Who are the Jews of Jamaica and the Caribbean? – Patch.com

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Who are the Jews of Jamaica and the Caribbean?

Ainsley Henriques will present the story of the Jews of Jamaica during Shabbat services on line at Hollywood Temple Beth El of West Hollywood, CA, on Saturday, September 12. Services start at 10:30 AM (PDT) and the presentation will begin at 12:00 noon. Members of the Jewish community of Jamaica will be joining in on the presentation. The service and presentation will be live streamed on Facebook, while zoom access will be for members and guests of the two communities.

Speculation on the Jewish heritage of the now popular Hamilton, of history and of Broadway, has given rise to curiosity on the Jewish presence in the Caribbean. Our guest presenter, Ainsley Henriques, will stimulate our curiosity even more. Henriques is Jamaican Jewrys premier spokesperson, historian and genealogist. As a businessman, he founded the Jamaica Export Trading Company to market Jamaican goods and sat on the World Spice Council and serves as the Israeli consul in Kingston.

This is the oldest, continuously-operating, Jewish community in the Western Hemisphere, dating back 365 years. Henriques estimates 300,000-400,000 Jamaicans have some Jewish ancestry. In 1700, it was the largest such community in the hemisphere. Historians have noted that the sure-fire indication of a vibrant Jewish community is the presence of a cemetery, and the oldest gravestone surviving is from 1672.

This special Shabbat has been coordinated by Carmen Fraser, of Hollywood Temple Beth El, and Terry Hall, of the United Congregation of Israelites of Kingston.

This is part of a series of special presentations on the question Who are the Jews, and to date, it has covered the stories of the Jews of Iran, of the Greek Islands, of Morocco, and Yemen. Each service had included Shabbat liturgy and melodies that reflect that communitys heritage. Several more are being planned.

Access to the live streaming is on https://www.Facebook.com/htbel/live and will be posted on You Tube the following day on Temple HTBEL You Tube Channel :

Hollywood Temple Beth El, 1317 N Crescent Heights Blvd, West Hollywood, CA, is now operating services on line through the High Holy Days. Information can be found on. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rosh-hashanah-and-yom-kippur-services-brought-right-to-your-door-tickets-117615153089

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Who are the Jews of Jamaica and the Caribbean? - Patch.com

Keeping an eye on an area in the Caribbean – kjas.com

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Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami are monitoring three areas of disturbed weather in the tropics, one of which is uncomfortably close to the Gulf of Mexico.

The following statement was issued on Monday:

Tropical Weather Outlook

NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL

200 PM EDT Mon Aug 31 2020

For the North Atlantic...Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico:

1. A broad area of low pressure associated with a tropical wave over the central Caribbean Sea has changed little in organization since yesterday, and satellite-derived winds indicate that there is no closed circulation. However, environmental conditions are expected to gradually become more conducive for development, and a tropical depression is likely to form during the next couple of days while the system moves westward at 15 to 20 mph. Interests in Jamaica, Honduras, Belize, Guatemala and the Yucatan peninsula should monitor the progress of this disturbance.

* Formation chance through 48 hours...high...70 percent.

* Formation chance through 5 days...high...80 percent.

2. An area of low pressure is located about 135 miles southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina. This system continues to become better organized, and a tropical depression is expected to form later today or tonight while the system moves northeastward, near but offshore of the southeastern coast of the United States and then away from land. An Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft is en route to investigate the system.

* Formation chance through 48 hours...high...90 percent.

* Formation chance through 5 days...high...90 percent.

3. A tropical wave is expected to emerge off the coast of Africa in a day or two. Gradual development of this system will be possible through the end of the week while it moves slowly westward over the far eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean.

* Formation chance through 48 hours...low...near 0 percent.

* Formation chance through 5 days...low...30 percent.

Forecaster Blake

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Keeping an eye on an area in the Caribbean - kjas.com

Caribbean Chef Stands Out with Hawaiian Cuisine – Caribbean News – caribbeannationalweekly.com

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Geoff Lee is the Executive Chef of Mana Poke, the Caribbean owned Hawaiian inspired restaurant where healthyeating and exotic, adventurous flavors harmoniously co-exist.

Geoff spent his youth between Spanish Town in the parish of St. Catherine, and Kingston, the capital city of Jamaica. Ever sincehe was a young man, he had an incredible passion for cooking. He always enjoyed preparing food but never thought to explore it as a profession. Initially, only his family and friends usually reaped thebenefits of Geoffs home cooking, but having first hand sampling of his dishes, they pushed him to expand his knowledge of cooking and have a shot at becoming a chef.

So, It was with his familys prodding that Geoff left Jamaica to attend culinary school at the George Brown College in Toronto, Canada. In Canada, he worked under the tutelage of some amazing chefs that helped pave the way for him to excel in the culinary field.

Becoming a chef has not only taught me about the culinary world butIve gained a wealth of knowledge about becoming a business owner and what it is to manage, said Geoff. The cooking always came natural andI find it to be the easiest part of being a professional chef. Where it becomes interesting is the business side of becoming a chef, this has been the most challenging part of thejourney thus far.

Geoff has been recognized for his exceptional cuisine by collecting a number of accolades in the culinary industry. He was Indulge Magazines featured chef in the fall of 2019, named Miami New TimesReaders ChoiceBest Chef 2019 and was the featured chef at the SOBE Food & Wine Taste Jamaica 2020.

When asked about his current role as the Executive Chef at Mana Poke and why the focus on Hawaiian gastronomy, he mentioned he was inspired by Asian fare andappreciates and enjoys Japanese food,particularly sushi. The flavors are clean, the poke bowls are filling without being heavy, its healthy and delicious. Poke is also a very flexible canvas to work with if everI decide toincorporate a Jamaican spin he added.Photo via Manapoke.com

Geoffs favorite dish at Mana Poke is the Lava Tuna bowl which features spicy tuna, shaved red onion, house picked jalapeno peppers, spicy mayo, wasabi peas, crunchy shallots and more all on a bed of fresh arugula or sushi rice.

When Chef Lee is not busy building healthy and delicious poke bowls, you can find him on a football (soccer) field or rooting for his beloved Manchester United

In addition to poke, Geoff is passionate about his Jamaican roots and makes an amazing jerk pork dish. His secret? It sounds simple, however jerk pork requires a good amount of cooking knowledge like heat management, timing and other techniques to achieve a good end product. Of course, I love spicy food and jerk is where its at!

Mana Poke has three South Florida locations (Downtown Miami, Coral Gables, and Ft. Lauderdale Beach).

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Palladium Hotel Group announces new Fall openings in Mexico and the Caribbean – Travel Daily News International

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MADRID, SPAIN After more than a month of successful summer reopenings in popular destinations like Costa Mujeres, Palladium Hotel Group will resume operations in Riviera Maya and the Dominican Republic this fall. Reaffirming the companys commitment to guests wellbeing, Palladium Hotel Group also launched the free medical care insurance, Stay Safe Plus, created to protect guests against any unforeseen circumstances of the current health emergency. The hotel group's health and safety protocols are certified by SGS, the world's leading inspection, verification, testing, and certification services company.

Grand Palladium White Sand Resort & Spa, Grand Palladium Colonial Resort & Spa, Grand Palladium Kantenah Resort & Spa, and TRS Yucatan Hotel, all located in the Riviera Maya, will officially reopen on October 2. Grand Palladium Palace Resort, Spa & Casino, Grand Palladium Bvaro Suites Resort & Spa, Grand Palladium Punta Cana Resort & Spa and TRS Turquesa Hotel, all located in Punta Cana, will welcome guests on November 19. Also in Punta Cana, TRS Cap Cana Hotel will resume operations on December 18. Santo Domingos Dominican Fiesta will reopen its doors on September 4.

We are very excited about the reopening of our hotels in Mexico and the Dominican Republic this fall. Every step we take to reopen our hotels involves hard work to ensure the safety of our guests and a seamless travel experience. In addition to comprehensive protocols and booking flexibility, we have launched Stay Safe-Plus, our free health insurance implemented precisely to boost confidence in travel," said Pilar Arizmendi-Stewart, VP of Sales and Marketing for the Americas at Palladium Hotel Group."

With hotels opened in the Americas since July, the hotel group continues to innovate the travel experience while incorporating the ever-evolving national public health protocols. Opened since July 1 are Grand Palladium Costa Mujeres Resort & Spa, and TRS Coral Hotel, which recently received the prestigious 2020 Travelers Choice awards by TripAdvisor. Costa Mujeres, a destination that continues gaining international demand for its privacy and exclusivity, offers guests looking to enjoy socially-distant vacations a private retreat with over 365 acres surrounded by the sea, and over 3,280 feet of coastline. Perfect for active travelers looking to enjoy the outdoors, the Rafa Nadal Tennis Centre is the first and only of Nadals facilities in North America. The centre offers tennis programs developed by Nadal and his technical team for players of all ages and abilities. Each tennis program is personalized and run by coaches from the Rafa Nadal Academy of Movistar.

Also welcoming guests since July 1 is Grand Palladium Vallarta Resort & Spa. Other Caribbean properties that resumed operations since July 10 are Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton Resort & Spa and Grand Palladium Jamaica Resort & Spa. Palladium Hotel Group also reopened Grand Palladium Imbassa Resort & Spa in Brazil on August 6.

Palladium Hotel Group continues to prioritize the health and safety of their guests with new cleanliness protocols and employee training. The new protocols put in place include rigorous cleaning, disinfection, and hand sanitizer dispensers in all areas, expansion of medical services, social distancing and capacity control, high level of food safety standards, and more. Staff is equipped with infrared thermometers to conduct temperature checks, especially in entrance areas and closed spaces such as restaurants, gyms, spas and childrens areas. To ensure a safe vacation, the company has adapted to the new normal and created an online check-in and check-out process to minimize contact. The hotel group is also disinfecting the air and placing atmosphere purifiers. Another way Palladium Hotel Group continues to innovate is with their Pure Rooms, perfectly designed for people with allergies the room goes through a seven-step sanitizing process, creating a healthier and allergen-free environment.

