South River High School Band Camp Welcome Letter: Fill & Download for Free

I was immediately attracted to this question. My 79-year-old father is German and was a young boy during WW2.I asked him to write something to respond to this question, and he provided this excerpt from his memoirs. (I've changed the names of my uncles.)tl;dr: During the war, bad. After the war, worse."In the spring of 1942, as the RAF bombing raids started, our family was evacuated by the German authorities from Krefeld to the Black Forest in southern Germany. The operation was called MUKI (for Mutter und Kinder).By train my mother and we 3 children arrived in Schönmünzach in the Black Forest. We were ordered into a requisitioned hotel. The money the government paid the hotel must have been pretty low, judging by the unfriendly service we received.After a few weeks, we were moved another 15 miles deeper into the forest to the little village of Obertal into the Hotel Sonne and a little later to Hotel Günther. There we had a single room with toilet and washroom down the hall. The hotel was run by two sisters and a brother, who also was a blacksmith. Two of their nieces, Lilo and Inge, were the food servers. The food was without much variation: potatoes, carrots, mushrooms that we helped collect in the woods, and blue trout. I hated the trout because of their bulging eye balls and disliked the mushrooms, they were so slippery.It must have been in the summer of 1942 when we kids played in the garden of the hotel. There was an umbrella stand with a heavy concrete base. In passing, I pulled the stand askew and let it snap back. Unfortunately, my brother Hans was close behind me and the pipe of the stand hit him in the face. He was bloody all over, but this guy is hard to kill, he healed soon enough, but today still has a scar under the left side of his nose.In the fall of 1942, Hans and I started elementary school in Obertal, Walter, our younger brother, followed 2 years later. We were so proud of our satchels, packed with a slate board with attached sponge, and our freshly sharpened slate styluses.One winter evening my mother left us alone in the room and locked the door (this was before the invention of baby-sitting). We were up to some mischief: I collected pine needles from the Christmas tree and stuffed them into an electric outlet. All of a sudden there was a big flash and the light went out. I had managed to put the entire hotel into darkness.Shortly thereafter, in early 1943 we were moved to a farmhouse near the edge of the village. The farmer by the name of Haist and his wife were not happy at all to see the unwanted guests they were forced to take in. They had two children, Alma, who was about 4 years older than I, and her younger brother Egon. We were placed in the upstairs of the small house and had one bedroom, a living room and a small kitchen with a single spigot for cold water. The toilet was half a flight down and consisted of a board with a lid-covered round cut-out hole and a cesspool below, no running water. The bedroom had no heat but was placed above the stable where a pig and a cow were supposed to warm the room from below. It was not quite sufficient, and during the coldest part of the winter we had to hack the ice off the jug and wash basin that served as our bathroom.One day my mother had to run some errands. She again locked us up in the living room and we thought of some new mischief. We found matches and tried to burn off the fringes of the curtains by the front windows. To our disappointment the fringes didn’t burn very well and only generated smoke. So we gave up on the idea, extinguished the smoldering fringes and looked for some other entertainment. I suppose my mother was upset when she came home, but I don’t recall any punishment.Food in those days was strictly rationed and we had to use food stamps for every purchase. My mother managed to get beef bones once a week. First she made a soup from it, then burned the bones on the charcoal in the stove. She recovered the ashes and we had to eat them as our calcium supplement. It tasted almost as bad as the weekly cod liver oil that we had to swallow. (Cod liver oil is rich in vitamins and chemicals, such as iodine. The lack of iodine was causing a high occurrence of goiters among the locals.) One day the local grocery store, the Konsum, had a big surprise: they sold strawberry jam without food stamps. Everybody rushed to the store and bought as much as the store keeper would hand out. The jam was delicious, sweet and crispy. A bit later we found out that the crispiness was dozens of wasps that got processed with the strawberries.In the spring of 1943 I got scarlet fever and an infection of the middle ear. I was quarantined in our bedroom while Hans and Walter were moved to stay in the bedroom with Egon. When I got worse I was sent by ambulance to the hospital in Freudenstadt, some 10 miles away. I must have been pretty sick because I had to stay at the hospital for more than a month. Later I was told that both of my ear drums had ruptured. When I finally was discharged the nurse confiscated my only toy, some kind of a construction set with interlocking wooden chips, because it was “contaminated”. Really they did disinfect it and let other kids play with it. I was very unhappy about the loss.In the summer, war came to Krefeld. On 6/21/43 the Royal Air Force (RAF) launched a heavy air raid on Krefeld where we had lived. Our house took a full hit and was totally destroyed. We would not have survived had we not been evacuated before.Once a week we were ordered by the school to collect potato beetles in the fields around town. The beetles were threatening to kill the potato crop and rumors were that the Americans dropped the beetles on Germany, an early application of biological war fare. We had to pick the beetles off the leaves which was ok; they looked pretty in their yellow and black stripes. What I didn’t like was crushing the larvae and the eggs between my thumb and index finger and, most of all, I didn’t like the young Hitler-youth supervisor who hit us with a switch in the back of our knees when we didn’t work fast enough. However, when we were doing well we received small propaganda stickers with a printed “Kohlenklau”, the energy thief with a sack of coal over his shoulder, and “Pst, Feind hört mit” the sticker to remind you that enemy spies where everywhere.During the summer vacation of 1943 we helped our farmer to collect ferns in the woods that he used as bedding for the cow. The fern was spread in the courtyard to dry and piled up overnight. I still remember that one night the three of us kids were allowed to dig some cave into the huge pile and sleep in it. The fragrance of the dried fern was wonderful. We also helped to make hay, a very labor intensive process. In the morning the farmer went out to his large meadow behind the house and cut the grass by hand with a scythe. Every half-hour or so he paused, pulled out a whetstone from his hip pocket, and sharpened the scythe. Frau Haist, Alma, Hans and I used rakes to spread out the grass to dry. In the early afternoon, the grass had to be turned and in the evening it had to be collected into piles. This was repeated for several days until the hay was ready to be collected into a big net which the farmer then carried on his back into the hay loft above the stable. Every evening the farmer sharpened his scythe by straddling a stone bench that had a small anvil at the end, and hammering the edge of the blade razor thin. He then finished the sharpening with a whetstone.To obtain firewood the forester assigned and marked one tree for each family and sent a notice where to find the tree. Our tree was up the mountain some 10 miles away near a logging road. The farmer, my dad, who was on furlough, Hans, Walter and I set off at 5 in the morning. After some searching we found the tree. Dad and the farmer cut it down, chopped off the branches and sawed it into 3 ft. sections. The 3 kids had to drag the pieces up the hill to the logging road and pile it up for pick-up by the forestry people. Hans didn’t like touching the slippery, mossy branches and decided to go home. He snuck away, took the cart with all our food and beverage and rolled down the road all the way home. You can imagine how furious we were, no food or drink and another 6 hours of work and a 3-hour hike back home. At home Hans got a severe thrashing, the only one my father ever administered to him. As a further penalty Hans had to do overtime in chopping wood after the man with the mobile band saw came by and cut the sections down to firewood length.In the fall the farmer called in the local butcher to slaughter the pig. From our bedroom we could hear the poor beast squeal. When we went downstairs, the pig was already in a tub of hot water where it was being scrubbed clean and its bristles were scraped off. We kids had the job to wash out the intestines in the fountain in the courtyard and get them ready for sausage-making by turning them inside out. When the whole pig was processed we all sat down to a “Schlachtfest” (butcher’s party). The farmer’s wife dished out “Metzelsuppe”, the broth of the sausage cooker, and freshly baked bread, followed by various cuts of meat and sausages with potatoes and sauerkraut. It was truly a feast because we could eat without needing our ration stamps.In 1944 we moved from the farm in Obertal to Baiersbronn into one side of a duplex that the town had built for bombed out refugees like us.The house was very small, the living room was 7 by 12 feet, the eat-in kitchen was 8 by 14 feet, and there was a single bedroom upstairs, about 10 by 12 feet. Hans and I slept in a regular bed, Walter slept in the big bed with my mother and later, after my dad got back from the POW camp, he had a crib in an alcove. Later that year, Frau Ilse Mueller - who lived in the other half of the duplex - let us use her upstairs bedroom and the 3 of us kids had a bit more room.The house had no road connection and no water. We had to haul the water by bucket from a neighbor some 300 yards down a path to the road. For three more months we kept hauling. When the town finally installed a single tap in the kitchen, it was truly a high point in our lives.The toilet was a hole in a wooden bench, again with a cesspool underneath. It smelled terribly, especially during the hot summer days. Worst was the maggots that kept creeping up from down below. We didn’t have any toilet paper; none could be bought in the empty stores. So my mother sacrificed the love letters my father had written to her from the war, for us youngsters they were fascinating and so romantic.Meanwhile, our neighbor, Herr Lampert, decided we needed a road, so he organized the neighborhood and we built a dirt road, about 200 feet long, to connect to the main road. We logged tons of stone from the nearby Sankenbach creek and set them by hand into a foot-deep road base. The bed was consolidated with rams made out of tree stumps. On top we put gravel and sand, and our foot path turned into a respectable piece of road.In early 1945, the front was drawing nearer and bombs started falling nearby. One bomb hit Café Mueller and killed their only daughter. My mother barely escaped a machine gun salvo from a low-flying French fighter plane. She feared for our lives and we all went back to the more remote village of Obertal. There we shacked up with our friends, the Siehr family, into a 3 room+kitchen apartment. They had 3 boys, our best friends, and a younger daughter. Their father was a chemist who had volunteered to join the army in 1939 and was killed in action during the first few weeks of the war. Frau Siehr became a war widow at age 28 with four children, then 4, 3, 2 and 1 years of age. There was one bedroom for the children with triple bunk-beds for the boys, and the three of us doubled up with the boys head to toe. The girl had a small bed in the same bedroom.Then, one day in April of 1945, the French army moved into the village. The German army had retreated to guard the next bigger town of Freudenstadt. Hans and I, at age 8, had to join the “Volkssturm” (People’s Army), the last resources of the army, consisting of men over 70 and kids of 8 to 15 (everybody between 15 and 70 had been drafted earlier). We had been trained, using wooden mockups, to shoot RPGs at the incoming tanks. But the German army retreated