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PURPOSE STATEMENT
As an Illustrator I show the ugly and the beauty of this world. Whether it’s through fantasy cityscapes or documentary illustrations, my work reflects the collage of wild and sometimes funny events in our world. I create illustrations that celebrate all the wonderful things that people have accomplished, but I will not shy away from depicting humanities dark side. As a designer I use my illustrations to help bring people to places they may have never known, or have forgotten.
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I. WORLD OBSERVER What You Need to Know About the World’s Water Wars By Laura Parker
North Dakota Oil Pipeline Battle: Who’s Fighting and Why By Jack Healy
The Counted By Guardian Staff
II. GETING BETTER Syria Civil Defense Popularly By Right Livelihood Award
The Worm Business By Diana Yates
III. CREATIVE FREEDOM Autobiagaphy Kelly By Che Saitta-Zelterman
Autobiography Racheal By Che Saitta-Zelterman
Three Roomates By Michael Giddings
You Earned a Drink Recipe by Old Mr. Boston
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WORLD OBSERVER
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What You Need to Know About the World's Water Wars
Underground water is being pumped so aggressively around the globe that land is sinking, civil wars are being waged, and agriculture is being transformed. By Laura Parker Published July 14th, 2016
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BEIJING IS SINKING. In some neighborhoods, the ground is giving way at a rate of four inches a year as water in the giant aquifer below it is pumped. The groundwater has been so depleted that China’s capital city, home to more than 20 million people, could face serious disruptions in its rail system, roadways, and building foundations, an international team of scientists concluded earlier this year. Beijing, despite tapping into the gigantic North China Plain aquifer, is the world’s fifth most water-stressed city and its water problems are likely to get even worse.
under threat. Richard Damania, a lead economist at the World Bank, predicts that without adequate water supplies, economic growth in the most stressed parts of the world could decline by six percent of GDP. His findings conclude that the most severe impacts of climate change will deplete water supplies. “If you are in a dry area, you are going to get a lot less rainfall. Run-off is declining,” he says. “People are turning to groundwater in a very, very big way.”
And you are, literally, in a race to the bottom.
Beijing isn’t the only place experiencing subsidence, or sinking, as soil collapses into space created as groundwater is depleted. Parts of Shanghai, Mexico City, and other cities are sinking, too. Sections of California’s Central Valley have dropped by a foot, and in some localized areas, by as much as 28 feet. Around the world, alarms are being sounded about the depletion of underground water supplies. The United Nations predicts a global shortfall in water by 2030. About 30 percent of the planet’s available freshwater is in the aquifers that underlie every continent. More than two-thirds of the groundwater consumed around the world irrigates agriculture, while the rest supplies drinking water to cities. These aquifers long have served as a backup to carry regions and countries through droughts and warm winters lacking enough snowmelt to replenish rivers and streams. Now, the world’s largest underground water reserves in Africa, Eurasia, and the Americas are under stress. Many of them are being drawn down at unsustainable rates. Nearly two billion people rely on groundwater that is considered ‒8‒
But few things are more difficult to control than groundwater pumping, Damania says. In the United States, farmers are withdrawing water at unsustainable rates from the High Plains, or Ogallala Aquifer, even though they have been aware of the threat for six decades. “What you have in developing countries is a large number of small farmers pumping. Given that these guys are earning so little, there is very little you can do to control it,” Damania says. “And you are, literally, in a race to the bottom.” Growth will decline and food prices will spike, raising the risk of violent conflict and waves of large migrations. Unrest in Yemen, which heavily taps into groundwater and which experienced water riots in 2009, is rooted in a water crisis. Experts say water scarcity also helped destabilize Syria and launch its civil war. Jordan, which relies on aquifers as its only source of water, is even more water-stressed now that more than a half-million Syrian refugees arrived. Jay Famiglietti, lead scientist on a 2015 study using NASA satellites to record changes in the world’s 37 largest aquifers, says that the ones under the greatest threat are in the most heavily populated areas.
is rooted in a water crisis. Experts say water scarcity also helped destabilize Syria and launch its civil war. Jordan, which relies on aquifers as its only source of water, is even more water-stressed now that more than a half-million Syrian refugees arrived.
How did these giant basins become so depleted? Drought, bad management of pumping, leaky pipes in big-city municipal water systems, aging infrastructure, inadequate technology, population growth, and the demand for more food production all put increasing demand on pumping more groundwater. Flood irrigation, which is inefficient, remains the dominant irrigation method worldwide. In India, the world’s largest consumer of groundwater, the government subsidizes electricity – an incentive to farmers to keep pumping.
How has irrigation changed farming? Irrigation has enabled water-intensive crops to be grown in dry places, which in turn created local economies that are now difficult to undo. These include sugar cane and rice in India, winter wheat in China, and corn in the southern High Plains of North America. Aquaculture has boomed in the land-locked Ararat Basin, which lies along the border between Armenia and Turkey. Groundwater is cold enough to raise cold-water fish, such as trout and sturgeon. In less than two decades, the aquifer there has been drawn down so severely for fish ponds that municipal water supplies in more than two dozen communities are now threatened.
