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Lie, cheat, cover up, bribes and corruption | Germany gets over-excited again by Mathew D. Rose
Tomorrow there is a state election in the German state of Hesse. The Greens are expected to do well, as was the case over two weeks ago in Bavaria. They are being hailed as Germany's leftist response to the ultra-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). Unfortunately it is not so. Progressive in enviromental and immigration policies, it is otherwise a neo-liberal party; A new hope to shatter the conservative, austerity driven, neo-liberal reign of Chancellor Merkel? Are we really seeing a leftist revival?
If there is one aspect that explains the Greens' current success, it is the fact that it has moved so far to the right that the party has become acceptable to rightist Christian Democratic Union (CDU) voters.
It was the Greens, together with the Social Democrats (SPD), who introduced brutal neo-liberalism (Hartz Concept, Agenda 2010) to Germany. Moreover, the Greens, the party of disarmament and peace, also voted for German military intervention in the ill-fated Afghan war. Since this right turn they have never looked back.
What about the others? Germany's crypto-fascists in Armani suits (FDP)? The centre-left party, Die Linke, are doing what Leftists do best, fighting among themselves. German media, which comes down hard on anything left, is lapping it up.
Now we shall have the German Greens. And even if the despised coalition of Christian Union and Social Democrats collapses, do not expect much change. Don't repeat the mistake of the Germans and get too excited. The EU is going nowhere – except maybe towards dissolution.
Read the full article @ braveneweurope.com
Meanwhile, Hartz IV has become a synonym for the class of non-working poor in Germany and is used as a prefix in multiple contexts (i.e. low-brow daytime television programmes are called "Hartz-4-TV" by critics). Some scientists see the wage depression in Germany fostered by the Agenda 2010 as one of the causes of the European debt crisis.
NOW AND HERE ON http://WWW.IOPSOCIETY.ORG
posted by I. Z. Nessuno-Raskolnikov
State of Hesse (Coat of arms)
Discussion 12 Comments
Who votes for the "Greens" chooses the adaptation to the conservative establishment plus ecology. The broadcasting goal of the neo-liberal mainstream media: LEFT=EVIL
Neoliberal! They're just assholes.
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for Sufficiency
This penultimate chapter provides an opportunity to step back and reorientate ourselves in relation to the global predicament that has both framed the analysis and shaped the alternative urban imaginary
we are developing in response. Let us recall that we are living in the urban age, an epoch in which homo urbanis is being challenged to undertake a Great Resettlement
on Earth, in this perilous Anthropocene
. As noted in the introduction, if this 'big picture' is lost sight of then our recommended modes of response might seem too drastic or radical. However, if the overlapping crises are seen without rose-tinted glasses, it should be clear that the conservatives who defend or merely tinker with the status quo are, in fact, the radicals—and dangerous ones at that. Unfortunately, that category of conservative politics today would include many in the mainstream environmental movement, who seem content to strive in futility to give capitalism
a 'green face'. In the previous chapter we unpacked our view that ever-deepening crisis
in the existing system
of global capitalism is the most likely spark for a paradigm shift both in the political economy of growth and its reflection in urban praxis and planning. Indeed, the back-casting narrative we presented was designed to invite reflection on how such a crisis
could be our best hope for providing the great disruption needed to shake homo urbanis awake. But we must not be seen to be romanticising or desiring crisis
like some dreamy-eyed optimists. In fact, the theory of change that is underlying our urban imaginary
is clearly based on a deep pessimism about the prospects of smoother and less disruptive modes of societal transformation. When the crisis
of capitalism
deepens—perhaps in the form of a new financial crisis
or a Second Great Depression
—the task will be to ensure that such destabilised conditions are used to advance progressive humanitarian and ecological ends rather than exploited to further entrench the austerity politics of neoliberalism. We recognise, of course, that the latter remains a real possibility, as did the arch-capitalist Milton Friedman (2002: xiv) who expressed the point in these terms: Only a crisis
– actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis
occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable.
After restating the essential contours of the global predicament, this chapter charts bold directions for structural
change that could facilitate the emergence of a new suburban economy of degrowth
. These constitute a program of wholesale eco-socialist transition
that is underpinned by the principles of justice, self-limitation, and ecological democracy. In short, the transition
is to the convivial, low energy, low speed society advocated nearly half a century ago by Ivan Illich
. The program measures range in scale from planetary to local, as radical change must come through reinforcing shifts at all levels. Although stated as general transformations, they will, in an urban age, be largely applied and realised in cities and closer human settlements. They provide the underlying structural
supports for transition
to the post-growth
suburbia that our book has flagged for human aspiration. Our position is that these policies are unlikely to initiate the degrowth
but instead will be the outcome of urban
social movements
—social forces that emerge out of crisis
or a series of
and which actively create the cultural consciousness that sees policies for degrowth
as both necessary and desirable. It is through crisis
that we see comfortable suburban middle classes becoming sufficiently perturbed such that the sedative and depoliticising effects of affluence might be overcome. In our view, it is better that citizens are not in fact protected from every disruptive situation, given that the encounter with crisis
can play an essential consciousness raising role, if it triggers a desire for and motivation towards learning about the structural
underpinnings of the situation itself. Social movements should be preparing themselves to play that educational role. Only through this dialectical interaction between crisis
, culture, and political economy can there be any hope for a prosperous descent in the form of 'degrowth
in the suburbs'. Through this process can we imagine the emergence of new, post-carbon
suburban forms, powered by limited but sufficient renewable
energy; defined by relocalisation
of economy and a collective re-inhabitation of the built environment; facilitated by redistribution of access to housing
and land
; and grounded upon a new material ethics in which the provision of basic needs for all take privilege over superfluous affluence for a few.
In the absence of such a response to crisis
, we fear that suburbanites (and affluent society more generally) might well sleepwalk into an ever-deepening ecological and/or financial catastrophe, at which point it would be too late to avoid a brutal and unprosperous societal decay. At that stage we might have much to learn from picking up the books of urban catastrophists like James Kunstler
(2005). Until then, of course, we should be focussing all our energies on ensuring that such urban futures are avoided.