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Palladium Hotel Group announces new Fall openings in Mexico and the Caribbean - Travel Daily News International

Caribbean Business And Finance Report – Caribbean and Latin America Daily News – News Americas

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Compiled By NAN Business Editor

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Sept. 4, 2020: Here are some of the top business and finance news making headlines across the Caribbean this week.

Regional

Moodys projects total remittances to the Caribbean and Latin America will decline by about 4% this year as immigrants in the US Diasproa cope with higher unemployment.

In LAC, Central America and the Caribbean are the most economically vulnerable to the decline in remittance inflows, says Moodys associate analyst Gabriel Agostini. Mexico is the regions largest recipient with nearly $40 billion in remittances last year. While remittance inflows to Central America and the Caribbean are nominally smaller, they are substantially higher in relative terms representing nearly 10% of GDP for each region.

The report also quantifies the impact on remittances under an alternative scenario that contemplates prolonged pandemic and a delay in the US government extending income support measures. Under this downside scenario, US remittances to LAC countries could fall by 10% relative to last year.

According to Moodys, this higher level of unemployment in the US limits the prospects for improvement for remittance flows in the near future which depend on the economic growth of the United States and the income support measures that they played a major role in replacing lost income this year. Additionally, the legal authorization of immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean in the United States and their level of education will also influence the speed with which remittances recover.

Regional Contest

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has launched the Pivot Movement to harness the most innovative ideas for Caribbean development and create a plan for the future of the region. The Movement includes acrowdsourcing contestand an event.

Pivot Search is the crowdsourcing platform to receive new development ideas. It runs from September 2 to September 18, with a $5,000 cash prize. Along with partners Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator (CCSA), Singularity University and Destination Experience, IDB will also host The Pivot Event, a virtual conference, between October 15 and 30, 2020. General Manager of the IDBs Country Department Caribbean Group (CCB), Therese Turner-Jones said, The Pivot Movement is a vehicle for Caribbean transformation driven by ideas. It gives anyone anywhere the opportunity to help shape the future of our region. We are creating an innovative space where pioneering minds will discuss moonshot ideas to drive a more resilient and secure future for all Caribbean people. Individuals can request an invitation to the Pivot Event and get further details about how to submit ideas for The Pivot Search via the websitewww.caribbeanpivot.com.

Guyana

Guyana this week received US$46M for its third 1M barrels of oil entitlement. The total amount US$46,046,937 was deposited into its Sovereign Wealth Fund being held in a United States Bank of America account, Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat told Stabroek News. The news comes as Guyana parliament approved a $11.2B budget for 16 constitutional agencies in its first sitting in over a year.

Trinidad and Tobago

Economist Marla Dukharan says if there is no meaningful macroeconomic intervention in the T&T economy, the country runs the risk of depleting its foreign exchange (FX) reserves.

In her report titled: Trinidad & Tobago Balance of Payments Risk: Why T&T could be heading to default and a balance of payments crisis by end-2022 Dukharan said that a countrys Balance of Payments account captures all the foreign currency transactions a country makes with the rest of the world, which includes but is not limited to imports, exports, remittances and foreign direct investment.

She argued that the net effect of all these foreign exchange transactions is reflected in the change to the level of FX reserves held at the Central Bank if we earn foreign currency, FX reserves increase, if we lose foreign currency, FX reserves decline.

Jamaica

Money transfers to Jamaica reportedly grew 14 per cent for the June quarter, reflecting a recovery from the initial onslaught of the pandemic, the Bank of Jamaicas preliminary estimates show. For the month of June alone, remittances were up 42 per cent, the central bank governor said last week. Due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus, and the initial fall-off noted in remittances, money inflows were last projected to decline to US$1.9 billion this fiscal year, down from US$2.3 billion pre-COVID. The bulk of the remittances are transacted via six remittance companies, led by Western Union.

Bermuda

Cruise ship operator NCL Corporation Ltd has listed another $1.2 billion of debt on the Bermuda Stock Exchange.This is in addition to $1.94 billion of debt listings it made on August 13. The company, which operates Norwegian Cruise Line, is a subsidiary of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd, and raised capital in July to bolster its finances during the prolonged suspension of cruise voyages resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. Its voyages are currently suspended until the end of October.

Antigua & Barbuda

The Antigua and Barbuda government Monday confirmed that it had turned down a request from the British carrier, Virgin Atlantic, for a minimum revenue guarantee (MRG), describing it as outrageous. The governments Chief of Staff Lionel Max Hurst, speaking on Observer radio here, said that the Gaston Browne administration could not agree to the MRG, which in that case is an air services agreement entered into between an airline and a government. Last week the Antigua and Barbuda government agreed to write off EC$8.5 million (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) in debt owed to the country by LIAT, which is now undergoing a restructuring plan led by St Johns.

St. Kitts & Nevis

St. Kitts & Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris has indicated that the EC$1,000.00 stimulus packages started in April 2020 in an attempt to alleviate the financial burden placed on citizens because of the temporary shutdown and the continued halt of our tourism industry will be extended for persons still unemployed as a result of the pandemic. According to Prime Minister Harris, over $22 million had been paid for the three month period, April June 2020. Harris said that the Social Security Board expects close to 3,000 unemployed contributors to benefit from the September extension of the EC$1,000.00 stimulus package.

Turks & Caicos

THE TCI has lost more than 9.2 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) due to a lack of tourism during the Covid-19 pandemic, making it the nation most affected in the world, according to a recent study conducted by visa service provider ESTA.

The findings reported by the TCI Weekly News, show that the TCI suffered the sharpest blow to its GDP compared to other tourism dependent nations in the world. This colossal depletion in revenue which amounted to some $94 million was due to the Covid-19 pandemics impact on the global tourism industry.

Cayman Islands

Local workers withdrew almost $310 million from their pensions in May, using governments COVID-19 emergency withdrawal measure, according to statistics from the Department of Labour and Pensions, according to the Cayman Compass.

There are a total of more than 73,000 private pensions in the Cayman Islands, and according to officials, more than 34,000 applications were received in May to withdraw money from those pension funds. The emergency-withdrawal measure, which allowed workers to access their private-sector pensions up to a certain amount, was made possible through changes to the Pensions Law. It was one of the initiatives implemented by Premier Alden McLaughlin to assist employees impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of local borders.

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Caribbean Business And Finance Report - Caribbean and Latin America Daily News - News Americas

THE VIEW FROM EUROPE: Why vaccine nationalism should concern the Caribbean – Barbados Advocate

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How well prepared is the Caribbean to respond to the politically led emergence of vaccine nationalism, an approach likely to see countries with advanced bio-pharma facilities initially restrict the availability of a COVID-19 vaccine?

At present about 100 vaccines are being developed around the world. If proven to be effective, one or more may play a role in either eventually eradicating or addressing the worst effects of the disease.

However, at present only two such candidate vaccines for equitable distribution have been included in a collaborative coronavirus related initiative known as COVAX, involving the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other global partners. One is being produced by Astro Zeneca in the UK and the other by Moderna in the US. Both are presently being tested in clinical trials on thousands of volunteers around the world for efficacy and safety, with the results expected sometime later this year.

COVAX is also evaluating vaccine development elsewhere and supporting the building of manufacturing capacity and procurement with the overall objective of having two billion doses available for fair distribution globally by the end of 2021.

The scheme is meant to work by encouraging wealthier nations to make a commitment to fund and buy vaccines, thereby creating a critical mass of orders from suppliers in a way that ensures that low and middle income countries can receive the vaccine at lower prices.

In the last few days, however, it has become apparent that the financing of the scheme may be in trouble as some wealthy countries have decided to adopt a go it alone approach by sourcing their vaccine requirements independently. This, they say, is because they believe they can obtain the vaccine more rapidly and cheaply outside of the multilateral scheme that the WHO has developed.

In a statement, the US has suggested something more. It said that it would not join due to the groups association with the WHO. The United States will continue to engage our international partners to ensure we defeat this virus, but we will not be constrained by multilateral organisations influenced by the corrupt World Health Organisation and China, Judd Deere, a spokesman for the White House told the Washington Post.

Other countries pursuing a less political but unilateral path include Japan, the UK and Turkey, while others including Germany and the European Commission remain supportive.

The likelihood now is that a small number of wealthier nations able to finance their own requirements will see most of their citizens vaccinated as soon as a viable product becomes available, while poorer nations struggle to obtain enough vaccinations for at-risk citizens and their wider populations.

For the Caribbean and other regions like it, all of this is far from helpful at a time when it is becoming apparent that achieving a gradual return to normality is proving much harder than anticipated.

Although the early introduction of measures to control the spread of COVID-19 meant that by the end of June most nations in the region had largely halted the domestic spread of the virus, a mix of social indiscipline, the sometimes lax enforcement of public health requirements, the human desire for social contact, and the importation of the disease by some visitors and returnees have meant that several countries are now seeing increasing rates of infection.

If the pandemic has proved anything, it is that to again see growth almost every economy in the region will have to find a way to ensure the safe and full return of tourism.

A recently released International Labour Organisation (ILO) COVID-19 related report makes clear that up to half a million Caribbean workers in direct, indirect and induced employment in tourism face the prospect of job losses, reductions in working hours, falling incomes, a higher incidence of informal employment if the virus is not eradicated soon.

Three linked problems now face the region. How to resuscitate the wider economy and tourism in particular without visitors contributing to the renewed spread of the virus; how to obtain sufficient supplies of any vaccine that might become available next year; and how to address the complex logistical problems associated with developing national vaccination programmes.

The latter issue has been little discussed. Despite the regions relative success in delivering a vaccination programme during the H1-N1 2009 flu pandemic a recent paper for the Tony Blair Institute suggests that substantial logistical challenges now face every country in delivering national vaccination programmes.

Apart from indicating the need for early resolution of issues including regulation and logistics, who will have primary access, and the development of electronic immunisation records for all citizens, the papers author expresses concern that efficient vaccine delivery will requires radical, fast and global approach at a time when international leadership is lacking.

The implication is that despite it being important for social, economic and public health reasons to vaccinate every Caribbean citizens as soon as a vaccine becomes available, this may not be possible if primary access is determined by something akin to a bidding war and the WHOs COVAX initiative is only able to meet a limited amount of the demand from developing countries.

