Warga mengantre mendapatkan beras murah di Pasar Murah di halaman Kantor Kecamatan Pamulang, Tangerang Selatan, Banten, Rabu (21/2). (Foto: Ng Putu Wahyu Rama/RM)
Penurunan harga beras paling terasa di Pasar Induk Cipinang, Jakarta. Kamis (29/2/2024), harga beras premium di Pasar Induk Cipinang mengalami penurunan Rp 300 per kilogram, dari sebelumnya Rp 14.500 menjadi 14.200 per kilogram.
Ketua Pengusaha Beras Indonesia (Perpadi) DKI Jakarta Nellys Soekidi mengatakan, penurunan harga beras dimulai sejak Rabu (28/2/2024). Penurunan itu terjadi seiring masuknya beras kualitas medium dari Bulog ke Pasar Induk Cipinang dengan harga harga Rp 10.600 per kilogram.
Penurunan harga juga terpantau di sejumlah pasar tradisional di Jakarta Barat, Sukabumi, Subang, Cilegon, dan Situbondo. Untuk beras medium dan premium, penurunan mulai dari Rp 500 sampai Rp 1.000 per kilogram.
Direktur Utama Perum Bulog Bayu Krisnamurthi mengatakan, saat ini harga beras mulai stabil dan normal kembali karena pasokan di Pasar Induk Johar, Karawang, mulai masuk dari Jawa Tengah yang mulai panen raya. Harga beras premium yang sempat tembus Rp 17 ribuan, saat ini bertahap mulai turun dan kembali ke harga di kisaran Rp 14 ribuan. “Begitu juga beras medium, harga mulai stabil,” kata Bayu.
Menurut Bhayu, harga beras memang kerap mengalami naik turun. Kenaikan harga beras tahun ini disebabkan faktor alam El Nino yang menyebabkan panen padi di sejumlah menjadi mundur. Selain itu, kenaikan harga beras disebabkan turunnya produktivitas padi petani lantaran tidak semua kebutuhan pupuk petani terpenuhi.
Bayu menegaskan, pihaknya terus memantau perkembangan harga dan pasokan beras di pasar serta melakukan langkah-langkah strategis demi menjaga stabilitas pasar dan kesejahteraan masyarakat. Salah satunya dengan penyaluran beras program Stabilisasi Pasokan dan Harga Pangan (SPHP) ke pasar induk, pasar tradisional, dan ritel modern.
Bayi optimis, harga beras akan mulai terkendali saat Ramadhan dan Idul Fitri. Hal itu dikarenakan adanya beras impor dan masa panen yang diperkirakan akan terjadi pada Maret-Mei 2024. Kata dia, pada Maret dan April akan ada panen di Kendal, Sragen, Demak, Indramayu, dan Sulawesi Selatan.
“Optimis 2 minggu ke depan, bulan Puasa dan Lebaran itu harga beras terkendali,” kata Bayu.
Kepala Badan Pangan Nasional (Bapanas) Arief Prasetyo Adi menyatakan hal yang sama. “Seiring berjalannya waktu (harga beras akan turun),” ucapnya, dalam acara Economic Outlook 2024, di Jakarta, Kamis (29/2/2024).
Untuk pasokan, kata Arief, akan sangat tergantung dari produksi. Jika Indonesia mampu menanam minimal 1 juta hektar, maka beras yang dapat dihasilkan mencapai sekitar 2,5 juta ton. Namun, jika luas lahan yang ditanam di bawah 1 juta hektare, produksi beras diperkirakan tidak cukup untuk memenuhi kebutuhan bulanan sebanyak 2,6 juta ton sehingga harga beras akan bergerak naik.
Saat ini, lanjut Arief, harga gabah secara rata-rata sudah berada di level Rp 7.100 per kilogram dari sebelumnya sekitar Rp 8.000 per kilogram seiring dengan meningkatnya produksi. Dengan kondisi ini, harga beras premium sangat memungkinkan kembali ke Harga Eceran Tertinggi (HET) Rp 13.900 per kilogram.
“Kalau itu sudah terjadi, dua tiga minggu lagi pas kita masuk Puasa tanggal 10-11 (Maret 2024) saya rasa harga sudah terkoreksi dan stok akan banyak,” ujarnya.
Sekretaris Kemenko Bidang Perekonomian Susiwijono Moegiarso juga memastikan, pasokan beras akan mencukupi. Kata dia, saat ini, beras impor sudah banyak mengantre di pelabuhan untuk masuk di Indonesia. Dengan begitu. pasar akan dibanjiri stok dan harga bisa menurun. “Dijamin pertengahan Maret (harga beras turun),” kata Susiwijono.https://yangterbaik.com/wp-admin/
“Tentu saja, satu putaran itu lebih hemat. Rp 17 triliun bisa selesai. Kalau dua putaran, biayanya bisa bengkak sampai Rp 34 triliun. Kasihan uang rakyat,” kata Yerry saat menjadi narasumber di acara diskusi publik Gogo Bangun Negeri (GBN) bertajuk “Probability Ganjar-Prabowo Atau Prabowo Ganjar” di Coffee & Couple Cafe.Jakarta, Rabu (27/9/2023).
“Kalau bisa dibuat dua pasangan dengan satu putaran, kenapa harus dua putaran,” imbuhnya.
“Yang ideal itu memang dua kubu besar (Gerindra dan PDIP) bersatu dalam satu perahu sebagai Capres dan Cawapres,” cetus Yerry, yang juga Ketua DPP Perindo.
Hanya saja, menurutnya, perjodohan Ganjar dan Prabowo bukan hal gampang. Mengingat keduanya saling didorong menjadi capres.
