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A New York Irish family deals with Alzheimers and other domestic travails.
A young married couple navigates a post-apocalyptic future where the wealthy hoard resources.
In this final book in the Magicians trilogy, a grown-up Quentin find his way back to the magical land of Fillory.
Art restorer-spy Gabriel Allon's hunt for a missing Caravaggio painting takes him across Europe.
Historian-witch Diana and vampire-scientist Matthew return from Elizabethan London in this series’ finale.
Father Tim struggles with retirement in the latest installment in the Mitford series.
The story of one man's life from meeting Bonnie & Clyde to the Battle of the Bulge and the American oil industry.
A murder mystery involving three uniquely different mothers whose kids attend the same preschool.
Danger and secrets are uncovered in 17th century Amsterdam when a husband gives his teen bride a cabinet-sized replica of their home.
After a martial spat, a wife disappears and is held captive by a violent stranger in the North Carolina Mountains.
The story of Kim Philby, an MI6 counterintelligence agent turned Soviet spy during the Cold War.
Tips on fighting monsters and enemy players in the online building game.
A collection of 14 years of inspirational columns from O, the Oprah Magazine.
The perpetually frowning feline's devotional guide of uninspiring observations.
Behind the scenes of the meteoric rise of the CEO of fashion retailer Nasty Gal.
Confessional poems about the daily life of kittens written in their voice.
A new bio culled from intimate conversations from the author's four decades of friendship with the singer-songwriter.
The cult movie director's real and imagined adventures of hitchhiking from Baltimore to San Francisco in 2012.
How collaboration between creative pairs such and John Lennon and Paul McCartney, drives success.
Menopause, divorce and other midlife advice from a comedic voice.
A post-financial crisis tale of a group of Wall Street guys reforming the markets via high-frequency trading.
The sinking of the polar expedition ship U.S.S. Jeanette and the harrowing survival of its crew in the late 19th century.
The latest neuroscience research explains how organization can help us manage the daily deluge of data.
A detailed tutorial to the inner workings of the popular building game.
The first official guide to the popular online game filled with expert survival tips.
The neurosurgeon shares his observations on the ills afflicting American society.
Dec. 1 is World AIDS Day, a day intended to increase awareness about a disease that has led to the deaths of more than 35 million people since 1981, when the first cases appeared among gay men in the United States.
From the outset, AIDS has been intensely “political.” Power and inequalities shape vulnerability to HIV infection, and representation and decision-making processes affect resource allocation and policies. To end the AIDS epidemic by 2030, a goal set by the Joint U.N. Programme on HIV/AIDS, means analyzing the politics of the disease.
Over more than a decade, we have interviewed dozens of AIDS advocates, health policymakers and people living with HIV and AIDS in South Africa, Uganda, Swaziland, Ghana, Zambia, Tanzania and the United States.
In Africa, the first documented cases of HIV emerged in the mid-1980s. National-level political considerations shaped countries’ initial responses to the disease. In South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki’s African Renaissance views stressed African solutions for problems. His suspicion of the West meant South Africa questioned the science behind AIDS and neglected to provide life-prolonging AIDS drugs that millions needed.
In Uganda, it was a different story. Newly in power after a civil war, President Yoweri Museveni leveraged the disease to gain resources from donor governments like the United States. In Senegal, another proactive country on AIDS, the government’s close ties to Muslim leaders facilitated widespread community-based education on HIV prevention.
Globally, it’s not possible that AIDS would have gained billions in donor funds in the new millennium had activists and health experts not argued that the disease destabilized societies and contributed to insecurity concerns. This message became particularly effective after 9/11. Activists also stressed religious obligations to care for the sick, arguments that resonated with the evangelical Christians who had supported President George W. Bush in 2000.
This message helped prompt change. In 2003, President Bush announced the U.S. Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which has supported AIDS treatment, care and HIV prevention programs in 50 countries. The global community also established the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in 2002, a funding mechanism that has saved 27 million lives.
These numbers obscure the power imbalances that exist between donors and host countries. Even when donors do not directly dictate how African governments should run their AIDS programs, they may still constrain decision-making.