There remain in addition many other imponderables and hard to answer questions. Will Chinas promise of universal access to its candidate vaccine and a loan fund of US$1bn to support access to it for the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean occur in time to ensure economic recovery? Can the Caribbean successfully combine with partners in the African Caribbean and Pacific group of nations (the ACP) to maximise buying power? Will Cubas clinical trials of its candidate vaccine Soberana 1 prove successful, and its plans to build manufacturing capacity to produce enough vaccine to protect its population, be extended to the rest of the region? And above all, what will any vaccines cost be to already heavily indebted nations?

The danger now is that the closer the world comes to achieving one or more proven vaccines, the more likely it is that availability will become the subject of divisive national and international politics and that wealthy countries vie to be the first to produce and roll out a fully tested and safe vaccine, then protect their citizens, and after that seize the global financial opportunity.

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THE VIEW FROM EUROPE: Why vaccine nationalism should concern the Caribbean - Barbados Advocate

How will language change if humans travel the stars? – Slate

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Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Getty Images Plus.

Imagine its the year 2500, and scientists at some NASA-like space agency are waiting to hear back from the first colonists to ever travel to another planetary system. The spaceship took off 200 years earlier, and rather than put the travelers into a state of suspended animation and risk biological damage or equipment malfunction, several generations have been living and dying and reproducing on board, propagating the human line along the way. Communication with them has been minimal, given the vast distances involved: By trips end, a radio message at light speed takes more than a decade to reach Earth, and a reply then takes another 10 years. But based on future-NASAs calculations, word of the colonists landing should be coming any day now.

Suddenly, it arrives! Its the first message from human beings to be warmed by another sun. The scientists crowd around their screens, eager for the news.

Theres just one problem: The message is indecipherable. Its not that its corrupted; it looks like real language, and familiar phrases pop out here and there. But the message is littered with strange words in unexpected order, as well as words with odd suffixes and prefixes and phrases that dont mean anything to the scientists; the grammar, syntax, and vocabulary all seem off. Their stomachs clench as they realize the truth: The colonists very language has mutated, and we Earthlings can no longer understand what theyre saying.

Usually when we think about linguistics and space travel, its an Arrival-type scenario that requires communicating with extraterrestrials. But given the mutability of language, future space explorers could face an even more fundamental problem: Their language could shift so much on the journey out that people back on Earth sound alien to them, and vice versa. Even if we avoid the full disaster of mutual incomprehensibility, some communication issues will inevitably arise, because a spaceship is a perfect Petri dish for accelerated language change.

For one thing, language changes when people find themselves in new social situations, because they need new ways of describing their reality. Living your entire life inside a rocket ship certainly qualifies as novel. Language also mutates quickly when a small group of speakers is isolated for an extended timeand no one in human history would be more isolated than the colonists.

Finally, people often intentionally change their language as a mark of distinctiona way to brand themselves one of us, not one of them. (Even nowadays, if tensions arise during a space mission or habitat simulation, its rarely an issue of astronauts fighting among themselves. Rather, the astronauts tend to band together against Mission Control.) Given that theyre never coming back to Earth, space colonists would likely feel even more bound to one another and less beholden to earthly norms. Adopting new forms of language is a natural way to exhibit that.

So, given that isolation and new social circumstances will change the colonists language, what kinds of changes might we expect?

Some will no doubt be subtle. Consider uptalk? The habit of ending every sentence with a rising pitch? Uptalk started among certain groups of Australians in the 1980s and soon went global. But while a space analogue to uptalk might strike Earthlings as strange, it wouldnt hinder communication that much. The same goes for new vocabulary that the colonists develop on the journey, perhaps from jury-rigged technologies or new interstellar features they encountered. If these words were derivatives or portmanteaus of familiar words, context clues could illuminate the meaning.

Other changes would take more getting used to. In a recent paper titled Language Development During Interstellar Travel, linguists Andrew McKenzie and Jeffrey Punske point out that people 200 years ago commonly used constructions like The road is currently building. Today, that sounds ungrammatical and odd. Wed say The road is being built instead.

Pronunciation tends to shift over time as well, they note. Between about 1400 and 1600, the English language underwent whats grandly called the Great Vowel Shift. Before the shift, the a in tame sounded like the a in father, and teem used to rhyme with our modern fame, among other differences. Then everything shifted, for reasons that remain unclear. Its likely that only one or two vowels shifted at first, but several others then followed suit to make each one clearly distinguishable. In total, this cleaved English into barely intelligible camps of Before and After.

The colonists will need new words to describe their radically new world. Meanwhile, words that we use all the time on Earth will likely atrophy anddecay.

As a result, while we can still understand Shakespeare four centuries after he wrote, Geoffrey Chaucers English from circa 1400 looks indecipherable. In Chaucers time, spelling was less standard and people often simply transliterated pronunciations onto the page. Then the Great Vowel Shift happened, and those old spellings and pronunciations suddenly looked obscure. As McKenzie and Punske write, Even Shakespeare in 1600 could not have heard [Chaucers English] without learning a different language. Shifts like this also help explain why English spelling is so treacherous nowadays.

Such shifts arent all cordoned off in the distant past either. Text-speak (wtf, lolz, brb) spread remarkably quickly over the past few decades but looks like gibberish to an outsider; its all but indecipherable unless someone tells you what the acronyms and abbreviations mean. As for spoken language, the Great Lakes region in North America is currently in the midst of the so-called Northern Cities Vowel Shift: The vowel in bat is shifting to sound like the vowel in bet, for instance. Meanwhile, bet is shifting to sound more like but, which itself is shifting toward bought, and so on. McKenzie and Punske also point out that many linguists consider spoken and written French to be distinct dialects now, since what French people say in conversation doesnt always follow the rules for proper writing. If splits like those can arise within a single population in a relatively short time span, how much greater are the odds of a split among two groups of people billions of miles apart?

Linguist Sarah Thomason has also explored the idea of language shifts among space colonists, especially in their vocabulary. (Her paper, Language Change and Cultural Continuity, appeared in the book Interstellar Travel and Multi-Generational Space Ships, which is not available online.) Again, the colonists will need new words to describe their radically new world. Meanwhile, words that we use all the time on Earth will likely atrophy and decay. As Thomason points out, what use will people in a rocket ship have for words like snow, windy, river, ocean, mountain, sunburn, summer, winter, horse, tiger boat, truck, airplane, skyscraper, tunnel, [or] bridge? Colonists might still encounter such words in books or stories about Earth, but they will be relics at best and their resonance will likely fade.

Extending that idea, a life of permanent, cloistered space travel will likely give rise to new metaphorsand perhaps even a new metaphysics, as new religious practices develop. The arts will no doubt morph as well: Will epic war stories or sun-dappled Vermeers really resonate with someone trapped in a tin can? New art will emerge to speak to new experiences, and all of this will change the colonists language.

Things get even messier if you consider the possibility of language blending. Right now, space travel is largely a monoglot enterprise: Russian is the official language aboard the Soyuz rockets that deliver astronauts to the International Space Station, but once they arrive, English is used in most situations. That might not be the case on a colonizing mission. For political reasons, and especially to ensure as much genetic diversity as possible, space colonists could be drawn from several different continents. In that case, the mission would likely have at least two official languages; children born on the journey would grow up speaking both.

That split wouldnt last long, though. People who grow up speaking two different languages dont always keep them in separate compartments in their head. The languages blend and influence each other: Spanglish is a prime example. Theres nothing wrong with this, and the blends can in fact enrich both languages. But if the parent languages have markedly different grammar or syntax, and the hybrid language combines aspects of both, it will make communication with people back on Earth more difficult.

All of this will be complicated by the fact that while the colonists are hurtling along and developing their new language, language on Earth wont stand still either. Both the colonists language and the Earthlings language will be shifting simultaneously, so a 200-year mission effectively means 400 years of language change. Similarly, consider what would happen if Earthlings decide to send several waves of colonists to a single planet, on ships spaced a decade or two apart. Each ships language will evolve separately, and the later colonists could step out onto their new home planet having no idea what the prior inhabitants are saying.

So is there any way around these problems, or is space language doomed to deteriorate into a Babel?

McKenzie and Punske recommend training future astronauts in linguistics, to make them aware of potential shifts and help minimize the friction that arises. To be sure, linguistics will always be secondary to, say, keeping crops alive or keeping generators running. But as Thomason points out, poor communication is a waste of time at best and a real danger at worst, given how precarious survival will be in space. A second wave of colonists arriving on a new home planet could immediately do something stupid and endanger everyone there, simply because they didnt understand some subtlety about what was going on.

But the real solution here might involve a throwback to the distant past. Inevitably, the children being raised on the spaceship will need to attend school and learn something. We could take advantage of that schooling to teach them a lingua francaa frozen form of Spanish or Chinese or English.

This frozen language would essentially function the same way that Latin did for European scholars during much of the previous millennium. No one spoke Latin organically, but many people communicated with it. We often deride the old, Gradgrindian-school systems of yesteryear, with their emphasis on rote learning and perfect Greek or Latin. It seems so stuffy and outdated in our high-tech world. But something similar could be our best hope for ensuring smooth communication on the most high-tech adventure that humankind will ever undertake.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.

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How will language change if humans travel the stars? - Slate

Looking ahead to Mars base, Elon Musk says theres a good chance astronauts could die there – SYFY WIRE

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SpaceXs Elon Musk is already flying astronauts to the international space station, and developing the rockets and ships that will take astronauts to the moon and Mars. But what about once we actually get there? Yeah, hes thinking about that too and he knows the next step could be the hardest of all.

Speaking at the recent virtual Humans to Mars conference, Musk opened up about the development of the companys new Starship, a reusable rocket system he sees as the future of space travel. The set-up will be capable of transporting an immense amount of cargo, or around 100 passengers, to space. He says theres good progress on getting those crafts and massive rockets designed and built, though it will obviously take some time to create a production system for something so ambitious.

He says hes not sure exactly how long it will take for humans to reach Mars (current plans call for boots on the red dirt within the decade), but hes already thinking about what comes after the first couple of visits and return trips. Namely, how do we set up a permanent settlement on an alien planet? He already has designs for how a base could work, but minces no words about the type of challenge it will be.