How much water remains?
"Without sustainable groundwater reserves, global security is at far greater risk,” he says. “As the dry parts are getting drier, we will rely on groundwater even more heavily. The implications are just staggering and really need to be discussed at the international level.” Below are answers to your key questions.
Where is groundwater the most threatened? The most over-stressed is the Arabian Aquifer System, which supplies water to 60 million people in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The Indus Basin aquifer in northwest India and Pakistan is the second-most threatened, and the Murzuk-Djado Basin in northern Africa Yemen, which heavily taps into groundwater and which experienced water riots in 2009,
More is known about oil reserves than water. Calculating what remains in aquifers is extraordinarily difficult. In 2015, scientists at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada concluded that less than six percent of groundwater above one-and-a-half miles (two kilometers) in the Earth’s landmass is renewable within a human lifetime. But other hydrologists caution that measurements of stores can mislead. More important is how the water is distributed throughout the aquifer. When water levels drop below to 50 feet or less, it is often not economically practical to pump water to the surface, and much of that water is brackish or contains so many minerals that it is unusable.
Is there any good news? Depleted groundwater is a slow-speed crisis, scientists say, so there's time to develop new technologies and water efficiencies. In Western Australia, desalinated water has been injected to recharge the large aquifer that Perth, Australia's driest city, taps for drinking water. China is working to regulate pumping. In west Texas, the city of Abernathy is drilling into a deeper aquifer that lies beneath the High Plains aquifer and mixing the two to supplement the municipal water supply. ‒9‒
North Dakota Oil Pipeline Battle: Who’s Fighting and Why
By JACK HEALY Published August 26th, 2016
& INTERVIEW BY DAVID MARCHESE WITH AMY GOODMAN ON Why the North Dakota Pipeline Standoff Is Only Getting Worse Published October 16th, 2016
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pipelines. Energy Transfer says the pipeline will pump millions of dollars into local economies and create 8,000 to 12,000 construction jobs — though far fewer permanent jobs to maintain and monitor the pipeline.
For months, tensions have mounted between protesters and law enforcement officials over the fate of an oil pipeline not far from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Last week, they boiled over as officers tried to force the protesters out of an area of private land where they had moved one of their camps. Here is a look at how the battle over the 1,170-mile pipeline has become an environmental and cultural flash point, stirring passions across social media and drawing thousands of protesters to camp out in rural North Dakota.
What is happening in North Dakota? American Indians have been gathering since April outside Cannon Ball, a town in south central North Dakota near the South Dakota border, to protest the Dakota Access pipeline as construction commences. Starting with members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, the protest has since grown to several hundred people — estimates vary — most of them from tribes across the country. The protesters have encamped in a field belonging to the United
States Army Corps of Engineers. Each day, they march a mile up a highway to a construction site where preparatory work is being done for the pipeline. While the protesters say they are peaceful, there have been reports of heated confrontations with law enforcement officers and construction workers, and 20 people have been arrested. Construction on a road to the pipeline has stopped for the moment. The pipeline company, Energy Transfer Partners, has sued several protesters, claiming they have threatened and intimidated contractors and were blocking work at the site.
What does each side want? The Dakota Access pipeline is a $3.7 billion project that would carry 470,000 barrels of oil a day from the oil fields of western North Dakota to Illinois, where it would be linked with other
Members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe see the pipeline as a major environmental and cultural threat. They say its route traverses ancestral lands — which are not part of the reservation — where their forebears hunted, fished and were buried. They say historical and cultural reviews of the land where the pipeline will be buried were inadequate. They also worry about catastrophic environmental damage if the pipeline were to break near where it crosses under the Missouri River. Omaka Nawicakinciji, 7, of the Oglala Lakota Nation in South Dakota, protested the Dakota Access pipeline with his mother, Heather Mendoza, in Washington on Wednesday. CreditAlex Wong/Getty Images
What about protests in North Dakota? For the moment, the mood there is calm, but anxious. North Dakota’s governor has declared a state of emergency there, and law enforcement has barricaded the main highway leading to the
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protest site and the campers.
How safe are pipelines?
Hundreds of people are camped out about a mile down the road from the construction site. They say they are there to pray and protest peacefully, but some people are worried that the situation could turn volatile if work resumes at the site or the government tries to disband the camp.
Energy companies and their federal overseer, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, promote the safety record of pipelines. Pipeline companies say it is far safer to move oil and natural gas in an underground pipe than in rail cars or trucks, which can crash and create huge fires.
Are others fighting the pipeline? Yes. State and federal agencies have approved the pipeline, and some farmers and ranchers have welcomed the thousands of dollars in payments that came with signing agreements to allow it to across their land. But others oppose the pipeline. In Iowa, one of the four states that the pipeline would traverse, some farmers have gone to court to keep it off their land. They say that Iowa regulators were wrong to grant the pipeline company the power of eminent domain to force its way through their farms. Most landowners in the 346-mile path of the pipeline through Iowa, however, have signed easements allowing it to be built across their land.
