Many people have been concerned about how the Brexit will affect citizens on both sides of the debate in the UK.
Negotiations on trading, treaties, and even immigration will have to be redefined, and many people’s jobs and school careers could be challenged in the process.
The wizarding world is already facing obstacles in the aftermath of the Brexit
Berite Bott’s Every Flavored Beans Can No Longer Make Every Flavor
Due to Europe’s resentment towards the UK, they are no longer granting the jellybean company access to ingredients needed to make every flavor.
It looks like Bertie’s flavors like lemon and soap that were imported from France are now being replaced with UK accessible ingredients like spotted-dick and haggis.
Photo Credit: Karen Roe/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
The QWCA (Quidditch World Cup Association) Has Decided To Exclude The UK From Participating In All Future Tournaments
Hogwarts fears that fewer athletes will choose to attend their school if it no longer feeds into the professional league.
Professor Hooch has been sending her star players off to the wizarding school in Spain, but many of their UK fans are outraged by what they feel is an absolute betrayal.
“They have to play,” Hooch pleaded. “I don’t care what is happening with this country, my players have to make it”.
Photo Credit: Meg Stewart/Flickr (CC By 2.0)
Gringots Has Gone Bankrupt
Now that so many of their wizards have had to pull their accounts and transfer to EU banks, the famous treasury has taken a huge blow.
Many homeless goblins have been seen wandering the streets of Hogsmeade with signs reading, “will work for access to Europe portkey”.
Photo Credit: tibbygirl/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
Students Are Disillusioned By The System
Hogwarts was expected to host the Triwizard tournament this year, but with previous fatal incidents, the Ministry of Magic was weary to grant them the opportunity.
Now, they’ve received word that Romania is refusing to lend them dragons for the competition, and students are feeling disheartened by the whole event now.
“It really is a shame”, said dragon handler, Charlie Weasley.
“I wish I could help my alma mater, but I have to due what’s best for my dragons,” Weasley told RISE NEWS. “Let’s face it, the Ministry of Magic has always underpaid us for our dragons, and at this point, the paperwork needed to bring them over is more than anyone can do in a lifetime”.
Photo Credit: Sam Howzit/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
The Ministry Of Magic Is In Tatters And It Is Spreading Hate Worldwide
Wizarding leaders are divided between those that wish to host European wizards, and those that wish to push current ones out.
From across the pond, a Brexit advocate, Drump Trumpledore praised the UK for leaving what he calls, “the failing European Union”.
He commends them for “taking control”, and spews out rhetoric concerning his similar intentions for the wizarding world of the USA, (The Umbridge Sectumsempra Americas).
“We’re gonna put up a wall of dementors”, he told our reporters.
“But we’re gonna make Mexico pay for the charms we use to keep that wall strong”.
Trumpledore told citizens to protect themselves from immigrating wizards.
“If Americans want to feel safe and in control, they should go buy more wands,” Trumpledore said. “Good guys with wands stop bad guys from using their wands”.
When asked on her thoughts, J.K. Rowling mentioned her disappointment with the choice to leave the UK.
In her usual eloquence, she stated, “My values are not contained or proscribed by borders. The absence of a visa when I cross the channel has symbolic value to me. I might not be in my house, but I’m still in my hometown”.
Photo Credit: mazz_5/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
It is a shame that villainous belief conjured up the majority of votes to cast out a union for the people.
It eradicated an identity that had been granted as a privilege to citizens of the UK and of Europe alike.
No one is truly clear on how this Brexit will affect the Western world, but everyone is anxious to find out.
The UK is in big trouble now that the Brexit has taken place, and Hogwarts worries whether it will remain a school for all young witches and wizards in the years to come.
For now, Bertie Bott is readapting his recipes, the dragons are staying in Romania, and Trumpledore is still a bigot and the source of annoyance for every intelligent mind on this side and on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: Ravi Shah/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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Here’s What Valentine’s Day Is Like For A Person In A Polyamorous Relationship
By Julia Fox
Still believe that exclusivity is necessary for deep, committed, long-term and loving relationships? The modern divorce rate of 50% says otherwise.
