National Conference (NC) Friday paid glowing tributes to Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah on his 115th birth anniversary and termed him the founding father of political awakening and social transformation in Jammu and Kashmir.

A statement of NC issued here said that while paying tributes to the NC founder on his 115th birth anniversary, NCs rank and file said, In Sheikh Sahabs legacy we find answers to many current challenges that we are faced with today including a challenge to our identity and unique political status.

They said the best tribute to him at this juncture would be to imbibe the same indomitable courage which he exhibited all his life.

He not only ushered in an era of development and social justice in the State post independence but also guided the people with emancipation, secular, and progressive ideologies, they said. He illumined the masses about the power of democracy and humanism.

They said even Mahatma Gandhi saw a ray of hope in his efforts and prayed that Kashmir under him should become a beacon light to the benighted subcontinent.

He was undeniably a brightest star of the state and of the country. A magnetic personality, he always held Articles 370 and 35-A as a free and dignified bond of association with secular India, they said.

The NC statement said the main Fateh ceremony on Sheikhs birth anniversary would be held at his grave at NaseemBagh that would be followed by kick-starting NCs membership drive 2020-21 by NC President Farooq Abdullah.

NC leaders Ali Muhammad Sagar, NasirAslamWani, Abdul Rahim Rather, Muhammad Shafi (Uri), MianAltaf Ahmad, Mubarak Gul, Choudhary Muhammad Ramzaan, SakinaItoo, Nazir Khan (Gurezi), G A Shah, ShariefuddinShariq, ShameemaFirdous; ShammiOberoi, Muhammad Akbar Lone, Ali Muhammad Dar, Bashir Ahmed Veeri; HasnainMasoodi, Irfan Ahmed Shah, Mir Saifullah, Aga Syed Mehmood, Syed Tauqeer, Showkat Ahmed Mir, Peer Afaq, QaiserJamsheed Lone, AltafKaloo, Abdul MajeedLarmi, Sheikh IshfaqJabbar, GhulamMohiudin Mir, G R Naaz, Abdul Ahad Dar, Javed Dar and others paid glowing tributes to the NC founder.

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NC remembers Sheikh Abdullah on his 115th birth anniversary - Greater Kashmir

Like many others, my work has been deeply influenced by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. I had the privilege of meeting him twice, once at a London conference on Jewish identity and a second time at a Cambridge University lecture on science and religion. I was overwhelmed by his eloquent ability to negotiate the dynamic complexities between traditional Judaism and academic philosophy. But the real impact of his ideas on my work came when I read his wonderful little book, The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations. In that book, Sacks challenged what he called universal monotheism. According to this view, not only is there one true God, but also only one proper way to worship that God, which ought to be imposed, by force or violence if necessary, on those who either do not recognize this universal divinity or do not follow the correct cannons of worship.

Sacks referred to this interpretation of monotheism as the ghost of Plato. It reflects Platos absolutist politics according to which the true nature of justice should permeate all discourse in a well-ordered society, including schooling at every level. The idea that society should serve a universal understanding of truth and goodness made its way through medieval thought into several influential interpretations of Christianity and Islam, and later into modern political ideologies of both the Right and the Left. It has also impacted several streams in Jewish life, both political and religious, although as Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, Sacks refrained from drawing this conclusion and even famously altered some of his text to accommodate critics.

This attitude has devastating consequences for how one conceives public deliberations in diverse societies and an education that would enable participation in those deliberations. It justifies, even encourages, inculcation in belief and unbelief through an especially aggressive form of what educational philosophers call indoctrination, instruction that undermines moral agency, rather than through nurture, formation, persuasion, or education. Religious educator John Hull referred this indoctrinary attitude disparagingly as religionism, which entails cultivating devotion to one faith by debasing another, a critique that can be applied with equal concern to several nonreligious worldviews as well.

Platos universalistic understanding of society also generated a uniform conception of the person to be educated, which has reverberated across the generations. Sacks, on the other hand, held that the Hebrew Bible offers an alternative concept of humanity. To be human, on this account, is to be a reflection of God different, not the same; special; unique; singular; in a word, holy. But to be like God in the biblical sense is not to be a god as understood in the ancient Near East. As portrayed in Exodus, for example, the Egyptian Pharaoh saw himself as entitled to enslave others because he thought that the universe was centered on him. The biblical view, on the other hand, is expressed in the first chapters of Genesis, according to which every human being is a mirror of the Divine. Hence, the quintessential expression of ones holiness is to be found in acknowledging and preserving the uniqueness of others, not in centering on the self.

The consequence of this conception of personhood is what Sacks called particular monotheism. In this view, although there is one God, there may be multiple ways to worship that God, provided adherence to the principles of basic decency found in the seven Noahide laws. This is the position of classical Judaism according to Sacks. In principle, this inclusive attitude might even embrace those who refrain from formal worship or faith in God altogether, on the condition that each persons dignity is recognized. Treating people as if they were created in Gods image is counted by many sages as equivalent to faith in the Divine.

Cultivating such an other-centered yet unique sense of self requires an education grounded in dialogue within and among communities. Such an education fosters a robust individuality, encumbered in a tradition that is at once capable of inspiring a sense of obligation toward others, yet also able to engage others whose sources of inspiration and obligation may be very different than ones own. This sort of rooted openness can be cultivated through two complimentary pedagogies. One initiates into particular faith traditions, cultures or worldviews. The other juxtaposes one position to another. I have called the first pedagogy of the sacred and the second, pedagogy of difference.

Pedagogy of the sacred is concerned with initiation into a worldview that can form the basis of ones primary identity. This entails the acquisition of cherished ideals through instruction in a vision of how to live a good life its languages and history, stories, songs and dances, customs and ceremonies, and beliefs, values and practices. Clearly, faith traditions constitute one important option for such an identity-shaping worldview; but nonreligious ethical orientations can also serve this role. These worldviews outline a curriculum for discovering worthwhile lives within learning communities devoted to visions of a higher good that are prepared to engage alternative perspectives in dialogue. I have called them intelligent spiritualties. But how is it possible to generate such a dialogue?

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This is where pedagogy of difference comes into play. It involves instruction from or about worldviews other than ones own. The former encourages students to learn lessons from one tradition or another that might be applicable to their lives; the latter refers to studying a worldview from the outside, so to say, phenomenologically, as it might be experienced by the faithful, or culturally, in its historical or political context. Pedagogy of difference exposes students to alternative perspectives, beyond those into which they have been initiated through pedagogy of the sacred. One learns to critique, not only according to the internal standards of traditions to which one is heir or with which one has chosen to affiliate but also according to the criteria of at least one alternative, if not more. Each orientation is strengthened, not weakened, in this sort of critical dialogue, through a process of mutual learning.

The point of such an engagement is the same for both faith-based and common schools, the one serving a single religious community (such as state religious schools in Israel or Jewish day schools abroad) and the other a community of communities that encompasses multiple approaches to belief and unbelief (such as state general schools in Israel and abroad). It is to empower students with an inquisitive attitude toward the worldviews to which they are heir or with which they choose to affiliate and to promote respect for perspectives deeply different from their own. This is accomplished by subjecting all perspectives to critical scrutiny, both from within and without, in ways that are appropriate to the educational setting in question.

This application of Sackss theology of difference to education has far reaching consequences for policy and practice at all levels. In contrast to pedagogy of the oppressed associated with Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, which tends to homogenize cultures in a multicultural classroom in order to equalize power relations, pedagogy of difference reflects the spirit of value pluralism associated with British political philosopher Isaiah Berlin. This spirit demands respect in school for various cultures, traditions, and worldviews without diminishing their distinctiveness. Pedagogy of difference also embraces the other-centered humanism associated with French phenomenologist Emanuel Levinas. This ethic calls us to take responsibility for others with the response of the Hebrew prophets: hineini here I am, ready to serve, precisely because, not in spite, of their differences.

For example, funded by the European Commission of Higher Education and in collaboration with institutions of higher learning in Spain, Lithuania, Romania, Czech Republic, United Kingdom and Georgia, the University of Haifa coordinated initiatives at Gordon Academic College of Education, Achva Academic College and Sapir Academic College in a project entitled DARE: Developing Programs for Access of Disadvantaged Groups of People and Regions to Higher Education. Following Sackss To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility, this project used pedagogy of difference to promote access to higher education for marginalized populations, including cultural minorities and disabled students. It demonstrated that each group offers important new perspectives to the diverse conversations of higher education.

Similarly, with support from the Templeton World Charity Foundation, a team of researchers at the University of Haifa and the Technion are exploring dialogue between science and religious education in Israeli high schools secular and religious, Jewish and Arab using pedagogy of difference. In keeping with Sackss The Great Partnership: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning, this project is particularly important at a time of pandemic when religious communities around the world experience tensions between cherished faith commitments and the role of science in protecting public health.

Finally, in partnership with the Office of the Chief Scientist of the Education Ministry, a University of Haifa research team is examining this sort of dialogical pedagogy in the middle-school curriculum according to the spirit of Sackss most recent book, Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times. Through interdisciplinary learning and teaching in the arts and humanities, this project will prepare students to draw on multiple and even conflicting sources of value and truth to address complex social problems such as those arising from the pandemic.

The educational import of Rabbi Sackss open but religiously grounded social philosophy comes down to one simple truth: To know oneself, one must engage others in dialogue, but to properly engage others, one must also know oneself. And through this engagement, one bears witness to the presence of God, in this world and toward the next.

May his memory be a blessing!

The writer is professor of philosophy of education at the University of Haifa and president of the Religious Education Association. His book Reimagining Liberal Education: Affiliation and Inquiry in Democratic Schooling (Bloomsbury, 2015) grounds pedagogy of difference in Sackss thought.

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Pedagogy of difference: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and education - The Jerusalem Post

The late Mallam Balarabe Musa

THE outpouring of accolades that trailed the death of Second Republic Governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, is a rich testimonial of appreciation of the exemplary life and political legacies he left behind.

A diehard exponent of democratic humanism, a form of socialist ideology of the Mallam Aminu Kano school of politics, Musa also lived an ascetic lifestyle devoid of corruption and material pursuits that are emblematic of todays politicians.

He studiously shunned the ideologically-rudderless large political parties which corruptly controlled public office because they had very little interest in the well-being of the people of the grassroots.

He was impeached in 1981 by the Kaduna State House of Assembly, whose majority members were of the National Party of Nigeria, NPN, a centre-right party that espoused a strong capitalist ideology.

Balarabe Musa was removed because of his perceived intention to turn Kaduna State into a socialist enclave.

Those were the days when ideology still drove politics in Nigeria unlike today when politicians change parties like undergarments for selfish and corrupt reasons.

Throughout his post-impeachment era, Balarabe Musa was always available to the media with his radical, insightful and fearless views on the state of the nation. Having nothing to hide, he had no reason to keep his views secret.

He was, indeed, one of the few remaining members of the radical order which helped make Nigerian politics so vibrant.

Born on August 21, 1936 in Kaya, Kaduna State, Musa studied at Zaria Middle School (19471952) and at the Institute of Administration, Zaria (19521953). He also later attended different institutions in London where he studied Accountancy.

His working experience consisted of his stint as an accounts clerk (19531955) and a school teacher (19551960). He also held various managerial positions between 1960 and 1976. As a leftist-leaning politician, Balarabe Musa belonged to the Northern Elements Progressive Union, NEPU, founded by Mallam Aminu Kano.

He was later elected Governor of Kaduna State in 1979 on the platform of Peoples Redemption Party, PRP, a party also founded by Aminu Kano and drew others of like minds such as Abubakar Rimi, Sabo Barkin Zuwo, Abdullahi Aliyu Sumaila, Michael Imoudu, Chinua Achebe, Yusufu Bala Usman, Uche Chukwumerije and Sule Lamido.

Unfortunately, his ascendancy to the pinnacle of political power in Kaduna State and desire to use same to improve the lot of his people were cut short by his controversial impeachment instigated by powerful elements within the Federal Government then controlled by the defunct National Party of Nigeria, NPN.

While joining millions of Nigerians in mourning Balarabe Musas passage, we take solace in declaring, like President Buhari, that he left a bold footprint on Nigerias democracy, and his role in promoting good governance and development will always be remembered and appreciated by posterity.

Vanguard News Nigeria

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Balarabe Musa, true champion of the masses - Vanguard

Updated: December 7, 2020 10:21:01 pm

Written by Javed Iqbal Wani and L David Lal

In recent years, the Hindu right has peddled a false narrative about Muslim men conducting a jihad by manipulating Hindu women into falling in love with the intention of eventually converting them to Islam. A few years back, it would not seem realistic that a vague communal idea such as love jihad could be weaponised by bringing in an ordinance that promises to deal with a problem that does not exist.

On November 28, 2020, the Uttar Pradesh government further entrenched communalism by law in the state by activating The Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religious Ordinance, 2020. It prohibits conversion from one religion to another by misrepresentation, force, fraud, undue influence, coercion, allurement or marriage. The stated goal of the law is to check unlawful religious conversion and interfaith marriages with the sole intention of changing a girls religion. It criminalises conversions in violation of the provisions of the law and will punish the guilty with a jail term of up to 10 years. The offences defined and stated in the ordinance are cognisable and non-bailable. Many BJP-ruled states have expressed an interest to legislate similar provisions.

P Chidambaram writes | The love jihad law is an onslaught on choice; on freedom; on privacy; on dignity; on the equality of man and woman; and on the right to love or live together or marry.

