportunities to be productive since they have more hours of daylight-the sun is out, essential businesses are open, and people are up and at your disposal. 2. Exercise Exercise is the quintessential self-help tip. Although it seems cliched and boring, there is an underlying truth to the benefits of daily exercise. At the very least, if the days feel empty and unstructured, a daily exercise goal gives you something positive to do. Exercise
5. Do "that thing" Everyone has "that thing" they've always wanted to do but haven't. Well, what better time to explore unrealized passion than in this time of uncertainty? If the downtime during unemployment (or any other circumstances) feels unbearably dull, create a challenge: learn how to play an instrument, explore a foreign language, jot down some paragraphs, buy painting supplies, read the stock market. Find something to get excited about. shouldn't be boring or dreadful; associate it with fun by listening to music or watching TV. Instead of being cooped up inside, why not enjoy the day by going for a walk or a jog? Take pictures, jot down some notes, explore the neighborhood. Don't let the act of exercise limit your curiosity and enjoyment. Doing only thirty minutes' exercise every day is astronomically better than not doing any at all. 3. Read Pandemics, depression, and isolation
seem contemporarily unique... but are not. There is nothing quite like finding a good book, not as a distraction, but as a tool to help face turbulent times. Though other forms of media address these themes, books require more attention and make you appreciate solitude and quiet. 4. Socialize Although the pandemic has made it difficult for people to get together in person. Don't give up on family and friends; they probably feel isolated and anxious too. There are also hundreds of online com-
Hang in there! Remember, COVID won't last forever. As the world slowly begins to return to a new normalcy, it's still important to observe social distancing guidelines while maintaining mental health. If you're currently under a soft lockdown and are experiencing monotony, don't forget to go to bed early, exercise, read, text a friend, and explore your whims. This might give your days the touch that they needed.l
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22
HEALTH
Back to School Vision and Eye Tips
C
OVID-19 continues to pose challenges for many parents and students. But whether your children are going back to school in a physical classroom or remotely at home, it is important to make sure they get their vision checked. Lighthouse Guild points out that vision is one of the keys to success in school and encourages parents to make sure their children get regular vision screenings. “The most important thing you can do to protect your child’s vision is to make sure they get an eye exam,” says Dr. Laura Sperazza, Director of Low Vision Services at Lighthouse Guild. “An eye health professional can determine if your child needs eyeglasses or contact lenses, or if there is a vision problem that requires further intervention.”
because they believe glasses are unattractive, try pointing out sports figures and other well-known people who wear glasses. Talk with them about how to clean and store their glasses. Let them choose an eyeglass case with a theme or design they like to make the experience of wearing glasses seem more special. For an older child, explore the possibility of contact lenses.
types of fruits and veggies as well as fish.
August is Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month Here are five healthy vision tips to help safeguard your child’s eye health:
•Speak Up – Ask your children to let you know if they notice any vision changes. Examples would be blurry vision, frequent squinting, or general eye discomfort.
•Eat Your Carrots – The old saying still applies. Encourage your children to eat a well-balanced diet loaded with different
•Wear Your Glasses – Help your children understand the importance of wearing their eyeglasses. If they are resistant
•Rest Your Eyes – Looking continuously at a computer, phone, or TV screen can tire eyes. Encourage your children to take a break from staring at the screen. Teach them the 20/20/20 rule for computer use. After 20 minutes on the computer, they should take a break for 20 seconds and look 20 feet away to relax the eyes. This is good rule for adults also! •Wear Safety Gear – Make sure your children wear goggles or other types of protective eye wear while playing sports, using chemicals or tools for school projects, or engaging in other activities. Many eye injuries can be prevented with better safety habits.l
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23
CARIBBEAN STAR
Grange Hails Garvey As One of the Greatest World Leaders On His 134th Birthday BY MEDIA WRITER, JAMAICANS.COM
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he Jamaica Cultural Development Commission an agency of the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport celebrated the 134th anniversary of the birth of Jamaica’s first National Hero, the Right Excellent Marcus Garvey with a floral tribute at his tomb at the National Heroes Park on Tuesday, August 17. The commemorative event saw a number of national leaders laying floral arrangements in remembrance of the great Pan-Africanist, including: His Excellency the Most Hon. Sir Patrick Allen, ON, GCMG, CD, KSt. J, Governor-General; Honorable Dr. Horace Chang, CD, MP, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security representing the Most Hon Andrew Holness, ON, PC, MP, Prime Minister; Mr. Mark Golding, MP, Leader of the Opposition; His Worship the Mayor, Senator, Councilor Delroy Williams, Mayor of Kingston and St. Andrew; His Excellency Carlos Alberto Michaelsen den Hartog, Dean of the Diplomatic Corps; Laleta Davis-Mattis, CD, Chairperson of the National Council
on Reparations and Steven Golding, President of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. During her welcome remarks, the Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honorable Olivia Grange reflected on Mr. Garvey’s