As traditional Valentine’s Day-themed pink and red greeting cards replace the tired Christmas & New Year colors on the stands of stores, most of us are anticipating (or dreading) the invasion of our social networks and television with the typical romantic scenarios of exchanging gifts, kisses and love messages between two lovers of the opposite or the same sex. Very few of us ever imagine the holiday routine in relationships where there are more than two lovers involved.
The images of cheating two-timers running between the deceived spouse and the scheming mistress aside, we are hardly bombarded nowadays by pictures of non-traditional family unions, such as polyamorous families, where the conventional Valentine’s day gift exchange is a little bit more complicated.
Polyamorous unions where ethical and responsible non-monogamy… are estimated to have around 1.2 to 2.4 million followers in the United States alone.
Polyamorous unions where ethical and responsible non-monogamy is practiced with knowledge and consent of everyone involved are estimated to have around 1.2 to 2.4 million followers in the United States alone.
How do polyamorous relationships come about? I am sure it is rarely a case of waking up one morning with your partner snoring by your side and deciding ‘why not add to the duo.’ The stories of people entering into the polyamorous unions are as many and varied as those embarking on conventional ones.
The beginning of my polyamorous relationship was a case of almost choking on toast one morning after my husband of 10 years admitted to having a homosexual relationship back in his college years with a Ukrainian man named Sasha.
Skipping through the finding Sasha story and straight into the reality of maintaining a household and a life with two partners and, yes, surviving a Valentine’s day together, the polyamorous relationship with a bi-sexual partner and a homosexual one who spent all of his life in the closet became an adventure for me worth sharing.
Almost all of us enter into a romantic union with the desire to be happy and to make our partners happy. Unfortunately, helping Sasha “come out of the closet” and leave the Ukraine was a huge struggle due to the severe psychological repercussions of concealing his sexuality since he was a young teen.
Photo Credit: Roy Blumenthal/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
Dreading being ostracized by the community, fearing shame, physical torture and even imprisonment, creating a heterosexual family and dissociating himself from the gay community altogether made Sasha (and many thousands of his compatriots) the broken man that he was when he joined our family. Thus, welcoming Sasha into our union and expecting a ‘happy-ever-after’ was just as irrational as anticipating an unclouded happiness in any relationship once the wedding bells quiet down.
Each person comes into a relationship, whether it is a traditional one or less then so, with one’s own baggage of expectations based on childhood memories, literature, social media and a load of personal traumatic experiences and their consequences, and thus Sasha joined us with the full baggage of his own.
Being forced into a traditional marriage by his parents and living his life as a heterosexual man affected Sasha’s mental health and contributed to the development of a whole range of mental issues, such as dissociation, depression, internalized homophobia, self-disgust, self-hatred and denial of one’s sexual orientation to oneself and others. There conditions are commonplace in persons with repressed sexual orientation, according to many prominent psychiatrists.
Sasha exhibited all kinds of issues, such as low self-esteem, negative body image and contempt for the more open LGBT members who decided to come out years before. More importantly, Sasha had a tendency to deny that homophobia was a serious social problem altogether. Remaining in a heterosexual relationship for most of his life in an attempt to pass as ‘normal’ and to gain social approval, Sasha became chronically depressed and took to heavy drinking. His fear of intimacy and his suicidal thoughts presented a bigger challenge and a threat to our union.
My brief relationship with Sasha opened my eyes to the many aspects of homosexuality and the life paths that LGBT men and women choose in the parts of the world where homosexuality is still considered an abnormality.
My brief relationship with Sasha opened my eyes to the many aspects of homosexuality and the life paths that LGBT men and women choose in the parts of the world where homosexuality is still considered an abnormality.
The freedoms that sexual minorities are enjoying in the majority of democratic countries today are precious and unheard of in such places as Ukraine, Russia, Belorussia, Azerbaijan and other post-Soviet territories. Giving American LGBT members a glimpse into the lives of those who are less fortunate and still struggle for their rights might be an eye-opening experience this Valentine’s day.
