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The lines we cross in our lives

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The lines we cross in our lives
Dean Mitchell’s ‘Route 66’ (2020) © Dean Mitchell

A number of days in the past I assumed I used to be within the midst of an odd early morning dream. However as I lay in mattress in a half-sleep state, nonetheless attempting to decipher the dream world from actuality, I realised that the yelling I assumed was coming from my unconscious was truly coming from the road under my bed room window. It was barely 6am, and an indignant and distressed girl was loudly telling her accomplice that she was carried out with their relationship.

I reside on a really quiet residential avenue by New York Metropolis requirements, so within the interludes between the screaming, it was eerily quiet. Quickly she spoke once more, yelling to somebody down the telephone that she needed “to get away from him”. There was “nothing left [for her] in New York”.

I obtained off the bed and appeared out of the window to see the girl standing on the sidewalk along with her suitcases, and the person simply exterior the entrance door. A automotive pulled up. The driving force obtained out and put the girl’s circumstances within the trunk as she climbed within the again seat. It appeared to me that her accomplice had crossed some line. And that she was now crossing her personal.

The entire incident triggered a low wave of unhappiness to return over me. It felt unusually emblematic of what seems like a bigger world fracturing round us, and it’s made me assume for the previous few days in regards to the thought of crossing traces, actual and symbolic ones. All of us make traces in our heads and hearts, which might or can’t be crossed in {our relationships}, in our neighbourhoods, in our cities, in our international locations. And in some unspecified time in the future, most of us should reckon with the query of what occurs when these traces do get crossed.


The portray “Route 66”, by the modern artist Dean Mitchell, is an outline of a desolate stretch of highway alongside the celebrated US freeway that when related Chicago to Los Angeles. We come to the brown and gray painted canvas at an intersection of roads, gazing on to the flip that will put us on to Route 66. The panorama earlier than us is barren. There aren’t any vehicles or folks within the body, nothing to recommend which historic interval we’re in. As a viewer, we face a cease signal, the purpose the place we should pause to think about what our subsequent transfer can be.

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US Freeway 66 formally existed from 1926 to 1985. I’m most conversant in it from Nat King Cole’s 1946 track recommending travellers to “journey my method, take the freeway that’s the perfect / Get your kicks on Route 66.” These lyrics, written by Bobby Troup, a white musician and actor, supply a carefree imaginative and prescient of the freeway. However I believe that Mitchell, a 65-year-old African-American man, was effectively conscious of the distinctive risks posed to black individuals who travelled stretches of that route.

Route 66 was sparsely populated and handed by many counties containing “sunset cities”, locations that prohibited black folks from coming into after the solar went down. Any black one that discovered themselves in a kind of locations after darkish confronted the prospect of racially motivated violence. The dangers have been so nice that in 1936, Victor H Inexperienced, a black postal employee, revealed The Negro Motorist Inexperienced Ebook giving recommendation on the place it was protected to cease to eat, relaxation or get gasoline. Your life relied on realizing upfront what traces might be crossed safely and the place.

In an effort to cross a line, traces first should be drawn. And line making, actual or symbolic, is a technique of gatekeeping, demarcating place and energy, and distinguishing between “us and them”. Choose from any variety of international locations, cities, neighbourhoods: traces are nonetheless being drawn and the security and hazard of crossing them continues to be being thought of.


I found the sparse work of Barcelona-based artist Guim Tió in some unspecified time in the future previously couple of years. I’m drawn to his use of color and house to evoke fast feeling and quiet reflection but in addition to evoke a way of our personal placed-ness in any given context. In “La Gran,” a small determine stands in the course of an unlimited expanse of land. He’s dealing with what’s presumably the ocean, with open sky throughout. Two easy traces between land and sea and water and horizon situate the tiny painted determine in a world that seems devoid of distraction or neighborhood, relying on the way you have a look at it. Both method, the individual is alone, dealing with the dividing line between one world and one other.

