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Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
2011.08.12 06:29 Hands Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
GlobalOffensive is a home for the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive community and a hub for the discussion and sharing of content relevant to CS:GO. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a game created by Valve Corporation and released on August 21st, 2012 as a successor to previous games in the series dating back to 1999. The latest installment to the Counter-Strike franchise maintains a healthy, ever-intensifying competitive scene alongside a growing casual playerbase.
2011.03.19 02:10 CS Career Questions
A subreddit for those with questions about working in the tech industry or in a computer-science-related job.
2010.08.19 15:17 duckandmiss New Jersey's greatest speed-line stop from Philadelphia.
2023.03.22 09:10 isdalabshat Do you agree or disagree with this?
 | submitted by isdalabshat to Philippines [link] [comments] |
2023.03.22 09:10 Fl4k_4 Peaks of Balkan
 | Lately everyone is calling South Balkan, the true last wilderness of Europe! Well it's true, if u wanna have fun, explore mountains, hike peaks, swim in beautiful rivers and also sunbathe in wild beaches, you can find all of that in Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro. While you'll have a cheaper prices for everything, you also don't have to worry about communication, most of the people in those countries can speak English, sometimes some of them German, Italian or French. Considering that they're small countries by size, exploring and hiking them can take you 10 to 14 days. Another amazing thing is their traditional dishes, you will be amazed by the quality of their food. From hearty meat dishes to flavorful vegetarian options, Albanian food offers something for everyone. Finally, Albania's rich history and culture make it a fascinating destination for anyone interested in the past. From Ancient Illyrian relics, Ottoman fortress to Communist era, you can find all of them in one place, Balkan! You will find everything u need to know if you're interesed by checking peaks of balkans or balkan natural adventure etc., anyone who has been in those trails, please let me know about ur experience. submitted by Fl4k_4 to WildernessBackpacking [link] [comments] https://preview.redd.it/lw5880dwz8pa1.jpg?width=1800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dc13a8b2fa4366a492b3367f949c9bd11413c746 |
2023.03.22 09:06 wakewalkrun Why is IELTS important?
 | submitted by wakewalkrun to overseaseducationhyd [link] [comments] Why IELTS and which universities require this IELTS stands for the International English Language Testing System. It is a standardized test of English language proficiency that is recognized and accepted by universities, employers, and governments in many countries around the world. The purpose of the IELTS exam is to evaluate the language skills of individuals who wish to study or work in countries where English is the primary language of communication. The test measures a person's ability to communicate effectively in English across all four language skills: listening, reading, writing, and speaking. IELTS is required by many universities and colleges in English-speaking countries as proof of English language proficiency for non-native English speakers who wish to pursue higher education in those countries. It is also required by many governments for visa and immigration purposes, as well as by employers for job applications in which English language skills are necessary. IELTS is important because it provides a standardized measure of English language proficiency that can be used to evaluate the language skills of people from different countries and backgrounds. This makes it easier for universities, employers, and governments to assess the language skills of applicants and make informed decisions about their eligibility. IELTS is accepted in more than 140 countries around the world, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and many other countries in Europe, Asia, and South America. The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) writing test is one of the four sections of the IELTS exam, which assesses your ability to communicate effectively in English. The writing test consists of two tasks, which you must complete within a total of 60 minutes. Task 1: You will be presented with a graph, chart, table, or diagram and asked to describe, summarize, or explain the information in your own words. You will need to write at least 150 words for this task. Task 2: You will be given a topic to write about, which may require you to discuss, argue, or express your opinion on a particular issue. You will need to write at least 250 words for this task. Overall, you will have 60 minutes to complete both tasks. It is recommended that you spend 20 minutes on Task 1 and 40 minutes on Task 2. The writing test is usually taken on the same day as the other three sections of the IELTS exam, which are listening, reading, and speaking. Test Report Forms are valid for 2 years. You can attend IELTS as many times as you like. It's not mandatory for all universities to require IELTS, but it's a common requirement for universities in English-speaking countries. However, the specific language requirements for universities may vary, and it's always recommended to check with the university or institution directly to see if they require an English language proficiency test and if so, which one they accept. |
2023.03.22 08:47 defrays Nonidas railway station in German South West Africa (present day Namibia) - c. 1904
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2023.03.22 08:39 MirkWorks Yoga, The One and The Many by David Gordon White
Over the past decades, yoga has become part of the Zeitgeist of affluent western societies, drawing housewives and hipsters, new agers and the aged, and body culture and corporate culture into a multibillion-dollar synergy. Like every Indian cultural artifact that it has embraced, the West views Indian yoga as an ancient, unchanging tradition, based on revelations received by the Vedic sages who, seated in the lotus pose, were the Indian forerunners of the flat-tummied yoga babes who grace the covers and webpages of such glossy periodicals and internet websites as the Yoga Journal and Yoga International.
In the United States in particular, yoga has become a commodity. as of 2018, no fewer than 36 million Americans were practicing yoga every year. For most people, this has meant going to a yoga center with yoga mats, yoga clothes, and yoga accessories, and practicing in groups under the guidance of a yoga instructor or trainer. here, yoga practice comprises a regimen of postures (āsanas), sometimes held for long periods of time, sometimes executed in rapid sequence, and often paired with regulated breathing (prāṇāyāma). Yoga entrepreneurs have branded their own styles of practice, from the superheated workout rooms of Bikram Yoga studios to storefronts offering “doga”: practicing yoga together with one’s dog. They have opened franchises, invented logos, packaged their practice regimens under Sanskrit names, and marketed a lifestyle that fuses yoga with leisure travel, healing spas, and seminars on eastern spirituality. “Yoga celebrities” have become a part of our vocabulary, and with celebrity has come the usual entourage of publicists, business managers, and lawyers. Yoga is mainstream. arguably India’s greatest cultural export, yoga has morphed into a mass cultural phenomenon.
Many yoga celebrities, as well as a strong percentage of less celebrated yoga instructors, combine their training with teachings on healing, spirituality, meditation, and India’s ancient yoga traditions, the Sanskrit-language Yoga Sūtra (YS) in particular. here, they are following the lead of the earliest yoga entrepreneurs, the Indian gurus who brought the gospel of yoga to western shores in the wake of Swami Vivekananda’s storied successes of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. But what were India’s ancient yoga traditions, and what relationship do they have to the modern postural yoga that people are practicing across the world today? In fact, the yoga that is taught and practiced in the twenty-first century has very little in common with the yoga of the YS and other ancient yoga treatises. nearly all of our popular assumptions about yoga theory date from the past 150 years, and very few modern-day practices date from before the twelfth century. This is not the first time that people have “reinvented” yoga in their own image. This is a process that has been ongoing for at least two thousand years, with every age seemingly creating its own version and vision of yoga. one reason this has been possible is that yoga’s semantic field – the range of meanings of the term “yoga” – is so broad and the concept of yoga so malleable, that it has been possible to morph it into nearly any practice or process one might wish to choose. When seeking to define a tradition, it’s useful to begin by defining one’s terms, and it is here that problems arise. “Yoga” has a wider range of meanings than nearly any other word in the entire Sanskrit lexicon. The act of yoking an animal, as well as the yoke itself, is called yoga. In astronomy, a conjunction of planets or stars, as well as a constellation, is called yoga. When one mixes together various substances, that, too, can be called yoga. The word yoga has also been employed to denote a device, a recipe, a method, a strategy, a charm, an incantation, fraud, a trick, an endeavor, a combination, union, an arrangement, zeal, care, diligence, industriousness, discipline, use, application, contact, a sum total, and the Work of alchemists. But this is by no means an exhaustive list.
So, for example, the twentieth chapter of the ninth-century Netra Tantra, a Hindu scripture from Kashmir, describes what it calls gross, subtle and supreme yoga. Whereas gross yoga involves combating agents of demonic possession, subtle yoga is nothing more or less than a body of techniques for entering into and taking over other people’s bodies. As for supreme yoga, this is a process that involves superhuman female predators, called yoginīs, who eat people! By means of their supreme yoga, this text says, the yoginīs consume the sins of the body that would otherwise bind a person to suffering rebirth, and so open the way for the tantric practitioner’s identity with Śiva, that is, for his transformation into a god on earth. In this ninth-century source, there is no discussion whatsoever of postures or breath control, the prime markers of yoga as we know it today; and its discussion of the cakras appears, not in its chapter on the three yogas, but rather in its seventh chapter on dhyāna (“meditation”)! More troubling still, the third- to fourth-century YS and Bhagavad Gītā (Bhg), the two most widely cited textual sources for “classical yoga,” virtually ignore postures and breath control, each devoting a total of fewer than ten verses to these practices. They are far more concerned with the issue of human salvation, realized through the theory and practice of meditation in the YS and through concentration on the god Kṛṣṇa in the BhG.
INDIAN FOUNDATIONS OF YOGA THEORY AND PRACTICE
Clearly something is missing here. There is a gap between ancient, “classical,” yoga traditions and yoga as we know it. In order to understand the disconnect between then and now, we would do well to go back to the earliest uses of the term yoga, which are found in texts far more ancient than the YS or Bhg. here I am referring to India’s earliest scriptures, the Vedas. In the circa fifteenth-century BCE Ṛg Veda (RV), yoga meant, before all else, the yoke one placed on a draft animal – a bullock or warhorse – to yoke it to a plow or chariot. The resemblance of these terms is not fortuitous: the Sanskrit “yoga” is a cognate of the English “yoke,” because Sanskrit and English both belong to the Indo-European language family (which is why the Sanskrit mātṛ resembles the English “mother,” sveda looks like “sweat,” udara – “belly” in Sanskrit – looks like “udder,” and so forth). In the same scripture, we see the term’s meaning expanded through metonymy, with “yoga” being applied to the entire conveyance or “rig” of a war chariot: to the yoke itself, the team of horses or bullocks, and the chariot with its many straps and harnesses. and, because such chariots were only “yoked” (yukta) in times of war, an important Vedic usage of the term yoga was “wartime,” in contrast to kṣema, “peacetime.”
The Vedic reading of yoga as one’s war chariot or rig came to be incorporated into the warrior ideology of ancient India. In the Mahābhārata, India’s 200 BCE – 400 CE “national epic,” we find the earliest narrative accounts of the battlefield apotheosis of heroic chariot warriors. This was, like the Greek Iliad, an epic of battle, and so it was appropriate that the glorification of a warrior who died fighting his enemies be showcased here. What is interesting with respect to the history of the term yoga is that in these narratives, the warrior who knew he was about to die was said to become yoga-yukta, literally “yoked to yoga,” with “yoga” once again meaning a chariot. This time, however, it was not the warrior’s own chariot that carried him up to the highest heaven, reserved for gods and heroes alone. Rather, it was a celestial “yoga,” a divine chariot, that carried him upward in a burst of light to and through the sun, and on to the realm of the gods <“Were the eye not of the sun, How could we behold the light? If God’s might and ours were not as one, How could His work enchant our sight?” - Goethe>. Warriors were not the sole individuals of the Vedic age to have chariots called “yogas.” The gods, too, were said to shuttle across the heavens and between heaven and earth on yogas. Furthermore, the Vedic priests who sang the Vedic hymns related their practice to the yoga of the warrior aristocrats who were their patrons. In their hymns, they describe themselves as “yoking” their minds to poetic inspiration and so journeying – if only with their mind’s eye or cognitive apparatus – across the metaphorical distance that separated the world of the gods from the words of their hymns. a striking image of their poetic journeys is found in a verse from a late Rigvedic hymn, in which the poet-priests describe themselves as “hitched up” (yukta) and standing on their chariot shafts as they sally forth on a vision quest across the universe. [*6. Ṛg Veda 5.46.1, quoted in David Gordon White, Sinister Yogis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), pp. 59-67. The authoritative translation of the Ṛg Veda is Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India, 3 vols. (New York: oxford University Press, 2014).]
The earliest extant systematic account of yoga, and a bridge from the earlier Vedic uses of the term, is found in the Hindu Kaṭhaka Upaniṣad (KU), a scripture dating from about the third century BCE. Here, the god of death reveals what is termed the “entire yoga regimen” to a young ascetic named Naciketas. In the course of his teaching, death compares the relationship between the self, body, intellect, and so forth to the relationship between a rider, his chariot, charioteer, etc. (KU 3.3–9), a comparison which approximates that made by Plato in his Phaedrus (246a-256e). Three elements of this text set the agenda for much of what constitutes yoga in the centuries that follow. First, it introduces a sort of yogic physiology, calling the body a “fort with eleven gates” and evoking “a person the size of a thumb” who, dwelling within, is worshiped by all the gods (KU 4.12; 5.1, 3). Second, it identifies that individual person within with the universal Person (Puruṣa) or absolute Being (Brahman), asserting that This is what sustains life (KU 5.5, 8–10). Third, it describes the hierarchy of mind-body constituents – the senses, mind, intellect, etc – that comprise the foundational categories of India’s ancient Sāṃkhya philosophy, whose metaphysical system grounds the yoga of the YS, BhG, and other texts and schools (KU 3.10–11; 6.7–8). Because these categories were hierarchically ordered, the realization of higher states of consciousness was, in this early context, tantamount to an ascension through levels of outer space, and so we also find in this and other early Upaniṣads the concept of yoga as a technique for both “inner” and “outer” ascent. These same sources also introduce the use of acoustic spells or formulas (mantras), the most prominent among these being the syllable AUṂ or OṂ , the acoustic form of the supreme brahman. In the following centuries, mantras would become progressively incorporated into yogic theory and practice, in the medieval Tantras, as well as in the Yoga Upaniṣads.
Following this circa third-century BCE watershed, textual references to yoga multiply rapidly in Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist sources, reaching a critical mass some seven hundred to one thousand years later. It was during this initial burst that most of the perennial principles of yoga theory – as well as many elements of yoga practice – were originally formulated. Toward the latter end of this period, one sees the emergence of the earliest yoga systems, in the YS; the third- to fourth-century scriptures of the Buddhist Yogācāra school and fourth- to fifth-century Visuddhimagga of Buddhaghosa; and the Yogadṛṣṭisamuccaya of the eighth-century Jain author Haribhadra. although it may be slightly later than the Yogācāra canon, the YS’s tightly ordered series of aphorisms is so remarkable and comprehensive as to be identified as “classical yoga.” also known as pātañjala yoga (“Patañjalian yoga”) in recognition of its putative compiler Patañjali, it lays out a program of “eight-limbed” (aṣṭāṅga) meditative practice that has been reprised in countless works and teachings, from tenth-century Java, Indonesia to nineteenth-century New York City.
The Yogācāra (“Yoga Practice”) school of Mahāyāna Buddhism was the earliest Buddhist tradition to employ the term yoga to denote its philosophical system. Also known as Vijñānavāda (“Doctrine of Consciousness”), Yogācāra offered a systematic analysis of perception and consciousness together with a set of meditative disciplines designed to eliminate the cognitive errors blocking liberation from suffering existence. Yogācāra’s eight-stage meditative practice itself was not termed yoga, however, but rather “calmness” (śamatha) or “insight” (vipaśyanā) meditation. The Yogācāra analysis of consciousness has many points in common with the more or less coeval YS, and there can be no doubt that cross-pollination occurred across religious boundaries in these matters. The Yogavāsiṣṭha (“Vasiṣṭha’s Teachings on Yoga”) – a circa tenth-century Hindu work from Kashmir that combined analytical and practical teachings on “yoga” with vivid mythological accounts illustrative of its analysis of consciousness – takes positions similar to those of Yogācāra concerning errors of perception and the human inability to distinguish between our flawed apprehension of reality and Reality itself.
The Jains were the last of India’s great religions to employ the term yoga to imply anything remotely resembling “classical” formulations of yoga theory and practice. The earliest Jain uses of the term, found in Umāsvāti’s fourth- to fifth-century Tattvārthasūtra (6.1–2), the earliest extant systematic work of Jain philosophy, defined yoga as “activity of the body, speech, and mind.” as such, yoga was, in early Jain parlance, actually an impediment to liberation. here, yoga could only be overcome through its opposite, ayoga (“non-yoga,” inaction) – that is, through meditation (jhāṇa; dhyāna), asceticism, and other practices of purification to undo the effects of earlier activity. While strongly influenced by the YS, Haribhadra’s circa 750 Yogadṛṣṭisamuccaya, the earliest systematic Jain work on yoga, nonetheless retained much of Umāsvāti’s terminology, even as it referred to observance of the path as yogācāra.
This is not to say that between the fourth century BCE and the second to fourth centuries CE, neither the Buddhists nor the Jains were engaging in practices that we might today identify as yoga. To the contrary, early Buddhist sources like the Majjhima Nikāya – the “Middle-length Sayings” attributed to the Buddha himself – are replete with references to self-mortification and meditation as practiced by the Jains, which the Buddha condemned and contrasted to his own set of four meditations. In the Aṅguttara Nikāya (“Gradual Sayings”), another body of instruction attributed to the Buddha, one finds descriptions of jhāyins (“meditators,” “experientialists”) that closely resemble early Hindu descriptions of practitioners of yoga. Their ascetic practices – never termed yoga in these early sources – were likely innovated within the various itinerant śramana groups that circulated in the eastern Gangetic basin in the latter half of the first millennium BCE.
Even as the term yoga began to appear with increasing frequency between 300 BCE and 400 CE, its meaning was far from fixed. It is only in later centuries that a relatively systematic yoga nomenclature became established among Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains. By the beginning of the fifth century, the basic principles of yoga were more or less in place, with most of what followed being variations on that original core. Here, we would do well to outline these principles, which have persisted through time and across traditions for some two thousand years. They may be summarized as follows:
At bottom, India’s many yoga traditions are soteriologies, doctrines of salvation, concerning the attainment of release from suffering existence and the cycle of rebirths (saṃsāra). The problem of suffering existence and the allied doctrine of cyclic rebirth emerges about five centuries before the beginning of the Common era, in the early Upaniṣads as well as the original teachings of the Jain founder Mahāvıra and the Buddhist founder Gautama Buddha. The same teachings that posit the problem of suffering existence also offer a solution to the problem, which may be summarized by the word “gnosis” (jñāna or prajñā in Sanskrit; paññā in Pali). as such, these are also to be counted among the earliest Indian epistemologies, philosophical theories of what constitutes authentic knowledge. Gnosis – transcendent, immediate, non-conventional knowledge of ultimate Reality, of the reality behind appearances – is the key to salvation in all of these early soteriologies, as well as in India’s leading philosophical schools, many of which emerged in the centuries around the beginning of the Common era. As such, these may be termed gnoseologies, theories of salvation through knowledge, in which to know the truth (i.e., that in spite of appearances, one is, in fact, not trapped in suffering existence) is to realize it in fact. The classic example of such a transformation is that of the Buddha: by realizing the Four noble Truths, he became the “awakened” or “enlightened one” (Buddha), and so was liberated from future rebirths, realizing the definitive extinction of suffering (nibbāna; nirvāṇa) at the end of his life.
In all of these systems, the necessary condition for gnosis is the disengagement of one’s cognitive apparatus from sense impressions and base matter (including the matter of the body). an important distinguishing characteristic of all Indian philosophical systems is the axiom that the mind or mental capacity (manas, citta) is part of the body**: it is the “sixth sense,” which, located in the heart, is tethered to the senses of hearing, seeing, tasting, touching, and smelling, as well as their associated bodily organs.** What this means is that Indian philosophy rejects the mind-body distinction. In doing so, however, it does embrace another distinction. This is the distinction between the mind-body complex on the one hand, and a higher cognitive apparatus – called buddhi (“intellect”), antaḥkaraṇa, vijñāna (both translatable as “consciousness”), etc. – on the other. In these early sources, the term yoga is often used to designate the theory and practice of disengaging the higher cognitive apparatus from the thrall of matter, the body, and the senses (including mind). Yoga is a regimen or discipline that trains the cognitive apparatus to perceive clearly, which leads to true cognition, which in turn leads to salvation, release from suffering existence. Yoga is not the sole term for this type of training, however. In early Buddhist and Jain scriptures as well as many early Hindu sources, the term dhyāna (jhāna in the Pali of early Buddhist teachings, jhāṇa in the ardhamagadhi vernacular of early Jain scripture), most commonly translated as “meditation,” was far more frequently employed. So it is that Hindu sources like the BhG and YS, as well as a number of Buddhist Mahāyāna works, frequently use yoga, dhyāna, and bhāvanā (“cultivation,” “contemplation”) more or less synonymously, while early Jain and Buddhist texts employ the term dhyāna in its various spellings, exclusively. Both the YS and the noble eightfold Path of Buddhism also employ the term samādhi (“concentration”) for the culminating stage of meditation. At this stage, all objects have been removed from consciousness, which thereafter continues to exist in isolation (kaivalyam), forever liberated from all worldly entanglements. Kaivalyam is also employed in Jain soteriology for the final state of the fully purified liberated soul.