New Economics for a Full Planet
If once our species
lived on a planet relatively empty of human beings, today we live on a planet that is evidently full to overflowing. The human population
has grown exponentially to reach seven-and-a-half billion people, increasing by more than 200,000 people every day, and trending to exceed eleven billion by the end of the century. As this expanding population
continues to urbanise and seek ever-rising material living standards by way of sustained economic growth
, the global economy is being driven into gross ecological overshoot
, dangerously crossing or threatening to cross a range of planetary boundaries with dire consequences that are already unfolding. Indeed, the metaphor of 'Earth as a Petri dish' has become worryingly apt, given that the dominant colony seems to be consuming all the available resources and is at risk of poisoning itself from its own wastes, raising questions about whether homo urbanis can muster the intelligence to avoid the fate of common bacteria. Techno-optimists
and free marketeers promise ecological salvation via continuous 'green growth
', all the while capitalism
expands ravenously to every corner of the globe, leaving an increasingly brutalised planet in capital's wake. Lifting the poorest billions out of destitution is likely to place further burdens on global and local ecosystems. This confluence of ecological and social justice
imperatives further delegitimises ongoing economic expansion in the already high-impact, consumerist
societies of the world, and the prospect of an energy descent
future makes such ongoing growth increasingly non-viable as well as unjust. What is most troubling of all, perhaps, is that even those sectors of society that have achieved the so-called consumerist ideal—the house in the right suburb, the nice car, the latest gadgets, the stylish clothes, the exotic travel, etc.—all too often find themselves discontented, overworked, and alienated despite their unprecedented material abundance. In recent decades this cultural malaise has been established consistently and independently by a litany of sociological and psychological studies (see Lane 2000; Kasser 2002; Hamilton and Denniss 2005), indicating that growth capitalism
's defining goal is deeply misconceived. This is arguably the strongest case for degrowth
: that present structural
arrangements fail on their own terms. There seems to be an emptiness to consumer affluence that is never acknowledged in slick advertisements, let alone discussed in schools or around the dinner table. It is perhaps the dominant culture's final, unspeakable taboo. For whom, then, do we destroy the planet? Or for what? Unthinkable in mainstream economic and political discourse, the only coherent response to this context of ecological overshoot
, inequality, and cultural malaise is planned economic contraction of the energy and resource demands of the most 'developed' regions of the world, as well as a reconceptualisation of sustainable development
in the Global South
, beyond the conventional path of growth-dependent industrialisation
. This 'limits to growth
' position signifies an extremely complex, challenging, but ultimately necessary paradigm shift in the dominant conception of human progress
, one that we have been developing in this book in the context of suburban theory and praxis. Although the degrowth
movement is diverse and defies singular definition, we have argued that it will involve initiating a transition
beyond the existing order of globalised growth capitalism
and in its place building a constellation of highly localised economies of sufficiency
, based on (limited) renewable
energy supply, convivial technology
, participatory democracy
, increased social control of the economy, and non-affluent but sufficient material cultures of voluntary simplicity
. Once more, we contend that this new suburban degrowth
economy will need to be driven into existence from the grassroots
up, with top down
change being more of an outcome than a driving force of this transformation. Counter-intuitively, perhaps, we also contend that a degrowth
can maintain or even increase quality of life, by reshaping cultures and societal structures
to promote non-materialistic forms of meaning and wellbeing beyond consumerist
conceptions of 'the good life'. We do not argue that degrowth
is likely, only that it is the most coherent response to the global predicament, and thus deserves critical attention. And even if, as is likely, the degrowth
movement fails to create the just and sustainable society which is its goal, we argue that the attempt to prefigure a new self-limiting economy within the decaying shell of capitalism
remains the most promising strategy for preparing individuals, households and communities for increased energy and resource scarcity, thus increasing societal resilience
in the face of destabilised climatic conditions and forthcoming economic, financial, and/or environmental crises.
, Austerity Urbanism
, and the Politics of Culture
We acknowledge that most people do not recognise the need for a degrowth
economy and therefore would reject the following policy
proposals as unacceptable or unnecessary. But as the limits to growth
tighten their grip on economies in coming years and decades, we believe the debate will inevitably evolve, and the question will not be whether a degrowth
economy is required, but rather how to create one—by design rather than disaster. Indeed, already we sense an emerging deep-seated, gut-level recognition that humanity needs to develop something other than the economy we have today, one that nurtures and feeds the human thirsts for meaning; for awe and ecstasy; for belonging and contributing; for connection and creativity. In fact, it could be that the social conditions are ripe for something like the radical position we are developing in this book. Research by interdisciplinary scholars Richard Eckersley (2018a) and Melanie Randle and Eckersley (2015) show that only a small majority in the developed world think quality of life is improving (in Australia
in 2015, 16% said it was getting better and 49% said it was getting worse). Furthermore, a majority of people in the West (based on a 2013 survey of the US, UK, Australia
and Canada) believe that there is a high probability (greater than 50%) of our way of life collapsing in the next 100 years. A larger majority still (78% in the survey) believed we need a new worldview and way of life if we are to create a better future for the world. Eckersley (2018b) reflects: These perceptions find no expression in politics, which is tightly bound by social inertia and vested interests, and functions in an out-dated paradigm of progress
. Our political leaders (even the 'good ones') do not yet believe we face problems that conventional policy
responses can't solve. Maybe they can't believe it, so they continue to be preoccupied with lower-order issues and causes.
In Europe, cultures seem more receptive to post-growth
futures and even mainstream political institutions are being challenged to consider alternative economic paradigms. One reason for this greater openness to post-growth
futures could arise from the fact that many parts of Europe (e.g. Greece, Spain, and Italy), are still enmeshed in economic crises that germinated in the Global Financial Crisis
. In such contexts where the conventional growth trajectory is looking unlikely to recover, the search for alternative models is greatly incentivised, far more so than in places like Australia
where the global financial crisis
(2007–2008), by and large, was evaded—or perhaps merely deferred (Keen 2017). We must also acknowledge that many economies today are having to deal with an 'austerity' politics which is far cry from the notion of planned and equitable contraction envisioned by degrowth
scholars and activists. Such austerity politics inevitably manifests in urban and suburban contexts, as disenfranchised city-dwellers suffer the brunt of economic hardship through things like mortgage foreclosures, low or no employment prospects, and deteriorating urban infrastructure and services. Unplanned recession
in a growth-dependent economy is not degrowth
, even though degrowth
may need to involve planning for recession
. Even within economies that seem to fare better—like the United States—the benefits of GDP
growth remain grossly unequal in their distribution
, with many American cities mouldering in austerity urbanism
despite national GDP
appearing relatively healthy (Peck 2012). Detroit
is the oft-cited example of urban decay, the economy of which collapsed with the car manufacturing industry, leading to an exodus of over half its population
in recent decades and the swift deterioration of much of its built environment (Galster 2012).
Nevertheless, Detroit
also offers some examples of how creative and proactive communities can turn even the hardships of austerity urbanism
into opportunities for urban renewal. Recession
tends to deflate house and land
prices, and lead to capital
and population
flight. In Detroit
all of those things have happened, and certainly there has been and remains significant hardship and economic insecurity. But access to cheap housing
and land
has opened up new, albeit precarious, opportunities. For instance, there is a promising urban
movement laying down roots and rising out of the ashes of industrial
capitalism. Self-organised by communities and with enterprises often structured as worker cooperatives, this new economic movement is emerging from the grassroots
up and moving towards increased collective sufficiency
that reflects an ethos of degrowth
(if not the vocabulary). Here we see positive fragments of a degrowth
urbanism emerging 'from below
' in response to urban recession
. In spite of this, of course, the city continues to live with the terrible and wasteful legacy of failed industrialism
(Galster 2012). Despite still being marginalised, the cultural reception of post-growth
futures more broadly does seem to be warming. A survey in Spain, for example, indicates that one third of people think that growth should either be ignored as a policy
goal or should be actively resisted (Drews and van den Bergh 2016). The UK government commissioned a report from Tim Jackson
(author of Prosperity without Growth) and Robin Webster (2016) which updated the 'Limits to Growth
' report, with similar approaches being taken in France (Stiglitz et al. 2010) and Germany. Pope Francis (2015, para.: 193) called for degrowth
in the rich world, even if he didn't use that word. '[T]ime has come', he declared, 'to accept decreased growth in some parts of the world, in order to provide resources for other places to experience healthy growth'. More directly, degrowth
has been explicitly debated in the Parliament of Catalonia in Spain and by members of the European Union (Demaria 2017). The Australian Greens political Party has begun to recognise the need for a post-growth
economy, even though it treads very carefully knowing that it must not alienate a voting constituency that is still developing a post-growth
consciousness. But again, given the contradictions inherent in pursuing limitless growth on a finite planet, we are confident that the consciousness needed for a post-growth
or degrowth
economy is destined to increase in coming years and decades as the ecocidal engine of growth collides ever-more violently with fundamental ecological realities. When deeper crisis
in the existing system
makes the case for degrowth
undeniable, progressive movements must be prepared with a policy
platform to present (Cosme et al. 2017). Policies for a New Economy
The following proposals are not intended to be comprehensive, and they are not presented as a blueprint that could be applied independent of context. Instead, the review outlines a range of key issues that would need to be addressed in any 'top down
' restructuring for degrowth
(see also, Frankel 2018). This is self-consciously a work of political imagination
, not of politics, as such. It responds to the evident need for radical narratives, signifiers, and 'stories' that can reanimate discussion of human social futures. The contribution is to what political theorist John Barry (2012: 274) calls 'dissident thinking in turbulent times'.
