PERSPECTIVE - Finding Magical Doors: Notes on Borders, Race, and Belonging

by Sunil Bhatia I would like to begin by sharing with you some reflections on my summer reading.

I read a New York Times article about children who were separated from their parents at the U.S. border. Leitica, a petite, 12-year-old girl from Guatemala and her younger brother, Walter, were separated from their mother when they crossed the border without documents. These siblings were sent to a detention facility in Texas, which has a list of several rules that these young migrants must follow, “Do not misbehave. Do not sit on the floor. Do not share your food. Do not use nicknames.” The detention center also included this rule, “It is best not to cry. Doing so might hurt your case.” “Do not touch another child, even if that child is your hermanito or hermanita–your little brother or sister.”

Another child requested her lawyer mail a letter to her detained mother, with whom she had been separated for over three weeks. The girl wrote, “Mommy, I love you and adore you and miss you so much.” And then she pleaded: “Please, Mom, communicate. Please, Mom. I hope that you’re OK and remember, you are the best thing in my life.”

Leticia and her brother belong to over 65 million refugees and migrants worldwide who are displaced and are in harm’s way. After overcoming the perils of leaving home and embarking on an uncertain and often dangerous journey, they cross the border only to be treated as unwanted and inhuman others.

The story of Leticia and Walter haunted me.

I wondered when they would reunite with their mother.

Then I read the Pakistani author Mohsin Ahmed’s book, Exit West.  The story focuses on Saeed and Nadia, whose love story unfolds in a nameless city that is filled with refuges and is teetering on the edge of war. Saeed and Nadia’s courtship speeds up against backdrop of raids, rocket fire, truck bombs and the constant noise of helicopters and drones that hover over the city. Their city gradually becomes unlivable. The government collapses, the militia take over the city, and the threat of violence is around every corner.

Suddenly there are rumors in their city that there are doors that open up to other countries. These trickster doors are like black holes or rips in reality that transport people across to countries and spaces of relative safety in an instant. Saeed and Nadia escape their city through these magical doors that eventually takes them to Greece, London and then to California.

Forgive me for getting seduced by the magical realism of this gorgeously written novel. But all summer, I have been hoping, rather dreaming, that Leticia and her brother find a magical door that takes them out of the cold and grotesque reality of detention centers in Texas and reunites them with their mother.

I have been dreaming that all families separated by migration have access to those doors that takes them to places, where they are loved, and can live fulfilling lives.

Alas, we know, there are no such mystical doors.

But think again.

I believe the magical realism of supernatural doors in Ahmed’s novel is not only about physical borders and doors. It is really about opening up the reader’s imagination and making them connect with people who are different from us. The magical doors are a metaphor that represent our human abilities to imagine and empathize.

Ahmed shows us a future world that is on the move because the greater portion of humanity is ravaged by economic inequality, war, extreme poverty and climate change.

He tells us that there is a possibility that every one of us can become a refugee.

The author asks us to imagine: what if the College Green where we have assembled on today becomes a tent-city for us refugees next week? Would you close the doors on migrants and refugees if you knew that one day you too would become a migrant? Would you call migrants animals and rapists if your destiny was linked with their lives?

Our ability to imagine a different world than the one we have been given is our magical door. Some people are looking for actual doors that give them entry into new countries and spaces and some others are entering through a figurative door.

Sometimes both are needed for making sense of our life journeys.

My Journey Here

I found my magical door over 25 years ago when I made a journey that is very similar to the freshman Class of 2022.

I left my home from Pune, India, and travelled to the U.S. to become a graduate student at Clark University, a liberal arts school, in Worcester, Massachusetts. Like many international students from my era, I carried a suitcase with my precious belongings: photographs of my father and mother taken at a studio, farewell photos with my friends, Hindi film music, my best ever report card from 6th grade when I stood third in class, boxes of tea leaves, recipes, and small bags of turmeric, cumin, and coriander powder.

My first week or rather the first year in this new world was disastrous. I was so fresh off the boat that when my American friends greeted me with, “How are you?” I poured my heart out and told them my life story. I had missed the cultural point that a greeting is just a means of making polite talk. Instead of talking about the weather, I told strangers how I missed home, my family, friends and the smells of Indian streets.

My life was downright pre-historic compared to the Class of 2022. Every week I would handwrite dozens of letters home to my friends and family telling them about my life in America. Then an Indian owl would travel thousands of miles to Worcester and drop letters from home in my mail box. Well, the Owl bit may be exaggerated.

