rnope

The simple yet useful Arabic numeral:

Our future feels increasingly uncertain and hope has become a scarce - but essential - commodity. This isn't easy for any of us.

And yet, people across the world are making progress despite the cards they’ve been dealt. Their stories of hope seldom make headlines, but they are just as real. An objective view of the world includes both: the tragic and the hopeful.

We met Naliaka, and heard her story of hope, in a small village in Kenya. She’s a 64-year-old farmer, has raised nine children, and is one of the most successful environmental conservationists we’ve ever met.

Years ago, she realized that the river her community depends on – for cooking, drinking, washing, farming – was endangered. Its surrounding forest was largely cut down. The trees no longer prevented the soil from polluting the river; their roots no longer filtered the water; their leaves and branches no longer attracted the rain. Everything her village had been taking for granted was at stake.

But Naliaka had hope, and acted on it. Together with her friends, and with the support of Ecosia’s local partner, the Green Belt Movement, Naliaka started a nursery. Year after year, she collected seeds, raised saplings, and regrew the forest that has protected her river for centuries.

For a bit of background: the Green Belt Movement, our tree-planting partner in Kenya, was founded by Prof. Wangari Maathai. She was the first African woman to win the Nobel Prize for her political activism and for empowering communities across Kenya to plant trees around critical water sources. For Wangari, tree planting was also about helping people, including the most marginalized, to stand up for their human and environmental rights.

Naliaka was trained by Wangari Maathai; that’s why she knows so much about trees, and how they contribute to water security. Thanks to your searches, the Green Belt Movement supports Naliaka’s nursery. Your searches, in other words, are protecting that river. And this global solidarity, this global concern with the future of our planet, is a reason to be hopeful – not just for Naliaka, but for all of us.

Produced by Joshi Gottlieb (IG: @joshigot)

Editing & post-production by Sina Samavati (IG: @sinasamavati) and Pako Quijada (pakoquijada)

Writing by Joshi Gottlieb

Some coasters I'll have at Nucleus Portland for their annual coaster show SALUT9! You can check it out irl 6/2 or online the day after.

Very much did in the sense that I literally do not know where my job is at the moment. But, for the time being I haven't been let go because nobody else including the store owner knows where it is either.

So, I don't wanna risk doxxing myself by posting pictures but goddamn am I tempted because this is not a believable event. This is a cartoon problem. For looneytoons.

But yeah, so, I work(ed?) at a kiosk selling boba tea, right? Freestanding kiosk in the mall with full water and electrical hookups and multiple fridges and sinks and a mini kitchen and the works. Fully functional tea shop. Very important to note that it was there last night, The work chat was discussing another issue last night at closing time. I'll get back to this.

It's been showing signs of being on the way out with how business is being handled lately and I've been considering other options, which is probably why I'm not as torn up about this as I should be, but maybe it just hasn't set in yet, but that's not the point. The point is there's been a lot of shit breaking and not being replaced and nobody mentioning anything about it until I walk into work in the morning and have to figure out why shit like the fucking cash register isn't there today. So I'm kinda used to having to ask questions about big things that nobody bothered to update me on. I was out for two weeks recovering from a surgery, so I came to work this morning assuming there'd be some kind of bullshit, yeah?

So, the question I had to ask the chat this morning was:

Not a text I ever thought I'd have to send in sincerity, but there it is. Because what I found instead was a fenced off patch of discolored tiles and a few holes in the floor where my entire place of employment used to be.

And the answer? Nobody knows! It was there last night when the mall closed, and every single trace of the structure and all its contents including drink making supplies and our safe and cashbox was gone when it opened again. And when I say nobody knows, I mean everyone from last night's closers to the actual (former?) owner of the store jad no fucking clue about this until getting that text from me this morning. For once I am actually the first to know. 🎉.

So. I guess I didn't so much lose my job as had it stolen. Not by AI, but good old fashioned hands-on human beings picking it up and carrying it away somehow. All mall security would tell me was that they were instructed not to tell me anything and have us contact our management. Who also don't know anything. And later on I came across some construction workers around the gravesite of the kiosk discussing filling in the holes, asked them about it, and was told that they "weren't at liberty to say".

So, not only is my job gone in the most literal physical sense of the word, but it was taken in some kind of super secret kiosk extraction in the dead of night without any warning or witnesses and nobody is allowed to speak of it. The store owner said she was gonna figure it out 10 hours ago and still no word back.

My mother in law thinks the FBI took it.

Not any of the other stores around the state. Just the one little kiosk.

Why? Because she loves a conspiracy and is just a little bit extra.

Also because she was around for the massive crackdown on Yakuza-owned businesses in Waikiki (in her homestate) that did actually involve the FBI seizing stores (no confirmation of making kiosks cleanly disappear in the middle of the night though).

Still no word from my job on what's actually going on, but the most likely theory so far is that maybe the kiosk was on lease and got repossessed? The mystery continues

According to the owner, based on what she's been able to find out, the kiosk was not removed legally and they're starting a potentially long process of legal action. I hope she gets to sue the shit out of whoever did it but for now at least I know for sure I'm unemployed.

Really hoping for more details in terms of who/why/how, so I'll keep updating if I learn anything.

For now the summary is: An unnamed entity that is most likely mall management (on account of mall security cooperating with them) stole an entire kiosk and all the contents including money and machinery with barely a trace in the middle of the night grinch-style, with zero warning or explanation, and ensured the silence of both security and the construction crew, in an action that was definitely preplanned and illegal, and as far as I know nobody knows its whereabouts.

Enjoy the unintentionally funniest text I've ever sent in my life

Aaand a close-up:

HEY HI HELLO THIS ONE'S MY FAVORITE