“Sekarang tinggal dilihat, siapa yang lebih ideal, atau komposisi partai seperti apa yang lebih ideal antara Prabowo-Ganjar, atau malah Ganjar-Prabowo,” beber Yerry.https://yangterbaik.com/wp-admin/
Sekolah Nur Hikmah menggelar puncak perayaan Hari Guru di lapangan utama Sekolah Dasar Islam Terpadu (SDIT) Nur Hikmah, Bekasi, (27/11/2023). (Foto: Dok. Sekolah Nur Hikmah)
Ribuan siswa dari jenjang Kelompok Belajar (KB), Taman Kanak-Kanak (TK) hingga Sekolah Menengah Atas (SMA) ikut memeriahkan acara tersebut.
Pukul 07.00 WIB, lapangan utama sudah dipadati oleh peserta baik siswa, guru maupun pengurus Komite Sekolah.
Rangkaian acara dimulai pukul 07.30 diisi dengan tampilan siswa dari semua unit pendidikan dengan menampilkan murojaah, penampilan music angklung, marching band, paduan suara, serta atraksi silat.
Murojaah secara estafet sebagai pembuka awal dari kegiatan ini dibacakan oleh 4 siswa dari jenjang SD, kemudian acara dilanjutkan dengan parade perayaan hari Guru.
Parade kali ini menjadi menarik, pasalnya tokoh pendidikan yang turut berkontribusi dihadirkan dalam bentuk seni main peran oleh para guru.
Kegiatan parade dibuka oleh hadirnya pangeran berkuda yang gagah berani yakni Pangeran Diponegoro yang diperankan oleh Ustadz Slamet Supriyadi.
Kemudian dilanjutkan oleh parade tokoh dari berbagai jenjang pendidikan yang ada di Nur Hikmah Bekasi.
Ki Hadjar Dewantara yang menjadi sosok penting dalam perjalanan pendidikan di Indonesia, pun tak luput dari rangkaian parade yang dimunculkan.
Prof Moh Yamin, Rasunah Said, BJ Habibi, Buya Hamka, Fatmawati, Teuku Cik Ditiro turut diperankan dalam parade tokoh dan pahlawan Nasional tersebut.
Tampilan angklung yang disajikan oleh siswa TK pun menyedot perhatian penonton. Dengan memainkan dua lagu yang diiringi oleh instrument piano, menjadikan kolaborasi ini sangat indah untuk dinikmati.
Team paduan suara SMP dan SMA yang juga menjadi pengisi acara inti turut memberikan sumbangsihnya dalam dalam menyanyikan lagu Hymne Guru.
Pada atraksi silat dan taekwondo, kemeriahan pun terjadi. Di tengah atraksi tersebut, dibentangkan spanduk Hari Guru oleh utusan SMP diwakili Sayyid Asykar Hudzaifah, Tyo Tsaqif Wibowo dan Denis Haryodistiro.
Pelepasan balon dan converti pun dilakukan sebagai pemeriah puncak Hari Guru yang berlangsung di Sekolah Nur Hikmah Bekasi.
Apresiasi, tanda mata pun tak luput diberikan oleh Komite Sekolah Nur Hikmah Bekasi yaitu Isna Hidayati.
Dikatakan, Guru sejatinya tak pernah henti dalam melukis cerita di buku kehidupan, catatan kebaikan senantiasa terpahat.
Dalam kepolosan siswa, guru menanamkan benih, tumbuh menjadi bunga bermekaran, harum di taman ilmu.
“Guru banyak memberikan inspirasi, membentuk karakter siswa. Ribuan terimakasih rasanya tak cukup untuk membalas segala jasamu. Terimakasih atas segala dedikasi dan bimbingan yang luar biasa kepada anak – anak kami,” pungkas Isna dalam sambutannya.
Hadir juga dalam perayaan Hari Guru tersebut keluarga dari Alm Ustadz Arief Rahman sebagai penerima LiveTimeAchievement, yang diwakilkan kepada istri Ustadzah Irma Fitrianti yang dengan penuh isak menerima penghargaan tersebut.
“Rasanya beliau masih ada dan terus membersamai perjalanan pendidikan di Nur Hikmah ini, rasa Syukur yang tak terhingga kepada Allah atas segala kesempatan yang diberikan almarhum dalam mendidik anak – anak tercinta Nur Hikmah. Doakan, semoga beliau dapat memetik pahala terbaik dari benih ilmu yang ditebarkan,” katanya dalam sambutan kemarin.
Tak hanya Alm Ustadz Arief yang mendapatkan penghargaan LiveTimeAchievement, Ustadz Rahayu, Ustadz Cucu Kurnia dan Ustadz Noor Sewoko pun turut mendapatkan penghargaan tersebut dari Komite Sekolah Nur Hikmah Bekasi.
Dalam setiap cerita keberhasilan, ada nama Bapak/Ibu guru yang bersinar. Selamat Hari Guru, terima kasih telah menjadi pencerah dalam kisah hidup kami.https://yangterbaik.com/wp-admin/
Ketua Umum Partai Golkar Airlangga Hartarto (kiri). (Foto: Ng Putu Wahyu Rama/RM)
RM.id Rakyat Merdeka – Menghadapi Munas Partai Golkar, posisi Airlangga Hartarto berada di atas angin. Menko Perekonomian ini mendapat dukungan baik dari para pengurus DPD maupun senior partai berlambang beringin tersebut. Dari senior, dukungan diberikan oleh Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Aburizal Bakrie, dan Akbar Tandjung.