and had taken all the real weapons with them and, luckily, we didn’t have to make that “last stand against the enemy”. The village surrendered to the French without a shot being fired.Then the French started to search each house for soldiers and also for quarters for their officers. They came to the upstairs apartment and knocked (!) at the door of the children’s room. My mother had posted all 7 children by the door; when the soldiers opened, they exclaimed “Mon Dieu” (dear Lord) and shut the door. We kids then moved swiftly through a connecting door to the living room where Frau Siehr posted us near the door. The soldiers knocked again at the next door and saw another mother with 7 more children. With a baffled “beaucoup d’enfants” (lots of children) they gave up on their search for accommodations in the house.After the armistice was declared there was great joy all around. Our family went back to Baiersbronn to our “Behelfsheim” (emergency shelter) as it was officially called. There we found a big mess. French soldiers had celebrated the end of fighting with a big party and had turned the place upside down. Also, they ate all our food and we had nothing left to eat. One of the French soldiers, he called himself Bari Mulut, an Algerian, came by a few days later and asked my mother to hide him; he was a deserter and just wanted to go home. We hid him in the attic and played ignorant when the French MPs came by and searched the house. They overlooked the trap door in the ceiling, leading to the attic.At that time, food rationing was not working anymore; the whole civilian service structure had collapsed. We went around to several farms and tried to get enough food but the farmers were reluctant to accept the worthless “Reichsmark” currency. My mother taught us some French and we went begging at the hotels the French had requisitioned. “Avez-vous des conserves pour nous?” we asked again and again. We also eagerly picked up cigarette butts, rolled them into new cigarettes of ever increasing nicotine content, and traded them against food at a farmer’s. One day we were very lucky, a French officer gave us eleven 32 oz. cans of meat and vegetables, it was a memorable day. Other days we were not so lucky and the entire food for the four of us consisted of a single sugar beet that the farmers usually feed to their pigs.There were no toys around so we made some ourselves. We carved little boats from thick pine bark and let them float on the puddles in the ditch behind the house. We made whistles from willow branches, stilts from square-cut slats, catapults from beer-bottle tops and slingshots from inner tubes, discarded by the French soldiers.The French commanded every inhabitant of the town to watch a film about the Holocaust at the movies. Everybody was horrified and some people said this was all propaganda. Apparently, they had lost their clear thinking after years of Nazi propaganda.During the summer of 1945 stores had nothing to sell. To survive, my mother, Hans and I went on “Hamster Reise” (shopping trip), where we scratched up some tradable goods, among them mother’s pretty lingerie that dad had sent her from Paris, loaded them on a hand-wagon and walked first from Baiersbronn to Obertal, staying at Siehr’s for a short night. The next morning at 3 am we moved on across the “Ruhestein”, the watershed between the rain-drenched (130 in/yr) eastern part of the Black Forrest were we lived, and the fertile Rhein valley. We walked 22 km (14 miles) to Kappelrodeck, Hans and I barefoot because we had no shoes, to a farm where we traded our goods. We got some 140 pounds of potatoes, fruit and vegetables. By then it was almost noon and we started our trek back. While progress in the valley was fairly good, things got really slow climbing up some 10 miles to the “Ruhestein”. Luckily, that day there was a farmer who put a pair of oxen to work, trailing a bunch of ropes for us and other “Hamsterers” to hang onto, helping them to move their handwagons up the steepest part of the climb. Down the other side it was easier, 5 miles back to Obertal and then another 5 miles to Baiersbronn. We got back home just before curfew at midnight, an exhausting 21 hour, 33 mile barefoot trek. The trip added several new layers to the callused soles of Hans’s and my feet.The next day we had to start preserving our food. All fruit was sliced and air-dried. For that we took the doors off the hinges and covered them with the fruit slices to dry outside on the grassy patch in front of the house. After the drying, the unpainted doors had a negative leopard pattern with light spots where the fruit slices had been and sun tan around them. Carrots, potatoes and beets were stored in a sand bed in the basement. Cabbage was shredded, salted and fermented into sauerkraut in a big ceramic jar, eggs were stored in silicone gel in another earthen jar, and bread was air-dried. We had no refrigerator, and only glass jars with lids, but without rubber gaskets which then rendered them useless (all rubber had been reserved for tire production for the army).We did the trip twice more during that summer. On one of the trips we found another friendly farmer who too was trailing half a dozen ropes behind his tractor for people to hang on and get pulled up the mountain for a few miles. His tractor had a “Holzvergaser” (wood chip gasifier) that generated carbon monoxide by partially combusting wood chips in a man-size vessel mounted on the side of the vehicle. The monoxide was then burned to carbon dioxide in the engine, generating just enough power to pull the whole convoy up the hill.My dad had a tough summer as well. During the last days of fighting in April of 1945 he was with a few other soldiers on the south-shore of the Danube River in Ulm. The Americans were on the north shore. My father was happy to see them, so he stood up and waved to them across the river. Next thing, the Americans trained their mortars on him and he jumped back into the trenches, barely surviving the attack. A short time later his unit was overrun and he ended in a POW camp in St. Avold in Lorraine, France. The Americans were mean to the officers, ignorant about the difference between the regular army and the SS-stormtroopers. My dad was regular army, but the Americans gave all of them their Holocaust special. They fed them 4 course dinners where, e.g., the fish course was a single sardine that had to be divided between 8 people. They made them sleep under the clear sky, no tents or other shelter. Luckily, it was a dry and warm summer, so they survived. My father weighed 210 pounds going into camp and 98 pounds when he was discharged 7 months later.Things got better when my father came back from the POW camp in November of 1945. As a former officer, dad had to register and report every Saturday to the police station in Baiersbronn. Hans and I were with him one day when Hans saw a sign on the way out where the new administration was looking for “Applicants with business education”. Dad applied and just a few weeks later got a job with the “Preiskontrollbehoerde” (price control agency) in the newly established regional administration. He got a 98 cc motorbike as the official vehicle. His job was to visit shops and businesses and control that they adhered to the fixed prices set by the authorities. But his main concern was how to feed the family. So, he always brought a brown bag with him when he checked the local butcher or baker. He told them “I am not corruptible, but I have to feed my family with 3 small children”. Depending on the “crimes” he discovered, the bag got filled, more or less, with food. Once he brought back 4 pounds of lard, an exceptionally good day. At home, we cut it all up into little cubes and rendered it on the stove. The greaves tasted delicious with some salt, and the grease was a welcome change from frying potatoes without any fat. We didn’t mind that the grease was more like wax and stuck to the roof of our mouths.Here ends the WW2 story and what it was like for me to grow up during that time in Germany."Copyright (c) 2015 by Klaus Schatz, not for reproductionHope you enjoyed reading this, I sure did. :-) War sucks...EDIT: My daughter and I traveled this summer with my father to see this area where he grew up, and many of the landmarks that he describes in his memoirs. Here is a picture of the elementary school he attended with his brothers:This is one of the main forest trails that they used (not paved back then):The town of Kappelrodeck that they did the very long hikes to:The little duplex house in Baiersbronn shared with Frau Müller:And a picture of a photo of my dad and his brother Hans going to school:All photos (c) Derek Schatz, not for reproduction

Well hello there.*smiles creepily*welcome to clown planet, where crying in inevitable and sometimes being an EXO-L means to suffer.though do not worry. It’s worth it. Crying over EXO is always worth it.This answer will be like a ultimate guide to EXO (actually more so an opportunity for me to flex the men I stan.)This answer might be one of the longest if not the longest answer on EXO on this site. I’ll try to cover as much information as I can however, I doubt I can cover up 9 years in 9 hours of writing material lol.Anyways I hope while reading this answer, you’ll be thoroughly enlightened and entertained, if you’re not, yikes.It’s all Chanyeol’s fault :)Also, if you get tired halfway through, which you probably will. Take a break. You can always continue reading it later, this answer isn’t going anywhere and neither is EXO. Take your time in getting to know them. Because falling gradually in love is better than loving all at once and becoming exhausted sooner than later.Anywho, let’s get to know EXO?I’m sure you know the basics and I don’t have to go through them.But just incase you’re like ultra new, don’t worry babe. I got you covered.EXO-Ls always have each other’s backs (well the non toxic ones have.)BASICS:EXO debuted on 8th April 2012Under SM EntertainmentEXO since debut has been following a storyline concept; EXO are Extraterrestrial beings with supernatural powers, they are the guardians of the universe, a defence against all evil that wants to take control over its life source.EXO when it first debuted was divided into two sub units, EXO-K and EXO-M. Releasing songs in Korean and Mandarin.EXO-K had 6 members: Suho, Baekhyun, D.O, Chanyeol, Kai and Sehun.EXO-M had 6 members: Kris, Luhan, Xuimin, Chen, Tao and Lay.As of 2021, The subunits are no longer active and now just exist as One group, EXO, having 9 members.Active members: Suho (leader), Xuimin, Baekhyun, Chen, Chanyeol, D.O, Kai and Sehun.The Chinese member Lay has been inactive since 2017, due to the THAAD issue. However he still is and will forever be in EXO, unless he says otherwise. (I’m saying this right now cause lol you’ll hear fleeting comments about him made by other fandoms, so yeah to clear away any doubt. He’s still in EXO.)Former members: Kris, Luhan and Tao.