Tuesday, March 14
Monday, March 13
Africa Takes Action
Demonstrators at the COP27 climate summit on Novmber 15, 2022, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. A new climate financing mechanism for Africa, by Africa could reduce the continent's dependence on the West to deliver on its promises. [Peter Dejong/AP Photo)
Failure can, at times, inspire wins. Just ask Africa.
The recently concluded COP27 global climate talks witnessed the continent triumph over a status quo of consistent failed promises of $100bn in climate financing from rich nations.
The launch of the African Climate Risk Facility – a $14bn local, market-based funding tool to help African countries increase the resilience of their vulnerable communities – is a wake-up call for a world frustrated by the hollow commitments of wealthy countries. The financing is a climate solution designed by Africa, for Africa, to support losses and damage (L&D in climate negotiations jargon) caused by climate change. And it should serve as an example to Asia.
Of course, COP27 did eventually reach a historic agreement to set up an L&D fund. But the developing world is used to hearing big promises that never see the light of day. The $100bn in climate financing was supposed to reach poorer nations by 2020. That year has passed, and the figure has since become irrelevant. Pakistan alone requires more than $30bn to recover from just the direct losses caused by this year’s catastrophic floods.
Why should the new loss and damage fund prove any different? At the moment, it is an empty account. Who will contribute what is yet to be decided. It took the United Nations-sponsored COP process more than a decade and thousands of natural disasters to agree on establishing the fund, so one can only imagine how much loss and damage climate-vulnerable countries will have to bear before the money begins to flow.
There’s another risk too. By establishing an L&D fund while omitting language on phasing out fossil fuels, COP27 has come dangerously close to allowing rich countries to damage the planet as much as they please as long as they promise to pay for it after the fact. READ MORE...
On Being What I Think is a Good Teacher
For me, teaching was not developing a lecture and reading from notes, or using a powerpoint slide presentation and talk about the points on each slide... NO... my teaching revolved around the best ways to get student to retain knowledge.
The number one way for students to retain informatin is by teaching that information to other members of the class.
The second best way is for students to learn by doing... and in that process "Hands On" is perhaps the ideal way but not everything is hands on... so, I would create projects that the students would have to work on either indivdually or as a group and then present the findings of the project to the rest of the class. The presentation was a form of teaching.
In most every group project there will always be one or two who try and let the other members do all the work. So, part of that problem was solved by having everyone included in the presentation... but, I also had each team member grade the performance of all the other members and used those result as a % of their overall group project grade. So, the team could get an "A" but individuals might not end up with and "A" because they did not contribute.
I also required the team and each team member to make status reports about the project for a grade and to make sure the team was on the right track.
There were no final exams in my class because student memorize for the exam and forget. That serves no purpose. My final exam was the project report, project results, and the project presentation. I also required the other teams to ask questions (also for a grade) to see how the team would respond to those questions (also for a grade).
When a student taught a concept, they were graded on their presentation skills, their use of handouts, their ability to involve the class, a class exercise, how well they used the material in the textbook, and how much outside information they brought in that was not included in the textbook. There was a minimum and a maximum amount of time and they were graded on how well they operated within that range of time.
Class participation was graded to show that you had read the chapter(s) or that you were listening enough to ask a question or offer an opinion.
I gave teams time to prepare on their projects in class rather than try to meet outside of class. AND... I never kept the students in class unless there was something for us to do just to make sure that the class lasted a specific amount of time. Sometimes, we missed breaks because of a discussion and sometimes we went past the end of class time because of a discussion.
If someone was late to class, I would not repeat what they had missed. I expected their team members to bring that person up to speed at the break. In a 4 hour class, I would have a 30 minute break after 90 minutes... another 90 minutes and they could leave unless there was something to do.
My students could eat and drink in class and could leave for the restroom anytime they wanted or needed or if they got a phone call. I encouraged them to use their cell phones and laptops to make sure that I was telling them the truth or do a Google search to add something to the class discussion.
Profanity was not allowed unless it was being used as an appropriate adjective to make a strong point. Some people like to talk dirty just to be talking dirty and that was not allowed as it would not be allowed in business or industry.