Satu per satu pengurus DPD Golkar secara terbuka memberikan dukungan kepada Airlangga untuk kembali menjadi Ketum Golkar. Teranyar, dukungan datang dari Ketua DPD Partai Golkar Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) Melkiades Laka Lena. Kata dia, Airlangga berhasil mencetak prestasi dalam Pemilu 2024. Makanya, wajar kalau pengurus DPD menginginkan Airlangga kembali menakhodai beringin.
Melki lalu menceritakan dukungan pengurus DPD dalam forum Silaturahmi Partai Golkar yang berlangsung di Bali, Jumat (15/3/2024) pekan lalu. Saat itu, kata dia, semua pengurus DPD kompak memberikan dukungan secara terbuka untuk Airlangga.
“Saat itu suasana terasa hangat dan guyub. Kami berkumpul dan diskusi mengalir lancar, yang kesimpulannya sepakat Pak Airlangga melanjutkan kepemimpinan,” kata Melki, Senin (18/3/2024).
Melki menambahkan, dukungan kepada Airlangga itu bukan hanya karena prestasi di Pemilu 2024. Namun juga karena para senior Golkar ikut mendorong Airlangga kembali menjadi ketua umum.
Melki mengatakan, Ketua Dewan Penasihat Partai Golkar Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Ketua Dewan Pembina Partai Golkar Aburizal Bakrie, dan Ketua Dewan Etik Partai Golkar Mohammad Hatta hadir dan memberikan dukungan kepada Airlangga.
“Walaupun tidak ada (di Bali), Bang Akbar Tandjung dan Pak Agung Laksono juga menyatakan mendukung Pak Airlangga. Kemudian kita solid menjaga kekompakan. Jadi, Munas Desember nanti kita sepakat Pak Airlangga meneruskan kepemimpinan,” ucapnya.
Untuk struktur partai, Melki menerangkan, dukungan ke Airlangga tidak hanya diberikan oleh tingkat provinsi alias DPD I. Dukungan serupa disampaikan DPD II alias tingkat kabupaten/kota.
Pertama, Airlangga telah sukses membawa partai meraih kemenangan di Pilkada, Pileg, dan Pilpres. “Keberhasilan Pak Airlangga sudah nampak, sudah terbukti, sudah dirasakan semua kader, dari tingkat pusat sampai dengan daerah kabupaten/kota,” kata Adies, dalam jumpa pers di Kawasan Sudirman, Jakarta Selatan, Minggu (17/3).
Adies menceritakan, di bawah kepemimpinan Airlangga, Golkar berhasil menang 60 persen dalam Pilkada 2020. Ia pun berharap, kesuksesan itu kembali diraih Golkar pada Pilkada tahun ini.
Kedua, Airlangga berhasil menaikkan perolehan kursi partai di Pileg 2024, dari 85 kursi saat ini menjadi 102 kursi. Adies memperkirakan, jumlah tersebut masih bisa bertambah.
Ketiga, Airlangga berhasil membawa kemenangan bagi Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming di Pilpres 2024. “Jadi, sudah tiga (alasan), apalagi yang diperdebatkan,” ucapnya.
Adies mengatakan, sikap MKGR akan secara resmi disampaikan dalam Rakernas pada Juli mendatang. Pihaknya dalam waktu dekat akan bertemu Airlangga dan meminta kesediaan maju kembali di bursa caketum Golkar.
Sebelumnya, saat berpidato dalam forum Silaturahmi Partai Golkar di Bali, Luhut Pandjaitan menyatakan, di bawah komando Airlangga, Golkar sukses dan berhasil meraih pencapaian yang baik di Pemilu 2024. Ia pun berpesan kepada para kader dan pengurus agar menjaga posisi Golkar yang sangat baik ini. Caranya adalah menjaga kekompakan.
“Jadi, instruksi dari ketua partai itu harus dilakukan. Ini penting. Kalau ini kita pelihara, chain of command (rantai komando), semua bisa diatur oleh Golkar,” kata Luhut.
Dia pun mewanti-wanti agar para pengurus solid dan jangan mau diatur oleh orang luar. “Saya bilang ke Pak Ical dan Pak Airlangga, jangan ada yang mau atur-atur kita. Kalau kau (Airlangga) sama aku kumpul, kita lawan siapa pun itu,” tegas Luhut.
Hal senada disampaikan Aburizal Bakrie alias Ical. Kata dia, semua kader harus menjaga kekompakan dan jangan mau diadu domba. Ical menekankan pentingnya soliditas di kalangan internal partai.
“Jangan mau kita diatur oleh orang luar. Jangan mau kita disuruh menari di gendang orang lain. Kita tabuh gendang sendiri, kita menari di gendang kita sendiri,” pesannya.
Dalam kesempatan itu, Ical pun mengucapkan selamat atas kesuksesan yang diraih kepada DPD Golkar se-Indonesia dan caleg yang telah bekerja selama Pemilu 2024. Ical optimistis, Golkar akan menduduki peringkat nomor dua partai perolehan suara terbanyak pada Pemilu 2024.
Menjelang Munas Golkar ini, ada empat sosok yang disebut-sebut bakal meramaikan pertarungan. Selain Airlangga, tiga lainnya adalah Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, Bambang Soesatyo, dan Bahlil Lahadalia.
Pengamat politik Jamiluddin Ritonga mengatakan, dari keempat sosok itu, Airlangga menjadi tokoh yang lebih diuntungkan. Pasalnya, Airlangga punya catatan keberhasilan memimpin Golkar di Pemilu 2024, dengan menjadi juara dua di bawah PDIP.
