Ovi magazine; Sunday November 21st, 2021

 

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Sunday November 21st, 2021

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Gasbagging in Glasgow: COP26 and Phasing Down Coal by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Words can provide sharp traps, fettering language and caging definitions. They can also speak to freedom of action and permissiveness. At COP26, that permissiveness was all the more present in the haggling ahead of what would become the Glasgow Climate Pact.

COP26, or the UN Climate Change Conference UK 2021, had a mission of “Uniting the world to tackle climate change.” The tackling, however, fell rather short, though countries, in the main, were trying to sell the final understanding as a grand compromise of mature tidiness. COP26 president Alok Sharma called the outcome “a fragile win”, the outcome of “hard work” and “great cooperation” from the parties.

The Pact is a flurry of words, acknowledging, for instance “the importance of the best available science for effective climate action and policymaking.” Alarm and utmost concern is expressed by the parties at the fact “that human activities have caused around 1.1 °C of global warming to date and that impacts are already being felt in every region”. There is a stress on “the urgency of enhancing ambition and acting in relation to mitigation adaptation and finance in this critical decade to address gaps between current efforts and pathways in pursuit of the ultimate objective of the Convention and its long-term global goal”.

Continue reading HERE!

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The shapes that were crying in the rain #poem by Abigail George

“Shroud don’t say anything if I changed
my hair, if I spoke my thoughts, don’t
move an inch, a muscle. There’s a knot
in your throat. It is just a moment in the
falling light. Kissing the velvet of your
shoulder. Stay, stay with me, hold me if”

Continue reading HERE!

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Advice after reviewing resumes by Joseph Gatt

Advice after reviewing 1,000+ resumes, in no particular order.

-Messy resumes (almost) always head straight to the trash bin. Unless you’re on the team that designed a NASA spaceship, you want your resume to be clean.

What do I mean by messy resumes? Spelling mistakes, inconsistent alignments and fonts, information all bundled up, wording and paragraphs not consistent. In sum, the resume does not look pretty.

So if you want a tip: go online, look for sample resumes, look for the pretty ones, and emulate the style. That will give you more chances to get a job.

-Extravagant claims also (almost) always lead your resume to head to the trash bin. The trend these days is for K-pop fans to claim that they “speak Korean.” Or for people to claim to speak dozens of languages.

Or they claim to have received an “award” when all it is was a “certificate of participation.” That’s like bowing out of the first round at the Olympics and claiming to be a medalist.

Or they just make strange claims about the past jobs they held.

Continue reading HERE!

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A fistful of cactus 21#11 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

For more A fistful of cactus, HERE!

For more Ovi Cartoons, HERE!

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Ovi magazine; Thursday November 11th, 2021

 

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Thursday November 11th, 2021

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#COP26 and reclaiming our neglected duty of stewardship by Dr. Habib Siddiqui

COP26, the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference, is being held at the SEC Centre in Glasgow, Scotland, U.K., between 31 October and 12 November 2021.

Who would have believed that the levels of the two most important anthropogenic greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and methane, continued their unrelenting rise in 2020 despite the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic response? 2010-2019 is the warmest decade on record. On the current path of carbon dioxide emissions, the global temperature is expected to increase by 3 to 5 degrees Celsius by the end of century.

Scientists, climate activists and UN officials have been warning that if governments don’t take drastic action to reducing emissions immediately, much of the world will suffer climate catastrophes, such as devastating sea-level rise, longer and more intense heat waves, and widespread species loss, among other consequences like the infrastructure damages. Going forward, it is important for communities to invest in resilient infrastructure that will be able to withstand future climate risks.

Glaciers have shrunk, ice on rivers and lakes is breaking up earlier, plant and animal ranges have shifted and trees are flowering sooner. The Arctic Ocean is expected to become essentially ice free in summer before mid-century. The intensity, frequency and duration of hurricanes have all increased since the 1980s. Sea-level is projected to rise another 1 to 8 feet by 2100. Bolivia’s second-largest lake has all but dried up due to drought; Iran’s largest lake has all but disappeared; and Lake Chad, Africa’s largest, has shrunk 80 percent in 30 years.

Continue reading HERE!

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Palimpsest #poem by Jan Sand

“I am inscribed each morning with the bright Sun, blue skies,
The cheerful twitter of the birds captured in green tapestries of leaves.
The draperies of prospects out of coffee, plans to be fulfilled”

Continue reading HERE!

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Sceptic feathers 21#21 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

For more Sceptic feathers, HERE!

For more Ovi Cartoons, HERE!

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Ovi magazine; Wednesday 20, 2021

 

The articles, the opinions, the stories and the cartoons, Ovi magazine covers for Wednesday 20th, 2021

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Cheap Grace and Climate Change: Australia and COP26 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

It was not for everybody, but the shock advertising tactics of the Australian comedian Dan Ilic made an appropriate point. Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison, a famed coal hugger, has vacillated about whether to even go to the climate conference in Glasgow. Having himself turned the country’s prime ministerial office into an extended advertising agency, Ilic was speaking his language.

The language was promoted through sponsored imagery in Times Square, New York, with advertising space purchased by a crowdfunding campaign of considerable success. Billboards featured the prime minister as a “Coal-o-phile Dundee”, mercilessly mocked Australia’s climate policies and responses to the murderously scorching bushfires of 2020.

It had begun modestly: a target of $12,500 to fund a few billboards in Glasgow during COP26 as part of the project JokeKeeper: Shaming Australia’s climate inaction, described as, “Subversive comedy to ridicule fossil fuel supporting parties in the upcoming federal election.”

Continue reading HERE!

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“Passage” #poem by Jan Sand

“My mind is waves curled with wind,
Is smoke that twists and flares,
Is leaves that tumble in a dance
To flapping slapping airs.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Brinkmanship #ShortStory #Fiction By Ian C Smith

We lived on our wits and savings then, a working holiday, her keener on working than holidaying. Exploring London’s vast echoing age, shadows tempting after Australia’s gaudy glare, I stopped at blue historical plaques signifying that famous people spent parts of their lives there, thrilled chancing upon Dickens’ Bleeding Heart Yard. I read ancient manuscripts in the British Museum, hoarding these days like precious jewels for the future. We also kept hearing an old hit by Procol Harum, the tune everywhere, even the front upstairs seat of a red bus, as if an anthem borne on the Thames tide.

Continue reading HERE!

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Ghostin’ 21#19 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

For more Ghostin’ HERE!

For more Ovi Cartoons, HERE!

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