The BhG, the philosophical charter of “classical” Hindu theism, uses the term yoga in the broad sense of “discipline” or “path,” and teaches that the paths of gnosis (jñāna-yoga) and action (karma-yoga) are inferior to the path of devotion to an all-powerful and benevolent supreme being (bhakti-yoga). however, here as well, it is the constant training of the cognitive faculties – to meditatively concentrate on god in order to accurately perceive him as the ground of all being and knowledge – that brings about salvation. In this teaching, revealed by none other than the supreme being Kṛṣṇa himself, the devotee whose disciplined meditation is focused on god alone is often referred to as a yogin. The BhG is possibly the first but by no means the last body of teaching to use the term yoga preceded by an adjective or modifier (karma-, jñāna-, bhakti-), thereby acknowledging – but also creating – a variety of yogas.
Another implication of this concept is the notion that the expansion of consciousness is tantamount to the expansion of the self to the point that one’s body or person becomes coextensive with the entire universe. The 289th chapter of the twelfth book of the Mahābhārata concludes with a description of just such an expansion, and one finds a similar description in the Jain Umāsvāti’s fourth- to fifth century Praśamaratiprakaraṇa. Several Mahāyāna Buddhist sources contain accounts of enlightened beings whose “constructed bodies” (nirmāṇakāya) expand to fill the universe; and the Bhg’s description of the god Krsna’s universal body (viśvarūpa), through which he displays his “masterful yoga,” is of the same order.
Also in this regard, it should be noted that attention to the breath has been a key element of the theory and practice of meditation from the earliest times. Mindfulness of one’s breathing is introduced in such early sources as the Majjhima Nikāya as a fundamental component of Theravāda Buddhist meditation. In early Hindu sources as well, controlling and stilling the breath is a prime technique for calming the mind and turning it inward, away from the distractions of sensory perception. Ātman, the term for the “self ” or “soul” in the classical Upaniṣads and later works, is etymologically linked to the Sanskrit verb *an, “breathe,” and it is via breath channels (nāḍīs) leading up from the heart – channels that merge with the rays of the sun – that the self is released from the body at death to merge with the absolute (brahman) at the summit of the universe (Chāndogya Upaniṣad 8.6.1-6). These descriptions of the breath channels also lie at the origin of yogic or “subtle” body physiology, which would become fleshed out in great detail in India’s medieval tantric scriptures. In these and later works, the breath-propelled self’s rise through the levels of the universe would become completely internalized, with the spinal column doubling as the universal axis mundi, and the practitioner’s own cranial vault becoming the place of the absolute brahman and locus of immortality.
– there were no limits to the places to which consciousness could go. These “places” included past and future times, locations distant and hidden, and even places invisible to view. This insight became the foundation for theorizing the type of extrasensory perception known as “yogi perception” (yogipratyakṣa), which is in many Indian epistemological systems the highest of the “true cognitions” (pramāṇas), in other words, the supreme and most irrefutable of all possible sources of knowledge. For the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika school, the earliest Hindu philosophical school to fully analyze this basis for transcendent knowledge, yogi perception is what permitted the Vedic seers (ṛṣis) to apprehend, in a single panoptical act of perception, the entirety of the Vedic revelation, which was tantamount to viewing the entire universe simultaneously, in all its parts. For the Buddhists, it was this that provided the Buddha and other enlightened beings with the “buddha-eye” or “divine eye,” which granted them of a vision of the true nature of reality. For the early seventh-century Mādhyamika philosopher Candrakīrti, yogi perception afforded direct and profound insight into his school’s highest truth, that is, into the emptiness (śunyatā) of things and concepts, as well as relationships between things and concepts. Yogi perception remained the subject of lively debate among Hindu and Buddhist philosophers well into the medieval period.
It was a widely held precept among ascetic traditions that extrasensory insight into the ultimate nature of reality, a sort of omniscience, could be attained through meditative practice. here, there were two schools of thought concerning the attainment of such insight. The Jains and a number of Hindu and Buddhist schools asserted that the person, self, or consciousness was luminous by nature and innately possessed of perfect perception and insight, and that the path to liberation simply comprised the realization of one’s innate qualities and capacities. Others, including Theravāda and Sarvāstivāda Buddhists, maintained that the path of asceticism and the practice of meditation were necessary to purge cognition of its inborn defilements, and that only once this difficult work had been completed could yogi perception and omniscience arise. In the former case, meditation was the means to realizing the divine within, one’s innate Buddha nature, to see the universe as Self, and so forth. In the latter, the resulting extrasensory insight allowed the ontologically imperfect practitioner to clearly see and truly know a god or Buddha that nonetheless remained Wholly Other. Through such knowledge one could, in the parlance of many of the dualist Hindu tantric schools, “become a god in order to worship god” – but one could never, contra the claims of the non-dualist schools, become God.
The ability to enter into and control the bodies of other creatures is but one of the supernatural powers (iddhis in Pali; siddhis or vibhūtis in Sanskrit) that flow from the power of extrasensory perception (abhiññā in Pali; abhijñā in Sanskrit). Others include the power of flight, clairaudience, telepathy, invisibility, and the recollection of past lives – precisely the sorts of powers that the yogis of Indian legend have been said to possess. here, it is helpful to introduce the difference between “yogi practice” and “yoga practice,” which has been implicit to South Asian thought and practice since the beginning of the Common era, the period in which the terms “yogi” and “yogi perception” first appeared in the Indian scriptural record. On the one hand, “yoga practice” essentially denotes a program of mind training and meditation issuing in the realization of enlightenment, liberation, or isolation from the world of suffering existence. Yoga practice is the practical application of the theoretical precepts of the various yogic soteriologies, epistemologies, and gnoseologies presented in analytical works like the YS and the teachings of the various Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain philosophical schools. Yogi practice on the other hand concerns the supernatural powers that empower yogis to take over other creatures’ bodies and so forth. Nearly every one of the earliest narrative descriptions of yogis and their practices underscore the axiom that the penetration of other bodies is the sine qua non of yoga. The cleavage between these two more or less incompatible bodies of theory and practice can be traced back to early Buddhist sources, which speak of a rivalry between meditating “experimentalists” (jhāyins) and “speculatives” (dhammayogas). In medieval Tantra, the same division obtained, this time between practitioners whose meditative practice led to gnosis and identity with the divine on the one hand, and on the other, practitioners – referred to as yogis or sādhakas – whose goal was this-worldly supernatural power in one’s now invulnerable, ageless, and adamantine human body. The gulf between yoga practice and yogi practice never ceased to widen over the centuries, such that, by the time of the British Raj, India’s hordes of yogis were considered by India’s elites to be little more than common criminals, with their fraudulent practices utterly at odds with the “true” science of yoga, which, revealed in the YS, was practiced by none, save perhaps for a handful of isolated hermits living high in the Himalayas. These four sets of concepts and practices form the core and foundational vocabulary of nearly every yoga tradition, school, or system, with all that follow the fourth- to seventh-century watershed – of the YS and various foundational Buddhist and Jain works on meditation and yogi perception – simply variations and expansions on this common core.
[To be continued… Medieval Developments]
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In the United States in particular, yoga has become a commodity. as of 2018, no fewer than 36 million Americans were practicing yoga every year. For most people, this has meant going to a yoga center with yoga mats, yoga clothes, and yoga accessories, and practicing in groups under the guidance of a yoga instructor or trainer. here, yoga practice comprises a regimen of postures (āsanas), sometimes held for long periods of time, sometimes executed in rapid sequence, and often paired with regulated breathing (prāṇāyāma). Yoga entrepreneurs have branded their own styles of practice, from the superheated workout rooms of Bikram Yoga studios to storefronts offering “doga”: practicing yoga together with one’s dog. They have opened franchises, invented logos, packaged their practice regimens under Sanskrit names, and marketed a lifestyle that fuses yoga with leisure travel, healing spas, and seminars on eastern spirituality. “Yoga celebrities” have become a part of our vocabulary, and with celebrity has come the usual entourage of publicists, business managers, and lawyers. Yoga is mainstream. arguably India’s greatest cultural export, yoga has morphed into a mass cultural phenomenon.
Many yoga celebrities, as well as a strong percentage of less celebrated yoga instructors, combine their training with teachings on healing, spirituality, meditation, and India’s ancient yoga traditions, the Sanskrit-language Yoga Sūtra (YS) in particular. here, they are following the lead of the earliest yoga entrepreneurs, the Indian gurus who brought the gospel of yoga to western shores in the wake of Swami Vivekananda’s storied successes of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. But what were India’s ancient yoga traditions, and what relationship do they have to the modern postural yoga that people are practicing across the world today? In fact, the yoga that is taught and practiced in the twenty-first century has very little in common with the yoga of the YS and other ancient yoga treatises. nearly all of our popular assumptions about yoga theory date from the past 150 years, and very few modern-day practices date from before the twelfth century. This is not the first time that people have “reinvented” yoga in their own image. This is a process that has been ongoing for at least two thousand years, with every age seemingly creating its own version and vision of yoga. one reason this has been possible is that yoga’s semantic field – the range of meanings of the term “yoga” – is so broad and the concept of yoga so malleable, that it has been possible to morph it into nearly any practice or process one might wish to choose. When seeking to define a tradition, it’s useful to begin by defining one’s terms, and it is here that problems arise. “Yoga” has a wider range of meanings than nearly any other word in the entire Sanskrit lexicon. The act of yoking an animal, as well as the yoke itself, is called yoga. In astronomy, a conjunction of planets or stars, as well as a constellation, is called yoga. When one mixes together various substances, that, too, can be called yoga. The word yoga has also been employed to denote a device, a recipe, a method, a strategy, a charm, an incantation, fraud, a trick, an endeavor, a combination, union, an arrangement, zeal, care, diligence, industriousness, discipline, use, application, contact, a sum total, and the Work of alchemists. But this is by no means an exhaustive list.
So, for example, the twentieth chapter of the ninth-century Netra Tantra, a Hindu scripture from Kashmir, describes what it calls gross, subtle and supreme yoga. Whereas gross yoga involves combating agents of demonic possession, subtle yoga is nothing more or less than a body of techniques for entering into and taking over other people’s bodies. As for supreme yoga, this is a process that involves superhuman female predators, called yoginīs, who eat people! By means of their supreme yoga, this text says, the yoginīs consume the sins of the body that would otherwise bind a person to suffering rebirth, and so open the way for the tantric practitioner’s identity with Śiva, that is, for his transformation into a god on earth. In this ninth-century source, there is no discussion whatsoever of postures or breath control, the prime markers of yoga as we know it today; and its discussion of the cakras appears, not in its chapter on the three yogas, but rather in its seventh chapter on dhyāna (“meditation”)! More troubling still, the third- to fourth-century YS and Bhagavad Gītā (Bhg), the two most widely cited textual sources for “classical yoga,” virtually ignore postures and breath control, each devoting a total of fewer than ten verses to these practices. They are far more concerned with the issue of human salvation, realized through the theory and practice of meditation in the YS and through concentration on the god Kṛṣṇa in the BhG.
INDIAN FOUNDATIONS OF YOGA THEORY AND PRACTICE
Clearly something is missing here. There is a gap between ancient, “classical,” yoga traditions and yoga as we know it. In order to understand the disconnect between then and now, we would do well to go back to the earliest uses of the term yoga, which are found in texts far more ancient than the YS or Bhg. here I am referring to India’s earliest scriptures, the Vedas. In the circa fifteenth-century BCE Ṛg Veda (RV), yoga meant, before all else, the yoke one placed on a draft animal – a bullock or warhorse – to yoke it to a plow or chariot. The resemblance of these terms is not fortuitous: the Sanskrit “yoga” is a cognate of the English “yoke,” because Sanskrit and English both belong to the Indo-European language family (which is why the Sanskrit mātṛ resembles the English “mother,” sveda looks like “sweat,” udara – “belly” in Sanskrit – looks like “udder,” and so forth). In the same scripture, we see the term’s meaning expanded through metonymy, with “yoga” being applied to the entire conveyance or “rig” of a war chariot: to the yoke itself, the team of horses or bullocks, and the chariot with its many straps and harnesses. and, because such chariots were only “yoked” (yukta) in times of war, an important Vedic usage of the term yoga was “wartime,” in contrast to kṣema, “peacetime.”
The Vedic reading of yoga as one’s war chariot or rig came to be incorporated into the warrior ideology of ancient India. In the Mahābhārata, India’s 200 BCE – 400 CE “national epic,” we find the earliest narrative accounts of the battlefield apotheosis of heroic chariot warriors. This was, like the Greek Iliad, an epic of battle, and so it was appropriate that the glorification of a warrior who died fighting his enemies be showcased here. What is interesting with respect to the history of the term yoga is that in these narratives, the warrior who knew he was about to die was said to become yoga-yukta, literally “yoked to yoga,” with “yoga” once again meaning a chariot. This time, however, it was not the warrior’s own chariot that carried him up to the highest heaven, reserved for gods and heroes alone. Rather, it was a celestial “yoga,” a divine chariot, that carried him upward in a burst of light to and through the sun, and on to the realm of the gods <“Were the eye not of the sun, How could we behold the light? If God’s might and ours were not as one, How could His work enchant our sight?” - Goethe>. Warriors were not the sole individuals of the Vedic age to have chariots called “yogas.” The gods, too, were said to shuttle across the heavens and between heaven and earth on yogas. Furthermore, the Vedic priests who sang the Vedic hymns related their practice to the yoga of the warrior aristocrats who were their patrons. In their hymns, they describe themselves as “yoking” their minds to poetic inspiration and so journeying – if only with their mind’s eye or cognitive apparatus – across the metaphorical distance that separated the world of the gods from the words of their hymns. a striking image of their poetic journeys is found in a verse from a late Rigvedic hymn, in which the poet-priests describe themselves as “hitched up” (yukta) and standing on their chariot shafts as they sally forth on a vision quest across the universe. [*6. Ṛg Veda 5.46.1, quoted in David Gordon White, Sinister Yogis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), pp. 59-67. The authoritative translation of the Ṛg Veda is Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India, 3 vols. (New York: oxford University Press, 2014).]
The earliest extant systematic account of yoga, and a bridge from the earlier Vedic uses of the term, is found in the Hindu Kaṭhaka Upaniṣad (KU), a scripture dating from about the third century BCE. Here, the god of death reveals what is termed the “entire yoga regimen” to a young ascetic named Naciketas. In the course of his teaching, death compares the relationship between the self, body, intellect, and so forth to the relationship between a rider, his chariot, charioteer, etc. (KU 3.3–9), a comparison which approximates that made by Plato in his Phaedrus (246a-256e). Three elements of this text set the agenda for much of what constitutes yoga in the centuries that follow. First, it introduces a sort of yogic physiology, calling the body a “fort with eleven gates” and evoking “a person the size of a thumb” who, dwelling within, is worshiped by all the gods (KU 4.12; 5.1, 3). Second, it identifies that individual person within with the universal Person (Puruṣa) or absolute Being (Brahman), asserting that This is what sustains life (KU 5.5, 8–10). Third, it describes the hierarchy of mind-body constituents – the senses, mind, intellect, etc – that comprise the foundational categories of India’s ancient Sāṃkhya philosophy, whose metaphysical system grounds the yoga of the YS, BhG, and other texts and schools (KU 3.10–11; 6.7–8). Because these categories were hierarchically ordered, the realization of higher states of consciousness was, in this early context, tantamount to an ascension through levels of outer space, and so we also find in this and other early Upaniṣads the concept of yoga as a technique for both “inner” and “outer” ascent. These same sources also introduce the use of acoustic spells or formulas (mantras), the most prominent among these being the syllable AUṂ or OṂ , the acoustic form of the supreme brahman. In the following centuries, mantras would become progressively incorporated into yogic theory and practice, in the medieval Tantras, as well as in the Yoga Upaniṣads.
Following this circa third-century BCE watershed, textual references to yoga multiply rapidly in Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist sources, reaching a critical mass some seven hundred to one thousand years later. It was during this initial burst that most of the perennial principles of yoga theory – as well as many elements of yoga practice – were originally formulated. Toward the latter end of this period, one sees the emergence of the earliest yoga systems, in the YS; the third- to fourth-century scriptures of the Buddhist Yogācāra school and fourth- to fifth-century Visuddhimagga of Buddhaghosa; and the Yogadṛṣṭisamuccaya of the eighth-century Jain author Haribhadra. although it may be slightly later than the Yogācāra canon, the YS’s tightly ordered series of aphorisms is so remarkable and comprehensive as to be identified as “classical yoga.” also known as pātañjala yoga (“Patañjalian yoga”) in recognition of its putative compiler Patañjali, it lays out a program of “eight-limbed” (aṣṭāṅga) meditative practice that has been reprised in countless works and teachings, from tenth-century Java, Indonesia to nineteenth-century New York City.
The Yogācāra (“Yoga Practice”) school of Mahāyāna Buddhism was the earliest Buddhist tradition to employ the term yoga to denote its philosophical system. Also known as Vijñānavāda (“Doctrine of Consciousness”), Yogācāra offered a systematic analysis of perception and consciousness together with a set of meditative disciplines designed to eliminate the cognitive errors blocking liberation from suffering existence. Yogācāra’s eight-stage meditative practice itself was not termed yoga, however, but rather “calmness” (śamatha) or “insight” (vipaśyanā) meditation. The Yogācāra analysis of consciousness has many points in common with the more or less coeval YS, and there can be no doubt that cross-pollination occurred across religious boundaries in these matters. The Yogavāsiṣṭha (“Vasiṣṭha’s Teachings on Yoga”) – a circa tenth-century Hindu work from Kashmir that combined analytical and practical teachings on “yoga” with vivid mythological accounts illustrative of its analysis of consciousness – takes positions similar to those of Yogācāra concerning errors of perception and the human inability to distinguish between our flawed apprehension of reality and Reality itself.
The Jains were the last of India’s great religions to employ the term yoga to imply anything remotely resembling “classical” formulations of yoga theory and practice. The earliest Jain uses of the term, found in Umāsvāti’s fourth- to fifth-century Tattvārthasūtra (6.1–2), the earliest extant systematic work of Jain philosophy, defined yoga as “activity of the body, speech, and mind.” as such, yoga was, in early Jain parlance, actually an impediment to liberation. here, yoga could only be overcome through its opposite, ayoga (“non-yoga,” inaction) – that is, through meditation (jhāṇa; dhyāna), asceticism, and other practices of purification to undo the effects of earlier activity. While strongly influenced by the YS, Haribhadra’s circa 750 Yogadṛṣṭisamuccaya, the earliest systematic Jain work on yoga, nonetheless retained much of Umāsvāti’s terminology, even as it referred to observance of the path as yogācāra.
This is not to say that between the fourth century BCE and the second to fourth centuries CE, neither the Buddhists nor the Jains were engaging in practices that we might today identify as yoga. To the contrary, early Buddhist sources like the Majjhima Nikāya – the “Middle-length Sayings” attributed to the Buddha himself – are replete with references to self-mortification and meditation as practiced by the Jains, which the Buddha condemned and contrasted to his own set of four meditations. In the Aṅguttara Nikāya (“Gradual Sayings”), another body of instruction attributed to the Buddha, one finds descriptions of jhāyins (“meditators,” “experientialists”) that closely resemble early Hindu descriptions of practitioners of yoga. Their ascetic practices – never termed yoga in these early sources – were likely innovated within the various itinerant śramana groups that circulated in the eastern Gangetic basin in the latter half of the first millennium BCE.
Even as the term yoga began to appear with increasing frequency between 300 BCE and 400 CE, its meaning was far from fixed. It is only in later centuries that a relatively systematic yoga nomenclature became established among Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains. By the beginning of the fifth century, the basic principles of yoga were more or less in place, with most of what followed being variations on that original core. Here, we would do well to outline these principles, which have persisted through time and across traditions for some two thousand years. They may be summarized as follows:
- Yoga as an analysis of perception and cognition.