I was not fleeing a war zone or poverty, but yet I experienced a displacement that comes from being uprooted from home. Crossing borders brought pain and anxiety about the world I had left behind and the future that was yet to unfold. With time, I found a way to settle in the new world of American university life. Life at the university was fulfilling, but when I left the campus to go back to my apartment I witnessed another America.

This was an America segregated from the campus by just one street. Coming into my neighborhood in South Main in Worcester was like crossing a border or entering another country. The homes were crumbling, the schools were failing, and the old factories and mills had been abandoned. The university warned us about the dangers of South Main and we were told to avoid walking at night as it was filled with “dangerous people.” These so-called dangerous people bore a resemblance to my people back home–they were mostly brown, immigrants, the invisible and the poor.

One day, during summer, I went to a local bar to play pool with friends. When I moved close to the pool table, one of the local white youth told me to leave with the following words: “We don’t play with no Puerto Ricans. They are not wanted here.” Being called Puerto Rican was not about mistaken identity–it was a racist gesture.

I sensed an impending threat of violence. I left the bar. That day I went from being an international student to an immigrant and a person of color.

This was an important turning point in my journey.

I felt humiliated and reflected on this and similar incidents that I had previously chosen to ignore. I was an outsider to the American racial formation so I had the privilege of disregarding racism. This is what racism does to people. It shames them, makes them feel inadequate, and silences them. The experience of racism creates doubt and makes you believe that your story could not be true.

I was a newcomer to racism. I was a newcomer to segregation.

African-Americans had been here long before me for centuries fighting racial terrorism and resisting racism. Their inner lives are an inspiring tribute to the enduring spirit of humanity. I soon realized my new home and university was once the home of the Nipmuc Indians. Their land was stolen, their lives were destroyed and their culture was frozen in history.

My racial awakening made one thing clear to me: Whiteness served as a powerful norm, but its power was rarely interrogated. When I overcame my fear and questioned whiteness, I was often met with indifference or anger. It was only much later in life, when I encountered the term “white supremacy” that I fully understood how deeply whiteness had become integrated into everyday living and structures of American society: courts, schools, law, medicine, media, higher education, and politics.

My racial consciousness taught me something deeper. Whiteness had largely reinforced a narrative that people of color had a deficient humanity, they did not belong in this country, and their stories did not matter in the media or the curriculum. When people from marginalized communities showed up in the books I was reading, they often served as caricatured props and tokens for advancing the cause of whiteness or as victims that needed to be saved.

The psychology I had encountered in my graduate school in India and the U.S. was largely built on colonial knowledge, universalistic principles and Eurocentric cultural assumptions about individuality and rationality. It was a psychology based on 5 percent of the human population but yet it had the power to speak on behalf on the 95 percent of humanity.

There was something wrong with this picture.

I did not find my story in the canons of psychology so I wanted to tell a different story of psychology. I challenged psychology’s claims of universalism and its refusal to acknowledge history, culture, and politics.

I failed several times to articulate my vision of psychology. But reading books, doing research, engaging in teaching, and having conversations with a community of learners became my enchanted doors.

To put it simply, I found the tools to make sense of my emotional and intellectual life.

My education in a liberal arts university was a gift. My research focused on understanding how migrants, who have never thought of their identity in racial terms, become people of color in the United States.

My biography in America became the basis of my research. My first book, American Karma, and my early publications, drew on anti-colonial and anti-racist frameworks to challenge the universality of longstanding racial and ethnic assimilation models in psychology and human development.

Turning Point

9/11 marked another turning point in my career.

Immediately after 9/11, I was conducting ethnographic research for my first book. During an interview, a Sikh man, who worked as a high-level scientist for a local company, told me that he had not stepped outside for a week. He was afraid of being a target of a hate crime, so his wife did the groceries.

When I arrived at his home, he was in the middle of a family meeting discussing whether he and his son should cut their hair, beard, and if they should stop wearing their turban because it brought unwanted attention.

I did research on the changing notions of cultural citizenship and racial identity formation driven in large part by Islamophobia. I examined how the Sikh American community with their turbans, beards and their “brown identities” had become suspect in the larger American public space. They were framed as outsiders and turned into targets of racial profiling, scrutiny, and hate speech.

Since then I have continued my quest to radically transform my field. In my latest book, Decolonizing Psychology, I write about the shaping of Indian youth identities within the context of globalization, colonization, and neoliberalism. By focusing on the lives of youth in the Global South, I challenge Euro-American scientific psychology to recognize its own limits and to become more inclusive, reflexive and relevant to the majority of humanity.

Looking back, I can tell you that I am standing up here and sharing my story with you because I had access to a liberal arts education. Yes, that education gave me a livelihood, but what is even more remarkable is that it gave me meaning and purpose in life. Every major milestone in my career was achieved because I had support from colleagues, family, and community.