contribution as Jamaica’s first National Hero: “We can proudly say here, and on any platform, at anytime, anywhere in the world that Marcus Garvey is among the most influential leaders the world has ever known. Emerging from humble circumstances in rural Jamaica, Marcus Garvey’s accomplishments internationally were sufficient for him to be regarded as a national hero, not only at home but aboard especially amongst those of African descent,” Grange said. Minister Grange highlighted that the Garvey movement was the greatest international movement of African people in modern times. It has been recorded that at its peak, the movement counted over 8 million followers. Marcus Garvey was the first (1st) to articulate the concept of African Nationalism, the concept of Africans in the Diaspora returning to Africa to build a great nation of their own. The commemorative event also saw
musical tributes being made in song by Andrew “Abijah” Smith tiled Revelation and the harder they come respectively, while by Rory Baugh sang, You’ll Never Walk Alone. Marcus Mosiah Garvey is Jamaica’s first National Hero and was born in St. Ann’s Bay, St. Ann, on August 17, 1887. During his career Garvey travelled extensively throughout many countries, observing the poor working and living conditions of black people. In 1914 he started the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), in Jamaica. He was conferred with the Order of the National Hero in 1969 as per the second schedule of the National Honors and Awards Act. The UNIA, which grew into an international organization, encouraged self-government for black people worldwide, self-help economic projects and protest against racial discrimination. Garvey’s legacy can be summed up in the philosophies he taught – race-ed for African unity; self-reliance; the need for black people to be organized and for rulers to govern on behalf of the working classes.l
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24
SPORTS
In Forbes Feature, Shelly-Ann FraserPryce Reveals Yams Are Not Jamaica’s Secret Weapon for Running BY STAFF WRITER, JAMAICANS.COM
S
helly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Jamaica’s sprint superstar and Olympic gold medalist, discussed her diet and training program with Forbes magazine, revealing what some would call a bombshell: she does not like yams, rarely eats yams, and does not consider yams a “secret weapon” responsible for the success of her country’s fastest runners. Ever since eight-time Olympic medal winner Usain Bolt’s father attributed his son’s 100-meter Olympic world record to “the power of yams” in 2008, everyone wanted to get in on the yam in hopes of replicating the sprinter’s speed. “I am not a yam girl at all. I don’t really like yam. I will eat it, but I am more about dumplings and rice… and porridge. I drink a lot of porridge, “said the star athlete known as “Pocket Rocket” and “Mommy Rocket” to her fans. She said she experienced food insecurity as a child, often eating a limited and repetitive diet consisting of one or more
Photo: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Facebook
affordable ingredients such as cornmeal. When sent to the store by her mother with a list of weekly supplies, she would wait for all other customers to leave before approaching the store’s operator with the list because she would never have enough money to get everything
and didn’t want anyone to find out. When Fraser-Pryce entered Wolmer’s Trust High School for Girls, she became very aware that her lifestyle was different from that of her classmates and, at age 11, was ashamed of her food insecurity. Her enrollment in Wolmer’s breakfast
program caused her embarrassment because she believed accepting the free school meals exposed what she felt was her shame. Performing at a high level in the school’s athletics ultimately provided the context that sustained her. However, when championship time came around, the school would provide its athletes with vitamins, Pediasure, and cooked meals. “You could say my school kind of saved me,” she noted. Another source of support was Jeanne Coke of The Wolmer’s Old Girls’ Association, who learned of Fraser-Pryce’s circumstances and began to fund her education in recognition of her potential. When she entered the University, she discovered that many of the foods prepared by her mother – foods she didn’t want people to know she was eating because she believed it made her look poor – were recommended by her coaches to give her the edge she needed to succeed in athletics. She has now come full circle, and now, cornmeal is one of her favorite foods. “To have overcome everything that I have in my life to be here the way I have, it’s just crazy,” she said, looking back on her childhood and teen years and knowing that her story is common among today’s student-athletes in Jamaica. She also recognizes that most of them will not be as lucky as she has been in escaping poverty and realizing their dreams on the world stage. Fraser-Pryce has used these challenges to motivate and inspire her. She launched the Pocket Rocket Foundation in 2013 to provide academic and athletic support to student-athletes facing financial challenges. To date, more than 40 student-athletes, 20 males and 21 female student-athletes across 18 different sporting areas, have received full academic scholarships from the Pocket Rocket Foundation. “At the end of life, what will matter is not what we bought but what we built. Not our success but our significance,’ she said.l
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25
GENERATIONS
Individual Dietary Choices Can Add – or Take Away – Minutes, Hours and Years of Life BY OLIVIER JOLLIET & KATERINA S. STYLIANOU, THE CONVERSATION
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egetarian and vegan options have become standard fare in the American diet, from upscale restaurants to fast-food chains. And many people know that the food choices they make affect their own health as well as that of the planet. But on a daily basis, it’s hard to know how much individual choices, such as buying mixed greens at the grocery store or ordering chicken wings at a sports bar, might translate to overall personal and environmental health. That’s the gap we hope to fill with our research. We are part of a team of researchers with expertise in food sustainability and environmental life cycle assessment, epidemiology and environmental health and nutrition. We are working to gain a deeper understanding beyond the often overly simplistic animal-versus-plant diet debate and to identify environmentally sustainable foods that also promote human health.