“Perolehan suara tersebut tentu peningkatan signifikan bagi Golkar. Hal itu terjadi saat Golkar dipimpin Airlangga. Padahal, sebelumnya Golkar diperkirakan hanya mampu duduk di peringkat ketiga. Golkar awalnya dinilai akan kalah dengan Gerindra,” ucapnya.https://yangterbaik.com/wp-admin/
“Kita melakukan titik peningkatan pengaman di semua sisi,” kata Wakil Kepala Satgas Pamwil Jateng Operasi Aman Bacuya Kombes Pol Dwi Subagio saat konferensi pers di Informasi Center Piala Dunia U-17 Surakarta, Sabtu (25/11/2023).
Langkah tersebut dilakukan karena diperkirakan jumlah penonton pada semifinal dan final nanti diprediksi akan meningkat.
“Kami terus monitor (jumlah penonton). Meningkat sekali. Pada saat semifinal nanti informasinya tiket- tiket sudah banyak terjual. Hampir memenuhi stadion ini (Manahan Solo),” ujar dia.
Sebelumnya, Kabid Humas Polda Jateng Kombes Pol Satake Bayu Setianto juga telah menyatakan peningkatan pengamanan dilakukan mulai dari lokasi pertandingan hingga hotel penginapan. Pengamanan dilakukan menggunakan tiga lapis zona pengamanan.
Sejumlah 4.515 personel disiagakan Polda Jateng, terdiri dari personel gabungan Polri dan TNI
“Secara terperinci, personel yang disiagakan terdiri dari 963 personel pengamanan dari Satker Mapolda Jateng, 3.141 personel dari polres jajaran dan 500 personel dari TNI,” jelas dia.
“Untuk pengamanan Zona I (di dalam Stadion) mengedepankan fungsi dan peran dari Steward yang dikendalikan oleh FIFA. Pelibatan personel Polri dilaksanakan sesuai dengan ekskalasi ancaman dan permintaan dari Safety dan Security Officer,” jelasnya.
Sedangkan pengamanan di Zona II (sekitar kawasan stadion) dan Zona 3 (luar kawasan stadion), katanya menjadi tanggung jawab Polri yang diback up oleh petugas lain yang terkait.
Pengendalian kegiatan pengamanan akan dilakukan melalui 2 Posko Taktis di Ruang RTMC Polresta Solo dan di Stadion Manahan. Selain itu juga disiapkan Posko Utama di Ruang MCC Biro Operasi Mapolda Jateng.
Polda Jateng juga menyiagakan ratusan CCTV di beberapa titik di seluruh penjuru Kota Solo dan terintegrasi di Posko Taktis RTMC di Mako Polresta Solo.
Pengamanan lain adalah Langkah cepat Polda Jateng menindak praktek percaloan dan penipuan tiket selama event Piala Dunia U-17 berlangsung.
“Namun sebelumnya ingin kami sampaikan warga masyarakat agar berhati-hati khususnya saat melihat suatu postingan (media sosial). Penipuan banyak terjadi di ranah medsos. Maka itu lakukan pembelian tiket di link-link resmi yang telah ditentukan oleh FIFA,” kata Dwi Subagio.
Sebelumnya Polda Jateng telah mengamankan seorang pria berinisial MS yang menjual tiket palsu Piala Dunia U-17 2023. Pelaku menjual tiket melalui laman media sosial Facebook.https://yangterbaik.com/wp-admin/
Sukarelawan Ganjar Pranowo yang tergabung dalam Gerakan Pemuda dan Gerakan Perempuan Gowa menggelar kegiatan pelatihan tari dan seni musik, di Desa Tanakaraeng, Kecamatan Manuju, Kabupaten Gowa, Sulawesi Selatan, pada Rabu (20/6). (Foto: Ist)
Kegiatan dilakukan agar para pemuda dan pemudi yang masih usia produktif dapat melestarikan budayanya, terutama budaya Bugis, Makassar.
“Kegiatan ini kami pilih karena saat ini tari dan seni musik di kalangan pemuda minatnya kurang. Setelah kegiatan ini mudah-mudahan pemuda pemudi dapat mencintai tari dan seni musik asal daerahnya dan melestarikannya,” ujar Koordinator Wilayah Gerakan Pemuda Gowa, Daeng Bella.
Dia menjelaskan, respons para peserta pada kegiatan ini sekaligus tentang sosok Ganjar sangat senang dan gembira. Sebab, Ganjar merupakan salah satu tokoh yang masih condong terhadap kelestarian seni dan budaya.
“Respons mereka sangat senang dan gembira. Karena di era moderenisasi ini masih terdapat tokoh yang tertarik dan condong kepada seni budaya,” ujarnya.
Lewat kegiatan ini, Almi mengaku mendapat banyak ilmu terkait seni yang ke depannya harus dilestarikan.
“Acara pelatihan tari dan seni musik ini sangat bermanfaat, dapat memberikan effort kepada kami agar bisa mengetahui seni apa yang perlu kita lestarikan,” kata Almi.
Menanggapi Ganjar, Almi mengaku banyak terinspirasi dari sosok berambut putih tersebut. Salah satunya soal kelestarian adat.
“Selama ini saya lihat beliau sangat menghormati adat dan ingin melestarikan adat yang ada di negara kita. Dari segi kepemimpinan, selama ini beliau juga orangnya tegas, baik, berwibawa, dan berkharisma,” ujarnya.
Dia pun berharap, jika Ganjar terpilih menjadi Presiden 2024 dapat melanjutkan estafet kepemimpinan Presiden Joko Widodo (Jokowi).
“Semoga di 2024, jika Pak Ganjar terpilih dapat memberikan warna baru juga bagi Indonesia,” pungkasnya.