For over two decades now, my classroom has become my dwelling and my research is my imaginary homeland, and it is from these spaces my students and I together go out searching for those magical doors.

Your Journey Begins

Class of 2022, I know that like my own journey you too will cross several imaginary, physical, and conceptual, borders and you will experience many crucial turning points in your education. Your story, your journey and your discovery will be different than mine.

You have arrived on this campus to commence a new term and a new stage of life, but your racial, ancestral, sexual and cultural histories that brought you here are complex and diverse. For some of you, this College reminds you of home. You may feel you belong here. You have found your place. For some others, you may feel out of place and even out of your mind.

Use your time here at the College to make sense of your identity and the structures that shape your evolving self. Try to connect your story to people like Saeed, Nadia and Leticia and other people you have not yet met. Those characters don’t just live in fiction, detention centers, and brochures. You will find that brown, black, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual or allied, heterosexual, cisgender, native, white, Asian, biracial, immigrants, international, local, and first-generation, members live in this community. You will meet them in your classrooms or at Harkness, Windham, Coffee-Grounds and Harris.

Your journey here is not a solo expedition. Rather you will be building community with these diverse members and you will collectively work towards transforming this institution. The word “liberal” in liberal arts is derived from the Latin word “liberalis,” which means to be free or a free-thinking person. The right to dissent and protest in the in the pursuit of learning to become a critical and free thinker is at the heart of a liberal arts education.

James Baldwin, an African American novelist and social critic, reminds us that the true “nature of society is to create, among its citizens, an illusion of safety.” So, if your belonging in the community feels like an illusion or makes you feel unsafe, he says, go ahead and use nonviolent means to disturb the peace to make it equitable and inclusive.

Think about this for a moment, Class of 2022. You have already witnessed in your lifetime such powerful attempts to break the illusion of safety: The resistance offered by the birth of Black Lives Matter, the rise of the MeToo movement, the constitutional rights accorded to same-sex or gay marriage and the example of solidarity shown by the native people of Standing Rock in the face of oppression. The people behind these nonviolent movements were imagining a different world and a different community than the one they have been given. Their struggle for justice and belonging opened up new magical doors so others could step in, rise up, feel loved, and know that their lives matter equally in this society.

What these big and small stories of social change tell us that a liberal arts education is more than employability and building a career. It is about cultivating humility, empathy, creating community, and practicing what Sikh American civil rights activist Valerie Kaur calls “revolutionary love.” She says, “Revolutionary love is the choice to enter into labor for others who do not look like us, for our opponents who hurt us and for ourselves.”

I believe cultivating critical thinking along with the capacity for revolutionary love is one of the most important projects of a liberal arts education.

Engaging with this form of education can give you knowledge needed for writing poetry, fighting for social justice, carving out your belonging, countering fake news, studying abroad, learning a new language, becoming a teacher, psychologist, scientist, sociologist, engineer, historian, artist, dancer, or a philosopher.

That is all you will need to soar high.

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Sunil Bhatia is Professor of Human Development at Connecticut College in New London. This is an excerpt of the address he delivered at the college's Convocation at the start of the current academic year on August 27, 2018.

Attending College in CT, From CT, Staying in CT Afterwards?

The numbers have diminished during the past decade, but the percentage has remained relatively constant.  About 93 percent of students attending the state’s four regional universities – Central, Eastern, Southern and Western – are from Connecticut.  During that time, the student population has dropped from an all-time high of just over 36,000 in 2010, to just under 33,000 in the fall of 2018. At the University of Connecticut, the state's flagship university, the overall number of students has climbed from 30,034 (including 21,881 undergraduates) to 32,182  (including 23,845 undergraduate) last fall.  The number of Connecticut residents attending UConn dropped somewhat in recent years – from 23,201 students in 2011 to 22,934 in 2016, before bouncing back slightly. The number of in-state students starting at UConn this semester (Fall 2018) increased by 4 percent, with about 74 percent of the class made up of Connecticut natives, according to UConn officials. 

Two universities in New Haven reflect the contrast that illustrates where Connecticut students are headed for college.  Seven percent of Yale students are from Connecticut, compared with 95 percent of students at Southern Connecticut State University who are undergraduates in their home state.  The only other college with that high a percentage is the private Goodwin College in East Hartford, but with less than half the number of students.

The latest breakdowns for the four regional state universities, according to data on the website of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU):  Central has the largest number of undergraduates (7,235 full time in-state; 1,924 part-time in state, 341 part time in state, 46 part time out-of-state), followed by Southern (6,594, 1,222, 283, 23), Western (3,457, 832, 671, 68) and Eastern (3,787, 760, 6).    Together, the four universities have 27,704 undergraduate students and 5, 013 graduate students attending.