Guim Tió’s painting ‘La Gran’
Guim Tió’s ‘La Gran’ (2019) © Guim Tió

I don’t know that any of us can escape the moments in life the place, like this determine, we’re delivered to a call level that requires us to assume by and negotiate what traces we’re prepared to cross. Often crossing a line comes with some sacrifice and discomfort, stepping by the scary and unfamiliar so as to attain the opposite aspect. Lately I discover myself considering not solely of the tragic circumstances of these fleeing Ukraine, each Ukrainians and different nationals, but in addition in regards to the Russians who’ve chosen to go away their nation or to remain and protest, having decided that their president has himself crossed an irredeemable line.

Tió’s stark portray is a poignant reminder that we every stand alone in summoning up the braveness, knowledge or willingness to take advantage of difficult choices. Although it may possibly really feel like a lonely place to be, it could even be precisely what you must hear and heed your individual voice.

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Inside this concept of crossing traces, I’ve additionally been serious about ladies. There have been such putting pictures in latest weeks of ladies who’ve been compelled to go away Ukraine. Girls at prepare stations or strolling together with youngsters lagging behind them or of their arms. Girls saying goodbye to their husbands, brothers and fathers, ladies journeying collectively, older ladies carrying their little canines in the direction of security. After which the photographs of ladies staying to take up arms or remaining behind to take care of new child infants or pregnant ladies. All of those ladies are making selections on what actual and symbolic traces have to be crossed to make sure the welfare of themselves and their households. Ukraine is just not in fact the one place the place ladies bear vital penalties for bigger political conflicts and choices. Syria, Afghanistan, Central African Republic — the checklist might go on.

Caitlin Connolly’s painting ‘Climbing Mountains with Children’
Caitlin Connolly’s ‘Climbing Mountains with Youngsters’ (2019) © Caitlin Connolly

The artist Caitlin Connolly attracts, paints and sculpts, her work reflecting her curiosity in ladies’s interiority, and the way ladies transfer on the earth. I like her illustration “Climbing Mountains with Youngsters”. The grand determine of a girl takes up the centre of the body. The skirt of her tent-like costume billows out, including to her larger-than-life look. A younger woman hangs on to her neck, and she or he additionally holds the hand of a barely older little one who’s stepping precariously and reluctantly behind her. The girl is forging forward throughout a jagged line of mountaintops, her naked ft stepping determinedly on the pointed rock edges, as if detached to the problem.

We will see that this have to be a painful and treacherous journey. She can’t be resistant to that actuality. However many people additionally know there’s a peculiar resilience and fortitude that turns into obvious when a girl decides she should do a sure factor, together with defending those she loves. Typically now we have to cross formidable traces not only for ourselves, however as a result of we’re dedicated to the welfare of others.

The sky in Connolly’s picture is blue. It feels hopeful, regardless of the treacherous journey. I believe again to the girl I heard on the road on the sting of daybreak. It appears there may be all the time some hint of darkness within the selections we make. However there can even all the time be some thread of sunshine, irrespective of how skinny. Possibly that’s what offers us the power to cross the road within the first place.

E-mail Enuma at enuma.okoro@ft.com

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Wanted: more bosses on the shop floor

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Wanted: more bosses on the shop floor

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On the day of the US election this week, I was struck by a familiar sense of anxiety, dismay and dread.

This had almost nothing to do with the election and everything to do with my decision to spend time that day on the FT’s main news desk. 

In the interests of research, I wanted to see what the job of news editing looked like since I last worked on that desk in London many years ago. 

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Clearly much has changed since. The homepage is all-consuming; an entirely different team of editors handles the printed paper. But much is still the same, like the stomach-grinding anxiety about inserting an error in the rush to publish. And the heart-stopping fear of receiving a late, garbled story needing not so much editing as open-heart surgery. And the remorseless speed of the work.

“You all right?” muttered the news editor, a man I’ve known for close to 20 years, as I faffed about trying to log in to the first morning news meeting of top editors. Flustered, I finally got the sound on as he was explaining why I was there, whereupon I thanked him and called him Tim instead of his actual name, which is Tom.

This was a reminder of something I had forgotten in my years away from that work. It is so much harder than it looks from the outside.

The experience confirmed that business leaders who do what Boeing’s new chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, did the other week deserve much credit. 

When Ortberg set out his plans to restore faith in the beleaguered aerospace giant, he highlighted one in particular: putting executives on factory floors as part of “a fundamental culture change”.