Finally, family always came first so if you had a problem and needed to leave early, I would bend over backwards to fill you in myself as to what you might have missed. I handled sickness or prearranged vacations the same way. I was trying to teach respect for each other.
Until It Feels The Pain
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| [Patrick Gathara/Al Jazeera] |
If there is anything that has been true in the history of the world, it is that states, and especially Western states, rarely if ever act out of a sense of moral compulsion, when such acts could impose hardships back home. Look at the rhetoric around support for Ukraine following the Russian invasion as an example.
While the conflict has been presented in starkly moralistic terms, as the West helping brave Ukraine stand up to Russian bullies, it has been clear that moralism can be quickly discarded in the face of discomfort for their citizens. The prospect of cold European homes and high prices motivated the European Union to leave a myriad of loopholes in its sanctions to allow for the flow of Russian gas and oil to continue. When Russian gas was cut off, European governments did not hesitate to reach out to various fossil fuel-rich autocrats they otherwise regularly criticise for their dismal human rights record.
As Africans learned long ago during the Cold War, global powers are more than happy to wage supposed wars of principle on other peoples’ lands, sacrificing other peoples’ welfare but not their own.
The same dynamic is evident in the narratives and proposals that were tabled at the latest United Nations Climate Change Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Lots of the talk was about helping the unfortunately-situated “Global South” cope with the ravages of extreme weather events such as droughts and floods, and helping them transition into greener sources of energy.
Like during the Cold War, the West is actively theatre-shopping, recruiting countries to serve as arenas for its climate fight. Switzerland, for example, plans to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, not by actually reducing them, which might require inconveniencing its citizens, but by paying countries like Ghana to reduce its emissions and give it credit.
The idea would be for the Swiss government to pay for efficient lighting and cleaner stoves to be installed in Ghanaian households and claim the resulting reduction in emissions as its own. Switzerland is not the only Western nation to use such carbon-offsetting schemes, which displace climate action from rich polluting nations and frame poorer nations that have contributed little to the crisis as the ones that need to change the most. READ MORE...
Sunday, March 12
Advice From the Frog's Advisor
As the Frog's Advisor, I am obliged to share the Frog's sentiments with you whether I personally agree with them or not. In fact, if I ever disagreed with the Frog's sentiments, I would never share those disagreements with you, the reader... this is just the way it has to be.
I am sure by now you have heard of this bank failure in the Silicon Valley... it was the 16th largest bank in the USA... the Silicon Valley is home to Apple, Facebook, and Google plus numerous technology companies and is located near Stanford University for whatever that's worth.
This bank failure could be a precursor to a Stock Market decline that also might turn our weak economy upside down, create supply shortages, and increase inflation. Or, it just might be a blip in the data and our economy keeps on rolling along like a 1960s western.
Are you prepared for an economic downturn?
Do you have the ability to move back in with your parents? Or, maybe you never left...
If you don't watch the news let me suggest that you do watch the news... and in so doing, do not rely on accuracy from just one network... as misinformation is all around us.
Misinformation is out there in the hopes that it can convince you of another truth... a truth that is not so horrible... not so realistic... not so worrisome...
Some networks are not reporting on the illegal immigration that is taking place on our Southern Borders because they do not want you to worry... They don't want you to know that tons of illegal drugs are coming into the USA every month. They don't want you to know that Middle East Terrorists are entering this country at the Southern Borders... because they do not want you to worry about that stuff.
If you don't know the truth, then you will not worry. If you begin to worry then you might think that the government is not doing its job right... therefore, it is best to keep you ignorant and misinformed...
It is like your supervisor telling you all year that you are doing a great job... and, then a week or two before Christmas, you are told that you are being laid off... You are completely caught off guard... and that was intention... You were fed misinformation all year long, so that you would not worry and talk to other employees about your concerns...
Advice From the Frog
There was a time when living in the USA was enjoyable... full of love, appeciation, kindness, appreciation, tolerance, compromise, and faith...
For me, those days were back in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s...