The University of Connecticut enrolled a total of 32,182 students in the Fall of 2017, including 23,845 undergraduate and 8,337 graduate/professional students.  Among the undergraduate students, 19,241 attended classes at the main campus in Storrs, while 4,604 were students of the regional campuses.

By number of undergraduate students enrolled in Fall 2017, the ten most populous colleges in the state are the University of Connecticut (23,845), Post University in Waterbury (10,840), Central Connecticut State University (9,554), Southern Connecticut State University (7,952), Quinnipiac University in Hamden (7,305), Yale University (5,746), Sacred Heart University (5,603), University of New Haven (5,216), University of Hartford (5,088), Western Connecticut State University (5,082) and Eastern Connecticut State University (5,073).

The top ten with the highest percentage of students from Connecticut reads quite differently.  Southern and Goodwin top the list at 95 percent, followed by Central and Eastern, both at 93%, Western (89.8%) UConn (76% at campuses statewide, 72% at Storrs), University of Bridgeport (55%), University of Hartford (53%), University of New Haven (42%),  Sacred Heart University (35%), and Fairfield University (29%).

Data on the percentage of students who remain in Connecticut after graduation is less clear, although the four public state universities, excluding UConn, indicate that the number exceeds 8 in 10.   In 2016, UConn announced that 78 percent of in-state students who graduated from UConn and started work in the previous year remained in the state.  In addition, UConn noted that about 30 percent of out-of-state students who graduate from the university and find work within a year put down roots in Connecticut.

Next Wave of Insurtech Startups Prepare to Descend on Hartford

Will insurance be as much the story of Hartford’s future as it was in the Insurance City’s past?  It is a distinct possibility if the combination of a strong insurance pedigree and receptivity to technological innovation come together as the organizers of the Hartford InsurTech Hub hope. Early next year, the city will witness the arrival of the next wave, as 10 startups arrive to participate in three months of activity, powered by Startupbootcamp, as part of the 2019 cohort for its acceleration program, hosted at Upward Hartford downtown.

Hartford InsurTech Hub is an initiative established in 2017 by Hartford insurance companies, the City of Hartford, and CTNext. The initiative is focused on addressing the need to attract new technologies and talent in insurance and technology into Hartford and the local ecosystem. Selected from more than 230 applications, each startup will relocate to Hartford for the start of the program in February and will remain for its three-month duration.

The chosen startups cover a wide range of abilities, from property insurance claims to peer-to-peer (P2P) insurance, and exhibit a variety of technologies and insurance types. Participating startup companies will receive support, resources, and industry and investor connections to help grow their businesses. With support from Startupbootcamp, the teams will be provided with access to an extensive range of partners, mentors, and investors from across the accelerator’s global network.

The 10 startups that will join the second year of the Hartford InsurTech Hub acceleration program will work closely with Hartford InsurTech Hub’s insurance corporate partners: Aetna, Capgemini, Cigna, Clyde & Co., Deloitte, The Hartford, Travelers, USAA, White Mountains and CTNext.

Sabine VanderLinden, CEO at Startupbootcamp InsurTech, explained that “The insurance industry is continuously evolving and technology is having a huge impact. InsurTech of the past has been about enhancing retail-based offerings with improved customer engagement. InsurTech of today is focused on business model innovation and reconfiguring value chains—something we are committed to developing in Hartford.”

The startups include:

• Pineapple: Pineapple offers a fair, transparent, and affinity based P2P insurance and they’re coming to Hartford from South Africa.
• handdii: Coming from Australia, handdii is a digital platform that automates the property insurance claim process from FNOL through to claim finalization.
• Dream Payments: Dream Payments is a Fintech startup from Canada that powers digital and mobile payment services for business customers.
• Pitch Gauge: Pitch Gauge, from Georgia, is a roofing estimating application using mobile devices to do property inspections.
• Medyear: From New York, Medyear is a social network for healthcare collaboration. They connect consumers to over 190 health systems and 700k doctors for real-time chat, secure email, microblogging, and personal health records.
• SkyWatch: SkyWatch is a licensed insurance broker in all 50 US states offering a holistic software solution for on-demand risk-aware solutions for connected, moving platforms. They’re originally from California.
• Talem Health Analytics: Coming from Canada, Talem Health Analytics provides data driven insights on bodily injury claims cost.
• See Your Box: See Your Box provides Industrial IoT tools to digitize supply chains. SYB is a tech-service platform that collects, analyses and extracts information related to goods across all steps of the supply chain and is coming to Hartford from Switzerland.
• ClaimSpace: Coming from Australia, ClaimSpace is a platform that bridges the communication gap between customers, insurers and stakeholders during the claims process.
• CareValidate: Powered by a life-saving light bulb called SafeLight, CareValidate provides health, safety, and quality of care telematics to transform workers’ compensation, senior living, long-term care, life, and health insurance products with plug-and-play insurtech solutions. They’re originally from Georgia.