According to the new law, a person intending to convert to another religion needs to inform the district magistrate or additional district magistrate at least 60 days in advance and submit a prescribed declaration that the decision is free from any pressure or allurement and of the individuals free choice. Another declaration needs to be submitted within 60 days once the conversion happens. Only then will the person be able to attain a confirmation certificate that the conversion is lawful. The district magistrates office is required to exhibit a copy of the declarations on the notice board of the office till the date of confirmation of conversion. On paper, it claims that it is aimed at preventing forced conversions only. The legislation is indeed old wine in a new bottle, but this time has been weaponised further.

Among others, the issue of conversion was one of the main factors that motivated the enunciation of Hindutva in the colonial era. Anti-conversion laws in theory were designed as protective laws for the marginal groups, but, in reality, act as prohibition laws as they restrict freedom of marginal groups. The issue of religious conversion and limiting conversion through laws extends back to colonial times. Many princely states had one law or another dealing with the issue the Raigarh State Conversion Act, 1936, Patna Freedom of Religion Act, 1942, Surguja State Apostasy Act, 1942, and Udaipur State Anti-Conversion Act, 1946 etc are examples. Similar laws were in place also in Kota, Bikaner, Jodhpur and Kalahandi.

In the past, several states have passed what are also referred to as Freedom of Religion Acts or anti-conversion laws. These are mostly state-level statutes aimed to regulate involuntary religious conversions. Odisha was the first state to bring in the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act 1967, followed by Madhya Pradesh that has a Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 1968. In 1978, anti-conversion bills were enacted in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Arunachal Pradesh. Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh also passed their Freedom of Religion Act in the year 2000, 2003 and 2006 respectively. Rajasthan also passed a similar Bill in 2006. Tamil Nadu adopted the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Forcible Conversion of Religion Act 2002, but it was repealed in May 2004. The most recent legislation of a similar kind was passed in Jharkhand and Uttarakhand in 2017. The point here is that the trend for communalisation of the issue of conversion is not new and has been sustained over the last 50 years in postcolonial India. In UP, it gains a new momentum because it is politically aimed to regulate (read prohibit) conversions to Islam through what the right-wing terms as love jihad.

Despite contestations over the nature of similar laws, the UP government did not learn anything from past mistakes and went a few steps further to make the law more regressive. The maintenance of statistics of conversions by the DM in the form of a register is nothing but policing of women and love beyond boundaries. It raises concerns about the privacy of individuals who wish to adopt other religions. Not to mention the liberty of an individual to choose a partner from another religion.

One of the most questionable templates on which the law in UP rests is the Brahminical-patriarchal treatment of women as property. It infantilises women and perceives them as lacking any agency, as if they are property that needs to be recovered. Above all, the law is antithetical to the freedoms granted by provisions in the Special Marriage Act. Persons belonging to two different religions get married under the Special Marriage Act, which has a long-drawn process already. In cases, where a woman feels coerced, she can take recourse to the law under existing provisions in the Code of Criminal Procedure. Excessive legislation only criminalises everyday acts. The need is not to create more laws but to utilise the existing provisions if any foul play or coercion is reported. The new ordinance is a many-headed hydra. It subverts the basic principles of a constitutional democracy that grants individuals freedom of choice and religion. It undermines the free choice of adult women by referring to terms like allurement. It fails to see that in matters of love, faith is secondary, and the choice is primary.

Such political tactics are, of course, aimed at policing intermingling of castes and faiths. But it achieves a key supplementary goal in the process. It takes focus away from questions of caste and caste oppression within the Hindu fold and thrives on creating threatening exteriority in the names of fighting demons that do not exist. It is interesting that there has not been a single case where the conversions of tribal and Dalit people in the states of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, etc., have invited action against organisations affiliated to the Hindu right.

Faith is not a matter of spectacular conversion; it is the most personal commitment one has with the belief. You enter a faith as soon as you believe in the basic premise of it. What the UP ordinance shows is that we have entered an era of belligerent Hindutva, which thrives by weaponising laws against love and choice. Adding the term jihad to love is not accidental. The term love jihad aims to extend the post 9/11 stereotype of Muslims as predators who operate in multifarious ways to conquer the world. It sees love, or its pretension at least, as a tactic of the war. In the process, it dehumanises a particular community.

An appropriate countermobilisation is required to challenge the communal spirit of the law. The posturing of law in India in issues of caste, gender and religion might appear impartial, but it operates in a web of partisan relations of power. The goal of such legislation is to gain the implicit partiality of law. It aims to gain political mileage by officially recognising unfounded concerns of the Hindu right. It converts personal choices and personal liberties into spectacular legal processes and battles. The complex web of administrative requirements involved in the process thrives based on an implicit threat. Moreover, it will have direct implications on the right of the individuals, level of tolerance in society, and the plural and secular fabric of the country. It will create a society of suspicion and petty vengeance.

The socio-cultural life of north India was based on the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb, thriving on a harmonious co-existence of distinct cultures. The society was structured through mutual acceptance of different practices, norms and values. The alternative social vision based on social equality propagated by social thinkers such as Kabir, Ravidas, Tukaram, Chokhamela, Phule, and others holds immense significance in contemporary times. Kabirs imagination of tehzeeb carried the message of cultural plurality, respect for different value systems and humanism. Kabir in his poetry imagines building a social vision of a Prem nagar the city of love a land filled with love, mutual co-existence, and celebration of pluralities devoid of any hatred. He was one of the important architects of syncretic tradition in Indian society, which propagated the inter-mixing, tolerance and respect of different ideas. Kabir universalised the concept of love, opposed the ownership of love as caste and religion-specific, and emphasised its constructive role in the society. Even after centuries have passed, thousands of Kabir panthis (followers of Kabirs teaching) comprising Hindus, Muslims, and other communities continue to uphold the plural values in the society. The idea of Prem nagar continues to live in the imagination of millions of people in our society.

Ideally speaking, there is no bigger jihad than love. Love is an act of ultimate freedom. It does not know the boundaries of caste, gender, race, religion, language or region. It cannot be a means to anything, love is an end in itself. Philosopher Alan Badiou is right in noting that love is anything but an adhesive substance, a medieval glue that binds two tragically divided subjects back to a single loving unit. Marriage or conversion or other social protocols could be a means to love but not its end. Those who are peddling a false narrative are doing a disservice to humanity by sabotaging the basic premise of human existence i.e., love. As Friedrich Nietzsche said, there is madness in love, but there is some reason in madness. And that reason for love in a constitutional democracy is known as choice. We contend that law does not have the power to evaluate love. Because law thrives on justification and love requires none.

Wani is assistant professor, Ambedkar University Delhi and Lal is assistant professor, IIIT-Guwahati

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UPs anti-conversion laws are a political weapon to further communalism - The Indian Express

The Article 51A of The Constitution of India has duly pointed out that it shall be the duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers, wild life and to have compassion for living creatures, to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform, to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity, so that the Nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement.

The above three fundamental Constitutional duties are immensely relevant to the vision of an Atma Nirbhar Bharat (Self Reliant India), effective implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, meeting Indias commitment to climate change and the country to become a global leader in science and technology.

India is poised to be self-reliant in energy, agriculture, food and health care and communication, which can be achieved by discharging the Constitutional Duties with utmost sincerity and dedication by every individual associated with the program. It is relevant to cite the example of Indias atomic energy and space programme and its is one of the very few nations in the world to have mastered the nuclear technology and accomplished several mission oriented space projects.

The dedication and commitment of the scientific community to strive towards excellence so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievements, is one of the fundamental duties of the Constitution of India. Indias nuclear energy program, being in a technology denial regime, has been Atma Nirbhar since its inception.

Indias abiding interest in nuclear energy grew out of a deep conviction that the power of the atom can be harnessed to produce carbon-free electricity in a sustainable manner for energy security of the country with a growing population and at the same time produce radio-isotopes for use in healthcare, particularly cancer treatment.

It has been a bold step taken by the Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi during the year 2017 by approving construction of 10 indigenous Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR) with total installed capacity of 7000 MW. The decision for constructing the reactors in a fleet mode is unprecedented in the history of Indias atomic energy program.

India is one of the very few select nations in the world pursuing an accelerated expansion of nuclear power based on closed fuel cycle. The exceptional success in our nuclear program is due to the nuclear culture which is inspired by the fundamental duties of the Constitution of India, that is to develop the scientific temper and to strive towards excellence so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement.

There are many priorities, but protecting the environment which is one of the fundamental duties in the Constitution of India, is given paramount importance by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. One of the Indias post-2020 climate goals is to achieve about 40 percent electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel based energy resources by 2030. India has consciously made a strategic choice to pursue a low-carbon growth model in the coming decades a global vision A clean Planet for All.

Research shows that most of the jobs in the 21st century will be requiring digital skills, higher-order thinkers (multidisciplinary and integrated learning), lateral and deep thinking and employable skills. The NEP 2020 formulated by the Ministry of Human Resource Development has elegantly addressed the needs and dreams of the 21st century young India.

To mention a few, it has provided the opportunities for the creative thinking, holistic and multi-disciplinary education, attainment of foundational literacy, basic and advanced courses in each subject, scientific temper and evidence-based thinking, ancient Indian knowledge, less content for better understanding and absorption, technology use and integration, it is pertinent to emphasize that the policy implementation is the real challenge than the policy formulation.

India has faltered in policy implementation primarily due to the involvement of large number of individuals requiring highest level of integrity, honesty, accountability, responsibility and above all a commitment to the duties of the Constitution of India. NEP 2020 is an excellent progressive and constructive document, which once implemented will enable India to impart world-class education and become a global knowledge center.

The development of scientific temper is one of the duties of the scientists and technologists to be able to contribute to the nation building through scientific discoveries and technology development and deployment. There should be continuous effort by the Government, Scientific and academic institutions, Industrial units and each and every organization to inculcate awareness in the citizens of India about the fundamental duties of in the Constitution of India under Article 51A.

My vision of the Indian Republic is to see my country as a global leader in science and technology, truly self-reliant and the best in the world in producing clean energy to protect the environment. Achieving the above objectives is a real challenge as it require relentless efforts, commitment to nation building, highest level of integrity and honesty. It is emphasized that the scientific community should remain fully committed to abide by the Fundamental Duties of The Constitution of India. The year-long celebration of the Constitution Day has enhanced the awareness about the Constitution of India a momentous occasion to cherish forever.

Amitava Roy, a distinguished scientist & a Padma Shri awardee, is a former Chief Executive Nuclear Recycle Board, Department of Atomic Energy.

(Source: 70 Years of Indian Constitution, Published by Govt. of India)

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Developing science & scientific temper, the fundamental duties of Indian citizens - IndiaCSR

NEW YORK In the first days of Greta Thunberg's solitary sidewalk protest outside Swedish Parliament in August 2018, most walk right past her. Some pause and ask why she's not in school. But people steadily begin to take notice of the steadfast 16-year-old girl.

Those humble beginnings of Thunberg's protest the unlikely birth of a global movement are seen in the opening minutes of the new documentary "I Am Greta." Since then, Thunberg has met world leaders, been vilified by others, and seen countless join her in an ever-growing resistance to environmental complacency. It's a journey she readily describes as totally surreal "It's like living in a movie and you don't know the plot," she says but also affirming.

"I look back and I remember how it felt. I think: Oh, I was so young and naive back then which is quite funny," says Thunberg, recalling her first days of protest in an interview. "So much has changed for me since then but also so much hasn't changed from the bigger perspective."

"I feel like now I'm happier in my life," she adds. "When you do something that's meaningful, it gives you the feeling that you're meaningful."

"I Am Greta," which debuts Friday on Hulu, is the first documentary to chart the meteoric rise of Thunberg from an anonymous, uncertain teen to an international activist. As an intimate chronicle of a singular figure, it plays like a coming-of-age story for someone who seemed, from the start, uncannily of age. The film, directed by Nathan Grossman, captures the head-spinning accomplishments, and the toll they sometimes take, on the bluntly impassioned Thunberg.

For an activist who insists on putting the cause before herself, it's also a somewhat uncomfortable acceptance of the spotlight. "I haven't really achieved anything," Thunberg says, speaking by phone from Sweden. "Everything the movement has achieved."

She doesn't endorse everything about the documentary. It should come as no surprise that Thunberg, who has called her Asperger's syndrome her "superpower" a condition she believes only enhances her ability to be straightforward and focused has a few notes.

"I don't really like the title of the film, 'I Am Greta.' It makes it seem like I take myself very seriously," says Thunberg. (In Sweden, the film is simply called "Greta," but that title was recently taken by the 2018 Isabelle Huppert film.) "Also the poster. I look like I have make-up on. I don't like the poster and the title."

Grossman began filming Thunberg soon after she began protesting in August 2018, but he didn't expect much from it. He told Thunberg he might not stick around for more than a few hours. He shot in half-resolution to save memory cards.

But as time went on, and young people around the world began following Thunberg's lead, Grossman realized he had unwittingly captured the first moments of an unfolding zeitgeist. The project evolved and Grossman continued to shadow Thunberg up to her scorching speech at the United Nations in which she admonished world leaders: "We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you."

"She felt that a movie about her could help clarify things," says Grossman. "In the media, I think, she hasn't felt that she recognized herself. The one-dimensional character of Greta is a very angry, frustrated girl. In the movie, you see so much more that she's also funny and has different sides."