In 2011, the Swazi government poured scarce time and resources into hiring consultants to meet Global Fund requirements for funding applications, only to see the entire funding round canceled at the last minute. This meant Swaziland — now called eSwatini — the country with the world’s worst HIV epidemic, squandered money, time and effort.
Donor programs emphasize technical solutions and measurable outcomes, but these are not enough to end the disease. AIDS interventions in Africa often fail due to a misalignment between donor objectives and local priorities. Donors may not question the most marginalized people such as women, youth, migrants and social minorities about what they need or want.
Here’s an example: Women and youth sometimes report not taking their AIDS medications or skipping clinic appointments because they don’t want a spouse or parent to know they are HIV positive. Young women in Zambia fear their parents will disown them; wives fear that if a husband leaves, they will be unable to feed their children. Even community leaders with HIV fear losing their social status. When these concerns — and the inequalities that underlie them — get lost in donors’ efforts to achieve outcomes, their projects then may not be as effective as they could be.
As research in Zambia and Malawi shows, health-care programs create new opportunities for some people to gain status and material benefits. Charismatic individuals who understand donors’ expectations and speak their language (literally and figuratively) become “brokers” between locals and outsiders, able to portray grass-roots problems in ways that appeal to donors.
In Zambia, these intermediaries stressed women’s entrepreneurship to gain grants for small business projects. These women benefited, but not all communities have brokers to bring in these types of resources.
Donors also may exacerbate existing social inequalities. For example, about 30 percent of new HIV infections globally are among people ages 15 to 24, with young women being more vulnerable than young men. In Africa, an estimated 60 percent of the population is under 25 years of age, making people in this group crucial players for ending AIDS.
But these young people often have minimal representation on national AIDS policymaking and funding bodies. These are the committees that provide opportunities for government officials to dole out resources, reward supporters and increase their power.
As research on the participation of LGBTQ people in AIDS policymaking indicates, key populations with high risk of HIV infection may be consulted, but their voice diminishes as budgetary allocations and policy decisions are made.
In Africa, youth (and other marginalized groups) lack significant representation. More challenging, the issues that make youth most vulnerable to HIV infection — poverty, substance abuse, mental health disorders and violence — rarely take center stage for donors. For example, Africa’s few mental health programs rarely target youth, though doing so could foster HIV prevention and increase adherence to AIDS treatment.
Sixty percent of Africa’s unemployed are youth, who, feeling pressure to provide for their families, may engage in risky sexual behavior. This is particularly true for young women. Development and health experts argue that changing this dynamic will require greater long-term economic opportunities for youth, including short-term cash transfers. Studies show that young women in Malawi used these grants to start businesses, and that low-income households receiving such grants in several countries had higher school enrollment rates.
One of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals is to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. According to the foremost experts in the field, meeting this goal will require learning from experiences in responding to the disease, including paying closer attention to socioeconomic, gender and political inequalities. In the wake of declining public interest for AIDS and donor funding cuts, a commitment to greater power and representation of marginalized groups may be more important than ever.
Amy S. Patterson is professor of politics at University of the South, and author of “Africa and Global Health Governance: Domestic Politics and International Structures” (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018).
Mark Daku is an assistant professor of political science at Texas Christian University. Follow him on Twitter at @markdaku.
In yesterday’s Weekly Brieifing, I reported on a previously undisclosed memo in which a corporate lobbyist indicated that she had been involved in secret negotiations with the N.C. House Speaker Thom Tillis over a plan to ram through a bill to alter state unemployment insurance laws during next week’s scheduled “special” session of the General Assembly.
North Carolina’s system of legislative checks and balances is not designed to work in a legislative session of a few hours over the course of a day or two. Rather, the legislative proces is designed to work slowly and deliberately. Bills are supposed to process through multiple committee meetings and multiple “readings” on the floor of both houses for a reason — so that proposals can receive a full public airing and “the people” can keep tabs on what’s happening (and maybe even have their say). That’s why legislative sessions are normally scheduled for many weeks or months: so that proposed law changes can sit and marinate for a while under the light of public scrutiny.
Special sessions that allow legislators to, in effect, bypass such process are supposed to be called by state leaders in extraordinary circumstances — i.e. when there are crises that simply can’t wait.