Sasha’s arrival in our life, the life of a typical monogamous heterosexual couple, meant re-imagining our relationship, challenging traditional marriage, sexuality and love itself. All three of us had to learn to navigate and explore the challenges and complexities of a polyamorous reality together against a backdrop of cultural and societal expectations and judgments.
Examining and questioning the dynamic and often challenging elements of marriage, relationships and acceptance, are just a few issues that polyamorous unions might bring out into the discussion.
Julia Fox immigrated from Russia in her late teens, settling in the United States in the early 90s. She published two books of poetry before leaving her home country, both in Russian, and published two more in English language after immigrating. And Then There Were Three: Sixty Seven Letters to Sasha is her first autobiographical memoir.
For more information about And Then There Were Three: Sixty-Seven Letters to Sasha, please visit Julia Fox’s website, Facebook and Twitter pages.
Cover Photo Credit: Roy Blumenthal/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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So What The Hell Is Going On In Colombia?
The conflict in Colombia between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrilla movement has been present in the lives of millions for over 52 years.
This armed conflict has not only severely affected the country in terms of violence but has also brought detrimental social and economic consequences.
The current Colombian administration took important steps into achieving a peace settlement, but after a plebiscite the Colombian people decided they would not agree on the terms of the agreement the government had negotiated.
This is what you need to know about Colombia and the current situation in regards to the peace process with the FARC:
FARC- Who are they?
The seeds of the FARC was started in 1953 when Colombia had a dictator as a leader called Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. (The group was officially founded 11 years later in 1964.)
Pinilla was against the liberal guerrillas (a group that favored the federalist system) and he was constantly attacking these groups.
Read More: Is This South Africa’s Tiananmen Square Moment?
As a consequence, self-defense groups formed and they “sought to protect themselves from the action of government militaries” (Leach 2011). These groups believed in a greater justice for the field.
While the FARC was at first ideologically motivated, it became more than that- involved in drug running and kidnappings to name a few.
A cache of FARC weapons collected by the government in 2013. Photo Credit: Policía Nacional de los colombianos/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
The FARC-EP is still fighting 52 years later and as the years have gone by they have started to utilize terrorist tactics and commit gross violations of human rights, they also profit from the illicit drug trade.
Peace Negotiations and the October Plebiscite
In 2012, President Juan Manuel Santos announced that he was going to initiate peace talks with the FARC; his goals were to end the conflict.
President Santos’ strategy for implementing a peace process with the FARC had major differences compared to the ones made by former Presidents Pastrana and Uribe.
Scholars such as Meuci noted that there were three major differences of the peace negotiations that took place in La Habana, Cuba:
1) The Colombian Government was negotiating in a strong position because the FARC was extremely weak, 2) Venezuela and other neighboring countries were taken into account, 3) the peace process had a pre-negotiation stage in 2011.
The peace talks were limited to five negotiation points- these being agrarian reform, the political participation of former FARC members, the procedures and statues that would bring an end to the armed conflict, The FARC involvement in the international drug trade, and the sources of reparation for victims. (Alvira 2013)
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. Photo Credit: Ministerio TIC Colombia/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
After four years of negotiations, Santos promised the Colombian people he would release the final agreement and subject it to a popular vote.
On October 2, 2016 a non-binding plebiscite was held.
The question to answer in the vote was “Do you support the final agreement to end the conflict and the construction of a stable long-lasting peace?”
Colombians were to vote Yes or No.
Colombians rejected the peace accord and the “No” won by 50.2 percent against the “Yes” 49.8 percent.
What’s Next?
After the announcement of the results, Santos acknowledged the results as the will of the people and called for national unity.
He talked about his commitment with achieving peace and desire to reach a consensus with Colombians that did not agree with him.
At the same time, one of the FARC leaders talked about his compromise to reach peace and to keep the cease-fire agreement in place.
The leaders of the “No” camp reassured that people were rejecting the concessions that the government made with the FARC but not rejecting peace.
They argued the government was more or less rewarding terrorist and that this emphasized the need for renegotiation and for a better deal with the FARC.
Photo Credit: SV-AS10 ImageData
The current situation is an opportunity for true consensus through renegotiation.