Adapun dalam kegiatan kali ini para pemuda dan pemudi mempelajari tari paduppa yang diiringi oleh alat musik gendang, suling, dan kecapi.https://yangterbaik.com/wp-admin/
Roberts is on the cover of British Vogue’s February issue. In a corresponding interview for the magazine with “Notting Hill” screenwriter Richard Curtis, she talks about ageless beauty, the “feminist” choices she’s made in her career and how it feels to be one of the most famous faces in Hollywood.
‘Leading a life that is fulfilling’
Jokes aside, Roberts says the key to youthfulness is in the people and experiences that make up her life. Of course, genetics helps too.
“Good genes, leading a life that is fulfilling, and I have said this — and I say it usually as kind of a joke — but I do believe in the love of a good man,” she told the publication. “I believe that my husband loves me and cares for me in a way that makes me feel deeply, deeply happy. And anytime you see someone who’s happy, it doesn’t matter how old they are.”
The world largely knows Roberts as “America’s sweetheart,” a title that followed star turns in beloved rom-coms such like “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” “Pretty Woman” and, of course, the 2001 film “America’s Sweethearts.” (Outside of the genre, Roberts won a “Best Actress” Academy Award in 2001 for her portrayal of the titular “Erin Brockovich,” and a “Best Supporting Actress” Golden Globe in 1990 for her role in “Steel Magnolias,” among other trophies.)
‘They see something familiar’
That audiences find her relatable is something Roberts is acutely aware of, for better or worse. “I will say that I think there’s something in me that’s always (let) people feel they’re comfortable, or they see something familiar,” she explained. “If someone sees me in a grocery store and they say, ‘Why did you cut your hair like that?’ it’s not because they’re trying to be rude. It’s because they feel they know me, that I sit behind them in church every Sunday.”
“It’s that sense of feeling that you understand someone that you don’t know. I guess looking relatively like myself in most parts takes me out of the character-actor lane. But I never feel like I’m playing myself.”
To this point, Roberts reminded Curtis that she had almost turned down the “uncomfortable” part of movie star Anna Scott in “Notting Hill,” calling it “one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.”
“It just seemed so awkward,” she said of the role “I didn’t even know how to play that person.” And in a meta twist, Roberts explained that she hated dressing as a movie star so much that she chose to wear her own clothes in the scene where she delivers the movie’s now-iconic line, “I’m also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”
Opting out of the wardrobe provided on-set, Roberts said she sent her driver back to her apartment with instructions to raid her closet. “It was my own flip-flops and my cute little blue velvet skirt and a T-shirt and my cardigan,” she said.
Roberts also discussed how feminism shows up in her work, nodding to her decision not to do nude scenes in films.
“Not to be criticising others’ choices, but for me to not take off my clothes in a movie or be vulnerable in physical ways is a choice that I guess I make for myself,” she told the magazine. “In effect, I’m choosing not to do something as opposed to choosing to do something.”https://yangterbaik.com/
By 30, he was a two-time Stanley Cup winner with the Chicago Blackhawks and, in 2015, had retired from the sport, poised to enjoy retirement with his wife and three children, he says.
By age 31, he was suicidal.
After seven diagnosed concussions, Carcillo tells CNN that he was suffering from “dementia-like” symptoms, along with depression, anxiety and headaches, so much so that even a day out with his kids felt torturous.
“If they want to go outside on a very sunny day, and I can’t find my dark glasses to block the sun out … I would try to go outside and tough it … that would trigger a headache, and that would trigger head pressure,” Carcillo tells CNN Sport.
“Your impulse control is off,” he explained. “It would be miserable … Eventually, I would just go inside.”
After retiring from hockey, Carcillo was experiencing “dementia-like” symptoms, along with depression, anxiety and headaches.
Carcillo says he also suffered from insomnia and disrupted sleep and would go to bed at 4 or 5 a.m., trying to sleep as much as he could during the day so that he wasn’t around anybody or in the sun.
“It’s a very lonely place to be,” he says.
He spent over $500,000 on prescription medications and treatments at stroke rehabilitation centers, brain centers, and concussion centers, as well as holistic therapies, and worried that he was a “burden in people’s lives.”
“And I woke up the next day and I describe it as feeling the way I should,” said Carcillo. “I felt like, for the first time in a very, very long time, I had a zest for life. All I wanted to do was get on FaceTime and call my wife and call my kids and get back home.”
Sporting potential
Carcillo isn’t the only athlete – former or current – openly talking about using psychedelics to treat various conditions.
Psychedelics, described by Harvard Health as a “loosely grouped class of drugs that are able to induce altered thoughts and sensory perceptions” – including acid (LSD), mushrooms (psilocybin), ecstasy (MDMA), ayahuasca, DMT (dimethyltryptamine) and ketamine – have a checkered legal history.
In 2022, residents in Colorado joined Oregon in voting to legalize psilocybin.
Small clinical trials have shown that one or two doses of psilocybin, given in a therapeutic setting, can make dramatic and long-lasting changes in people suffering from treatment-resistant major depressive disorder, though scientists are still exploring the how and the why behind the connection between psychedelics and improved mental health.
But experts also warn that taking psilocybin and other hallucinogens comes with potential health risks, such as psychosis or other longer-term mental health issues in some, as well as physical effects such as raised blood pressure and heart rate abnormalities.
NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers has continued to advocate for the legalization of some psychedelics, claiming last year that ayahuasca – a drink made from Amazonian plants that contain a psychoactive ingredient – helped to improve his performance on the football field.
Aaron Rodgers claimed that ayahuasca helped to improve his performance on the football field.
“Is it not ironic that the things that actually expand your mind are illegal and the things that keep you in the lower chakras [energy points in the body] and dumb you down have been legal for centuries?” Rodgers said last year at a psychedelics conference in Denver.
