Notations From the Grid (Special Thursday Edition ): On #Iran

 

As we noted historic developments earlier with the signing of the Abraham Accords, there has been a lot going on in Iran.

Iran executed a championship wrestler, Navid Afkari, in spite of pleadings for mercy from throughout the World.   This is as the leading Iranian Civil Rights Lawyer, Nasrin Soutodeh, continues her hunger strike and another one of the leading activists, Mohammad Nourizad, is in poor health based on the report we received from his wife.    Our team is continuing to assess it all as we leave all with a sense of the true realities in Iran right now:

Reza Pahlavi, the Son of the Late Shah of Iran, released an editorial for the Wall Street Journal regarding Navid Afkari:

 

Notations On Our World (Thursday Edition): Out & About re #CoronaVirus & Other Thoughts

Exhausted Iranian Health Workers at the forefront of the Virus 

The World has been gearing up to fight the Corona Virus.    As we went to press, the US House of Representatives passed a 8.9 Billion Dollar Package that was slated to be voted by the US Senate and subsequent signature by President Trump.  Italy was dealing with a crisis as it closed out schools and Universities.  Iran continued to be the epic center in the MENA (Middle East/North Africa Region) as this from the indivisible provided guidance on the view of the funding bill passed by the US House of Representatives:

We know it’s been a tough week, but we have some good news to report: Earlier today we got word that all three of our asks were included in the bipartisan emergency funding bill to address the coronavirus outbreak. You can read NPR’s coverage of the bill by clicking here.  Getting all three asks means the bill has no money for DHS, includes transfer restrictions to keep Trump from stealing money for bad things (like his wall, immigration enforcement, etc.), and that there's language to help ensure that the treatment or vaccine is affordable and accessible to everyone, not just the wealthy.  Indivisibles helped make this happen by calling your members of Congress and demanding that the bill stayed clean, included a strong public health response, and didn’t exacerbate harm to vulnerable communities. As a movement, we can be really proud that we put forward an intersectional analysis that blended democracy, immigration, and healthcare; organized with coalitions, and quickly used pressure to elevate our asks.  While it’s important that we celebrate this win, we also have to face the fact that the coronavirus is spreading and that Congress still has to vote on this bill, and the Trump Administration has to implement it. Here’s what we’ll be watching for elected officials to do in the next few days:  Making sure that the supplemental funding bill is passed and signed quickly so that we can immediately address the outbreak and help those impacted. Ensuring that test kits are readily available for healthcare workers. Click here to read about how the Trump Administration only has 2500 test kits (!!). Demanding that the Trump Administration doesn’t suppress information in an effort to claim that the virus is contained. Read about how the Trump administration has tried to hide the impact of the virus. Overall, we urge you, your friends and neighbors, and every elected official to listen to medical professionals for your news and action items, not the Trump reelection campaign. You can find our coronavirus resource here -- we’ll be updating it frequently as our asks change, so stay tuned for that. On a more individual note, take care, wash your hands frequently, and try to stay home when you’re feeling ill if your job and finances allow it. Click here to read more about the coronavirus, including how to prevent and treat the illness.  Iran claimed that it approved the furlough of 54,000 prisoners although we received this on the detention of a leading Iranian Filmmaker and the continued profound challenges faced by Iranian Filmmakers as the corona virus rages on in Iran:  Amid Coronavirus Outbreak, Renowned Filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof Summoned to Prison https://iranhumanrights.org/2020/03/amid-coronavirus-outbreak-renowned-filmmaker-mohammad-rasoulof-summoned-to-prison/ Rasoulof’s Film About Iran’s Death Penalty Recently Won Top Prize at Berlin Film Festival  March 4, 2020 – The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) strongly condemns the Iranian judiciary’s decision to put internationally acclaimed filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof in harm’s way by summoning him to prison when thousands of prisoners are being released to prevent coronavirus transmissions. “Yet again we’re witnessing the cruel lengths judicial officials will go to stifle peaceful criticism of state policies,” said CHRI Executive Director Hadi Ghaemi. “Filmmakers and free speech advocates everywhere should loudly call for this absurd sentence to be rescinded.” “Making films shouldn’t be a life-endangering act,” he added. “This case is about the state’s ongoing efforts to criminalize freedom of expression and a filmmaker’s courageous attempts to challenge them.” Rasoulof was summoned to Tehran’s Evin Prison to serve a one-year prison sentence for the content of his films via text message, his lawyer told the Associated Press. In July 2019, Rasoulof informed CHRI that he had been charged with “propaganda against the state” for the content of his films. Rasoulof was summoned less than a week after his film “There is No Evil,” about Iran’s death penalty policy, won the top prize at the Berinale – Berlin International Film Festival. He was unable to attend the award ceremony because the judiciary has banned him from traveling abroad, but discussed his film with the festival's organizers via a video interview. Filmmakers in Iran face enormous pressure from the Iranian government to refrain from producing films that challenge or criticize state policies. The Iranian judiciary has a documented history of punishing filmmakers who have resisted that pressure. Several Iranian directors have been sentenced to prison and seen their films banned in Iran after refusing to toe state lines. In November 2019, more than 200 members of the country's film industry signed an open letter condemning state censorship policies. “All these restrictions and obstacles have not only prevented Iranian films from shining internationally, but also eroded their domestic audience,” said the letter. “We express our disgust toward all policies that interfere in the form and content of our work and demand freedom of expression and thought.” As part of our commitment to be supportive in this war on the #CoronaVirus, please note this guidance courtesy the team at eHealth: Coronavirus FAQ: What You Need to Know What is the coronavirus (COVID-19), and how does it spread? Read our FAQ to understand symptoms, confirmed cases, and more. Continue reading