(They all left EXO by filing law suits against the company for mistreatment and lack of work ethics. Again you’ll see the occasional comments about them, and other fandoms blaming EXO for their departure, however that’s not true. The filed the lawsuit against the company not EXO. SM isn’t all that great of a company when it comes to treating their artists well, and I mean two out of the three members did win the lawsuit so that speaks for itself.)Oooh also now there are two new Sub units,EXO-CBX (Chen, Baekhyun and Xuimin)and EXO-SC (Sehun and Chanyeol)The positions haven’t been updated since their debut, but then again, the fandom doesn’t like to confine the members into positions since all of them are all rounders. But even so for reference purposes. These are the positions that the fandom gives to the members, and as it’s the fandom giving the positions, these aren’t official:VOCALS: All 9 members of EXO can sing. EXO isn’t called the vocal power house of kpop for no reasons. They are the Kings of vocals, where lead vocalists are at par with most main vocalists of other groups and sub vocalists are easily on lead vocal level. Their vocalists can cover pretty much all genres of music, I mean imagine a group singing ballads in one set of the concert and the same group having a rave in the next set. They’re ridiculous.Main Vocalists: Chen, Baekhyun and D.O also known as ChenBaeksoo. Lead Vocalists: Suho, Xuimin and Lay Sub vocalists : Chanyeol, Kai and Sehun RAPPING: EXO is definitely a more vocal focused group, hence why the rap line isn’t all that strong but it’s still pretty neat and enjoyable. Overall EXO’s rapping is pretty unique in the sense that it always matches the aesthetic of the song. The rap segment doesn’t feel like a completely new segment, a different song, rather it still maintains the same feel as the rest of the song while being classified as a rap.Main Rappers: Chanyeol and Sehun Lead/sub rappers: Xuimin, Kai, Lay and Baekhyun. DANCE: EXO is known for their signature choreography. Their choreographies are always new, fresh and iconic. They’re smooth and require a lot of body control hence why EXO are considered as phenomenal performers as they can make a seemingly awkward choreography classy and look easy. Don’t believe me? Just try doing the Wolf or growl choreography in the mirror once lmao. I mean they looked so cool while I looked like a monkey smh. No fair.Main dancers: Kai (Center), Lay and Sehun. Lead dancers: Xuimin, Baekhyun and D.O Sub dancers: Chen, Suho and Chanyeol. VISUALS: While officially there are 3-4 visuals, it’s a very popular opinion in the kpop industry that people just like EXO because they’re good looking.And well we don’t really argue with the antis that say that, cause 1. being shallow isn’t necessarily a bad thing and it’s pretty clear that EXO has no visual holes, and 2. lmao if people refuse to see talent, you can’t really do much about it. We can only let them live in the ignorant bubble they’ve made for themselves. *sighs sadly*ACTING: All the members of EXO have somewhat experience with acting. They can and have acted in dramas, movies and musical theatre. Ofcourse some are more proper than others and are much more advanced in the acting industry. I’ll write one project of each member, because if I write them all, the post might get too long.Was that a flex?Why yes it was. Good observation my good sir/milady.Actor Kim Minsoek — Seondal: The Man Who Sells the River Actor Kim Junmyeon — The Man Who Laughs (musical) Actor Lay Zhang — The Mystic Nine Actor Byun Baekhyun — Scarlet Heart Ryeo: Moon Lovers. Actor Kim Jongdae — The Heights (musical) Actor Park Chanyeol — The Box Actor Doh Kyungsoo — 100 Days My Prince Actor Kim Jongin — Andante Actor Oh Sehun — Dokgo Rewind i guess that’s pretty much all the basics?TIME TO GET PERSONAL.Though not too personal since a wise person (yours truly) once said that being a fan means admiring and loving someone from a far, you can only look never touch. Ya know support and protect within the boundaries of respect.Anywho, imma quickly give you the tea about the members and what they’re like.HYUNG LINE: weird sense of humour line.(I couldn’t find a better picture at the moment. So if anyone has a nicer picture. Do share.)[math]XUIMIN/Kim Minsoek[/math]Position: Lead vocalist, lead rapper, lead dancer.Power: Frost/IceDate of birth: March 26, 1990 (age 31 years)Hes the oldest member of EXO. Which when I first got into EXO freaked me out cause lmao I was so sure, hell everyone that gets into EXO is sure that he’s definitely part of the maknae line. I mean he’s just. Naturally cute. AND HE DOESNT LOOK 30? He looks almost the same as he did when he debuted…just more bulked up.To the members, Xuimin is a cool and caring hyung. He also seems to be shy and usually doesn’t demand attention. However when he gets pushed to the front. Suddenly it’s just him. And nobody else. His confidence is so charming and his stage presence is immaculate.He loves dad jokes. And so Suho and Xuimin bond over the fact that the EXOs cast both of them out when they’re making lame jokes. It’s adorable.Xuimin is the closest to Chen. Probably because they were they only two korean members in EXO-M.He’s the most versatile member of EXO. I mean he’s the lead vocalist, lead rapper and lead dancer. He’s a whole package. The Ace of EXO.He can hit the highest note in EXO (dolphin note.)He auditioned for JYP in 2008 but was rejected :( But I’m glad he was rejected cause now he’s in EXO :) lmao when EXO showed up on JYP party (actually idk what it was called.) It was so funny.Anyways. In 2008, Xiumin won second place in the SM Everysing Contest. He later became a trainee through SM Entertainment's Casting System in the same year.He’s very athletic. Like super athletic.He loves football. Actually he confessed that when he was younger, he used to be a bit heavy, but since he loves football, he lost his weight to become better at it. We love a determined man.He has a black belt in Kendo and taekwondo. He’s also trained in wushu and fencing.In January 2015, Xiumin made his musical theatre debut, playing the character of Aquila in the SM Entertainment musical School OZ alongside labelmates Changmin, Key, Suho, Luna and Seulgi.In the same year, he played the lead role in the web series ‘Falling for Challenge’ Which was the most watched web drama in South Korea in 2015, reaching 20 million views just after 17 days. The OST for it ‘you are the one’, was his first OST.Xiumin enlisted in the military on May 7 2019, after the 5 weeks of basic training in the military, got promoted to the position of drill instructor in his infantry division, which was a commendation he received for coming in first place out of all the recruits in the overall results.I don’t remember but I think he came in first place during the agility/running course and was the 3rd best shooter in his batch? Ooof. He’s so smex.In August 2019, it was reported that Xiumin would be starring in an army musical titled "Return: The Promise of That Day" together with Shinee member Onew and Yoon Jisung.He was the first one to enlist and thus the first one to discharge on December 6th 2020.He said he’s looking forward to working on his own solo album and says he’d like to do one like Kai. All fingers crossed for Xuimin doing a smex concept. I already know it’s going to be amazing.Oooh also he’s been offered to play the role of Orpheus in the musical Hadestown.Also some random funfacts: He’s the cleanest member in EXO and messes stresses him out. He was also afraid of cats until he got his own. He also happens to have a PhD. We love smart and talented men.[math]SUHO/ Kim Junmyeon[/math]I usually just end up calling him Kim Juncotton (it’s his insta username, Myeon in English means cotton) cause it’s cute and he really does remind me of a fuzzball.Position: Leader, lead vocalist.Power: WaterDate of birth: May 22, 1991 (age 29 years)He’s the leader of EXO and Ofcourse just like every fandom praises their leader, so do EXO-Ls. He truly is the central pillar of EXO, and without him, I don’t think EXO would’ve made it this far. He worries and thinks about the members a lot and thus is called the mum of the group. Even he admits that he does have a tendency to nag the members (not that they do take him seriously, at least not all the time. They just love to mess with him.)Other than being the ‘mum,’ as an EXO-L, you should never forget that he’s an amazing vocalist. He has one of the most supported falsettos in EXO, actually I think his falsetto is only second to Baekhyun.In March 2016, Suho made his big screen debut in the indie film One way trip. And since then have done multiple other acting projects.While he’s not all that known for his films and dramas however for his work in the play The Man Who Laughs (2018), he received a standing ovation and positive feedback for his role, as Gwynplaine, a pure character with a monster-like face, from the audience on the musical's first day. He has won 2 awards for it.His Solo Rock album “Self portrait” dropped on 30th March 2019.Which gathered approximately 400,000 sales, establishing him as a successful solo artist.His pen name is SH2O, he wrote all the songs for his solo EP. A fact he’s very proud of, as he should be.His album was inspired by Van Gogh’s Self portrait and fun fact, Van gogh’s official museum page follows suho on Instagram. Lmao it’s art appreciating art.He loves dad jokes much to the displeasure of other members, who constantly have to remind him that he isn’t funny and tell other people that they mustn’t laugh either cause they’ll have to deal with his spoilt ass later.He has an IQ of 142 so he’s like super smart, and was always in the top 5 students of his school.Out of the members, he says he’s the closest to Sehun because they’ve been roommates for like Idek 9? 11? Years. He always says that he considers Sehun his brother. (To which Ofc Sehun always replies with, No hyung, I already have an actual older brother out there for me.)He’s known for being very ambitious (an example, he trained for 6 years not knowing if he would ever get a chance to debut or not because the other trainees around him had debuted (Shinee) and yet he didn’t give up hope and boom now he’s in EXO) so anyways he’s super ambitious, and his dream is to be a director at SM. Hopefully one day that will happen and things are going to change around SM and their lack of management skills.He’s known for his aesthetic sense in the fandom, having the best feed and most satisfying wall on Instagram. It’s an inside joke that he buys clothes only after he finds a wall he likes (meaning he’ll buy clothes to match the backgrounds aesthetics.)He’s also the ambassador of the brand Bvlgari.He enlisted in the military on May 14, 2020 as a public service worker, meaning his enlistment period will be longer than that of an active duty soldier, and he’ll be gone for 22 months instead of 18.Also for fun story time, read this:EXO's Suho Asked Fans To Stop Sending Letters To His Military Base — These Cartoons Tell Us WhyCreated by EXO Suho's squad-mate, these cartoons illustrated why Suho asked EXO-Ls to stop sending him online letters while he is training on the base.https://www.koreaboo.com/stories/exo-suho-asks-fans-stop-sending-letters-military-base-cartoons-tell-us/He’s going to be discharged on 14 February 2022 so we’ll have our valentine lol. I miss leadernim so much.[math]LAY/Zhang Yixing[/math]He’s also known as sheep, one because he was born in the year of sheep, two because he resembles it. He’s very cute and looks innocent.Position: Main dancer, Lead Vocalist.Power: HealingDate of birth: October 7, 1991 (age 29 years)He’s the only remaining Chinese member of EXO. And he’s definitely been through a lot because of it. He’s borne the company’s mistreatment (again SM really needs to learn respect for their non korean artists) and yet time and time again he chose to stay within EXO. The loyalty he has for EXO cannot even be comprehended. He chooses to stay with EXO despite the pressure he receives from the public to leave the group. He chooses to identify himself as EXO’s Lay even though he’s bigger than EXO in China. He loves the members so much and Oof. I should stop here because this isn’t a Lay post. And if I continue I might just end up breaking down rn and I can’t have that happening, we still got other members left.His stage persona and his personality couldn’t be farther apart. He’s all cool and rude and arrogant on stage. However off stage he’s just adorable. I think in Korea he has more of a quiet, innocent and sweet imagine. While in China he definitely has a 4D image, I mean he’s still the sweetest person ever but he does seem a lot more comfortable on Chinese variety shows and is very funny.On 28 October 2016, Zhang released his first EP, Lose Control, in South Korea and China to commercial success; it peaked at number one on the Gaon Album Chart and number four on Billboard’s US World Albums chart.He went from being one of the members with the least amount of lines in EXO to having 4 solo albums. And very successful solo albums at that. All 4 of them are million sellers. Actually his 4th Solo EP ‘lit’ was the 4th best selling album of 2020. It broke records. The digital album broke the record as 1.5 Million copies were sold in less than 10 minutes. And the physical album had limited copies and were sold out in a second. And that’s not me exaggerating, it literally took the album to be sold out in A second.He has been listed in Forbes China Celebrity 100 where he ranked 20th in 2017, 11th in 2019, and 5th in 2020.He is EXO’s main dancer and has been critically acclaimed to be in the list of top ten dancers in Kpop and Cpop. His excellence is in street style dancing; hip-pop and freestyle. He’s a perfectionist and mastered Krumping in a span of 7 months and the founder of krumping, Tight Eyez, even praised him for it.He’s also a director, he directed the ‘Lit’ mv, which was a Chinese tribute. It is one of the best music videos I’ve watched in my life. The sheer budget of it was 1.4M USD. Like yikes he wanted to make a statement on how he was going to bring China to the world and he did.He’s a fantastic producer and has actually won multiple awards for it. He combines traditional Chinese music elements with western music styles to create something entirely new. A merge of Chinese culture with western pop. Simply genius.He’s an amazing song writer and while he has written all 4 of his solo albums, he’s also the one that wrote ‘Promise’ which is basically the entire fandoms solace. The song got rejected 10 times by SM but due to his constant insistence was released and Istg. My life would’ve been different if that didn’t exist. It was that touching.As if being a singer and rapper wasn’t enough, he’s also a musician and can play the piano, the guitar and even the Chinese flute.He actually debuted as a child actor (he was 6) in the tv series ‘We the people.’ And now he’s a very well known actor and has worked in countless of dramas and movies. He’s won awards for his acting roles. honestly, he’s won awards for everything he is and has done.Other than completely taking over the music industry and the drama industry he’s also taken over the fashion industry, having over 32 different brand endorsements.When he was 24, he wrote an autobiography called ‘Standing firm at 24.’ Which again no surprise broke records and with less than a three month sale of 1.4 million in royalties, he took the fourth place on the 10th Chinese Celebrity Writers List, becoming the youngest celebrity author to enter the charts.In 2016, Zhang was appointed by Communist Youth League of China (CYLC) of Changsha as a publicity ambassador, becoming first celebrity to hold such a title. Due to him having such a high position in politics, he’s been inactive in EXO since late 2016 because of the THAAD issue.Although all the members of EXO could be describe as hardworking, Lay is probably the only one that could be described as a workaholic. He’s literally always working. He got asked once about where he lived and he said that he didn’t have a fixed home and so far he’s only lived in hotels because of how tough his work schedules were and how often he had to travel. He also said that to work, he doesn’t really need much, all he needs is his laptop and a piano. He is THE most active member in EXO. And his hard work definitely pays off. I mean he became a CEO at the raw age of 29, having his very own entertainment company called Chromosome entertainment group.Also he recently got a license to drive a… tractor. Sometimes he’s really random but he’s cute so it works out.So basically in short. This is the reason why he’s also known as the KING of China. He’s excelling in everything, in every field he takes interest in. And I couldn’t be more proud.BEAGLE / 92 LINE: dumb, dumber, dumbest.[math]BYUN BAEKHYUN [/math]But you can also call him Bacon :)Position: Main Vocalist, Lead dancer (unofficially)Power: LightDate of birth: 6th May 1992 (28 years)He’s the oldest of the beagles, also known as the line that’s the loudest, so undeniably he’s the loudest member of EXO. The sunshine of the group.But while he is loud, he’s also the most mature member even if some part of the fandom likes to think otherwise. He’s very mature in a way that he’s good at speaking, he never loses his cool, and he has a personality that just makes everyone feel at ease around him. So when for any reason Suho can’t give the speech or he’s absent, Baekhyun takes over the microphone.Baekhyun had the shortest training period along with Chen in EXO. He only trained for 4 months before he officially became part of the EXO group line.He’s the Main Vocalist of EXO, one of the holy trinity. Due to his constant interest in vocal training and techniques he’s incredibly good at runs as well as high notes, though I do like to think that he’s best known for his flawless falsettos.When EXO debuted, he was considered as one of their weakest dancers, however over time, he’s become one of their best dancers and is unofficially considered part of the lead dance line.He’s the quickest to learn a new choreography. He analyses the steps by watching others and says within 24 hours, he can learn a new choreo.He loves to play games and have played PUBG with Pro-gamers and they were actually shocked to see how good he was. He’s very famous for being in the top 3 celebrity gamers.He has been labelled as the genius idol. Because he’s good at everything he does? He’s the first SM Entertainment artist to achieve "all-kill" in both 2016 and 2017 with "Dream" and "Rain" respectively.In 2019, he debuted as a solo artist with his album ‘City light’ which became the best-selling album (selling 550,000 albums) by a solo artist of the 2010s in South Korea.The following year, his second album called ‘Delight’ dropped which garnered sales of over 1 million copies in 3 months, becoming first album by a solo artist in South Korea to do so in 19 years. King shit.In 2021, he dropped 3rd korean album called ‘Bambi’ which made him a double million seller within 20 days of the album’s release. He makes the records and he’s the only one that can break them. So smex.He’s the brand ambassador for Burberry and TirTir.Another funfact But He’s a black belt in Hapkido.In 2018, he launched "Privé by BBH", his own unisex street-wear brand and he’s also the co-creative director of it. The brands motto is ‘be humble, be brave’ and Baekhyun explained that he wants to "encourage people to embody being fearless" when they wear clothes from his brand.Baekhyun will enlist for the mandatory military service on May 6th 2021, as a public service worker rather than an active duty soldier due to his long time hyperthyroidism, which means he’ll have an enlistment period of 22 months.But don’t worry, he thinks too much of us and has said that he’s planned a few surprises here and there to make sure we don’t miss him too much. Omg. I love him so much.[math]CHEN/ Kim Jongdae[/math]He’s also known as Angel kim because he’s very kind.Position: Main Vocalist, Sub dancer.Power: Lightening/ thunder/ electricity.Date of birth: September 21, 1992(age 28)According to the EXO members and the people around him, like staff or other artists that have worked with him, he’s one of the kindest people they’ve met. He’s polite and very sweet. And so smol 🥺He’s very honest about his feelings and his thoughts and has said that he lives with the mindset that whatever decisions he’s going to make in life, he’ll make sure that he’ll never regret any of them.He seems quiet however he is part of the beagle line for a reason and can be occasionally loud. Like very loud. He’s usually the one screaming during concerts. He also said that he’s known as the whiniest idol under SM. Suho definitely agrees lmao.He’s one of the main vocalists of EXO, with a voice of an angel. To me, he seems like the most versatile vocalist in EXO because he can change his singing styles according to genres very quick. He can go from being the ballad king to being rock Chen and Istg I’ve never seen anything hotter.He’s best known for his high notes, but his range is insane as he can also hit the lowest note in EXO.He’s critically acclaimed to be in the top 3 vocalists in kpop that have the best vocal techniques. He’s exceptionally known for his high notes. A song isn’t complete if it doesn’t have him going into stratosphere.He’s known as the OST king, as he is widely known for his melodic voice among kdrama fans. It’s an inside joke that while the other members act, he’s the one that sings the OSTs for their projects and stays away from acting.Even though he doesn’t seem to be as interested in acting as the other members, he has acted before in the korean version of ‘In The heights.’ Lin-Manuel Miranda, who composed and wrote the play, watched the korean version and liked Chen’s acting enough to actually put his image on his phone case.He was considered as a dance hole in EXO, however you can truly see a change in his dancing skills since debut to now and how much he’s improved. And his stage presence is amazing from his expressions to his voice to his dancing. He’s amazing.Along with Baekhyun, he’s had the shortest training period in EXO.In 2019, Chen debuted as a solo singer with the extended play April, and a Flower, which peaked at number two on South Korea's Gaon Album Chart. Later that year his second extended play Dear my Dear was released which peaked at number one upon its release.On January 12th 2020, he announced his marriage to his girlfriend and on April 29th, they were blessed with a daughter, who is the entire fandom’s angel. Despite the majority of the fandom, standing strong beside Chen, ofcourse every fandom has toxic saesang fans that think they own their idols, and thus he did receive backlash from the knetizens.On 10th October 2020, he dropped his first digital single — Hello, Which was like a letter to the fandom talking about how hard he thought about what he should say and how his mind went blank after writing hello,even though he has so much to say, he can’t put his feelings into words and so all he asks if we’re doing well. Istg he’s a sweetheart and he might’ve shrugged off what he went through but the fandom that genuinely loves him won’t forget and will do their best to protect him in the future.On October 26, 2020, he enlisted as an active duty soldier.Even though we don’t get many Chen updates from the military, I hope he’s doing well. The latest update we got was a few days ago when he organised a grand party for his daughter’s first birthday. T-T I’m so happy for him.[math]PARK CHANYEOL[/math]Youngest of the beagle line, tallest member of EXO. He’s known as the happy virus and everyone around him always are surprised by how upbeat and full of energy he always is.Position: Main rapper, Sub vocalist, sub dancer.Power: Fire Date of birth: November 27, 1992 (age 28 years)The members have repeatedly said that he’s the mood maker of the group along with baekhyun and have talked about how nice he is. Actually they’ve said that he’s so nice and selfless that sometimes they wonder if he’s just dumb. And that they’re constantly worried about how someone might take advantage of his innocence.Other than being a total softie and goofball, he’s known for his passionate and competitive nature. The members love to tease him whenever they play a game and he’s losing because his reaction is always worth it, he literally cannot accept defeat. And once he completes or wins something, you can see the smugness dripping off his face.His biggest fan is he himself. He’s the epitome of self love and ooof. If I were him, I’d love myself too. He’s just. Everything? He’s goodlooking, he’s talented, he’s charming? Like what’s there not to like?He’s known as the most talented member of EXO, because he’s good at everything? He’s the Main rapper, but he’s also an amazing vocalist with a baritone voice.He can play multiple different instruments:DrumsElectronic Guitar,Acoustic Guitar,Piano,He can beat box, he can DJ. He’s a whole ass band.He loves to write and compose music and has been credited for a handful of songs for EXO, including sweet lies, chill, kokobop, heaven, gravity, loveshot, trauma etc. But even though he has been credited for almost 15 official EXO songs, he that those were only 15 from the 3000 other songs he has made and SM has rejected. As you can tell, he’s pretty dramatic too. I love him.Anyways now he has a studio called studio NNG where he writes and composes music for EXO-SC, and if it doesn’t become an official track, he usually puts them up on sound cloud.He’s an actor and has recently acted as the main lead in the korean musical film ‘The Box’ which became a box office hit in Korea. It was a musical film in which his character had social anxiety but was musically gifted and so he had to be put in a refrigerator box on stage to perform. He did a lot of covers of other songs as well as his own, that he wrote and composed himself. The movie actually even made an album from his soundtracks T-TI haven’t seen the movie yet but hopefully the movie will make it onto Netflix and we’ll get to see it. Actually wait no. Before Netflix, it’s being made available on viki so yay.He’s also the brand ambassador for Prada. And has endorsed for Tommy Hilfiger.He is the most followed Korean Male celebrity on Instagram. Having a following of 23M.He enlisted in the military on 29 March 2021, as an active duty soldier in the infantry division. And honestly before his enlistment I thought idols weren’t suppose to give military updates and stuff and ya know usually the enlistment period is very hard because it feels like your fav just disappeared off the face of the earth. But with Chanyeol it feels like he’s on a trip with some friends and he never enlisted lmao. I mean just look at him.He made them do the E-X-O sign. I can’t look at his smug face.He says he’s left us a present for every 27th day for every month in the 18 month long enlistment period, so we don’t miss him too much. And honestly. A month has passed by and it felt like a breeze. I really hope the rest of the enlistment goes by just as smoothly and he comes back healthy and happy with a bunch of military stories.MILITARY UPDATE (3 May 2021): He’s done with his basic training and actually got awarded for being the best trainee. And is now officially the squadron leader. I’m so proud.MAKNAE LINE: aka The line that makes you feel like a clown once you actually get to know them.