Random Thoughts: On #Europe, @POTUS, #Iran & Other Thoughts....

I begin this weekend by reflecting upon French Guayana.    The tragedy of French Guyana is just heart breaking especially as France is French Guyana has gone on strike to demand better living conditions as crime is rampant and the economy is just stagnant.     

I have been working away on helping to gear up for the Second Quarter of Daily Outsider as I am seeing how we can and should be different than Ozy & Others.    As I have been thinking about the long-term for The Daily Outsider (and helped with some curation for the weekend), I was also seeing the latest out of Iran as the new year dawns and especially as Presidential Elections loom.    The radicals in the ruling clique lamented the celebrations of the ancient festival of Nouroz as it being 'Un-Islamic" as the Country's Economy continued to face challenges.  Yet, it was so ironic how the same Government found billions to spend on Khomeini's Mausoleum and to spend millions in support of the Religious sites in Iraq.    According to the Governments' Own Figures, over 25 percent of Iran almost 80 Million People are depressed.   There are some 4 Million Adicts and an estimated 600,000 prostitutes.    The social situation inside the country is just dire beyond Words as the new Iranian year dawns.

This has also been a quarter of unprecedented change in Europe as underscored by this captured by the Economist' KAL as the British Prime Minister triggered #Brexit: 



This transformation has been documented in a very interesting way by the New York Times' Thomas Friedman in his newest Book:  Thank You For being Late as he has worked to document the transformation in our time (including Globalization, Climate Change & Technological Transformation).     It seems to be lost in the Trump Administration, though, as it rolled back Obama-Era Climate Change rules and supported the rollback of privacy rules.      +The Guardian  of London has worked to captured the emerging resistance: 

The Resistance Now: Big corporations come at Trump on climate

Mars Inc, Staples, Levis Strauss and Gap Inc have doubts about Trump’s pro-business climate plan; Bernie Sanders plans a summer bash for activists; how #blackwomenatwork won the Internet The Resistance Now on Facebook

Protest Banner Lending Library at the Chicago Cultural Center Photograph: Courtesy of Aram Han Sifuentes

Adam Gabbatt  @adamgabbatt

Corporate leaders join the resistance The creators of chocolate bars, pencils and sensible trousers joined Trump opponents this week. After Trump issued an executive order undercutting Barack Obama’s 2015 clean power plan on Wednesday, major companies including Mars Inc, Staples, Levis Strauss and Gap Inc came forward to criticize Donald Trump’s climate agenda. While Trump says rolling back climate regulations will bring back coal jobs and spur job growth in the fossil fuel industry, some of America’s largest companies aren’t convinced. “We believe that investing in a low-carbon economy will not only help foster a healthier environment, it is also a key to unlocking new business growth potential for the US and around the world,” a Gap spokesperson told the Guardian. Read more about the companies resisting Trump here.

Not going to sugar coat it. Photograph: Lex van Lieshout/EPA

A number of companies have said they will continue to abide by Obama’s plans anyway – something of a thumb in the eye for the new president. As an aside: Mars Inc produces Skittles, the popular candy that got Donald Trump the Younger in trouble last year. One "grassroots" effort is the Resistance School that was the product of a number of Kennedy School Graduate Students.     It is clear that there are profound challenges at hand although the need to be hopeful is ever so critical now!!!