How many pipelines cross the United States? The United States has a web of 2.5 million miles of pipelines that carry products like oil and natural gas, pumping them to processing and treatment plants, power plants, homes and businesses. Most of the lines are buried, but some run above ground. While a natural gas line to a newly built subdivision is not likely to generate national controversy, proposed major pipelines like theKeystone XL, the Dakota Access or the Sandpiper in northern Minnesota have generated huge opposition from environmental groups and people living in their paths.
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But pipeline spills and ruptures occur regularly, sometimes in small leaks and sometimes in catastrophic gushers. In 2013, a Tesoro Logistics pipeline in North Dakota broke open and spilled 865,000 gallons of oil onto a farm. In 2010, an Enbridge Energy pipeline dumped more than 843,000 gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, resulting in a cleanup that lasted years and cost more than a billion dollars, according to Inside Climate News. In a 2012 examination of pipeline safety, ProPublica reported that more than half of the country’s pipelines were at least 50 years old. Critics cited aging pipelines and scant federal oversight as factors that put public health and the environment at risk.
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AMY GOODMAN ON WHY THE NORTH DAKOTA PIPELINE STANDOFF IS ONLY GETTING WORSE If it’s possible in this oversaturated age for a mass-protest movement to fly under the radar, the battle over the building of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline certainly qualifies. Just this past weekend in Morton County, North Dakota, 127 people were arrested during protests over renewed construction, which follows what protesters believed was relief from the federal government, in the form of a multi-agency letter to the pipeline builders, Energy Transfer Partners, asking them to halt building for tribal consultation and the preparation of environmental-impact statements. The construction has continued apace. And yet the clash hasn’t quite risen to the level of front-page news. That’s despite the efforts of investigative journalist Amy Goodman, the host of the Democracy Now! independent news broadcast, who had an arrest warrant issued for her in September after her coverage of the situation. (A judge dismissed the charges.) “Not enough people realize what’s going on out there,” says Goodman. “It’s a bigger story than the amount of attention its received.”
Why have these protests galvanized the native community? This isn’t the first time their land has been threatened in this way. What’s different now? You’ve got members of tribes from all over the United States, Latin America, and Canada in North Dakota now. This is an epic struggle. It’s a struggle around climate change, renewable energy, native rights, and global warming. It’s about water. The protectors — and that’s what they’re calling themselves, not protesters — have a mantra: Water is life. The pipeline endangers the water for 10 million people. So it’s a multifaceted issue. And then the images have been so powerful. On Labor Day weekend, when people saw bulldozers carving up their sacred sites, hundreds of people came streaming in to resist, and the bulldozers kept going. Then the security guards unleashed their dogs on these Native Americans, biting them and their horses. We posted video of a dog dripping with blood from its mouth and nose. This is horrific stuff — it looks like Alabama in 1963.
Fourteen million people have watched that video. That is proof of public interest.
Goodman spoke to us from her home in New York shortly after returning from the latest of multiple visits to the front lines of the North Dakotan conflict.
What happened over the weekend that caused this latest escalation? Because the pipeline company is accelerating its efforts to drill to the Missouri River. Remember, there was a letter sent by the Obama administration to the company — an unprecedented letter from the Department of Justice, Department of the Interior, and the Army — asking the company to voluntarily stop excavating. That clearly didn’t happen. Now, it’s not clear exactly what is happening, but it looks like the pipeline company is now trying harder to build. I suspect it’s to meet a deadline — that they have to build this pipeline or will default on an enormous amount of money and loans.
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It doesn’t quite seem to me as if these protests have really penetrated the public consciousness. Why do you think that is? Is the election eating up everyone’s attention? I dare say the lack of coverage may be because this is a largely Native American resistance and protest. This is an under-covered population generally. Which is why it’s so critical that people do cover this, because when the situation is presented to people, they care. It’s not that people can only pay attention to one news story or a couple news stories at a time. The video I mentioned before — we released it on Democracy Now! Fourteen million people have watched that video. That is proof of public interest. And it’s not lost on the North Dakota authorities either. Take my arrest: I was charged with criminal trespass five days after that video went out. That was an arrest warrant on journalism. And those charges were dropped because a
judge refused to authorize them. I’m not the only journalist who’s been arrested there. People are being targeted.
Like who? Look, the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, Dave Archambault, he’s arrested and strip-searched. The pediatrician on the local reservation, Dr. Sarah Jumping Eagle, she is brought to jail on a low-level disorderly conduct charge and then stripsearched. Shailene Woodley, the actress, who was here in support, she was asked by the authorities, “Are you Shailene Woodley?” When she said she was, she was taken to jail and strip-searched. This is humiliation and intimidation, and it’s to send a message: Do not come to North Dakota.
Do you have a sense of what the endgame is here? What’s the reason
to be optimistic that the pipeline won’t ultimately get built? Native people have had treaties broken for 150 years, so they didn’t have high hopes for the courts in this instance, but the Obama administration did weigh in with the three-agency letter. The Keystone XL pipeline, despite enormous Establishment support from both Democrats and Republicans, was ultimately rejected by President Obama. So there is reason for hope. But there are also very powerful companies involved. Whether they get to build this really depends on the power of the movement. Which, again, goes to why it’s so important that the media covers this. You mentioned the election before — this all goes directly to the candidates.
ly invested in Energy Transfer Partners, the company that owns the pipeline and which will profit enormously if it’s built. And Hillary Clinton has over time been a very strong supporter of fracking — this is fracked oil. Has anyone asked them about it or about climate change? No. There was no question about climate change in any of the debates.