While we keep an eye on the suburban context, most of the policies are macroeconomic and therefore apply across the urban landscape and indeed across society more broadly. Nevertheless, these proposals are intended to dissolve some of the obstacles that lie in the way of urban grassroots
movements scaling up. We see here, once more, the dialectical relationship between culture and political economy: culture must radicalise in order to create the social conditions for political and macroeconomic change beyond growth; and when (or if) that policy
change arrives or begins, it can open further space for grassroots
movements to regovern the city for justice, sustainability, and resilience
; which can lead to further and more progressive policy
; and so forth. All this implies a broader political shift in which urban grassroots
movement work to restore democratic control to cities and even urban and suburban councils, winding back the neoliberal
legacy and extinguishing the corporate shadow state which functions to legislate and shape urban policy
in the service of capital
, not the common good. As argued in Chapter 4, our position is that democracy
must be accomplished again, for the conditions of today, and this means the emergence of a social renewal movement in which people take power back from the corporate elite, and through participatory practices of self-governance
democratically steer the nature of their urban and suburban localities, including what infrastructure projects are undertaken and how urban services are provided. This is not (just) the old top down
state model. Some centralised action will be required, including some of the ideas discussed below, however our vision of the 'good city' or the 'good suburb' is ultimately one governed by a highly decentralised politics, in which democratic planning and the use and deployment of key urban resources, including land
and the built environment, are explicitly organised by the people and for the people.
Explicit Adoption of Post-growth
Measures of Progress In order to transcend the paradigm of growth economics
as well as the modes of urban development
that the growth paradigm engenders, the first thing needed is to adopt better and more nuanced measures of progress
than GDP
. What we measure, and how we measure it, matters. It is now widely recognised that GDP
is a deeply flawed measure of societal progress
(Stiglitz et al. 2010; Ward et al. 2016), yet it remains the dominant way to assess politico-economic success. GDP
is an aggregate of market transactions—useful so far as it goes—but it makes no distinction between economic activities that contribute positively to sustainable wellbeing and those that diminish it.
For example, GDP
can be growing while at the same time our environment is being degraded, inequality is worsening, and social wellbeing is stagnant. Accordingly, an urban politics and economics
'beyond growth' must begin by explicitly adopting some post-growth
measure of progress
, such as the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI)
, the Index for Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW), or in Australia
, the Australian National Development
Index (ANDI). These alternative metrics take into account a wide range of social, economic, and environmental factors that GDP
ignores, thus representing a far more comprehensive picture than GDP
alone (Lawn 2005). If we do not measure progress
accurately, we cannot expect to progress
(Diener and Seligman 2004). Public understanding of and support for such post-growth
accounting systems
would open up political space for political parties and council representatives to defend policy
and institutional changes—such as those outlined below—which would genuinely improve social wellbeing and enhance ecological conditions, even if these would not maximise growth in GDP
. In particular, it would allow for a new era of urban and suburban planning, designed to advance the interests of people and planet, not the narrow interests of capital
. In particular, a post-growth
orientation could facilitate the rolling back of neoliberal
privatisation and corporatisation of urban infrastructure, services, and planning. We envisage a re-democratisation of the entire urban process, including a commitment to democratic metropolitan governance that ensures solidarity between richer and poorer and which engages rather than 'manages' urban
social movements
seeking suburban renewal.
Reduce Impacts via Diminishing 'Resource Caps
' One of the defining problems with the growth paradigm is that the wealthiest nations now have resource and energy demands that could not possibly be universalised to all nations. The quantitative 'scale' of our economies is overblown in ways that neoliberal
capitalism is proving wholly unable to resolve. It follows that any transition
to a just and sustainable world requires the wealthiest nations to stop overconsuming the world's scarce resources and reduce resource and energy demands significantly. This contraction is necessary if there is to be any 'ecological room' for the Global South
to meet basic needs, to say nothing of the ecological room required to maintain or regenerate a flourishing biodiversity. The need for degrowth
in the Global North
is especially clear when it is recognised that the realisation of new urban or suburban models in the Global South
—which are required to lift great multitudes out of existing horrid slums (both sprawling
and high rise forms)—would almost certainly involve an increase in material and energy demands. Clearly the 'limits to growth
' predicament is as much a distributive justice
issue as an ecological one (Lawn and Clarke 2010). Although in theory efficiency
gains in production provide one pathway to reduced demand, the reality is that within a growth economy, efficiency
gains tend to be reinvested in more growth and consumption
, rather than reducing impact. After all, efficiency
gains can reduce the costs of production, making a commodity cheaper, thus incentivising increased consumption of the commodity. In order to contain this well documented phenomenon, a degrowth
economy would need to introduce diminishing resource caps
—that is, enforce well defined limits to resource use—to ensure that efficiency
gains are directed into reducing overall resource consumption
, not directed into more growth. In fact, diminishing resource caps
would actually incentivise efficiency
improvements, because producers would know that there would be increasing
competition over key resources and so would be driven to eliminate waste and create a 'circular economy' where products at the end of their life are reused, as far as possible, in the next phase of production. In an age of ecological overshoot
, the overconsuming rich nations need to achieve significant absolute reductions in resource demand (absolute decoupling
) not just productivity or efficiency gains (relative decoupling
). Determining where to set the resource caps
, how quickly they should be reduced (e.g. 3% per year to allow markets
to adjust), and where they should be aiming to stabilise, are open questions that can be debated. Such voluntary limits are necessary to achieve sustainability
, and as Illich (1974: 47) advised: 'The magnitude of voluntary limits is a matter of politics'. Formulating a workable policy
in this domain would require, amongst other things, a highly sophisticated and detailed scientific accounting of resource stocks and flows of the economy, and some rationing of key resources may be required to ensure distributive equity. David Fleming
and Shaun Chamberlin (2011) argue cogently that a policy
based on 'Tradable Energy Quotas
' is the best way forward, the aim of which is to achieve steep, but managed reduction in the use of fossil fuels
while forestalling fuel poverty
by guaranteeing fair entitlements to the energy that is available. We see promise in this general approach, and it deserves wider attention and debate. But the first step is simply to recognise that, in the overdeveloped nations, policies that cap and reduce emissions and overall resource consumption
are a necessary part of achieving the contraction in resource use that is required for justice and sustainability. Suburban affluence, as we have known it, is not a viable conception of good living. We need social, economic and political structures
that support alternative forms of flourishing, and that means moving towards increased social control of the economy, in ways that could be defined as 'market (eco)socialism'.
