Items

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  2021-10-29

  (HIST30060) Leaving Victoria

  HIST30060. This meme highlights how many Victorians felt after enduring the longest duration of lockdowns in the world. Between March 2020 and October 2021, 254 days in total were spent in some form of lockdown in the pursuit of ‘elimination’ – the attempt eradicate COVID-19 from society completely. Whilst seemingly satirical, this meme alludes to a hidden truth. 43,000 Victorians left the state during the two-year pandemic according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Whilst seemingly small relative to Victoria’s 6.6million population, the amount of people that left Victoria was the equivalent of the entire City of Wodonga leaving the state. No other state or territory recorded a reduction in population, especially on this scale.
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  2021-03-27

  hermit HERALD, ISSUE 106

  Biden $3 trillion Build Back Better plan
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  2020-06-12

  Virus Exposes Weak Links in Peru’s Success Story

  Peru has become a hotspot for coronavirus, despite an intense lockdown and track & trace technology. The article highlights that COVID-19 cases have overwhelmed Peru's hospitals and healthcare capacity, what's understated is that Peru did take the right measures, they did react correctly and with national leadership. The problem is that they could not sustain an extended quarantine period. If it had been a true quarantine and the borders were closed, things might look differently, but the U.S. and Peru took weeks to negotiate repatriation of citizens, and groups of migrants began returning to the countryside or leaving Peru for their homeland, such as in the case of Venezuelans. With all of that movement, it is impossible to control the spread of an infectious disease.
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  2020-04-23

  Awakening the Inner Scientist news story

  Suffolk faculty encourage people of all ages to explore and record the world around them, and with the coronavirus keeping so many at home, opportunities abound for those interested in joining a growing movement toward citizen science. "Some people want to do science because they're concerned about what is happening in the environment, and they want to have a positive impact. Some are naturally curious about the world around them," says Professor Patricia Hogan, director of Suffolk's Center for Urban Ecology & Sustainability. She sees a role for people who are not trained in science.
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  2020-04-22

  Readying for Invasion: How the rhetoric of “Invasive Species” prepares us to be on the defensive

  This is a picture of Japanese Wineberry, surrounded by Lesser Celadine, a European species of buttercup. Both species are introduced. Lately, I have been taking a lot of walks. Getting out of the home is a luxury, now more than ever. As I walk, I have been trying to better familiarize myself with the world around me. What does it consist of? What do I recognize, what don’t I? What are the flora and fauna I am surrounded by that I fail to give my attention? I have been using the Seek app by iNaturalist to gain a better grasp of these species. What has been most striking, for me are the number of “introduced” species that exist around me. My sister and I have been making pesto out of garlic mustard, an introduced species from Europe. Brought over to be a spice, garlic mustard knows no bounds; now that I have seen it once, I see it everywhere. But we don’t readily recognize many European plants as invasive. From the beloved honey bee, to the seemingly integral “earthworm,” to the iconic Kentucky bluegrass – these species have been naturalized – on our landscapes and in our minds. As Alfred Crosby has pointed out, the introduction of species is key to ecological imperialism. And yet, in popular consciousness, we are relatively comfortable with Europe’s legacy of plants and animals that populate our landscapes. It is currently species from Asia – the Emerald Ash Borer, the stinkbug, the spotted lanternfly – that are branded “invasive,” that are campaigned against, and remarked upon for the havoc they wreak to the environment – especially the European environment that exists within America – when the grapes and stone fruit are eaten by the lanternfly. What happens when the introduced European environment is challenged by the introduced Asian environment? And what are we doing by labeling certain species “invasive” while seeing others as natural, when none of them are native to the land? We are preparing to be on the defensive. We are articulating rhetoric that builds consciousness and prepare us to be readily distrustful of Asia, to see the region as generative of harmful things that threaten the United States. We don’t see invasive species so much as a result of trade, and interaction, but rather as an “invasion” – a takeover – a biotic war waged in flora and fauna. What shifts within us when we recognize our environments as patchworks? As the knitted together histories of migration, immigration, exoticization, xenophobia. When we look at introduced species as memories, do we value them more? Do we begin to see ourselves become medleys of time and space, situated in the histories of other people’s choices? This is not to advocate on the behalf of introduced species, because I understand they can be particularly damaging to the environment. Rather, I challenge the word choice, and the placement of blame. I argue that understanding our history, and perhaps the ethnobiotic routes of the past, present, and future trajectory of species will help us undo this nationalist rhetoric, that prepares us to be suspicious, prepares us to be on the defensive, prepares us to blame Asia, or specifically China, for a wrongdoing. Perhaps this will allow us to situate the blame of our current crisis on inequalities specific to the U.S., and to failures specific to the state.
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  2020-04-15

  ESTA ES LA TRAVESIA DE MUCHOS HUANCAVELICANOS PARA LLEGAR A SU LUGAR DE ORIGEN.

  Un grupo de pobladores pertenecientes a la Región de Huancavelica , partieron del VRAEM con niños de todas las edades y personas adultas, pobladores que se encontraban por distintos motivos en en Picharia, C.P de Natividad y Mantaro Vraem, a falta de movilidad y en acato de estado de emergencia optaron por viajar a pie, según reportes ya no pueden estar más días de la cuarentena en el Vraem debido a que no cuentan con recursos económicos. NOTA : La gran mayoría de pobladores se dedicarían a la cosecha de coca e incluso muchos de ellos fueron con toda su familia para poder trabajar, debido al Estado de Emergencia, no pueden trabajar y ahora solo buscan retornar a su tierra natal. A group of residents belonging to the Huancavelica Region, left the VRAEM with children of all ages and adults, residents who were for different reasons in Picharia, CP de Natividad and Mantaro Vraem, due to lack of mobility and in compliance with state of emergency chose to travel on foot, according to reports they can no longer be more days of quarantine in Vraem because they do not have financial resources. NOTE: The vast majority of residents would dedicate themselves to the coca harvest and many of them even went with their entire family to be able to work, due to the State of Emergency, they cannot work and now only seek to return to their homeland.