What does the nonnative local population think of the pipeline?
How so?
Interestingly, the people of Bismarck and Mandan, North Dakota, decided not to allow the pipeline to cross north of them. They didn’t want the pipeline there. So it was moved to above the Native American reservation. The Native Americans are no different: No one wants this on their land.
Donald Trump himself is direct-
What happens next? It’s not clear what will happen or what the Obama administration will do, or if they will weigh in. Until that happens, we need to pay extremely close [attention] to whether or not the violence against the protesters increases. The police involved in the situation are militarized. They’re out there in MRAPs. The people are afraid that the police are meeting them with a degree of force that could lead to something very terrible. Remember when the Chelsea bombing happened and we all got emergency text alerts? That’s happening in North Dakota now. People are getting texts telling them that there are protesters in the area — it’s an attempt to criminalize and vilify these people, and turn the local non-native population against them. So the best I can say here is that, moving forward, there needs to be continued public pressure against the pipeline. The media needs to do much, much better with that.
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The Counted
By Guardian Staff
Date Started April 11th, 2016
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Guardian US is recording every death caused by American law enforcement in 2016 – something that no government agency has done, even after unrest rocked major cities following controversial fatal encounters with police. Our investigation, titled The Counted, was conceived after the protests of 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old. Claims by activists that police were racially biased in using lethal force could not be measured against reliable data. Official statistics allowing comparisons of death rates between cities and states did not exist. A live discussion of national importance was restricted to speculation and anecdote. The Counted began in 2015 and by the end of that year had prompted the FBI to promise to overhaul its discredited voluntary reporting system. Separately, it had led the Department of Justice to launch a new program for counting police-involved deaths, mirroring the Guardian US project and drawing directly on its findings. It had also built an online community of 35,000 subscribers on Facebook and Twitter that helps our reporters keep the project up to date.
The Counted: people killed by police in the United States – interactive The Guardian has been counting the people killed by US law enforcement agencies since 2015. Read their stories and contribute to our ongoing, crowdsourced project The Counted is built around an interactive database and map, which are updated daily. They represent the only comprehensive and ongoing record of all people killed by police officers in the US – whether they died due to a shooting, a fatal chokehold such as that used on Eric Garner in New York City in 2014, or other causes, such as the broken neck suffered by Freddie Gray in a Baltimore police van in 2015. Last year, the reporters working on the project counted more than 1,100 deaths, meaning people were killed at more than twice the rate last documented by the FBI, which relied on police departments choosing to submit data. Among The Counted’s many other striking findings were that young black men were being killed by police at
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nine times the rate of other Americans, and that African Americans killed by police were twice as likely as white people to have been unarmed.
as many law enforcement officers. Police in Kern County killed people at a higher rate than law enforcement in any other county in the US in 2015.
A small team of reporters who work on The Counted have filed thousands of records requests with police departments, prosecutors and other regional authorities to obtain this previously undisclosed information for the public. They have conducted hundreds of interviews with relatives, attorneys and officials to ensure our data is as accurate as possible, and performed daily trawls of local reporting to catch mentions of new cases for inclusion in the database.
The Counted so far: you ask, we answer
But the team is also assisted by our readers and community, who support the project through its online contact form along with Facebook and Twitter. Journalists working on the project sort through hundreds of submissions each month to update the database at least once a day. A dedicated team of reporters work to verify these tips by making thousands of inquiries with police departments, coroners, prosecutors and other local authorities. Most tips come from activists, local journalists and families whose loved ones were killed by police. The Counted is also the only database to inform readers about the outcome of each case – whether the actions of officers were ruled justified, a criminal prosecution is under way, or the death remains under investigation. Reporters also continue to monitor past cases for new information that may emerge. On 11 March, nearly one year after Aaron Siler was shot and killed by an officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, authorities disclosed that he was carrying an empty plastic bucket when he was fatally shot. At the time of Siler’s death in 2015, authorities said the officer shot Siler when he “armed himself with a weapon”. The project has also provided the basis for a series of investigative articles. An analysis into how police killings are reviewed showed that, in 85% of cases that authorities had ruled justified by the end of 2015, the investigation was led by a prosecutor who typically works alongside the officer’s department to prosecute regular crimes. Investigations into the use of Taser weapons and the practice of shooting at moving vehicles found that police routinely forgo federal guidance in ways that may put the public at risk. The Counted database has also revealed stark disparities in how often different law enforcement agencies use lethal force. In a five-part series, the Guardian examined Kern County, California, a county with a population of just under 875,000 where law enforcement killed 14 people in 2015. In that time, nine people were killed by the New York police department in New York City, home to almost 10 times as many people and 23 times
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A month after its first publication on 1 June 2015, The Counted database was joined online by a Washington Post database of fatal police shootings, doubling the pressure on US authorities to respond. Until the results of promised reforms by the Department of Justice and FBI emerge, Guardian US reporters will continue to record every fatality caused by law enforcement officers. The Counted database has so far been viewed about two million times online, with millions more reading articles that it produced. Last week the project won two prizes from the National Headliner awards, having already been honored by the James Aronson awards for social justice journalism, the Kantar Information Is Beautiful awards, and Amnesty International. It is a finalist for two New York Press Club awards and a Webby, and was a runner-up at Harvard University’s Goldsmith awards for investigative journalism and in the award for excellence in criminal justice journalism from John Jay College. The success of this groundbreaking project would not have been possible without dedicated engagement and support from Guardian readers around the US. Our growing community now sends more than 500 submissions for verification every month. We continue to invite readers to submit tips related to new cases this year and those from 2015.