Working Hour Reductions One obvious implication of diminishing resource caps
is that a lot less resource-intensive producing and consuming will take place in a degrowth
economy. That will almost certainly mean reduced GDP
, although there is still great scope for qualitative growth (including technological innovation and efficiency
improvements). But what implications will a contracting (suburban) economy have for employment? Growth in GDP
is often defended on the grounds that it is required to keep unemployment at manageable levels. If a nation gives up the pursuit of GDP
, therefore, it must maintain employment via some other means. Restructuring the labour market is essential for the stability of any post-growth
economy (Victor 2008). Today, Australians work some of the longest hours in the OECD, but, as the evidence clearly shows, such long hours do not improve our health
and wellbeing (Hamilton and Denniss 2005). Could we work less but live more? By reducing the average working week to, say, 28 hours, a degrowth
economy would share the available work amongst the working population
, thereby minimising or eliminating unemployment even in a non-growing or contracting economy, while at the same time increasing social wellbeing by reducing overwork (Coote and Franklin 2013). The aim would be to systematically exchange superfluous consumption
for increased free time (from commitment to the formal economy), which could also bring environmental benefits. While some of the increased free time could be spent enjoying local, low-impact leisure activities, some of it would also be spent engaging in the informal economy
, such as activities of self-sufficiency
(e.g. various forms of household
production, growing food
, house maintenance, sharing, volunteering, etc.) and local barter. This increased self-sufficiency
and community
engagement would also mitigate the impacts of reduced income in a degrowth
economy by easing household
expenditure on basic needs. In this way a degrowth
economy would not induce spiralling unemployment or hardship as is often feared. Once more, a deliberately created degrowth
economy is very different to unplanned recession
. Indeed, planned contraction of the formal economy has the potential to liberate people from the work-to-spend cycle and provide people with more autonomy, meaning, and variety in their working lives. Such policies could stimulate thriving local economies and create eco-cities that resemble networks of collective suburban sufficiency. Rethink Budget Spending for a Degrowth Transition Governments are the most significant entity in any economy and have the most spending power. Accordingly, if governments decide to take the limits to growth
seriously this will require a fundamental rethink of how public funds are procured, invested, and spent. Public spending in the transition
we envisage would not aim to facilitate sustained GDP
growth but instead support the projects and infrastructure needed to support a swift transition
to a degrowth
economy, including degrowth
in the suburbs. As far a possible this would be decentralised via participatory budgeting at the local, suburban level, where ordinary citizens demand a more active role in the allocation and distribution
of public funds. Initial moves in any rethink of public spending might include huge divestment from the fossil fuel economy and a co-relative reinvestment in renewable
energy systems
(see next section). But it would also require huge investment in other forms of 'green' infrastructure and social safety nets. Due to higher taxes, there would be less income for private consumption
but more social wealth spent on public goods including key urban services. The importance of creating new infrastructure highlights the fact that consumption practices in a society do not take place in a vacuum. Instead, consumption
takes place within structures
of constraint, and those structures make some lifestyle options easy or necessary, and other lifestyle options difficult or impossible. Currently, many people find themselves 'locked in to' or 'lock out of' high-impact lifestyles due to the structures
within which they live their lives. A new suburbia requires new structures of support. To provide one example: it is very difficult to stop driving a private motor vehicle if there is poor public transport
, insufficient bike lanes, or a lack of understanding about how to safely navigate road networks dominated by cars. Change the infrastructure, however, and new, low-impact lifestyles implied by a degrowth
economy would be more easily embraced. Greening infrastructure will therefore require a significant revision of government expenditure, both local and national. Recognising climate change
as a national 'security threat', for example, and on that basis redirecting a significant portion of military spending towards renewable
energy and efficient systems
of public transport
, is one path to funding the infrastructure (and other post-growth
policies) needed for a stable and flourishing degrowth
economy. Government spending on healthcare (especially prevention and promotion) is particularly important. People need a social safety net otherwise there will be an incentive to earn as much as possible just in case future health
bills are large. However, if health
care is deemed a basic right in a society, provided for by a public health
care system
, then this provides more security to embrace a modest income without fear and anxiety. As with some of our prescriptions, this imperative is already well tried and tested in countries, such as the UK and Australia
, that have constructed national health
, and which enjoy superior population
and equity conditions to those that have not, such as the USA. There is also room to spend limited public funds more effectively. For example, Cubans enjoy better health than citizens of the USA, despite spending ten times less on healthcare. Strong publicly maintained health
and human service frameworks generally reduce economic waste, social inequity, and human anxiety, and must be integral to a post-growth
Energy In anticipation of the foreseeable stagnation and eventual decline of fossil fuel supplies, and recognising the grave dangers presented by climate change
, a degrowth
economy would need to transition
swiftly to renewable
energy and more efficient energy systems
and practices. This provides a hugely promising space to meaningfully employ large segments of the population
as the fossil fuel economy enters terminal decline. But just as important as 'greening' the supply of energy is the challenge (too often neglected) of reducing energy demand, which has been a key theme in this book. It will be much easier to transition
to 100% renewable
energy if energy use is significantly reduced through behavioural changes, reduced production and consumption
, and more efficient appliances. Indeed, the extremely tight and fast diminishing carbon
for a safe climate now makes this 'demand-side' response a necessity, yet the significantly reduced energy demand required for a safe climate is incompatible with the growth model, because energy is a fundamental driver of economic growth
. Accordingly, a degrowth
politics would initiate a transition
to 100% renewable
energy financed in part by accurately pricing carbon
, and undertake a public education campaign to facilitate reduced energy demand. Given how hard it will be to fully replace the fossil fuel economy with renewable
energy (especially the 96 million barrels of oil
currently consumed everyday), it is also worth reemphasising that post-carbon
economies will have to adapt to an energy descent
context and are likely to be a far more localised economies than the globalised, fossil fuel-dependent economy we know today. While there would still be some greatly reduced role for global trade in a degrowth
economy, most production would seek, by default, to use local resources from the bioregion to meet mostly local needs, thereby shortening the links between production and consumption
. As well as running the economy primarily on renewables, a degrowth
strategy could also involve planting up huge tracts of land
with trees to sequester carbon
and placing a moratorium on the cutting down of old growth forests. Any coherent climate strategy must also address the huge carbon
footprint of meat
(especially red meat
) and accordingly promote significantly reduced meat
consumption (Poore and Nemecek 2018) and regenerative
forms of agriculture
(Massy 2017). New regulations and subsidies would fast track the uptake of appropriate technologies, like biogas
in the suburbs, solar
PV, and heat-hump hot water
. Governments could provide households with interest-free loans for such things, as a means of deconstructing financial barriers to the renewable
energy transition
. Transformation in Banking and Finance Systems
Currently, Western-style systems
of banking and finance essentially have a 'growth imperative' built into their structures
. Money is loaned into existence by private banks as interest-bearing debt
, and in order to pay back that debt
plus the interest, this requires an expansion of the money supply. Banks are incentivised to offer credit to people or institutions that are most likely to generate stronger financial returns from their investments. Furthermore, there is so much public and private debt
today that the only way it could be paid back is via decades of continued GDP
growth. This type of banking system
requires growth for stability and yet limitless economic growth
, as we have argued, is the driving force behind the environmental crisis
. In order to move towards a stable, degrowth
economy, part of the institutional restructuring required involves deep reform of banking, monetary, and finance systems
. This is a complex transition
that could take various forms, but at base it would require the state taking responsibility for creating banking, finance, and monetary systems
that do not require growth for stability, and strictly regulating these systems to ensure equity. Policies that allowed for the creation of local currencies would help too, since local currency design is potentially a powerful tool in the restructuring of local and communitarian economic relations. A post-growth
might also require 'debt
jubilees' in some circumstances, especially in developing nations that are unjustly being suffocated by interest payments to rich world lenders. Developing nations, for example, receive about $136 billion in aid from donor countries but pay about $600 billion servicing debt
(Hickel 2017a). No fancy theorising or political sophistry can plausibly defend such a situation. A New Paradigm for Housing and Land Most of the policies being discussed in this chapter will be controversial, but perhaps none will be as controversial as the claim that any transition
to just and sustainable degrowth
economy will require a new paradigm for housing
and land
, especially in cities. The controversy arises primarily over the fact that deep reform of housing
and land
governance requires fundamental revision of property rights, and property sits at the conceptual core of capitalism
. Accordingly, a degrowth
economy would need to be post-capitalist
in the further sense that access to housing
and land
would not simply be allocated according to market forces alone. While it could be argued that ultimately a degrowth
economy should aim to socialise land
and housing
, leaving constrained markets
to allocate other commodities, at this early stage we wish to highlight various transitional strategies that, while not socialising property as such, do involve significantly increased social control of housing
and land
. The aim would be to ensure a 'basic needs' guarantee for decent, affordable, and secure accommodation as well as a broader distribution
of this important social resource. This could involve a general requirement for housing