[math]D.O/ DOH KYUNGSOO[/math]MY BIAS EVERYBODY. He’s just. The love of my life. Everything he does is just. He’s so cute I can’t even explain what he does to me. I’m a literal puddle whenever he’s involved.Position: Main vocalist, Lead dancer (unofficially)Power: Force/EarthDate of Birth: 12 January 1993 (28 years)He’s known for his short responses and how little he talks and the members have said that he’s the member that hasn’t changed one bit, he didn’t talk when they debuted and he still doesn’t. And if you’re just starting to get to know EXO, you’d probably think he doesn’t enjoy group activities. He might seem a bit intimidating when you first get into EXO because he usually does keep his face pretty stoic and like I said doesn’t talk much however the second you dig deeper you’ll realise he’s so...soft. He literally is. He laughs so easily, he gets excited, someone is either always clinging on to him or he’s clinging on to someone. Truth be told, he’s EXO’s sweetheart. They’re always trying to make him laugh or trying to get some sort of reaction out of him.He’s the one of the main vocalist of EXO and is known as the R&B king because of his insane runs and growls. He has very full rounded voice that just comforts and melts you.In September 2014, D.O. made his acting debut with a supporting role in the movie Cart, playing a high school student and son of a grocery store worker and union member. And since then has worked on a handful of acting projects as supporting and leading roles.He’s the most promising actor in EXO and his drama ‘100 Days My Prince’ is the 4th highest charting kdrama of all time. He’s known for his versatile roles and has been critically acclaimed by directors as he best active idol actor. He’s received over 16 awards for his acting skills and hopefully will continue to win more.His seriousness towards acting was shown when he was casted for in Swing kids, a film set in a prison camp in South Korea during the Korean War. He played the character of a North Korean soldier who falls in love with tap dancing in the midst of all the chaos. So for that role, not only did he shave his head but he also perfected his North Korean accent and mastered tap dancing in 6 months.On July 1st, 2019, he enlisted as an active duty soldier where he served as the chef (kitchen police) as he has a chef’s license. (I’m getting a bit emotional when I write about him but I have to geek over how cute he is. He literally called and bragged to the EXOs over how his batch made the best food on the camp and how everyone loved it. I cant.)In 2020, he made his musical theater debut in a rerun of the original military musical Return: The Promise of the Day, playing the role of Seungho.On January 25, 2021, he was officially discharged from the military and right now is said to be working on two acting projects, a film called The Moon which will feature him as an astronaut lost in space and another film called Secret, which is South Korean remake of a 2007 film with the same name where he plays the role of a student who plays piano. (Eek that means he’ll learn how to play the piano.)Even though he’s busy in acting, I hope he gets to work on a solo album which he has asked for 2 times from SM, and what we have been waiting for since Tell me what is love? Dropped.[math]KAI/ KIMJONGIN [/math]Also known as the idol of idols, because he’s an inspiration for so many 4th gen idols. They watch his fancams, are amazed by his duality.Position: Main dancer, sub vocalist, sub rapper.Power: teleportationDate of birth: 14 January 1994 (27 years)He’s known for his arrogant persona, his flirty looks, his rude charms, his constant winks and smiles and intense stares to the camera. And while that is his biggest strength as an idol, some people fail to understand what it means to have a stage persona and that duality exists. And Kai is probably one of the best examples of duality since his on stage and off stage presence is so drastically different.Off stage he’s literally so cute. He gets excited over small things, he plays with Legos, he loves teddy bears, he sulks a lot, he loves kids. He’s shy but has an amazing sense of humour. So overall. He’s just a different person than his persona. His persona makes you feel like lmao you need to take care of yourself, while his actual personality just makes you want to take care of him. The members say that he’s very charismatic, on stage he’s very hot but in reality he’s just a shy boy that loves to dance.He’s the Main dancer, and like Lay, he’s on the list of the top ten kpop dancers, and has been there since debut. To me, he’s the most passionate person when it comes to dancing. When he dances it doesn’t feel like he’s dancing with his body, but rather it feels like he’s putting his entire soul out for the world to see. He’s a perfectionist and you can literally see him break apart if he thinks he didn’t do a good job. He’s his biggest critic.He started dancing with Jazz, when he was 8, but after watching The Nutcracker, he began training in ballet. After he joined SM in 2007 (he was 13) he began training in hip-pop. So he’s specialised in 3 dance styles, Jazz, ballet and hip-pop.In January 2016, he made his official acting debut as the male lead in the web drama Choco Bankwhich achieved record-breaking viewership. And since then has acted in a handful of other dramas including, Andante(main role) and The Miracle We Met.In December 2017, Kai was chosen as the cover model for December's issue of The Big Issue, a magazine known for helping the homeless. The magazine sold out 20,000 copies within the first two days, and until now, 80,000 copies have been sold, which records the highest number of copies sold since the magazine's start in July 2010.On August 7, 2019, Kai was confirmed to be a member of SuperM along with Baekhyun, a "K-pop supergroup" having aces from the company’s pre-existing boy groups.On 30 November 2020, he made his debut as a solo artist with his album KAI. It was the first visual album in kpop history and he really made sure everyone knew what he was capable of. With his very distinctive sweet voice which people didn’t pay much attention as he was the sub vocalist in EXO, he made an album with no skips.Kai is the first Korean Global Brand Ambassador for Gucci. In December 2019, he participated in Gucci's "The Performers" project, shooting a film about his growth story. The film talked about his deceased father that was the strongest supporter of Kai’s dreams of becoming a dancer. It was actually due to his father’s encouragement that he participated in the SM Youth Best Contest, won and got signed in with the company.On Gucci’s 100th anniversary capsule collection, Kai became the first Korean artist to collaborate with the brand. Gucci literally made an entire line which was inspired by Kai’s favourite teddy bear.(They even put up HUGE teddy bears all around Korea to highlight the event. Omg this is just so cute. I love Gucci for loving Kai.)On 12 October 2020, Kai was announced as the First Male muse of Bobbi Brown.Fashion king? Of course you’re a fashion king when not only Gucci and Bobby Brown choose you as an ambassador but rather you’re the sole korean celebrity that made it to GQ’s coveted ‘Best Dressed Men of 2020’ list. (He was ranked 7th on the list. Ooof.)Right now he says he’s working on his second solo album and this time he’s gonna make it something that represents him as a person. His first album depicted him as EXO’s Kai that’s why the Kai: Film was literally just him teleporting into different places, however his second album will be something that he wants to do and he wants to show who he is as a person? Honestly. I can’t wait.[math]OH SEHUN[/math]I know what you’re all are thinking. The 6’0 guy with the resting bitch face is the maknae? How? Trust me. That’s everyone when they first see Sehun. He doesn’t look like the maknae type at all. But let me tell you this. He is EXO’s baby. He’s the fandom’s baby. He’s literally everyone’s baby.Position: Main dancer and Main rapper.Power: WindDate of birth: April 12, 1994 (age 27 years old)Like I was saying. He is everyone’s baby. He can get away with literally anything he wants. I’m sure if you’re not new to the kpop scene, you probably heard the phrase maknae on top? Yeah. That’s the case here. It might not be apparent by seeing group photos that he’s the maknae but the second you see them interact. You’ll know how much EXO truly loves their maknae. They scold him, give him advice, do whatever weird stuff he wants to do, they make sure he’s happy and if he’s sad they all get upset.The members describe Sehun as someone that pretends to not care and superficially he looks cold, however he’s the one that worries about the group and the members the most. They say that he’s the most loyal member and he’s usually the binding factor for EXO, along with the leader (Suho) and Xuimin (the oldest.)Now Sehun. Is visually...very appealing. Like a bit too much. He’s so goodlooking that sometimes his looks overshadow his talent and people just know him as the most gorgeous one in EXO. And that’s fine if you’re like not an EXO fan. But if you want to be part of the fandom, I think it’s important to realise that when Sehun is on stage he’s an artist, and not just an eye candy (harsh I know but he’s been hurt too many times that I have to say it like this.)He’s one of the Main rappers of EXO, who’s voice I personally find very unique and attractive. But due to lack of opportunities and SM’s horrible line distribution, he’s heavily undervalued.(So the most important thing you should know is that, the only reason why Sehun hasn’t had a break through yet (as an individual artist) is because SM IS SHITTY. And I’m going to stop right there cause whenever SM and Sehun are in the same paragraph, I lose my shit and I do not want to make this answer longer than it already is :)He’s also one of the Main dancers of EXO, but unlike the other two that had been training in dance before they were signed into SM, he had no prior experience. So when you see him being put up against the two of the best dancers in kpop history. Obviously he won’t seem that good. However he still is the main dancer and if he has been or will be given the opportunity, can really showcase what he’s capable of. I mean just see his solo mv On me.(OKAY QUICK BREAK FOR A PERSONAL OPINION, newer fans can skip this. This is for the oldies.But is it weird that I think the reason why he doesn’t stand out in EXO choreos is because they don’t seemingly work for him? Like his dancing in On me was amazing, his dancing during Kokobop Era was amazing, his dance break in obsession was really good too. But all three of these songs are so different from their usually discography aesthetic? They’re harder hitting songs than the usual much more melodic sounds that EXO seems to focus on? It’s just something I’ve been thinking about a lot that he’s a pretty good dancer, it’s just his dance style is much more fitting for sharper choreographies? Give the man some choreos that involve footwork PLEASE.)Anyways more on Sehun. He’s also a songwriter and writes all his parts for the tracks in EXO-SC albums. Honestly. EXO-SC might be the best thing that happened in Sehun’s career? Because it’s only after EXO-SC was formed that I truly started admiring Sehun as an individual artist and not just a member of EXO. Like he actually has lines for the love of god.Other than his musical career, he’s also is making a progress in his acting career. He’s working on two projects as of right now. An upcoming drama ‘Now, we are breaking up.’ Where he will take the role of Hwang Chi-hyung, a new employee of the fashion company The One. And is also scheduled to make his film debut in the movie The Pirates: Goblin Flag.I have already stressed hard enough on the fact that Sehun is hella good looking, so it’s not really a surprise that he’s involved in the fashion industry. In 2017 and 2018, Oh attended Louis Vuitton’s fashion shows in Paris. He was announced as the Best Dressed Man in Louis Vuitton's show consecutively for both the years, 2017 and 2018.In 2018, He became the second South Korean male idol after G-Dragon to be featured on the cover of Vogue Koreafor its 22nd anniversary. It became the best-selling issue since the magazine's inception in 1996.In 2019, he became the brand ambassador for the Italian luxury fashion house, Zegna.On May 24, 2020, Oh became the new brand spokesperson of Dr.Jart+in China. After becoming the brand's spokesperson, Dr. Jart+ achieved highest sales ever during China's mid-year shopping festival and Oh's limited mask set sold 20 thousand pieces in nine minutes. (Yeah Sehun’s fanbases in China are ridiculously big.)In October 2020, Sehun was announced as the new face of Dior and is now officially part of the friends of the house of Dior.At the end of this lol I want to apologise, I really tried hard not to bring up SM, it’s just, idk when Sehun and Chanyeol are involved, I really can’t stop myself from being angry. If you’re new and I’ve confused you. Lol don’t worry. You’ll figure stuff out eventually. There are answers on SM on quora so yeah. But AnywhoI really hope he puts out a solo album one day. I have high expectations from him just like I have with everyone else in EXO.well that’s the members. A few other things I want to talk about are ooooh. Enlistment traditions and gifts.So basically the enlistment tradition is that they will post a picture where the other members are rubbing the head of the bald member that’s going to enlist. Lmao that sound so weird but anywho like this:So far we have 5, we’ll get the 6th soon since Baekhyun is enlisting in 2 days. I wonder if they took it today since he did say that he just came back from meeting the guys. Lmao that means he’s bald eeeeek.Anyways so that’s the enlistment tradition.Whats the enlistment gift?Enlistment gift is them releasing a song before, on, or after the enlistment day.So far it spells Hello, You, that’s okay, let’s love, Tomorrow.So I guess that’s the end of this hell of a long answer. If you’ve made it till the end. Honestly. God bless you, I hope you meet your bias one day.we are oneEXO SARANGHAJA!(That’s their group slogan and our fanchant)

They’re sovereign nations. And they’re also American nations. Every national government operates within parameters of treaties established both with the federal governance of the Constitution and its repercussions within states and counties, and existing covenants with over Native American nations. Within that structure, the various Native American ethnoreligious tribes operate with a high degree of local autonomy in addition to outside support, with their own police, water and environment protection, outreach and cultural teaching, and social support services. While their governments are expected to follow the law both in relation to foreign policy and domestic policy, and thus abide by existing treaties and diplomatic agreements, this does not preclude the concept of national sovereignty.The same is true of every nation on Earth: the law demands only that they obey the law of war, honour existing diplomatic agreements and also conduct internal affairs as honourably as they can. This is a tall order for every national government, to be sure, and governments fail as often as they succeed at these tasks all around the world every day. But even when they do not live up to the ideal ethical standards they set themselves they are still sovereign within their territory (and depending on geography and geopolitics often over territorial waters as well). If governments had to live up to complete perfection in order to be legitimate, then one must admit no legitimate government or legitimately ruled state has ever existed in the history of the universe! Some Native American nations also connect people across national boundaries, such as between Canada and the US or the US and Central and Latin America. In Ontario, for example, there is a substantial Oneida population in Ontario even as Oneida are indigenous to the Pacific Northwest. This is partly due to the history - a significant minority of the nation allied with Brits militarily, which grew as the Revolution continued. Though the official policy supported the rebels, individuals were free to choose and so some loyalist Oneidas banded together to fight for the Crown in Canada. Also, Ontario is quite near upstate New York which is their historic homeland.Naturally, all these laws and norms include some nations such as the Oneida nation whose members are also in Canada; in the example of the Oneida nation, for example, there are many Oneida people in Ontario. Others are members of communities located solely within the boundaries of the modern United States, though of course tribal members can live abroad just like citizens of any other nation while retaining tribal citizenship and cultural recognition of identity.On March 28, the day after Six Nations of the Grand River received word of its first two COVID-19 cases and announced it would be restricting outside access to the community by the end of the month, Tonatiuh Salinas says that the reserve was “completely flooded with non-Indigenous people.” There were long lineups outside the smoke shops, and the First Nations community of more than 27,000 — the largest in Canada — was overrun with outside traffic. “It was scary,” says Salinas. “This is a sickness, and people are told to stay home, and they flooded our reservation, putting everybody at risk.”They’re trying to preserve their traditional culture as best they can, which European colonialism and racism destroyed, oppressed, persecuted, and ravaged. Before the spread of the horrors of the Middle Passage to the Americas, European colonists frequently relied on the enslaved labor of kidnapped and persecuted Native Americans. Native Americans occasionally kidnapped Euro-Americans, such as Rachel Plummer, to exploit as slave labour as well however this was not as widespread and systemic as European colonialism. Also, they had their own POWs so they did not necessarily need to capture Europeans for indentured servitude or slave labour, while Europeans fought their wars more overseas. When migrant communities first arrived on the shores of North America, as now some people aggravated potential for conflict and others welcomed the strangers and even acted generously such as by teaching farming techniques for survival. This is why Abraham Lincoln created our national holiday of Thanksgiving in the middle of the Civil War, to celebrate the welcoming the stranger side of history and also express gratitude to the Native community for their life-saving good deeds.However as pandemic spread through the community and the Jesuits fought against slavery, the enslavement of Native Americans gradually disappeared, to be replaced by the atrocities of the transatlantic slave trade. Still, Native Americans faced violent and continuous persecution, and were cheated out of their lands by federal and state governments in the US. Andrew Johnson pursued a policy of cultural genocide by forcing the Cherokees to walk the infamous “Trail of Tears” while residential schools forcibly took children from their families, taught them to reject their roots and culture, and often placed them under abusive or negligent adult “protection.” Many Native Americans were sexually abused, physically abused and psychologically abused and traumatized in these schools which caused devastating repercussions.The residential school system also tore apart families and made it difficult for many of their graduates to re-integrate into either Native American society or assimilate into European American broader culture. Many were caught between worlds, grounded in a new set of tools without guidance as to how to apply them and traumatized by the racial and religious abuse of a broken system, often intended to forcibly convert very young children to Christianity. So the community of today and national governments of today naturally want to give the young people a renewed connection to their culture and a grounding in their own history and identity. Just like other cultures which faced the forcible stripping of identity, along with basic human rights and protections, they seek to reclaim their language, history, heritage, and communal legacy and wisdom both technological, and spiritual. The Native American nations are increasingly using new technologies to spread language, record history, and encourage cultural learning, because it is necessary in the contemporary world.This is a big task but they are bravely continuing to do the work of preserving culture and protecting community: fighting the pandemic and continued adversity and trauma to serve and protect. All this despite the reality of historic oppression, marginalization, and European colonization.What is at stake for Indigenous communities if the virus gets in and infects members?Salinas: It would be quite devastating, you know? If the sickness hit and were to take 50 of our best knowledge holders, that would be it. There aren't too many fluent speakers [of the Haudenosaunee languages spoken in the community, including Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga] left, and there aren’t that many people who know the ceremonies and songs these days. That's what's really scary, too — is that if you lose the right people, you lose so much that they know and so much that they can teach, and it would be really hard to come back from. I feel like we were starting to finally wake up, protecting what is bigger than us, with land rights and all that. What a time that all of this started to happen when people were starting to rise, you know? You just have to remember what we’re doing it for. It is for the elders; it is for the sick; it is for the kids to come. You put yourself out there so that you can save a lot more, if you can. If the elders go, then all of that teaching, all of the history that they know, goes with them; you'll never be able to get it again. It's a scary feeling to know that that could happen.What it’s like working a checkpoint in a First Nation during COVID-19 | TVO.orgMany Native American and Native North American languages are difficult to learn. In addition, there are not many master speakers in each community and those who do speak the language to a great degree of mastery are not necessarily accessible to every community member. Like Jews, Uighur Muslims, or Tibetan Buddhists, and other groups with concerns about preserving traditional culture as a minority in exile or a culture that has faced extreme aggression and persecution, Native Americans need methods of language preservation that suit cultural needs.The timing of this launch could not have been more perfect as the Massachusetts’s Institute of Technology’s Indigenous Language Initiative has stated that in the United States 165 American Indian languages are still spoken, of which:74 are almost extinct58 have fewer than 1,000 speakers25 have 1,000-10,000 speakers8 have more than 10,000 speakers“Preserving our language has been an effort more than 20 years in the making,” Ray Halbritter, Nation Representative and Oneida Nation Enterprises CEO, said. “As American Indian languages are in danger of becoming extinct we have been working diligently to preserve the Oneida language. We have worked with various methods of teaching, such as the internationally acclaimed Berlitz immersion method.”Oneida Language: Electronic EvolutionSome communities use short educational videos, such as the Oneida nation which produces anime videos, online language learning classes, and the popular “Charlie the Talking Bear” video series which introduces vocabulary and basic sentence construction. Others rely on new technologies, peer learning, mentorship and language immersion programs. The Indigenous Cultural Centre of Canada offers language learning classes for young kids as well as adults which occur several times a week, in addition to cultural activities and artistic expression such as jewelry making, dance, youth work and craft. Nonetheless, concerns remain and some Native American nations are smaller than pre-colonization.200 peopleOneida is an Iroquoian language of the Northeast Woodlands. Today the Oneida language is spoken by about 200 people in southern Ontario, New York state, and part of Wisconsin. Most Oneida speakers are elders, but some young people are working to keep their ancestral language alive.Oneida Language and the Oneida Indian Tribe (Onyota'aka)Here is a beautiful Oneida lullaby.Native Americans such as the Oneida are 100% indigenous and 100% America. In the example of the Oneida nation, the nation actually allied with Washington’s army over the British. Their commitment provided critical support, not only in terms of warriors but also as spies, scouts, and in support roles. Historically, they played a pivotal role in the Revolutionary War: their support, after an initial sequence of anticipated neutrality, turned other nations to allying with the rebels.The Tuscarora, an Indigenous nation who joined the Haudenosaunee Confederacy after the first five nations formed their historic allegiance, also sided with the rebels following the Oneida public decision. The Tuscarora and Oneida support at the Battle of Oriskany in 1777 showed the US as a credible martial force and this helped generate French involvement in the Revolution. Later, the Battle of Saratoga proved a second major turning point and led to a surprisingly quick victory for the rebels, thanks both to French and Native American support and the various martial and political errors of the Crown. In short, the fateful decision of the Oneida leadership and people lead to this:We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.The Constitution of the United States of America (Preamble)Many scholars argue that the Constitution of the modern day US draws significant inspiration from the Haudenosaunee Law of Peace. Benjamin Franklin, an early supporter of the American Revolution, knew about the Law of Peace and admired it: seeing in their separation of powers and peaceful diplomatic negotiation a potential model for federal US governance. John Adams, a leader of the revolutionaries and later Vice President and then President of the United States, told his son in a letter that Native North American societies represented the only wholly egalitarian cultures. Ironically, he also oppressed and violently persecuted the Native population badly as President; as did many other American Presidents, such as Andrew Jackson. But, the admiration existed nonetheless. Many of the leading Revolutionaries assumed that Indigenous North American cultures, as well as Jewish culture, would eventually disappear. This may be more because they saw assimilation as the only path to liberty and acceptance for minority cultures than because they had no knowledge of their value. For a long time, legal historians assumed that the inspiration for the Constitution came primarily from English, Anglo-American and other European sources, such as the democracy of Ancient Greece.While these are obvious influences as well, more and more historians are realizing the connection between the Law of Peace and the United States Constitution. Thomas Jefferson, American president and leading revolutionary, held a deep interest in world cultures, and made a point of reading ancient religious texts from all over the world. He particularly admired ancient Persia. There is no reason to assume that solely European models of governance inspired the ideas of the American revolutionaries; while they certainly read thinkers such as Locke, Voltaire and others they were also exposed to other ideas. Among the revolutionary generation, Jefferson admired the French Revolution but others were divided, seeing in its excesses an absence of the true spirit of democracy.Much has been said about the inspiration of the ancient Iroquois “Great League of Peace” in planting the seeds that led to the formation of the United States of America and its representative democracy.The Iroquois Confederacy, founded by the Great Peacemaker in 11421, is the oldest living participatory democracy on earth2. In 1988, the U.S. Senate paid tribute with a resolution3that said, "The confederation of the original 13 colonies into one republic was influenced by the political system developed by the Iroquois Confederacy, as were many of the democratic principles which were incorporated into the constitution itself."The peoples of the Iroquois Confederacy, also known as the Six Nations, refer to themselves as the Haudenosaunee, (pronounced "hoo-dee-noh-SHAW-nee"). It means “peoples of the longhouse,” and refers to their lengthy bark-covered longhouses that housed many families. Theirs was a sophisticated and thriving society of well over 5,000 people when the first European explorers encountered them in the early seventeenth century.How the Iroquois Great Law of Peace Shaped U.S. Democracy | Native AmericaThe newly declared US government and the national governments of the Oneida, Tuscarora and others initially hoped for warm relations. One American revolutionary leader referred to the Oneida as family, describing their alliance during the war as like that between “mother and son”.In 1744, the Onondaga leader Canassatego gave a speech urging the contentious 13 colonies to unite, as the Iroquois had at the signing of the Treaty of Lancaster. This cultural exchange inspired the English colonist Benjamin Franklin to print Canassatego’s speech."We heartily recommend Union and a good Agreement between you our Brethren," Canassatego had said. "Never disagree, but preserve a strict Friendship for one another, and thereby you, as well as we, will become the stronger. Our wise Forefathers established Union and Amity between the Five Nations; this has made us formidable; this has given us great Weight and Authority with our neighboring Nations. We are a powerful Confederacy; and, by your observing the same Methods our wise Forefathers have taken, you will acquire fresh Strength and Power; therefore whatever befalls you, never fall out one with another."He used a metaphor that many arrows cannot be broken as easily as one. This inspired the bundle of 13 arrows held by an eagle in the Great Seal of the United States.How the Iroquois Great Law of Peace Shaped U.S. Democracy | Native AmericaThe Great Seal of the United States ca. 1917 - 1919Franklin referenced the Iroquois model as he presented his Plan of Union8At the Albany Congress in 1754, attended by representatives of the Iroquois and the seven colonies. He invited the Great Council members of the Iroquois to address the Continental Congress in 1776.The Native American model of governance that is fair and will always meet the needs of the seventh generation to come is taken from the Iroquois Confederacy. The seventh generation principle dictates that decisions that are made today should lead to sustainability for seven generations into the future. And Indigenous nations in North America were and are for the most part organized by democratic principles that focus on the creation of strong kinship bonds that promote leadership in which honor is not earned by material gain but by service to others.In the plains, there was great honor in giving your horses to the poorest members of the tribe. The potlatch still practiced in the Pacific Northwest is another example of voluntarily redistributing wealth to those who have the least.And the Iroquois? They continue to live under their own constitution and government. Their example sparked the spread of democratic institutions across the world, as explored in “Nature to Nations,” episode Two of this PBS series Native America.The separation of powers combined with central governance of the North American model became a crucial concept for the Founders of the modern-day U.S. They first developed the Articles of Confederation. And then they sought a more centralized model of government yet one which retained strong checks and balances. This model possessed a sophisticated internal accountability and checks on power system, yet balanced these aspects with centralization and unification, projects that would continue into the American Civil War with its martial objective of nation building, as well as abolition.In transforming from a loose federation of vaguely organized states, subject to continual feuds and European dominion, to national independence and unification, the Founders created the Constitution which remains the bedrock of our jurisprudence today. With the Amendment system, it is flexible and therefore has lasted so far - whether we will survive Trump’s assault on our democratic institutions and mode of governance is still an open question of history!Iroquois Confederacy and the Great Law of PeaceUnited States ConstitutionRestricts members from holding more than one office in the Confederacy.Article I, Section 6, Clause 2, also known as the Ineligibility Clause or the Emoluments Clause bars members of serving members of Congress from holding offices established by the federal government, while also baring members of the executive branch or judicial branch from serving in the U.S. House or Senate.Outlines processes to remove leaders within the ConfederacyArticle II, Section 4 reads “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and the conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors.”Designates two branches of legislature with procedures for passing lawsArticle I, Section 1, or the Vesting Clauses, read “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” It goes on to outline their legislative powers.Delineates who has the power to declare warArticle I, Section 8, Clause 11, also known as the War Powers Clause, gives Congress the power, “To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;”Creates a balance of power between the Iroquois Confederacy and individual tribesThe differing duties assigned to the three branches of the U.S. Government: Legislative (Congress), Executive (President), and Judicial (Supreme Court) act to balance and separate power in government.Many Native American communities are leaders in environment and water protection. Because these issues often affect them especially due to under-funding, unjust distribution of resources, and pollution of their sacred ancestral homelands, they developed high-tech agricultural methodologies and bold, intelligent activism to respond to these ongoing harms.But ISC officials support Oneida’s boil water advisory, saying they take the concerns raised by the engineering report “very seriously” and that they are working with the community to “determine how best to improve the water treatment infrastructure in order to meet the required standards.”Hill says the ISC response is mixed messaging that has confused many in the community.“They come to the community and say everything is fine and, meanwhile, the engineering company is saying we should issue a [boil water advisory]. There are two different things happening.”Ronald Hofmann, a professor in the department of civil and mineral engineering at the University of Toronto, reviewed the data and documents obtained by reporters.“Based on the information provided, this should not be normal nor acceptable for any community in Canada, Indigenous or otherwise,” he said. “I would not drink that water. I would not want my family drinking that water. It’s too much of a risk.Oneida Nation of the Thames tap water different than neighbouring non-Indigenous communitiesThe Blueberry River First Nations has been raising concerns about the dangers of infections from nearby work camps and construction projects since late March.In a March 30 letter to B.C. Premier John Horgan, Chief Marvin Yahey Sr. called on the province to suspend construction on Site C and close its camp facilities, citing “serious concern” with BC Hydro’s continued work on the project during the pandemic.He said the continued work on the hydroelectric project is inconsistent with the government’s overall response to the pandemic.Construction has been declared an essential service by the province and rules banning gatherings of more than 50 people do not apply to work sites. Concerns have been raised about large industrial projects continuing in the north, where medical resources are limited.