At bottom, India’s many yoga traditions are soteriologies, doctrines of salvation, concerning the attainment of release from suffering existence and the cycle of rebirths (saṃsāra). The problem of suffering existence and the allied doctrine of cyclic rebirth emerges about five centuries before the beginning of the Common era, in the early Upaniṣads as well as the original teachings of the Jain founder Mahāvıra and the Buddhist founder Gautama Buddha. The same teachings that posit the problem of suffering existence also offer a solution to the problem, which may be summarized by the word “gnosis” (jñāna or prajñā in Sanskrit; paññā in Pali). as such, these are also to be counted among the earliest Indian epistemologies, philosophical theories of what constitutes authentic knowledge. Gnosis – transcendent, immediate, non-conventional knowledge of ultimate Reality, of the reality behind appearances – is the key to salvation in all of these early soteriologies, as well as in India’s leading philosophical schools, many of which emerged in the centuries around the beginning of the Common era. As such, these may be termed gnoseologies, theories of salvation through knowledge, in which to know the truth (i.e., that in spite of appearances, one is, in fact, not trapped in suffering existence) is to realize it in fact. The classic example of such a transformation is that of the Buddha: by realizing the Four noble Truths, he became the “awakened” or “enlightened one” (Buddha), and so was liberated from future rebirths, realizing the definitive extinction of suffering (nibbāna; nirvāṇa) at the end of his life.
In all of these systems, the necessary condition for gnosis is the disengagement of one’s cognitive apparatus from sense impressions and base matter (including the matter of the body). an important distinguishing characteristic of all Indian philosophical systems is the axiom that the mind or mental capacity (manas, citta) is part of the body**: it is the “sixth sense,” which, located in the heart, is tethered to the senses of hearing, seeing, tasting, touching, and smelling, as well as their associated bodily organs.** What this means is that Indian philosophy rejects the mind-body distinction. In doing so, however, it does embrace another distinction. This is the distinction between the mind-body complex on the one hand, and a higher cognitive apparatus – called buddhi (“intellect”), antaḥkaraṇa, vijñāna (both translatable as “consciousness”), etc. – on the other. In these early sources, the term yoga is often used to designate the theory and practice of disengaging the higher cognitive apparatus from the thrall of matter, the body, and the senses (including mind). Yoga is a regimen or discipline that trains the cognitive apparatus to perceive clearly, which leads to true cognition, which in turn leads to salvation, release from suffering existence. Yoga is not the sole term for this type of training, however. In early Buddhist and Jain scriptures as well as many early Hindu sources, the term dhyāna (jhāna in the Pali of early Buddhist teachings, jhāṇa in the ardhamagadhi vernacular of early Jain scripture), most commonly translated as “meditation,” was far more frequently employed. So it is that Hindu sources like the BhG and YS, as well as a number of Buddhist Mahāyāna works, frequently use yoga, dhyāna, and bhāvanā (“cultivation,” “contemplation”) more or less synonymously, while early Jain and Buddhist texts employ the term dhyāna in its various spellings, exclusively. Both the YS and the noble eightfold Path of Buddhism also employ the term samādhi (“concentration”) for the culminating stage of meditation. At this stage, all objects have been removed from consciousness, which thereafter continues to exist in isolation (kaivalyam), forever liberated from all worldly entanglements. Kaivalyam is also employed in Jain soteriology for the final state of the fully purified liberated soul.
The BhG, the philosophical charter of “classical” Hindu theism, uses the term yoga in the broad sense of “discipline” or “path,” and teaches that the paths of gnosis (jñāna-yoga) and action (karma-yoga) are inferior to the path of devotion to an all-powerful and benevolent supreme being (bhakti-yoga). however, here as well, it is the constant training of the cognitive faculties – to meditatively concentrate on god in order to accurately perceive him as the ground of all being and knowledge – that brings about salvation. In this teaching, revealed by none other than the supreme being Kṛṣṇa himself, the devotee whose disciplined meditation is focused on god alone is often referred to as a yogin. The BhG is possibly the first but by no means the last body of teaching to use the term yoga preceded by an adjective or modifier (karma-, jñāna-, bhakti-), thereby acknowledging – but also creating – a variety of yogas.
- Yoga as the raising and expansion of consciousness.
Another implication of this concept is the notion that the expansion of consciousness is tantamount to the expansion of the self to the point that one’s body or person becomes coextensive with the entire universe. The 289th chapter of the twelfth book of the Mahābhārata concludes with a description of just such an expansion, and one finds a similar description in the Jain Umāsvāti’s fourth- to fifth century Praśamaratiprakaraṇa. Several Mahāyāna Buddhist sources contain accounts of enlightened beings whose “constructed bodies” (nirmāṇakāya) expand to fill the universe; and the Bhg’s description of the god Krsna’s universal body (viśvarūpa), through which he displays his “masterful yoga,” is of the same order.
Also in this regard, it should be noted that attention to the breath has been a key element of the theory and practice of meditation from the earliest times. Mindfulness of one’s breathing is introduced in such early sources as the Majjhima Nikāya as a fundamental component of Theravāda Buddhist meditation. In early Hindu sources as well, controlling and stilling the breath is a prime technique for calming the mind and turning it inward, away from the distractions of sensory perception
- Yoga as a path to omniscience.
It was a widely held precept among ascetic traditions that extrasensory insight into the ultimate nature of reality, a sort of omniscience, could be attained through meditative practice. here, there were two schools of thought concerning the attainment of such insight. The Jains and a number of Hindu and Buddhist schools asserted that the person, self, or consciousness was luminous by nature and innately possessed of perfect perception and insight, and that the path to liberation simply comprised the realization of one’s innate qualities and capacities. Others, including Theravāda and Sarvāstivāda Buddhists, maintained that the path of asceticism and the practice of meditation were necessary to purge cognition of its inborn defilements, and that only once this difficult work had been completed could yogi perception and omniscience arise. In the former case, meditation was the means to realizing the divine within, one’s innate Buddha nature, to see the universe as Self, and so forth. In the latter, the resulting extrasensory insight allowed the ontologically imperfect practitioner to clearly see and truly know a god or Buddha that nonetheless remained Wholly Other. Through such knowledge one could, in the parlance of many of the dualist Hindu tantric schools, “become a god in order to worship god” – but one could never, contra the claims of the non-dualist schools, become God.
- Yoga as a technique for entering into other bodies, generating multiple bodies, and the attainment of other supernatural accomplishments.
The ability to enter into and control the bodies of other creatures is but one of the supernatural powers (iddhis in Pali; siddhis or vibhūtis in Sanskrit) that flow from the power of extrasensory perception (abhiññā in Pali; abhijñā in Sanskrit). Others include the power of flight, clairaudience, telepathy, invisibility, and the recollection of past lives – precisely the sorts of powers that the yogis of Indian legend have been said to possess. here, it is helpful to introduce the difference between “yogi practice” and “yoga practice,” which has been implicit to South Asian thought and practice since the beginning of the Common era, the period in which the terms “yogi” and “yogi perception” first appeared in the Indian scriptural record. On the one hand, “yoga practice” essentially denotes a program of mind training and meditation issuing in the realization of enlightenment, liberation, or isolation from the world of suffering existence. Yoga practice is the practical application of the theoretical precepts of the various yogic soteriologies, epistemologies, and gnoseologies presented in analytical works like the YS and the teachings of the various Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain philosophical schools. Yogi practice on the other hand concerns the supernatural powers that empower yogis to take over other creatures’ bodies and so forth. Nearly every one of the earliest narrative descriptions of yogis and their practices underscore the axiom that the penetration of other bodies is the sine qua non of yoga. The cleavage between these two more or less incompatible bodies of theory and practice can be traced back to early Buddhist sources, which speak of a rivalry between meditating “experimentalists” (jhāyins) and “speculatives” (dhammayogas). In medieval Tantra, the same division obtained, this time between practitioners whose meditative practice led to gnosis and identity with the divine on the one hand, and on the other, practitioners – referred to as yogis or sādhakas – whose goal was this-worldly supernatural power in one’s now invulnerable, ageless, and adamantine human body. The gulf between yoga practice and yogi practice never ceased to widen over the centuries, such that, by the time of the British Raj, India’s hordes of yogis were considered by India’s elites to be little more than common criminals, with their fraudulent practices utterly at odds with the “true” science of yoga, which, revealed in the YS, was practiced by none, save perhaps for a handful of isolated hermits living high in the Himalayas. These four sets of concepts and practices form the core and foundational vocabulary of nearly every yoga tradition, school, or system, with all that follow the fourth- to seventh-century watershed – of the YS and various foundational Buddhist and Jain works on meditation and yogi perception – simply variations and expansions on this common core.
[To be continued… Medieval Developments]
2023.03.22 08:37 tpjv86b Colonial officials claimed 'Korean must naturally stop being spoken as a result of the spread of Japanese' 'no words in Korean can express the essence of the Japanese spirit in a straightforward way' 'Korean will one day be regarded as just another local dialect like the Kyushu dialect' (June 1943)
 | This is my translation and transcription of a news article from Keijo Nippo, a propaganda newspaper and mouthpiece of the government of Japan-colonized Korea. It has never been republished or translated before, to the best of my knowledge. Ever since someone dumped these old newspaper issues in the Internet Archive in October 2021, I have been slowly translating and posting select articles at various subreddits to share my findings with the wider community. submitted by tpjv86b to korea [link] [comments] In June 1943, Keijo Nippo ran a long series of roundtable discussion articles, where colonial interior ministry officials gathered to have frank discussions about their dealings with Korean people. Here, I've translated parts 3 and 4, where the officials discuss their strategy for increasing the use of Japanese and decreasing the use of Korean. They stress the importance of training and recruiting ethnic Koreans, including women, to become Japanese language teachers in rural communities. They envy the success of Western missionaries in winning the hearts and minds of the Korean people. North Hamgyong Province is praised as the Korean province with the highest rate of adoption of the Japanese language. There is some acknowledgment of the extreme complexity of the Japanese written language and the need to simplify it, especially when even many native Japanese speakers have trouble understanding obscure terminology and difficult Chinese characters. They make insinuations that most Koreans have 'low moral standards as human beings', and jokingly compare them to 'bad product samples' that are distributed by stores. They also seem to suggest that the Korean language is inadequate in expressing the 'deep spiritual content' of the 'essence of Japanese culture'. One colonial official floats the idea of actively exterminating the Korean language, but that idea is shot down by his colleague who said that would backfire. They express their hope that Korean will naturally fade away into becoming just a local dialect like the Tohoku or Kyushu Japanese dialects as people become stigmatized for speaking only Korean, Japanese becomes spoken as a lingua franca between speakers of mutually unintelligible Korean dialects, and Japanese eventually becomes the dominant language of Korea. The biographic information for individual colonial officials was readily available online, so I added links to their names and noted their birth years and death years in the translation. Colonial Interior Ministry panelists in the roundtable discussion (Translation) Gyeongseong Ilbo (Keijo Nippo) June 17, 1943 A real look into the Korean Peninsula at war Roundtable discussion with executives at the Interior Ministry of the Governor-General's Office (Part 3) The focus of training should be the Japanese language Find the right teachers for Japanese instruction Mr. Yamana Mikio (1905-1982), Chief of the Documentation Division: Regarding Japanese language education, if housewives and mothers at home do not understand the Japanese language, things will not go so well, so there are places that are conducting the "One Word a Day Campaign" in which mothers are taught the Japanese language by elementary school students, and it seems to be quite effective. I have high hopes that the time will come when people who cannot speak Japanese will be looked down upon as country bumpkins. Mr. Kōtaki Motoi (1894-?), Director of the Production Bureau: This kind of sentiment is becoming stronger in the rural areas. The government is planning and promoting Japanese language courses, but even in their absence, there is still a sincere desire to learn the Japanese language in the countryside. ◇．．．◇ In general, women's education is lagging behind very much in Korea. I don't know how it is now, but in the past, it was not possible to send women to elementary schools unless their family was above a certain stature. It is a great pity that such women do not know the Japanese language when they raise their children, so some of them voluntarily come to school to earnestly learn Japanese. That's why even people in the rural villages can generally understand everyday conversations in Japanese. Mr. Shiota Seikō (1899-?), Director of Department of Rural Villages: In the end, I believe that the first and foremost issue is to obtain teachers for women's Japanese language education. Once you have such teachers, then you will be able to thoroughly implement the programs. The Governor-General was impressed when he went to see them, and I was also very impressed when I went to see them for myself. ◇．．．◇ There were two middle-class women, about 20 years old, who were at a farm in Hwanghae Province. Their training performance was very similar to the men at the training institutes, so to pursue further training, they left Hwanghae Province and went to Tokyo to go on a holy pilgrimage, and then they went to Kinkei Academy to undergo further training with male trainees. Since they were 19 and 20 years old, respectively, they were vehemently refused admission at first, since the academy did not want the two young women to be the only women in the otherwise all-male group. But the women insisted, saying "There is no law that says that we should be deprived of the opportunity to complete our training, when we have completed the requisite training and acquired the necessary qualifications. Isn't it the men who seduce the women? There is no law that says the men who seduce the women can go to mainland Japan to pursue further training, while the women who were seduced by the men cannot go to mainland Japan to pursue further training" (laughter). ◇．．．◇ Now, both of the women are working as teachers for the women in their settlement. When we go visit their settlement, the housewives greet us with smiles wherever we go. They greet us with, "Irasshaimase! (Welcome!)" in Japanese. That made us assume that they understood Japanese, so we went into their kitchen and asked them what they had for lunch that day. However, they could not answer. Another housewife rides her bicycle 2 to 3 miles to attend her training in the evenings. When you have such people as teachers, you know that things are thoroughly getting better. Mr. Hyōdō Masaru (1897-1946), Director of Planning: I recently went around the countryside to observe how the special training programs were progressing. It has been only around 40 days since the special training started and conducted every two to three days, not everyday. Already, young boys who had never attended school could competently answer questions like, "Do you have a father?" and "How many siblings do you have?" At this rate, if they spend 600 hours a year in the program, they should be able to achieve a considerable amount of success. The Japanese language is now rapidly penetrating Korea through these special training programs for young people, and there will be 110,000 more people who can understand Japanese over the course of this one year. Mr. Shiota Seikō (1899-?): When you go to the countryside and use a Korean interpreter to ask someone a question, assuming that they wouldn't understand Japanese, they may actually reply competently in Japanese. Even if they learn something at school, they may forget it when they return home, and that ultimately depends on their environment. Therefore, the government officials who are their leaders must try to convert their surroundings into a Japanese language environment as much as possible. If they are forced to use the Japanese language, they will start to remember what they learned. If we don't do this even in our agricultural teaching programs, I don't think it will be thorough enough. Mr. Morita Masayoshi (1908-2004), member of the Interior Ministry: In the end, the core of the training programs in Korea boils down to Japanese language education, doesn't it? I think we can conclude that Japanese-Korean unification should also be based on Japanese language education. In order to truly realize Imperialization, they must thoroughly use the Japanese language regularly. If we don't go that far, I don't think we will be able to improve our achievements. In this respect, I have heard that British and American missionaries first learned the Korean language when they arrived in Korea, and then they lived among the Korean people to win their hearts, but I believe that we should take a completely opposite approach moving forward. Mr. Shiota Seikō (1899-?): In order to improve our agricultural activities, we have to understand the feelings of the people we are dealing with. If we only know Japanese and they only know Korean, as has been the case up to now, there will be a wall separating the two sides and we will not be able to improve our performance. Only when our feelings freely flow to the other side can we truly share our hearts with the other side. That is why it is absolutely necessary to convert their surroundings into a Japanese language environment. ◇．．．