Part of the power of Thunberg is that, as a 17-year-old, she literally embodies a future imperiled by the inaction of older generations. "I Am Greta" is in a way a profile of generational divide, where adults and politicians line up to take selfies with a young woman who despite her stature sometimes struggles to get out of bed for an appointment or cries for home while sailing across the Atlantic.

But if Thunberg, Time magazine's Person of the Year in 2019, is recognizably human in "I Am Greta," she's also ruthlessly frank. She doesn't mince words on Earth's trajectory. She dismisses superficial gestures for change. And she shrugs off those who dismiss or mock her message. Asked how she felt watching news clips of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin deriding her in the film, Thunberg laughs.

"That's one of the highlights! It's hysterically funny," Thunberg says. "It just proves that you're doing something right. If you're being attacked by these kinds of people that shows you're doing something right. It just shows how desperate they are not to talk about the climate."

During the pandemic, Thunberg has seen climate slip from front pages. But she wishes the climate could generate the same level of alarm that COVID-19 has. "It feels like we're stuck no matter what we do," she says. "We won't achieve real change unless we actually start to treat the climate crisis like a crisis."

In September, Thunberg was again outside Swedish Parliament for a socially distanced climate protest, part of thousands of school strikes held that day. But watching the U.S. presidential debates, where climate was a little-discussed issue and summarily dismissed by Trump, she says, has been eye-opening.

"It surprises me. I knew the situation in the U.S. was bad when it comes to climate, that it's being treated as an opinion rather than actual scientific fact, but I didn't know it was this bad," says Thunberg. "Europe and Sweden, we are very, very far from where we need to be in the discussion. But compared to the U.S., it's just surprising."

Earlier this fall, Thunberg returned to school after taking a year off.

"I've missed it a lot. It just feels very good to be back in school and to do normal things, to have routines. I love routines that's probably a lot because of my autism," she says. "And in this environment, I'm almost anonymous in a way. People know who I am, of course, but I'm not there because I'm famous. I'm there to do something else, I'm just like the rest."

Anonymity might no longer be a long-term option for Thunberg, who will turn 18 in January. But it's a tradeoff she will make. When she reflects on the last two years, she sounds dangerously close to being something few would label Thunberg: an optimist.

"Before I started doing this, my experience was that no one cared. Now I've been proven wrong. Obviously, many people, especially young people, care about the climate crisis and the future, and that's encouraging," says Thunberg. "Humanity has not yet failed. We are failing, but humanity has not failed."

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Greta Thunberg on 2 very surreal years of protest and fame - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Extinction Rebellion activists prompted fury this Armistice Day by co-opting the Remembrance display at the Cenotaph with demonstrations and placing an unlicensed wreath above those dedicated to fallen soldiers reading CLIMATE CHANGE: ACT NOW. A banner, reading HONOUR THEIR SACRIFICE: CLIMATE CHANGE MEANS WAR was also carried and attached to the gate, blocking the view of the memorial. They were removed by Met Police two hours later.

Why they remained on display for so long is anyone's guess.

Former private Donald Bell spearheaded the stunt, in uniform, and stepped through poppy wreaths laid at the memorial to place his, paramount, above the rest.

XRs latest stunt might be their most staggering show of climate-fuelled anti-natalism and anti-humanism yet.

XR co-founder Stuart Basden wrote the movement isnt about the climate, but instead dismantling the cruelty and violence of 600 years of colonialism conducted by European civilisation, and its institutions of patriarchy, white supremacy, and heteronormativity.

Fellow XR co-founder, Roger Hallam, has said that forcing governments to act or bringing them down in order to implement XRs preferred climate policies will require some to die in the process.

A sticker campaign calling Humans the disease and Corona the cure landed an East Midlands XR chapter in hot water in March (another chapter claiming to be the main XR group did distance themselves from the claim but the structure is so murky it is very difficult for the public to know who to believe.)

In the States, Green New Deal supporter and 2020 Presidential primary candidate Senator Bernie Sanders endorsed expanding abortion access in third-world nations, to reduce carbon emissions through population control.

Previous prophecies havent panned out. From the Population Bomb, to Al Gores Inconvenient Truth, and even Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortezs recent inflated claim that the IPCC report says the world is to end in 12 years, these crazy predictions never come true.

When the climate narrative is controlled by out-of-touch radicals like this who continually demonstrate their disregard for working people and a disdain for the West, is it any surprise so many are opposed to the activism currently characterised as representative of the environmental movement? The 44 percent of Brits driven to apathy about climate issues by proclamations of an impending ecological apocalypse are excoriated as anti-science and deniers.

In a time of economic downturn and supply-line interruption, working families are rightly concerned about what their family requires, and the security and reliability of obtaining that.

Further disruptions to our way of life after a tumultuous year will inevitably be opposed, and all the more fervently when advocated by a group demonstrating such little respect as Extinction Rebellion often do.

But optimism may be derived from this flagrant display of disrespect. National lockdowns have served as an incidental repudiation of eco-socialists position that ending capitalism will stop the oncoming eco-pocalypse.

The halting of travel and production in nations worldwide for months was found to have a negligible impact, compared to predicted proactive responses invigorated by green stimulus and reductions in fossil fuel investments.

For all their theatrics and rhetoric, these cultish Luddites dont have any actual answers.

Our solutions will instead come from the experts and entrepreneurs developing tech to transport us into a clean, capitalist future.

If empowered by less government intervention, the private sector will fulfil the UK Institute of Directors business purpose clause of allowing the free market to profit from providing solutions toinstead of creatingproblems for our planet and its people.

The pathway to post-COVID economic and environmental recovery is through responsible free-market action. And nothing refutes radicalism better than results.

Quite simply, XR represents no one.

They do not represent British young people. They do not represent rational, sensible environmentalists. And they certainly do not represent groups like the British Conservation Alliance.

It is inexcusable to obfuscate this century-long tradition of solemnly honouring and expressing gratitude for lives lost in armed conflict with a ghoulish hijacking to platform an ideological obsession.

As the Royal British Legion rightly objected, Armistice Day is not for political protest.

No sacred cow of our contemporary zeitgeist entitles you to make a memorial service your soapbox.

The sacrifices made by Britain and her allies armed forces should not be made of subordinate concern to some zealots fixation with contemporary events.

Former Royal Green Jackets captain and current Conservative party MP, Tobias Ellwood, reiterated how alienating this stunt will prove to be, particularly if copycat theatrics are attempted at other events. Those with sense and decorum hope that the righteous objections to this stunt dissuade radicals from further attempts at distasteful thefts of the limelight, and encourage principled and pragmatic approaches to contemporary climate issues going forward.

Connor Tomlinson is Policy Director at the British Conservation Alliance a Conservative young persons organisation with student representation at 30 British universities.

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Cenotaph shame: When Extinction Rebellion is so hateful how can anyone respect its cause? - Express

Positive COVID-19 test sidelines FGLs Tyler Hubbard at CMAs

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Florida Georgia Lines Tyler Hubbard is the second artist so far that will miss a scheduled performance at the CMA Awards on Wednesday due to COVID-19.

Hubbard posted a note on his Instagram page on Monday saying he was asymptomatic and quarantining on his bus outside his home. It comes days after another artist, Lee Brice, also revealed he had tested positive and would also not perform on the show, which airs on ABC from Nashville, Tennessee.

The Country Music Association said in a statement that while it was disappointing that both artists would not perform, but it was a sign that their COVID-19 precautions were working.

We have been extremely diligent with our testing process in advance of anyone entering our footprint, the statement said. Every single person has been tested, and many will be tested repeatedly throughout the week. This is in addition to wearing PPE (personal protective equipment) and of course practicing social and physical distancing.

Although the show doesnt have a normal audience of fans because of the pandemic, CMA CEO Sarah Trahern had promised to bring country stars together in one room for the awards show, while keeping them physically distanced.

Greta Thunberg on 2 very surreal years of protest and fame

NEW YORK (AP) In the first days of Greta Thunbergs solitary sidewalk protest outside Swedish Parliament in August 2018, most walk right past her. Some pause and ask why shes not in school. But people steadily begin to take notice of the steadfast 16-year-old girl.

Those humble beginnings of Thunbergs protest the unlikely birth of a global movement are seen in the opening minutes of the new documentary I Am Greta. Since then, Thunberg has met world leaders, been vilified by others, and seen countless join her in an ever-growing resistance to environmental complacency. Its a journey she readily describes as totally surreal Its like living in a movie and you dont know the plot, she says but also affirming.

I look back and I remember how it felt. I think: Oh, I was so young and naive back then which is quite funny, says Thunberg, recalling her first days of protest in an interview. So much has changed for me since then but also so much hasnt changed from the bigger perspective.

I feel like now Im happier in my life, she adds. When you do something thats meaningful, it gives you the feeling that youre meaningful.

I Am Greta, which debuts Friday on Hulu, is the first documentary to chart the meteoric rise of Thunberg from an anonymous, uncertain teen to an international activist. As an intimate chronicle of a singular figure, it plays like a coming-of-age story for someone who seemed, from the start, uncannily of age. The film, directed by Nathan Grossman, captures the head-spinning accomplishments, and the toll they sometimes take, on the bluntly impassioned Thunberg.

For an activist who insists on putting the cause before herself, its also a somewhat uncomfortable acceptance of the spotlight. I havent really achieved anything, Thunberg says, speaking by phone from Sweden. Everything the movement has achieved.

She doesnt endorse everything about the documentary. It should come as no surprise that Thunberg, who has called her Aspergers syndrome her superpower a condition she believes only enhances her ability to be straightforward and focused has a few notes.

I dont really like the title of the film, I Am Greta. It makes it seem like I take myself very seriously, says Thunberg. (In Sweden, the film is simply called Greta, but that title was recently taken by the 2018 Isabelle Huppert film.) Also the poster. I look like I have make-up on. I dont like the poster and the title.

Grossman began filming Thunberg soon after she began protesting in August 2018, but he didnt expect much from it. He told Thunberg he might not stick around for more than a few hours. He shot in half-resolution to save memory cards.

But as time went on, and young people around the world began following Thunbergs lead, Grossman realized he had unwittingly captured the first moments of an unfolding zeitgeist. The project evolved and Grossman continued to shadow Thunberg up to her scorching speech at the United Nations in which she admonished world leaders: We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you.

She felt that a movie about her could help clarify things, says Grossman. In the media, I think, she hasnt felt that she recognized herself. The one-dimensional character of Greta is a very angry, frustrated girl. In the movie, you see so much more that shes also funny and has different sides.

Part of the power of Thunberg is that, as a 17-year-old, she literally embodies a future imperiled by the inaction of older generations. I Am Greta is in a way a profile of generational divide, where adults and politicians line up to take selfies with a young woman who despite her stature sometimes struggles to get out of bed for an appointment or cries for home while sailing across the Atlantic.

But if Thunberg, Time magazines Person of the Year in 2019, is recognizably human in I Am Greta, shes also ruthlessly frank. She doesnt mince words on Earths trajectory. She dismisses superficial gestures for change. And she shrugs off those who dismiss or mock her message. Asked how she felt watching news clips of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin deriding her in the film, Thunberg laughs.

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Names in the news - Marshall News Messenger

On November 5, the publisher Jiy Kokuminsha announced its list of nominees for the words and phrases encapsulating the zeitgeist of the year 2020. A complete list of the nominees, explained.

As expected, the COVID-19 pandemic figured heavily in this years list of nominees for the Word (or Words) of the Year. The spread of the novel coronavirus meant that terms describing the disease and medical measures taken in response, along with those talking about its impact on society and peoples lives, were certain to appear frequently on the list of 30 terms released annually by the publisher Jiy Kokuminsha, whose annual language guide Gendai ygo no kiso chishiki (Basic Knowledge on Contemporary Terminology) is also likely to focus on them in its next edition.

As Japan grappled with its new normal, and people who were not essential workers were pressed to stay at home, perhaps ordering from Uber Eats and passing the time with some Animal Crossing, the Japanese language saw these phrases, and many more listed below, enter the mainstream of everyday communication.

4 Ai no fujichaku/Dai-yoji Kanry bmu. South Koreas hit Netflix drama Sarangui bulsichak (Crash Landing on You) told the story of a cross-border love affair between members of the southern and northern elite. Under its Japanese title, Ai no fujichaku, it was seen as part of a fourth Korean wave to hit the countrys shores.

Atarashii seikatsu yshiki/Ny nmaru. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people in Japan and around the world have adjusted the way they live to reduce the risk of infection. Increases in wearing of masks and working from home are among such actions representing the new normal.

Atsumori. Launched in March 2020, shortly before Japan declared a pandemic state of emergency calling on residents to stay indoors, Nintendos smash simulation game Atsumare: Dbutsu no Mori (Animal Crossing: New Horizons) offered a way to pass the time that was enthusiastically taken up by many.

Abenomasuku. Face mask shortages in the early stages of the pandemic prompted Prime Minister Abe Shinz to institute a policy distributing millions of cloth masks to households across Japan. Nicknamed Abenomasks after his Abenomics economic policies, the face coverings came under fire, however, for being too small.

Amabie. One unexpected result of the COVID-19 outbreak was a revival in popularity for the ykai (supernatural spirit) Amabie, which legend claims first emerged from the sea in the nineteenth century. Its purported efficacy against disease led to its image appearing on many goods, and it even formed the model for wagashi sweets.

b tsu. With more people staying at home, food delivery firm Uber Eats got a boost, and bicycle and motorbike riders carrying its cubic backpacks became a familiar sight on Japanese streets.

