2021 NEW YEAR MESSAGE
Happy New Year Dear Compatriots and friends across the world.
This is the beginning of a new journey, a new chapter, a fresh opportunity to start and recover from the losses of 2020.

Last year was a challenging year, characterized by tales of misfortunes, deaths and illnesses. It was a tough moment for many homes and families owing to the unfortunate #COVID19 .

The pandemic plagued our world with many consequences, causing hardship and other forms of insecurity.

2020 was a year of many challenges and struggles both as individuals and as a nation. From #COVID19 to #EndSarsProtests, we witnessed disruptions in our cultures, economy, livelihoods and life itself.

These unfortunate events should propel us to re-examine ourselves, re-evaluate our priorities and commit ourselves to new norms, new cultures and new traditions.

The right have attacked the Green New Deal on the grounds that it will hurt economic growth. In response, the left have defended it by saying it will *increase* growth. And maybe it will. But taking this approach is a bad strategy for a number of reasons:

1. If the GND *does* generate growth, that will drive aggregate resource use and energy demand up, and therefore make it paradoxically more difficult (and probably unfeasible) to decarbonize the economy in the short time we have left.

2. Clean energy infrastructure requires material extraction (for solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, etc). More energy demand means more extractivism, which will have significant social and ecological impacts - on global South communities in particular.

3. Climate change is not our only problem. More growth means more resource use, which means rising ecological impacts across all other planetary boundaries. (See:

4. All sorts of regressive social and ecological policy is justified in the name of growth, including cuts to labour standards and environmental regulations. When we affirm growth as the ultimate objective, we play into the hands of neoliberals.

1) Caste discrimination & atrocities
2) Caste based inequality in education, land, housing/other assets, income, health, etc.
3) Social structure based on Varna & Jatis

As social movements/activists, how do we prioritize & how much time & energy we devote to each of them? 1/n

In a society with inequitable social structure and caste based inequalities of above kind, discrimination might be -& as ex-untouchables like us know-it is every day affair.

So where do I put my head and heart on? 2/n

Do I shout & cry every day when I see discrimination or with a 'cool' head strategize & work for changing social structure & removing/reducing those inequalities?

At a societal level, who should do what? 3/n

If I don't shout, cry & protest, I might be seen as insensitive & perpetrators might take it for granted but if I keep doing it, where do I stop because discrimination of various kind in any geography internet society is every day affair & like happening in my own house 4/n

Why I am speaking loudly on these issues is being active on Twitter/FB for some time, I got an impression that what matters most or perhaps what is made more visible is discrimination than the root causes. Is my impression wrong? 5/n

Looking Back to Look Forward: 🧵

Like many, in March 2020 I started feeling very concerned about so many people losing their jobs , not having enough saved to cover basic needs like rent & food for even a month or 2.

And like many wonderful UAE residents, I too did my

best to support with 💰.
However, they say give a gal 🐟 , & she will eat one day; teach a gal to 🐟 & she'll eat every day.

So partly to quell my anxiety but mostly to help the avg. hardworking person learn how to invest, I started blogging about investing.

If you're new to investing or want a refresher, here is how you can catch up. A short course in blogs & videos.

Lesson 1: Why should you invest?

Well, if we’ve learned anything from this pandemic, it’s the importance of saving for uncertainties.

👀 @ 2 charts below H/T @SamRo

The top 1% holds 61% of their wealth in Equities & only 11% in Real Estate , 12% in 💵

Bottom 50% hold 55% in Real Estate, only 6% 💵 & 4% in Equity.

So, the top 1% have liquid assets that have 👍🏽 compounding effect to grow 💰.
I explain more

Lesson 2: Budgeting & How To Save

Yes, you want that fancy car, fancy address or clothes, shoes, bags for that extra Instagram shoot. Certainly have fun but remember less is more.

Here’s how I saved 32% of my income in my mid-twenties AFTER

Many of our restaurants, and the JOBS they provide, will not survive being forced to close for indeterminate time periods. Here’s what one restaurant owner shared...

As I walk into the grocery store with 30 other people at the same time, I think about my restaurant which allows parties of 6 total, and meticulously spaces out reservations by 10 minutes ensuring guests that aren’t from the same party do not arrive at the same time.

As I take a cart, that has had just the handle sanitized, I think about my restaurant which invested thousands of dollars (so far) on ink and paper to print disposable menus to ensure no two guests touch the same menu.