to be used for the primary purpose of providing homes, shelter, and security, rather than as investment vehicles. This broader distribution
of property rights could involve an expanding ownership class, but it could also involve new policies to ensure that people renting are able to acquire secure, long-term leases. In terms of security of tenure for renters, some European nations are far ahead in this regard than nations like Australia
, New Zealand, and the US. One of the greatest scandals that shape urban development
under contemporary capitalism
is the fact that many people face housing
insecurity or are homeless at a time when literally thousands upon thousands of investment properties and apartments lie empty. This makes a mockery of capitalism's claim to achieve allocative efficiency
. Efficient for whom? Efficient in what sense? Various policy
interventions could help broaden access to land
and housing
infrastructure, including the abolishment of negative gearing and various progressive property taxes that would curtail the socially pernicious accumulation of properties amongst a minority of the population
. Why should some people own ten or twenty or fifty properties while a great proportion of the population
owns none? It is a simple but revolutionary question about what it means to live in a decent society; what it means to live in a 'good city'. In a section below we note various wealth and estate taxes that could serve to distribute society's wealth more broadly, and the proceeds of such taxes could be used to fund a guaranteed right to decent shelter through public housing
. A reconceived banking system
could also make governments or community
-owned banks, not private banks, the issuer of most mortgages, which could provide a means of reinvesting the profits from interest payments into more public housing
. Within ecological bounds, a society is limited only by its imagination
. The past does not exhaust the range of property systems
available to humanity, and it is flawed thinking to believe that one must choose between capitalism
as we know it and Soviet-style state communism. Ours is a post-capitalist
vision of decentralised eco-socialism
, which recognises a role for markets
, but markets
that are always constrained by baseline regulations that operate to protect and advance the common good. And let us not for a moment forget that we currently live in an age of highly regulated markets
—only it is regulation informed by a neoliberal
political ideology that functions to concentrate wealth and serve corporate interests. What the neoliberal
laissez-faire theory fails to appreciate is that governments do not interfere in markets
but constitute markets
. 'Hands off' is not an option. As legal theorist Karl Klare (1991: 81) points out: 'The state can withdraw from central planning but it cannot withdraw from its role in defining market structures
and property entitlements'. Thus citizens have a democratic right to constitute or reconstitute markets
and property entitlements as they see fit, in ways that serve the many rather than the few. Without trying to provide a comprehensive statement, we would also emphasise the role progressive new policies and regulations could play supporting ecological resettlement
beyond the urban boundary. A particularly promising innovation is the 'Low-Impact Development
' policy
in Wales, which explicitly seeks to support ecovillage living in rural or semi-rural areas
(see Nelson 2018: 133–38). Not only does this open up access to land
for people unable to afford property in urban centres, by encouraging people to leave the densest urban centres, it also reduces pressure on real estate markets
in those urban centres. Further policies could be developed which could support new economic enterprises in dying towns, where there is cheap and under-utilised housing
infrastructure but insufficient employment opportunities to attract households. With the right incentives and support, we can see those dying towns becoming vibrant hubs of collective sufficiency
and economic security.
Population Policies While policies for property reform would be controversial, there is also the population
challenge, often referred to as the 'elephant in the room' that few are talking about. As the (ever urbanising) population
grows, more resources are required to provide for the basic material needs of humanity (food
, clothing, shelter, etc.), increasing our demands on an already overburdened planet. It is absolutely imperative that nations around the world unite to confront the population
challenge directly (Alcott 2012), rather than just assuming that the problem will be solved when the developing world gets rich.
policies will inevitably be controversial but the world needs bold and equitable leadership on this issue. As we've noted, research suggests that the world is facing a population
of around 9.8 billion by mid-century and 11 billion by the end of this century, which would be utterly catastrophic from both a social and environmental perspective. To re-quote Paul Ehrlich
: 'whatever problem you're interested in, you're not going to solve it unless you also solve the population
problem'. The first thing needed is a global fund that focuses on providing the education, empowerment, and contraception required to minimise the millions of unintended pregnancies that occur every year. If these unplanned pregnancies were avoided, this would be a great step in the right direction. Furthermore, all financial incentives that encourage population
growth should be abolished and the benefits of small families should be highlighted. Importantly, national population
policies should not be shaped with the goal of maximising economic growth
, which could well imply significantly reducing immigration flows. But given that wealthy nations have been most responsible for climate change
and other ecological harm, immigration policies should also recognise the moral imperative to accommodate increasing numbers of climate refugees in coming years and decades.
Distributive Justice
Last but not least, environmental concerns cannot be isolated from social justice
concerns. The conventional path to poverty
alleviation is via the strategy of GDP
growth, on the assumption that 'a rising tide will lift all boats'. Given that a degrowth
economy deliberately seeks a non-growing economy—on the assumption that a rising tide will sink all boats—poverty
alleviation must be achieved more directly, via redistribution, both nationally and internationally. In other words (and to change the metaphor), a degrowth
economy would eliminate poverty
and achieve distributive equity not by baking an ever-larger economic pie but by slicing it differently. Government support for the sharing economy
would also mean that more value can be acquired from the same 'slice' of economy. Any attempt to systemically redistribute wealth via taxation or property reform will be highly controversial, especially in our neoliberal
age, but present concentrations of wealth demand a political response. Capitalism
is failing most of humanity. Research from Oxfam published in 2018 shows that the richest 6 people on the planet now own more than the poorest half of humanity. Dwell on that for a moment. This highlights the point that growth itself will not resolve poverty
. Policies are needed that directly redistribute wealth; that ensure a dignified material baseline for all people; and that structure
the economy in ways that ensure corrosive and undemocratic inequalities of wealth do not arise in the first place. There is no single best policy
for eliminating poverty
or achieving a just distribution
of wealth. Bold, creative, and considered experimentation is required. Key policy
options include: (i) a basic income for all, which guarantees every permanent resident with a minimal, living wage; (ii) a 'negative income tax', which guarantees a minimum income for those who earn below a certain threshold, or a 'job guarantee', where the state is the employer of last resort; (iii) progressive income or consumption
tax policies (i.e. the more you earn or consume, the higher the tax rate) which could culminate in a top tax rate of 90% or more; (iv) wealth taxes, that systematically transfer 3% of private wealth from the richest to the poorest recognising the large social component in wealth production; and (v) estate taxes of 90% or more to ensure the laws of inheritance and bequest do not create a class system
of entrenched wealth and entrenched poverty
. These and other tax-and-transfer policies should be explored to eliminate poverty
and ensure distributive equity. Obviously, arguments that such policies would inhibit growth do not hold water
within a degrowth
framework. From a global perspective, it must be acknowledged that the market forces of capitalism
too often results in rich nations of the Global North
siphoning away resources from poorer nations in the South, leaving only environmental destruction in its wake (Hickel 2017b). Australia
and other rich nations must renew their depleted aid programs, which can and should take various forms, including increasing financial support; abolishing the suffocating debts that keep the poorest nations down; freely transferring technological and medical knowledge and equipment; and ensuring that corporate and institutional power does not unduly influence economic development
in the Global South
. These should be considered first steps in a transformation in global relations towards increased solidarity, whereby degrowth
amongst the rich nations provides some ecological room for the poorest nations to improve their economic capacities according to a new vision of global 'post-development
'. These are obviously bold and ambitious ideas, but anything less will be insufficient. It is no good being what critics might call 'realistic' if being realistic only leads to ecological and/or humanitarian catastrophe. Other Policies? Beyond these policy
proposals, it should go without saying that any degrowth
would require an array of other revolutionary reforms, including policies to create (or recreate) a 'free press'; policies to ensure that campaign financing rules do not permit undue economic influence on the democratic process; and policies to promote alternative corporate forms, such as worker cooperatives. Furthermore, governments must not unduely interfere with or inhibit the emergence and development
of informal and non-monetary
economies. We do not pretend to have provided a complete political agenda for a degrowth
economy. The proposals above are merely key aspects of such a transition
and a good place to begin thinking about how to structure
a just, sustainable, and flourishing economy (see also, Frankel 2018). Regoverning the City: Suburban Implications
We contend that these policy
proposals—all in need of detailed elaboration and discussion—should be the opening moves in a 'top down
' transition
to a new economic dispensation. To be employed in concert, they clearly challenge the dominant macroeconomics of growth and would require far more social control over the economy than neoliberal
permits today. Markets
work well in some circumstances, no doubt, but leaving everything to the market and thinking this will magically advance the common good has been proven dangerously false. It follows that a degrowth
economy must be a post-capitalist
or eco-socialist economy, with vastly increased democratic planning and perhaps even some rationing of key resources to ensure distributive equity. The policies above also depend upon a society that sees the necessity and desirability of a degrowth
economy, hence the special importance of grassroots
education campaigns and story tellers who are able to weave new narratives that show in emotionally convincing ways that the emergence of new, post-consumerist
cultures of consumption are not just necessary but desirable.
