Lise's Lens: May 25, 2023
Lise laments the Safer oil tanker situation off the coast of Yemen, shares a reminder about school safety, and looks back on the incredible life and career of Tina Turner.
WHAT I’M READING
- Have you ever heard of the United Nations using crowdsourcing to raise money for a project? Well it’s been doing just that. I've been pretty upset for the past few years about the status of an oil tanker off the coast of Yemen in the Red Sea. Since the start of the civil war in Yemen (that’s a DEVASTATING situation) about 7 years ago, the FSO Safer has been abandoned in the port of Hodeida. It currently holds about 1.14m barrels of crude oil and the tanker itself is now in terrible condition. It has been falling into disrepair, with crew-members still living abroad in terrible conditions and the potential for leaking oil into the ocean grows increasingly high. Not only would a leak damage a highly biodiverse marine environment, but it would also greatly impact the livelihoods of fishermen living in coastal communities.So why have we waited so long? It’s so frustrating! Here are some of the questions that stopped us from action:1) Who is responsible for funding a solution?2) Who owns the oil ($$$) once the it is transferred to another ship?3) Who is going to compensate the workers who have been keeping the ship from total collapse?It’s an environmental and humanitarian disaster.
WHAT I’M THINKING/TALKING ABOUT
- After two Massachusetts independent schools were victims of “swatting” calls this week, my mind has been on our own community and our safety response protocols. Our Emergency Response Team met this week to make sure that we are ready in the event that we receive any sort of threat. Out of an abundance of caution, all active threats made to CSW will be treated as viable until we have more information. We plan to share more information and engage in additional training next fall.
WHAT I'M WATCHING/LISTENING TO
- Upon learning of Tina Turner’s passing, I’ve been rewatching clips of her musical performances and looking back at some of her iconic photos. She was so impactful to my friends and me when we were teenagers and I think, as young women, she was such a pillar of strength as she went from surviving abuse to thriving on her own as a groundbreaking musician and a woman.
WHAT CAUGHT MY EYE
Check out Coco Wu’s capstone: a pop-up store featuring all donated clothing from the community. View the interactive installation here!
CSW—a gender-inclusive day and boarding school for grades 9-12—is a national leader in progressive education. We live out our values of inquiry-based learning, student agency, and embracing diverse perspectives in every aspect of our student experience. Young people come to CSW to learn how to learn and then put what they learn into action—essential skills they carry into their futures as doers, makers, innovators, leaders, and exceptional humans who do meaningful work in the world.