As I walk to the produce aisle with 15-20 other people around me, I’m reminded of the strict “no mingling /no walking around the restaurant other than to use the washroom or enter/exit” policy we have in place and the 6ft distance btwn tables which has cut our capacity in half.

As I watch the woman next to me pick up apples, check them over closely and put them back on the open pile and repeat this until she finds the perfect apples,the same thing that all other people that day who want an apple will then do and then put those apples into their mouths,

A dark cloud has descended, cloaking everything in gray.

It isn’t just me.

One of my colleagues, Tony Alvarado (@TexasKidneyDoc), is one of the most upbeat and outgoing people I know.

Now he’s quiet.

His trademark smile is faint, and the light has faded in his eyes. 1/

Tony texted me the other day.

The most I’ve heard from him in weeks.

“My dad died last night.
COVID.
Pretty fast.
2020. Hell. On. Earth.”

I responded as best I could. Told him I was there for him.

His father was a kind man.

He didn’t have to die.

Not like this. 2/

It’s Fall 2008, and I’m a resident in Internal Medicine.

I’m attending a forum where I’ve been invited to read from the journal I’ve kept since medical school.

These are my thoughts that have been slowly consuming me.

The documenting of a downward spiral. 3/

I’m growing increasingly aware of a numbness within me. Moments that would move me before, now they evoke nothing.

The crucible of residency is forging me into a cold and unfeeling alloy I never wanted to be.

I write about it, and read my words to others who also know. 4/

I’m a guitarist, and I compare the sensation to the gradual numbing of fingertips against sharp steel strings, as the skin thickens and calluses form.

I want to tear off the calluses so the pain remains fresh, and real.

I would rather bleed on the strings than forget them. 5/

NEW: @OleMiss is trying to compel its ombudsman to turn over confidential communications in order to unmask the #UMemails whistleblowers who exposed a web of racism among UM officials and donors.

The effort has "terrified" faculty members.

“We’re all worried the university is going to get a hold of his communications & that our names will be revealed,” said one faculty member (not a whistleblower) who shared concerns with the ombudsman, fearing retaliation if they raised them elsewhere. 2/

Two faculty members said they worry the university could be laying groundwork to eliminate the Ombudsman Office altogether.

“If they took that Ombuds office away, there would be nowhere for faculty to go. ... That’s the only place we have on campus." 3/

"People would be terrified of speaking up because people who speak up get hammered at this university. There is no place to go except the Ombuds office to be treated fairly & with respect. Paul Caffera as the ombudsman is the only place women can go.” 4/

The University of Mississippi EORC, which is charged with enforcing Title IX, is leading the investigatory effort to unmask the #UMEmails whistleblowers on "hostile work environment" allegations" after they exposed a web of racism and sexism on campus. 5/

Over a month ago, we completed a big restructuring @FOCUSBRANDS to adjust for scale and prep for next growth phases. My 2nd big reorg in 10 years there, and I'm so proud of it! Will share more soon, but here's a thread on making changes before you are forced to + tough calls.

I am so grateful for leadership changes we made over the last 2 years - wish I would have made some even earlier. I can't imagine going through a large reorg (+2020) w/o the new presidents and leaders we promoted, invested in and hired, which also meant parting ways with some.

Making changes when you "don't have to" is a bit of a paradox. You DO have to. It's just that you aren't forced to (yet). I've learned to redefine crisis & know that a time will come that pressure-tests my team. I know that I "must" do it before I "have" to do it.

I use that knowledge to initiate changes in human, caring, and direct ways. An example of one of those convos (major paraphrasing): "you were a fit for some time, but no longer, we're not parting ways today, but we need to unwind by "X", let's build a plan to do that together"

There is much left out of that little clip of a sentence: development attempts, collaboration, etc. etc., but when you know, you know, and often (always in my experience) they do, too. At that stage, their optimal growth will be somewhere else - I want to get them there.

1. Oil & gas companies still expect the world to consume large quantities of oil & gas in 2050. That view would seem to put the oil giants in conflict with the IPCC.

𝐈𝐧 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐞...

@bstorrow

2. [O]il companies & the IPCC alike rely on a contentious strategy known as negative emissions — the practice of pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. In theory, NETs would buy the world a little more time to phase out the use of fossil fuels ...

3. "[N]one of these models are forecast machines" @DetlefvanVuuren

"It's just an element, a tool to explore different trajectories on the basis of the knowledge we have today & to see what ... might encounter."