VanderLinden added: “We have built strong foundations over the last 18 months and we’re on the way to transforming the city of Hartford into the InsurTech capital of the United States. There’s still much to do and I am therefore delighted to be welcoming some truly inspiring teams into the next program in Hartford to continue this transformation.”

The insurance industry employs just over  60,000 people in Connecticut, up 2.6 percent from last year, according to PwC’s 2018 Connecticut insurance market brief, released earlier this month.  The second Insurtech class of startups hopes to grow that number.  Some of the participants in the inaugural class a year ago are still in town, planting roots and Hartford and growing rapidly.

Hartford InsurTech Hub is part of Startupbootcamp, the award-winning global network of industry-focused accelerator programs that help startups gain access to relevant mentors, partners, and investors in their industries.

Top Companies Profiting from War: Two Have Major CT Presence

An analysis to determine the top 20 companies across the globe that are “profiting the most from war,” finds two with Connecticut connections. Virginia’s General Dynamics, parent company of Groton-based Electric Boat is ranked at #6 and Farmington-headquartered United Technologies is at #11. In its analysis, the website 24/7 Wall St. indicated that “global military spending increased by 3.9% in 2017, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The global rise was driven partially by a $9.6 billion hike in U.S. spending — the United States is the world’s largest defense spender by a wide margin. What growing arms investments will mean for the future of international peace is unclear. What is clear is that defense companies around the world are benefitting tremendously.”

The analysis also found that:

• Total arms sales among the world’s 100 largest defense contractors topped $398 billion in 2017 after climbing for the third consecutive years.
• Russia became the second largest arms-producing country this year, overtaking the United Kingdom for the first time since 2002.
• The United States is home to half of the world’s 10 largest defense contractors, and American companies account for 57% of total arms sales of the world’s 100 largest defense contractors (based on SIPRI data).

Leading the list was Maryland-based Lockheed Martin, the largest defense contractor in the world, with $44.9 billion in arms sales.  Rounding out the top five were Boeing, Raytheon, BAE Systems, and Northrup Grumman.

For United Technologies, the analysis indicated arms sales of $7.8 billion, total sales of $59.8 billion, and profit of $4.9 billion, led by its subsidiary brands Collins Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney.  Collins Aerospace designs and sells advanced systems for military helicopters, including rescue hoists, autopilot systems, and laser guided weapon warning systems, the report noted. Pratt & Whitney designs and manufactures engines currently in use by 34 militaries worldwide.

United Technologies recently announced plans to split into three independent companies. Plans are for company’s defense division to remain under the United Technologies name, as the Otis Elevator Company and Carrier breaking off as independent entities.

During 2017, General Dynamics – based in Falls Church, Virginia, - sold $19.5 billion worth of arms, the fifth most of any U.S. company and the sixth most of any company worldwide. In the past year, General Dynamics earned a $5.1 billion contract to design and develop a prototype of the Columbia-class submarine. Electric Boat was awarded a contract modification to continue development of the US Navy’s next-generation Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine.

“In close collaboration with the navy and the submarine industrial base, Electric Boat will continue to lead key aspects of the Columbia-class development effort,” said General Dynamics Electric Boat president Jeffrey S Geiger.  “This work includes design, material procurement, construction and operating cost reduction. The entire Columbia-class team is committed to achieving an affordable and effective programme. Our nation’s security depends on it.”

Connecticut Ranks Third in U.S. in Preventing Youth Homelessness; Grant to Support Efforts

Washington, Massachusetts, and Connecticut are the most successful states at preventing youth homelessness, with Connecticut ranking third in the nation, according to the 2018 State Index on Youth Homelessness.  The report, by the True Colors Fund in partnership with the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, analyzed 61 metrics in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Homelessness is defined as experiences of sleeping in places not meant for living, staying in shelters, or temporarily staying with others while lacking a safe and stable alternative living arrangement. Alabama, South Carolina, Wyoming, and Arkansas were the least successful states at preventing youth homelessness.

In recent weeks, it was announced that Connecticut will use $6.5 million in federal grants to provide housing opportunities for homeless youth, building on its successful track-record. The grants will fund new, innovative housing assistance programs for young adults as part of a coordinated housing continuum that assures those in need can quickly obtain permanent housing and necessary supports, according to state officials.