◇ To help along with this process, the fact that we know the Korean language is the best thing. Although we have been too negligent to realize this, I believe that understanding the feelings of others is the key to thorough instruction in everything. I think that is how U.S. missionaries built churches that are so magnificent, people are amazed that they managed to build such magnificent churches in such remote places in the countryside. No wonder then that they conveyed their feelings and won the hearts of the people by first learning Korean and then living among the people in the countryside. Mr. Morita Masayoshi (1908-2004): So that's how they did it? Since our goal is to thoroughly educate the people in the Japanese language, I don't see how we can't be thorough unless we adopt a method of exterminating the Korean language…. Mr. Kōtaki Motoi (1894-?): That would have the opposite effect. I think we have to go about it in a way so as to 'let the water soak in', so to speak. We should not exterminate one language in order to promote the Japanese language. The Korean language must naturally stop being spoken as a result of the spread of the Japanese language. (to be continued) Source: https://www.archive.org/details/kjnp-1943-06-17 Gyeongseong Ilbo (Keijo Nippo) June 18, 1943 A real look into the Korean Peninsula at war Roundtable discussion with executives at the Interior Ministry of the Governor-General's Office (Part 4) Show us the Righteous Koreans! Their leaders must come to their senses Mr. Yamana Mikio (1905-1982): I had an interesting conversation the other day about a Korean laborer who went to the South Pacific for military-related work. The natives thought that a Japanese man had arrived, so they spoke to him in Japanese, but the Korean laborer could not understand them, so the natives refused to take him seriously, saying, "You are not Japanese, so you are no good". So, the Korean laborer wrote a letter to his compatriots admonishing them that, if they go to the South Pacific as laborers, they should definitely learn the Japanese language. Otherwise, they would lose face because they wouldn't be seen as Japanese. In this way, the time has now arrived when it is necessary to learn and adopt the Japanese language. I believe that the time will soon come when the Korean language will be regarded as just another local dialect within the co-prosperity zone, like the Japanese dialects of Kyūshū and Tōhoku. Mr. Kōtaki Motoi (1894-?): Even now, the language used in the North Hamgyong Province of Northern Korea is different from that of Southern Korea. It is said that it is difficult for Northern and Southern Koreans to express one's true feelings and communicate with each other speaking their respective Korean dialects. I heard from a Korean official who is now in North Hamgyong Province that, when people from Northern and Southern Korea come to Seoul and have a complicated conversation, they speak in the Japanese language. Mr. Nakai Kazuo (1889-1991), a member of the Parliament and a member of the Interior Ministry: Even in mainland Japan, if you go to Kagoshima or places in the North and hear the local dialects, we would not be able to understand them. Mr. Kōtaki Motoi (1894-?): This is the reason why the rate of Japanese language adoption is better in North Hamgyong Province than in any other province. Mr. Shiota Seikō (1899-?): Statistics show that North Hamgyong Province is number one in terms of Japanese language adoption. Mr. Yamana Mikio (1905-1982): Compared to other languages, the Korean language has only the bones of a language. There is no blood or flesh attached to the Korean language. Therefore, when Koreans talk in their language about the essence of Japanese culture, which has a deep spiritual content, they have to say things in a roundabout way to make their meaning understood. Korean people who have spiritually opened their eyes find it necessary to vigorously use the Japanese language. Life is connected to language, and where life is poor, language is also poor. Therefore, there are no words in the Korean language that can express the essence of the Japanese spirit in a straightforward way. Mr. Nakai Kazuo (1889-1991): In this respect, there is still a problem in the teaching of the Japanese language, in that much reflection and effort are required on the part of the instructors. The Japanese language we use is not so difficult, but it becomes very difficult when we write it down. The foundation of our language is Chinese characters, but the way we use them is too difficult. First of all, laws and ordinances are difficult to understand. Then, military terminology is also extremely difficult. Furthermore, the terminology used in newspapers is extremely difficult. Keijo Nippo is the most influential Japanese-language newspaper in Korea, but how many people in Korea can read all the words written in Keijo Nippo? In this sense, even in mainland Japan, the attitude of the leadership toward the use of the Japanese language comes from a very elevated position. It is necessary to lower the level of the Japanese language to such an extent that those who have graduated from elementary school can generally understand it. Therefore, it is necessary to pay special attention to restricting the use of Chinese characters, especially when considering that the power of our country is expanding widely and we have to stand and embrace the billions of people of East Asia. Nevertheless, I think it is extremely inappropriate to teach the Japanese language to our Korean compatriots and tell them to learn it quickly, but at the same time use difficult Japanese words that even most ordinary people in mainland Japan do not understand. We hope that Japanese language education for our Korean compatriots will become thorough as soon as possible, and at the same time, we hope that we will not use particularly difficult Japanese words with them. Mr. Kōtaki Motoi (1894-?): We are keenly aware of this every day. This is true whether you listen to broadcasts, read newspapers, or read documents issued by government offices. For example, a document is sent to the provincial governor from the Governor-General's Office. That document is gradually sent down from the provincial office to the county (gun) office, and from the county office to the township (myeon) office, largely unchanged with only the date and the name of the addressee altered as the document is passed down. Therefore, there are times when the people at the township office cannot understand the document at all. I think it is necessary to change such things as gently as possible. Mr. Nakai Kazuo (1889-1991): Earlier, the Director of the Production Bureau said that the people in mainland Japan do not know enough about the Korean peninsula and that they do not have enough understanding of the Korean people, and I agree with him. However, I would like to make a complaint to the Korean people at this time. No one likes people who have low moral standards as human beings. The most important thing is to be able to frankly admit that such people would be ostracized by anyone. Even among the mainland Japanese, good people are respected and bad people are ostracized. Even among our Korean compatriots, if you are a respectable person, you will always be respected by the mainland Japanese people. In Kobe, I have walked around apologizing and making excuses for our Korean compatriots, but there are often times when there is no excuse, no matter how patronizing it may seem. I am told that there are 1.5 million Korean compatriots who have come to mainland Japan, but most of them are not very well educated. I have always regretted that this has led to misunderstandings among the people of mainland Japan. To use an analogy, it is standard business practice in Japan to show off good product samples, but the Korean peninsula keeps showing off bad product samples to mainland Japan (laughter). In order for mainland Japanese people to make the Koreans bear the fruits of Japanese-Korean unification, it is necessary for the Korean people themselves to bear these fruits by becoming Imperial subjects and Righteous Koreans. That is the fastest way to achieve Japanese-Korean unification. We respect from the bottom of our hearts the fact that Governor-General Koiso emphasized the establishment of a Righteous Korea. Especially after the Greater East Asia War began, I believe that one of the most important ways to establish a Righteous Korea and to realize the Imperialization of the Korean people is to lead the Korean people so that they have a strong sense of responsibility and awareness that they, along with the people of mainland Japan, are the older brothers and leaders of the Manchurians, the Chinese, and people in the South Pacific region. What are the guidelines of the Governor-General's Office in this regard? Mr. Kōtaki Motoi (1894-?): You are absolutely right. The Governor-General is also in agreement. Therefore, we are educating young people to be disciplined through school education and special training for young men, which came out with the introduction of the conscription system. Even in the Meiji era, there was not much moral education. However, the Imperial Army and Navy were educating their young men to that extent. (to be continued) Source: https://www.archive.org/details/kjnp-1943-06-18 (Transcription) 京城日報 1943年6月17日 決戦半島の真姿 内務省委員総督府幹部対談会（3） 錬成の中心は国語 指導者にその人を得よ 山名酒喜男、文書課長：それから国語教育に就いては、家庭の主婦、母親が国語が解らなければうまく行かないというので、国民学校の生徒を通してお母さんに教えて行く『一日一語運動』ということをやっている所もあり、相当効果を上げているようである。やがて国語の話せない者は田舎者だといってさげすまれる時代が来ると期待しておるような次第である。 上瀧基、殖産局長：そういった心持が農村でも強くなって、国語の講習などは役所が計画し進めるということでなしに、地方に国語を覚えたいという切なる希望が出ているわけです。 ◇．．．◇ 朝鮮は大体女の教育が非常に遅れている。今はどうなっているか知らないが、以前は婦女子を国民学校に入れるというのは相当程度以上の家庭でなければしなかった。だから大部分の農村婦人というものは全然無教育であって、そういう婦人が相当の年配になって子供を育てる場合に国語を知らないということは、まことに残念だというので、自ら講習会に来て熱心に覚えているという者もある。それで日常の要件は農村でも大体解るようになっている。 塩田正洪、農村局長：結局問題は、私は婦人の国語教育でも指導者を得るということが第一で、指導者その人を得れば徹底して行くと思う。総督も見に行って感心され、私も見に行って非常に感心した例がある。 ◇．．．◇ 黄海道にある農場ですが、そこに中堅人物として二十歳位の婦人が居る。非常に男勝りで錬成を受けて、その錬成の仕上げをするというので、黄海道を出発して聖地参拝して東京に行き、それから金鶏学院に行って男と一緒に錬成を受けて来た。十九と二十の女ですから、こういう男ばかりの中に僅か二人の若い女が加わっては困るということで、しきりに拒否したが、それを遮二無二『私共を錬成をし、有資格者にして置きながらその仕上げをするというのに除かれるという法はない』という強腰で、一体女を誘惑するのは男じゃないか。誘惑する方の男が内地に行って、誘惑される方の女が内地にいけないという法はない（笑声）というわけだ。 ◇．．．◇ 今、二人とも部落で婦人指導をしているが、その部落に私共が行ってみると、どこに行っても主婦達がにこにこして迎える。そうして『いらっしゃいませ』という。これは国語が解るのだなと思って炊事場に行って、『今日の昼飯は何を食ったか』と尋ねても、それは答えられない。もう一人の方は一夜錬成をやって二里三里ある道を自転車で通って来る。こういう人を得ると、徹底的によくなって来る。 兵頭儁、企画室長：この間地方を廻って特別錬成の状態を視て来たが、まだ始めてから僅か四十日前後、而も毎日ではなく、な二日置き、三日置きにやっているのであるが、全然学校に行ったことのない青年が『お父さんはあるか』『兄弟は何人か』などと質問すると立派に答える。この分なら一年間六百時間やれば相当のものになるのではないか。今朝鮮としては青年特別錬成を通じて急速に国語が侵透しつつあり、この一年間に十一万人の国語理解者が新たに出来るわけである。 塩田：田舎に行って、相手は国語は解るまいと思って、一つこういうことを朝鮮語で訊いてみてくれないかといって通訳させると、立派に国語で答えることがある。折角学校で覚えても家庭に帰ると忘れて了うということは結局環境である。だから指導者たる役人が環境をなるべく国語化するように心掛けなければいけない。強いて国語でやって行けば覚えて行く。私共の農業指導でもそうしないと徹底しないだろうと思う。 森田正義、内務省委員：結局朝鮮の錬成の中心は国語教育ということになるわけですな。私は内鮮一体ということも結局国語教育が根本だという結論になると思うが、本当に皇民化を実現するためには徹底的国語常用にある。そこまで行かなければ実績は上がらないのではないかと思う。それに関連して英米人の宣教師のやり方は、先ず来たら朝鮮語を覚えて半島人の中に入って民心を掴んで行くという行き方をとって来たということを聞いたのであるが、我々の今後のやり方はそれと逆に行かなければならんのではないかと思う。 塩田：私共の農事の改善にしても相手の情を掴まなければ駄目だ。今までのようにこっちは国語だけ、相手は朝鮮語だけしか知らないというような壁一重距てているようなことでは成績は上がらないと思う。こっちの心を本当に向うに反映させるためには、やはりこっちの感情が向うに流れてこそ初めて出来る。だからどうしても基調は国語化することにある。 ◇．．．◇ 其の過程に於いて我々が朝鮮語を知っているということは一番いいことで、怠慢で我々は知らないが、相手の情を掴むということが総て何の指導にも徹底するのではないかと思う。だからアメリカあたりの宣教師が、よくもこんな所にまでこんな立派な教会を建てたものだと驚かれる程立派なのを田舎になど建てているが、ああいう田舎に住み込んで先ず朝鮮語を勉強する、そうして此方の情が移るようにして人心を掴んだものだろうと思う。 森田氏：そのやり方がですな。目標が国語教育を徹底さすということなんだから朝鮮語を抹殺して行くというような方法でやらなければ徹底しないのじゃないかと思うが．．． 上瀧氏：それは寧ろ逆効果を来すことになる。水の浸み込むように行かなければならんと思う。国語の普及を図るために一方を絶滅してかかるということはいけない。国語が普及して朝鮮語が自然に使われなくなるということになるのでなければならんと。（つづく） 京城日報 1943年6月18日 決戦半島の真姿 内務省委員総督府幹部対談会（4） 見せよ"道義半島人"、緊要、指導者たるの自覚 山名課長：この前面白い話があった。南方に軍関係の仕事に出て行った朝鮮人の労務者の話ですが、原住民が日本人が来たというので国語で話しかけたところ通じないものだから、『お前達は日本人じゃないから駄目だ』といって相手にしなかった（笑声）。だからこれから南方に行く労務者は絶対的に国語を習ってくれ。それでなければ日本人の対面が保てないということを向うに行ってる労務者から手紙でいって来たということである。そういう風に今日では既に国語に習熟し国語を身につけなければならん時になって来たわけで、間もなく朝鮮語は九州とか東北の訛りのように共栄圏内の一地方の方言と見られる時代が来ると思う。 上瀧局長：今でも北鮮の咸北あたりと南鮮とは言葉が違う。真情を吐露して意思の疎通を図ることが困難だそうだ。だから北鮮の人と南鮮の人が京城あたりに来て、こみ入った話をするような場合には国語で話をするということを、これは役人をしていた朝鮮の人で今咸鏡北道にいる人から聞いた。 中井一夫・内務省委員・衆議院議員：内地でも鹿児島とか北に行って地方の訛りで話をされたら我我には解らない。 上瀧局長：そういうことから咸北の国語普及率は他の道より良い。 塩田局長：統計を見ると一番である。 山名課長：朝鮮語は他の言葉に較べて言葉の骨だけしかない。言葉に血とか肉がついていない。したがって精神的に深い内容を持った日本文化の真髄を語るというような時に廻りくどく言わなければ意味の通じないところがある。精神的に眼の開いた人は勢い国語を使わざるを得なくなる。生活は言葉と結び付いたもので、生活の貧弱な所は言葉も貧弱で、したがって日本精神の真髄、精髄というような日本的性格を端的に現わす言葉が朝鮮語にはない。 中井氏：その点、国語を教育する上に指導者側に於いて大いに反省し努力しなければならぬ問題が残っておるんじゃないか。我々の使っている国語はそう難しいものだとは思わぬが、これを文章に書く時には非常に難しいものになる。我々の国語の骨を成すものはやっぱり漢字であるが、その漢字の遣い方が余りに難し過ぎる。第一、法令が先ず難しい。それから軍隊用語が極めて難しい。更に新聞用語が非常に難しい。京城日報は朝鮮に於ける最も有力な国語新聞であるが、京城日報に書かれておる言葉を内地人自ら完全に読めるという人が何人居るか。その意味に於いて大体内地に於いても指導者側の国語使用の態度は非常に高い所にある。これはどうしても引き下げて国民学校を卒業した者なら大体に於いて解るという程度にまでする必要がある。 したがって漢字制限の如きものも我が国の力が広く伸びて東亜十億の民衆を抱きかかえて立たなければならぬという時に、この点は特に注意する必要がある。それにも拘わらず、半島同胞に国語を教え、早く国語を覚えよと言いながら自ら使う言葉が一般の内地人でも解らぬような難しい言葉であることは極めて宜しくないと思う。半島同胞に対する国語教育の一日も速やかに徹底せんことを希望すると同時に、特に難しい言葉は使わないことを希望する。 上瀧局長：私共も日々そういうことを痛感している。放送を聞いても、新聞を読んでも、又役所から出す文書などにしてもその通り、例えば知事あたりに本府から書面を出す。それが道から郡、郡から面というようにだんだん下に行くわけであるが、出た通りの文章をただ日付を変えるとか宛名を書き直すだけでその儘で出す。だから面事務所あたりでは全然解っていないことがある。そういうことはなるべくやさしく改めるということが必要だと思う。 中井氏：さき程殖産局長から内地の人々が半島のことを充分知っていない、半島人に対する理解が足らないというお話があったが、私も同感である。ただそれに対してこの際半島同胞に苦言を呈したいことがある。というのは、人間として道義が低ければ誰だってそれを好く者はない。誰だって排斥するのは已む得ないことだということを率直に認められることが一番必要なことと考える。我々内地人同志でも、いい人間は尊敬され悪い人間は排斥される。半島同胞でも立派な人であれば必ず内地人にも尊敬される。 私は神戸に居て半島同胞のためにいろいろ謝りに歩いたり弁解に歩いたりするが、時には如何にひいき目に見ても弁解の仕様がないようなことがよくある。内地に来ている半島同胞は百五十万と言っておりますが、余り教養のない人が大部分である。それが内地人をして誤解を生ぜしめる結果になっておるのであって、私は常に残念に思っているわけである。見本というものはよい物を出すのが日本の普通の商売のやり方なのであるが、半島から内地に出す見本は常に悪いものをだしておる（笑声）。 内地人をして内鮮一体の実を上げさせるためには、半島人自らが所謂皇国臣民として、道義半島人としての実を上げることが内鮮一体の早道である。小磯総督が道義朝鮮の確立ということを強調されておることは私共衷心より敬重しておるところである。殊に大東亜戦争が始まってからは、半島同胞は内地人と共に、満州人や支那人或いは南洋方面の民衆の兄であり指導者であるという重大な責任と自覚を強く持たせるように半島同胞を導くことが道義朝鮮の確立、朝鮮同胞の皇民化を実現する重大な一つの指導方法ではないかと思うが、本府の指導方針はどうか。 上瀧局長：一々御尤もである。総督もその通り仰有っている。そこで学校教育、徴兵制度に伴って出て来たところの青年特別錬成、そういうものを通して躾けの教育をやっている。躾けの教育は明治時代でもあまりなかった。ところが陸海軍の教育はそこまでやっている。（つづく） |
2023.03.22 08:27 RPA031 The bite victim probably disagrees.
 | submitted by RPA031 to BanPitBulls [link] [comments] |
2023.03.22 08:22 ModeActual9547 Atdhe Gashi: A Successful IT Professional in the Finance Industry
 | The field of information technology (IT) has become an integral part of almost every industry. The finance industry, in particular, relies heavily on IT for its day-to-day operations. One person who has made a name for himself in this industry is Atdhe Gashi. With over 15 years of professional IT experience, Mr. Gashi has established himself as a highly skilled and knowledgeable IT professional in the NY/CT/NJ Tri-State area. submitted by ModeActual9547 to u/ModeActual9547 [link] [comments] Atdhe Gashi Early Life and EducationAtdhe Gashi was born in Kosovo and immigrated to the United States at the age of 12. He grew up in the Bronx and later moved to New Rochelle, NY, where he attended high school. Mr. Gashi always had a passion for technology, and he knew early on that he wanted to pursue a career in IT.After graduating from high school, Mr. Gashi attended Monroe College, where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) with a focus on Information Technology. He graduated Summa Cum Laude highest honors, which is a testament to his hard work and dedication. Professional ExperienceAfter graduating from college, Mr. Gashi started his professional career as an IT consultant at a small consulting firm. In this role, he gained valuable experience working with clients in various industries, including finance, healthcare, and retail.In 2011, Mr. Gashi joined a global financial services firm as an IT analyst. He quickly rose through the ranks and was eventually promoted to a senior IT analyst role. In this position, Mr. Gashi was responsible for overseeing the firm's IT infrastructure and ensuring that it was running smoothly. In 2018, Mr. Gashi joined another global financial services firm as a senior IT analyst. In this role, he is responsible for managing the firm's network infrastructure and ensuring that it is secure and reliable. Skills and ExpertiseOne of Mr. Gashi's greatest strengths is his ability to understand complex IT systems and processes. He has a deep understanding of networking, security, and database management. He also has extensive experience working with enterprise-level IT infrastructure, which requires a high level of technical expertise.In addition to his technical skills, Mr. Gashi is an excellent communicator and collaborator. He has experience working with clients and stakeholders at all levels of an organization, and he is adept at explaining complex technical concepts in a way that non-technical people can understand. Mr. Gashi is also a lifelong learner who is always looking to expand his knowledge and expertise. He holds several industry certifications, including CompTIA A+, Network+, and Security+. He is also currently pursuing a Master of Science in Information Technology from Pace University. ConclusionAtdhe Gashi is a highly skilled and knowledgeable IT professional who has made a name for himself in the finance industry. His 15+ years of professional IT experience, combined with his education and certifications, make him a valuable asset to any organization. He is a lifelong learner who is always looking to expand his knowledge and expertise, and he is committed to providing the highest level of service to his clients and stakeholders. |
2023.03.22 08:17 SignedSyledDelivered Ayahuasca was gentle, loving, incredible Shrooms was a wiiiiild, mindbending ride.
A couple months ago, I went on an ayahuasca retreat in South America. The flight tickets were crazy expensive, the retreat was affordable but still pretty pricey. But it was really worth it.
I had a beautiful experience with mother ayahuasca, where I got lost in the beauty of the colourful geometrical and fractal patterns that went on with both eyes closed and eyes opened. Everyone seemed incredibly beautiful to me, radiant, hopeful, wonderful. I wandered (in my mind) into a magical forest that sparkled in green and gold, with actual orbs and sparkles floating gently by. Someone whispered in my ears, "You're always welcome to rest here". I felt an incredible sense of peace and safety, and I felt unconditionally loved and completely accepted, something I had not experienced in real life before. I was so moved I cried.
The tears led to waves of sorrow, as I relived and processed past traumatic memories. I felt so sad, so resentful, and so broken as I wept. But at the same time, I felt loved. I was going through the pain and sorrow of the past from a place of complete acceptance and safety, and it made so much difference in how I re-experienced things. I kept remonstrating with my mother about why she didn't protect me, and realised the resentment did not stem from anger. It stemmed from sadness and a sense of rejection. I just kept crying, until eventually, the sorrow lifted. My heart was light again.
I also couldn’t stop yawning for an hour or so, time didn’t really matter then. I was soooo tired and I yawned so hard, I felt the wind sail right into my soul. Then I understood, from someone, something, somewhere, that I was a leopard in my past life. I was a leopard, who had gone through incredible battles. This leopard spirit just wanted to rest, and that was why I had been so lethargic, nearly every day, for so many years. I wanted my lethargy gone, but that would require waking the leopard up, bringing it to its full intensity.
“Are you sure you want it to awake? Perhaps you are afraid of what would happen when it does.” Someone asked. It was probably me, asking myself, but I can’t remember how the voice sounded in my head.
That’s when I realised that I was holding on, in some measure, to the lethargy. That perhaps, the lethargy was a convenient, familiar, comfortable shelter. I didn’t have to do much, I didn’t have to try. I didn’t have to fail at anything. I didn’t need to put in effort. The thought of the leopard’s spirit awakening, of intensity and passion filling my soul, of going at things at full strength and determination - that scared me. Could I have the energy and resilience to see things through? Did I want to try? Was I afraid of trying? Maybe I’m using my lethargy and depression as an excuse to not try. So that I wouldn’t fail.
I saw my partner as a leopard too. I was worried that we would both do ayahuasca and come out realising our lives were headed in different directions, but to both our relief, we just got this incredibly certain feeling within us, this spiritual confirmation, that we were meant to love each other, to care for one another.
The next ayahuasca ceremony, I was back at that magical forest, but at a different location. I was by a brilliant riverside, with the same green and gold light that permeated everything. Once again, someone told me that I was always welcome here. I nestled down in its mossy banks and watched the river flow.
I saw a bird-human too. The creature was made of muscle and bone, such that its wings were all red and pink, hard muscle and bone. She was majestic. Awe-inspiring. Beautiful. As I stood there in open-mouthed admiration, someone said to me (yes, in my head again), “Do you know what she had to go through to get those wings?” Knowledge just settled within me, that she had to go through incredible trials and tribulations for her wings to have developed.
Then I talked to a tree (the second ceremony was done in the day time). There was a beautiful bamboo grove and it was right before me (this was in real life), and suddenly, I heard this tutting, clicking sound, and I looked around to see where it was coming from. I slowly realised that it was emanating from me. I was making the tuts and clicks with my tongue. The tree responded then, with shushes and flowing sounds of the wind. We chatted back and forth, conveying emotions and concepts without words.
I asked what my purpose was, yet again. This time, someone answered, from deep within a dark forest (I think it was just a forest in the night time?), saying, “Come find us…”
On San Pedro, I just felt a tonne of rage, then anxiety. It didn’t help that one of the ceremonies was held in a sweat lodge. But I figured it was something I needed to feel, perhaps. I also had two clear thoughts while in there. The first was - I need to set boundaries, learn to confront and assert myself. If I don’t, I’m making the choice to continue to have others foist their crap upon me, and I’m the one who’s choosing not to remove myself from the situation. The second thought was short but very significant. It was that I can’t psychedelic my negativity away.
Then, in the new year, my partner and I decided to head to a nearby country to do some shrooms. And explore, of course. The whole trip cost us so much less.
It was INCREDIBLE. It was so intense. We did Penis Envy shrooms, and boy, those were absolute kickers in the brain.
The moment the shrooms kicked in, I noticed something wonderful. What first trickled in was a very very familiar sense of being in a special place full of mystical spirituality. It was the same sense that I felt while on ayahuasca. I felt like I had gone back to the same place where I had been while on ayahuasca, whatever realm it was.
“I’m back,” was my first thought.
The geometry, colours and fractals appeared too, and I began to see sparkles shimmering around the surfaces of everything.
Then I felt so much sadness. The sorrow almost suffocated me. It was so intense, so strong, so heavy, I felt like I would never get through it in my lifetime. That I would weep for the rest of my life. It was way more intense than when I was on ayahuasca. I cried for hours, it felt like. I was so sad about not just my life being meaningless, that life didn’t have a purpose, but also, I was heartbroken about how shitty the world was. The sad, terrible things that happened and keep happening in the world. I was torn apart by all the pain and suffering that everyone had to experience, and had experienced. I could barely catch my breath, I was crying so hard, crumpled on the floor.