Both critics & modelers agree such nuance is often lost

4. Many policymakers have concluded that negative emission technologies are necessary for meeting the Paris Agreement's temperature benchmarks, even if modelers themselves are more circumspect.

5. "How great would it be if, rather than just having pathways that kind of put forward technological solutions like BECCS, that we would have pathways that really articulate in clear terms the need for immediate discussions & action towards phasing out fossil fuels" @wim_carton

There is a ton of contradictory stuff flying around about what @MichelBarnier says is the EU's bottom line for fair competition in any free trade agreement with the UK. As I understand it, what follows is the EU's position. For the "level playing field commitments" there...

should be "non regression" - ie on standards for working practices, environmental etc, the UK must stick to current EU rules, subject to tests and the risk of legal challenge if there is a perceived breach of the obligations. And the non-regression rules apply to the EU as...

well as to the UK. They are mutual symmetrical obligations in that sense. The requirements not to give unfair subsidies to businesses, the state aid rules, are different, and more complicated, because subsidies to businesses given out of EU funds (as opposed to national funds)...

are not subject to state aid rules. So Barnier is proposing a solution to that "UK problem", such that the state obligations would be seen to bind both the UK and the EU. The big point is that @MichelBarnier seems to be trying hard to create a framework in which the...

obligations to engage in fair competition bind both the UK and the EU, and are not simply the big bad EU imposing its will on the UK. The baseline for both at the start of any free trade agreement would be the same, and subject to the same processes to prevent unfair...

Behind the scenes of Great Reset

IMPERATIVES21 ($15 trillions in assets)
Created as a basis for masive economic system change Driving a RESET from shareholders to Stakeholder Capitalism = Socialism as a New Economic Model
No property, no privacy.

👇Your new owners. Voted for them? "Founding members: B Lab, B Team, CECP, ‼️Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism with Vatican (Lynn Forrester de Rothschild), Conscious Capitalism, JUST Capital have been working independently for years to manifest a new vision of the economy.

Announcement of Commitment: Imperative 21, October 24, 2019. A full page ad in the New York Times, September 13, 2020, the 50th anniversary of Milton Friedman’s seminal essay on shareholder primacy, kicked off the RESET campaign.

The plans were made, without no crises, they had to invent one. Systems used to change after the war/revolution. It looks that we are in the middle of silent WW3. Virus, lockdowns, vaccines are weapons. Goal: change of socio-economic system into

Reset's Countdown:2019&2020
Oct,18: Event 201
Oct, 24: Imperatives 21 announced
Nov 19: Council for Inclusive Capitalism met with Vatican
Nov 22: Kissinger visits China
Dec 2, Schwab, WEF: Davos Manifesto
January 21:WEF meeting
March 11:Pandemic declared
May: The Great Reset

Repainting Religious Landscape: Economics of Conversion and Making of Rice Christians in Colonial South India (1781-1880) by M. Christhu

The ‘rice Christian’ of the Orient goes through the very same steps, when he is after rice and the missionary is after him—Mark Twain

Missionaries believed that calamities and famines were opportunities to make more ‘believers’.

During the eighteenth century, few British writers and missionaries compared the economically-challenged Roman Catholics in England with that of rice Christians in India.

The colonial administrators noted that the Dutch missionaries in India, who established schools for religious instruction, denominated the converts as rice Christians.

As things in the economy go from manipulated to ultra-manipulated, make sure you're ready for totally extreme changes. Although only a few companies are driving the stock indexes, they are heavily dependent on policy decisions and the aggressive addition of more fiat units into..

the collective global system. COVID policies, drastic changes in spending habits, lack of earnings power for the masses, are all likely to have a shocking liquidity experience to the system in the coming year. The amount of breadth at which the impairment will occur is nearly..

impossible to predict or forecast. The first chart I posted is simply demonstrating my opinion that the system is becoming increasingly unstable and the aperture for potential outcomes is widening. As policymakers respond to growing volatility (on a global level), their...

coordination is going to become more important, yet more difficult to achieve. I've mentioned many times before that the "printing" is becoming more and more competitive and has evolved into the ultimate 'Tragedy Of The Commons' situation where currency debasement is...

the "scarce" resource they are competing to insert into their own self-interested domains faster than their neighbors. Although one can expect dramatic credit impairment which can cause financial markets to crash in a fantastic fashion & in short order, policy responses will be