On a Quite a Year at the Daily Outsider....

It has been quite a year at The Daily Outsider as we celebrated a year of achievement and milestones.  We purposefully decided to headline it as "The Year in Hope" that we captured from the Obama Foundation simply to underscore a sense of hope that we had about our initiatives and our roadmap for the future.     As we reflected upon the year, we hope all enjoyed our selection of one of our favorite artists, Cold Play in line with a tradition we had to periodically feature our "Artist of the Week".   2019 saw us go through a first phase of a rebranding & transformation process that saw us launch the Perspectives, Education and Visions Initiative as the Ordinary Faces initiative went through a facelift.  We also worked on laying out a transformation of our platforms.    Being named as a Google News Initiative and continuing the close collaboration with SuiteBriar and Google was among some of the achievements that we look forward to building on the 6321 published pieces we have done throughout our platforms. 2019 saw us continuing our engagement on Social Media with our Medium Corner, our Twitter Corner, periodic curation at our Facebook Corner which is an area we believe we can continue to build upon in the new year.    This is as we continued our engagements and worked to also be more focused with being a focused aggregator of the information at hand as we identified some key partners to feature including the Visual Capitalist.     We hereby present the following courtesy of the Visual Capitalist on 2019: Our Top 19 Infographics of 2019 A countdown of our top infographics from 2019, including some of our most viewed graphics and other hand-picked entries from our staff. 10 Insights Into How Global Business is Changing Every day, global trends are reshaping society and business. Here are 10 insights into how the world is changing—and where we are heading. The 20 Best-Performing Stocks of the Decade This graphic reveals the best-performing stocks over the last 10 years, and shows how much an initial $100 investment would be worth today. Breaking the Ice: Mapping a Changing Arctic The Arctic is changing. As shrinking ice cover makes this region more accessible, nations with Arctic real estate are exploring economic opportunities. The Habits of Highly Effective Leaders This infographic delves into what it takes to become an effective leader, and how those qualities can impact a company—beyond employee satisfaction. : We also continue our Social Good Efforts that culminated in the launch of the Esparanza Platform that has featured guidance from the US Federal Emergency Management Agency which we hope we can build upon as we gear up to be supportive of the MLK Day National day of Service in January 2020 and the Global Volunteer Month sponsored by the Points of Light Foundation later on in April 2020--and Climate Advocacy.    We hereby note this courtesy of the team at the Points of Light Foundation: Coming Soon: Global Volunteer Month  At Points of Light, recognizing individuals and organizations that are creating change in their communities is an important part of our mission. As we work to build a global culture of volunteering, we are excited to share plans for and invite you to join us for a new celebration of volunteer service in communities around the world: Global Volunteer Month. Taking place in April, Global Volunteer Month will be an opportunity to celebrate the impact of volunteer service and the power of volunteers to tackle society’s greatest challenges, to build stronger, more vibrant communities, and take action that changes the world. Learn More >> This was also a year of danger and challenges for Journalists around the World.   What was noted below courtesy of the Committee to Protect Journalists was of profound concern--As we went to press, Al Jazeera's Mahmoud Hussein had spent his 3rd Year in Prison in Egypt without a charge and Five Saudis were sentenced to death for the murder of Jamal Khashoogi:

This week, CPJ released its 2019 prison census, finding that China, Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia are the worst jailers of journalists worldwide. For the fourth consecutive year, at least 250 journalists are imprisoned globally. While the majority face anti-state charges, the number charged with “false news” rose to 30 compared with 28 last year. See more findings in this video. The report is available in nine languages: English, Français, Español, Portuguȇs, فارسی, Русский, Türkçe, العربية, 中文. CPJ will release two additional reports this month: “One Country, One Censor,” on Chinese influence in Hong Kong and Taiwan, will be published Monday December 16, and our annual report on journalists killed in relation to their work will be published on Wednesday, December 18. CPJ’s prison census was accompanied by several blog posts: Iranian journalist imprisoned, fired, and forced into exile over a single word ‘I could be jailed at any moment’: Turkish editor in limbo over terms of prison release For the sake of press freedom, Julian Assange must be defended Nigeria and Ethiopia jail activist-journalists amid crackdown on free expression Our team was also quite busy assessing on-going developments throughout the Middle East with a special focus on Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.   Iran saw its' biggest uprising that saw mass demonstrations in over 200 cities and 28 of the 31 provinces throughout Iran.   As we went to press, Reuters reported that some 1500 people had been killed.   The parents of one of the fallen, Pouya Bakhtiyari, called for all to join them at the graveside of their Son in the South of the Tehran at 2:00 PM Local Time on Thursday December 26--The 40th Day of his death.     We received reports that his parents were detained by Security Officials after his father refused Authorities' demands that he refrain from a public memorial for his Son.      The discourse our team captured during our assessment over social media was telling :  Uprisings in Iraq and Lebanon have continued.   This is as Syria began its' final assault on the remnants of the Opposition and Turkey began its' offensive after President Trump decided to withdraw.    There is also the matter of the impeachment of President Trump as the 2020 campaign was in full swing as the tossle continued between all the various political factions--In spite of the challenges, a Budget was passed, the new NAFTA (referred to as USMCA) was approved although many other bills were not taken up by the US Senate: Europe was also quite fascinating to be witness to as Britain finally figured out it wanted to be out of the European Union, Spain had a Government, protests in France continued, Greece stabilized and got a new Government.  It will be quite a year in Europe as the new leadership for the European Commission took charge. We have also had a special focus on China and India.   India was continuing to deal with major unrest in the aftermath of the passage of the Citizenship Law as the hold that the BJP had on power seemed to wither away as it lost 5 states.   Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister, was at the forefront of it all: World Modi’s enforcer unmoved by furious backlash to citizenship law Amit Shah is dedicated to transforming India into a Hindu nation DECEMBER 19, 2019 by Stephanie Findlay in New Delhi    China also continued its' assertive stance as the trade war with the United States continued.   As we went to press, China initiative cuts in Tariffs , hosted a summit with the leaders of Japan and South Korea and launched a new Aircraft Carrier--as it also announced aggressive plans for space exploration.     As we conclude our final thoughts for the year, we wanted to close out with one of our must reads on the future that can be possible--we agree with the ever eloquent Alan Murray on what Shideh Binah noted:

December 20, 2019 Good morning. Lots of good responses to my request for predictions for the next decade, with two issues predominating—the rapid advance of data and A.I., and the rapid deterioration of skills as a result. This from Doug Merritt, CEO of Splunk: “The world will be generating 175 zetabytes of data by 2025—10x the volume of data the world sees today. But the value of data remains trapped for most organizations. In the 2020s, I suspect that data will become a business imperative—organizations who embrace it will lead their markets, while organizations who don’t act on dark data will fall behind and falter.” IBM CEO Ginni Rometty wrote in with this thought: “When it comes to innovation, we see business leaders moving to the next chapter of using data as their most powerful source of competitive advantage. This includes scaling A.I. everywhere. …And, to enable it all, it means expanding the pathways through which students and professionals can build their skills—in what I’ve coined as ‘new collar’ jobs, where skills matter more than degrees.” And Insigniam founder Shideh Bina wrote this thoughtful response, with which I’m in full agreement: “More than any decade I can recall (in the six I have lived through), the next decade will be defined by how well we, as leaders, and as citizens, respond to challenges and threats to our foundational beliefs, structures and institutions. Will we respond with wisdom, courage, accountability and creativity to our climate, our political storms, our vast inequities, our soon-to-be obsolete skills base and our deeply engrained biases about each other and about how things “ought to be”? If we respond well we can turn these threats into glorious, transformative opportunities. If not, we will preside over tragedy. The transformation required to prevail also requires a transformation of ourselves as leaders and how we think and act. The decade has not been written, the pen is our hands.” Our mission is to use our pen to live up to Shideh Binah's admonition.    As we go dark throughout our platforms, we look forward to our continued journey of service in 2020 although our Twitter Corner will be updated and our live Broadcast Pod featuring SkyNews, We embrace the holidays with this performed during the Global Citizen Prize:

Seasons's Greetings from our team --Onward to 2020 with all its possibilities!! See you all next year!!