When the 1980s began, the Democratic Party was changing and while Jimmy Carter was one of the nicest Presidents we ever had, he did not do a very good job.
Ronald Reagan won the election and I thought the USA was going to hell in a handbag when a frigging actor became President.
Richard Nixon was President from 1969 to 1974 when he resigned... but, his legacy would forever damage the Republican Party... or so I thought...
What happened was that the Democrats took over all the dirty tricks and spent the next 40 years, perfecting how to play DIRTY POLITICS...
Donald Trump's Presidential win in 2016 completely blindsided the Democratic Party... caught them by surprise... and for four years they did everything in their power to DESTROY TRUMP, his supporters, and his legacy... along with the Republican Party... saying that the GOP was a threat to Democracry when in reality the Democratic Party was the real threat...
Since 2016, I have learned that whatever the Democrats accused the GOP of doing, they are the ones that are actually doing it, not the GOP... this is how bad it has gotten.
It is imipossible to have a DEMOCRACY if one voice is SILENCED... this is exactly what the Democrats want to do... silence or censor the Republicans... and if that happens, we will have a Democratic Party GOVERNMENT not a Democracy...
A Democracy can only take place if there are two parties debating what is best for the country and finding a way to compromise... this my friends has not happened since JFK was President back in the 1960s...
If you don't pay attention to history, then you have no idea what I am saying...
My Advice is to understand that history will repeat itself if you are not aware of the past...
Learning from Failures
I have looked at the data for this blog and there might be 30+ hits on one day and the next 2 days, there is only a handful of hits... is this an indication of successes and failures with what I post or just the normal cycle for my type of blog. My stories, fillers, and opinions have not really changed. There is nothing to learn from this data other than it is consistently inconsistent. Therefore, it is not considered to be a success or a failure... it is the middle of the bell shaped curved.
Successes and Failures are the two tails of the bell shaped curve and therefore don't happen much but they do happen.
Many people fail and use that failure as an indication that their lives are not ever going to get any better... If you believe that and continue to believe that, then the odds are you will never succeed.
However, others take that failure and say FY, I am going to try again and again and again... because I know that I am right... eventually you will succeed... but that road is not easy to walk and too many people quit... but, those with the personality and the determination will eventually succeed and mentally benefit from that struggle.
During one of my first places of employment, I was directing and managing an arts council. The idea was to create programs that would interest people attend the activity and pay a membership fee to keep these activities continuing. I created several programs each month. Some of these programs were successful others were not. Some months were successful others were not. I never gave up.
That single minded determination was helpful in my next job designing and selling training programs to industry... I encountered the same results and that knowledge was useful in my next position where I was promoting a center for quality and productivity training.
Not everyone was interested in my ideas, but others were interested which allowed me to be successful... However, if I had allowed the experiences from my first job to cloud my judgement and give up... all those other things in my life would have never happened.
Easier to Control
Sometimes I am right... Sometimes I am wrong... but, I am never silent on any matter of importance... however some matters just aren't worth talking about like should trans males play female sports... if we were meant to fly we would have been given wings...
Right now, it seems the liberals have their heads up their asses with some of the ideas they are proposing like not having any advanced placement classes for students because it will hurt the feelings of those that are stupid. The problem with that logic is that the stupid will still be stupid for the rest of their lives... whereas the gifted student will simply get smarter...
If you cannot swim then why did you get into the water???
But, the issue that really makes me concerned and nobody is talking about it and that is... WHY DO SO MANY AMERICANS NEED TO BUY ILLEGAL DRUGS???
All we want to talk about is the quantity of illegal drugs that is coming past our borders and the quantity seems to be increasing...
It does not take a brain surgeon to figure out that if the quantity is increasing the the people desire/need to want those drugs are increasing. If you stop the drugs, the desire/need is still going to be there...
This is a huge problem in the US of A and the Chinese see that problem and are shipping us more and more drugs. Ever wonder WHY???
Here is my theory...
- Stupid people are easier to control
- Drugged up people are easier to control
- People needing government support are easier to control
- Retired people are easier to control
- Divided people are easier to control
- Censored people are easier to control
- Poor people are easier to control
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