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“We need to know what’s going on, not only with our products, but with our people,” he said. “We need to prevent the festering of issues and work better together to identify, fix, and understand root cause.”

This seems obvious for any company, let alone one reeling from the aftermath of two fatal crashes of its top-selling 737 Max aircraft.

Yet if it really were apparent, there wouldn’t be headlines whenever someone like Ortberg issues such an edict. Or Home Depot tells corporate office staff to work a full day at one of its stores each quarter, as it did this year. Or Uber’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, reveals he has been moonlighting as a driver, as he did last year. 

Maybe more bosses than we hear about spend time answering customer complaints on social media, such as Greg Jackson, chief executive of the UK’s Octopus Energy power supplier. Or decide a human can adjust a car window seal faster than a robot by trying it himself on an assembly line, as Elon Musk did at Tesla. 

But I doubt it. For one thing, few CEOs are like Musk. Also, running a business is hard. It can be easy to get caught up in the daily crossfire of drama. When Khosrowshahi was driving a customer to the airport one night, he had to ignore what the Wall Street Journal said were frantic phone calls from his chief legal officer trying to tell him the company’s network had been hacked.

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It also takes a lot of confidence to expose yourself to the ridicule of underlings who know more about how a job is done, especially for CEOs unfamiliar with the industry they join.

But I suspect many executives shy away from the shop floor because they have succumbed to an aspect of power poisoning, or the way behaviour changes when you reach the top.

In this case, they think that, because they are in charge, they understand everything they need to know in order to lead well, even when they palpably don’t. Academics call this the fallacy of centrality and it can be a dismaying thing to watch. Ask any worker repeatedly asked to do something provably unworkable by a clueless boss. 

Of course, hands-on experience alone does not guarantee success. Laxman Narasimhan did 40 hours of barista training before taking over as CEO of Starbucks and last year said he would keep working behind the counter for half a day each month. He was ousted 17 months later. Falling sales and an activist investor will probably always beat even the finest Frappuccino technique.

pilita.clark@ft.com

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Camarillo homeowners return to burned homes after devastating Mountain Fire

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Camarillo homeowners return to burned homes after devastating Mountain Fire

Camarillo homeowners have started to return to their scorched neighborhoods after the devastating Mountain Fire ripped through the area earlier this week. 

While some homes remain standing, many others have been reduced to rubble, with random pieces of furniture and appliances left behind. 

The fire, which has so far engulfed more than 20,000 acres and destroyed over 100 homes, broke out on Wednesday and quickly grew with the help of strong winds blowing through the area. 

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Flowers and a message of hope left behind in a decimated neighborhood in Camarillo after the Mountain Fire.

KCAL News

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It began in Moorpark before jumping SR-118 and entering neighborhoods in the foothills of Camarillo, where Jamie Randall and her husband Tyler Farnworth returned earlier this week to find that their home was gone. 

“I feel like the shock if wearing off a little bit,” Randall said. “It’s hard to see this. It’s harder today for me then it was even a few days ago to wrap my head around the gravity of what has happened to our home.”

The couple lived at the home with their children and were among the more than 10,000 residents forced to gather what they could and flee at a moment’s notice as the fire ripped through the neighborhood. 

Randall said that she packed two suitcases and grabbed some important documents, anticipating that they would be able to return home after the blaze was handled by firefighters. 

“I never thought in my wildest dreams this would be the last time I would be standing at my house,” she said. 

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They say that the fire hollowed out their home, reducing everything inside to ash. 

“There’s a few things that we wish we would have grabbed. Some things from my parents that are no longer with us,” said Farnworth. “Silly little things, you know.”

They say that it was more than just their home, but a community for the family, who owns a dance studio named Bobbie’s School of Performing Arts. 

After news was spread about their home, they say that they were contacted by an overwhelming amount of friends and families showing them love and support. 

“It spread so wide, the amount of love they’ve shown us and they continue to show us,” the family said. 

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The smiling statue of Buddha that survived the devastating Mountain Fire that ripped through a Camarillo neighborhood on Nov. 6.

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While they’re still unsure what their next steps may be, they’re taking one sign from the rubble as a bit of positivity — a smiling Buddha statue that survived the flames. 