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Syria Civil Defense Popularly
By Right Livelihood Award Date Started September 22th, 2016 INTERVIEW WITH WHITE HELMET VOLUNTEER MOHAMMAD SHUMEIR ON I AM ALIVE. ALIVE, PLEASE HELP ME Published October 16th, 2016
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Syria Civil Defense Popularly known as the White Helmets, Syria Civil Defence is a group of 3,000 volunteers, men and women, from local communities who have since 2013 risked their lives to save over 60,000 people — regardless of religious or political affiliation — from underneath the rubble of buildings destroyed during the Syrian civil war. Bakers, tailors, salespersons, teachers – they are now trained fire-fighters, search and rescue workers, and medics. A lifeline and a rare source of hope for the besieged civilian population, Syria Civil Defence also support the reconstruction of damaged public infrastructure and educate children
and adults on preventative safety measures to take during an aerial attack. Their deep commitment to humanitarian action has drawn international attention to the plight of civilians who have become victims of indiscriminate bombing in Syria, and they have been outspoken in calling for an end to the hostilities in the country. When the bombs rain down, the White Helmets rush in Syria Civil Defence was formed in early 2013 in response to the indiscriminate bombing and shelling of the civilian population. Starting as an informal group of 12 people, the organisation now counts 3,000 volunteers operating from 121 centres throughout Syria. Syria Civil Defence is a neutral, impartial and humanitarian organisation that does not pledge allegiance to any political par-
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ty or group. Its founding statement of principles defines its operations under Protocol 1 (Article 61) of the Geneva Conventions (1949) as being to protect the civilian population, to speed recovery and to provide for the conditions necessary for survival. It is said that when the bombs rain down, the White Helmets rush in. Indeed, the vast majority of Syria Civil Defence volunteers have been trained in search and rescue, and are on the ground soon after a bombing to pull people out of collapsed buildings, at great personal risk. They are not deterred by an ugly and increasingly used tactic of war — which is to bomb the same area twice
within an hour to kill those involved in rescuing the injured. Following this, they provide medical services, administer first aid, rush the injured to relative safety, and engage in fire-fighting. Other volunteers teach children and adults on safety measures to take during aerial attacks, support in the provision of medical services to nearly 7 million people in the areas in which they operate, and manage the evacuation of the civilian population from areas into which fighting is encroaching. Yet others work on rebuilding bridges and reconnecting public electricity and water supplies. More than a hundred brave volunteers have lost their lives whilst attempting to save the lives of others.
To save one life is to save all of humanity In 2014, leaders of all units of Syria Civil Defence came together and wrote their articles of association. Their work is guided by the inherent dignity of human life, and they have adopted a motto drawn from a verse in the Quran that states: “to save one life is to save all of humanity”. The volunteers save people on all sides of the conflict and pledge commitment to the principles of humanity, solidarity and impartiality. In October 2014, Syria Civil Defence elected Raed al Salah, born in 1983, as Director. There is a small, professional national executive staff that runs the
operational and administrative affairs of the organisation from the Syria Civil Defence headquarters in Sarmada, Syria and a support office in Gaziantep, Turkey. At present, Syria Civil Defence is not permitted to operate in government-controlled areas of Syria. While they are mainly present in areas controlled by the opposition, they have also operated in certain areas in Syria held by the so-called Islamic State without compromising on their principles. Their vision is to work everywhere in Syria. The first women’s teams of Syria Civil Defence volunteers were formed in October 2014. Often, in Syria’s most conservative communities, they are the only hope for women or girls who are trapped under the rubble to be rescued. Today, these teams
have earned the trust of their communities, in which they now play an indispensable part. The human tragedy of the Syrian civil war Against the backdrop of unprecedented and unspeakable violence against civilians, Syria Civil Defence’s humanitarian work and deep commitment to humanity provides a beacon of hope and demonstrates civilian solidarity and courage. The White Helmets represent ordinary Syrians who want peace and security. Their work has drawn desperately-needed attention to the plight of civilians, including many children, caught up in the fighting and living in residential areas where barrel bombs and mortars
fall indiscriminately on their homes. Syria Civil Defence has repeatedly called on the United Nations to take immediate measures to protect Syrian civilians, through the imposition of a ‘no-fly zone’ under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, if necessary. Additionally, it has repeatedly raised the alarm over deliberate targeting of civilians at the United Nations and other international fora. When peace takes root in Syria, Syria Civil Defence is expected to assume a key role in the generational task of rebuilding their country for which they have all the skills, tools and community support. •
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INTERVIEW WITH WHITE HELMET VOLUNTEER MOHAMMAD SHUMEIR
Mohammad Shamir tells us about the scene that affect him the most: “A little girl screaming: ‘Sir, I am alive. Alive, please help me.’ "People’s blood spilled in a farmers’ market after barrel bombs were dropped on the market in Al-Rastan. Our team responded quickly to start the search and rescue operations. There was blood flowing everywhere and scattered body parts. Large pieces of cement were blocking the streets, power lines everywhere, destroyed cars, mothers’ screams for their children and children screaming for their families. There was chaos everywhere. Everyone was scared and nervous. A massacre has just been committed with tens of civilian casualties. "I heard the voice of a little girl crying hard; she could not move on one of the market’s sidewalks. I got closer to her. She was looking with great sadness and appeal for help, as if her teary eyes were telling me ‘I am here. I am here.’ "I stopped the bleeding of her wound, supporting a break in her right foot in preparation of transferring her to one of the city hospitals to get her operated on as soon as possible. "People were still searching for their dead or missing relatives. Everyone was at loss amid the dismal scene. We continued our work until just before sunset. "We went back home in the evening, where I was surprised to see pictures of the little girl, Hayat