Former pro boxer Mike Tyson has said that magic mushrooms changed his life, and UFC President Dana White in 2021 said the organization was “diving in” to research on psychedelic drugs as a therapy for fighters’ brain health.
Elite athletes experience mental health disorder symptoms and psychological distress at similar, if not higher, rates to the general population, researchers pointed out in a study published in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology.
Courtney Walton, an academic fellow in psychology at Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, told CNN that many athletes fear seeking mental health support, believing “they may be perceived as somehow less competent or resilient than their peers and competitors, which can be made worse by upcoming team or coaching selection pressures.
He added that “athletes might overlook or normalize symptoms of mental ill-health, as rationalized within a highly pressurized environment.”
Walton explained it is “likely that psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy has particular appeal to athletes given the more time-constrained nature of treatment.”
He added that “psychedelics do not typically appear to have significant physical side effects” which could appeal to athletes who have experienced or heard of negative experiences with psychiatric medicine affecting performance.
UFC Senior Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance Jeff Novitzky said in May 2021 that White gave him a “directive” to explore psychedelic research to see if it helps with addiction and mental-health problems, as well as traumatic brain injury.
Novitzky told CNN the UFC is interested in any therapies that have the potential to improve brain health, and that the organization has had discussions with experts from institutions like Johns Hopkins and the University of Miami about the potential application of psychedelics, though nothing has progressed past preliminary conversations at this stage.
“All the scientists that we’ve talked to said, ‘Hey, there’s a potential real benefit here to treat brain injuries and for brain health,’” said Novitzky, adding there is still negative stigma associated with some drugs, citing cannabis.
Jeff Novitzky, UFC SVP of Athlete Health and Performance told CNN the UFC is interested in any therapies that have the potential to improve brain health.
Three years ago, the UFC changed its anti-doping policy so that ”positive tests over the threshold and decision limit for carboxy-THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, will no longer be considered a violation of the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, unless additional evidence exists that an athlete used it intentionally for performance-enhancing purposes,” according to a news release posted on their site in 2021.
Researchers in the field say that psychedelics are shown to work when treating some mental health conditions.
“The case is compelling when you look at this as a psychological treatment, where you might be treating depression or more or less any other psychiatric disorder with a couple of exceptions,” Robin Carhart-Harris, Ralph Metzner Distinguished Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at University of California San Francisco, told CNN Sport.
However, when it comes to treating brain injuries with psychedelics, “the truth of the matter is that there’s a lot that’s not known,” Carhart-Harris, former head of the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, added.
“There is an increasing amount of evidence to suggest that psychedelics promote aspects of brain growth,” he says, adding: “We need that smoking gun: a clear demonstration of this in an injured brain where we see regeneration afterwards. And at the moment, we’re close, but no cigar,” he said.
Carhart-Harris warned that psychedelics are “potent” and have the power to make people “psychologically agitated” when they are already psychologically vulnerable.
“People think they can just turn on, tune in and cure themselves. And it’s not that simple,” he added, explaining that if psychedelics aren’t paired with psychological support or psychotherapy they can be “harmful.”
James Rucker, a consultant psychiatrist and a senior clinical lecturer at King’s College London, said that evidence has shown that psilocybin can be used to manage treatment-resistant depression but warns that psychedelics are “very hyped,” with people having “huge expectations” as to their impacts.
“With great expectation comes great capacity for disappointment,” Rucker said, adding that while this can often be dealt with positively in a medical setting, “if you’re on your own, if you’re in a crappy situation, that can make things worse.”
Psilocybin mushrooms, pictured ready for harvest in a humidified “fruiting chamber,” are the center of a growing number of clinical trials.
Carcillo’s story
Following the head injuries sustained during his hockey career, the now 39-year-old Carcillo began struggling with depression and anxiety and was self-medicating with alcohol, painkillers, muscle relaxers and sleep aids.
Suffering from slurred speech, weight loss and memory issues, he became “very disinterested in life” after the birth of his first child.
“I just didn’t care, which was very weird that I felt that disconnected because I’ve always wanted to be a dad. It was kind of scary,” he said.
Carcillo was one of several hundred players who accused the NHL of failing to prevent hockey-related head trauma and hiding the dangers. The lawsuit was settled in 2018, with the league not accepting liability for the claims.
In 2019, by now a father of three, Carcillo found himself in a “very, very dark, dark place. I didn’t think I had a way out.”
He began reading medical papers and found a psilocybin study from the Imperial College of London, where researchers found “the psychedelic compound may effectively reset the activity of key brain circuits known to play a role in depression.”
Carcillo, pictured in 2015, was a two-time Stanley Cup winner with the Chicago Blackhawks when he retired.
That’s when Carcillo traveled to a decriminalized city and “partook in a really large dose ceremony,” taking the psilocybin recreationally and not part of a clinical study.
Later, he founded Wesana Health, a biotechnology company which focuses on developing psychedelic medicine for mental health, the most recent being a CBD and psilocybin-based drug.
The company met with the US Food and Drug Administration in March 2022 and has been working through the early drug development process, and recently sold the program to NASDAQ-listed Lucy Scientific Discovery. He is no longer involved in the company.
He told CNN that he regularly microdoses psilocybin, as well as partaking in larger doses from time to time.
“I continue to monitor my health with regular brain scans and blood work, and adjust my dosing schedule of medicinal mushrooms accordingly,” he added.
Carcillo is clear that his current well-being isn’t solely due to psilocybin, saying he exercises regularly, is careful to manage his sleep as well as sugar and alcohol intake, and makes sure to get out and about in the sunshine.