And getting to Mars, I think, is not the fundamental issue. The fundamental issue is building a base, building a city on Mars that is self-sustaining, Musk said via CNBC. Were going to build a propellant plant, an initial Mars base Mars Base Alpha and then get it to the point where its self-sustaining I want to emphasize that this is a very hard and dangerous, difficult thing, not for the faint of heart.

He added: Good chance youll die, its going to be tough going, but it will be pretty glorious if it works out.

Gulp.

Which, Musk is almost certainly right. If theres one thing that is infinitely consistent about space travel, its that its dangerous. Extremely dangerous. Theres a reason they test rockets and ships dozens and dozens and dozens of times before they even consider putting a human passenger on board. Any tiny, minor problem can mean life or death when youre hundreds, thousands or millions of miles from Earth.

So yeah, if you plan on getting your ass to Mars in the next few decades, just take Musks words to heart. It could be awesome, but itll also be dangerous.

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Looking ahead to Mars base, Elon Musk says theres a good chance astronauts could die there - SYFY WIRE

Netflix’s ‘Away’ Imagines a Future in Which Going to Mars Is Possible – Thrillist

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There is a scene about midway through Netflix's new series Away, which follows a multinational crew of astronauts on the first-ever manned mission to Mars, where one of the astronauts, his body deteriorating from months in space, slowly peels a chunk of dead skin off of his foot. Not a layer, not a flake, a chunk. It's a moment taken, like certain other moments in the show, from a 2014 Esquire feature, also titled "Away," in which the writer Chris Jones interviewed astronaut Scott Kelly in the days leading up to his one-year solo mission aboard the International Space Station.

During his previous six-month stay aboard the ISS, in 2011, the unthinkable happened: U.S. Congresswoman Gabby Gifford, the wife of Scott's identical twin brother, Mark, was shot in an assassination attempt. With no way to come home, Kelly could only complete his mission, fueled by daily calls and updates from his family on his sister-in-law's condition. It's this impossible, heart-wrenching situation that inspired playwright and screenwriter Andrew Hinderaker to create Away -- though Hinderaker is no astronaut, he felt a kinship with Kelly nonetheless.

"My partner and I have been together for fifteen years, and she lives with a progressive and really terrible disease and was diagnosed when I was away opening a play," Hinderaker explained during a recent interview. "To be apart from someone you love when they need you, to be pulled there because you think you're doing what you should be doing for your career and then you receive this really devastating news, you fundamentally want to be home with the people you love, and that was a feeling that resonated with me really personally."

Away follows astronaut Emma Green, played by Hilary Swank, who is forced to decide whether to stay home with her family after her husband (Josh Charles) suffers a devastating medical emergency, or to command the first human mission to another planet. Emma chooses to go, and the show follows the challenges she and her fellow spacefarers face trying to stay alive for years aboard a spaceship, the trials back home faced by her daughter and her husband, and the bond that ties them together.

Part of the challenge -- and the thrill -- of writing about an endeavor of this scale that hasn't been attempted yet is imagining what a trip this far away from home would do to a person. In Jones' article, he writes about the phenomenon astronauts experience of becoming "more yourself" in space. "The moon is, if I remember correctly, 240,000 miles away," Hinderaker said. "Mars at its closest is 40 million miles away. So, everything in terms of the psychological weight, what that sense of isolation might be, everything is amplified exponentially." Green is constantly at odds with Misha (Mark Ivanir), a cosmonaut from Russia, and Lu (Vivian Wu), a Chinese astronaut, experiences a betrayal that compels her to lock herself in her quarters for months. Astronauts, by nature the most professional people in the world, wouldn't normally be susceptible to breakdowns or panic attacks or arguments with crewmates, but a journey of this magnitude allowed Hinderaker to explore his characters a little bit more. "Green's psychiatrist has a line to the effect of, 'She's currently 20 million miles from her family. I can talk about isolation, but that requires a new word altogether.'"

Yet, the best parts of Away, and another reason Hinderaker was inspired to create the show, focus on the crew's ability to problem solve and work together, not just to keep themselves alive, but also to do something that has never been done before. "The article speaks really specifically about the International Space Station, and how something so ambitious was only possible because countries that normally don't work together found a way to work together," Hinderaker said. "Rocket scientists from the former Soviet Union and the United States, who would otherwise be engaged in designing technologies of warfare, repurposed those technologies for discovery." The ISS and other research into space that requires multinational cooperation exist in a space outside of government borders: "The set of rules and politics that govern the International Space Station are completely different than the ones that govern Earth."

In his research, of which Hinderaker and his team of writers (which also included Jones) did copious amounts, interviewing astronauts and their families to get the feeling of what it all must be like, he discovered a few common threads which he called "paradigm-shifting." "They are one of the very small handful of people who get to look back at our planet and understand that, for example, national borders don't exist as they exist on maps and globes, that they are a construct made up of lines that people drew," Hinderaker said. Former astronaut Cady Coleman once explained that the first time she experienced zero-G in space, she realized that "gravity was just one way in which humans were meant to live." Another astronaut, Don Pettit, described to Hinderaker a theory that a piece of Mars, which may at one point have been biologically diverse, could have broken off and landed on Earth, introducing life to our planet. "So, in a very real way," Hinderaker said, "these astronauts who are going to Mars are going home."

There's a concept that some who study ancient things -- geologists who map the strata of the Earth's crust, or physicists who spend days in silent rooms listening to the cosmic background radiation of the universe -- call "deep time," which spans not generations or millennia but millions, billions of years, a kind of time that the mere human mind wasn't built to comprehend. Space travel, the drive to visit places beyond our planet that could someday house our descendants, to be the first or the second or the tenth person to set foot on soil that's not our own knowing you won't live to see what ends up being built upon it, is an inherently selfless thing. There's a beautiful moment in the show's finale, which, without spoiling too much, boldly eschews anything having to do with nationality or personal gain, marking space travel as a human achievement instead of a contest between countries. It's in the same spirit of Neil Armstrong's famous "one small step" quote, whose final word, purposely, is "mankind."

"In one of the first conversations I had with an engineer at NASA, when I described the show via the first crewed mission to Mars, he said, 'Oh, is it set in, like, 2090?'" Hinderaker explained. "And I said, 'Well, if there was the international collaboration and the will, how soon could you go?' And he was like, 'We could go tomorrow.'" The show has no flying cars or brain implants or food coming out of spray cans -- Away is meant to look as if it could be happening today, right now. "We're not talking about sci-fi," Hinderaker said. "We can do this. And the show is rooted in that optimism."

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Netflix's 'Away' Imagines a Future in Which Going to Mars Is Possible - Thrillist

The Wiggles Address Modes of Travel, Togetherness – GeekDad

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The Wiggles

Ive been reviewing childrens music for 15 years.The Wiggleshave been around for 29 years. In our collective space, Ive only reviewed one CD by the Australian troupe a solo effort byGreg Page in 2015. Not that theyve waited for me; the Wiggles, currently in their second iteration, have released their staggering 55th studio album, entitled (wait for it) Choo Choo Trains, Propeller Planes & Toot Toot Chugga Chugga Big Red Car!(and yes, the exclamation point is part of the title).

Emma, Lachy, Simon, and original member Anthony have collected 23 tunes for preschoolers, including songs about all forms of travel walking, wheelchairs, space travel, swimming, surfing, trains, planes, and that aforementioned Big Red Car. The Wheels on the Wheelchair Go Round and Round is certainly an inclusive take on the old chestnut. We Fly the Plane to the Outback manages to work in wallabies, kookaburras, and other Australia wildlife during their flight. Social Distancing is about as topical as the group gets, addressing the necessity to stay home and be safe and using online technology to visit with friends and family.

I had two kids cycle through a fascination with the band and was stunned to read about their vilification Down Under after a contentious separation from Wiggle Sam. The re-invigorated quartet came back strong and Matthew was riveted the two occasions when he saw the group live on Long Island during their trips to the U.S. Do The Propeller, an early song from those days, is given an acoustic recording. The nearly 30-year-old Toot Toot Chugga Chugga Big Red Car gets a shine and polish as well.

Choo Choo Trains slipped through during the frantic first wave of the pandemic, and was released in July. But the Wiggles have managed the feat of staying young (curse you, Anthony and Captain Feathersword) while engaging with new generations of preschoolers for nearly three decades. Theyve traveled near, theyve traveled far, theyve kept in motion, and kept kids moving in the process.

Choo Choo Trains is available from the Wiggles website,Amazon,Apple Music,Spotify, andBarnes & Noble.

Here is their video for Here Come the Wiggles:

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The Wiggles Address Modes of Travel, Togetherness - GeekDad

When It Comes to Virgin Galactic Stock, There Is Absolutely No Rush to Jump In – InvestorPlace

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Virgin Galactic Holdings (NYSE:SPCE) has been one of the more interesting speculative plays this year. And on a certain level, I understand the allure of SPCE stock. Weve always been a nation of risk takers. Theres a part of us that wants to make the movies our reality.

Source: Christopher Penler / Shutterstock.com

But theres a reason why a movie is a movie. Space travel in the movie presumes that all the bugs have been worked out. That weve been traveling in space for years. But thats not the case. And if theres one thing we know about our society, we love to litigate.

Aggressive growth investors will be quick to point out that if you wait for a stock to prove itself, youve waited too long. But in the case of SPCE stock, rushing in too soon carries a higher-than-usual risk premium.

Investors have been trading SPCE stock on the news. And that news has been mostly good. The company announced in its last earnings call that it had completed 27 out of the 29 test flights it is required to undertake before beginning commercial flights.

That puts the company in position to send founder Sir Richard Branson on its first commercial suborbital space flight. But even that positive news sent the stock lower because the flight was pushed off until the first quarter of 2021 amid delays in testing due to the novel coronavirus.

However, Virgin Galactic just got a very bullish call by Cowen analyst Oliver Chen. Chen initiated his coverage with a $22 price target. He bases his optimism on the idea that once the super rich get a taste of the experience of suborbital flight, theyll be coming back for more.

Virgin Galactics new chief executive officer (CEO) Michael Colglazier comes from Disney (NYSE:DIS). Its a savvy move for founder Sir Richard Branson. Colglazier says that the two companies are both in the business of providing amazing transformational customer experiences.

