Author: TSA Press

It’s that time of year when we have the same discussions we had last year:

1. What’s the best way to cook a turkey for Thanksgiving?
2. Didn’t the holiday decorations for December come out earlier this year?
3. What’s the most important advice to give to students studying for finals?

The answers to the first two questions appear at the end of this post.  The answer to the third question is: Don’t be your own worst enemy.  That answer requires some explanation.

I’ve written before about being your own worst enemy during finals.  Previously, the focus of my post was on patience.   Today it is about the negative self-talk I frequently hear from students during this time of year (and again in May).

Negative self-talk is damaging to your studying.  It is like climbing a mountain with a 50-pound weight on your ankle.  It kills your productivity and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Here’s how: Studies show that if you engage in negative self-talk, you’re more likely to be stressed and more likely to have lower self-esteem.  You are, in effect, setting yourself up for failure.  The more you tell yourself you can’t do something, the more likely you are to try to prove yourself right.

Don’t believe me?  Ask Luke Skywalker.  Luke’s attempt to use the Force to lift his X-Wing fighter out of the marsh on Dagobah in “The Empire Strikes Back” is perhaps the most famous example of negative self-talk.  Luke is convinced he cannot lift the fighter.  Yoda scolds him.  “Always with you it cannot be done.”  Master Yoda is pointing out the terrible habit Luke has set upon himself.  Starting from the position that something cannot be done assures you cannot do it.

Luke says, “I’ll give it a try.”  Yoda replies, “No.  Try not.  Do.  Or do not.  There is no try.” Yoda is telling Luke to visualize success.  “Try” is a halfway house wherein there is doubt as to ability.  Visualizing success actually helps achieve it.  There’s science behind this.

Luke fails, and Yoda shows that he can lift the ship up.  Luke says, “I don’t believe it.” Yoda replies, “That is why you fail.”  Luke was catastrophizing, as he was prone to do.  The effects of doing so as you study is to render your studying meaningless.  “I’ll never learn this stuff!”  “I’m going to fail!”  “I’m so screwed!”  Yep, you are.  And the reason is that you are trying to study with increased stress, more self-doubt, a more closed mind, and in a state in which you are not open to information.

Over time, repeatedly engaging in negative self-talk that can lead to feelings of depression and despair.  Attempting to study with those feelings is like climbing a mountain with a 500-pound weight on your ankle.  That is the cycle of negative self-talk: It feeds itself, and the thing it is feeding on is your self-esteem.  The more you engage in the behavior, the heavier the weight around your ankle.

There are many ways to pause the negative self-talk, and, over time, to minimize it.  But that takes mental training and practice.  Until then, you can deploy some techniques as you study:

1. Reframing. Reframing means taking the negative self-talk and turning it into something positive.  There are some examples here.  Instead of saying “I’m going to fail” reframe to “I’m going to succeed.”   Or, “I’m going to win.”
2. Stop it! When you catch yourself engaged in negative self-talk, tell yourself to stop.  Say it aloud.  And then reframe.  This helps you avoid focusing on the negative.  Often times we can spend a good deal of time focusing and feeding our fears and catastrophizing.
3. Clear your mind. Many people advocate meditation. I have become one of them, as I’ve started to engage in the practice more frequently.  It is a way to bring your mind calm, and be centered.  Even if you don’t meditate, a few moments of exercise, changing scenery, or just breathing can help you emerge from the negative self-talk.  (The most hilarious self-talk I’ve engaged in was “I can’t sit still long enough to meditate.”)
4. Check in with a true friend. Sometimes talking to someone who wants you to win can help you reframe.  Often times, we dismiss these friends because they couldn’t possibly know what we’re going through (even if they have gone through it themselves).  But, a true friend will help us see ourselves through their eyes, and not through our own distorted view.  But make sure it is a true friend, not someone who will join in the negative self-talk.
5. Be your own best friend.  The question you should ask yourself is: “What would you tell your best friend if they were in your situation?”  The answer is never: “You’re going to fail!  You’re screwed!  You might as well drop out of law school!”  The answer is never that, because you treat your best friends with compassion and kindness.  Start doing that with yourself as well.

Good luck on your finals.  You got this.

Answers to the First Two Questions:

1. There is no good way to cook a turkey. It’s going to be dry.  Here’s my argument.
2. I saw my first store Christmas tree in September.

LawProfBlawg is an anonymous professor at a top 100 law school. You can see more of his musings here. He is way funnier on social media, he claims. Please follow him on Twitter (@lawprofblawg) or Facebook. Email him at lawprofblawg@gmail.com.

CSR Network executive director Willard Razawo said the 2019 Circular & Plastics Innovation Award recognised Africa Albida Tourism’s (AAT) zero tolerance of single-use plastic and the Victoria Falls Recycling initiative; while group marketing manager Nommy Vuma was awarded one of ten Top CSR Manager of the Year awards.

This year re-useable glass water bottles replaced single-use plastic bottles across the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge estate, and AAT chief executive Ross Kennedy hoped the hospitality group would be free of single-use plastic by 2021.