The grants were allocated as part of a competitive process through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) new Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP). To date, Connecticut has been awarded the largest grant of any jurisdiction in the country.

Building off the state’s nationally recognized progress in ending homelessness under the Malloy administration – which includes being the first state in the nation certified for ending chronic veteran homelessness, being one of only three states certified for ending general veteran homelessness, and matching all chronically homelessness individuals to housing – the state has set a goal of ending both youth and family homelessness by the end of 2020.

Speaking last week before a legislative working group, Gov. Malloy said “Nothing I suspect is more shattering as a child than to find oneself homeless – or even as a young adult – so I’m particularly happy over this past year that we’ve been able to fund a number of units designed specifically to meet the needs of younger homeless individuals.”

Overall, at the start of the year, homelessness in Connecticut was at a record low, according to a report from The Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness.  It found that homelessness in the state has decreased for a fifth consecutive year and was at its lowest level to date. The report found that, as of Jan. 2018, roughly 3,300 people were homeless in Connecticut.  The Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness states that overall homelessness in the state is down 25 percent from 2007.

Since 2011, the state Department of Housing and the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority have created, rehabilitated, or committed funding for nearly 25,000 units of housing – approximately 22,000 of which are affordable to low and moderate income individuals and families, officials point out. This represents a state investment of more than $1.42 billion, which has been matched by over $2.45 billion from other financial sources, including the private sector.

Pay Business Taxes in Bitcoin? In Ohio, Yes You Can

Just months ago, the news this month from Ohio’s State Treasurer might not have caused a ripple in Connecticut.  That was before Ideanomics, a global technology company focused on digital asset production and distribution, closed a deal to construct its first “Fintech Village” Center for Technology and Innovation in West Hartford.  Ideanomics is pioneering the new blockchain and AI-empowered economy. In Ohio, that technology has crossed another mainstream threshold.  Ohio has become the first state where businesses can pay their taxes in bitcoin. Bitcoin is the most well-known of cryptocurrencies, which all use distributed ledger technology. Distributed ledger technology -- such as blockchain -- allows users to record data and transactions instantaneously in a way that is mostly unhackable, Governing magazine reported.

Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel (D) told Governing that he hopes accepting bitcoin for 23 business taxes will be particularly appealing to tech startups and international businesses. He eventually wants to expand payments to individual taxes and other types of cryptocurrencies.

"We want to project to the rest of America that Ohio is loud and proud about embracing blockchain technology," he says, noting that the launch of ohiocrypto.com coincides with a major blockchain conference in Cleveland. "We're trying to plant the flag and send the message to entrepreneurs and software developers across America that Ohio is open for business."

As for Ideanomics, through strategic partnerships with and ownership stakes in leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) and blockchain companies, Ideanomics is plans to bring transparency, efficiency, cost savings and new ownership paradigms to various markets including finance, commodities/energy, vertical industry/supply chain and consumer.

“The government adoption is the latest signal that cryptocurrencies are gaining legitimacy after initially being associated mainly with drug and weapons dealers on the dark web,” Governing magazine reported:    “First, BitPay -- much like currency exchange desks -- locks in an exchange rate and converts the currency to U.S. dollars. That makes the transaction less risky for government.  Second, bitcoin offers taxpayers an option with a lower fee -- 1 percent -- than those associated with credit cards, where there's usually a 2 or 3 percent surcharge for payments to the government.”

Seminole County, Fla., began accepting payments in bitcoin for things like license fees and taxes in late August.  Neither jurisdiction expects to see rapid utilization of the new payment method, Governing pointed out, but both expect to be leading the way for other governments to follow.  Ohio’s current treasurer leaves office in January, to be succeeded by Robert Sprague.

The $5.2 million purchase of land in West Hartford by Ideanomics, formerly the University of Connecticut greater Hartford campus, formally closed with the State of Connecticut and UConn in October.  Plans are to bring 330 new jobs to the town, and to achieve LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council by investing in new and environmentally efficient technologies.

PERSPECTIVE: Remembering 12.14.12

This statement was read to the American people and the world at 3:15 PM on December 14, 2012 by President of the United States Barack Obama, in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House.  This afternoon, I spoke with Governor Malloy and FBI Director Mueller.  I offered Governor Malloy my condolences on behalf of the nation, and made it clear he will have every single resource that he needs to investigate this heinous crime, care for the victims, counsel their families.

We’ve endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years.  And each time I learn the news I react not as a President, but as anybody else would -- as a parent.  And that was especially true today.  I know there’s not a parent in America who doesn’t feel the same overwhelming grief that I do.