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“I worked as a first responder in a hospital before the Revolution. The conditions surrounding my work completely changed after joining the SCD teams in Homs. Now, I perform first aid procedures either on a pile of rubble or underneath them after aerial bombardment.”
It is true what they say (means ‘Life’ in Arabic), whom I had helped earlier – it was an announcement of her death. I could not believe the news, because she was fine and her injury had not been a life-threatening one. I headed to the hospital, where I saw her alive and well, after making it through a successful operation. I could not wait till the morning to tell Hayat’s parents that she was fine, so I hurried to her house where I found her mother crying for her daughter, whom she thought was dead. I told her right away that she is healthy and waiting for her in the hospital. Her mother accompanied me to the hospital, and after being sure of her daughter’s health, she looked at me and said words I will never forget: ‘Thank you, Mohammad. It is true what they say, that you are the searchers for lives among the rubble’.”
Peals Of Wisdom Featuring a story by member Diana Yates
By Diana Yates March 25th, 2014
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Peals of Wisdom is a non profit touring ensemble of multicultural storytellers transform life experience into narrative. Rooted in the ancient tradition of storytelling, these urban folk artists weave compassionate, often humorous, sometimes emotional and inspiring tales from New York’s diverse cultural heritages. Their stories bring history to life for listeners of all ages, illuminating not just their individual pasts but our collective experience. Their lively, spirited, interactive, and authentic presentations not only promote the tradition of elder folk art stories but also inspire audience participants to share stories of their own. Performing solo or in pairs, the Pearls travel to a range of community based sites, including senior centers, settlement houses, libraries, school assemblies, parks, and other neighborhood and cultural institutions exposing these communities to the art of personal storytelling. Their performances are a great way to foster discussion around awareness months such as Black History Month, Women’s History Month, and Older America’s Month. The Highline, the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, and the New York Restoration Project. Additionally, they have presented at dozens of assemblies and classroom settings in schools around the city. In this article we are featuring a story by one of our members Diana Yates call the Warm Business Hello, my name is Diana Yates and I was born and raised in a small town called Keego Harbor in the state of Michigan. You know the state that looks like a mitten It is surrounded by the Great Lakes and it’s dotted with thousands of Lakes within the state’s borders. I have a brother Billy who is 2 years older than I am and a cousin Faye who was born right between Billy and I. We three kids did everything together. We were the 3 Musketeers! You know how kids like to
have their own money so they can buy things like candy on their own? They want to do everything by themselves. Maybe you wanted to make your own money when you were a kid too. Back when I was a kid it wasn’t easy coming up with ideas and the money usually ended up as coins not dollar bills. Maybe you set up a lemonade stand “Lemonade for 25 cents Miss.” Or maybe you decided to possibly you helped a neighbor by shoveling snow over the winter You’d do almost anything to get some cash in your pocket. Well the 3 Musketeers didn’t do any of that – NO - we were entrepreneurs and we decided to be WORM PICKERS. You heard me correctly W-0-R-M-S, wiggly, squiggly, slimy worms. In Faye’s back yard we helped create a compost pile of leaves, plants, twigs, coffee grounds, and other kitchen food scraps. You can just imagine how fragrant the pile would get come summer time. If you know anything about worms, you might also know that they love compost piles and they grow nice and big. This was no weeny compost pile either....it was at least 20ft by 20 ft. Billy and I grew up on Sylvan Lake while Faye lived on Cass Lake on the other side of town between was a small lake that was connected by a canal. During the spring and summer the 3 of us would dig some worms from the pile and head to THE END. That was what we called where the canal met the big lake. We’d grab our bamboo poles with hooks, lines, bobbers sinkers and walk to The End. When we got to The End we’d head out on the dock. I placed my pole on the ground and flopped down on my belly, peering into the water with my arms stretched out, moving my head side to side looking in down. “Think we’ll catch anything today Billy?” “It doesn’t matter much as the fish here ate all too
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small to eat. They’re only little sunfish, besides we’re just here for the fun of it.” Said Billy. I stood up and tried to bait my hook. The warms would just get more and more wiggly the harder I tried. Finally, after making a big mess I held my pole out in front of me and asked Billy to help me. No soon had I put my freshly batted in the the water then I felt a tug. “I got one” I shouted. While looking at the small fish I had caught I got an idea. “Billy” I shouted again Getting to our making money beginning at 8, 9, and 10 years old, we worked at this “JOB” until our early teens. I being the youngest one, the smallest one, and the laziest one, I to count the worms. We didn’t sell the worms directly to the fishermen, we sold our worms to the WORM LADY! She lived on a curve in the road right between Sylvan Lake Cass Lake and she sold them to the fishermen who went out on both lakes. She actually raised worms from eggs but as the season progressed and the weather was good, she’d run out of her own and she would call us.