AI-goe. Prodigy Fujii Sta made further strides in shgi this year, winning his first two major titles either side of his eighteenth birthday. His instinct for the best move led him to be described as better than AI.

Essensharu wk. Japan was among the countries noting the contributions of essential workers who cannot operate remotely, such as health workers, supermarket clerks, and waste collectors.

Ouchi jikan/sutei hmu. As politicians called on residents to stay at home, people found new ways to spend the ouchi jikan (home time). Singer Hoshino Gen created social media buzz with his Instagram-released song Uchi de odor (Dance at Home).

Onrain . Zoom and other services provided venues for online activities that were previously normally face to face, including medical checks, lessons, work meetings, family visits, and drinking parties.

Kaogei/Ongaeshi. The popular drama Hanzawa Naoki returned to broadcaster TBS, entertaining fans with its characteristic over-the-top showmanship. Viewers have delighted in the kabuki-like exaggerated facial expressions of performers, the kaogei typically captured close-up for full dramatic effect. Actor Kagawa Terayuki, in the role of wada Akira, struck a chord with his line promising ongaeshirepayment in kind for the offenses of a rivaldelivered with spine-tingling impact.

Kagopaku. Supermarkets and other retailers rolled out preventive measures after enduring an uptick in customers walking off with shopping baskets to avoid paying newly mandated fees for plastic bags that went into effect in July. The term combines kago (basket) with the colloquialism pakuru, meaning to steal.

Kimetsu no yaiba. The comic series Demon Slayer by Gotge Koyoharu has come to be a social phenomenon in Japan, with fans of all ages mimicking the catch phrases of characters and tuning in to watch the animated television spinoff. In October, an anime movie based on the work shattered Japanese box office records, earning over 10 billion in the first 10 days after its release.

Kurasut. As the coronavirus pandemic rages, Japan has made scouting out and preventing clusters, or groups of cases tied to a certain place and time, a central plank of its COVID-19 response strategy.

Ksui. Musician Eito found unexpected fame with his song Ksui (Perfume). Released in April 2019, the tune stayed under the radar until early 2020, when TikTok users began sharing covers of the tune on the app, bringing it to the attention of celebrities who then featured the song in videos.

GoTo GoTo kyanpn. The government rolled out its controversial GoTo campaigns in a bid to boost the countrys service industry, which has been hit hard by the pandemic. The programs provide subsidies of varying amounts for travel, eating out, shopping, and attending events, but they have drawn criticism due to cases of abuse and health concerns over spreading the coronavirus.

3 San mitsu (mittsu no mitsu). The World Health Organization has recently adopted the strategy of avoiding the three Cs to prevent the spread of COVID-19, borrowing a page from the Japanese three mitsu playbook of steering clear of confined and enclosed spaces (mippei), crowded places (missh), and close-contact settings (missetsu).

Jishuku keisatsu. In the early months of the pandemic, the government asked residents to show self-restraint (jishuku) by refraining from going out unless absolutely necessary and likewise implored shops to close their doors for a set time. While authorities had no legal means to enforce the policy, do-gooders stepped in as self-appointed police (keisatsu), scolding people for not wearing masks, berating drivers with out-of-prefecture plates, and rebuking businesses for staying open.

Zoom Zoom bae. With remote work on the rise, employees using conferencing apps like Zoom are trying to stand out at online meetings with eye-catching virtual backgrounds and perfectly applied makeup. The newly coined phrase combines the popular service with the verb haeru, meaning to look nice or stand out.

Sgteki, fukanteki. Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide drew sharp criticism from opposition leaders and scholars for rejecting six appointees to the Science Council of Japan, a leading academic body in the country. Suga refrained from giving a specific reason for the refusal, insisting instead that the decision was to ensure the comprehensive (sgteki) and panoramic (fukanteki) activities of the organization.

Ssharu disutansu. Social distance was the imported term describing the space people needed to maintain among themselves to avoid the three Cs and stay safe from COVID-19 infection while taking part in activities in social settings.

Soro kyanpu. Solo camping was one popular way for people to maintain that distance while enjoying the great outdoors. Camping had a growing allure for nature-lovers before the pandemic kicked in, with the comedian Hiroshi launching a popular YouTube channel detailing his outdoor exploits and glamping, glamorous camping with comfortable lodgings and high-end cuisine, also attracting big spenders to Japans wilder locations.

Terewku/Wkshon. Telework became a mainstay for white-collar workers able to do their jobs from home or other non-office locations, while workations were promoted by national and local governments, along with some major employers, as a way to keep the engines of industry running while workers enjoyed time in resort settings. Rimto wku (remote work) and zaitaku kinmu (performing ones duties at home) were also commonly heard terms in 2020.

Toki o modos. Lets go back in time was the phrase used by Shinji Taiy, half of the comedy duo Pekopa, to get the conversation back on track when his partner, Shpei, made a foolish statement as the boke, the dim-witted foil to Shinjis sharp-tongued tsukkomi character. The pairs popular acts revolved around Shinjis clever last-minute verbal gymnastics to turn an insult toward Shpei into an (often snobbish) admission that his point of view had something to it as well.

NiziU Pronounced nij in Japanese, this all-girl idol group came out of the Nizi Project, which held grueling auditions in the standard Korean pop-music style to choose its members from a pool of Japanese and Korean applicants. Produced by J. Y. Park, who also put megastars like Twice and 2PM on K-pop fans radar, NiziU saw its popularity boom with a website sharing the groups videos with eager viewers.

Nk sesshokusha. Close contacts were people who had spent a considerable amount of time with, or been physically close to, confirmed carriers of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Health workers sought to track down these contacts, who had a high likelihood of testing positive themselves, before they could spread COVID-19 to others. The technical definition of these close contacts eventually came to encompass people who had been near (within 1 meter of) a confirmed virus carrier, without wearing masks or taking other precautions, for 15 minutes or more within two days of the carriers hospitalization.

BLM BLM und. The Black Lives Matter movement made its impact felt in Japan, too, after George Floyd, an African-American, was killed by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, touching off protests that spread across the United States and then worldwide. Tennis star saka Naomi boosted awareness of the movement in Japan with the masks that she wore bearing the names of victims of racist violence.

PCR PCR kensa. Polymerase chain reaction testing is a common, if complex, way to test for SARS-CoV-2 infection in an individual. Positive results for these tests represent the bulk of the total confirmed COVID-19 cases reported in Japan to date.

Fuwa-chan. The stage name taken by Fuwa Haruka for her YouTube exploits became a highly recognized moniker across all media this year. Usually clad in neon colors and a sports bra, Fuwa-chan is an energetic celeb who has successfully made the leap from her video channel to television shows ranging from comedy to infotainment.

M n. Yeah, well, youre right there was a catch phrase used by the members of the female comedy team Boru-jukuparticularly Tanabe Chika, who commonly says it when Kgo Anri manages to defuse an insult delivered by her or the third group member, Kiriya Haruka, about Tanabes appearance. (A fourth member, Sakayori Nozomi, is taking time off for childbirth, but narrates the groups videos on YouTube.)

(Originally published in English. Banner photo: People lined up for the reopening of Tokyos Ueno Zoo on June 23, 2020, maintain social distance as they wait to enter. Jiji.)

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Words of 2020: Nominees Announced | Nippon.com - Nippon.com

So how has your year gone?

And do we have anything more to worry about?

As I write this, I do not know whether today, as youre reading, we have a conclusive view of the current state of our democracy. But lets hope and work for the best, and perhaps count our proverbial turkeys in this usually thankful, resoundingly transformed, season.

In recent months, against the backdrop of isolation and noise, I managed to fill my time with work, sustenance and cultural reflection.

Opportunities increased to experience music as its being made, both online and in safely distanced physical settings. Symphony players in the Nelson-Atkins sculpture park. Latin American string music warming the chilled night air from the alley stage at The Ship. Joyce DiDonato streaming live in a gorgeous recital from Germany. An African drum troupe celebrating the 100th birthday of Charlie Parker.

My current major writing project has been gathering steam as the manuscript takes shape and fills out, and as new material arrives via archives, books and human sources almost daily.

Another research project, involving art and jazz, led me to discover a 60-year-old movie, Paris Blues (1961). I couldnt believe Id never watched it before, and I was astounded by how relevant it could feel. Like the recent Netflix series The Eddy, the film is centered around a small Paris jazz club, and its major concern has to do with race.

Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier play American ex-pat musicians in the City of Light for their own different reasons. One day, the inter-racial musical friends encounter two free-spirited American women Joanne Woodward and Diahann Carroll, one white, one Black, of course on a vacation lark together. Well, as these things happen, relationships ensue. In the case of Newman-Woodward, the affair steamed up in ways you never saw in, say, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, which was made three decades later (in Paris and Kansas City) from the Evan Connell novels.

A trumpeter played by Louis Armstrong makes a vibrant cameo appearance in the club. But beyond the music, the interpersonal drama reaches its peak tension in dialogue between the two Black lovebirds. Carrolls character wants Poitier to go home with her to America. He explains why thats not possible, why he remains more comfortable in his Blackness away from the states.

Just this year, as we all know, we have entered a new era of racial reckoning.

For historical perspective, I cant recommend highly enough Isabel Wilkersons new book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Wilkerson threads together the global history of brutal social systems under which torture and lynching were matters of widely accepted practice, and American segregation and anti-miscegenation laws inspired the German Nazi regimes march to genocide in the 1930s and 40s. Such gut-wrenching, violent experience gives the lie to the whining bros who think that, in the midst of the troubling pandemic, their mask-free liberty has been at stake. They know nothing of suppression and indignity.

Books on African American history and race issues quickly became abundant and reached bestseller status this year. Another one that I found enlightening was The Sword and the Shield, a dual biography of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, by Peniel E. Joseph, which presents a more nuanced account of the triumphs, tragedies and mutual aims of these two leaders than the typical gloss has it. The background of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s will spark frequent reminders, alas, that we have been here too many times before.

One new thing: The KC Art on the Block project made a large and important impression on the citys streetscape. Six Black Lives Matter pavement murals, each designed by a different artist, stretched for a collective 2,000 feet. The project successfully reflected community collaboration and a sense of the Zeitgeist.

On the day the painting began, an opportunity occurred to me, and I posted about it briefly on social media. Standing in the middle of Troost Avenue as the outlines of the words Black Lives Matter were being filled in with paint struck me as a momentous step beyond the citys regretful past. This street had long symbolized the stark segregation built into the infrastructure of Kansas City as elsewhere. Perhaps we have found a new road forward. I shudder to think of the alternative.

Above: Looking north toward 63rd Street at the creation of the 63rd and Troost Black Lives Matter mural designed by Warren Stylez Harvey for the KC Art on the Block project (photo by Steve Paul).

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Reckoning With 2020 Vision: Is it Over Yet? - KC STUDIO - kcstudio.org

On Aug 11, violence broke out in Bengaluru claiming three lives and leaving several injured. The violence was in response to a derogatory social media post concerning the Prophet Muhammad by the nephew of a Karnataka Congress MLA. While the accused and numerous others, including several innocent people, have now been arrested, the incident has been reduced to ugly political slander. In February, riots broke out in Delhi after incendiary speeches by BJP Union Minister Anurag Thakur and ex-MLA Kapil Mishra. The hate speeches were a deliberate attempt to incite Hindus against Muslims and especially those protesting peacefully against CAA/NRC/NPR. The promulgation of discriminatory laws and policies such as the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) and other violent propaganda, reflect in-built prejudices of the ruling dispensation. And, prejudices only promote violence.

The Delhi riots left 53 dead, injured many more and resulted in severe loss of livelihood. Red tape surrounded access to medical attention and the lack of transparency about the arrests of several innocent people point to the deeply compromised institutional response. Meanwhile, several people have been detained and unfairly booked under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. The trauma primarily to Muslims physical, emotional and psychological but also to the entire polity, will take years to heal.

The two incidents call to mind the publication of a derogatory pamphlet titled Rangila Rasul Colourful Prophet by Mahashe Rajpal in 1924 in Punjab. The pamphlet showed the Prophet Muhammad in a poor light. Mahatma Gandhi raised his voice against the publication. He responded with an article titled Hindu-Muslim Unity published in Young India on June 19, 1924: I have asked myself what the motive possibly could be in writing or printing such a book except to inflame passions. Abuse and caricature of the Prophet cannot wean a Musalman [Muslim] from his faith and it can do no good to a Hindu who may have doubts about his own belief. As a contribution therefore to the religious propaganda work, it has no value whatsoever. The harm it can do is obvious.

The aftermath of the publication of the pamphlet was bloody and was a reason for the enactment of Section 295A of the IPC that any person found guilty of deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs will be subject to imprisonment. Maulana Azad, a practising but secular Muslim, stated I am proud of being an Indian. I am part of the indivisible unity that is Indian nationality. I am indispensable to this noble edifice and without me this splendid structure is incomplete. I am an essential element, which has gone to build India. I can never surrender this claim.