The majority of those who died today were children -- beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old.  They had their entire lives ahead of them -- birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own.  Among the fallen were also teachers -- men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children fulfill their dreams.

So our hearts are broken today -- for the parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers of these little children, and for the families of the adults who were lost.  Our hearts are broken for the parents of the survivors as well, for as blessed as they are to have their children home tonight, they know that their children’s innocence has been torn away from them too early, and there are no words that will ease their pain.

As a country, we have been through this too many times.  Whether it’s an elementary school in Newtown, or a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago -- these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children.  And we're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.

This evening, Michelle and I will do what I know every parent in America will do, which is hug our children a little tighter and we’ll tell them that we love them, and we’ll remind each other how deeply we love one another.  But there are families in Connecticut who cannot do that tonight.  And they need all of us right now.  In the hard days to come, that community needs us to be at our best as Americans.  And I will do everything in my power as President to help.

Because while nothing can fill the space of a lost child or loved one, all of us can extend a hand to those in need -- to remind them that we are there for them, that we are praying for them, that the love they felt for those they lost endures not just in their memories but also in ours.

May God bless the memory of the victims and, in the words of Scripture, heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds.

First-time Analysis Stresses Economic Case for State Colleges, Universities

A 103-page report analyzing the economic benefits of the 17 institutions of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) system concluded that $11.1 billion, equivalent to 4.1% of the GSP of Connecticut, is attributable to the institutions.  The components contributing to the bottom line conclusion are varied, and not limited to current students or activities on the campuses - included is $9.9 billion in "accumulated income" by  "hundreds of thousands of ... former students ... employed in Connecticut," the report stated. The institutions include the 12 community colleges, which the system has sought to merge into one institution, the four state universities, and the on-line Charter Oak State College.  The University of Connecticut is not part of the CSCU system and was not included in the analysis.  The report generally does not distinguish between the four universities - Central, Eastern, Southern and Western Connecticut - and the 12 community colleges in its presentation of the analysis.  

The economic benefits that the analysis indicates are attributable to the colleges and universities, as outlined in the report, include:

• “Some students are residents of Connecticut who would have left the state if not for the existence of CSCU. The money that these students spent toward living expenses in Connecticut is attributable to the institutions.” Around 3 percent of credit students attending CSCU originated from outside the state. Some of these students relocated to Connecticut to attend the institutions. The expenditures of relocated and retained students in the state during the analysis year added approximately $137.9 million in income for the Connecticut economy”
•  “Over the years, students gained new skills, making them more productive workers, by studying at the institutions. Today, hundreds of thousands of these former students are employed in Connecticut. The accumulated impact of former students currently employed in the Connecticut workforce amounted to $9.9 billion in added income for the Connecticut economy”
• “Out-of-state visitors attracted to Connecticut for activities at the institutions brought new dollars to the economy through their spending at hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and other state businesses. The spending from these visitors added approximately $5.6 million in income for the Connecticut economy.” The report estimates that “over 73,000 out-of-state visitors attended events hosted by the institutions in FY 2016-17.”

The report goes on to explain that “Connecticut benefits from the education that CSCU provides through the earnings that students create in the state and through the savings that they generate through their improved lifestyles. To receive these benefits, however, members of society must pay money and forego services that they otherwise would have enjoyed if CSCU did not exist.”

In summarizing the “social savings” provided to the state by the CSCU institutions, the report stated that “In addition to avoided costs to the justice system, crime savings also consist of avoided victim costs and benefits stemming from the added productivity of individuals who otherwise would have been incarcerated. Income assistance savings are comprised of the avoided government costs due to the reduced number of welfare and unemployment insurance claims.”

Regarding the financial impact of the colleges and universities on its graduates, the report concluded that “for the certificate, associate’s and bachelor’s degree earner at CSCU this translates to an increase in earnings of $5,900, $12,800 and $37,200 each year, respectively, compared to a person with a high school diploma or equivalent working in Connecticut.”  The analysis indicated that 1 out of 19 jobs in Connecticut is supported by CSCU activities and their students.

In announcing the results of the first-time study, CSCU President Mark Ojakian said “We knew our CSCU institutions provided incredible value to Connecticut and this report confirms it. A bottom line analysis was needed to understand what CSCU contributes to the state economy. Both students and taxpayers invest in our system and we have a clear picture now of that return on investment.”

The report was prepared for CSCU by Emsi, a Moscow, Idaho-based provider of economic impact studies and labor market data to educational institutions, workforce planners, and regional developers in the U.S.