In addition, AAT, in partnership with Greenline Africa, launched Victoria Falls Recycling, last year, a project which recycles plastics, paper, beverage cans and glass.

The 2019 Zimbabwe National Responsible Business and CSR Awards, held on November 21, at the Rainbow Towers Hotel, are based on the contribution being made by individuals and organisations in the private and public sectors towards community development in Zimbabwe.

AAT chief executive Ross Kennedy said: “Being recognised for doing good things very well, especially when they make such a positive impact on the community, conservation and indeed society, is extremely rewarding and satisfying.

“Enormous respect and admiration must go to Andy Conn, Charlene Hewat and her team for their relentless endeavours to recycle and create opportunity and income for community members,” Kennedy said.
“We are also so proud to see our individual team members and colleagues at Africa Albida
Tourism recognised for their contribution, energy and dedication,” he added.

“We are fortunate to have a number of such people in our team, and offer Nommy our sincere congratulations and appreciation for flying the CSR flag very high for the brand.”
AAT operates a portfolio of properties in Victoria Falls, with its flagship Victoria Falls Safari Lodge celebrating its 25th anniversary next month. Other properties in the group’s portfolio include Victoria Falls Safari Club, Victoria Falls Safari Suites, Lokuthula Lodges-Victoria Falls and The Boma – Dinner & Drum Show.

Post published in: Featured

* The New York Bar is helping attorneys reach “high profits” by allowing lawyers to advise clients on legal issues related to marijuana. [Bloomberg]

* A Michigan lawyer has been sworn in as an attorney by the same judge who sent him to prison two decades earlier. [Detroit Free Press]

* Looks like Elon Musk won’t settle a lawsuit about his imfamous “pedo guy” tweet and will testify in his own defense. Wonder what type of experts Musk plans to introduce at trial. [Reuters]

* A NYC man has won $280,000 against a lawyer who called him an “a-hole” and a “jerk” online. Never thought an NYC jury would award so much money for such insults. [New York Post]

* The Oregon State Bar has allegedly mishandled the cases of a disbarred Oregon lawyer who is accused of stealing millions from her clients. [The Oregonian]

* The DC Attorney General has joined the pile-on against Juul, the maker of electronic cigarettes, over allegations it illicitly advertised to minors. [CNBC]

Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.

Mhondoro Ngezi (Zimbabwe) (AFP)

The logs were arranged in such a way that they were ready to be burnt into charcoal — a fuel that has become a substitute for Zimbabwe’s energy shortages, at a terrible cost to its forests.

“It hurts to see forests decimated like this,” said Chizema, who lives in Mhondoro Ngezi, in the centre of the country, 150 kilometres (90 miles) southwest of Harare.

Some loggers come from as far as Harare, “where we hear there is a big demand for charcoal,” he said.

“We, as elders, try to discourage the practice, but it’s all about money and survival.”

For nearly six months, Zimbabwe has been in the grip of chronic power cuts, sometimes running to 19 hours a day.

The price of cooking gas has increased more than six-fold since the start of the year, placing it beyond the reach of many.

For many lower-income urbanites, firewood and charcoal have become the go-to sources of substitute energy — and rogue logging is the result.

Zimbabwe is losing more than 330,000 hectares (815,000 acres) of forest annually, according to Abednigo Marufu, general manager of the Zimbabwe Forestry Commission.

That’s the equivalent to nearly half a million football pitches.

“Zimbabwe is losing quite a lot of trees and forests… everywhere because there is no electricity and our people need to feed themselves, they need heating in their homes,” he told AFP.

Even so, “agriculture is still the number one driver of deforestation,” he said.

A controversial land reform programme launched in 2000 saw a surge in the loss of forest cover as people cleared land for cultivation.

“Some of them started growing tobacco and cut down trees to use for curing their crop.”

The practice continues, as farmers view wood to be free compared to other options.

– Dilemma –

Authorities are confronted with an enforcement conundrum.

Charcoal production is outlawed in Zimbabwe but it can be imported from neighbouring Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi, with special permits.

But Marufu said no such licences had been issued for over a year, yet Zimbabwe was awash with charcoal.

“How do you then know what charcoal is imported and locally produced?” Marufu asked rhetorically.

A lot of the older indigenous mopani trees have been reduced to stumps. AFP journalists saw numerous darkened patches where the logs had been piled and burnt into charcoal in the forests at Mhondoro-Ngezi.

Best Muchenje has been the district’s forestry officer for the past two years.

“Deforestation was already bad when I came here,” he told AFP.

“But the power crisis has worsened the situation, (and) the mopani tree is a target because it is hard and produces quality charcoal.”

Mopani is one of the country’s iconic indigenous trees that easily survive hot and dry conditions.

The law allows those living in the sparsely populated villages to cut trees for personal use and not for commercial purposes.

– ‘Forests or humans’ –

But for unemployed villagers like Enia Shagini, lack of money forces them to risk being fined or even jailed for cutting down trees for charcoal.