Building on this multi-disciplinary expertise, we combined 15 nutritional health-based dietary risk factors with 18 environmental indicators to evaluate, classify and prioritize more than 5,800 individual foods. Ultimately, we wanted to know: Are drastic dietary changes required to improve our individual health and reduce environmental impacts? And does the entire population need to become vegan to make a meaningful difference for human health and that of the planet?
Putting hard numbers on food choices In our new study in the research journal Nature Food, we provide some of the first concrete numbers for the health burden of various food choices. We analyzed the individual foods based on their composition to calculate each food item’s net benefits or impacts. The Health Nutritional Index that we developed turns this information into minutes of life lost or gained per serving size of each food item consumed. For instance, we found that eating one hot
dog costs a person 36 minutes of “healthy” life. In comparison, we found that eating a serving size of 30 grams of nuts and seeds provides a gain of 25 minutes of healthy life – that is, an increase in good-quality and disease-free life expectancy. Our study also showed that substituting only 10% of daily caloric intake of beef and processed meats for a diverse mix of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes and select seafood could reduce, on average, the dietary carbon footprint of a U.S. consumer by one-third and add 48 healthy minutes of life per day. This is a substantial improvement for such a limited dietary change. How did we crunch the numbers? We based our Health Nutritional Index on a large epidemiological study called the Global Burden of Disease, a comprehensive global study and database that was developed with the help of more than 7,000 researchers around the world. The Global Burden of Disease detercontinued on page 26
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GENERATIONS Individual Diet Choices/ continued from page 25 mines the risks and benefits associated with multiple environmental, metabolic and behavioral factors – including 15 dietary risk factors. Our team took that population-level epidemiological data and adapted it down to the level of individual foods. Taking into account more than 6,000 risk estimates specific to each age, gender, disease and risk, and the fact that there are about a half-million minutes in a year, we calculated the health burden that comes with consuming one gram’s worth of food for each of the dietary risk factors. For example, we found that, on average, 0.45 minutes are lost per gram of any processed meat that a person eats in the U.S. We then multiplied this number by the corresponding food profiles that we previously developed. Going back to the example of a hot dog, the 61 grams of processed meat in a hot dog sandwich results in 27 minutes of healthy life lost due to this amount of processed meat alone. Then, when considering the other risk factors, like the sodium and trans fatty acids inside the hot dog – counterbalanced by the benefit of its polyunsaturated fat and fibers – we arrived at the final value of 36 minutes of healthy life lost per hot dog. We repeated this calculation for more than 5,800 foods and mixed dishes. We then compared scores from the health
indices with 18 different environmental metrics, including carbon footprint, water use and air pollution-induced human health impacts. Finally, using this health and environmental nexus, we color-coded each food item as green, yellow or red. Like a traffic light, green foods have beneficial effects on health and a low environmental impact and should be increased in the diet, while red foods should be reduced. Where do we go from here? Our study allowed us to identify certain priority actions that people can take to both improve their health and reduce their environmental footprint. When it comes to environmental sustainability, we found striking variations both within and between animal-based and plant-based foods. For the “red” foods, beef has the largest carbon footprint across its entire life cycle – twice as high as pork or lamb and four times that of poultry and dairy. From a health standpoint, eliminating processed meat and reducing overall sodium consumption provides the largest gain in healthy life compared with all other food types. Therefore, people might consider eating less of foods that are high in processed meat and beef, followed by pork and lamb. And notably, among plant-based foods, greenhouse-grown vegetables scored poorly on environmental impacts due to the combustion emissions from heating.
Beef consumption had the highest negative environmental impacts, and processed meat had the most important overall adverse health effects.
Foods that people might consider increasing are those that have high beneficial effects on health and low environmental impacts. We observed a lot of flexibility among these “green” choices, including whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes and low-environmental impact fish and seafood. These items also offer options for all income levels, tastes and cultures. Our study also shows that when it comes to food sustainability, it is not sufficient to only consider the amount of greenhouse gases emitted – the so-called carbon footprint. Water-saving techniques, such as drip irrigation and the reuse of gray water – or domestic wastewater such as that from sinks and showers – can also make important steps toward lowering the water footprint of food production. A limitation of our study is that the epidemiological data does not enable us to differentiate within the same food group,
such as the health benefits of a watermelon versus an apple. In addition, individual foods always need to be considered within the context of one’s individual diet, considering the maximum level above which foods are not any more beneficial – one cannot live forever by just increasing fruit consumption. At the same time, our Health Nutrient Index has the potential to be regularly adapted, incorporating new knowledge and data as they become available. And it can be customized worldwide, as has already been done in Switzerland. It was encouraging to see how small, targeted changes could make such a meaningful difference for both health and environmental sustainability – one meal at a time.l Olivier Jolliet is a Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan. Katerina S. Stylianou is a Research Associate in Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan.
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