India is defined by its multicultural texture. One way to look at this culture is as a land of Bhakti or Sufi philosophers of the likes of Thiruvalluvar, Basava, Tukaram, Bibi Fatima or Kabir, who spoke persistently of fostering peace and companionship of diverse communities. An attitude of intolerance and violence contradicts any faiths basic tenets of humanism. In fact, most Hindu shlokas (couplets) end with a shanti, an invocation of peace and restraint. However, there is now a politically-motivated polarity by intentionally maligning other religions and attempts to legally discriminate against people based on their religion. Many of us born in the Hindu religion, who either practise or culturally remain within its fold, need to ask ourselves some important questions. Is violence against unarmed human beings going to lead us anywhere near the spiritual goals promised by the best in our tradition? Is difference a justification for subjugation or annihilation of life?

Will the celebration of a temple constructed on the ruins of another place of worship give anyone punya (virtue)? It is an irony that when the life of Gandhi was taken by a Hindutva fanatic, they should become spokespersons against violence. As Hindus, we stand guilty unless we express our dissent.

Today, the silence of the state is deafening. The calibrated lack of response of the present government to the speeches by their own party members inciting violence, points to their sanctioning of the violence. True religious precepts have repeatedly affirmed that the structure of the place of worship is not necessarily the house of the deity. The temple in Ayodhya is a structure. Any place of worship built on the destruction of another has questions to answer. In the Ayodhya judgment, the Supreme Court said, The destruction of the mosque and the obliteration of the Islamic structure was an egregious violation of the rule of law. And yet, on Aug 5, the Prime Minister was present at the celebrations of a temple construction over the debris of a destroyed mosque.

In contrast, amid the recent riots in Bengaluru, several Muslim youths formed a human chain around a temple protecting it from mob violence. To equate nationalism with religion is logically inconsistent since God is believed to be omniscient and cannot have a nationality. Invoking such omniscience, Kabir asks in the song Tu hi tu: Where are you? In the ant or in the elephant? In the thief or the person in pursuit? It is a reminder that all humanity is bonded. It has also been reassuring to note that many members of the majority community have resisted the CAA, NRC and NPR. What gives us hope is that, even in the worst of times, acts of discrimination and violence can be countered in equal measure with courage and compassion.

Hinduism is a secular religion in its philosophical assumptions, as probably all religions are. Those claiming to speak for nationalism are forcing us to choose between manufactured polarities of being secular or being religious.

This article first appeared in the print edition on Sept 5 under the title Violence & complicity. Aruna Roy is co-founder Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan and Rajendran Narayanan teaches at Azim Premji University, Bangalore. Indian Express

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When the state is silent, it becomes the citizen's duty to speak up and express dissent - Khmer Times

How has the pandemic affected your artistic practice?

Although my life on the surface has not changed much, the impacts on my mind and mentality have been quite prominent. I can clearly sense the demarcation of the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic worlds. In the face of a disaster that gradually spreads and submerges all, my stress response is stretched and lengthened because of it. This translates into the instantaneity of my creation: when working, I now spend less time on deliberation, and often go ahead with an idea without too much thinking. I also no longer isolate myself from the external world, since quarantine and lockdown paradoxically make me feel more connected to the world than before.

Do you have a set routine when creating artworks, or is your process randomized? Please describe either way?

I remember answering this question in 16 Personalities Test. They appear to be two distinctive approaches, but actually for me they are integrated into one. I work under a fully random, almost intuitive condition in which my creation follows a routinised convention. In almost every single piece of my work there coexist both randomisation and routine, persistently co-present in the beginning, during the making and till the ending.

Weve read that your artwork separates itself from the art scene. Do you feel thats accurate? Is the scene possible to escape? Is that a personal behavioral condition or is it more about your artistic output and subject matter?

We are all aware that the art scene is a cage, arent we? It is where Statues Also Die (Les statues Meurent Aussi (1953)). It is possible to escape the scene on the plane of religiosity: it is leaving in the heart[1]a separationhere and now. However, on the plane of reality where there is nowhere to escape to, I can only choose to stare, to look it in the eye. It is in this stare that it becomes the scene, rather than the art scene.

Would you agree there is a voyeuristic quality about your work that is different from other painters? Is painting fundamentally voyeuristic? Why or why not?

My painting does not originate from voyeurism, but I get what you mean. Audience may experience a voyeuristic quality, and this is because they cannot stand being directly exposed to the center of the scene hence subject to the stare (almost all of my paintings project the stare at the scene). Voyeurism is more of a description of where the audience stand the security of that spot, which allows them to see all and in the meantime hide themselves in the darkthe peephole is ready made.

Painting in its essence is not voyeuristic. However, it can be seen with the voyeuristic gaze, projected from the peeping eye. I think its more accurate to say that we are voyeurs of the reality rather than of painting.

When do you feel the most confident?

When a painting is completed.

Whats next?

Know myself, know the world; hopefully I can bring benefits to more people.

Pete Jiadong Qiang (b. 1991), lives and works in London. The artist explores the spaces of pictorial, architectural, and game, as well as interstices between the three through a Maximalist way of inquiries. His work encompasses architectural drawings, paintings, moving images, photogrammetry, augmented reality (AR) drawings, virtual reality (VR) paintings, and games.

Qiangs practice often revolves around the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art), which have become an idiosyncratic research methodology within his distinct aesthetic spectrum. Qiangs work is often referred to as architectural Maximalism, oscillating between physical and virtual spaces in the contexts of ACG (Anime, Comic and Games) and fandom.

Pete Jiadong Qiang is currently a PhD student in arts and computational technology at Goldsmiths, University of London, and was trained as an architect (RIBA Part 2) in Architectural Association School of Architecture.

For How Do We Begin?, Qiang exhibited Queer Maximalism HyperBody as a research ideal that tries to establish a new inventive methodology of Queer Maximalism: virtual space-making within the game engine by incorporating materials and images from ACG (Anime, Comic and Games), fandom communities and autoethnography. Both visually and acoustically, this new entanglement will try to redefine the concept of Portal within multiple HyperBodies intermediating between physical and virtual spaces.

HyperBodies include virtual Portal and physical Portal. HyperBody Virtual Portal is the virtual space of Queer Maximalism output in game engines, and is the corresponding physical space of Queer Maximalism output in real life.

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X Museum | Because Everything Has to Start Somewhere Flaunt Magazine - Flaunt Magazine

The first step was to twist free from the modern bourgeois worldview, or for that matter, from any framework or ideology that risked distorting the experience of reality. Back to the facts! became Heideggers battle cry, Eilenberger writes. This was a very appealing invitation for many students, including a young Hannah Arendt, who became one of his intellectual shock troops in the 1920s. Heidegger offered his audiences the opportunity to reclaim the question of Being (the German Sein) for themselves, to pose the question about what things are, about what reality really is, in a novel way that corresponded to their lived experience.

Heidegger understood his unmoored students. He contended that being human (Dasein) was a state of constant anxiety in the face of our own insignificance. Eilenberger, explaining Heideggers position, writes, Insight into our fundamental groundlessness is made possible by the knowledge of mortality but we cannot find our own salvation as something promised or revealed to us, we can acquire it only with an open and hence also fearful gaze into the abyss of our own finitude.

Heidegger spoke directly to war-weary individuals who were all too familiar with their own mortality and were looking, desperately, for a philosophy to think it through. Eilenberger rightly observes that Heidegger never faced mortal danger, but this didnt keep him from developing a charismatic philosophy fitted precisely to those who did. One of Eilenbergers achievements is to explain Heideggers efforts to position himself as the hero and sorcerer of post-World War I Germany and therefore foreshadow his full-throated support of the Nazi regime as it came to power.

Ernst Cassirer and Walter Benjamin shared at least one philosophical position: their mutual dislike of Heidegger. Cassirer and Heidegger were bound for conflict, and not only because Heidegger was an anti-Semite and Cassirer a Jew. Cassirer, the most intellectually traditional (and psychologically stable) of the magicians, sought to extend Kants project of enlightenment, grounded in rationality and the freedom it enabled, but also a broader humanism based on the advancement of science. By 1929, at their famous debate at Davos, he was fully eclipsed by Heidegger, who held that these philosophical goals were misguided from the start. Cassirer and his family fled Germany in 1933, the year that Heidegger delivered The Self Assertion of the German University. Cassirer would never again belong to such a university.

Walter Benjamin, the German Jewish philosopher, essayist and cultural critic, spent the better part of his professional life planning for what he described to his friend Bertolt Brecht as the demolition of Heidegger. Time of the Magicians explains how most of Benjamins plans, including this one, never came to fruition. Like Heidegger, Benjamin was a cult figure, but he lacked an organized following, at least in part because his philosophy, in Eilenbergers words, was about simply everything. Benjamin summoned Romanticism, Jewish mysticism, Surrealism and Marxism in an effort to reveal a new world (specifically the burgeoning urban landscape of modern Europe) that defies comprehensive explanation.

And what of Ludwig Wittgenstein, the most illusive and therefore most interesting of the philosophical wizards? I was first acquainted with his work in the course on philosophical logic in which the professor informed me that philosophy taught a student how to think. When I read the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, which Wittgenstein completed as a German soldier in World War I, I concluded that it established the foundation for rigorous and indisputable claims to knowledge. It seemed to me that philosophy, in Wittgensteins hands, was something like an exact science, which established a system of propositions that perfectly represented the world. I was not alone in this gross misreading. At a crucial moment in Time of the Magicians, Eilenberger explains that an entire school of philosophy known as logical positivism was born of this exact misunderstanding of Wittgenstein.

The 526 numbered statements of the Tractatus are not the rigid elements of a formal system but rather the rungs of a very long ladder that a reader can climb in order to see the world rightly, perhaps for the first time. The book is an invitation to philosophize, an activity of seeing the world a little more clearly by clarifying the language and thoughts that we use to describe it.

Wittgensteins intent is to show what can be meaningfully expressed, but also, more important, to gesture at what lies beyond our ability to express. And a great deal lies beyond. One is left, in Wittgensteins words, to wonder at the existence of the world, which is precisely the opposite of explaining it fully. Philosophy is the activity of climbing a ladder, and once you reach the top, the ladder disappears.

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The Men Who Reinvented Philosophy for Turbulent Times - The New York Times

As Kazakhstan celebrates the Anniversary Year of its medieval philosopher Abu Nasr al-Farabi (870-950), born on the territory of modern Kazakhstan 1150 years ago, The Astana Times is publishes a series of articles and interviews with world-renowned scholars, which specialize on al-Farabis legacy.

Abu Nasr al-Farabi. Photo credit: Platon.Asia.

Our correspondent Dmitry Babich interviews Jari Kaukua, professor and post-doctoral fellow at the department of social sciences and philosophy at the University of Jyvskyl, Finland

Al-Farabi translated some works of the philosophers of classical, pre-Christian Greece into Arabic and other languages available for the population of medieval Asia. Can we call him a medieval precursor of the modern concept of international science, knowledge without borders?

Jari Kaukua

Jari Kaukua: I think this is a fair general assessment of Abu Nasr al-Farabis activity. He and his peers seem to have worked under the assumption that science is not specific to any particular culture, religion, state, or ethnic group. The circle of Baghdad Aristotelians, to which Abu Nasr al-Farabi belonged, featured both Christians and Muslims. They were of course perfectly well aware that their science originated in a cultural context of Greece of the times of antiquity, foreign to both monotheistic traditions.

How did Al-Farabi manage to integrate the ancient Greek tradition into the framework of medieval Islam? Doesnt it show that enlightened Islam can be a vehicle for attracting non-Islamic scientific and cultural achievements, putting them to the service of people, including non-European nations? In this context, can we say that Al-Farabi and Al-Biruni, who also stems from the Central Asian region, were the precursors of modern reconciliation of faith and science, in which precise scientific knowledge peacefully coexists with the belief in immortality of human soul?

Jari Kaukua: I believe that Abu Nasr al-Farabi was consciously carrying on the project begun by earlier generations of Muslim philosophers, such as al-Kind and the circle of translators gathered around him. They had come up with the idea of applying the Greek philosophical and scientific heritage to the contemporary debate concerning the proper interpretation of the Islamic doctrine. As Dimitri Gutas has shown, for a brief but decisive moment in the eighth and ninth centuries CE, holders of political and economic power in the Abbasid state saw rationalist theology and philosophy as potential allies in the cultural sphere, and that the consequent investment in translation and indigenous Arabic literary activity is explicable in this way. In this sense, we can perhaps say that an enlightened Islam did indeed play a crucial role in the naturalisation of the Greek heritage.

Wasnt the work of these Islamic scholars more than 1000 years ago a precursor of a combination of scientific and religious knowledge in European New Times, which gave such a boost to Europes development and expansion?

Greek heritage needed naturalization not only in traditional Islamic areas, but also in Europe itself, where the Greek tradition had largely been forgotten in the medieval times. This naturalization was the work done for the benefit of what we can call now Eurasian world.

So, although Abu Nasr al-Farabi did not initiate the project of integrating the Greek tradition into Islam, he made a number of major contributions to it. Together with other Baghdad Aristotelians, he emphasised the methodological importance of Aristotelian logic and theory of science. He also found a way of reconciling the Islamic doctrine of creation and the Aristotelian view that the world is eternal. Finally, he came up with an influential Islamic version of the Platonic theory of the state.

Since I am not convinced that there is a widely accepted modern reconciliation of faith and science, the question about Abu Nasr al-Farabis role as a precursor of modernity is difficult to answer. I suppose we could say that Abu Nasr al-Farabis attempt to prove the existence of one first principle of all being (the God of monotheistic religions), and to trace other religious doctrines back to this principle without relying on the authority of revealed text, could still provide a paradigm for contemporary attempts at reconciliation between science and religion. When it comes to early modern European ways of thinking about the two, it seems to me that at least some prominent thinkers, such as the German scientist Leibniz, were building on a foundation partly laid by Abu Nasr al-Farabi and Avicenna. However, I hesitate to make a straightforward connection between the two epochs, simply because there was a variety of philosophical theories in the early modern period, and because we also have to bear in mind the influence of the intervening medieval Latin discussions.