As things stand now, however, the GOP legislative leadership is simply calling “special” sessions on a regular — almost monthly — basis to vote on whatever they can scare up the votes to pass. Lawmakers are being called to Raleigh and forced to vote on momentous issues — sometimes multiple times in just a few hours. This makes a mockery of the legislative process and the state constitution.
So, the bottom line: While better than the current secretive scam legislative leaders are running, a system of 48 or 72 hours notice regarding the subjects that will be discussed during special sessions still falls far short of what we need. Absent a genuine and thoroughly explained crisis on which there is widespread agreement ahead of time (e.g. a natural disaster or a public health emergency), we simply should not be having “special” sessions of the kind the legislative leadership has been holding to begin with.
If Speaker Tillis and Senate President Pro Tem Berger have any interest in doing the right thing, they should cancel the special legislative session scheduled for next Thursday immediately.
And, by the way, Democrats were guilty of this too in the past with the special sessions they convened to pass corporate incentives packages. Again, however, Republican leaders have taken this bad practice to a new level.
Wishful thinking … I guess it’s better than going postal.
We do what we can.
Logic and algebraic reasoning puzzles - More fun & addictive than Sudoku!Move over Sudoku, here come Balance Benders! You can use these activities as quick, fun logic problems or as stepping stones to success in algebra. Students develop deductive thinking and pre-algebra skills as they solve balance puzzles that are more fun and addictive than Sudoku puzzles! Students must analyze each balance to identify the clues, and then synthesize the information to solve the puzzle. Try oneand then try to stop!The same quick, fun logic problems as the Balance Benders books but now as software! These interactive puzzles give you all the tools you need to work the problem out on-screen before selecting your answer. Developing algebraic thinking used in balancing and solving equations has never been more fun!This app won the Association of Educational Publishers Distinguished Achievement Finalist Award, Dr. Toy Best Smart Play / Smart Toy Product, iParenting Media Award, iParenting Media Excellent Products, and The National Parenting Center Seal of Approval!Grades: 2-6Author: Robert FemianoPuzzles: 40Balance Benders helps your students to succeed on standardized tests and prepares them for higher-level assessments including:Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT)Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) / Talented and Gifted (TAG)California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST)Cornell Critical Thinking Tests (CCTT)Graduate Record Examination (GRE)Law School Admissions Test (LSAT)and many more!
The slump can mainly be attributed to buyers' lack of access to a low-cost home loan, industry people said. “Low-cost housing loan is now the solution to revive the ailing real-estate business,” said Alamgir Shamsul Alamin, president of the Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB). He urged the government to set up a Tk 10,000 crore fund to disburse long term loans on single digit interest rates to the middle income-apartment buyers.
Many developing countries provide housing loan to the apartment buyers at below 5 percent interest rate, said Alamin. “But our apartment buyers are failing to get such benefit.” Housing is considered a basic human right ensured by the constitution, he said. However, apartment buyers now have to pay upto 18 percent rates for loans, which obstruct people from affording a home, said Alamin.
REHAB in a recent study found that a total of 209 companies currently have 12,185 units of unsold flats worth Tk 8,811.19 crore. s As the association has around 1,200 member companies, the actual number will be far higher, officials said.
The 209 companies surveyed have sold 1,749 units of flats this year, where the number was 1,965 units in 2013 and 2,370 units in 2012, according to REHAB. Due to slack in real estate business, the backward and forward linkage industries like cement, iron and steel, bricks, electrical equipment, tiles, fittings, ceramic have also been affected significantly, he said adding that around 269 industries are directly involved with the real estate sector.
Structural Engineers is now sitting on around 50 saleable apartments and has around 40 ongoing projects, he said. Awal, also a former president of REHAB, stressed to increase housing loan repayment period to 20 years. “Monthly installment would come down equivalent to general house rent level if the loan repayment time is extended, which is more manageable to buyers,” he said.
Real estate companies had expected an increased sale of apartment and plots this year after the prolonged political turbulence in 2013, said Tanveerul Haque Probal, another former REHAB president. “But it has not happened this year. Market is very dull.” Meanwhile, realtors are now more cautious on undertaking any new projects due to the sluggish trend in sales, said Probal, also the managing director of Building For Future Ltd.