That would fit Chens rosy portrait. And it may be true. But the experience that customers have at Disney is not overtly life threatening (insert cynical Covid-19 joke if you must). However to borrow a quote from Jurassic Park, Yeah, but if the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates dont eat the tourists.

And thats my objection with SPCE stock from a commercial perspective. Putting the clever movie quotes aside, the company has to be right every time. You show me a waiver of liability, and Ill show you an army of lawyers waiting to shred it. Even if the company wins, space flights will be grounded while the legal battle ensues.

The company has a partnership with NASA to develop a readiness program for private-sector astronauts who are heading to the International Space Station.

We are excited to partner with NASA on this private orbital spaceflight program, which will not only allow us to use our spaceflight platform, but also offer our space training infrastructure to NASA and other agencies, Virgin Galactic chief space officer (CSO) George Whitesides said in the June news release.

To some this may sound like a distinction without a difference. After all, this can still theoretically expose the company to liability. In fact, NASA has talked openly about trying to send Tom Cruise to the International Space Station to film a movie.

But putting that aside, this has all the earmarks of a public-private partnership with NASA that can help pay the bills. As an investor, its not as exciting, but its something that seems more down to earth.

With a speculative stock such as Virgin Galactic, the extreme sentiment on either side starts to sound a bit like an infomercial. Company X promises to take you, and your well-heeled friends, into suborbital space.

But wait, theres more. Some day (in the undefined future), you and your friends will be able to spend an evening in our space hotel.

And, of course, theres the payoff. In the case of SPCE stock, Chen suggests that the stock could go to $50 per share.

Of course, the fine print suggests that the stock might not get there until 2050. But why quibble? Whats the harm in taking a couple of spins at the roulette wheel on the future of space travel?

And the answer is maybe there would be no harm. As Will Ashworth points out, the company is closer than perhaps imagined at achieving its goal of suborbital space flight. And if that goal is achieved, its likely that SPCE stock would go to the moon. So why not jump in when the stock price is sitting around a third of that price?

Because its not there yet. And like the Apollo 13 mission, failure is an option here and success is very expensive.

You can wait on SPCE stock. Really, you can.

On the date of publication Chris Markoch did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.

Chris Markoch is a freelance financial copywriter who has been covering the market for over five years. He has been writing for Investor Place since 2019.

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When It Comes to Virgin Galactic Stock, There Is Absolutely No Rush to Jump In - InvestorPlace

2020 is the year of the SPAC yet traditional IPOs offer better returns, report finds – MarketWatch

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After a record 82 initial public offerings of special purpose acquisition corporations known by the acronym SPAC 2020 seems to have upended the traditional IPO market, yet most offer lower returns on average than conventional deals, according to a report.

Of 223 SPAC IPOs conducted from the start of 2015 through July, 89 have completed mergers and taken a company public, offering the chance to examine their performance, according to the report from Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO ETFs and institutional research. Of those 89, the common shares have delivered an average loss of 18.8% and a median return of minus 36.1%. That compares with the average after-market return from traditional IPOs of 37.2% since 2015.

As of July 24, only 26 of the SPACs in that group had positive returns, the study found.

SPACs, also known as blank-check companies, have been around since the 1980s, but have become a juggernaut this year amid high levels of liquidity and a strong appetite for new growth companies.

Dont miss: The CEO who made one of Silicon Valleys worst acquisitions wants a $400 million blank check

SPACs raise money in an IPO, and then place it in a trust while the sponsor searches for a business or businesses to acquire, usually within a two-year period. The companies then complete a merger and the target becomes a listed stock. Recent examples include sports-betting operator DraftKings Inc. DKNG, -3.31%, electric truck maker Nikola Corp. NKLA, -1.60% and space travel company Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. SPCE, -3.69%.

Its a back door to going public and avoiding scrutiny, said Kathleen Smith, Principal at Renaissance. You hear about the moonshots, like DraftKings and Virgin Galactica, which have done well, but the average return is negative. You cant just blindly go in and make money.

See also: A new breed of tech IPOs may give the stock market reason to party like its 1999

DraftKings went public via a merger with SPAC Diamond Eagle Acquisition Corp. and a gambling tech business, SBTech Global Ltd., earlier this year. The renamed DraftKings has been on a tear, gaining 258% in the year to date, even as major sports events were canceled during the pandemic.

Nikola merged with VectolQ Acquisition in June and immediately benefited from the cult status enjoyed by fellow electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc. TSLA, +2.78% , which has propelled that stock to record levels this year. Nikola has gained 232% in the year to date.

See:Former House Speaker Paul Ryan to chair $300 million blank-check company: report

Virgin Galactics route to public markets came through a merger with Social Capital Hedosophia last October. The stock is up 35% in 2020, outperforming the S&P 500 s SPX, -0.81% 5% gain and the Dow Jones Industrial Averages DJIA, -0.56% 2% loss.

The recent crop of SPAC mergers have performed better than the broader group, the report found. The common shares of the 21 SPAC mergers completed in the period from Jan. 1 to July are averaging a return of 13.1% from their offer price, but thats mostly due to the two highest performers DraftKings and Nikola. Without those two, the SPACs produced better returns than in the period going back to 2015, but are still a negative 10.5%. That compares with the 2020 IPO markets average aftermarket positive return of 6.5%.

The trend isnt expected to end anytime soon. SPACs have raised a record $31 billion in 2020 to date, and new announcements are coming every day as investors seem to be racing to join the club. The year also brought the biggest-ever SPAC, when billionaire hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman took one public in July with more than $4 billion in its kitty to spend.

At the time, Ackman said he was long-term bullish on America and the stock market, although he was bearish on highly indebted companies.

James Gellert, chief executive of Rapid Ratings, a data and analytics company that assesses the financial health of private and public companies, said SPACs are a bull market phenomenon that gain in popularity when markets are doing well, as the stock market was until the recent selloff.

See: The death of valuation and what it could mean for investors going forward

Theres a lot of liquidity looking for nuanced asset classes and SPACs as a sub-category of equity is an interesting one to take a flier on, he said. If you have a diverse portfolio, a SPAC that is executed well is like a liquid private-equity investment.

Many of the companies that are merged into SPACs come from private-equity portfolios, which usually means they are more mature businesses and in better financial health. For investors, they are really betting on the management team of the SPAC finding a good target business.

The broader initial public offering market is expected to be busy through the end of the year, with 45 companies in the current pipeline aiming to raise about $8 billion, according to Smith from Renaissance Capital.

See:Fisker is going public: Five things to know about the electric-car maker ahead of its IPO

Another 65 companies have filed confidentially with the aim of raising $28 billion, boosting the total to a potential 110 deals raising $36 billion.

So far this year, there have been 111 U.S. IPOs, raising $37 billion. The last year to see proceeds of more than that was 2014, when there were 275 deals that raised $85 billion.

Even if we dont get to that backlog of confidential filers, well still probably exceed any year going back to 2014, she said.

That was the year Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. BABA, -0.39% went public, raising $25 billion in the biggest deal ever. That deal is expected to be eclipsed by the flotation of Ant Group, the payments company that was set up to serve Alibaba in 2004 and was spun off in 2011. Ant is expected to list on the Hong Kong and Shanghai exchanges later this year in a deal expected to raise up to $30 billion.

Smith said the pullback in stocks at the end of this week was a positive for the IPO market, as it puts a bit more fear in the market. Fear gets better pricing, because multiples drop as peers drop and pricing falls, she said.

Among the deals on tap are Palantir Technologies, the data-mining company backed by tech billionaire Peter Thiel; cloud data-warehouse company Snowflake Computing; videogame technology company Unity Software; Asana, a software provider started by Facebook; construction software company Bentley Systems; telehealth companies Amwell and GoodRx; packaging company Pactiv Evergreen Inc.; and Chinese online internet finance marketplace Lufax, among others.

The Renaissance IPO ETF IPO, -1.60% has gained 49% in 2020 to date.

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2020 is the year of the SPAC yet traditional IPOs offer better returns, report finds - MarketWatch

From the Editor: The Lines Around Free Speech – Princeton Alumni Weekly

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From left: Rouse; Starr; Kennedy 77

From left: courtesy Princeton University; courtesy Paul Starr; Martha Stewart

Amid all the summer news about Princeton and there was a lot of it, as you will read here one story has special relevance for PAW. The killing of George Floyd renewed earlier calls to rename the school and residential college named for Woodrow Wilson 1879 and this time, the calls succeeded. The campus discussion continued with letters and petitions requesting among other things anti-racism programming, curricular changes, and oversight of racist behaviors and research, opening a debate on how the University can promote both racial justice and academic freedom.

When it comes to campus research and speech, whats permissible, and how do we draw the line? PAW brought together three professors Princetons Carolyn Rouse (anthropology) and Paul Starr (sociology) and Harvard Law Schools Randall Kennedy 77 for a Zoom conversation in July to discuss the roles of the University in advocating for social justice and in fostering free inquiry. You can read an account of the candid conversation on page 30.

PAW intended to be a forum for alumni to communicate with the University and with each other traditionally has taken an expansive view of speech, its editors believing that readers respond to ideas they find insulting or offensive with ... better ideas. Longtime readers of PAWs letters section surely have gasped at some of the missives published in our pages over the years. Today, for example, letters opposing coeducation in the 1960s seem comical but in their time, they werent funny. These days its often letters relating to race that give us pause.

The Universitys fundamental commitment is to the principle that debate or deliberation may not be suppressed because the ideas put forth are thought by some or even by most members of the University community to be offensive, unwise, immoral, or wrong-headed, says a statement adopted by the faculty in 2015. It is for the individual members of the University community, not for the University as an institution, to make those judgments for themselves, and to act on those judgments not by seeking to suppress speech, but by openly and vigorously contesting the ideas that they oppose. President Eisgruber 83 wrote in The Daily Princetonian in July that many people mistakenly treat free speech and inclusivity as competing values, but universities must remain devoted to both.