Travelers Ranked in Top 100 Best Places to Work

Founded in Hartford in 1853, Travelers is one of the nation’s top 100 places to work for 2019 according to a new ranking from the website Glassdoor.com.  The Travelers Companies Inc. ranked number 70, the only Connecticut-headquartered company to earn a slot on the list.

The Travelers Companies, Inc. is a leading provider of property and casualty insurance for auto, home and business, with approximately 30,000 employees and operations in the United States, Brazil, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom.  It is one of the oldest insurance companies in the U.S. and the only property casualty company in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.  The iconic red umbrella logo have been staples of the company for generations, and the Travelers Tower has long held a prominent place on Hartford’s skyline.

While steeped in history, the company’s status on the top 100 list for the coming year is a reflection of continual efforts to respond to both customer and employee preferences.  Travelers was ranked number 80 on last year’s top 100 list and also appeared in 2010 and 2011.

The latest annual list marks the 11th annual Employees’ Choice Awards, honoring the Best Places to Work in 2019. The rankings rely on feedback from employees who elected to anonymously submit a company review on Glassdoor.

The top 10 companies were Bain & Co., Zoom Video Communications, In-N-Out Burger, Procore Technologies, Boston Consulting Group, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google, lululemon, and Southwest Airlines.

The top six industries represented on the list: Technology (29 companies), Health Care (13 companies), Retail (8 companies), Manufacturing (8 companies), Consulting (5 companies), and Finance (5 companies).  The most-represented metropolitan areas include SF Bay Area (23 companies), New York City, NY (9 companies), Boston, MA (7 companies), Los Angeles, CA (6 companies), Dallas-Fort Worth, TX (6 companies), and Seattle, WA (5 companies).

The Glassdoor 2019 Employees’ Choice Awards for the Best Places to Work feature distinct categories.  For each category, company reviews and ratings from current and former employees were considered between October 23, 2017 and October 21, 2018. They include overall company rating, career opportunities, compensation & benefits, culture & values, senior management, work/life balance, recommend to a friend and six-month business outlook. All eight attributes are a part of the awards algorithm.

Travelers work was evident during the wildfires in California last month as the company responded to policy owners impacted by the devastating fires. The response came from the glassed-in Travelers National Catastrophe Center, located in Windsor, a short drive from the corporate headquarters in downtown Hartford.

Modeled after military war rooms, the Associated Press reported last month, it includes a conference table behind 19 high-definition screens, which display maps, graphs, television images and social media sites, all providing real-time data on the fires. By overlaying the data on maps marking its customers’ locations, the company can quickly identify those who are likely to have been affected, Jim Wucherpfennig, Travelers vice president of claims, told the AP.

Glassdoor, which compiles the annual ranking, is one of the world’s largest job and recruiting sites, with more than 62 million unique users each month.

History of Travelers 

Hartford Ranked 3rd in U.S. for Women in Business

If you’re a woman in business, Hartford is among the best places in the nation to be.  That’s according to a new analysis by the website ShareFile, which ranked Hartford as the third best place in the U.S. for businesswomen.  Hartford ranked seventh a year ago. The “Businesswomen Power City Index” was developed by evaluating the 50 largest cities in the U.S. to determine where the best locations are for women to achieve business success, according to ShareFile.  The index ranks cities based on the percentage of women-owned businesses, executive jobs held by women, women vs. men wage gaps and the buying power of women, which is based on the cost of living and the average wages earned by women.

Hartford has jumped four places from 2017, as a result of a higher percentage of women-owned businesses (up 1.4%), according to the analysis.  Hartford’s ranking in the individual categories was:

• 3^rd (down from 2^nd) in women’s buying power: 119
• 6th (same as last year) in the percentage of women business executives: 31.9%
• 16^th (up from 22^nd) in the wage gap between women and men: 18.1%
• 31^st (up from 42^nd) in the percentage of women-owned businesses: 20.4%

The website points out that Hartford is home to the Women’s Business Center, located at the University of Hartford, which supports female entrepreneurs across the city and the state, offering advice, training, and events for women looking to expand their business.

Hartford is the only New England city in the top 20.  Providence, in the top 10 a year ago, fell out of the top 20.

Just ahead of Hartford, and retaining the top two positions in the ranking, were Baltimore and Tampa.  Rounding out the top 15 were Washington DC, Jacksonville, Raleigh, Denver, Orlando, Miami, Austin, Virginia Beach, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Los Angeles and Atlanta. Aside from the top two, no other city in the top 20 has remained in the same position as a year ago.

The analysis relies on data from four main sources, including the U.S. Census 2016 Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs, U.S Census Bureau 2015 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Sperling’s Best Places and the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission. ShareFile is a cloud-based file sharing service, a Citrix Systems company, based in Raleigh.