“This is our home. This is our home, this is our street, these are our neighbors,” Farnworth said. “Everyone, I feel like, feels the same way.”

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Poorer voters flocked to Trump and other data points from the election

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Poorer voters flocked to Trump and other data points from the election

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Donald Trump’s win gave Republicans their highest share of the popular vote in two decades — and revealed big shifts in the US electorate, from the Democratic party’s reliance on wealthier, college-educated voters to the power of issues like immigration.

Low turnout by Democrats also hurt Kamala Harris’s chances while support from traditional left-leaning voting groups, such as Hispanic and Black voters, fell.

The results also show that poorer and less-educated voters now think Republicans best represent them — a reversal from 12 years ago, when Democrat Barack Obama was president.

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After a deep-dive into the data, here are five takeaways.

Democratic support depends on high-income voters

Economic realignment has been under way for some time, but hastened in this election. The Democratic party now appears to be the party of high-income voters, not those with low incomes.

For the first time in decades, Democrats received more support from Americans in the top third of the income bracket than from poorer groups, according to an FT analysis of voter surveys.

In contrast to 2020, the majority of lower-income households or those earning less than $50,000 a year voted for Trump this election. Conversely, those making over $100,000 voted for Harris, according to exit polls.

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At the same time, Trump enjoyed enduring support from voters without a college degree, with nearly two-thirds voting for the former president, according to exit polling in ten states by NBC News.

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Immigration probably pushed voters to Trump

A poll by Gallup before the election found that US voters saw immigration as the most important problem facing the country, with 55 per cent saying that it was a “critical threat” to the US.

The results from Tuesday show just how damaging the issue was for Harris, who was blamed by Trump for the record high number of border crossings during the Biden administration.

Some of the areas that swung furthest to the former president were on the US south-western border, including Hidalgo and Zapata counties in Texas and Santa Cruz County in Arizona.

In Texas, Trump managed to flip four counties on the US-Mexico border that had voted for Democratic presidential candidates since the 1970s.

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Trump captured the suburbs and cities became less Democratic

Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in 2020 owed much to the big Democratic turnout in swing-state suburbs, including a blue wave in the majority-white suburbs of Pennsylvania and Georgia, as well as both majority-white and majority-Latino areas in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona.

But on Tuesday, Trump captured more votes than Harris everywhere outside large cities, including suburban areas. In large urban areas, Democrats lost more than 1mn votes compared to 2020, according to an FT analysis of the results.

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The rural-urban divide has increasingly become an entrenched dimension of US politics, but this election saw a sharp drop in Democratic support in large cities, while rural areas continued to become more red.

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Hispanic-majority areas swung to Trump

Days before the election, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s disparaging remarks about Puerto Rico at a Trump rally cast doubt on the Republican candidate’s ability to win over Latino voters.

But the results showed that Latinos, as well as other non-white voters, are increasingly drawn to Trump. The shift could have lasting implications given Latinos are among the fastest-growing ethnic groups in the US.

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Even in liberal enclaves like Philadelphia, the most populous city in the swing state of Pennsylvania, voters swung towards Trump in majority-Hispanic areas, even while Harris won those precincts overall, according to an FT analysis of municipal data.

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In Texas, some of the largest swings towards Trump also came from majority-Hispanic counties, including Starr County on the US-Mexico border, which has a Hispanic population of over 96 per cent.

Trump even managed to flip Florida’s most populous county, the majority-Hispanic Miami-Dade County, for the first time since 1988.

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Low turnout among Democrats accentuated the swing towards Trump

Not all of the swing towards Trump across the country was attributable to an increase in support for the Republican.

While New York swung to Trump by 12 points in 2024, fewer than 190,000 additional people voted for him than in 2020. But 800,000 fewer people voted for Harris than Biden in the state. Illinois and Ohio followed a similar trend.

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Of the swing states, only in Pennsylvania did Democrats lose more votes than Trump gained. In Wisconsin, Georgia and North Carolina, the party increased their vote count — albeit only by 300 in the North Carolina.

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Harris’s turnout effort did bear some fruit, with current estimates showing that the proportion of the voting-eligible population who voted increased in all but two of the swing states.

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Additional reporting by Radhika Rukmangadhan in New York and Alan Smith in London

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