The number of new projects undertaken by developers declined by around 75 percent in 2013 compared to the previous year, according to REHAB. “And this year's situation is also the same,” said a number of developers. “It is very difficult time for a real estate company to survive,” said Kamal Mahmud, managing director of Skiros Builders Ltd, another real-estate company.
Skiros Builders have sold only three units of apartment in last three months, he said adding that “we will face problem to operate our business if the present trend continues for long period of time.” Moreover, realtors called upon people to invest in the real estate now to gain cost benefit.
“Apartment price is on a decline trend,” said Liakat Ali Bhuiyan, vice president of REHAB. “So customers can now buy flat at a reasonable price.” Bhuiyan, also chairman of Brick Works Development Ltd, said his company is now selling apartment with size of 1,300 square feet at Mirpur-10 at Tk 55-60 lakh, around 10 percent lower than previous year. Banks and other financial institutions have been reluctant to finance housing sector as it is a non-productive sector, said Mahfuzur Rahman, executive director and spokesperson of Bangladesh Bank. “Housing loan is a long-term investment and its default rate is comparatively high, which discourages most banks and other financial institutions to lend,” he said.
In fiscal of 2007-08, Bangladesh Bank had launched a housing refinance scheme initially with Tk 300 crore for housing loan. Later, the fund was increased to Tk 500 crore. But, in end of 2009, the government closed the scheme. Under the scheme, borrowers were entitled to loans of up to Tk 20 lakh at a 9 percent interest rate for 20 years.
The real estate sector now contributes around 7 percent to the country's GDP, employing around one lakh skilled people and another 35 lakh in the backward linkage industries, according to industry people.
But Johnson was persistent. Charvoun was a good player, just small. If his brother was bigger, maybe he would be even better. So Charvarius agreed. He’d come out for spring ball. That lasted two days, and then he quit. He calls himself anti-social. Didn’t like being around that many people.
But Johnson was persistent. He’d seen something in those two days — raw, sure, but long and fast. Charvarius agreed. He’d come out for summer practices. That lasted two days, and then he quit. He calls himself a mama’s boy. He missed her, and wanted to help with his younger siblings.
“I’m, like, glued to my mama,” he says now.
But Johnson was persistent. He’d seen even more in those summer practices — an aggressiveness on the field that juxtaposed his introverted way off of it. Finally, Charvarius agreed. He’d come out for the team. And this time, he’d stay.
The coaches were elated. They grabbed equipment and made sure he had some goggles (more on this in a minute). A few games into the season, they had a new starting cornerback who hadn’t played football since quitting pee-wee ball in part because of a cancer scare that left him on crutches or in a wheelchair for the better part of two years.
Look at Charvarius now. He’s the red-dreaded starting cornerback for the Chiefs, an undrafted rookie free agent who was so nervous before his first start four weeks ago that he told his uncle he was having an anxiety attack. Now, he is a central part of a radically improved defense on the cusp of the franchise’s first Super Bowl in 49 years.
The Chiefs would probably be playing the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday without Ward’s emergence. But they would not be as confident, or sound defensively, a weakness replaced by a tough, fast and hyper-competitive cornerback who remains so attached to his mom that he FaceTimes her more often than his girlfriend.
About those goggles. They were prescription. Charvarius doesn’t know his diagnosed visual acuity, only that he cannot read or see a football or even watch TV without glasses or contacts.
As a kid it was so bad his teachers thought he had a learning disability. They made him take kindergarten twice.
He breezed through the second time with glasses, all those basic skills coming easily once he could see. Turns out, Charvarius was actually smart. Like, really smart. So smart the teachers at McComb High had him skip his sophomore year. They didn’t tell Charvarius or Tanya, either.
One year he was a freshman. The next, a junior. Graduated with a 3.8 GPA. Amazing what happens when you can see. Tanya wasn’t making a joke about Charvarius reading a book, either. He was that kid, the one who’d rather be at home reading with his mom than playing outside with his friends.
A proud giggle comes when Tanya talks about her second son. He’d always tell her, I just want to be able to take care of you. Lots of kids say that. Some stick with it. Some don’t.