Although the policies outlined are macroeconomic and would thus impact on all sectors of society and all manifestations of the built environment, this book has been focussing on the suburban landscape. In Chapters 5 and 6 we reviewed a range of practices of material sufficiency, energy descent
, sharing, and home-based production that we argued will need to shape the suburban economy if a degrowth
is to lay down roots and scale up. But we also emphasised that many suburbanites were either 'locked in' to high-impact lifestyles or 'locked out' of household
sufficiency due to the societal structures
that produced distributive inequity, including unaffordable and grossly unequal access to housing
and land
, as well as other forms of economic insecurity. The politics of degrowth
reviewed above sought to outline a new structural
context that would support rather than inhibit the practices of sufficiency in the suburbs. As stated earlier, our prescription for suburbia includes commitment to metropolitan governance, which remains weak in many contemporary new world cities. We acknowledge that more needs to be said about the design of metropolitan governance that would ensure solidarity and service provision at the regional scale, without extinguishing the local self-determination that must be pivotal to the Great Resettlement of suburbia.
One must never forget that there is no such thing as a neutral politics or economics
. All political and economic structures
—including so-called free markets
—function to make some ways of life easy or necessary and other ways of life difficult or impossible. Shaping structures
therefore is inevitably a value-laden exercise demanding an answer to the questions: what sort of society do we want to create? What do we want our cities to look like? Currently, the out-dated politics of growth are designed to require and encourage lifestyles of ever-increasing consumption
, and this has produced a particular suburban mode of existence, one that is disastrous from an environmental perspective and often socially corrosive, both in terms of wellbeing and justice.
A new suburban form will require the emergence of an alternative political economy, and we have put forward degrowth
as the most coherent alternative. The new structures
proposed would make it difficult to consume and produce unsustainably at the expense of people and planet, and instead support and encourage lifestyles of sufficiency, moderation, sharing, and frugality
. This is a very different conception of prosperity to what we hear about from most economists and even most environmentalists, who still seem convinced that technology
and markets
are going to 'green' the capitalist
of growth in some magical way. The alternative goal of a politics of degrowth
is to create an economy that provides enough, for everyone, forever. The good news is that we can create this new economy with today's technology
—if only we show the wisdom and courage to live, think, and act beyond the economics of growth. This book has not sought to end the conversation on this incredibly complex new direction. Our goal has been to draw more people into the discussion, so that together we can navigate our way towards a form of life that is ecologically viable, socially just, and yet consistent with a diversity of pursuits of human happiness. Our argument has been that a new paradigm of degrowth
should inform a new urban imaginary
if we are to achieve these bold but necessary goals. We believe that this is possible, but we also see that the window of opportunity is closing. We are at the crossroads and are in the process of choosing our fate.
Degrowth in the Suburbs.
Insufficient structure Bats. Put dem flores in a weighse. Arrage dem nisely.
Fuck that. I'm a free improviser.
If you read the bloody thing from start to finish it works.
Get over the need for neatness and well mannered presentation. It's the same number of words. Just read it. One word after the other. Check for full stops that may be dislodged, and capitals, or seeming sub headings. Makes it interesting.
No one's reading it anyway. If they are, how would I know, no one's posting thoughts. I bought that book for $65. An ebook, so it's kinda not even mine really. In the fucking cloud somewhere. Samuel went with an academic publisher...you know...gain some cred. At that price, who's buying the book?
I'll tell ya...no one.
Looks better unneat.
Makes people work a little.
No need for neat. SPAM, SPAM, SPAM and SPAM.. and now: SPAM!


text:
To Live By is the television and radio broadcast ministry of
Reasons for Faith International Ministries. Both the television
and radio broadcasts are produced and recorded in Charlotte, NC.
The Truth To Live By television
broadcast airs every Friday from 6:00pm to 6:30pm on Time
Warner Cable channel 21 in Mecklenburg county, NC.
[ Watch Video]
Exchanging Christmas Gifts with Jesus
Forgiveness of Sins
From Sin to Fellowship
How to Live a Spirit-Filled Life
Overcoming Sin
A Soul Set Free
Biblical Faith: What It Is and How to Have It
Characteristics of a Good Father
Citizenship: Its Responsibilities and Benefits
Evidences of Abiding Faith
How the Lord Helps His People
The Reasons for Our Failures
Understanding and Responding to Temptation
What a Good Disciple Does
What Heaven Will Be Like
What is Faith
What is the Word of God
What Will Man Give In Exchange for His Soul
When God Disciplines His Children
When Life Doesn't Seem Fair
Who Is Jesus Christ?
Faith Under Construction (Part 1)
Faith Under Construction (Part 2)
God's Master Provision for Spiritual Growth (Part 1)
God's Master Provision for Spiritual Growth (Part 2)
How to Become Children
Important Not's for the Believer
Living for Christ
Looking Unto Jesus
New Year's Resolutions
No-Matter-What, Kind of Faith
Preparing for the Future
Promises from God
Salvations Threefold Blessing
The Benefits of Waiting on the Lord
The Christian and Trouble (Part 1)
The Christian and Trouble (Part 2)
The Depth of Christ's Death
The Need For Greater Faith
The Old and the New
The Present State of the Believer
To Live Is Christ
Christ-Like Faith
Effective Prayer
Examine Your Faith
Facing the Goliath's In Our Lives
God's Way to God's Heaven
How to Know the Will of God
How to Hide God's Word in Our Heart
Seven Facts about Christ's Death
The Portrait of a Blessed Person
What Is the Gospel
Characteristics of Gods love
Christs Atonement
How to Claim the Promises of God
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From: Martin Shough <parcellular.nul> Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2011 15:45:43 +0100 Archived: Sun, 05 Jun 2011 13:02:46 -0400 Subject: Re: A Haunebu II Photo Feature >From: William Treurniet <wtreurniet.nul> >To: post.nul >Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 11:52:53 -0400 >Subject: Re: A Haunebu II Photo Feature >>From: Martin Shough<parcellular.nul> >>To:<post.nul> >>Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2011 22:13:08 +0100 >>Subject: Re: A Haunebu II Photo Feature >>>From: William Treurniet<wtreurniet.nul> >>>To: post.nul >>>Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2011 12:55:30 -0400 >>>Subject: Re: A Haunebu II Photo Feature >>>><snip> >>Your method, on the other hand, is to suppress or ignore the >>sound contextual evidence and instead take as _your_ context an >>ill-defined and unproven corpus of extraneous and dubious >>supposition about toroids on other saucer photos (as for which, >>don't get me started!) >By all means, Martin, get started! I would be interested in >your >explanations of all the anomalies I pointed out in the various >images. Please begin with the photo labeled 'roof' in the index >at >http://www.treurniet.ca/tori/ufoindex.htm >or >http://www.treurniet.ca/tori/uforoof.htm >(for browsers that can't handle frames) >In the enhanced version, there is a dark mass between the ufo >and the roof of the building. The mass seems to be a second- >order torus. Is this another lens flare? Your sracasm is ill-judged. You intend it as a reductio ad absurdum in respect of my opinion on your 'Haunebu' photo, but instead it exposes you to ridicule because no person of good judgment who understands anything about photography would think it a dignified defence of his argument to erect such a preposterous straw man in a public place. Frankly it's embarrassing to watch. No, of course it is not a lens flare, dear William. In fact your "second order toroid" looks more as though someone's child has ridden a bike over the print, or trampled on it while wearing his new trainers. Before persuading us that this bizarre "Adidas Effect" (if I may coin a phrase) points to new physics I'd recommend you offer at least a few rudimentary notes on the origins and provenence of the photo, and what steps you have taken to obtain and analyse the most reliable version of it, whether that is i.e. a first- or n-th generation paper print, or a copy negative or an original negative, or perhaps just a re- screened halftone or gravure image out of some old magazine or newspaper showing bleed-through from a Michelin tire advert on the back? Who knows? Do you even know the century and the continent in which it was allegedly taken? The only source you cite is a website called www.iwasabducted.com . That page in turn contains precisely no information whatsoever. It does however contain dozens of other saucer shots, the vast majority as dubious and ill-documented as your trainer-sole saucer. Most of these were evidently a disappointment to you in your hunt for hidden toroids and so were not listed by you, but as a check I looked at two images from near the top of that page, one an evident out-of-focus insect (conceded to be probably such even by iwasabducted.com), and another a perfectly obvious photo of a bird (tagged as probably such even by iwasabducted.com). Not wholely to my surprise I was able to find respectable "toroids" on both of these images when (ahem) "enhanced". See http://www.martinshough.com/ephemera.htm That about wraps it up as far as I am concerned. Enjoy your toroid affaur without me. Martin Shough Listen to 'Strange Days... Indeed' - The PodCast At: http://www.virtuallystrange.net/ufo/sdi/program/ These contents above are copyright of the author and UFO UpDates - Toronto. They may not be reproduced without the express permission of both parties and are intended for educational use only.