Ceremonies with mushrooms, LSD, ayahuasca and toad
Former US rugby player Anna Symonds says she was diagnosed with TBI about 10 years ago and has to take several different hormones that her body – notably her pituitary gland – is not making as a result of the head injuries.
Now retired from rugby, Symonds tells CNN Sport she has started to feel the effects of injuries to her body and head from years of participating in contact sports like rugby, soccer and mixed martial arts as well as being involved in two car crashes.
“I was physically not feeling well. In addition to my pituitary issues, I have an autoimmune issue with my thyroid,” she explains, adding that she also experiences headaches, memory issues, depression and anxiety.
She began using psychedelics to help with this, taking part in “macrodose-level journeys or ceremonies with mushrooms, LSD, ayahuasca and Toad.”
Also known as the Colorado River toad or the Sonoran Desert toad, the amphibian releases a venom called 5-MeO-DMT, which is known to have hallucinogenic effects, according to the Addiction Center website, which also warns of its dangers.
Since her retirement as a professional athlete, Symonds explains that she uses psychedelic drugs for clarity, though not under the direction of a doctor.
She adds that using cannabis for pain relief or using psilocybin does not necessarily elicit dramatic changes compared with other plant-based psychedelics.
“It’s this groove, it’s the spiral that you can’t seem to get out of, and it just almost reinforces itself. The experience of plant medicines is for me, like psychedelics, is that it lifts you out of the groove.”
Caution urged
Guidance from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) states that the effects of psychedelic and dissociative drugs may be difficult to predict and depend on many factors.
Short-term side effects from the drugs can include headaches, abdominal pain, nausea or vomiting, high blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, trembling and diarrhea, the NIH notes, though it adds that reported cases of side-effects likely represent only a very small number of users.
A laboratory researcher removes a Psilocybe mushroom from a container at the Numinus Bioscience lab in Nanaimo.
Rucker tells CNN: “I feel I need to draw a clear line between what we do in our clinical trials – which is safe and contained – and recreational use, which can be therapeutic, but can be dangerous, and is, by definition, experimental.”
Rucker added that it’s important not to overhype the effects of substances like psilocybin for mental health conditions, as other treatments including antidepressants, lithium, cognitive behavior therapy, meditation and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) can have similar effects.
“They’re special, they’re unique, but they’re not that special,” says Rucker. “They’re just drugs. And we need to work out where they sit and not be too gung-ho with them.”
Education needed
Rucker says that more education is needed around psychedelics, as regardless of a country’s laws, people will continue to take these substances.
“We need to make sure that people are doing their homework and not treating this as a recreational drug like any other but actually treating it with the respect it deserves,” he tells CNN.
Carhart-Harris explains “all aspects of mental illness can fall on anyone, whether they be a sportsperson or not.”
Still, he adds that psychedelics could be harnessed to enhance sporting performance, through enhancing discipline or helping people to process pressure or failure.
“Then you have the sort of positive psychology side, where you could use, for example, low doses of psychedelics to enhance some of the training, say, getting more into one’s body, more easily entering flow states, intense focus, not being too heady and cerebral. I think there is real potential for using psychedelics in a sort of skillful way,” Carhart-Harris says.
Symonds adds: “Medicines don’t just have to be a treatment for when you’re sick or ill or broken, they can be something that you take to keep you well or to enhance your wellness, your wellbeing, your spirituality.”https://yangterbaik.com/
Now, local politicians on Invergordon Town Council are weighing up whether to sell the item, described by Sotheby’s as “brilliant in execution,” according to a council report.
A private individual has already approached Sotheby’s with an offer to purchase the sculpture, the report said, adding that Sotheby’s experts believe it has reached its peak value.
Members of the council will decide the bust’s future on Monday, a statement said, and funds from the sale could then be used to “reactivate” the Invergordon Common Good Fund, for the “benefit of the community,” the report added, though a full consultation with the community would precede any sale.
First displayed in the town hall, the bust was initially valued not for the talent of its sculptor but for its depiction of Gordon, who was said to be the founder of Invergordon – the small Scottish coastal town situated about 300 kilometers (180 miles) north of the capital Edinburgh.
Using a style not widely popularized until many years later, Bouchardon sculpted the bust in 1728while he was a resident in Rome and Gordon was on his Grand Tour, a European tour undertaken by young, aristocratic and predominantly English men in the 18th and 19th centuries that served as a rite of passage.
Among his other accomplishments, Bouchardon was a sculptor to Louis XV and his 17-foot sculpture of the French king used to stand in the Place de la Concorde in Paris before it was destroyed during the French Revolution.
Despite its illustrious creator, there are few details publicly available about where the bust has been since it was purchased by the council.
According to one local councilor, the sculpture was found on an industrial estate in 1998. Maxine Smith told The Scotsman in 2016 that she stumbled upon the bust 25 years ago when it was being used to hold open a door while she was searching for old robes.
“I managed to get the key from the council. I found the robes and there was this bust just propping the door open,” she said.
“The insurance team got in and we found that it was worth so much money. Back then it was worth about £200,000.”
Once the bust was rediscovered and identified, it was displayed at both the Louvre Museum in Paris and the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the council said.
Back in Scotland, however, it remains under secure storage in Inverness Museum & Art Gallery due to the security risks of displaying it.https://yangterbaik.com/
“I knew lots of photographers who were emerging at that time,” Gregory recalled over tea in a cafe near her studio in south London. “So I persuaded all of the people I knew to submit work.” They presented their plan for the book — comprising the photographs gathered by Gregory, and text by Mercer — to Sheba, a feminist publishing collective focused on Black women’s storytelling that Mercer was a key member of. Sheba was enthusiastic, but the cost of printing all the submitted photographs ultimately proved prohibitive.