What this means in real life is difficult to define. Over the summer, PAW board members had a spirited discussion about our letters to the editor. In general, we wont print letters that we deem to be threatening, uncivil, or personal attacks, or letters that we know to be factually incorrect. Some readers think we dont apply those standards enough; others believe we use them to exclude unpopular views. In light of the national focus on racial justice, should we have new standards on whats appropriate for publication? At the end of the board discussion, we agreed that while some might want us to be more restrictive in our selection of letters, it would be hard, or impossible, to come up with rules that clarify exactly whats over the line.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts on PAW letters and including them in a robust (and civil) collection in our pages and online.

This year, PAW will publish 11 issues: monthly from September through July. Meanwhile, we are boosting our coverage atpaw.princeton.edu,so you can read Princeton news when its current. (Subscribe to email updates atpaw.princeton.edu/email.) Our commitment to print remains strong. But as I wrote in January, many alumni classes have found it difficult to fund their share of PAWs budget, and the pandemic has added to PAWs financial pressures. We believe that the new schedule will allow us to maintain and even strengthen the quality of our print magazine.

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From the Editor: The Lines Around Free Speech - Princeton Alumni Weekly

Excessive regulation can impact free speech, warns Facebooks Oversight Board member – BusinessLine

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Excessive social media regulation can negatively impact the freedom of speech, according to Helle Thorning-Schmidt, former Prime Minister of Denmark and a member of Facebooks Oversight Board.

According to a CNBC report, Thorning-Schmidt warned against the infringement of free speech owing to aggressive social media regulation. She cited an example of an internet shutdown that had happened in Belarus last month after the countrys election results.

If regulation gets too heavy, it actually will impact freedom of speech very heavily, she told CNBC. I believe in regulation, I believe that politics has to play a role.

Thorning-Schmidt is one of four co-chairs of the independent regulatory body set up by Facebook.

Facebook had announced the setting up of its Oversight Board with 20 members from across the globe, back in May. The board is yet to become operational. In an emailed statement the board said that it was working hard to become operational and expects to begin to hear cases in the coming months.

The Oversight Board, which is comprised of independent expert members from around the world, is empowered to make binding and independent decisions on many of the most challenging content issues on Facebook and Instagram, it said.

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Excessive regulation can impact free speech, warns Facebooks Oversight Board member - BusinessLine

Why the Hindu Right, Not Usually a Champion of Free Speech, Is Supporting Charlie Hebdo – The Wire

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New Delhi: The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdos decision to republish the controversial cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammad has been criticised for being offensive and supported as a freedom of expression issue in equal measure. Among those it has clearly enthused are Hindu right groups in India, not particularly known for being great votaries of free speech. But the magazines somewhat radical stance has provided these groups yet another opportunity to further their hate campaign against the Muslim community. Additionally, it is another chance to take a dig at Indian secularism.

The republishing of the cartoons have yet again sparked off global discussions on free speech and blasphemy. Charlie Hebdo, known for its provocative and irreverent content, decided to republish the controversial cartoons on Tuesday, a day ahead of the first trial for the 2015 terrorist attacks against the magazine which had come in the wake of the original publication.

Five years ago, on January 7, 2015, Said and Cherif Kouachi, French nationals of Algerian origin stormed its Paris offices with Kalashnikov assault rifles, grenades and pistols, killed 12 people and injured at least 11. Among those killed were many celebrated cartoonists of France, including the then-editor Stphane Charbonnier, the satirical caricaturist widely known as Charb. Later, the Yemen-based Al-Qaida on the Arabian Peninsula, also known as Ansar al-Sharia, claimed responsibility for the attacks. The cartoon even then had sparked off an intense debate about the publication.

The trial, which will continue for the next few months at a Paris court, will hear the case of 14 people who have been accused of providing logistical support to the Kouachi brothers who carried out the attacks but were later killed in a police encounter in the outskirts of French capital city.

Also Read: Five Years on From the Charlie Hebdo Attack, Je Suis Charlie Rings Hollow

The controversial cartoons have divided the world multiple times

While the magazine itself said that its decision to republish the provocative cartoons was an act of defiance, many political commentators also believe its action may reignite old wounds and spark yet another political row.

While republishing the cartoons, Laurent Riss Sourisseau, the publishing director who was also injured in the 2015 attack, wrote, We will never give up. The hatred that struck us is still there and, since 2015, it has taken the time to mutate, to change its appearance, to go unnoticed and to quietly continue its ruthless crusade.

He further said that if the magazine does not republish the cartoons, it would only be because of political or journalistic cowardice.

However, many commentators feel that the cartoons, 12 of which were originally published in 2005 by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on September 30, 2005, and later reprinted by Charlie Hebdo the following year, were poor in taste. They showed Prophet Mohammad as an accomplice in terrorism. Even in 2005, the cartoons had set off large-scale protests in many Muslim-majority countries. While Jyllands-Posten claimed that it had published the cartoons to take a dig on the culture of fear and self-censorship within the Danish media, political commentators felt that the cartoons perpetuate a particular militant stereotype about Muslims, especially when many innocent Muslims were bearing the brunt of global Islamophobia.

The matter only blew out of proportion when the Danish newspaper boastfully contended that the cartoons depicted the superiority of western culture over other barbaric societies.

Although protests and condemnations by many groups forced Jyllands-Posten to apologise later (the editor-in-chief of the Danish magazine said the cartoons had caused serious misunderstandings), every time the cartoons were re-published from 2005 to 2015, it sparked off global debates that invariably pitched advocates of free speech against their peers who were also equally critical of Islamophobia and blasphemous depiction of Islamic symbols in media.

The massacre in the offices of Charlie Hebdo five years ago further aggravated these fault lines, especially against the backdrop of majoritarian political forces continuously asserting themselves in many countries.

Police secure an entrance at the courthouse for the opening of the trial of the January 2015 Paris attacks against Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly, a policewoman in Montrouge and the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket, in Paris, France, Steptember 2, 2020. The trial will take place from September 2 to November 10. Photo: Reuters/Christian Hartmann

The Hindu rights push

The Hindu right, which has consolidated itself on anti-Muslim propaganda in India, has latched on to the republishing as a cause to further their own agenda. While right-wing commentators on social media supported Charlie Hebdo wholeheartedly, pro-Hindutva websites also made it a point to highlight the development as a matter of freedom of expression. The RSSs mouthpiece Organiser which hardly reports on international issues carried an extensive report on Charlie Hebdos decision to republish the provocative cartoons, and focussed on the terrorist attack on it in 2015 in an attempt to vilify Indian Muslims.

However, the Hindu right wings own prominent and less than edifying role over the last two decades in suppressing free expression in the fields of art and literature in India has invited universal criticism.

A few significant instances in which Hindutva groups have resorted to violence and vandalism in trying to silence artists and authors can be cited in this regard, which will illustrate the double-standards of this sudden, new love for freedom of expression, especially in matters concerning religion.

In 2014, Hindu nationalists built pressure on Penguin publishers through violence protests to withdraw internationally-acclaimed author Wendi Donigers book The Hindus: An Alternative History from circulation in India. The Hindu group Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti (SBAS) went a step ahead to accuse the University of Chicago professor of hurting the religious feelings of millions of Hindus in a lawsuit that claimed that Dongers book was a deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings by insulting Hindus and their religious beliefs. Penguin eventually removed the book from circulation in India and decided to pulp its unsold copies in an out-of-court settlement with the Hindutva group.

A protest against Wendy Donigers book. Photo: hindujagruti.org

Similarly, persistent lawsuits by the SBAS and violent protests by the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) since 2008 finally forced Delhi University to drop the eminent literary scholar A.K. Ramanujans essay Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five examples and three thoughts on translation from the reading list of an undergraduate course in history in 2011. In this case, the Sangh parivar thought that the essay sought to transcend not merely geographical but also religious boundaries. For the Hindutva forces, which like to believe that epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata could be read only as standardised texts within an uniform Hindu faith and tradition, the essay became a natural ideological issue to be contested.

The ABVP first launched a violent protest against the essay in 2008 when it vandalised the office of S.Z.H Jafri, the then head of history department at the Delhi University, when its representatives came to submit a memorandum against what it believed was a blashphemous essay.

ABVP activists at a protest. Photo: PTI

Speaking to Organiser, petitioner and SBAS functionary Dina Nath Batra had said soon after the university purged the essay, It was a conspiracy hatched on the part of Christian Missionaries and their fellow travellers to demean our gods and goddesses. It has been thrashed. We have decided to honour all those who raised their voice against the insult of our gods and goddesses in the university itselfAll these people will be mobilised so that they could keep a close watch over the university syllabus.

In almost similar set of events, the Mumbai University too withdrew Rohinton Mistrys novel Such a Long Journey, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1991) from its syllabus after the far-right Shiv Sena protested against what it believed were derogatory references to its party members.

The then Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray had similarly threatened to burn James W. Laines Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India when the Bombay high court decided to lift a ban on it in 2011. The party felt that it portrayed Shivaji, who is considered Maharashtras greatest icon, in poor light.

The BJP-led Gujarat government, too, in 2001 banned Pulitzer Prize-winning author Joseph Lelyvelds Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India after Hindutva forces objected to implications that Gandhis relationship with a German man was homosexual in nature.

Time and again, Hindutva forces have mounted pressure on governments and authorities to ban texts which did not go down well with their political posturing.

Hindutva: An artists nightmare

In the field of art too, these forces have been even less tolerant.

It goes back to 2007 when a Hindutva mob, instigated by one Raghu Vyas, a painter and a RSS member, and a fringe group called Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, attacked legendary painter M.F. Husains exhibitions at the India International Centre, New Delhi and in London. Husain was already facing at least seven lawsuits for allegedly causing offence to Hindu sensibilities in his works and was living in a forced exile, shuttling between Dubai and London.

The next August, a dozen Hindu fanatics from the little-known extremist group called Sri Ram Sena vandalised yet another exhibition that showcased reproductions of Husains paintings in the lawns of Vithalbhai Patel House in the national capital.

Work of M.F. Husain damaged by Hindutva groups. Photo: PTI

In May 2007, on the complaint of Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists, the Gujarat police arrested an art student Chandramohan in M.S University, Vadodara, for exhibiting paintings of religious figures with anatomical details for his coursework assessment. Although no faculty members objected to it, the Hindutva activists who werent a part of the university raised a hue and cry over the paintings, and threatened the university authorities to remain silent. His struggle for justice still continues.