Then the sorrow passed. And I lost track of who I was. I no longer knew who I was. I kept seeing my partner’s face, and kept thinking, I must be him. I am him. Then thinking, wait a minute, I’m a girl. I seem to remember I’m a girl. But am I? Who was I? I couldn’t, for the life of me, remember my name.
Then it ceased to matter. I went through so many crazy swirls of visions and experiences that it would take forever to tell. But the main gist was that I began to travel through different realms and universes. I saw a lady made of lines and shapes, and we hung out together in her garden, filled with flowers made similarly of just geometric shapes and lines. There, I found this lighthearted peace and sense of acceptance. I saw a guy with a face shaped like a yellow box, covered all over with eyes, so many of them. He looked at me with a smiling curiosity, we acknowledged each other’s presence, and we parted ways.
Most memorable of all, I went to this place where I was in the forest of the universe. In it, I could see across time, across places. There was a hauntingly beautiful music, which I instinctively understood to be the music of the universe. I sang along with it, and found that I could reach across time, bring forward different time periods to my grasp by singing different tunes. It was beautiful. I felt so incredibly potent, yet very very relaxed.
At some point, I felt a holy, divine light shining on my face. I’ve never felt that before, that sense of being divine and in the presence of something divine. I felt someone with a visage akin to Zeus smiling down at me, and he was a father-figure of sorts. I don’t really have a religion, and if I had to choose one, it’d be Buddhism, so I don’t really know why that visage appeared.
When I looked at my partner, I felt this unconditional love for him. I knew, suddenly, without a doubt, that he was the one I was destined for, and I knew that no matter what the cost, whatever it took, that I had to protect him, to keep him safe, and that I would always love him.
He later shared his experience with me, which was mindblowing, but much too long to write about here. A big thing he shared was that he saw through all of existence, time, space, possibilities, and at the end of everything, he saw me. And he felt an incredible sense of love for me.
There were terrifying moments (think he took a little too much), and there were moments when I thought we had ruined our lives with this trip, but once he gave into whatever was happening, stopped fighting, he was able to let go, experience immense catharsis.
For me, I realised the biggest message I could have got from psychedelics, was that I couldn’t find a purpose, a meaning, a direction, not when I haven’t even healed from my past hurts. I went to therapy, and after just 4 sessions, I’ve been feeling so much better, with so much more energy to explore different things I’d like to do. I’m still a lot more lethargic than most people I know, but I can now leave the bedroom not just for work, but also for things like doing up the house, going on a date night, things like that. I even got the energy to start my little hobbies again.
So suffice it to say that I’m a pretty big fan of psychedelics. And I’d recommend it to anyone, unless they have certain mental health conditions (e.g. psychosis, schizophrenia, bipolar, etc.). And as long as they do it responsibly (i.e. not take large doses they can’t handle, not do it just to party, not take risks while high). Like seriously. The dosage thing, when my partner took a little too much, there were times where I seriously thought our lives were over and we were either going to end up dead, or end up arrested. It was extremely terrifying. Don’t do large doses, especially not when you’re starting off. Just don’t do it.
That aside, those were my experiences with psychedelics, just felt like sharing them today.
submitted by SignedSyledDelivered to Psychonaut [link] [comments]
I had a beautiful experience with mother ayahuasca, where I got lost in the beauty of the colourful geometrical and fractal patterns that went on with both eyes closed and eyes opened. Everyone seemed incredibly beautiful to me, radiant, hopeful, wonderful. I wandered (in my mind) into a magical forest that sparkled in green and gold, with actual orbs and sparkles floating gently by. Someone whispered in my ears, "You're always welcome to rest here". I felt an incredible sense of peace and safety, and I felt unconditionally loved and completely accepted, something I had not experienced in real life before. I was so moved I cried.
The tears led to waves of sorrow, as I relived and processed past traumatic memories. I felt so sad, so resentful, and so broken as I wept. But at the same time, I felt loved. I was going through the pain and sorrow of the past from a place of complete acceptance and safety, and it made so much difference in how I re-experienced things. I kept remonstrating with my mother about why she didn't protect me, and realised the resentment did not stem from anger. It stemmed from sadness and a sense of rejection. I just kept crying, until eventually, the sorrow lifted. My heart was light again.
I also couldn’t stop yawning for an hour or so, time didn’t really matter then. I was soooo tired and I yawned so hard, I felt the wind sail right into my soul. Then I understood, from someone, something, somewhere, that I was a leopard in my past life. I was a leopard, who had gone through incredible battles. This leopard spirit just wanted to rest, and that was why I had been so lethargic, nearly every day, for so many years. I wanted my lethargy gone, but that would require waking the leopard up, bringing it to its full intensity.
“Are you sure you want it to awake? Perhaps you are afraid of what would happen when it does.” Someone asked. It was probably me, asking myself, but I can’t remember how the voice sounded in my head.
That’s when I realised that I was holding on, in some measure, to the lethargy. That perhaps, the lethargy was a convenient, familiar, comfortable shelter. I didn’t have to do much, I didn’t have to try. I didn’t have to fail at anything. I didn’t need to put in effort. The thought of the leopard’s spirit awakening, of intensity and passion filling my soul, of going at things at full strength and determination - that scared me. Could I have the energy and resilience to see things through? Did I want to try? Was I afraid of trying? Maybe I’m using my lethargy and depression as an excuse to not try. So that I wouldn’t fail.
I saw my partner as a leopard too. I was worried that we would both do ayahuasca and come out realising our lives were headed in different directions, but to both our relief, we just got this incredibly certain feeling within us, this spiritual confirmation, that we were meant to love each other, to care for one another.
The next ayahuasca ceremony, I was back at that magical forest, but at a different location. I was by a brilliant riverside, with the same green and gold light that permeated everything. Once again, someone told me that I was always welcome here. I nestled down in its mossy banks and watched the river flow.
I saw a bird-human too. The creature was made of muscle and bone, such that its wings were all red and pink, hard muscle and bone. She was majestic. Awe-inspiring. Beautiful. As I stood there in open-mouthed admiration, someone said to me (yes, in my head again), “Do you know what she had to go through to get those wings?” Knowledge just settled within me, that she had to go through incredible trials and tribulations for her wings to have developed.
Then I talked to a tree (the second ceremony was done in the day time). There was a beautiful bamboo grove and it was right before me (this was in real life), and suddenly, I heard this tutting, clicking sound, and I looked around to see where it was coming from. I slowly realised that it was emanating from me. I was making the tuts and clicks with my tongue. The tree responded then, with shushes and flowing sounds of the wind. We chatted back and forth, conveying emotions and concepts without words.
I asked what my purpose was, yet again. This time, someone answered, from deep within a dark forest (I think it was just a forest in the night time?), saying, “Come find us…”
On San Pedro, I just felt a tonne of rage, then anxiety. It didn’t help that one of the ceremonies was held in a sweat lodge. But I figured it was something I needed to feel, perhaps. I also had two clear thoughts while in there. The first was - I need to set boundaries, learn to confront and assert myself. If I don’t, I’m making the choice to continue to have others foist their crap upon me, and I’m the one who’s choosing not to remove myself from the situation. The second thought was short but very significant. It was that I can’t psychedelic my negativity away.
Then, in the new year, my partner and I decided to head to a nearby country to do some shrooms. And explore, of course. The whole trip cost us so much less.
It was INCREDIBLE. It was so intense. We did Penis Envy shrooms, and boy, those were absolute kickers in the brain.
The moment the shrooms kicked in, I noticed something wonderful. What first trickled in was a very very familiar sense of being in a special place full of mystical spirituality. It was the same sense that I felt while on ayahuasca. I felt like I had gone back to the same place where I had been while on ayahuasca, whatever realm it was.
“I’m back,” was my first thought.
The geometry, colours and fractals appeared too, and I began to see sparkles shimmering around the surfaces of everything.
Then I felt so much sadness. The sorrow almost suffocated me. It was so intense, so strong, so heavy, I felt like I would never get through it in my lifetime. That I would weep for the rest of my life. It was way more intense than when I was on ayahuasca. I cried for hours, it felt like. I was so sad about not just my life being meaningless, that life didn’t have a purpose, but also, I was heartbroken about how shitty the world was. The sad, terrible things that happened and keep happening in the world. I was torn apart by all the pain and suffering that everyone had to experience, and had experienced. I could barely catch my breath, I was crying so hard, crumpled on the floor.
Then the sorrow passed. And I lost track of who I was. I no longer knew who I was. I kept seeing my partner’s face, and kept thinking, I must be him. I am him. Then thinking, wait a minute, I’m a girl. I seem to remember I’m a girl. But am I? Who was I? I couldn’t, for the life of me, remember my name.
Then it ceased to matter. I went through so many crazy swirls of visions and experiences that it would take forever to tell. But the main gist was that I began to travel through different realms and universes. I saw a lady made of lines and shapes, and we hung out together in her garden, filled with flowers made similarly of just geometric shapes and lines. There, I found this lighthearted peace and sense of acceptance. I saw a guy with a face shaped like a yellow box, covered all over with eyes, so many of them. He looked at me with a smiling curiosity, we acknowledged each other’s presence, and we parted ways.
Most memorable of all, I went to this place where I was in the forest of the universe. In it, I could see across time, across places. There was a hauntingly beautiful music, which I instinctively understood to be the music of the universe. I sang along with it, and found that I could reach across time, bring forward different time periods to my grasp by singing different tunes. It was beautiful. I felt so incredibly potent, yet very very relaxed.
At some point, I felt a holy, divine light shining on my face. I’ve never felt that before, that sense of being divine and in the presence of something divine. I felt someone with a visage akin to Zeus smiling down at me, and he was a father-figure of sorts. I don’t really have a religion, and if I had to choose one, it’d be Buddhism, so I don’t really know why that visage appeared.
When I looked at my partner, I felt this unconditional love for him. I knew, suddenly, without a doubt, that he was the one I was destined for, and I knew that no matter what the cost, whatever it took, that I had to protect him, to keep him safe, and that I would always love him.
He later shared his experience with me, which was mindblowing, but much too long to write about here. A big thing he shared was that he saw through all of existence, time, space, possibilities, and at the end of everything, he saw me. And he felt an incredible sense of love for me.
There were terrifying moments (think he took a little too much), and there were moments when I thought we had ruined our lives with this trip, but once he gave into whatever was happening, stopped fighting, he was able to let go, experience immense catharsis.
For me, I realised the biggest message I could have got from psychedelics, was that I couldn’t find a purpose, a meaning, a direction, not when I haven’t even healed from my past hurts. I went to therapy, and after just 4 sessions, I’ve been feeling so much better, with so much more energy to explore different things I’d like to do. I’m still a lot more lethargic than most people I know, but I can now leave the bedroom not just for work, but also for things like doing up the house, going on a date night, things like that. I even got the energy to start my little hobbies again.
So suffice it to say that I’m a pretty big fan of psychedelics. And I’d recommend it to anyone, unless they have certain mental health conditions (e.g. psychosis, schizophrenia, bipolar, etc.). And as long as they do it responsibly (i.e. not take large doses they can’t handle, not do it just to party, not take risks while high). Like seriously. The dosage thing, when my partner took a little too much, there were times where I seriously thought our lives were over and we were either going to end up dead, or end up arrested. It was extremely terrifying. Don’t do large doses, especially not when you’re starting off. Just don’t do it.
That aside, those were my experiences with psychedelics, just felt like sharing them today.
2023.03.22 08:16 lodge28 What are your daily observations? - 22/03/23
Good morning folks,
London Overground: No service between Richmond and South Acton while we fix a signal failure in the Kew Gardens. GOOD SERVICE on all other routes.
Tonight, cloud and showery rain will push in from the west, this heavy in places. It will soon clear eastwards, leaving it largely clear and dry with just the small chance of a shower. Windy.
Morning: 11C
Evening: 14C
Join the official London Discord Server, we have over 1000 active members and counting and it's home to channels for pretty much everything from dating, partenting, events, travel, food, drink and dating plus many more. Visit the London Discord
Have a great day everyone!
/Lodge
submitted by lodge28 to london [link] [comments]
Tube Updates
District Line: No service between Turnham Green and Richmond due to a signal failure at Kew Gardens. London Underground tickets accepted on buses and South West Train services via any reasonable routes. MINOR DELAYS between Upminster and Wimbledon / Ealing Broadway due to earlier faulty trains. GOOD SERVICE on the rest of the line.London Overground: No service between Richmond and South Acton while we fix a signal failure in the Kew Gardens. GOOD SERVICE on all other routes.
Weather Updates
Today will see a dull and damp start with spells of rain or drizzle. Turning drier in the afternoon, with cloud breaking up in places to give some brighter spells. A windy day with some strong gusts.Tonight, cloud and showery rain will push in from the west, this heavy in places. It will soon clear eastwards, leaving it largely clear and dry with just the small chance of a shower. Windy.
Morning: 11C
Evening: 14C
Join Our Live Chat London Feed
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Photo of the day
Druids near Tower Bridge' c/o u/symmetrygearTune of the day
INXS - Need You TonightDaily Observation Playlist
Follow our Spotify Daily Observation Soundtrack for sounds of the city to fit every mood. We currently have 1000+ songs and counting followed by 420 people and counting collected since the original Commuter Thread began.Have a great day everyone!
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2023.03.22 08:08 riversalondayspa Relax yourself from the hustle and bustle of life with a day of pampering at the Best Spa in Chennai _ River Day Spa
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2023.03.22 08:04 jbaque13 AITAH for telling my uncle to not contact me again
Hello, this is the first time I post something like this, and I know it’s probably just the narcissist in me wanting affirmation, but this is the internet, so I know people will just be honest on this issue. Also, disclaimer, this one is a bit long, but all pieces fit together.
I (M27) am from a small country in South America, but currently live in the states. All my family from my mom’s side (including my mom and half-siblings) still live there. Last December, I went back for the holidays, as I had not been able to do so since the pandemic started. It all was pretty chill until my last three days there.
My third to last day, my maternal uncle (M45) did me a favor and took me to visit my sibling’s grave (half-sibling from my dad’s side, who passed when I was a child), after that, we went to visit my grandpa (his father)’s grave. After we got back home, he wanted to go to the beach, and asked me to go with him. Obviously, after visiting both of my relatives’ graves, I was bummed out, and just wanted to stay home. My uncle tried to convince me by saying “I just took you to your sibling and your grandpa’s graves, do it for them”. I wanted so bad to tell him to shut up, that he was disrespectful, and to keep my sibling out of his mouth. I didn’t wanted to be disrespectful, so I just simply stayed quiet and just stayed home.
That was one. The next day, my mom invited my uncle, his 19y/o son (my cousin, let’s call him JD), my aunt and her husband. We were chillin, having some food and stuff. When everyone started saying their goodbyes, my uncle went with JD outside to the patio, and told him that they were going to pick up JD’s sister N (F17) and my sister R (F16) from a party. JD told my uncle to drop him off at his mom’s first (my uncle is divorced) because he was exhausted. My uncle told him no. When JD was about to explain him why, my uncle started yelling and tried to smack him in the head. JD pushed him apart and told him that he can’t hit him like that. My uncle then went berserk and started beating up JD. My mom, step-dad and I went outside to defend JD and to stop my uncle.
That was what happened on my trip and the main background. After I came back home, I just stopped talking to my uncle. A few weeks later, he messaged me to ask me about one of my college professors (he’s a college professor himself, and was organizing a symposium). I didn’t respond. More weeks passed, no messages or anything from either one of us, and yesterday he messaged me out of the blue again, asking if I can help him transferring some money that one of his friends here in the US needed to send him. Again I ignored him. And today, his friend started messaging and calling me regarding the money that needed to be transferred. I got irritated, because he didn’t even apologize, or even messaged me to see how I was, only to ask for favors. I sent him a voice message, as respectful as I could (because despite all he is still my uncle, and was one of my parental figures growing up) and told him “hey, first of I’m trying to be as respectful as I can because you’re my uncle and I’m so grateful for all you did for me growing up. The fact that you don’t seem to understand the level of disrespect towards me and my entire family when I was there, and you messaging me acting like nothing happened and straight up asking for favors. I need you to understand that I’m not gonna talk to you until you apologize, and without giving any BS excuse for something that is incurable “ He then responded “I’m not pretending like nothing happened, i have nothing to apologize for. If that’s what you want, I’m not gonna reach out to you anymore”
All this left me wandering if I did the right thing. Am I the Asshole for calling out on his bs, and effectively cut him out of my life until he apologizes?
submitted by jbaque13 to AITAH [link] [comments]
I (M27) am from a small country in South America, but currently live in the states. All my family from my mom’s side (including my mom and half-siblings) still live there. Last December, I went back for the holidays, as I had not been able to do so since the pandemic started. It all was pretty chill until my last three days there.
My third to last day, my maternal uncle (M45) did me a favor and took me to visit my sibling’s grave (half-sibling from my dad’s side, who passed when I was a child), after that, we went to visit my grandpa (his father)’s grave. After we got back home, he wanted to go to the beach, and asked me to go with him. Obviously, after visiting both of my relatives’ graves, I was bummed out, and just wanted to stay home. My uncle tried to convince me by saying “I just took you to your sibling and your grandpa’s graves, do it for them”. I wanted so bad to tell him to shut up, that he was disrespectful, and to keep my sibling out of his mouth. I didn’t wanted to be disrespectful, so I just simply stayed quiet and just stayed home.
That was one. The next day, my mom invited my uncle, his 19y/o son (my cousin, let’s call him JD), my aunt and her husband. We were chillin, having some food and stuff. When everyone started saying their goodbyes, my uncle went with JD outside to the patio, and told him that they were going to pick up JD’s sister N (F17) and my sister R (F16) from a party. JD told my uncle to drop him off at his mom’s first (my uncle is divorced) because he was exhausted. My uncle told him no. When JD was about to explain him why, my uncle started yelling and tried to smack him in the head. JD pushed him apart and told him that he can’t hit him like that. My uncle then went berserk and started beating up JD. My mom, step-dad and I went outside to defend JD and to stop my uncle.
That was what happened on my trip and the main background. After I came back home, I just stopped talking to my uncle. A few weeks later, he messaged me to ask me about one of my college professors (he’s a college professor himself, and was organizing a symposium). I didn’t respond. More weeks passed, no messages or anything from either one of us, and yesterday he messaged me out of the blue again, asking if I can help him transferring some money that one of his friends here in the US needed to send him. Again I ignored him. And today, his friend started messaging and calling me regarding the money that needed to be transferred. I got irritated, because he didn’t even apologize, or even messaged me to see how I was, only to ask for favors. I sent him a voice message, as respectful as I could (because despite all he is still my uncle, and was one of my parental figures growing up) and told him “hey, first of I’m trying to be as respectful as I can because you’re my uncle and I’m so grateful for all you did for me growing up. The fact that you don’t seem to understand the level of disrespect towards me and my entire family when I was there, and you messaging me acting like nothing happened and straight up asking for favors. I need you to understand that I’m not gonna talk to you until you apologize, and without giving any BS excuse for something that is incurable “ He then responded “I’m not pretending like nothing happened, i have nothing to apologize for. If that’s what you want, I’m not gonna reach out to you anymore”
All this left me wandering if I did the right thing. Am I the Asshole for calling out on his bs, and effectively cut him out of my life until he apologizes?
2023.03.22 08:01 Impressive-Ant-9511 I am becoming hinduphobic with each passing day
Initially I was always a liberal guy but slightly(bas thoda sa zada nahi) islamophic, whenever I use to Hear any muslim influencer say india is intolerant or muslims are unsafe i thought they were trying to defame .3 days ago I use to be very proud hindu but due to this incident everytime I hear someone say sanatan or praising bjp I start hating them and Hindus.