Jennie Baptiste’s image “Portrait of two girls from a series for Fashion Designer Wale Adeyemi MBE,” 1995.
The idea then, for a book surveying the work of Black women’s photography in Britain in the 1980s and 1990s, lay dormant for several decades. But a 2019 talk Gregory gave at Autograph gallery in London about photographer Maxine Walker’s work sparked renewed interest in the contribution of women of color to photographic art during this period.
The result is “Shining Lights: Black Women Photographers in 1980s–90s Britain,” a new photography book edited by Gregory and co-published by Autograph and Mack. Divided into thematic chapters exploring community and activism, kinship and family ties, travel and landscape photography and more, “Shining Lights” features 57 photographers, capturing the rich breadth of work from this overlooked period and community.
Telliing the stories no-one else was
The book includes work by well-known artists such as Walker, whose photographic practice centres on representations of Black womanhood, surrealist artist Mona Hatoum, and Turner Prize nominee Ingrid Pollard, whose images in the book use portraiture to examine gender and sexuality.
“Her” by Maxine Walker, from the series “Black Beauty,” 1991.
As well as casting the work of these artists in a new light, the project also introduces readers to photographers working during that time who are perhaps not as well known. Examples include Jacqueline Moran Daubercies, whose vibrant photographic practice focused on Latin American women and children, and Maria Pedro, whose poised self-portraits in the book reimagine herself as historical Black female royalty.
“What’s really interesting about history, and the way that history is recorded, is there’s always heroes, but actually, it was a collective,” Gregory told CNN in an interview. “And I think a lot of the collective has been written out of the history.”
“Shining Lights” then is Gregory’s considered effort to write in that missing history. Reconnecting with old networks and contacts to gather the material for the book was a meticulous task, with Gregory posting callouts in her own Facebook group as well as others and spreading the word around different creative networks.
Eileen Perrier’s “Ghana,” dating to 1995-96.
She says that while some of the book’s contributors are now recognizable photographers, others have moved on entirely from photography since that era. Some had forgotten or not revisited their work during the interim decades, or had even lost large portions of their work. Gregory recalls one contributor arriving at her studio with three big bags of undeveloped negatives, consisting of close to 10,000 images. “That’s basically an entire book there, but again, that’s one of the people that’s completely disappeared from view.”
“That was the problem with going back and looking at the magazines and publications that were produced in the 1980s to try and find a trace of the women that are in this book,” said Gregory. “That wasn’t there because they weren’t picked up at that time, and nobody was telling their story.”
Joy Gregory, “Junie – Kingston, Jamaica, 1997,” also features in her new book Shining Lights.
For some of the book’s contributors, Gregory says, revisiting that time and the poor treatment they received from the industry was painful. “It was reliving those disappointments…people were traumatized by the experience, and that wasn’t surprising, but it was shocking, in a way.”
An inaccessible medium
This era for Gregory, who was awarded the prestigious Freelands Award in 2023, was foundational. “I think I wouldn’t really have a practice without that period, obviously,” she said. Her own photographic series, “Autoportrait,” features in the book; originally made in 1990, it consists of a series of nine self-portraits of Gregory posed at various angles, looking both directly into and turned away from the camera.
She recalls how those among her network were often shut out of inaccessible arts institutions and forced to work at the margins. “Now, everybody has access to photography with their mobile phone; then it was a much more technically inaccessible medium,” she said.
Maria Kheirkhah’s image titled “I Think Therefore I Question,” from 2002-03.
Often faced with disappointment and rejection, these photographers rallied together. “There was a move to actually educate and help each other, and there was a lot of sharing of materials and knowledge,” she said, adding that community centres played an important role in offering space for learning. Gregory gives one example of photographer and curator Mumtaz Karimjee teaching herself how to do cibachrome color printing, and then teaching others in the network the same skill.
“The way in which people supported each other was really important — well, essential — because the other networks were not open to us,” said Gregory. “I think as women, it wasn’t open, and I think being of color, it definitely wasn’t open.”
In the book, Black “refers to the whole gamut of color, which was really about difference,” says Gregory. “Anybody who was different and seen as outside was included under that title Black, and it was more of a political identity, more than anything else.”
An installation view of Virginia Nimarkoh’s “Afrotopia 1,” from 1991.
A 1987 essay written by Karimjee and included in the book explains this definition and feeling in more detail. It’s one of several contextual essays and conversations in “Shining Lights,” both from the present day and from the 1980s and 1990s, on themes including the abuse of power in photography, identity in British arts and cultural production, and change and continuity for new generations.
On this note, Gregory feels that in some ways, the landscape today remains similarly inaccessible, meaning that the enterprising, do-it-yourself attitudes of the 1980s and 1990s are still present among new and emerging artists. One example featured in the book is photographer and filmmaker Ronan Mckenzie, who established her own independent exhibition space, HOME, in London in 2020.
Joy Gregory’s “Autoportrait 1990 / 2006,” also features in the book.
“I feel that a lot of the issues that we were dealing with in the 1980s haven’t gone away, and I think to include those essays actually highlights that,” said Gregory, adding that she hopes it will be encouraging for younger artists to see the work, perspectives and leadership of those who have preceded them.
While Gregory played a vital role in the book’s creation with support from associate editor Taous Dahmani, she emphasizes that it’s more about the dozens of photographers whose work is finally receiving overdue recognition
“The book is women in their own voices,” said Gregory. “That’s what I wanted to bring. So in a way, I feel that this is not my book. This is their book.”
Shining Lights: Black Women Photographers in 1980s–90s Britain is published by Mack and Autograph.https://yangterbaik.com/