into the basket on the front of one of our bikes and the 3 of us would ride them to the Worm Lady’s house to get our 3-dollar payday. One time before we left her house she asked us to include more nightcrawlers into the mix. Now I don’t know if you know the difference between regular earthworms and nightcrawlers but worms can stretch out to about 5-6 inches and are pencil thin. A night crawler can stretch up to 12 inches in length and be as fat as your thumb. When we got home that day and talked to our parents about what the Worm Lady wanted, we decided to call her. Billy volunteered to be our advocate:
Back at Faye’s house, my Aunt Rosie would watch us. She was a very large woman at 400 pounds and she had what they called an “elephantine leg”. That meant that the size of one of her legs was 3 times the size of her normal one. She didn’t get around very well so she would sit upstairs in the bedroom window overlooking the compost pile and picnic table where I did the counting. She would read to us from the encyclopedia. I can remember specifically hearing about the Presidents of the United States and to this day I KNOW that Thomas Jefferson, our 3rd President, was the first one to be inaugurated in Washington DC. George Washington was in New York and John Adams was inaugurated in Philadelphia, PA.
We won’t be delivering any more warms until you pay what they’re worth.
The Worm Lady would pay us 30 cents for every hundred warms we got. That doesn’t sound like much money compared to what people can make nowadays but for kids back in the 1950’s, it seemed like a fortune. So Billy, Faye and I would go to our compost pile with shovels and empty coffee cans. As Billy and Faye dug the worms, I’d collect them and count 1..2..3.. From a small can to a larger one. Until I reached 1,000. After we were done for that day, we’d put the can covered with fresh dirt
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“Hello, this is Billy Yates and we decided we’d include more nightcrawlers in your order, but you need to pay us more. You’ll think about it? Ok but we won’t be delivering any more warms until you pay what they’re worth. Goodbye for now.” After 1, 2, 3 weeks of NO worms, the Worm Lady decided 50 cents per hundred would be OK to pay. We agreed and went back to business. Our little STRIKE worked!! BUT I have to let you in on a little secret... as the counter of worms I would count out 6 warms before reaching for a nightcrawler. I made sure we shorted her on the total count of worms so we would really get paid the best price for the nightcrawlers.
I guess Aunt Rosie couldn’t stand the thought of our earnings just going to buy penny candy like Necco Wafers, Chum Gum, Squirrels, MaryJanes, Jawbreakers, and Wax Lips. She wanted us to be educated at the same time! To be truthful, we didn’t only spend our money on candy. But we also paid our way into the movies and bought our own popcorn at the local theater. But our biggest item we managed to save up for was to buy our own tickets to get into the Michigan State Fair. It cost 6 dollars per person and our parents were so proud of us. And the Worm Lady... never ran out of worms as long as she continued to pay us fairly for an honest day’s work.
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CREATIVE FREEDOM
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Just Relax
By Interview by Ché Saitta-Zelterman With Designer Kelly Thorn Noverber 20th, 2016
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Che: What was it like to leave your fulltime job to start your freelance career? Kelly: So I've also interned for Hallmark they have a production department, an HR department they have everything set up so all you need to do is draw. So when I was working for Louise Fili Ltd. It is a really small studio so, you had to do everything yourself. At Louise Fili you had to be in direct contact with the client and do everything the client needed. After some time I basically I got to the point where I felt like I can do this myself. And why would I work for someone else? When I could choose my own way and my own clients. I meet Spencer, my husband and design partner, at Louise Fili. He left Louise Fili a year before me to start his freelance career. So it was easier for me to start working for myself because he had already done it. While we were dating and planning on getting married we were also planning on having our own businesses. So, I knew that I was going to do it eventually and once I got the balls to do it. It was hard to end that chapter of my life especially because I was really happy working for Louise Fili, but I am glad I did it. But I didn't just go from working for Louise to then working for myself, I was always working on building my freelance career, working like a crazy person every night to get enough clients to have the ability to leave.