In the school Phys ed grp. After the teachers left students started posting memes which soon became political and very hateful. Some use to send religious content like paintings and drawings of God ,temple pics etc. That day i posted a scripture from a south indian temple with these captions "let's go back to the old ways 😈" ,in that scripture there was a 5some going on and I had no intent to hurt anyone's sentiment. In that group most of the people started calling me bulla and accused me of defaming SANATAN DHARM.........like wtf ?? Why are you following it then if you can't tolerate their art ,it was also a part of you culture why are you feeling embarassed?? Can't you embrace it ? And after that those goons from humanities and commerce (btw I am a science student and no-one gets offended so easily in my grp) started calling me and harrassing me .calls started coming from random people threatening me of thrashing me and beating me in front of my house. They all were so desperate for my address that they started asking everyone who lives near me ,who can take them to my house. I was extremely terrified . Somehow I managed to cool down the situation thanks to my good negotiation skills. But after that incident i just hate every hindu who talks about so called "SaNataN DhARm" and i realise that my attachment to this country is drifting away and i think i might become one of those folks in rindia who are indians but posts anti-India content. Now anything bad which any minority did in india during these 5 years by brain is justifies it maybe due to some kind of newly developed biased. Now I feel like my whole life is kind of meaningless because I always wanted to do something good for the country but when I think of the population which is filled with people like this i don't like the way things are going.
submitted by Impressive-Ant-9511 to indiadiscussion [link] [comments]
In the school Phys ed grp. After the teachers left students started posting memes which soon became political and very hateful. Some use to send religious content like paintings and drawings of God ,temple pics etc. That day i posted a scripture from a south indian temple with these captions "let's go back to the old ways 😈" ,in that scripture there was a 5some going on and I had no intent to hurt anyone's sentiment. In that group most of the people started calling me bulla and accused me of defaming SANATAN DHARM.........like wtf ?? Why are you following it then if you can't tolerate their art ,it was also a part of you culture why are you feeling embarassed?? Can't you embrace it ? And after that those goons from humanities and commerce (btw I am a science student and no-one gets offended so easily in my grp) started calling me and harrassing me .calls started coming from random people threatening me of thrashing me and beating me in front of my house. They all were so desperate for my address that they started asking everyone who lives near me ,who can take them to my house. I was extremely terrified . Somehow I managed to cool down the situation thanks to my good negotiation skills. But after that incident i just hate every hindu who talks about so called "SaNataN DhARm" and i realise that my attachment to this country is drifting away and i think i might become one of those folks in rindia who are indians but posts anti-India content. Now anything bad which any minority did in india during these 5 years by brain is justifies it maybe due to some kind of newly developed biased. Now I feel like my whole life is kind of meaningless because I always wanted to do something good for the country but when I think of the population which is filled with people like this i don't like the way things are going.
2023.03.22 07:59 PrueGretel RHONJ S13 E7
Shots and Shade
Everyone is heading down to Jersey Shore and Melissa and Joey are having a luau party! Let's see how it goes...
First, we see all the women in their homes before the trip. Teresa won't eat because she wants to be thin for the wedding. Gia tells her she is ridiculous because just had pizza. Cheater!! Joe cuts Marge a big fat bagel. Yum!!
Now we see Rachel and Danielle go clothes shopping for the trip to the shore. I thought it was odd for these two to be together. They are looking for outfits for the luau. Rachel says in her confessional that they are alike, both straight shooters. I don't see it. I think Danielle speaks her mind, but Rachel stirs up trouble. They are the youngest with small children, so they have that in common. Danielle hasn't been to the shore since she was 25. She tried to avoid it because she turned into Snooky when she used to go. The girls bring up Danielle and her brother who don't speak. They compare Danielle's relationship with her brother to Teresa's with Joey. Danielle says her relationship is a lost cause. It is kind of strange. Rachel tells us she is the opposite and is very close to her brother.
Oh, oh, the lady's gossip -- First they say they have to get Marge and Jen to speak. I don't see this happening. The Marge told the world Bill had an affair a decade ago last year. Who does that? Mind your business. Jennifer is right to not speak to her. Rachel tells Danielle that it was strange for Teresa to give them a warning to them about The Marge. Why so strange? The Marge is a snake, take it or leave the advice. It was only good intent coming from Teresa. Danielle tells her she thinks Teresa was just watching out for them. Um hello, Danielle is right. Teresa was trying to be nice, but Rachel is running with it and stirring the pot. They both think Jennifer doesn't let anything go and are trying to figure out if The Marge is dangerous. She is!! The Marge is dangerous!! I am telling you. She will expose any of your secrets and go above and beyond to destroy a person. Why would Teresa want to be friends than an enemy with The Marge? It's because the woman is a shady! The Marge's ex best friend, Laura told Teresa and Jennnifer that Marge has an arsenal of stuff on the ladies and will drop the bomb at any given time, so everyone better tread lightly or The Marge will destroy you!
Jennifer goes with Teresa to pick out gifts for her bridesmaids at the Jewlers. They pick out dainty bracelets. Perfect! Then we go on to see what Teresa will wear on her special day. Teresa says she wants simple. Jennifer tells her no you are not simple, so we are going to go extra, even more extra than extra before!! Jen is really helping her with the jewelry. Teresa wanted diamond stud earrings, but Jen picked out these gorgeous earrings. They look beautiful on her. So, the boring studs are out. Now the ladies talk about the shore. Teresa feels like Melissa and Joey should have invited them to stay with them. Why? You all hate each other. What did I miss? Last week Joey didn't attend your housewarming party. How awkward would it be for them to stay with them at the shore? Very! Now the ladies go on to say that they think it is strange that Melissa and Joey invited Marge to stay at the shore with them. This means The Marge must have some dirt on them too. See, danger everywhere with The Marge. Lol The Marge receives an invite to the stay at Melissa's shore house and everyone's first thought is because she is dangerous!! Sorry Marge, but when you go spilling secrets, this is what people think of you. Personally, I just think Melissa and Marge have been friends for years, that is reason for the invite.
Mellissa and Joey arrive at their home first. Jackie and The Marge will stay with them. Jennifer and Bill arrived at their home next, Danielle and Nate, Louie and Teresa are on their way to stay with them. Rachel has her own home. Dolores and Adult Jennifer will stay with her. Frank and his girlfriend Brittany will stay in his shore home.
Back at Mellissa's house stirring up trouble. She tells Melisssa and Joey that her mother was invited to the wedding. Oh dear. What a crime. Joey brings up Danielle fighting with her brother. Now they are all gossiping about Danielle, they all seem to believe it is something bad that Danielle did, but she is hiding it. Nah. Jackie chimes in to say something doesn't add up with Danielle and calls her something to the effect of a lower class version of Snooky. Yes, Jackie because you are so elegant and demure. Her last procedure is making her look like she has Bell's Palsy in her confessional, so she has no room to talk about anyone's looks or their actions. She doesn't even know her. What is her problem with Danielle?
Back at Jennifer's house Teresa is telling Jen she has never been invited to stay at Joey's shore house. Gia asked once and Melissa said no. Hmm. How strange and rude of her to say no. Teresa goes on to say she wants to be around people who love her. Then we get a flashback of decades of fights, brawls and broken bones thrown on the floor from them all. If Teresa has peace with Louie she should just move on and stay away from them.
The luau party is about to begin. Let's see if it fun or a disaster waiting to happen. Louie tells Teresa to ignore negativity and to don't let it get to her. Bill tells Jen she looks gorgeous, and he will back her if The Marge attacks her.
Now everyone has attended. It starts off nice. Everyone seems happy and is getting along. Great atmosphere, great food and drinks. Jen is telling everyone Aloha and puts a lei on Joey as a gag. Fun party, right? Wrong! Right in the other room The Marge and Jackie are starting already!! They ask Rachel to spill what Teresa said about keeping Marge as a friend not an enemy. How many times will they discuss this? Rachel is adding fuel and talking about her conversation she had about The Marge. Rachel is not to be trusted. Now The Marge goes over to Mellissa and tells her every single thing Danielle and Rachel said. Thanks Rachel. You and Danielle are new to the group trying to figure everyone out. I don't see Danielle spilling what was said. Rachel has officially become The Marge's soldier. At least Danielle can stand on her own and make up her own mind without repeating what was said.
Everyone is drinking. Bill is such a happy drunk. The party is really action packed with a lot of drinking going on while the girls gossip and bicker on the side. At least the party isn't ruined. Bill is so wasted they might have to carry him out of there.
Oh dear, here comes The Marge asking Teresa about what was said to Danielle and Rachel. Teresa tells The Marge she was just giving advice and she thinks Rachel is trying to cause trouble. Ya think? Rachel denies, she blabs what and repeats what everyone tells her. Remind me, you and NJ to stay away from Rachel, the big mouth of Jersey. Teresa is not feeling Rachel now, she is on to her. Teresa and Marge seem to mend for now. The Marge tells he she really never did anything to anyone. Teresa laughs and so do I. This woman destroys people or tries her hardest to do so.
Paulie didn't attend. Does Bravo keep Dolores' boyfriends away on purpose? Frank tells her he is so lonely without the family dynamic. He told Dolores that Paulie needs to be around the family more. He calls his girlfriend, Brittany over and wanted her to confirm that it is sad that Dolores isn't not staying at their house. Britt tells Dolores she loves when she stays with them. Frank is just really hurt, and you see it in his face. I feel like he has some sort of dependence on Dolores and needs her around. A lot!!
Okay back to wedding drama. Adult Jennifer asks Louie how it is going with the wedding. He and Teresa say they want everyone to have fun, no assigned seats, just a great celebration!! Adult Jennifer brings up Melissa's mother not being invited and was it an oversite. Hell of a nerve this one has. Mind your business. Teresa tells her it was not an oversite and there is history, bad history. A decade ago, when the fights with the Teresa and Mellissa went down, Mellissa's sister and mother, Donna wrote nasty things on social media about Teresa. She said she forgave but will never forget. That should be enough to shut this down. But no, Louie tells her he apologized to Melissa's mother, Donna, and not to Teresa's knowledge about not being invited. Oh boy, sneaky play by him. Teresa looked a bit taken back. Louie tells the women he is being biased (fair) and is trying to keep the peace. Yeah no, stand with your wife. Teresa says in her confessional that she wishes Louie discussed this with her prior, but she claims he is just trying to keep the peace. She goes on to blame Joey for not coming to her with this because he loves a spectacle. What? He did come to you, he said something to Louie!! Back to the drama, Teresa looks annoyed with Louie and tells him well maybe you should invite her then. He tells her okay let me find her and invite her. She left the party, so I guess send an invite.
Back to the party everyone is getting more and more drunk. They are doing what drunk people do at parties, I guess. Joey is waxing Rachel's husband's hairy chest. I'm moving on with this..
Jackie grabs Jennifer and tells her she wants Jen and Marge to make up. Jen is it not having it. Jen goes on to say because of The Marge, they are trying to fix their relationship. Right now, they are disagreeing with how they raise their children. If one of their children gets an average score on a test, he calls them average and will grow up to be average. She will not have him call their children average. I wouldn't either. You praise and encourage your children, not put them down.
Back to the Teresa told Rachel and Danielle to watch out for The Marge scandal. Now Dolores chimes in with The Marge and Jackie and they gossip about Danielle. She overhears it and gets annoyed. Danielle just took the advice and spoke to blabber mouth Rachel, so why are they picking on her? Jackie is loving that all these nonsenses is getting thrown onto Danielle, like she is in the wrong. As far as I see it, Teresa and Danielle are the only ladies right with this situation. Teresa gave advice and Danielle kept quiet, unlike Rachel and The Marge who won't shut up about it. Danielle just stated what she heard to one (nasty) person, Rachel but the others are relentless with this. Go yell at Rachel ladies and leave Danielle alone. They won't stop talking about Danelle and she is getting mad. She goes and sits back with her husband. Melissa joins her and has the nerve to tell her the reason people are talking about her is because the rift between Danielle and her brother doesn't add up, and maybe she hides stuff. Go away Melissa, nobody asked you!! Danielle tells her she is not even hearing her because she is so pissed and is ready to unleash on these women, rightly so. She opened up to them about her brother and they question her about it? Helluva nerve they got. Danielle leaves the party because she has their number. She tells Jennifer and Teresa that she is done, and can they please go. Danielle is mad as hell, and she doesn't play. These ladies better watch what they say. There's a new girl in town and she will wreck you and check you.
submitted by PrueGretel to Tamaras_Tattlers [link] [comments]
Everyone is heading down to Jersey Shore and Melissa and Joey are having a luau party! Let's see how it goes...
First, we see all the women in their homes before the trip. Teresa won't eat because she wants to be thin for the wedding. Gia tells her she is ridiculous because just had pizza. Cheater!! Joe cuts Marge a big fat bagel. Yum!!
Now we see Rachel and Danielle go clothes shopping for the trip to the shore. I thought it was odd for these two to be together. They are looking for outfits for the luau. Rachel says in her confessional that they are alike, both straight shooters. I don't see it. I think Danielle speaks her mind, but Rachel stirs up trouble. They are the youngest with small children, so they have that in common. Danielle hasn't been to the shore since she was 25. She tried to avoid it because she turned into Snooky when she used to go. The girls bring up Danielle and her brother who don't speak. They compare Danielle's relationship with her brother to Teresa's with Joey. Danielle says her relationship is a lost cause. It is kind of strange. Rachel tells us she is the opposite and is very close to her brother.
Oh, oh, the lady's gossip -- First they say they have to get Marge and Jen to speak. I don't see this happening. The Marge told the world Bill had an affair a decade ago last year. Who does that? Mind your business. Jennifer is right to not speak to her. Rachel tells Danielle that it was strange for Teresa to give them a warning to them about The Marge. Why so strange? The Marge is a snake, take it or leave the advice. It was only good intent coming from Teresa. Danielle tells her she thinks Teresa was just watching out for them. Um hello, Danielle is right. Teresa was trying to be nice, but Rachel is running with it and stirring the pot. They both think Jennifer doesn't let anything go and are trying to figure out if The Marge is dangerous. She is!! The Marge is dangerous!! I am telling you. She will expose any of your secrets and go above and beyond to destroy a person. Why would Teresa want to be friends than an enemy with The Marge? It's because the woman is a shady! The Marge's ex best friend, Laura told Teresa and Jennnifer that Marge has an arsenal of stuff on the ladies and will drop the bomb at any given time, so everyone better tread lightly or The Marge will destroy you!
Jennifer goes with Teresa to pick out gifts for her bridesmaids at the Jewlers. They pick out dainty bracelets. Perfect! Then we go on to see what Teresa will wear on her special day. Teresa says she wants simple. Jennifer tells her no you are not simple, so we are going to go extra, even more extra than extra before!! Jen is really helping her with the jewelry. Teresa wanted diamond stud earrings, but Jen picked out these gorgeous earrings. They look beautiful on her. So, the boring studs are out. Now the ladies talk about the shore. Teresa feels like Melissa and Joey should have invited them to stay with them. Why? You all hate each other. What did I miss? Last week Joey didn't attend your housewarming party. How awkward would it be for them to stay with them at the shore? Very! Now the ladies go on to say that they think it is strange that Melissa and Joey invited Marge to stay at the shore with them. This means The Marge must have some dirt on them too. See, danger everywhere with The Marge. Lol The Marge receives an invite to the stay at Melissa's shore house and everyone's first thought is because she is dangerous!! Sorry Marge, but when you go spilling secrets, this is what people think of you. Personally, I just think Melissa and Marge have been friends for years, that is reason for the invite.
Mellissa and Joey arrive at their home first. Jackie and The Marge will stay with them. Jennifer and Bill arrived at their home next, Danielle and Nate, Louie and Teresa are on their way to stay with them. Rachel has her own home. Dolores and Adult Jennifer will stay with her. Frank and his girlfriend Brittany will stay in his shore home.
Back at Mellissa's house stirring up trouble. She tells Melisssa and Joey that her mother was invited to the wedding. Oh dear. What a crime. Joey brings up Danielle fighting with her brother. Now they are all gossiping about Danielle, they all seem to believe it is something bad that Danielle did, but she is hiding it. Nah. Jackie chimes in to say something doesn't add up with Danielle and calls her something to the effect of a lower class version of Snooky. Yes, Jackie because you are so elegant and demure. Her last procedure is making her look like she has Bell's Palsy in her confessional, so she has no room to talk about anyone's looks or their actions. She doesn't even know her. What is her problem with Danielle?
Back at Jennifer's house Teresa is telling Jen she has never been invited to stay at Joey's shore house. Gia asked once and Melissa said no. Hmm. How strange and rude of her to say no. Teresa goes on to say she wants to be around people who love her. Then we get a flashback of decades of fights, brawls and broken bones thrown on the floor from them all. If Teresa has peace with Louie she should just move on and stay away from them.
The luau party is about to begin. Let's see if it fun or a disaster waiting to happen. Louie tells Teresa to ignore negativity and to don't let it get to her. Bill tells Jen she looks gorgeous, and he will back her if The Marge attacks her.
Now everyone has attended. It starts off nice. Everyone seems happy and is getting along. Great atmosphere, great food and drinks. Jen is telling everyone Aloha and puts a lei on Joey as a gag. Fun party, right? Wrong! Right in the other room The Marge and Jackie are starting already!! They ask Rachel to spill what Teresa said about keeping Marge as a friend not an enemy. How many times will they discuss this? Rachel is adding fuel and talking about her conversation she had about The Marge. Rachel is not to be trusted. Now The Marge goes over to Mellissa and tells her every single thing Danielle and Rachel said. Thanks Rachel. You and Danielle are new to the group trying to figure everyone out. I don't see Danielle spilling what was said. Rachel has officially become The Marge's soldier. At least Danielle can stand on her own and make up her own mind without repeating what was said.
Everyone is drinking. Bill is such a happy drunk. The party is really action packed with a lot of drinking going on while the girls gossip and bicker on the side. At least the party isn't ruined. Bill is so wasted they might have to carry him out of there.
Oh dear, here comes The Marge asking Teresa about what was said to Danielle and Rachel. Teresa tells The Marge she was just giving advice and she thinks Rachel is trying to cause trouble. Ya think? Rachel denies, she blabs what and repeats what everyone tells her. Remind me, you and NJ to stay away from Rachel, the big mouth of Jersey. Teresa is not feeling Rachel now, she is on to her. Teresa and Marge seem to mend for now. The Marge tells he she really never did anything to anyone. Teresa laughs and so do I. This woman destroys people or tries her hardest to do so.
Paulie didn't attend. Does Bravo keep Dolores' boyfriends away on purpose? Frank tells her he is so lonely without the family dynamic. He told Dolores that Paulie needs to be around the family more. He calls his girlfriend, Brittany over and wanted her to confirm that it is sad that Dolores isn't not staying at their house. Britt tells Dolores she loves when she stays with them. Frank is just really hurt, and you see it in his face. I feel like he has some sort of dependence on Dolores and needs her around. A lot!!
Okay back to wedding drama. Adult Jennifer asks Louie how it is going with the wedding. He and Teresa say they want everyone to have fun, no assigned seats, just a great celebration!! Adult Jennifer brings up Melissa's mother not being invited and was it an oversite. Hell of a nerve this one has. Mind your business. Teresa tells her it was not an oversite and there is history, bad history. A decade ago, when the fights with the Teresa and Mellissa went down, Mellissa's sister and mother, Donna wrote nasty things on social media about Teresa. She said she forgave but will never forget. That should be enough to shut this down. But no, Louie tells her he apologized to Melissa's mother, Donna, and not to Teresa's knowledge about not being invited. Oh boy, sneaky play by him. Teresa looked a bit taken back. Louie tells the women he is being biased (fair) and is trying to keep the peace. Yeah no, stand with your wife. Teresa says in her confessional that she wishes Louie discussed this with her prior, but she claims he is just trying to keep the peace. She goes on to blame Joey for not coming to her with this because he loves a spectacle. What? He did come to you, he said something to Louie!! Back to the drama, Teresa looks annoyed with Louie and tells him well maybe you should invite her then. He tells her okay let me find her and invite her. She left the party, so I guess send an invite.
Back to the party everyone is getting more and more drunk. They are doing what drunk people do at parties, I guess. Joey is waxing Rachel's husband's hairy chest. I'm moving on with this..
Jackie grabs Jennifer and tells her she wants Jen and Marge to make up. Jen is it not having it. Jen goes on to say because of The Marge, they are trying to fix their relationship. Right now, they are disagreeing with how they raise their children. If one of their children gets an average score on a test, he calls them average and will grow up to be average. She will not have him call their children average. I wouldn't either. You praise and encourage your children, not put them down.
Back to the Teresa told Rachel and Danielle to watch out for The Marge scandal. Now Dolores chimes in with The Marge and Jackie and they gossip about Danielle. She overhears it and gets annoyed. Danielle just took the advice and spoke to blabber mouth Rachel, so why are they picking on her? Jackie is loving that all these nonsenses is getting thrown onto Danielle, like she is in the wrong. As far as I see it, Teresa and Danielle are the only ladies right with this situation. Teresa gave advice and Danielle kept quiet, unlike Rachel and The Marge who won't shut up about it. Danielle just stated what she heard to one (nasty) person, Rachel but the others are relentless with this. Go yell at Rachel ladies and leave Danielle alone. They won't stop talking about Danelle and she is getting mad. She goes and sits back with her husband. Melissa joins her and has the nerve to tell her the reason people are talking about her is because the rift between Danielle and her brother doesn't add up, and maybe she hides stuff. Go away Melissa, nobody asked you!! Danielle tells her she is not even hearing her because she is so pissed and is ready to unleash on these women, rightly so. She opened up to them about her brother and they question her about it? Helluva nerve they got. Danielle leaves the party because she has their number. She tells Jennifer and Teresa that she is done, and can they please go. Danielle is mad as hell, and she doesn't play. These ladies better watch what they say. There's a new girl in town and she will wreck you and check you.