In 2013, an art gallery in Ahmedabad, Amdavad-ni-Gufa, showcasing works by Pakistani artists was vandalised by the VHP whose activists tore the works and ransacked furniture at the gallery. Speaking to the press, VHP Gujarat unit general secretary Ranchhod Bharvad said, How can paintings of Pakistani artists be allowed to be on display here when that country is beheading and killing our soldiers, waging a proxy war.

There are several such examples in which the Hindutva brigade have shown intolerance towards a work of art or literature. In all these episodes, they have bafflingly contended that the Hindu religious sentiments were hurt and that the art or text were malicious attempts by artists and authors to defame Hindu religion. Strangely, apart from the Hindutva groups, there was no such resistance to these creative works from the larger Hindu population.

Also Read: As the Gujarat Model Goes National, Hindutva Hunts for the Enemy in Our Midst

Politics of hurt sentiments

The Charlie Hebdo episode became a rallying point for the Jes Suis Charlie cry in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the magazines offices. Although the cartoons were rightly criticised as an attempt to assert western hegemony over others and questions were raised over their intent, it has gradually become clear over the last few decades that fundamentalists in every religion have often tried to mobilise opinion through what can be called politics of hurt sentiments. More often than not, these attacks are meant to target who the fundamentalists think of as an inside enemy.

Flowers and candles are seen outside the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdos former office on the the fifth anniversary of the attack and a siege at a Kosher supermarket which killed 17 people in Paris, January 7, 2020. Photo: Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes

Eminent political scientist Aijaz Ahmed has attempted to theorise these phenomena by making quite discernible linkages between such fascist trends and the growth of free market capitalism. He argues that free market capitalism has succeeded in delinking nationalisms from its historical roots, Indian nationalism being one of the crucial examples.

Politics of liberalisation, he says, has created an ideological vacuum. It can only succeed if Indian nationalism can be detached from its anti-colonial origins and redefined in culturalist, irrationalist, racist terms, so that the national energies are expanded not on resistance against imperialism but on suppression of the supposed enemy within: the denominational minority, the communist Left, the pseudo-secularist, any and all oppositions to tradition as defined by Hindutva. In this context, Hindutva and liberalisation in this context are not only reconcilable but also complementary.

At the same time, free market capitalism, as art historian Geeta Kapur argues, has transformed creative work. She says that the cultural fall out of global capitalism has cancelled the very concept of avant-garde. Artistic movements like the Mexican mural, Fluxus, Arte Povera, or Dadaism engaged people in anti-war and anti-imperialist sentiments, and from these movements a radical idea of free speech emerged, one that challenged, and resisted, the status quo.

She says much of that changed in India and elsewhere because of liberalisation which ushered in capitalist ethos. Citing the Indian example, she had told this correspondent a few years ago, The 1990s saw the transition of an artist from a citizen to an interlocutor in the changed public discourse. The operational term in art shifted from creativity to production. Indian artists broke off their pact with progressive nationalism and functioned according to the needs of the market.

Against this backdrop, Kapur believes that the idea of free expression within the realm of contemporary art functions in a vacuum, and becomes susceptible to getting played at the hands of political forces with vested interests.

The renewed ecosystem in the artistic world that Kapur talks about legitimises Jyllands-Postens controversial cartoons as an exercise in free speech, while discounting entirely the havoc the cartoons may precipitate globally.

The divided responses that Charlie Hebdos decision to republish the cartoons has drawn, perhaps, is a result of the very ideological vacuum in the political and cultural spheres that Ahmed and Kapur talk about. The Hindutva groups in India, and other majoritarian forces across the world, otherwise no particular warriors for free speech, have seen an opportunity to use this for their own communal ends.

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Why the Hindu Right, Not Usually a Champion of Free Speech, Is Supporting Charlie Hebdo - The Wire

Letters: Paying the price for the invaluable right of free speech – Telegraph.co.uk

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SIR Mr Punch, a figure of colonial violence (White people were creators of racism, says chief librarian, report, August 30)? What a nonsensical aspersion on the cheeky chap voted an icon of England in a 2006 poll.

That white, Victorian patriarch, CharlesDickens whose works can still, Im sure, be consulted in the British Library wrote in a letter in 1849: The street Punch is one of those extravagant reliefs from the realities of life which would lose its hold upon the people if it were made moral and instructive. I regard it as quite harmless in its influence.

The Victoria & Albert Museums website is to be congratulated for its dispassionate and informative history of Punch and Judy, including references to the Punch and Judy College of Professors and to Punch and Judy showmen (swatchel omis).

Thats the way to do it!

Duncan McAraBishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire

SIR I was particularly surprised that a bust of the botanist Sir Joseph Banks has been singled out for posthumous accusation.

At the request of Banks (asEndeavours chief botanist), Captain James Cook took a racially diverse team of civilian scientists with him on the Endeavour. They included George Dorlton and Thomas Richmond.

In Tahiti, Banks forged a great friendship with Tupaia, who joined the Endeavour as an honoured guest. Tupaia was a polymath who was greatly respected by Banks and Cook and was skilled in geography, meteorology, navigation and other indigenous arts. Without his help the Endeavour mightnot have returned to Britain. Sadly, he perished in Batavia (now Jakarta) and his death deeply upset Banks. Another Tahitian, Omai, travelled to England and was taken around the country by Banks. While he was in England, Omai was feted by society. He was introduced to King George III and taken to the state opening of Parliament before returning to Tahiti.

Far from plundering, Sir Joseph Banks introduced useful plants and sources of food around the world, including pigs to the indigenous people of New Zealand and breadfruit to the Caribbean and central and southern America (where it is now a staple food).

James HughesTewkesbury, Gloucestershire

SIR The cultural revisionists now on the attack are iconoclasts destructive, not constructive. They are giddy on their own virtue and power, though often plain wrong in how they select their targets; they are in the process of upsetting large numbers of people, and act at no real cost to themselves all while achieving nothing of any substance for the victims they claim to be helping.

Mark BaleOxford

SIR Rather than fixate on our history, surely we should be using our intellectual, economic and political influence to address the many current, gross obscenities of our modern world.

Examples include the persecution of Uighurs in China; the persecution of Christians, Yazidi and Shia in Iraq and Syria; the worldwide trafficking of young girls; the lack of civil rights for citizens of Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela, the Yemen and beyond; and the plight of Myanmar's Rohingya.

Denise BackhouseWoking, Surrey

SIR Andrew Smith (Letters, August 30) should study the positive impact of Ebbsfleet International station to reassure him that the proposed new station in Thanet will bring benefits.

It is likely to remove commuter traffic from the towns, speeding up journey times for commuters and for those travelling locally. These benefits will also be experienced by many living outside of Thanet.

Edward ChurchFaversham, Kent

SIR The current economic situation is vastly different from the position in February 2020, when Boris Johnson decided to press ahead with the HS2 rail project. Any money saved from its cancellation should be diverted towards providing additional capacity in hospitals and schools.

Susan HopcraftWarwick

SIR KL Parsons (Letters, August 30) voices concern for the future of small retail outlets that rely on office workers for their income if everyone is working from home.

My concern is also for those office workers when employers realise that, thanks to modern communications, home could easily be in India.

Terry LloydDerby

SIR Journalists and some others may find working from home satisfactory but there are good reasons why most workers outside manufacturing, construction, services and similar occupations are gathered together in offices. Trainees learn from working with and observing their superiors.

More telephone lines are available; colleagues can take a call and hold it while you are already on two, and if the job involves markets then much can be learnt simply from the activity (or otherwise) of other people in the room.

Civil servants need to be in their departments for the short chat next door, as well as for the short-notice official meeting and not least for the Minister [or permanent-secretary], can I come and see you for five minutes? moments.

Stephen GarnerColchester, Essex

SIR Professor Phil Turner, one of the countrys leading orthopaedic surgeons, describes the impact on patients as hip and knee replacements have been postponed over the last five months (report, August 30).

End-stage arthritis is not adequately treated with painkillers; indeed, prolonged opiate use is neither effective nor good for the patient. Thus, it is imperative that the prolonged waiting times for arthritis surgery be addressed. However, while waiting for surgery, overweight and obese patients should take the opportunity to reduce their pain by losing weight.

Clinical trial evidence from Denmark shows that overweight and obese people with knee osteoarthritis can lose about 10kg of body weight (one and a half stone) using total diet replacement formula diets and maintain that weight loss, with a large reduction in symptom scores especially for pain. Reduction in knee pain improves sleep quality and makes movement easier. We have seen patients able to play with their grandchildren again and get back on their bicycles to cycle around Copenhagen.

In Denmark we have demonstrated that weight loss before knee replacement surgery is feasible. In Britain, a feasibility trial which combined weight loss with analgesia, insoles, and exercise is under analysis. This type of dietary intervention is already in use in Scotland and in an NHS England trial for diabetes remission.

Dr Anthony LeedsSenior FellowProfessor Henning BliddalDirector, Parker Arthritis InstituteCopenhagen, DenmarkProfessor Hamish SimpsonConsultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, University of Edinburgh

SIR Customer service, which has been in its death throes for as long as I can remember, has finally been sent to the madhouse by Covid-19 (Letters, August 30).

Telling us that our call is valuable, or will be answered shortly, is no consolation when struggling through five futile attempts to make contact by telephone, totaling 100 minutes of wasted time.

No email address was available, so I wrote a letter, to which there was no reply. When my call was finally answered, I was told somewhat sheepishly that the company did not like letters. Ironically, when wanting my business, the same company had sent me a letter.

Kathleen DickHarrogate, West Yorkshire

SIR Like Zoe Strimpel (Features, August 30), I feel sorry fornice people called Karen whose name has made them objects of derision for being domineering and unwoke.

The same thing happened to those unlucky enough to be called Kevin about 20 years ago, when the name was deemed typical of an uncouth youth.