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Che: What is it like being an artist with a social media following? Kelly: So I think with something like Instagram and Facebook we've been dealing with this online society for a while, it's about showing your best self off. With Jelly Thorn (her personal Instagram) and I feel less stressed about being a doof on my own person my account because I have my business account, so I can be who ever the fuck I want to be on my personal account. I often feel as far as the personal branding goes, because there are so many designers and illustrators out there if they aren't being genuine or true to who they actually are you can tell. It gets really easy to tell that they are being fake fucker, like do you really wont me to believe that you drink that fancy coffee everyday. Some people are just obviously trying really hard to like create something and it gets to the point where you're like just relax, go live your life man. Yeah man yeah. So yeah you can judge people for that but at the same time I totally understand where it's coming from. Because there is totally is this weird unnatural pressure to be creating work and to be really cool. To be someone who does interesting things all the time. You have to be cool not just at parties or work, you have to be cool like all the fucking time. So yeah I think that pressure causes a very unnatural and very complicated relationship, as you can see, with social media. I'm sure everyone does. It's just like it's a necessary evil. It's pretty gross. But it has gotten me a lot of work. So what can I say Che: How do you separate your art for yourself from art for work? Kelly: I'm working on it. I sated doing stick and pokes and I also started doing embroidery. Doing these things helped me developed an illustration style I don't really use in my design work, which is really freeing because it just for me I don't have to worry about that client. Finding a good work life balance is still in progress for me. But yeah, doing things that other people may see as hobbies but they're still very fulfilling to me like stick and pokes, embroidery and keeping a sketch book. Che: What is your favorite thing to do in the city? Kelly: I just wanted to go by into my apt and hide in my bed, so it took me a while to actually appreciate the city. But now I feel like I've hit a stride in my work life balance and I make sure that I spend my free time well and not just sit around the apartment like I used to. The designer George Lois goes to the MET every Sunday and that is like his church. I like the act of going to the same place every week and then using this scheduled visit to reset your brain to mark the end of the old week and to welcome the new week, instead of letting it blend all together. So this was something that I want to start doing. Actually I did it Yesterday and I really enjoyed it. And yes I guess my favorite thing to do is to go to museums which sounds really not fun.....I am wild person hahah . Che: What is your favorite thing to do in the city? Kelly: I would learn how to read music.
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Don’t be a Schmuck
By Interview by Ché Saitta-Zelterman With Ilustrator & Auther Rachel Ignotofsky January 9th, 2017
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What would you do on your perfect day off? Sleep in really late, go out and see something pretty at the zoo or a museum, dinner party then go out dancing. Just a total day of fun with friends. How do you manage your time? How do you separate work life from personal life? I know you are a workaholic so it must be hard. for better or worse, I don't really separate work life and personal. I joke a lot about being my own boss, and that it means that I am always hanging out with the boss. As an author and illustrator, I dedicate my time to only self motivated projects about topics that I am super interested in. So the switch never goes off. I am always thinking about the next idea and the million "to-do's" I am going to have to do by the end of the week/month/year to make sure that the ideas I am excited about become a reality. Managing time though has become easier. It is very important to me to do work that promotes education, scientific literacy and feminism. So a big part of making sure I get to do the work I love is by being selective with my time, and sometimes that means saying no, so I can say yes to projects I am really excited about.
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How do you relax? Travel. The really only way I can feel completely refresh and recharged is by taking a vacation away from where I live and my desk for a long weekend, I usually go somewhere with a beach, because when you live in the Midwest the ocean is literally the most awesome thing ever. What was the thing you were most worried about when you quit your day job to start your freelance career? I think it is the stuff most people get worried about when going off on their own. Health care, sustainability. In the end you just have to take a risk on yourself and trust that everything works out. Also if you don't take a chance on yourself, then what's the point? What made you interested in creating kids books, in particular books for girls? I always wanted to make books, ever since I was a teenager. I have a lot of friends who are teachers and I kept saying them that there weren't enough true stories about women being told in history class, and especially not in science class. I truly believe that the only way to fight gender bias is with real female role models. If you keep complaining about something and don't do something about it, you're kind of a schmuck and I was definitely being
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a schmuck. So I decided to use my skill set to help tell the stories of women throughout history who have contributed greatly to science. I hope by telling stories of women in underrepresented fields, we can help build a culture where gender roles don't limit our expectations of others. A large portion of your art is focused on education and specifically on empowering young girls, has the current political climate had an effect on you and your work? Having accessible educational materials has always been important to me. TV shows like Magic School Bus and books like World Famous Artist allowed me to gain a love of learning from an early age. I am proud to be able to make books that inspire young kids to want to learn more about the world around them. Having an educated public shouldn't be a political issue but it is. I am going to continue to make sure that I create work that promotes scientific literacy and gender equality.
Do you think artist should and do play a role in educating the public on social and political issues? I think whatever your skill set is, what you are passionate about should be used for social good. Everyone should think about what they love to do, and how they can use that to make the world a
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