She sells a 50-kilogram (110-pound) bag for the equivalent of less than 50 US cents (40 euro centimes).

“We have children to send to school,” said the mother of three, bemoaning a crackdown on illicit charcoal production which has widely been ignored.

In the capital, charcoal vendors at the Mbare market, just a few minutes’ drive from downtown Harare, display dozens of 50-kilo polythene bags of charcoal for sale.

Prudence Mkonyo claimed she got her charcoal from Nyamapanda, near the border with Mozambique.

“It’s difficult bringing the stuff to Harare,” she said.

“We ferry it on trucks at night but sometimes you have to deal with the police at roadblocks. You need to be prepared to pay them bribes when you get stopped.”

She sold her charcoal at the equivalent of between US$2.50 and US$3.00 a bag, but sales are slow.

People are struggling with unemployment and the country’s worst economic crisis in a decade.

“There isn’t much money going around so business is really bad. Some people are burning discarded plastic soft drink bottles for cooking.”

While the law is clear on production of charcoal, the government is in a dilemma.

“It’s a very complicated issue,” Nqobizitha Ndlovu, newly-appointed minister for the environment and climate change, told AFP.

“We acknowledge the shortage of electricity and that gas is expensive, so wood and charcoal are alternatives. So while we are worried about forests, we also worry about human beings.”

“Elephant populations are going down significantly, except for the Southern African region, and yet the world is trying to teach this very region how to conserve its wildlife,” he said. “Really, the irony.”

As CNN recently reported, Zimbabwean officials are legally capturing elephants in Hwange National Park and shipping them off to China in tiny crates. Elephant experts interviewed by CNN said the highly intelligent and social animals are ill-suited for confinement.

Asked if he was bothered by the possibility that young elephants being traded to zoos and theme park are traumatized by the experience, Ndlovu said it was not a new phenomenon.

New Frontier Data, the authority in data, analytics, and business intelligence for the global cannabis industry, just made public its Zimbabwe hemp and cannabis cultivation study, Hemp Cultivation in Africa: Zimbabwe – A Case Study (2019), presented to the Zimbabwean government in May of 2019, ahead of Zimbabwe’s hemp legalization announcement at Victoria Falls’ New Frontier Data-led InterCannAlliance event.

The study, the second part of a series, examines the risks and opportunities in an emerging Zimbabwe hemp industry. New Frontier Data is looking to partner with other African nations and deliver similar market assessments and implementation studies, fostering responsible practices and clear understanding of potential socioeconomic impacts of hemp and/or cannabis legalization in traditionally agro-based Sub-Saharan economies.

“Agro-based Sub-Saharan nations, many of which, like Zimbabwe, primarily produce tobacco for Chinese consumption, are facing declining demand, which could cripple their economies within the next decade. Leaderships such as that of Zimbabwe are smart to be thinking ahead and exploring other crops presenting minimum transition cost and rising demand,” noted Giadha Aguirre de Carcer, New Frontier Data Founder and CEO. “Hemp cultivation, especially given the explosive demand arising from neighboring European nations, presents a unique opportunity to Zimbabwe and other African nations well positioned to meet such demand cheaper, and possibly faster, than current suppliers from Canada and Latin America.”

Following the New Frontier Data-led InterCannAlliance Africa event in May 2019, Zimbabwe Minister of Justice Ziyambi Ziyambi announced his cabinet’s interest and plan to develop a regulated cannabis framework.

Some key findings from the study include:

• Combined tax revenues from domestic sales and exports over a five-year period could reach nearly $19 million
• Based on prevailing rates of cannabis use, there are more than 1 million consumers in Zimbabwe who collectively spend over $200 million each year on cannabis
• Cannabis and hemp cultivation can reinvigorate the agricultural sector, highway systems, and overall population wellness and healthcare

Learn more about New Frontier Data’s research on the Zimbabwe hemp and cannabis market here: http://newfrontierdata.com/ZimbabweCaseStudy

About New Frontier Data:

New Frontier Data is an independent, technology-driven analytics company specializing in the cannabis industry. It offers vetted data, actionable business intelligence and risk management solutions for investors, operators, researchers and policymakers. New Frontier Data’s reports and data have been cited in over 80 countries around the world to inform industry leaders. Founded in 2014, New Frontier Data is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with additional offices in Denver, CO, and London, UK.

New Frontier Data does not take a position on the merits of cannabis legalization. Rather, its mission and mandate are to inform cannabis-related policy and business decisions through rigorous, issue-neutral and comprehensive analysis of the legal cannabis industry worldwide. For more information about New Frontier Data, please visit: https://www.NewFrontierData.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191125005865/en/

Post published in: Featured

Findings from the 12th Annual Law Department Operations Survey

Findings from the 12th Annual Law Department Operations Survey

BLICKSTEIN GROUP & ABOVE THE LAW

(You’re pretty close to convincing me to amend the Sixth Amendment so that it provides for an impartial jury OF WOMEN.)