What do you think about Abu Nasr al-Farabis concept of virtuous state? Abu Nasr al-Farabis idea of the state as a mediator, called to reconcile the interests of various groups inside society, isnt it still a timely reminder for modern politicians, who often build their careers on division and hatred between different social groups inside society and between different states on international arena?

Jari Kaukua: I think that Abu Nasr al-Farabis political theory is an admirable and fascinating attempt at reconciling the combination of political and religious authority in Muammads prophecy with classical political doctrine. Like Platos theory of the state, which Abu Nasr al-Farabi took on to develop, the result is an idealised form of aristocracy. As such, I am somewhat sceptical of its straightforward applicability today, or at any moment of history, for that matter. But if we read it as a form of critique that constructs an ideal, to which factual politics compares unfavourably, then I think it is still a potentially valuable text, and not just of historical interest.

Can we call Avicenna and Abu Nasr al-Farabi representatives of a peculiar Islamic medieval humanism? Werent they also early precursors of separation of religion and state in a region where Western thought traditionally did not expect such a separation? Recently, the works of Soviet scholar Artur Sagadeyev on Avicenna and Abu Nasr al-Farabi were republished in Russia. In one of his articles, Sagadeyev writes: The Moslem principle of unity of secular and religious power lost its vigour in the mid-tenth century AD, when the Khalif in Baghdad retained religious power, while emirs and sultans took secular power for themselves. Is it an exaggeration or a reflection of a little-known medieval reality?

Jari Kaukua: I suppose this depends on what we mean by humanism. Avicenna and Abu Nasr al-Farabi did believe that as rational beings, human beings are intrinsically valuable, inherently directed towards the good, and capable of acquiring knowledge by means of their intrinsic cognitive faculties. Having said that, as far as I can see, both were strict determinists (although this is somewhat controversial, some scholars would disagree), and probably did not think that human history is a story of any real progress. I also do not see any reason to see them as precursors to the secularist separation of religion and state. Religion is absolutely crucial, albeit instrumental, to Abu Nasr al-Farabis virtuous state, and although Avicenna did not write about statecraft as extensively, I think he would have agreed on this count.

I am not an expert on Islamic political history, but I do think that your quote from Sagadeyev is apt in at least one sense: the combination of religious authority and real political power that is characteristic of the early caliphate does disintegrate when we come to the eleventh and the twelfth centuries CE. Although the emirs and the sultans of course had to take religion into account in the legitimation of their policies, their power was not based on immediate religious authority of the sort that the caliph had. It is an interesting question whether Abu Nasr al-Farabi already saw this development when he discusses the various ways of distributing power in the absence of a perfect prophet or caliph.

What do you think about Abu Nasr al-Farabis concept of a virtuous political leader for a virtuous state? In Soviet times, this part of Abu Nasr al-Farabis philosophy was seen as idealistic, since real happiness was supposed to be achieved via a victory of oppressed masses in a class struggle. But doesnt history show that an enlightened absolute power can be relatively humane and supportive of social development? Isnt it an acceptable alternative for the modernist trend of division and all sorts of presumably progressive struggles (proletariat against bourgeoisie, racial minorities against the white majority, etc.)

As already indicated above, I personally think that Abu Nasr al-Farabis political theory is idealistic and inapplicable in reality. Obviously, I do not think that the Marxist view is the only real alternative either. As an offspring of a relatively liberal secular democracy, and even at the risk of a cultural chauvinism of sorts, I firmly believe that so far the most successful political regime has been a democratic regime founded on general welfare and good education of the citizens. I am painfully aware that a number of economic and political factors, not to mention climate change and its consequences, presently threatens the stability of many such regimes. Perhaps future political historians will deem them failures as well.

Be that as it may, the central reason why I think Abu Nasr al-Farabis political theory is too idealistic to be applicable is that I am disillusioned about the availability of perfectly enlightened autocrats. Moreover, real politics requires compromises which, together with the personal economic advantages that are frequently coupled with political power, are likely to corrupt even the most virtuous soul over the time of her absolute regime.

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Jari Kaukua: Al-Farabi Was a Representative Of an Enlightened Islamic Thought, Which Played a Great Role in Naturalization of Ancient Greek Heritage...

Diangelo, considered to be in the front ranks of white anti-racist thinkers, rejects the whole idea of individuality because it holds that we are each unique and stand apart from others, even those within our social groups. As for objectivity, Diangelo dismisses the idea that it is possible for individuals to be free of collective bias. Those tired old Enlightenment concepts make it very difficult for white people to explore the collective aspects of the white experience.

Under systemic collectivism, an aging Indigenous man can only see the world through his collective prism as an aging Indigenous man, not as an individual with his own intellect and thoughts. A young white woman working at a downtown Toronto bank can only grasp the world around her through her white female privilege. She cannot think for herself.

Not to be left out of the capitalism-bashing ritual is Desmond Cole. In his book, The Skin Were In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power, the Toronto journalist who was fired from the Toronto Star for failing to observe journalisms general adherence to objectivity, Cole states that White power works in concert with other forms of power including capitalism (the dominance of private profit over public benefit).

The physical bookshelves are filled with these ideas, as are the online services and publication lists of university presses, which crank them out by the hundreds.

The overthrow of these core concepts is a calculated and highly public effort to destroy the great fundamental principles that have lifted human beings from ignorance and servitude

These shots at capitalism and individualism as oppressive scourges did not fly into the text of todays best-sellers on the wings of a dove. They have been systematically implanted in the culture over the last half-century by ideological warriors camouflaged as opponents of racism, sexism, inequality, homophobia, colonialism. After straight-up Marxism had self-destructed by the middle of the 20th century, after the workers of the world failed to unite around a communist revolution, cabals of neo-Marxists developed new theories. If we cannot succeed with workers, maybe we can overthrow capitalism and its enabling Enlightenment individualism by appealing to a much larger middle-class population by weaving racism, sexism, inequality, globalization and climate change into one big movement.

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Terence Corcoran: You are not you, and other truths of the new world - Financial Post

Album Review of The Flaming Lips - American Head

BY NEAL MARTIN| SEPTEMBER 02, 2020

In the 17 years since I first blighted music criticism with a monthly musical recommendation, I have only ever received one new release in advance, namely The Pipettes debut in 2004. There I was, clutching my promo CD, convinced that it was only a matter of time before the NME or Rolling Stone fight it out over my penmanship. The phone never rang. The Pipettes never troubled the top of the charts and remain a lost post-millennial gem, though lead singer Gwenno subsequently enjoyed critical and commercial success as a solo artist. Anyway, this months recommendation, The Flaming Lips American Head, constitutes the second album that I am reviewing before general release. Alas, that is not because music cognoscenti have awoken to yours truly being a modern-day Lester Bangs or Tony Parsons, rather that someone at their record company dispatched my pre-ordered album by mistake.

I am kind of glad they did. It offers me more time to savour the finest Flaming Lips album since 2002s epic Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots that marked their height of popularity thanks to the best happy/sad song ever written, Do You Realise? If you loved that album, or indeed their masterpiece, The Soft Bulletin, then listen to their 16th album American Head because they are cut from a similar cloth. There is all the patchouli-scented psychedelia that one expects from a Flaming Lips record, draped over Wayne Coynes gorgeous melodies, so melancholy but somehow uplifting. Without doubt American Head includes some of the best tunes that he has written in a career that remarkably extends back to 1984. A cursory glance at the song titles: Flowers On Neptune 6, When We Die When Were High, You n Me Selling Weed, At The Movies On Quaaludes and most explicit of all, Mother Ive Taken LSD...well, it is not difficult to spot the lyrical theme.

Yet the lyrics are much deeper than narcotic paeans. It dwells on the passing of time and the passing of lives, themes that run through much of Coynes work. He also ruminates what his country stands for in 2020, effectively portrayed in the promotional video as he wanders through a fiery wasteland wrapped in a Stars and Stripes flag like a soldier lost on a battlefield. To quote Coyne in Junes press release when the album was announced: So for the first time in our musical life we began to think of ourselves as AN AMERICAN BAND telling ourselves that it would be our identity for our next creative adventure. We had become a 7-piece ensemble and were beginning to feel more and more of a kinship with groups that have a lot of members in them. We started to think of classic American bands like The Grateful Dead and Parliament-Funkadelic and how maybe we could embrace this new vibe.

Occasionally in the past, Coyne has taken the psychedelia too far for my ears, but on American Head, the strange sound effects and surrealism are kept in check, allowing the melodies to breathe and flourish. Another feature that elevates it above previous recent releases are the inspired collaborations with country star, Kacey Musgraves. It seems an odd combination on paper, but it turns out to be a sublime partnership, not least on the stunning "God And The Policeman" and sublime aptly-titled comedown, When You Come Down, that reminds me of Primal Screams Shine Like The Stars. How refreshing to see a country singer take themselves out of their comfort zone and immerse their talents in an alternative genre. It lends romanticism, a sense of humanism to the album, her strong vocals complementing Coynes who has never possessed the strongest voice and sometimes strains to hit the high notes. That is part of the appeal - much like Bernard Sumner who strained to sing in early New Order songs until he demanded that they change the key to suit his range.

I bought the double album on tri-colour vinyl in a holographic gatefold sleeve directly from record label Bella Union limited to 500 copies and signed by Coyne. Its a stunning, high quality package. Most importantly, it is one of the best sounding pressings that I have heard in recent months.

Hats off to Wayne Coyne and his very able band. How many artists in the fourth decade of their career remain as enticingly outr and original, but as popular as ever, and produce some of their best music. Coyne still cuts a mystical, shamanic figure with his lions mane locks, greying with advancing years and yet he looks fantastic given how long hes been around. Its just a shame that COVID will deny us their legendary spectacular live shows. Fingers crossed for 2021. In any case, American Head will rank among the best albums of 2020.

Wine Recommendation

The woozy, dreamy soundscape of Wayne Coyne deserves a dreamy wine that may or may not make you woozy depending on how much you imbibe. Im thinking a 2017 Syrah from Cedro do Noval by Quinta do Noval in the Douro will be just the ticket. No LSD necessary.

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Beyond Wine: Album Review of The Flaming Lips - American Head (Sep 2020) - Vinous

A paper published recently in the Journal of Medical Ethics explores the relationship between disability and enhancement, and the importance of social context and environment in how they get defined. According to the group of authors, led by Nicholas Greig Evans, a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, the most popular ways of thinking about disability and impairment often either discount certain types of disability or patronize the person with the impairment.

Going further, the authors explain how popular accounts tend to ignore how social stereotypes about disability can impact even those who do not identify as disabled or impaired themselves:

the tendency to focus on specific and often paradigmatic cases of disability and elide discussion of enhancement has a serious downside: it has the potential, among other things, to keep us from understanding cases of disability and impairment that are less apparent and well recognized. Aside from limiting our knowledge and understanding, it also keeps us from making interventions or undertaking further research that might concretely assist those populations . . .

There have been many different models of disability proposed over time, ranging from models based on social factors and human rights to those that link disability to technology. Recent events, like the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated economic and climate disasters, moreover, serve as ongoing reminders of how our abilities to act freely as individuals are always shaped by the broader socioeconomic dimensions of our lives. This insight echoes what critical psychologists have been saying for decades.

According to Evans and the other authors, most people thinking seriously about these issues agree that disability is a widely heterogeneous set of phenomena, so much so, they note that some have argued it to be a meaningless category in the abstract. For them, most existing models dont account for the way assumptions about disability are intertwined with assumptions about enhancement, insofar as both are shaped by which skills happen to be considered most valuable in a given social setting.

How we define either disability or enhancement, they propose, depends on how we compare the behaviors of a specific individual with a statistically relevant cohort group. Cohort group studies track changes in behavior and expressed capacities over time across individuals who live under similar conditions.

With this in mind, the authors suggest it could be useful to think about human abilities in general in terms of the concept of capacity space, which they define as the dynamic relationship between an individual person and their social and environmental milieu. From this perspective, phenomena we tend to call disability are inherently dynamic because they change over time, and they are relational because they are constituted through interactions between persons and the social tools (e.g., digital technology) they have available.

The concept of capacity space, the authors propose, provides a useful starting point for understanding the full variability and breadth of disability as a ubiquitous characteristic of the human species. To help illustrate this, they present a series of case studies that depict experiences of disability and enhancement that are often overlooked in the literature.

For example, they point to certain dysgenic effects in soldiers after WWI, where a high number of casualties left young men who were previously considered physically unfit among the only individuals available for military service.

In this instance, individuals who had been considered disabled relative to other soldiers before the war could have become normal, or even enhanced, simply because the cohort group against which they were judged had changed. This, the authors explain, is an example of how ones capacity space can be transformed even when ones individual abilities remain relatively consistent.

Another example they discuss is the many different variations of chronic pain. This is true both within the same individual as well as across different individuals. Some days are, of course, better than others, with factors ranging from diet, climate, and social contact, possibly having some effect on how chronic pain is experienced and managed at any given time.