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Home • Why Braant? • What our clients say • Debtors Ledger Analysis
Debtors Ledger Analysis
29 Nov 13
"We had accumulated a problem of about two years of debtors ledger accounting "mess" that needed to be cleaned up. We employed Braant for the first time and their accounts technician - Sheraz was appointed to us on to carry out this assignment.
I certainly found Sheraz to be a valuable support – he quickly gained an understanding of our requirements and worked diligently to carry out the analysis and clean up our ledgers. The final report summarising the adjustments was concise and well done.
I would certainly recommend Sheraz and I would readily use Braant again in the future."


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Recommend dosage is one (1) softgel capsule with each meal as a dietary supplement or as otherwise directed by a healthcare professional.
Active Ingredients: Vitamin E (as mixed tocopherols), Omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA
Other Ingredients: Additional Omega-3 fatty acids
Note: Biotics Research uses only small, deep, cold water fish such as anchovies and sardines to avoid toxins that are found in accumulation in larger fish.


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This classic, vintage WW II photo is by Horace Bristol, titled "Blister Gunner." The gunner had stripped off his clothes to jump into the water to rescue a downed airman in Papua New Guinea. Immediately after the rescue, the plane took off, since it was taking flak at the time. The rescuer returned to his gunner station naked, having no time to put on his uniform. This famous photo was subsequently published (2004) in "At Ease – Navy Men of World War II" by Evan Bachner. Most of the photographs are of young soldiers at the peak of their physical prime, often showing innocent physical affection for each other.
In the years following World War II, images of comradeship, particularly of men being physically close, largely disappeared from the public record. But, as these stunning photographs attest, ordinary American men in the extraordinary circumstances of World War II were affectionate, winsome, and playful – disarmingly innocent in a time of cataclysmic peril. Led by photography giant Captain Edward J. Steichen, the U.S. Naval Aviation Photographic Unit was organized during the war to record the daily experiences of Navy men all over the world and to provide newspapers and magazines with images to promote the American cause.


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Key Points
- 1 Star Maa Bigg Boss Telugu Vote
- 1.1 Bigg Boss Telugu Season 2 Voting
- 1.2 Bigg Boss Telugu Online Voting
- 1.3 Bigg Boss Telugu Missed Call Vote
- 1.4 Bigg Boss Telugu Social Media Voting (Facebook, Instagram & Twitter Voting Updates)
- 1.5 Star Maa Bigg Boss Telugu Voting Polls & Vote Results 2018
- 1.6 Bigg Boss Telugu Vote Status
- 1.7 Bigg Boss Telugu Vote Count and Eliminations
- 1.8 Share this:
- 1.9 Related
Star Maa Bigg Boss Telugu Vote is going on air very soon. For all of you guys who have been waiting to know, how the voting will be done. You are in the right place at www.infogranny.com.
You may check the latest details of:
- Star Maa Bigg Boss Telugu Vote: What the Viewers need to do in order to do Voting in the show.
- Bigg Boss Telugu Season 2 Voting: The Season 2 is Starting in July 2018 (Vote Now!)
- Bigg Boss Telugu Voting Online/Online Vote: You can vote online using the methods explained below!
- Missed Call Voting in Star Maa Bigg Boss Telugu: Check if you can vote using Missed Call or Not!
- Bigg Boss Telugu Vote Results 2018: Voting Results and Bigg Boss Telugu Every Week Elimination Details will be Present with Special Details So Stay Tuned.
The article covers all the details of the voting process and how it is done. Check the article below to know about the Voting Polls in Star Maa Bigg Boss Telugu.
Guys the nominated contestant names are given in this picture below. You may check here details to vote for them and cast your vote.
Star Maa Bigg Boss Telugu Vote
Many of you may know about the original Bigg Boss show. It is due to the format changes done in the original show that other regional shows like Bigg Boss Telugu came up with common man entry. Now as Bigg Boss Telugu is going to come on Star maa very soon. Bigg Boss Telugu Vote process will start.
The show will include 14 houseguests who will participate in the show. The contestants will include both celebs and commoners. The process of voting for both part of contestants is same and simple. Voting in the show will be done through the following method:
- Bigg Boss Telugu Online Vote: Bigg Boss Telugu Vote online will be done using the internet and your Gmail account.
- Missed Call Vote in Bigg Boss Telugu: Voting will be done by giving missed calls on contestant numbers.
Bigg Boss Telugu Season 2 Voting
For now, the show has the above mentioned online and offline voting methods. But it may happen that some other medium to do Bigg Boss Telugu Vote may come. Star Maa may start app voting for the show. If any such update comes, we will discuss it in the article.
Voting lines of the show will open for 5 days. Lines will close on the weekends and the vote results will be announced. The contestant having the least number of votes will make his/her way out of the Bigg Boss House.
Voting Lines will be open 'Monday' to 'Friday' Midnight
Bigg Boss Telugu Online Voting
The show has the simplest online voting method. Yes, the show supports google voting for its contestants. This means you can directly go to google, type in the keyword and you are all set to vote. Follow these details in order to vote for the nominated contestants in Star Maa Bigg Boss Telugu Vote:
- Go to www.google.co.in.
- Make sure you are logged in to your Gmail account in the browser.
- Now type "Bigg Boss Telugu Vote" or "Star Maa Bigg Boss Telugu Voting".
- The list of nominated contestants of the week will show up.
- Select the contestants you want to vote for.
- And hit 'Submit' to cast your votes.
Note: Bigg Boss Telugu Voting Polls will open every week. But you can only cast 50 votes with a single Gmail account. You can either vote for one contestant or split the votes for more than one contestants.
Bigg Boss Telugu Missed Call Vote
The contestants in the show are provided with a contestant voting number. The number will display during the episodes air on Television. All you need to do is to give a missed call on the number of the contestant you want to support.
This method is not much used but if you are out of internet then you can use the offline missed call method for Bigg Boss Telugu Vote.
Bigg Boss Telugu Social Media Voting (Facebook, Instagram & Twitter Voting Updates)
For now, Star Maa has made no claims regarding using social Media for casting Bigg Boss Telugu Vote. But as the times are changing, it may happen that special social media voting takes place in the show. But we cannot say much, as there are no official details present for now. But as soon as the show comes out with any Voting Updates, you will find them in the article.
