A note from our editor, Elizabeth MacBride:
The Biden administration announced recently that the United States would accept as many as 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. That’s a sharp contrast to the policies of recent years. Democrats tend to be a bit more welcoming compared with the Trump Administration, which cut off most refugees entirely, but not really: President Obama, for instance, agreed to accept 10,000 Syrians at the height of the Civil War in 2015, the same year Germany took in 1.5 million and countries in the Middle East like Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon were taking multiple millions.
First of all, I’ll believe the proposed welcome mat when I see it. The United States has a punitive asylum program – we quiz people like crazy before we let them through the golden door. Despite Americans’ perception of ourselves as warmly welcoming of immigrants, we haven’t been, for quite some time.
It’s easy to see the welcome to Ukrainians as a matter of race. They’re white, not brown. I can only imagine how it feels to be in a refugee camp in Africa, or to be a Palestinian, or a Syrian in Jordan, unable to return home or to start to rebuild – and meanwhile, the U.S. seems uniquely hypocritical.
The refugees I met on many trips to the Middle East were – I can’t emphasize this enough – just like you and me. There were lawyers, doctors, school teachers and wedding photographers among them. The same will be true of Ukrainians Disasters and wars happen to people. We don’t want to think they could happen to us, so there’s a human tendency to put people who have been victims into a category that we could never belong to. But I wouldn’t look at the difference between the way we’re treating Ukrainians and the way the United States treats refugees from other parts of the world purely as a question of race. The truth is we find a million reasons not to welcome the stranger.
And the other truth and the one I think many of the domestic entertainment-media world, which has been highlighting the race question, is ignoring, is that geography still does matter. NATO matters. We’d much rather return to fighting our culture wars than we would look at the new realities of a world in which Russia is a threat, again.
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Regular readers of my editor’s note might remember that I wrote about the connections between the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy and Google months ago, especially the link between it and Schmidt Futures, the philanthropy run by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Politico wrote about it last week. But you read it here first. This is what my journalism professors would have called an old-fashioned scoop.
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Living the dream 💭
Best Practices: An interesting idea surfaced at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee this week. Sen. Mike Braun, Republican of Indiana, spoke about legislation he is working on with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, that would enable people to use 529 plans for professional certificates, including for the trades. Small businesses could offer their own training courses, potentially adding a revenue source and skilled workers.
Buzzworthy: One unexpected benefit of the pandemic was that more people had a chance to try running a side hustle–and discovered they were good at it! Americans registered 5+ million small businesses in 2021, according to SCORE. If you’re looking for a playbook to run your own, check out Tiny Business, Big Money, where independent journalist Elaine Pofeldt profiles nearly 60 microbusinesses that have all reached $1 million in annual revenue without losing control or selling out. Tiny Business, Big Money also includes the results of a survey with the founders of 50 seven-figure microbusinesses that got to $1 million with no payroll or very small teams, which provides insight into their shared principles of success that you can apply to your own small business.
Rathskeller 🍻
Finding More Hours In Your Free Time
Here’s a huge spring-time time saver: Commit to No-Mow May. Dandelions and clover will grow, providing habitat for bees during a crucial season – and so will the number of hours you can spend just watching the hours float by.
Wanderlust : a restaurant or activity from our Top Ecosystems list
Dallas/Fort Worth ranks third on our list of top ecosystems. Check out the Open Coffee Clubs across North Texas. Dallas Innovates describes: “the mother of all coffee meetups … is 1 Million Cups, a national organization that spawned chapters in Dallas (which typically meets at the Venture X) and Fort Worth (which meets at Locavore). Once a week, one or two local innovators present their startup to a caffeinated assemblage. When the pitches conclude, the group offers feedback, critique, and ultimately, a question of how the larger community can help the presenters’ startups take their next steps.”
Bring The Bison Into Your Life
These belts for are made by a third-generation family business called Vintage Bison USA in Corona, Calif. Prices are about $119 – $129 for women’s belts. You can read more about bison as part of the American ecosystem here at Wild Idea, which sells and ships bison meat. Owner and author Dan O’Brien wrote The Spirit of the Hills, and many others about life as a bison rancher.
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1. A Course To Reach the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs
In this free course developed by entrepreneurship professor John Lynn, professors and other entrepreneurship educators get a curriculum and supporting materials based on the influential book, The New Builders.
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2. Bursary Benefits Available for AI Week 2022
Amii has announced plans to award $100,000 in talent bursaries to empower AI technical professionals to attend AI Week 2022. Apply now to have your travel expenses covered – awards are allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.
📅 Date: May 24-27, 2022
🏢 Location: Edmonton, AB
🔗Link: https://www.ai-week.ca/talent-bursaries
3. Comcast Accepting Applications for Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs Accelerator
Open to global startups in connectivity, media, and entertainment, Comcast is now accepting applications for the fifth class of the Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs Accelerator. Comcast writes that they are “looking to mentor and invest in startups developing world-class technologies and products in the program’s core focus areas: Connected Living; Immersive and Inclusive Experiences; and Smart, Sustainable Enterprise.”
📅 Application Deadline: May 11, 2022
🏢 Location: Philadelphia, PA
🔗 Link: https://lift.comcast.com/accelerator
4. Pepperdine Launches 5th Annual Most Fundable Companies
This is the annual startup competition run by Pepperdine University’s Graziadio Business School. Founders of U.S. based companies that make the Most Fundable Companies List will be invited to our gala event in Malibu in October and your startup will receive significant national recognition. You do not need to be affiliated with Pepperdine to participate. All companies that advance to the second round of the competition will receive a free detailed feedback report on how they can make their company more attractive to investors.
📅 Application Deadline: Not Clear
🏢 Location: N/A
🔗 Link: https://www.reconstructchallenge.com/initiatives/employment
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