Symptoms related to a diagnosis of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), a hypermobility condition, for instance, might be relatively mild when compared to other individuals who are diagnosed with the same condition:

At times, the person is simply more flexible and mobile than their cohort, making them a better spokesperson. At other times, their joints dislocate unexpectedly, and they are incapacitated in significant ways. Is this person enhanced, disabled, or both, relative to their cohort?

Thinking about disability as something that any human can experience under the right set of conditions, and in entirely personal ways, represents a clear departure from approaches like welfarism, which posits a clearly defined line between disability and ability.

The authors define welfarist approaches to disability as those that posit a stable physiological or psychological property of a subject S that leads to a significant reduction of Ss level of well-being in some circumstance. From this perspective, disability is defined not according to how an individual can perform socially, but according to how the individuals sense of well-being is impacted by one of their personal traits.

Enhancement, by contrast, would be defined under welfarism by any stable property of a person that leads to a significant increase in that persons well-being. By focusing on psychological well-being, rather than social structures or medical status, the authors suggest, welfarist approaches to disability and enhancement account for something important that other models tend to ignore.

And yet, by framing disability as something intrinsic to each individual person, and defining welfare solely in terms of well-being, welfarist accounts risk marginalizing the consequences of prejudice and institutional discrimination for those who do not conform to conventional social expectations. They also fail to adequately account for the ways disabilities have different social implications across time and space, beyond individual well-being.

Such dimensions, the authors claim, are essential to experiences of disability. With their concept of capacity space, they underscore how time and space are not abstract categories; like disability itself, they are complex social realities that shape what individuals consider possible for themselves and others.

The authors are also cautious not to discount sociohistorical accounts of disability. Instead, they describe their project as complementary to such accounts. And yet, the importance of economics and social factors related to race and gender are given relatively little attention in their article.

It is hard to imagine how a cohort, or any other social group, for that matter, could be considered relevant to a persons lived-experience without accounting for the way self-image and self-performance are assigned value today largely in terms of capital.

Under current conditions of global capitalism, social networks are unavoidably shaped by the technologies, information, and capital that its members have access to. Indeed, enhancement and technology are so obviously linked in todays hyperconnected world that it would make little sense to propose a concept of one that cannot account for the other.

While statisticians have the luxury of selecting cohort groups based on analytic convenience, this is not true for those whose embodied natures fail to align with the skills deemed most valuable in todays information-based markets. These are issues that movements like transhumanism and posthumanism have been engaging with for decades, but they are, unfortunately, not given much attention by the authors of this paper.

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Evans, N. G., Reynolds, J. M., & Johnson, K. R. (2020). Moving through capacity space: Mapping disability and enhancement. Journal of Medical Ethics. (Link)

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Rethinking Our Concepts of Disability to Meet Our Changing Social Worlds - James Moore

My former student Carolyn Homer has written a characteristically thoughtful and passionate post arguing that Trumpism is akin to a religion. Others have argued that Wokeness is essentially a religious movement, or that both Evangelicalism and Wokeness are. And one can find critiques arguing that economics is a religion or that libertarianism is a false faith. Secular humanism can be a religion too. These arguments do not all claim that ideologies are religious in the sense that they take positions on the superhuman power of God, but that ideological movements are often similar to religious movements in their organization and in that their belief structures ultimately reduce to assumptions that are matters of faith in the relevant communities.

Humans use essentially the same cognitive processes to derive their religious beliefs and their ideological views. Because individual experience is limited, many of our beliefs are based on decisions to place faith in the conclusions of others. Often, we believe that groups of thinkers are worthy of epistemic deference because we know people in these groups and believe based on our first-hand experience with them that their beliefs are genuine and that they are unlikely to be trying to deceive us about their views. This helps explain why people often have views similar to those of other people in their community. It is not just that we are more exposed to the views of our friends and neighbors (though that is surely important as well), but also that we tend to trust our friends and neighbors. It also helps explain why individuals who feel less comfortable socially in a community are more likely than others to reject that community's ideological or religious beliefs.

I do not mean this merely to be a claim about other people's beliefs. It is very much a claim about my own beliefs. For example, I have great confidence in my own views of climate science, specifically that the best evidence indicates that anthropogenic global warming is occurring. But that is not based on any detailed study of the models that climate scientists use. Rather, it is based on an assumption that climate scientists are unlikely to be engaged in a global hoax. This is a belief that I can hold with great confidence even though I also think that there is probably some incentive for conformity and groupthink within the relevant community and that it may be more difficult to publish research suggesting that climate change is a little milder than feared than researching suggesting that climate change is a little worse than feared. If I engaged a climate change skeptic whose knowledge level was similar to mine, we would probably deadlock in arguing about the incentives of the scientific community, more than on the actual science, since neither of us has much more than a superficial knowledge of the scientific studies on this issue. I would like to think that if I devoted sufficient time to educating myself, I would be able to explain in clear detail how the climate change skeptics are misusing evidence, but I must confess that if I today watched a 10-minute video by a climate change skeptic citing various studies, I probably would not know enough to lay out the counterarguments.

When one recognizes that one's own views inevitably depend on matters of faith, should one discard those views? Consider Aumann's agreement theorem, which shows that if rational agents have common knowledge of each other's beliefs (meaning that each believes that the other believes that the first believes what the other's beliefs are and so on to infinite regress) then they cannot agree to disagree. Imagine, for example, that in thinking about some ideological or religious issue, I could place all the parts of my brain that form my reasoning on that issue into a box, which I could then interrogate for the answer to what I think about that issue. For example, I can't remember what I believe about climate science, but my box tells me that I believe that anthropogenic global warming is very likely. But I can see that your box says that you believe that anthropogenic global warming is very unlikely. Assume that I think that the brain in your box is mechanically every bit as good as the brain in my box. In such circumstances, it's easy to see that I should be no more disposed to think that anthropogenice global warming is very likely than than that it is very unlikely. There is no reason that I should favor the answer from my own box than from yours, any more than I should assume that my computer is giving me the correct result if your computer and mine surprisingly give different answers to a particular floating point operation.

But I can't place the parts of my brain that resolves particular issues in a box (at least without doing considerable damage), and more importantly, I cannot verify when you tell me your view on a particular issue that you are honestly reporting your view on that issue. When I interrogate my own view, I may recognize the possibility that my views are the result of subconscious psychological processes and self-deception, but at least I know that my views are not the result ofconsciousdeception. Thus, I should have at least some greater confidence in my own views than in the views of any other person, all else equal, particularly if I believe that my views already place appropriate epistemic deference on the views of others. That is enough to save each of us from paralysis; I can hold beliefs, even beliefs that a majority of others reject. But it should reinforce that each of us is using a remarkable but imperfect machine to generate our beliefs, that we are all motivated reasoners who do not understand our subconscious motivations, and that many people are probably genuine in holding beliefs that we think are clearly wrong or even evil.

All of this analysis extends to my religious beliefs as well as to nonreligious ideological views. I belong to a Jewish congregation that emphasizes egalitarianism, and I do not believe that God intended for women to be excluded from positions of power either in religious organizations or in secular society. But of course I have friends who are adherents of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian faiths that insist on different roles for men and women in at least some domains. I respect these friends and their beliefs, even though I do not agree with them. Most of us, I believe, are inclined to respect those of other religions, not only those who engage in different faith traditions (do you give presents for Christmas or Hannukah?) but who actually have different beliefs (do you believe that Jesus is the son of God?). Many people today accord more respect to those of other religious faiths than to those of other ideological beliefs, even though one might argue that the range of religious beliefs is much greater than the range of ideological views.

So, yes, ideology is like religion, and it may be worth pointing this out as a means of encouraging those on both sides of an issue to introspect about their assumptions and about whether they have arrived at their views largely for social reasons. But ultimately, the similarity of ideology and religion should be cited as a reason to respect the views of others rather than to condemn them. It may be appropriate in deciding whether to grant credence to others' views to assess whether they arrived at those views through some process of isolated impartial reflection or through social processes. But we should resist the temptation to conclude that our views reflect impartial reflection while others' views are the product of social processes. We should explain when we believe our opponents are wrong and why. But our politics and our society would be better if we recognized that our own views are fallible and that even those we regard as fundamentally misguided may be genuine in their views and may even be employing reasoning processes that foundationally are similar to those that we ourselves are employing.

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Ideology, Religion, and Respect Reason.com - Reason

INTRODUCTION

Humanity may indeed have developed some formidable technologies for accumulating information, but the truth is, our memories remain very short. It has only taken two or three generations to forget about the consequences of the poorly named Spanish flu that killed hundreds of millions around the world between 1918 and 1919. Tragic loss of life aside, that pandemic went on to revolutionize many aspects of society, culture and the economy by introducing structural changes in the ways people lived. We need look no further than Spain to see that it accelerated the role of industry, thus raising the country out of a farming economy; forced a transformation of waste management systems, which did not exist as they do today; and changed the way cities were designed, introducing large plazas to avoid crowds. Some studies even suggest that the pandemic had a decisive impact on World War I. With death and disease among hundreds of thousands of soldiers accelerating an end to the fighting and forcing a bad peace treaty (Versailles), which simply led to a second World War 20 years later.

We forget that, 100 years ago, a virus came and changed almost everything. History is repeating itself now, and a new virus has arrived in 2020 to shake up a society that we already thought was moving fast. Or so we believed, from atop our tower of stability. A fluid society and constant uncertainty loom over the horizon, and our ingenuity is only now being revealed.

With a hard lesson in humility under our belts, this report tries to highlight the big conversations we are seeing take shape. Some are mutating into something else, and several more we strongly doubt will remain as they are today. All of these conversations are and will be undoubtedly digital, because that is an inherent condition of conversation itself in todays world.

Seeing the bigger picture may help readers navigate the rough seas of decision-making that surround the issues impacting business: Where might regulatory decisions take us? What are my consumers concerned about? And what issues should I focus on in my relationships with my stakeholders? Nobody has all the answers, but we may be able to find a few of them together if we start here.

Maria Branyas is the oldest person in Spain. She is 113 years old. She lives in Olot (Girona, Spain), and she has just recovered from the coronavirus. She was born in 1907, so she also lived through the Spanish flu as well. She recently said, From the solitude of my room, fearless and with hope, I dont really understand what is happening in the world. But I dont think anything will be the same again. And dont think about redoing, recovering or rebuilding. Everything will need to be done again, and done differently.

Everything will need to be done again. We should listen to our elders.

To develop this report, we conducted 62 vertical analyses of territories and communities on Twitter (a total of over 180 million tweets), and we monitored trends over time in search frequency for keywords and key issues on Google regarding the territories of interest.

1. GLOBALIZATION VS. LOCALISM

The breakdown of globalization as we have known it for the last few decades has been in the cards since the 2008 financial crisis. Perhaps the coronavirus pandemic is the killing blow. International trades expansion era had been dwindling since the beginning of the trade war between the United States and China, initiated by tariff impositions and departures from international agreements. Now, supranational organizations have been unable to show usefulness in building a coordinated solution to the pandemic, which will leave serious wounds on multilateralism and international cooperation. This will be further exacerbated by national protectionist ideologies.

The following months may put into question the ways major corporations function, as well as their very natures. The pandemic has lent support to the protectionist and nationalist arguments (albeit for different reasons) of certain political leaders, such as Trump and Bolsonaro, by firmly committing to industrial sovereignty over production and value chains. Whereas Twitter conversations in this territory in April 2019 were full of hashtags about Brexit and Trumps nationalist posturing, COVID-19 and references to the supply chain are gaining popularity in the same period in 2020. These are interspersed with political slogans, and a more complex and argued conversation is being constructed.

The pandemic has driven conversations about company value chains toward a focus on greater resilience based on supplier diversification, as well as greater digitalization. This will enable them to deal with future disruptions. Beyond the structural effect on supply chains, however, the COVID-19 effect has another short- and medium-term impact: International tourism. It may be safe to assume that the mobility restrictions will be temporary, but we are facing a period in which action protocols and fear of contagion will be the main barriers to overcome: bureaucracy, social distancing, order, waiting, processes The free will normally associated with tourism will continue to be constrained. In this reconfiguration, the most-developed countries could have an advantage in terms of demand when compared to exotic destinations, as healthcare systems are often less advanced in this locations, affecting travelers perceptions of safety when they choose to go on holiday.

While the COVID-19 effect enables a reduction in the trade of physical goods and individual mobility, digital globalization might well gain popularity. Online relationships and services have demonstrated strength during this crisis, with teleworking at the top of the list. Nonetheless, this will be accompanied by the first major consequence: A reemergence of localism in an inverse process of globalization. The bureaucratic burdens on the exchange of goods and people are leading to attention and concern for what we have close by, including our neighbors, local produce and news from our own neighborhoods. All things nearby have proven useful and tangible during this crisis, which has contributed to a reassessment of the local social fabric. Neighborhoods are now leading the new scale of how service integration and emotional connections are measured.

2. THE WELLBEING REFORM

This pandemic has profoundly rearranged Maslows hierarchy of human needs, built after the end of World War II. We are returning to needs we thought long since overcome, such as the need for physical safety and health, which are perhaps even more basic than the need to breathe after all, we are sometimes scared to breathe in certain places. Therefore, the post-COVID concept of wellbeing has been widened at the base, and these needs rise to the same level as personal care, aesthetics and nutrition. We can see it in the figures: Conversations about beauty have fallen by 62 percent when compared to last year;those about nutrition are down by 70 percentand those on wellbeing by 37 percent

Furthermore, one subject that had been sidelined from the public agenda for too long has returned with force, and it is considered by many studies to be the next major challenge in healthcare management: The populations mental health in a post-traumatic situation.