2023.03.22 07:59 winterspan Itinerary Check - Tokyo/Kyushu in May
Tentative itinerary for May 9-25th, right after Golden Week.
TOKYO (ASAKUSA - 6 nights)
May 9: Arrive afternoon. Staying in south Asakusa. Only goal is to figure out the trains and subway.
May 10: Roam Asakusa and Ueno.
May 11: See other parts of Tokyo. Find a boat ride.
May 12: Day trip Mount Takao or Nokogiri/Nihon-ji Temple area
May 13: Day trip Fukushima disaster area (guided tour)
May 14: Kanda Matsuri events in the morning. Mostly relax/downtime.
KAGOSHIMA (2 nights)
May 15: Flight to Kagoshima from Haneda. Ferry to Sakurajima if time/energy.
May 16: Sakurajima or scenic train to Ibusuki and back
KUMAMOTO (1 night)
May 17: Shinkansen to Kumamoto. Quiet Guesthouse to relax/downtime, nice dinner night.
FUKUOKA (4 nights)
May 18: Shinkansen to Fukuoka. Roam Hakata.
May 19: short ferry to Nokonoshima island to bike around.
May 20: day trip to Nagasaki, return after seeing the night lights. Stretch goal: gunkanjima if timing works
May 21: Morning trip to Nanzoin or possibly get out closer to country side somewhere (don’t know yet?). Relax/downtime night.
HIROSHIMA (2 nights)
May 22: Morning Shinkansen to Hiroshima. Peace park/museum.
May 23: Miyojima / Mt Misen
HANEDA (1 night)
May 24: long Shinkansen to final accommodation near Haneda airport.
May 25: Lazy day. Probably do nothing. Maybe see Yokohama China town. Flight out of Haneda at 9:30PM.
Thoughts? Thanks!
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- Solo trip, 39M
- Not interested in onsens or fancy restaurants
TOKYO (ASAKUSA - 6 nights)
May 9: Arrive afternoon. Staying in south Asakusa. Only goal is to figure out the trains and subway.
May 10: Roam Asakusa and Ueno.
May 11: See other parts of Tokyo. Find a boat ride.
May 12: Day trip Mount Takao or Nokogiri/Nihon-ji Temple area
May 13: Day trip Fukushima disaster area (guided tour)
May 14: Kanda Matsuri events in the morning. Mostly relax/downtime.
KAGOSHIMA (2 nights)
May 15: Flight to Kagoshima from Haneda. Ferry to Sakurajima if time/energy.
May 16: Sakurajima or scenic train to Ibusuki and back
KUMAMOTO (1 night)
May 17: Shinkansen to Kumamoto. Quiet Guesthouse to relax/downtime, nice dinner night.
FUKUOKA (4 nights)
May 18: Shinkansen to Fukuoka. Roam Hakata.
May 19: short ferry to Nokonoshima island to bike around.
May 20: day trip to Nagasaki, return after seeing the night lights. Stretch goal: gunkanjima if timing works
May 21: Morning trip to Nanzoin or possibly get out closer to country side somewhere (don’t know yet?). Relax/downtime night.
HIROSHIMA (2 nights)
May 22: Morning Shinkansen to Hiroshima. Peace park/museum.
May 23: Miyojima / Mt Misen
HANEDA (1 night)
May 24: long Shinkansen to final accommodation near Haneda airport.
May 25: Lazy day. Probably do nothing. Maybe see Yokohama China town. Flight out of Haneda at 9:30PM.
Thoughts? Thanks!
2023.03.22 07:49 thespuzz ‘Valuations of Indian stock market are not expensive from a long-term perspective’
Doshi: It’s very interesting that whatever is happening globally is just reinforcing our thought process and our belief that India is on the right track. We could never have expected such sort of accidents in our system. While we always think that we have regulatory challenges in India, today, I think it is a very big blessing.
I think whatever is happening globally, is just start of a cycle where you will see the pain going on for many years. These are all warning signals for us. But India stands out very well.
Jain: The way monetary policy and banking regulation in India has worked over the last few years has been a typical first world style of functioning, which unfortunately did not happen in the first world. It’s quite an irony.
About a decade ago, perhaps post GFC, in India, we saw fairly volatile times, with weak balance sheets at an aggregate level with huge NPAs building up and current account crisis as well. Post that we’ve seen – both at the government and at corporate level – steps taken to strengthen the structural fabric of India. I think we are just seeing the benefits of that come through. It’s a good thing that we did not let the crisis go waste.
I believe that the next decade is ours for the taking.
Mukherjea: I think every 10 years, America blows up. I don’t think that’s the story of the moment.
You will remember 2023-24 as the year in which the world went to war without weapons. What’s happening between America and China is very serious. And it has huge implications for us as a country. Let’s take two developments.
ASML, a company headquartered in the Netherlands, is the only company to produce ‘extreme ultraviolet lithography’ technology to produce integrated circuits, which play a key role in the global chip supply chain.
The Dutch government, basis the pressure from US, stated a few months ago that there will be no exports of ASML machines to China. The western world, in a way, is saying we will send China back to the stone age as quickly as possible by making sure this semiconductor manufacturing comes to a halt.
The other dimension is in the Pharma industry. When we speak to the western pharma major companies, in which we invested in, all of them say there are clear orders from the powers that be in America to buy less API from China and buy more API from India. Fly to Baroda, Surat or Vapi in India, you will see a whole new industry coming up, which is ramping up API production.
Even if China’s 10% of API production moves to India, our API industry will be doubled.
Also Read : What are the rules that qualify any property as ancestral?
Indian stock market valuations
Doshi: It’s not that our premium has gone up. But it’s just that the valuations of the other countries have gone down. So, our valuations look a bit expensive. But India is charting a growth path of its own.
Could you have imagined that the inflation rate in India would be lower than many parts of the West. I couldn’t have dreamt of it 10 years ago. Further, in the last five years, we are enjoying a corporate tax rate of 25.17%, absolutely undisturbed. Now, isn’t that a very strong promise from our government, to provide consistency and stability?
Shah: Indian stock market valuations are undoubtedly not cheap on a one-year basis. But take a five-year view, and suddenly we are the cheapest among the emerging markets.
Today Maharashtra’s GDP is equal to what whole of India’s GDP was in 2005. The combined GDP of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand is what India’s GDP was in 2001. And three states—Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka—combined GDP is where India was in 2000. Can we assume that over the next 15-25 years, these states will produce what India is producing today, if all of us continue to work as hard? I think it is eminently achievable. Now, in which part of the world would you see states becoming as big as the country, with reasonable amount of assurance. People who buy into that story will not find India’s valuation expensive.
Jain: In the calendar year 2022, Nifty 50 gave about a 4%-5% return, which sounds unexciting, of course.
But you should analyse the performance of that 50-stock basket by removing the outliers. And you will find that the difference in returns between the best performing and the worst performing stock is 90%. The best performing stock gave you 50%, the worst performing stock was down 37%.
I think it’s important to be able to identify those companies and take advantage of stock selection in order to create alpha and not overly obsess about aggregate valuations, aggregate growth, etc.
Mukherjea: Do a simple analysis. You look at companies that have a double-digit revenue growth and double-digit ROCE (return on capital employed) in the last 10 years. India has 140 such companies and China has 130. Remember, China’s economy is 4-5 times larger than us and still has fewer companies with the growth I mentioned. And there is no other emerging market in that picture.
The Indian companies filtered would have compounded wealth at 24% over the last 20 years, while the Chinese companies would have compounded at 12%. This is the best that China has to offer .
The decade of manufacturing
Shah: The train which we missed in the 80s, where China became a manufacturer to the world and we became back office to the world, is likely to get reversed, in my opinion. It’s not a 1-3 year journey, it’s probably 10-30 year journey. For China, the manufacturing is about 40% of the GDP. India’s manufacturing should grow from below 25% of the GDP towards first 30%, then 35% and hopefully someday to 40%. That’s the story of manufacturing in India.
Be watchful of:
Mukherjea: We need to push up the ante on corporate governance. We have improved vastly from the days of Satyam and the DHFL debacle etc. But I think given the rate at which our country is going, also the rate at which domestic money is coming into big mutual fund houses, we owe it to the investor community both in India and abroad. To push up the ante on accounting, quality and corporate governance is imperative.
Shah: From the economic point of view, we can’t afford to make a self-goal. In 1947, we were at par with Japan in terms of per capita GDP. In the1960s, we were at par with South Korea. In the 80s, we were at par with China. Today, all these countries are way ahead of us. And that’s because they have done many good things. But we have scored self-goals. The best example of Indian self-goal is when Singur, a state in West Bengal, opposed Tata group’s automobile plant in an essentially backward area. They tried for five years, couldn’t do it and finally moved out. They went to Sanand in Gujarat, which is now growing at a healthy rate. If all of India is going to follow a Singur model, it is time to short India. If all of India is going to follow Sanand model, it’s time to go double long India.
Doshi: India runs one big risk of continuity of reforms. We have had extraordinary leadership at the country level, which need to carry on for another one or two terms, I believe. There are a lot of unfinished reforms in many fields such as agriculture, defence, divestment of PSUs. etc. These are some of these big-ticket items that will actually take India to the next level.
Jain: I like to think that we don’t have control over what is going to be the political climate in India over the medium term and also on how regulations will be shaped. But what we can control is identifying companies that will be able to traverse these differing political scenarios, macro-economic situations, and so on and emerge stronger. So, I would as an investor and as a fund manager, only urge that we need to put effort into identifying companies and winners that can go through variables that we can’t control or which we can’t predict.
Read More The Spuzz.com
submitted by thespuzz to u/thespuzz [link] [comments]
I think whatever is happening globally, is just start of a cycle where you will see the pain going on for many years. These are all warning signals for us. But India stands out very well.
Jain: The way monetary policy and banking regulation in India has worked over the last few years has been a typical first world style of functioning, which unfortunately did not happen in the first world. It’s quite an irony.
About a decade ago, perhaps post GFC, in India, we saw fairly volatile times, with weak balance sheets at an aggregate level with huge NPAs building up and current account crisis as well. Post that we’ve seen – both at the government and at corporate level – steps taken to strengthen the structural fabric of India. I think we are just seeing the benefits of that come through. It’s a good thing that we did not let the crisis go waste.
I believe that the next decade is ours for the taking.
Mukherjea: I think every 10 years, America blows up. I don’t think that’s the story of the moment.
You will remember 2023-24 as the year in which the world went to war without weapons. What’s happening between America and China is very serious. And it has huge implications for us as a country. Let’s take two developments.
ASML, a company headquartered in the Netherlands, is the only company to produce ‘extreme ultraviolet lithography’ technology to produce integrated circuits, which play a key role in the global chip supply chain.
The Dutch government, basis the pressure from US, stated a few months ago that there will be no exports of ASML machines to China. The western world, in a way, is saying we will send China back to the stone age as quickly as possible by making sure this semiconductor manufacturing comes to a halt.
The other dimension is in the Pharma industry. When we speak to the western pharma major companies, in which we invested in, all of them say there are clear orders from the powers that be in America to buy less API from China and buy more API from India. Fly to Baroda, Surat or Vapi in India, you will see a whole new industry coming up, which is ramping up API production.
Even if China’s 10% of API production moves to India, our API industry will be doubled.
Also Read : What are the rules that qualify any property as ancestral?
Indian stock market valuations
Doshi: It’s not that our premium has gone up. But it’s just that the valuations of the other countries have gone down. So, our valuations look a bit expensive. But India is charting a growth path of its own.
Could you have imagined that the inflation rate in India would be lower than many parts of the West. I couldn’t have dreamt of it 10 years ago. Further, in the last five years, we are enjoying a corporate tax rate of 25.17%, absolutely undisturbed. Now, isn’t that a very strong promise from our government, to provide consistency and stability?
Shah: Indian stock market valuations are undoubtedly not cheap on a one-year basis. But take a five-year view, and suddenly we are the cheapest among the emerging markets.
Today Maharashtra’s GDP is equal to what whole of India’s GDP was in 2005. The combined GDP of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand is what India’s GDP was in 2001. And three states—Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka—combined GDP is where India was in 2000. Can we assume that over the next 15-25 years, these states will produce what India is producing today, if all of us continue to work as hard? I think it is eminently achievable. Now, in which part of the world would you see states becoming as big as the country, with reasonable amount of assurance. People who buy into that story will not find India’s valuation expensive.
Jain: In the calendar year 2022, Nifty 50 gave about a 4%-5% return, which sounds unexciting, of course.
But you should analyse the performance of that 50-stock basket by removing the outliers. And you will find that the difference in returns between the best performing and the worst performing stock is 90%. The best performing stock gave you 50%, the worst performing stock was down 37%.
I think it’s important to be able to identify those companies and take advantage of stock selection in order to create alpha and not overly obsess about aggregate valuations, aggregate growth, etc.
Mukherjea: Do a simple analysis. You look at companies that have a double-digit revenue growth and double-digit ROCE (return on capital employed) in the last 10 years. India has 140 such companies and China has 130. Remember, China’s economy is 4-5 times larger than us and still has fewer companies with the growth I mentioned. And there is no other emerging market in that picture.
The Indian companies filtered would have compounded wealth at 24% over the last 20 years, while the Chinese companies would have compounded at 12%. This is the best that China has to offer .
The decade of manufacturing
Shah: The train which we missed in the 80s, where China became a manufacturer to the world and we became back office to the world, is likely to get reversed, in my opinion. It’s not a 1-3 year journey, it’s probably 10-30 year journey. For China, the manufacturing is about 40% of the GDP. India’s manufacturing should grow from below 25% of the GDP towards first 30%, then 35% and hopefully someday to 40%. That’s the story of manufacturing in India.
Be watchful of:
Mukherjea: We need to push up the ante on corporate governance. We have improved vastly from the days of Satyam and the DHFL debacle etc. But I think given the rate at which our country is going, also the rate at which domestic money is coming into big mutual fund houses, we owe it to the investor community both in India and abroad. To push up the ante on accounting, quality and corporate governance is imperative.
Shah: From the economic point of view, we can’t afford to make a self-goal. In 1947, we were at par with Japan in terms of per capita GDP. In the1960s, we were at par with South Korea. In the 80s, we were at par with China. Today, all these countries are way ahead of us. And that’s because they have done many good things. But we have scored self-goals. The best example of Indian self-goal is when Singur, a state in West Bengal, opposed Tata group’s automobile plant in an essentially backward area. They tried for five years, couldn’t do it and finally moved out. They went to Sanand in Gujarat, which is now growing at a healthy rate. If all of India is going to follow a Singur model, it is time to short India. If all of India is going to follow Sanand model, it’s time to go double long India.
Doshi: India runs one big risk of continuity of reforms. We have had extraordinary leadership at the country level, which need to carry on for another one or two terms, I believe. There are a lot of unfinished reforms in many fields such as agriculture, defence, divestment of PSUs. etc. These are some of these big-ticket items that will actually take India to the next level.
Jain: I like to think that we don’t have control over what is going to be the political climate in India over the medium term and also on how regulations will be shaped. But what we can control is identifying companies that will be able to traverse these differing political scenarios, macro-economic situations, and so on and emerge stronger. So, I would as an investor and as a fund manager, only urge that we need to put effort into identifying companies and winners that can go through variables that we can’t control or which we can’t predict.
Read More The Spuzz.com
2023.03.22 07:27 Hot_Bet_7894 Arthur Brown - serial killer?
He could well have been one of Australia's worst serial killers, who perhaps remarkably escaped conviction on any charge.
Brown was born in Merinda and spent most of his life in North Queensland.
He worked mainly as a maintenance carpenter for the department of public works, where coworkers remembered him as a polite and obsessively neat man who always had sharp creases ironed into his work clothing.
Hester Porter
In 1944 he married Hester Porter (née Andersen), who had 3 children from a previous marriage. Hester later told her older sister Milly that she had once caught Brown molesting a child, and had since tried to keep him away from children.
Later Brown started a relationship with Hester's younger sister, Charlotte, who had 5 children of her own. The affair was "known but not acknowledged" by family members. In 1978 Hester, who was now bedridden with arthritis, died after hitting her head in a fall at home. It was later revealed that the family doctor had signed the death certificate without examining the body, and that Brown had hastily had it cremated days later. Many family members believe Brown murdered Hester.
Charlotte moved in with Brown soon after Hester's death, and the couple married later in the year.
In 1982 another sister of Hester's came forward and confided in family members that she'd been molested by Brown when she was a child. This sparked a string of accusations by yet more family members of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of Brown, with a total of 45 seperate cases. Many of his child victims had been taken to Antill Creek, 25 kms south west of Townsville, to be molested. However, no charges were pursued at the time.
Mackay sisters
7yo Judith Mackay and her 5yo sister Susan disappeared from a bus stop just 200m from their Townsville home on an August morning in 1970. A search was mounted later that day, and their bodies were found two days later in the dry bed of Antill Creek.
Both girls had been raped, strangled and stabbed, and their school uniforms were found neatly folded in their school bags and placed next to each of their bodies.
Several witnesses reported seeing the girls on the morning of the abduction with a suspicious man driving a rare blue Vauxhall Victor, with some reporting the vehicle had a drivers door in a mismatched colour. Other witnesses reported the car was actually a blue Holden, however one witness, a worker at a service station, refilled the vehicle and stated the petrol cap was on the left side of the vehicle, which meant it could not be a Holden.
The physical descriptions of the man given by witnesses matched Brown's somewhat unique wiry appearance, although police at the time focused on finding the vehicle, not the driver - no identikit or drawing was displayed to the public.
Police believed at the time the car was a Holden, and the witness statements suggesting otherwise were discounted.
Brown was working at the Mackay sisters' school at the time of the murders, and relatives later reported instances of strange behaviour by Brown at the time. He seemed obsessed with the case, at one stage he falsely claimed to know the girls' father, and he offered to take other family members to the site "where the bodies were found". He also drove a blue Vauxhall Victor with an odd coloured drivers door at the time - he soon removed the door and replaced it, buried it, before later recovering it and taking it to a local tip, because "he didn't want people bothering him".
A few weeks after the murder, Brown confessed to the killings when speaking to a stranger he had spent the afternoon drinking with in a pub. The conversation was reported to police, who then spoke to Brown and officially discounted the drunken confession.
Years later Brown again confessed to the murders to a workmate, who didn't report the conversation to police, believing Brown had been joking.
Following a Crimestoppers program in 1999, a family member contacted police and the cold case was reopened. Brown was charged with dozens of counts of sexual abuse of children, and the murders of the Mackay sisters. The trial ended with a hung jury, and Brown was later deemed unfit for retrial due to his worsening Alzheimer's.
The case has been closed with all involved satisfied that Brown committed the murders.
Adelaide Oval abduction
Brown is regarded as a suspect, with the identikit of the abductor baring a striking resemblance.
After seeing Browns picture on TV in relation to the the Mackay murder trial, a witness from the Oval case, who saw the two girls being led away by a man, came forward to state that Brown was the man she had seen - this was however 25 years later, and the witness was aged just 14 at the time of the abduction. It can be argued though that Brown's distinctive appearance hadn't changed a great deal in that time.
She had also reported that the man wore horn rimmed glasses, which he had dropped and picked up. Brown was known to wear horn rimmed glasses at the time.
Attempts to establish whether Brown could have been in Adelaide at the time have proven fruitless. Employee records may have shown if he had been on leave from work at the time, but those records have been destroyed, possibly in the Brisbane floods of 1974.
The only reported link to Adelaide was from a former colleague who reported a conversation with Brown during which he mentioned seeing construction of the Adelaide Festival Centre nearing completion. This would have placed him in Adelaide at some stage during a window of time which also coincides with the Oval disappearances.
Beaumont Children
Although no other links have been made, the fresh allegations regarding the Adelaide Oval case has led to suspicion that Brown may have been active in Adelaide - and once again, the identikit of the man seen with Beaumont children when they disappeared bares a resemblance to Brown.
Marilyn Wallman
Fourteen year old Wallman disappeared in Eimeo, Queensland on her way to school in March 1974.
Witnesses reported seeing a blue Vauxhall in the area at the time. Brown and his wife, Hester, had been to visit relatives in Mackay, however Brown's Vauxhall had broken down and the couple returned home by train, with Brown returning to Mackay alone to pick up the car. Depending on some variables, police believe it possible that Brown was passing through Eimeo (around 10km from Mackay) at the time of the disappearance.
Wallman was never seen again and no body was ever found.