Santos’ new plans are to include the thoughts from leaders of the “No” camp such as Alvaro Uribe Velez, Marta Lucia Ramirez, and Andrés Pastrana Arango.
Read More: What The Revolution Wrought: The Umbrella Movement Two Years On
This is essential to help mitigate the division and polarization in the country.
The next step is to truly form points of discussion and agreements that both sides (within the government) agree and then renegotiate with the FARC.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: Photo Credit: bixentro/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
Sources cited in piece:
Leech, Garry. The FARC: The longest insurgency. London and New York: Fernwood Publishing, Zed Book ltd, 2011.
Meucci, M. (2013). Proceso de paz en Colombia. Posibles implicaciones para Venezuela. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 3-19. Translated by Juliana Carvajal
Alvira, G. (2013). Toward a New Amnesty: The Colombian Peace Process and the Inter- American Court of Human Rights. Tulane Journal of International and Comparative Law, 22, 119-144.
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Cable News Is Dying And We Should Hope For A Swift Death
As a multimedia journalism student I should hope for the success of cable news.
After a steady decline in average viewership, the 2016 election cycle seems to have brought prime-time and overall viewership back into an upward swing.
Both revenue and newsroom spending for cable news has also steadily increased, a good sign for my personal post-graduation job prospects.
Local affiliate stations offer hyper-local news programs that provide information I’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere besides my local newspaper.
But I’m most likely to get my news online, just like 50% of my fellow millennials.
As someone who has friends and former co-workers in the cable news business, I wouldn’t wish for their stations and programs to be shut down.
But regardless of the statistics, advantages of the format and my friends in the industry, I firmly believe we’d be better off without cable news-at least in its current form.
I haven’t watched cable television since the Super Bowl and before that I only watched cable news for election night.
Most of the political coverage and debates were streamed online and I found no reason to stick around to get “expert analysis” from CNN, MSNBC or Fox News commentators.
While President Trump’s rise to power has been entertaining, his hyperbolic comments on the death of the media has fueled him and the industry he has targeted.
Still, the modern cable news program seems to serve no greater purpose than react to whatever crazy statement the Trump administration said that day.
The visual aspect of storytelling cable news used to have over newspapers and magazines has now been eclipsed by internet based news sites.
Cable news is looking as outdated as black and white in today’s world. Photo Credit: John Atherton/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
Publications like Now This and TheBlaze have risen to prominence across Facebook and Twitter feeds for their easily digestible video content and controversial program hosts like Tomi Lahren.
Even the traditional cable news networks offer convenient links to the same videos and articles they talk about on television through their social media and online websites.
In a world of instant gratification through the internet, there’s simply no reason to watch cable news programs that require you to wade through the muck just to find the content you’re looking for.
One could argue that this new age of news is shortening our attention spans and encouraging the “rush to be first” breaking news mentality that stimulates inaccuracies.
But I would argue that news is headed this direction no matter what format we get our news.
The days of standardized local news “stand-up” stories and CNN pitting a panel of Trump and Clinton supporters against each other has done nothing but push me away.
I’m annoyed and exhausted with news programs that are driven through controversy for the sake of profits and attracting advertisers.
In an ideal world, I see the media being funded on a subscription basis, one that would allow the stories to be told without the outside influence of ads and sponsored products in-between every story.
Platforms like Patreon.com already provide a way for me to directly fund entertainment and programs I enjoy, while also giving me the power to influence the type of stories and content my favorite creators make.
This subscription based funding of media doesn’t facilitate a bright future for cable news, but then again neither does our current path of news digestion.
A 9-year-old with a smartphone and Facebook live can be considered a journalist.
Youtubers and vloggers can accrue larger daily audiences than many cable news programs.
Whether this is good or bad for the industry as a whole is a matter of perspective.
From my perspective, despite recent increases in viewership, cable news is on the way out.
Once the presidency of Donald Trump ends, cable news will become stale and ratings will settle into another plateau before declining again.
The journalism industry as a whole and those who engage in the content produced from it would be better off if the death of cable news was expedited.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: Steven Depolo/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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