To have an idea of Social Media Voting in Bigg Boss Telugu, Take a look below:
Facebook Voting: Voting May Done on Facebook by making updates from The official Star Maa Bigg Boss Telugu Page.
Instagram Voting: Special Hashtags can be used for Voting and supporting the show contestants.
Twitter: Like other platforms, Twitter is also very likely to be used for Bigg Boss Telugu Voting.
Star Maa Bigg Boss Telugu Voting Polls & Vote Results 2018
Voting will be done each week. And with every week passing, one contestant will leave the show. As mentioned above that the voting will happen for 5 weekdays. While the discussions and elimination announcements will happen on the weekends. Bigg Boss Telugu Vote Results will be updated here once the show progressed. So make sure you stick around to know all about your favorite show.
More voting updates are going to be available soon. So make sure you stay tuned and do Bigg Boss Telugu vote in order to support the contestants.
Bigg Boss Telugu Vote Status
The good news for all Bigg Boss Telugu Fans is here. The show is kicking it off with the first episode today. For all of those who are looking for Maa Bigg Boss Telugu Vote Status, you are in the right place. As the Bigg Boss Telugu Premieres today, the contestants are going to be presented before the viewers for the first time.
From this episode, you will see these contestants in the Bigg Boss House. On the Week Days (i.e Monday to Friday) Voting will be done by the viewers. And the Bigg Boss Telugu Vote Result will be announced on the Weekends (i.e Saturdays and Sundays). Moreover, all the information about the Star Maa Bigg Boss Telugu is going to be updated here.
Bigg Boss Telugu Vote Count and Eliminations
Here we are going to update all the news related to the Maa Bigg Boss Telugu Vote Count. All the names of the contestants who leave the house will be present here. Eliminations are going to take place on the Sat and Sun every week.
But Special Eliminations which are done in between tasks and on Week Days will occur out of Nowhere. Eliminations can happen when a contestant doesn't follow the Bigg Boss Telugu House Rules. Here we are going to update all the details of the Bigg Boss Telugu Elimination (Usual and Special).
- In normal elimination, the contestant having least Vote Count will get evicted.
- In Special elimination, dynamic causes will be present for contestant elimination.
Let us see what Star Maa has to show in Bigg Boss Telugu Season 2.
So Stay Tuned.


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Guests'house and suite
Guests'house and suite
Guests'house and suite
The guest's house
open to you its doors...
in a closed and full of
flowers place
Garden level
bright (bed of 160 cm)
Bed and breakfast - Gîte de France 3 ears of wheat
and a little studious.
Garden level
calm and romantic
(bed of 160 cm)
favourable in the musing...
(corner lounge)
like a revisited boudoir
(2 beds 1 personne)
the head in the stars,
the heart in trip
The cristal suite
based in the 2nd floor in the main house, welcome the families.
and near the summit...
not to far from the children
(bed of 160 cm)
a calm atmosphere
Lounge or childrens' room
Parents' room


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Guys. GUYS. If you haven't picked up this book, then you better do something about it and READ IT NOW!!!
Okay, I just… I am really just at that point of post-reading where I am reduced into a ball of feels and I just really love how this book turned out! I love it! So much! When it said in the blurb epic love? Yeah. Fucking believe. This book is the fucking definition of it. I can feel it in the very core of my soul and I feel like I have been conned to invest on a fucking rollercoaster ride, please give me back my heart~
So I can't remember how I actually discovered this book. But what I do know is that I have never been so thankful I stumbled upon this book. It actually makes me excited to share what I read about this book, especially since it's a debut book, and it's SUPER FUCKING FANTASTIC!
Today, 8:15 p.m.
I hurt. I hurt so deeply, I felt the pain searing in my bones and jabbing like a hot poker into my heart. I knew nothing would make it better as the memories pulled from the crevices of my mind, detailing the bad and the ugly, filling my thoughts with regret as I slipped into the darkness. . .
When I was eight, my mother was dying of cancer, my father lost his job, and the bank kicked us out of our house. I was forced to move to the strange town of Arlis, Texas where my father and I slept in our car in the hospital parking lot. Desperate and hopeless, we lived on fumes of our former life.
Then one night, everything changed forever. A knock on the car window brought a family into my life that I only wanted to shut out. I hated charity and I hated the Masons. Well, except one. He made it impossible to hate him.
Jess Mason had the biggest blue eyes and ornery smile of any boy I had ever seen. He was a ray of sunshine in my dark world. A boy full of adventure, dragging me across the meadow of Sprayberry Ranch; a beautiful Texas paradise full of horses and tree houses that got us into more trouble than anyone ever imagined.
Jess was my everything as a kid until we grew up and the rules changed. Instead of living happily ever after with a boy full of love. . . I destroyed it.
– Alex Tanner
The thing is, you shouldn't take this book lightly. While the trope of childhood friends may have been approached as fun and fluffy in most books, this book? It holds no bars in hitting every soft spot you may ever have in your soul.
Growing up, Alex had a pretty good family, believing that her mother was an angel, and that they are living in a fairy tale. It was really, really good. And then things took for the worse, her mother suddenly faces ovarian cancer on its terminal stage. The battle with the illness dragged on and on until literally nothing was left to Alex's family.
This part really got to me. I swear. Reading this with a perspective of a person coming from a third-world country who experienced poverty first-hand? It's like splitting open my gut, and prodding the warm and bleeding vault of the past that seemed too real to be true, to be faced at such a young age. That's what is even more painful. At eight, Alex was robbed off the chance to be a kid, and was forced to accept the things that are happening around her. Combined with her mother – her lovely, angelic mother – who by then was just a whisper of who she had been, the reality of the world was just imposed upon her, shattering her fairy tale life into smithereens.
And then came the Masons. Dr. Mason was the attending physician of Alex's dying mother. By then, Alex and her father had already been reduced into living in their own car at the hospice's parking lot for a whole month – July in Texas. Dr. Mason offered them a room in the hospital, and along with his wife, the Mason's gave them food, and eventually helped out as much as giving them a place to stay and even livelihood. In the truest sense of the word, the Mason's saved Alex's family.
Jess Mason was the son of Dr Mason. And while his mother was helping out by giving food and clothing to Alex and her father, Jess gave back the childhood that Alex was missing out on. From then on, it forged a bond between Jess and Alex that will only go stronger in time.
The thing about this book is that the readers are granted front-row seats as to how Jess and Alex found each other, how they grew on each other, how they fought for and against each. Basically, it's like watching your kids grow up, and who cannot feel attached to that kind of exposure?
The way the book was written was also very effective in capturing the hearts of the readers. It didn't read like a debut book, to be honest. If this is a debut book, then I am very, very much afraid what a second or third or fourth would to my heart and soul. There is that sense of familiarity with words and really well-planned and well-built world that solidifies the foundation of the book in every step of the story.
Aside from watching these two people grow, there is also a sense of adventure that hooks the readers into reading more. Interspersed by chapters that are obviously glimpse into the future, it grips the readers into the flow of the story and how everything would fall into that place in the future. And when you did get to the point where the past and future converges, your heart is just ripped out of your chest in the most shocking and gruesome manner.
The thing is, you do not write a fucking big scene like you are just casually mentioning the color of the mane of a horse, because it KILLS THE READERS, OKAY. Let's not make it a habit of pulling a Finnick Odair in every book. (Readers, now you get an idea of what I'm talking about. Or maybe, the gravity of this turnaround.)
I am reminded actually of the book One Day by David Nicholls, by the sense of the book and the format of the story-telling. Also, it also has that seem unassuming feel of a Nicholas Sparks book, but only like 50x more intense and better.


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Greetings Jenny —
Here is your horoscope for Sunday, December 24:
You're in such great demand that you may have to take your privacy
by force. Information is priceless, whether as the perfect secret
or as a transitory bargaining chip. Think on your feet as you dance.
Greetings Jenny —