About that wheelchair. Happened in the second grade. He was playing around at his aunt’s house, chasing a dog, and jumped off a porch. Four feet off the ground, maybe five. The pain shot through him immediately. Tanya took him to the hospital that night. The fear gripped Tanya when she saw the X-rays: a cyst, right there on his hip.
For six months, Charvarius was on crutches, and that wasn’t even the hard part. The doctors thought it might be cancer, a secret Tanya guarded from her boy. Surgery eased the worst fears, but then Charvarius was in a wheelchair for six months. Then more time with crutches, and even after that they told him to be extra careful because the next break would be worse.
Charvarius wasn’t thinking too much about anything that would put his bones at risk. He has a younger brother and two younger sisters. Before he graduated high school, his mom was given custody of her stepsister’s baby boy, a child in such bad health that he spent most of his first six months in the hospital. A year later, her stepsister had another baby. Tanya took him on, too.
So, Charvarius wasn’t thinking much about football. He wanted to work. To help. Tanya was too busy for a steady job, and Dad was in jail. So Charvarius wanted to bring in some money.
He’s always been like that. As a kid, he’d get money for good grades. By the time he showed his uncle and grandmother and other adults in the neighborhood, one ‘A’ on a report card might be worth $20. Charvarius never spent the cash. He saved everything under a mattress. Once, Tanya came up short on rent.
You’re dang right he wanted to help. In high school, he tried everywhere he could think of. McDonald’s. Walmart. Kroger. Nobody called back. He’s still not sure why.
Play football, have fun, keep your grades up and I’ll do everything in my power to make sure that you and your mom have everything you need.
Perspective is a tricky thing. There is no doubt that Garland was right. Charvarius deserved some time for himself, for something that would keep him active and provide new experiences. To be a kid instead of a provider.
But Charvarius doesn’t think of it that way. To him, playing football was the risk. A little scary, emotionally more than physically. He’d always wanted to take care of Mama, so that didn’t feel like work. That felt safe. Playing football was the more daunting move. He’d be away from Mama.
All those years and all that talent and it was never the glasses or the wheelchair or even the need to provide that kept him from playing football. He just wanted to be close to Tanya. He missed her, even just for a couple hours for practice.
Thank goodness none of those jobs called him back.
Steve Ellis was the next coach to see Charvarius on that couch, but by now the boy didn’t need to be talked into playing football.
He lacked the pedigree to interest Division I schools but had played well enough as a senior at McComb High to be named All-Region. That led to a scholarship at Hinds Community College, which led to Ellis sitting on that couch and pitching Charvarius on Middle Tennessee State.
“He’s going to be a pro,” Ellis remembered saying.
We should explain. There are no athletes in Charvarius’ family. In a phone conversation this week, Garland laughed when asked if either of Charvarius’ parents were athletic.
Somehow, the second son grew to 6-foot-1, with hands that measured more than 10 inches, a 37 1/2-inch vertical, an 11-foot broad jump and 4.4-second 40. All of those marks exceed the general average for an NFL cornerback.
Ellis had coached a few players who reached the NFL, most notably safety Kevin Byard, who led the league in interceptions and made first-team All-Pro for the Tennessee Titans in 2017. Ellis thought that Ward’s physical gifts matched or bettered all of them, that all he needed was time and work.
In a year and a half at Middle Tennessee, Ward gained 28 pounds of what football people call good weight. Most of his measurements at his pro day were better than those of Iowa’s Josh Jackson, who the Chiefs were thought to be considering before the Packers selected him with the pick immediately before the Chiefs’ in the second round.
Ward went undrafted but fielded interest from a handful of teams. The Chiefs weren’t one of them. Ward chose the Dallas Cowboys because they were the closest to home — closest to Tanya. He had a good training camp, but the Cowboys had depth at defensive back and a need for offensive line help. That matched perfectly with the Chiefs, who sent Parker Ehinger to Dallas in a trade on the day of the last preseason game.
Ward impressed immediately. The Chiefs chose Tremon Smith in the sixth round, and special teams coach Dave Toub called him the team’s second-fastest player. But Ward passed him on the cornerback depth chart quickly and was in line for more playing time in early December before a bad week of practice.