Catherine Graham
Eighteen year old Graham was a door-to-door saleswoman who was murdered in July 1975. She was door knocking in the area of Brown's house on the day she was murdered.
Police believe two men were involved in the crime, however Graham's body was found at Antill Creek, close to where the Mackay sisters were found.
Brown died alone in a nursing home in July 2002, leaving instructions that no public death notices be placed. Only one stepdaughter was made aware of his funeral, and he left no surviving blood relatives.
Note: I didn't write this, I just shared it.
submitted by Hot_Bet_7894 to serialkillers [link] [comments]
Brown was born in Merinda and spent most of his life in North Queensland.
He worked mainly as a maintenance carpenter for the department of public works, where coworkers remembered him as a polite and obsessively neat man who always had sharp creases ironed into his work clothing.
Hester Porter
In 1944 he married Hester Porter (née Andersen), who had 3 children from a previous marriage. Hester later told her older sister Milly that she had once caught Brown molesting a child, and had since tried to keep him away from children.
Later Brown started a relationship with Hester's younger sister, Charlotte, who had 5 children of her own. The affair was "known but not acknowledged" by family members. In 1978 Hester, who was now bedridden with arthritis, died after hitting her head in a fall at home. It was later revealed that the family doctor had signed the death certificate without examining the body, and that Brown had hastily had it cremated days later. Many family members believe Brown murdered Hester.
Charlotte moved in with Brown soon after Hester's death, and the couple married later in the year.
In 1982 another sister of Hester's came forward and confided in family members that she'd been molested by Brown when she was a child. This sparked a string of accusations by yet more family members of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of Brown, with a total of 45 seperate cases. Many of his child victims had been taken to Antill Creek, 25 kms south west of Townsville, to be molested. However, no charges were pursued at the time.
Mackay sisters
7yo Judith Mackay and her 5yo sister Susan disappeared from a bus stop just 200m from their Townsville home on an August morning in 1970. A search was mounted later that day, and their bodies were found two days later in the dry bed of Antill Creek.
Both girls had been raped, strangled and stabbed, and their school uniforms were found neatly folded in their school bags and placed next to each of their bodies.
Several witnesses reported seeing the girls on the morning of the abduction with a suspicious man driving a rare blue Vauxhall Victor, with some reporting the vehicle had a drivers door in a mismatched colour. Other witnesses reported the car was actually a blue Holden, however one witness, a worker at a service station, refilled the vehicle and stated the petrol cap was on the left side of the vehicle, which meant it could not be a Holden.
The physical descriptions of the man given by witnesses matched Brown's somewhat unique wiry appearance, although police at the time focused on finding the vehicle, not the driver - no identikit or drawing was displayed to the public.
Police believed at the time the car was a Holden, and the witness statements suggesting otherwise were discounted.
Brown was working at the Mackay sisters' school at the time of the murders, and relatives later reported instances of strange behaviour by Brown at the time. He seemed obsessed with the case, at one stage he falsely claimed to know the girls' father, and he offered to take other family members to the site "where the bodies were found". He also drove a blue Vauxhall Victor with an odd coloured drivers door at the time - he soon removed the door and replaced it, buried it, before later recovering it and taking it to a local tip, because "he didn't want people bothering him".
A few weeks after the murder, Brown confessed to the killings when speaking to a stranger he had spent the afternoon drinking with in a pub. The conversation was reported to police, who then spoke to Brown and officially discounted the drunken confession.
Years later Brown again confessed to the murders to a workmate, who didn't report the conversation to police, believing Brown had been joking.
Following a Crimestoppers program in 1999, a family member contacted police and the cold case was reopened. Brown was charged with dozens of counts of sexual abuse of children, and the murders of the Mackay sisters. The trial ended with a hung jury, and Brown was later deemed unfit for retrial due to his worsening Alzheimer's.
The case has been closed with all involved satisfied that Brown committed the murders.
Adelaide Oval abduction
Brown is regarded as a suspect, with the identikit of the abductor baring a striking resemblance.
After seeing Browns picture on TV in relation to the the Mackay murder trial, a witness from the Oval case, who saw the two girls being led away by a man, came forward to state that Brown was the man she had seen - this was however 25 years later, and the witness was aged just 14 at the time of the abduction. It can be argued though that Brown's distinctive appearance hadn't changed a great deal in that time.
She had also reported that the man wore horn rimmed glasses, which he had dropped and picked up. Brown was known to wear horn rimmed glasses at the time.
Attempts to establish whether Brown could have been in Adelaide at the time have proven fruitless. Employee records may have shown if he had been on leave from work at the time, but those records have been destroyed, possibly in the Brisbane floods of 1974.
The only reported link to Adelaide was from a former colleague who reported a conversation with Brown during which he mentioned seeing construction of the Adelaide Festival Centre nearing completion. This would have placed him in Adelaide at some stage during a window of time which also coincides with the Oval disappearances.
Beaumont Children
Although no other links have been made, the fresh allegations regarding the Adelaide Oval case has led to suspicion that Brown may have been active in Adelaide - and once again, the identikit of the man seen with Beaumont children when they disappeared bares a resemblance to Brown.
Marilyn Wallman
Fourteen year old Wallman disappeared in Eimeo, Queensland on her way to school in March 1974.
Witnesses reported seeing a blue Vauxhall in the area at the time. Brown and his wife, Hester, had been to visit relatives in Mackay, however Brown's Vauxhall had broken down and the couple returned home by train, with Brown returning to Mackay alone to pick up the car. Depending on some variables, police believe it possible that Brown was passing through Eimeo (around 10km from Mackay) at the time of the disappearance.
Wallman was never seen again and no body was ever found.
Catherine Graham
Eighteen year old Graham was a door-to-door saleswoman who was murdered in July 1975. She was door knocking in the area of Brown's house on the day she was murdered.
Police believe two men were involved in the crime, however Graham's body was found at Antill Creek, close to where the Mackay sisters were found.
Brown died alone in a nursing home in July 2002, leaving instructions that no public death notices be placed. Only one stepdaughter was made aware of his funeral, and he left no surviving blood relatives.
Note: I didn't write this, I just shared it.
2023.03.22 07:25 tonnie_taller Murdaugh fallout: Housekeeper Gloria Satterfield’s sons ‘want justice’ in lawyer’s alleged financial crimes
Murdaugh housekeeper Gloria Satterfield’s sons “want justice” in her 2018 death after she apparently tripped and fell up the front steps at the Murdaughs’ home on their South Carolina hunting estate, Moselle. Satterfield died days later in a hospital, and an autopsy was never conducted. Her death certificate said she died of natural causes, which … Continue reading Murdaugh fallout: Housekeeper Gloria Satterfield’s sons ‘want justice’ in lawyer’s alleged financial crimes
submitted by tonnie_taller to Tonnie_Taller [link] [comments]
2023.03.22 07:14 Consistent-Cod3671 18 month old no real words-really worried
Hi my son is 18 months old, he has been advanced in all his physical milestones, rolling over, crawling and he walked at 10 months old, he also has most of his teeth already He responds to his name, understands almost everything we say to him, follows simple instructions (like throw the ball or close the door) babbles alot (says babababa alot) sometimes all day long, points n grunts for what he wants, takes us by the hand to show us what he wants, claps, waves, points, does the movement for wheels on the bus and if you happy and u know it but doesn't talk.....
Iv heard him say mama 4 times from 13 months old but haven't heard it since 17 months, he does make the 'vroom' sound when playing with cars (his absolute favorite thing in the world) and recently saying 'moooo' when u ask him what does a cow say however it sounds more like 'boooo' then 'moooo' which worries me coz i know he can say the 'M' sound as iv heard mama before and a few days back he was sick and said 'ma' a couple of times but did stop so i know he can say the 'M' sound
He did have glue ear and went for grommets a month ago and was told to be concerned about speech if i dont notice a difference in 6 weeks post op, well we are fast approaching the 6 week mark n my concern is growing
I live in South Africa and there is no state funding for S&L therapy here, it needs to be done privately which can be extremely expensive, my husband isnt concerned yet, he is a medical doctor himself however i feel like his need for the kids to be perfectly normal is so high he doesn't always believe something could be wrong, for example i had to push him to allow my lo to Do grommets (ear tubes) because my husband didnt believe anything was wrong with his hearing and now that S&L is costly n with hubby not convinced lo needs it till 2 yrs it will be harder for me to go down that route just yet
My main concern is speech apraxia how would i know if my son has it or if its just a speech delay? My paed suspected a tongue tie at his newborn assessment but dismissed that at his 6 week check up, could his delay of speech be because he does have a tongue tie that was dismissed too quickly? I feel like he has gotten alot of teeth in a very short span of time, could all that is happening in his mouth be the reason for a speech delay as well? By my description above should I be concerned about autism?
Thank you
submitted by Consistent-Cod3671 to AskDocs [link] [comments]
Iv heard him say mama 4 times from 13 months old but haven't heard it since 17 months, he does make the 'vroom' sound when playing with cars (his absolute favorite thing in the world) and recently saying 'moooo' when u ask him what does a cow say however it sounds more like 'boooo' then 'moooo' which worries me coz i know he can say the 'M' sound as iv heard mama before and a few days back he was sick and said 'ma' a couple of times but did stop so i know he can say the 'M' sound
He did have glue ear and went for grommets a month ago and was told to be concerned about speech if i dont notice a difference in 6 weeks post op, well we are fast approaching the 6 week mark n my concern is growing
I live in South Africa and there is no state funding for S&L therapy here, it needs to be done privately which can be extremely expensive, my husband isnt concerned yet, he is a medical doctor himself however i feel like his need for the kids to be perfectly normal is so high he doesn't always believe something could be wrong, for example i had to push him to allow my lo to Do grommets (ear tubes) because my husband didnt believe anything was wrong with his hearing and now that S&L is costly n with hubby not convinced lo needs it till 2 yrs it will be harder for me to go down that route just yet
My main concern is speech apraxia how would i know if my son has it or if its just a speech delay? My paed suspected a tongue tie at his newborn assessment but dismissed that at his 6 week check up, could his delay of speech be because he does have a tongue tie that was dismissed too quickly? I feel like he has gotten alot of teeth in a very short span of time, could all that is happening in his mouth be the reason for a speech delay as well? By my description above should I be concerned about autism?
Thank you
2023.03.22 07:11 Jomskylark Northwest Challenge, College Westerns, Rodeo, Juniors Terminus, and more – Weekend Discussion [March 24-26]
Predict, Discuss and Follow the Weekend's Events
Lots of interesting tournaments this weekend, let's dive in!
Northwest Challenge
March 24-26 in partly cloudy Seattle, WA| Pool A | Pool B | Pool C | Pool D |
|---|---|---|---|
| #4 British Columbia | #6 Carleton | #2 Vermont | #3 Colorado |
| #16 Pittsburgh | #7 Washington | #10 Oregon | #8 Stanford |
| UCLA | #19 Western Washington | Texas | Utah |
- UW and WWU won't play each other in Pool B. Instead, UW will play BYU, and WWU will play Victoria and BYU.
- #9 BYU and #14 Victoria are each only playing Friday and Saturday games and won't be part of the bracket.
- The top seeds in each pool will play BYU and Victoria: UBC plays BYU, while Carleton, Vermont, and Colorado play Victoria. If each of these teams also finishes atop their respective pools, this should provide some symmetry in number of games played, as the 2nd and 3rd finishers in each pool play a pre-quarter while the 1st finisher receives a bye to quarters.
College Westerns
March 25-26 in sunny Los Angeles, CAFollow: @SmaugUltimate, @Ultiworld, @UltiworldLive
Rodeo
March 25-26 in both rainy and sunny Martinsville, VA| Pool A | Pool B |
|---|---|
| NC State | #24 South Carolina |
| Penn State | Ohio |
| #4 D-III Williams | Massachusetts |
| Liberty | Duke |
| North Carolina-B | Georgetown-B |
Juniors Terminus
March 25-26 in rainy Conyers, GAFollow: @AtlantaUltimate, @AFDCJuniors, @Ultiworld, @UltiworldLive
New England Open
March 25-26 in partly cloudy Rehoboth, MA| Pool A | Pool B |
|---|---|
| #21 SUNY-Binghamton | #2 D-III Wellesley |
| Connecticut | #15 D-III Mount Holyoke |
| Boston University | Harvard |
| #13 D-III Brandeis | Rhode Island |
| Bowdoin | Boston University-B |
| Pool A | Pool B |
|---|---|
| Bryant | Bates |
| Northeastern-B | Massachusetts-Lowell |
| Amherst | WPI |
| Clark | Connecticut-B |
| Harvard-B | Northeastern-C |
Carousel City Classic
March 25-26 in snowy Binghamton, NY| Pool A | Pool B | Pool C |
|---|---|---|
| Ottawa | Case Western | McGill |
| Rutgers | Cornell | Lehigh |
| SUNY-Binghamton | Columbia | #17 D-III Rochester |
| Syracuse | Carnegie Mellon | Harvard |
Needle in a Ho-Stack
March 25-26 in partly cloudy Charlotte, NC| Pool A | Pool B |
|---|---|
| #3 D-III Middlebury | Tennessee |
| App State | Boston College |
| #21 D-III Cedarville | #11 D-III St Olaf |
| Tennessee-Chattanooga | #18 D-III Union |
| Alabama-Huntsville | Richmond |
| Berry | Wake Forest |
| Pool A | Pool B | Pool C | Pool D |
|---|---|---|---|
| UNC-Charlotte | #4 D-III Middlebury | App State | Tennessee |
| Kennesaw State | Charleston | Union | #24 D-III Berry |
| Clemson | Cedarville | Christopher Newport | Davidson |
| Georgia College | High Point | South Carolina-B | Wake Forest |
| North Carolina-B | NC State-B | UNC-Asheville | Embry-Riddle |
Garden State
March 25-26 in windy Trenton, NJ| Power Pool A | Pool B | Pool C |
|---|---|---|
| #6 D-III Haverford-Bryn Mawr | #25 D-III Skidmore | Swarthmore |
| Columbia | New Jersey | Rochester |
| #8 D-III Lehigh | Vermont-B | SUNY-Albany |
| #9 D-III Ithaca | Messiah | Princeton |
| Power Pool A | Pool B |
|---|---|
| Penn State-B | West Chester |
| New Jersey | West Virginia |
| Rowan | Swarthmore |
| #18 D-III Ithaca | Skidmore |
| Army | Siena |
| Rutgers-B |
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Layout Pigout
March 25-26 in both rainy and sunny Haverford, PA| Pool A | Pool B |
|---|---|
| #12 D-III Williams | #7 D-III Oberlin |
| #11 D-III Kenyon | Bowdoin |
| #23 D-III Brandeis | Bentley |
| Haverford | Shippensburg |
2023.03.22 07:06 kaykayjesp Jeju, South Korea
I’m currently travelling around South Korea but I’m starting to get a bit bored with the country. I’m in Jeju right now and having the worst day. 4 reasons why I wanted to visit Jeju: - Hallasan mountain - caves - tea museum - glass castle
I realised last week that I wasn’t fit enough to do the Hallasan hike so I cancelled my permit before I even arrived. I arrived in the evening and started planning the next day. Turns out all the caves on the island are closed except for the two in Hallim park, which seem really underwhelming. So I change my plans for the first day and decided to go to the tea museum and glass castle. I checked maps and they were both open. I spent 1 hour on the bus to go to the museum only to find out that the actual museum isn’t open due to renovations, but only the shop and café are. I try the green tea ice cream but I really don’t like it. I go online to double check the glass castle with the tourist help chat, thinking I can’t be that unlucky, but turns out I can! It’s also closed due to renovations. I changed plans and wanted to go for a hike but the bus wouldn’t come for over another hour. So changed plans again to go to an arboretum. Thankfully it’s a nice place.
As I’m travelling indefinitely I also schedule some relax days, one of them I scheduled in Jeju. But apparently guests are not allowed inside the hostel I booked between 10am and 4pm so I can’t even do that!
Honestly at this point I can’t wait to leave this country. I had some really amazing days but overall it’s really underwhelming and not worth multiple weeks. It also doesn’t help that I’m not a fan of the local cuisine.
submitted by kaykayjesp to TravelRants [link] [comments]
I realised last week that I wasn’t fit enough to do the Hallasan hike so I cancelled my permit before I even arrived. I arrived in the evening and started planning the next day. Turns out all the caves on the island are closed except for the two in Hallim park, which seem really underwhelming. So I change my plans for the first day and decided to go to the tea museum and glass castle. I checked maps and they were both open. I spent 1 hour on the bus to go to the museum only to find out that the actual museum isn’t open due to renovations, but only the shop and café are. I try the green tea ice cream but I really don’t like it. I go online to double check the glass castle with the tourist help chat, thinking I can’t be that unlucky, but turns out I can! It’s also closed due to renovations. I changed plans and wanted to go for a hike but the bus wouldn’t come for over another hour. So changed plans again to go to an arboretum. Thankfully it’s a nice place.
As I’m travelling indefinitely I also schedule some relax days, one of them I scheduled in Jeju. But apparently guests are not allowed inside the hostel I booked between 10am and 4pm so I can’t even do that!
Honestly at this point I can’t wait to leave this country. I had some really amazing days but overall it’s really underwhelming and not worth multiple weeks. It also doesn’t help that I’m not a fan of the local cuisine.
2023.03.22 06:31 ferahs AITA for refusing to look after my grandmother?
I (20F) come from an orthodox South Asian family. Fortunately, I am moving away to another country in a little less than six months, so I don't have to put up with any of them for much longer now. Some background info here, my grandmother (90F) lives with us, and has ever since I was a baby. My grandfather also lived with us until he passed away. Because of this, I've been subjected to looking after them all my life in the absence of my parents. I couldn't go out with friends, focus on anything I liked or have a normal teenage life. I also have a brother (15M) who I've all but raised and helped with studies all my life.
On to the problem at hand, my mother is currently living with my maternal grandmother because of her recent knee surgery. Before leaving, she asked my father to wash my grandmother's clothes. It is kind of important to mention here that my grandmother has bladder control issues with age, and soils her clothes. That is the one thing my mother asked my father to do, as I was looking after the rest of the chores in the house. However, as I had expected, the morning before my father left for work, he asked me to wash my grandmother's clothes and told my mom that I would be taking care of it, in spite of agreeing to do it only a day earlier. This really made me angry, but I let it go initially because I didn't want any fights in the house. I also let it go because my father threatens me with my plans to go abroad, and says he won't sign my No Objection Certificate (its backwards but it is needed) anytime I argue with him about anything. However, when I was on call with my mother, she said something that really pissed me off. She told me to wash the clothes myself and not let the responsibility fall on my brother as he is the youngest in the house. Now of course I wasn't planning on dropping this on him, but her statement really made me angry for two reasons, 1) I was 13 when I was made to do things for my grandparents and she didn't think to protect my childhood then, and 2) She couldn't give the same statement to my father, whose responsibility it actually is. She didn't think to protect me and tell him what she told me for my brother, so that the responsibility doesn't fall on me either. An argument ensued, and I flat out told her I wouldn't be washing the clothes as it is not my responsibility. She said that I'm the "mother" when she is not present and that it is my duty. I promptly hung up, and since then, I've been called irresponsible, immature and selfish.
Aita?
submitted by ferahs to AmItheAsshole [link] [comments]
On to the problem at hand, my mother is currently living with my maternal grandmother because of her recent knee surgery. Before leaving, she asked my father to wash my grandmother's clothes. It is kind of important to mention here that my grandmother has bladder control issues with age, and soils her clothes. That is the one thing my mother asked my father to do, as I was looking after the rest of the chores in the house. However, as I had expected, the morning before my father left for work, he asked me to wash my grandmother's clothes and told my mom that I would be taking care of it, in spite of agreeing to do it only a day earlier. This really made me angry, but I let it go initially because I didn't want any fights in the house. I also let it go because my father threatens me with my plans to go abroad, and says he won't sign my No Objection Certificate (its backwards but it is needed) anytime I argue with him about anything. However, when I was on call with my mother, she said something that really pissed me off. She told me to wash the clothes myself and not let the responsibility fall on my brother as he is the youngest in the house. Now of course I wasn't planning on dropping this on him, but her statement really made me angry for two reasons, 1) I was 13 when I was made to do things for my grandparents and she didn't think to protect my childhood then, and 2) She couldn't give the same statement to my father, whose responsibility it actually is. She didn't think to protect me and tell him what she told me for my brother, so that the responsibility doesn't fall on me either. An argument ensued, and I flat out told her I wouldn't be washing the clothes as it is not my responsibility. She said that I'm the "mother" when she is not present and that it is my duty. I promptly hung up, and since then, I've been called irresponsible, immature and selfish.
Aita?