“Site C is not like residential and commercial construction projects occurring elsewhere; it is a mega project in a small community, with a disproportionate risk,” the chief’s letter says.Blueberry First Nations Warned of COVID-19 Threat. Now the Pandemic Has Reached Them | The TyeeKatan’s warning came as a new study revealed that parts of the Amazon rainforest under the stewardship of indigenous peoples sequester carbon better than areas with little protection, leading to less deforestation and degradation.“We are the defenders of nature, of the life of the forests, of our territories,” said Katan, vice-president of Coordinator of the Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin (Coica). “The world is investing lots of money to implement public policy to combat climate change, help conservation and restoration. But these policies are made in offices by technical experts with little or no knowledge of the Earth.”Trust our expertise or face catastrophe, Amazon peoples warn on environment"Indigenous peoples have witnessed continual ecosystem and species collapse since the early days of colonial occupation," says Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, an activist/scholar from the Nishnaabeg nation and author most recently of the book As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance. "We should be thinking of climate change as part of a much longer series of ecological catastrophes caused by colonialism and accumulation-based society."Green growth, even in its social-democratic versions, isn't going to save the insects. But there exist alternative examples for the left, and for the world. While America's beehives are bare, Cuba's are thriving, which led to the tragicomically western Economist headline: "Agricultural backwardness makes for healthy hives." "We" are just now reactivating the millenia-old Mayan practice of harvesting from wild stingless bees ("meliponiculture"), which used to produce an unimaginably large variety of honeys. These entomological examples support Nikitah Okembe-RA Imani's audacious claim about the history of African thought: Those who study what has been suppressed can see the future.As for what is to be done about climate change, there's no real mystery. "The issue is that accumulation-based societies don't like the answers we come up with because they are not quick technological fixes, they are not easy," Simpson says. "Real solutions require a rethinking of our global relationship to the land, water, and to each other. They require critical thinking about our economic and political systems. They require radical systemic change."An Indigenous Critique of the Green New DealBolsonaro, notorious for racist remarks about indigenous people and a nationalist argument in favour of developing the Amazon, is popular among farmers, wildcat miners, loggers and land grabbers. He said the Yanomamiindigenous reserve – Brazil’s largest – was too big and attacked environment agencies for fining people for environmental crimes.In December 2019 he issued a decree known as MP910, allowing farmers squatting up to 2,500 hectares within government-controlled reserves to legalise it. A previous law in 2017 allowed this for land squatted until 2011; Bolsonaro’s decree extended it until 2018.Critics called it the “land grabbers decree”. Grabbing land on federal reserves by deforesting it, burning the dead trees and putting cattle on it to consolidate possession is common practice in the Amazon.“The measure permits titling public areas which were illegally deforested with the objective of obtaining the land,” said Imazon, a non-profit environmentalist group. Federal prosecutors said it would further facilitate land grabbing, in a detailed analysis.Brazil using coronavirus to cover up assaults on Amazon, warn activistsThe COVID-19 pandemic could "wipe out" entire indigenous populations in Brazil, experts who have described the situation a "matter of life and death" have warned.Survival International, a human rights organization which advocates for indigenous, tribal and uncontacted peoples, warned in a statement on Friday: "The protection of indigenous lands around the globe is critical to prevent thousands of tribal people dying from coronavirus."As indicated in the map by Statista below, 11,281 of the over 1.2 million people diagnosed with COVID-19 are in Brazil, according to Johns Hopkins University. A total of 487 people in the country have so far died.Uncontacted tribes of Brazil could be exterminated by coronavirus, indigenous leader warns“We have long denounced these religious organizations for violating Brazilian laws, disrespecting our internal relationships, ways of life and forms of thinking about the world,” UNIVAJA said in a statement after the ruling. “Now these groups physically expose us to a lethal virus that is ravaging humanity. … We are survivors of previous genocidal plagues. We will continue denouncing the unwelcome missionaries, who harm us and our homeland.”Brazil now has more than 30,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, although the actual number is likely far higher. The virus has reached the Amazon ― in Manaus, the forest region’s largest city, hospitals are already near their capacity ― and cases among indigenous tribes have tripled in the last week. If it continues to spread into remote regions like the Javari Valley and other areas with large indigenous populations, it could be disastrous for communities that are already neglected by the Brazilian government.“If the coronavirus goes to indigenous lands, it will be a tragedy because we have no protected area, no proper investment in health and equipment to protect the indigenous,” said Joenia Wapichana, who became the first indigenous woman ever elected to Brazil’s Congress in 2018.The dispute is not just about a helicopter and a missionary organization. It’s also about Bolsonaro’s ongoing evisceration of Brazil’s existing infrastructure to protect its indigenous tribes and isolated peoples, and the deep fears many indigenous tribes have of both missionary groups and the current government ― two perceived enemies that became even more closely linked with Lopes Dias’ appointment on the eve of Brazil’s COVID-19 outbreak.Amazon Tribes Say Christian Missionaries Threaten 'Genocide' During PandemicA member and leader of the Bribri, one of Costa Rica’s largest indigenous groups, Romero lives in Talamanca, a remote, mountainous region in the south of the country full of meandering rivers, dense jungle canopies and a near-constant drizzle of warm rain. Though the thatched-roof wooden homes of Talamanca Bribri, the group’s territory, are far removed from the country’s popular tourist hubs, Romero soon realised that it was only a matter of time until the virus reached them.Levi Sucre Romero, a leader of Costa Rica's Bribri group, believes Covid-19 was caused by "a cocktail of bad practices" (Credit: Joel Redman/If Not Us Then Who?)Romero also realised something else: the virus, he believes, was unleashed by human greed and ill treatment of the planet. “We’re unbalancing the habitat of species, we’re cutting down trees, we’re planting monocultures, we’re filling the world with cities and asphalt and we’re using too many chemicals,” Romero said. “It’s a cocktail of bad practices.”Like Sars and Mers, two other recent, deadly coronaviruses, Covid-19 is a zoonotic disease that came from an animal. Evidence points to its likely origin in a bat, followed by a potential crossover into an intermediary species – possibly a pangolin – before transmission into humans at a wet market in Wuhan, China. While Covid-19’s exact origins have yet to be pinpointed, overwhelming research shows that deforestation and commercial wildlife trade heighten the risk of zoonotic diseases that can potentially cause pandemics. And according to Romero, both are human activities that entail the destruction of nature.The culture as well as scientific knowledge of indigenous peoples of the Americas points to the idea that nature is to be respected. When nature is not respected the consequences for humans can be disastrous, even as the initial stages of that process are not necessarily immediate or directly visible. For years their cultural leaders, farmers and agricultural scientists tried to warn the world of these problems and the potentially lethal consequences for us all.Romero coordinates the Mesoamerican Alliance of People and Forests, one of the most important land-rights platforms for indigenous communities in Central America and Mexico, which represents more than 50,000 people who live in the most densely forested lands in the region. He knows for a fact that there is another, more sustainable and respectful way to live in relation to the Earth – because the Bribri and many other indigenous groups around the world practice it.I do not believe this will be the last pandemic of this typeFor years, Romero and other indigenous leaders have been urging the rest of the world to adopt a more indigenous-inspired way of coexisting with nature, including leaving habitats intact, harvesting plants and animals at sustainable levels and acknowledging and respecting the connection between human and planetary health. Now, they are reiterating that message in light of the coronavirus.At a March panel sponsored by the global journalism initiative Covering Climate Now in New York City, held days before the city shut down and later became the global epicentre of the worldwide pandemic, Romero and other indigenous leaders from Brazil and Indonesia emphasised the role that traditional knowledge, practices and land stewardship can play in protecting the planet. These protections, they said, extend not just to lessening climate change and biodiversity loss, but to reducing the risk of future pandemics.The indigenous communities that predicted Covid-19We would all do well to heed the ancient teaching of the Indigenous nations of the Americas right now. Though nature can be our ally, so too can nature become a foe. It is up to our choice and our creativity to respond to nature as either a friend or an enemy. Just like a human relationship, when we treat the ecosystem wisely, we benefit, but when we treat the ecosystem unwisely, negative consequences abound - for us, and for our world; on physical, and spiritual levels. For years Indigenous First Nations peoples and their leadership tried to voice this message; one hopes that now it might at least begin to break through. The governor’s decision is on the wrong side of history; she will be remembered by its pages as one who, in a crisis, made it even worse and failed to learn lessons of both past and present while making life worse for present as well as future. And aggravating hatreds of the past. Her choice, and those of others like her, will stain our national memory for years to come.At the end, caring for the environment and our citizens is simply in the interest of liberty and saving human lives. If we are unable tolerate all and any restrictions for reasons of personal emotion, gain, or convenience, we will soon lose the civic virtue necessary to sustain democracy. Environmental justice and protection is about just those values: justice and protection. And it’s a pretty tragic day when we no longer believe in that. Today we are seeing who does, or does not, believe in or fight for those values. The picture is revealing, but the communal wisdom of so many peoples before us who fought for democracy can at least give us all one badly needed honour: hope. Perhaps with that, we can at least try to preserve our democracy, our prosperity, our national security and our liberty. A liberty to live and breathe the air that the checkpoints were created to safeguard. So sad that some, like the governor, would choose to tear it down - and with threats, no less. That is indeed unAmerican. Protecting national security and saving lives is not.