Three important conversations on the topic of wellbeing are highlighted below:

3. SENIORS AND THE IMPORTANCE OF CARE

It reads like a fiction story. Two months ago, we thought of the Baby Boomers (active people over 60 with savings for whom their age was not an issue) as a driving force behind the economy due to their investment in leisure and wellbeing, especially now that life expectancy is longer. However, theres nothing better than a dose of reality to put us in our place and force us to see the other side of the debate around seniors: Care.

Whether paid or not, care will be a major social issue in the years ahead. The crisis, combined with the 18,000 elderly people who have died in care homes and this populations extreme vulnerability to the virus, has proven how important an integrated care policy could be. The care economy accounts for 15 percent of Spains GDP. According to the Care Work and Care Jobs for the Future of Decent Work report by the ILO, changes to family structures, higher care dependency ratios and changing care needs, combined with an increase in the level of womens employment in certain countries, have eroded the availability of unpaid care work and resulted in an increase in the demand for paid care work.

Looking at the figures, the care world may simply be seen as another area undergoing a transition process, moving from unpaid work by family members to paid work from outsourcing this care, and that the three pitfalls, two pending reforms and change of mentality listed below must be addressed.

The three pitfalls we may encounter are:

The two pending reforms are:

Organizations will be forced to reconsider their roles, with a focus on not only the adaptation of assets and services, but also on social contribution, including the importance of care and how we interact with one another in our most immediate environments. Consumers are looking to find a framework brand values that forms an active part of the solution. Usefulness, generosity, commitment and the need to help one another is the new language for companies seeking to connect with people.

4. CRACKS IN EDUCATION

Education is another area that has been thrown up in the air by COVID-19. Nothing about this situation is new, but what feels like five years have passed in a matter of weeks. We will be talking about education a lot, and we will be talking about an education system that is expected to produce resilient and employable citizens. Resilience is the new humanism in an education sector fighting for the competitiveness of its offering while trying to manage five deep cracks.

Breaking away from physical spaces

In this COVID-19 crisis, 91 percent of pupils around the world (equal to 1.5 billion children and young people) have been forced to start learning from home. Technology has proven to be an essential ally in keeping up with classes, leading to an access gap of around 10 percent in compulsory education and 3 percent in university education in Spain alone. Blended face-to-face and online learning has received the backing it needed over the last few weeks, and everything suggests that the 2020-2021 school year will be its debut year, although regional government authorities, schools and parents are showing reticence toward a model that has not yet been proven to work.

Breaking away from the figure of teacher

Educators have been going through a process of trial and error for years. Conventional classrooms dont work, and neither does conventional teaching. Memorization has been left behind, and gamification and shared knowledge have taken its place. From the all-knowing teacher, we have shifted to answers being available everywhere at the click of a mouse. Students no longer needed teachers to acquire knowledge. Even so, teacher figures are more important than ever. Therein lies the challenge.

Breaking away from knowledge

This is all because education is also now a combination of skills and abilities. Knowledge, as static and linear boxes, has no value in a world that is constantly on the move and transforming. Functional, emotional and resilient citizens capable of understanding the complexity of its contradictions; of developing technical, applicable responses; of exercising emotional intelligence both on their own and with others; of being creative and collaborative are the new Michelangelos of this world. Now that we are physically distancing ourselves from one another, it is more important than ever to build a community.

Breaking away from qualifications

Education used to be a continuous line, accumulative and limited by time. The concept of lifelong learning emerged as a figure of speech, but it eventually took hold to become reality in most productive sectors. Long and linear academic careers will not be competitive. Rather, pill-based learning with practical seminars, anti-master classes and short bursts will be what improves our functionality, capable of fitting into our professional and family lives while limiting the onset of obsolescence. This has led to the success of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and progress towards a singularization of education.

Breaking away from the promise of equality

Education will be experience-based, achieved through the use of artificial intelligence and virtual reality. This wont happen immediately and will take place at different speeds, leading to numerous debates around equal opportunity (perhaps the most relevant topic in the field of education) and the supposed unfair competition from new players in the sector (mainly technology and entertainment operators and platforms). The problem lies in the widening gap between economic classes and the disincentive the most vulnerable parts of society will feel toward education, with a growing trend of leaving school early. This will be seen in the dichotomy between public and private, between science and the arts, between central and peripheral. Each one of these cracks is opening an equal opportunities gap that can only be faced through state policy that understands education as a lever for national competitiveness.

5. THE DEFINITIVE REINVENTION OF ENTERTAINMENT

This crisis has poured more fuel onto the fire in the entertainment industry, accentuating the problems and opportunities stemming from digitalization and the democratization of production and access to content. The conflict between digitalization and face-to-face experiences has heightened existing tensions between traditional industry models (based on controlling content licenses and their broadcast times) and new methods of consuming media. In the audiovisual industry, those who will suffer the biggest loses from COVID-19s impact will be the cinema screening chains, which have been fighting against new over-the-top (OTT) players, such as Hulu, Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, over screening windows for the past several years. Movie theaters now see their business being damaged not only by audience perceptions of insecurity, but also by the consolidation of on-demand consumption in peoples homes. Most of the big players in production and distribution have sufficient streaming windows to make their products available to audiences, even during a pandemic situation like this. This situation is forcing the traditional screening industry to reinvent itself or possibly even ally with its competitors. This has been furthered by major events and awards, such as Cannes or the Oscars, which are starting to open their doors to new formats in their selection and screening criteria.

The problem is multiplied in the music world, which was already being dragged down by far more serious endemic problems. The industry already struggles with being unable to find a sustainable model that would allow them to survive while also responding to the realities of modern consumers. Until now, the streaming model sought to replace the traditional one, ruled by record labels that mixed artist management with a focus on live performances. Artists tend not to support switching to selling licenses to streaming services due to how little they are paid for it. However, while the rate of audiovisual content consumption on streaming platforms has continued to climb during the lockdown, the consumption of music on players such as Spotify or Deezer has fallen. This is coupled with disaster in the live performance industry, which will take far longer to recover given the difficulty of safely running concerts or festivals like the ones weve enjoyed up to now. The music industry, which was still trying to adjust to the digital age in 2020, will need to completely reinvent itself due to the effects of COVID-19.

In turn, gaming (which the cinema and TV series industries see as the main competitor for consumer attention) is coming out on top during the pandemic. However, that triumph is being offset by the growing e-sports industrys excessive dependence on large-scale events, which had previously been the main focus for brand investment. The vacuum created without these events is an opportunity for publishers and broadcast and conversation platforms such as Twitch, which brands had not utilized until now.

This pandemic leaves us with an entertainment industry that will need to accelerate its digital transformation and overcome its excessive dependence on face-to-face experiences. They will be competing with the rising production and consumption of user-generated content, with platforms like Tik-Tok gaining traction. The emergence of useful entertainment, with a special focus on wellness content, will also provide brands with food for thought. Until now, brands have been highly focused on traditional sponsorship models that focused on major physical events. Diversifying away from this model will create even more opportunities for branded content.

6. GREEN ECONOMIC RECOVERY?

Over the last decade, strong progress has been made in terms of raising awareness about climate change. The ecological agenda has made in-roads into politics, the economy and society with a rare level of efficacy thanks to strong warnings from civil and scientific organizations regarding the climate emergency we face. Following the Paris Agreement in 2015, which offered the first global framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the countries involved got to work and were making significant progress. Then came COVID-19, which has put the whole world on pause. In a scenario of economic recession, classic economic theory leads us to conclude that private investment will slow, especially nonessential investment. Similarly, the expectation is that governments ecological agendas will need to be less ambitious, and issues that increase pressure on companies (such as green taxation or political incentives) will be relaxed.

Contrary to this theory, we are seeing a growing phenomenon of pressure to intensify these practices, which may position the ecological revolution as a lever for economic reconstruction. Several European countries have already signed the Green Recovery Alliance. In turn, the European Commission itself has positioned its European Green Deal project as one of the most powerful reactivation tools. The Spanish government also seems to be heading in the direction of ecological reform: It is working on a growth and progress model based on balanced use of renewable resources and on recycling nonrenewable resources. There will, of course, still be a great deal of disagreement with extreme positions on the ecological transition as policymakers seek to leave room for measures that alleviate the economic stress placed on companies.

For the time being, conversation analysis shows a sharp decline in conversations about sustainability and climate change. That is entirely to be expected, as COVID-19 dominates online conversation. When we return to a certain degree of normalcy, perhaps we will see a more polarized conversation. Supporters of the ecological agenda will likely present it as the right way forward, while other groups may become more active in defending the economy/ecology dichotomy.

That same ecological tension can be seen in other layers of the conversation. Many companies will find support for their green positions under these circumstances, and it may be a way to stand out in their category: Fewer processed foods and products, more sustainable production and commercialization processes. This can turn into conversations about how this health crisis is returning our attention to nature and highlight the importance of buying better quality products, even if they are more expensive. However, the economic recession is making buying sustainable products less accessible, as these products are also less affordable.

Plastic products and packaging are an example of this battle. Disposable plastics have proven extremely important to preventing the spread of disease amid a global push to discourage their use because of how they pollute the environment. It is likely that plans to impose a tax on disposable plastics will be delayed, but will eventually move forward. Manufacturers will become polarized, shifting into those that delay their own green revolutions and those that accelerate it because they see it as a commercial opportunity.

Llorente & Cuenca Playbook Content

Llorente & Cuenca

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The Covid-19 Effect: Conversation Territories In The New Normal - PRovoke Media

Tariq Ramadan is set to launch a centre to teach ethics and feminism next month despite being suspended from his Oxford University post over rape allegations.

Mr Ramadan, 58, was given a leave of absence from his post at Oxford University after he was charged in France with raping a feminist activist in 2012 and a disabled woman in 2009.

In February this year he was charged with two further rapes.

The Islamic scholar, who is the grandson of the founder of Egypts Muslim Brotherhood, has now announced he was launching an educational centre to teach topics including ethics and feminism.

Courses will be taught by a team of teachers around the themes of religion, spirituality, humanity, psychology, feminism, ecology, teaching, ethics, colonialism, racism, law, economy

Taraq Ramadan

The news has been met with anger from those who have called the case the #MeToo of the Muslim world.

Do we laugh or cry? The intellectual dishonesty, hypocrisy and cynicism of #TariqRamadan have absolutely no limits, teacher and researcher Anne-Marie Picard said on Twitter.

The married father-of-four made the announcement about the project on his Facebook page.

He says he will be opening Chifa, an international research and training centre for students based in France, in October.

The topics in the curriculum include religion, spirituality, humanism and law, as well as ethics and feminism.

Courses will be taught by a team of teachers around the themes of religion, spirituality, humanity, psychology, feminism, ecology, teaching, ethics, colonialism, racism, law, economy, etc. You will be able to sign up for face-to-face and distance classes, basic classes or more targeted modules, he wrote.

The centre is based in France but the teaching platform is international. Teachers are all graduates in their respective fields and are, voluntarily, of different origins with various training courses, he said.

Not all are Muslims. The curriculum is led by a steering committee such as the Centre for Research and Training itself. There will be a certificate for those who have completed the three-year training. We haven't thought about connecting our centre to an official institute yet but there might be some leads to this in the future.

Despite hundreds of people showing enthusiasm for his endeavour, his initiative has been met with outrage.

French-Swiss journalist Ian Hamel wrote on Twitter: Harvey Weinstein hadnt even thought about it, but Tariq Ramadan himself dared to create a training centre giving courses in feminism and ethics! Do you want to know what this individual is capable of? .

Others have accused him of using it to target women.

A recruiting centre? Is he getting old to hunt on his own? Daniel Fleury, another journalist, said on Twitter.

The rape investigations into Mr Ramadan are still continuing.

Last year he portrayed himself as a victim of a political witch hunt in a book he published.

There is a desire to pursue Tariq Ramadan at all costs and against the evidence, his lawyer Emmanuel Marsigny said in February as new charges were added.

This case is becoming grotesque.

The new charges involve two women who themselves had not originally filed complaints, but both allege they were involved in brutal sexual relationships with Mr Ramadan one from November-December 2015 and the other in March 2016.

When the first allegations were made in 2018, Mr Ramadan was held for nine months in France before being granted bail.

Mr Ramadan denies the charges and insists all his relationships have been consensual.

Being charged in France does not necessarily mean a suspect will end up on trial, as a case can still be dropped for lack of evidence.

Oxford University said he had taken a leave of absence by mutual agreement.

"The university has consistently acknowledged the gravity of the allegations against Professor Ramadan, while emphasising the importance of fairness and the principles of justice and due process, it said.

An agreed leave of absence implies no presumption or acceptance of guilt and allows Professor Ramadan to address the extremely serious allegations made against him, all of which he categorically denies, while meeting our principal concern addressing heightened and understandable distress and putting first the well-being of our students and staff."

The National has conducted an investigation into the UKs Muslim charity sector for an exclusive three-part series.

Part one reveals how Islamic Relief Worldwide employees have praised extremists online.

Part two unveils the intense regulatory scrutiny facing the sector.

Part three reveals how the dismissed boss of one of the sectors biggest charities is on the comeback trail.

Updated: September 2, 2020 07:00 PM

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Alleged rapist Tariq Ramadan to launch centre teaching feminism - The National