Fiona WildCheltenham, Gloucestershire

We accept letters by post, fax and email only. Please include name, address, work and home telephone numbers. ADDRESS: 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 0DT FAX: 020 7931 2878 EMAIL: stletters@telegraph.co.uk FOLLOW: Telegraph Letters on Twitter @LettersDesk

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Letters: Paying the price for the invaluable right of free speech - Telegraph.co.uk

Should the fight against the virus mean sacrificing free speech? – The Age

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Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius speaks to the social-distancing media pack to say people promoting proposed anti-lockdown demonstrations are in breach of emergency laws and will be locked up.

The tinfoil hat-wearing brigade are alive and well in our community. They're taking every opportunity to leverage the current situation to serve their own ridiculous notions about so-called sovereign citizens, about constitutional issues and about how 5G is going to kill your grandkids," he said.

Its batshit crazy nonsense.

A quick check of the Victorian Crimes Act (1958) indicates being batshit crazy is not a criminal offence not for bats, or people wearing tin hats, or even people who think they are bats.

And the trouble with the tinfoil hat-wearing brigade is they actually do not believe their striking headwear is in any way unusual.

Indeed, such statements may only encourage the deluded into direct action.

The very experienced and very wise former Senior Sergeant John The Pope Morrish would instruct his younger troops, Always please and never tease a fool.

Senior police have issued instructions to take a firm line with Corona Roamers. They will charge those who incite disobedience and those who want to film their own conspiracy rants as a Facebook version of the Gettysburg Address.

Cops wont argue the toss. Take it up with the courts, they say. When police collared the Conspiracy Karens we collectively cheered. But it can only take one case to tip the balance.

Pregnant women Zoe Lee Buhler is arrested in her pink flannelette pyjamas by mask wearing police for apparently promoting a planned anti-lockdown rally. She is charged with incitement and later bailed.

As is the modern way, when police arrive at her Ballarat home with a search warrant she goes for her phone, not to ring a lawyer, but to record the moment.

The police inform her of her rights then handcuff her hands behind her back. She and her partner react with shock while remaining conciliatory and courteous.

The police do not engage or negotiate. Her partner says she will take the post down. She obviously is unaware she has broken any rules. The police, quite calmly it should be said, explain they have a search warrant and she will be arrested.

By the letter of the law they are right. Luke Cornelius later goes into bat for them. But do we want PJ-wearing mums cuffed in their own homes for dumb social media posts?

A few people saw her call to arms. Millions have seen the subsequent arrest and her pyjama-clad arms being locked in handcuffs.

Rather than deter, it encourages the anti-lockdown brigade and makes the police look very close to oppressors for enforcing the new-normal laws. Expect a run on tinfoil at the supermarkets.

In the UK, experts told the government a COVID lockdown would last six weeks before people started to rebel.

In the last two weeks police here have seen a spike in people trying to beat curfews or just being a little bit batshit crazy.

The government, the experts and the anti-tinfoilers have all called for sacrifices for the health of all of us and our long-term economic recovery. But does that necessarily include free speech?

John Silvester is senior crime reporter.

Get our Coronavirus Update newsletter for the day's crucial developments at a glance, the numbers you need to know and what our readers are saying. Sign up to The Sydney Morning Herald's newsletter here and The Age's here.

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Should the fight against the virus mean sacrificing free speech? - The Age

Mayor Peduto Says Protesters Will Be Arrested If There Is Continual Denial Of Law – CBS Pittsburgh

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By: KDKA-TV News Staff

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) Mayor Bill Peduto gave a stern warning to protesters after some gathered outside his house Saturday night.

Tonight at my home private property. The 1st Amendment doesnt protect you to close down streets, without a permit. Yes, we have granted extra rights to assure free speech. But, continual denial of law, will end up in arrests. Actions have consequences, Peduto said in a tweet early Sunday morning.

Demonstrations started in downtown Pittsburgh Saturday afternoon, outside the Gateway T station. Civil Saturday Protesters then made their way to the Allegheny County Courthouse and called for police reform.

RELATED STORIES:

Protesters within the last few weeks have been holding demonstrations outside of Pedutos home in Point Breeze, and this is not the first time Peduto has been vocal about his opposition to how protesters have gathered outside his residence. In an official statement on August 19, Peduto said that he would not accept any actions that would threaten the safety of Pittsburgh residents after demonstrators stayed outside Pedutos house for more than 10 hours the night of August 18 leading into the morning of August 19.

This crosses a line that cannot be allowed to continue, causing those committing crimes against residents to face possible legal consequences for their actions, Peduto said on August 19.

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Mayor Peduto Says Protesters Will Be Arrested If There Is Continual Denial Of Law - CBS Pittsburgh

Denver neighborhood tiff over yard signs is just the beginning in year filled with polarizing issues – The Denver Post

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A quick drive through Denvers Lowry neighborhood late last week was akin to a voyage through a haven of tranquility and quiet, with rows of homes fronted by tidy lawns and smiling, helmeted families biking down tree-lined streets.

But just 48 hours prior, this community on the citys east side was at the center of a sharp dispute over the limits of free expression in the midst of what is shaping up to be one of the nastiest, bare-knuckle election seasons in recent memory.

In the current climate, with a lot of these social justice issues in the spotlight, I think it is important for our family to show our support and beliefs in these issues, said Melissa Steele, a 14-year resident of the neighborhood, who has a sign in her yard declaring support for Black lives, womens rights and science. I think its a time when we need to be dealing with these issues.

But the Lowry Community Master Association, the homeowners association that oversees the nearly 2,600 homes that sit on former site of the Lowry Air Force Base, wasnt as open to the idea. It sent letters to Steele and some of her neighbors telling them they had to take down their signs per the HOAs policy forbidding unauthorized displays of any kind outside of a strictly defined political season.

After a few headlines and news stories on the controversy, the Lowry board of directors in a special meeting Wednesday night reversed themselves and amended their sign code.

Given the exigent circumstances and the boards desire to help our community express support for issues they endorse, the LCMA has amended the community signage policy to allow two yard signs, the board said in a statement. This policy is effective today, September 3, 2020.

State law leaves sign regulation largely up to homeowner associations, except from 45 days prior to an election to seven days after the vote, during which citizens can display a sign that carries a message intended to influence the outcome of an election, including supporting or opposing the election of a candidate, the recall of a public official, or the passage of a ballot issue.

Last weeks about-face will likely not be the last time HOAs and politics clash, especially as this Novembers election approaches amid a deadly global pandemic and protests and violence over racial justice issues. Molly Foley-Healy, an attorney who has long represented homeowners associations in Colorado, said the governing bodies are in a no-win situation when it comes to balancing the desire to enhance property values by maintaining a consistent aesthetic while at the same time allowing homeowners to express themselves.

Because of the culture wars were having and the extreme passion people feel on any side of these issues, for an HOA board to attempt to police these positions is unenviable, to say the least, she said. I would call on all owners living in HOAs to be sensitive to their neighbors and their board of directors.

In most cases, HOAs arent targeting what the sign says, Foley-Healy said, but the existence of the sign.

But Heather Luehrs, a Lowry resident, said she received a letter to take down her yard signs only after she recently planted a Black Lives Matter display in her grass. She said she had had a sign welcoming people to the neighborhood on display for two years before that.

What saddened me is that the Black Lives Matter sign got this going, she said.

In an email, the Lowry Community Master Association said it enforces its sign policy without regard to politics or positions, issuing violations this year for displays supporting teachers and health care workers, graduation acknowledgments, and pleas to conserve water.

The dispute in Lowry is far from the first of its kind. Three years ago, a Loveland man made news when he refused his HOAs orders to take down an early American flag painted on wood that was hanging on his home. Eight years before that faceoff, a woman fought her HOA in Boulder after it told her to remove a sign she had put in front of her house proclaiming her opposition to mass slaughter in the Darfur region of Sudan.

And in 2006, an HOA in Pagosa Springs apologized to a couple for threatening to fine them $25 a day for displaying a wreath that had been fashioned into the shape of the peace sign. The wreath had been characterized by HOA leaders as a divisive symbol that violated the subdivision rules against displaying signs or advertisements.

Bridget Sebern, executive director of the Rocky Mountain chapter of the Community Associations Institute, said homeowners agree to HOA rules when they move into an association-governed community.

While some of these rules may conflict with unfettered expression, these rules are in place to preserve the character of a community, protect property values and meet the established expectations of residents, she said. One persons free speech might be a neighbors eyesore. In all cases of disagreement, we encourage open dialogue, flexibility and, when possible, compromise.

Luehrs said she hopes the brouhaha in Lowry last week will prompt vigorous debate and discussion that leads to consensus on whats acceptable and whats not when it comes to wearing ones politics on ones sleeve.

This doesnt mean its the end of the conversation it means its the beginning of the conversation, she said.

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Denver neighborhood tiff over yard signs is just the beginning in year filled with polarizing issues - The Denver Post

Police need to keep opposing protest groups separated, experts say after Proud Boys rally – MLive.com

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KALAMAZOO, MI When the far-right Proud Boys clashed with counterprotesters in downtown Kalamazoo last month, police were not in sight.

The confrontation turned violent before police got there.

Being on the scene and keeping protesters and counterprotesters separated is one of the most important tips for police agencies handling these sorts of encounters where tensions run hot between competing groups, according to national experts and various studies.

When police are in a position of trying to catch up and stop violent acts from occurring, that just makes for a bad situation, Frank Straub, director of the Center for Mass Violence Response Studies at the National Police Foundation, told MLive.

Policing experts, contacted by MLive this week, said police can take several steps, while affording First Amendment rights, to discourage violence in these situations.

Among them:

Experts in policing protests and riots say keeping opposing groups separated is among the most important goals for police.

This was the key lesson learned in Charlottesville, Edward Maguire, associate director for the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety at Arizona State University, told MLive.

He was referring to the 2017 confrontation in Charlottesville, Virginia, pitting white nationalists and neo-Nazis against counterprotesters and civil-rights activists. Early on, police stayed on the sidelines as fights broke out.

Before it was over, a woman was killed and 19 injured when a man drove into a crowd of counterprotesters.

Those same experts also point out that policing these clashes is not easy.

Protesters, experts say, appear to be more willing to engage in violence than in years past. Pop-up groups are springing up all over. The country is so polarized, there is little middle ground.

Some groups try to hide information about themselves as well as communication among members.

These types of events are orders of magnitude more difficult for police for a variety of reasons, Maguire said in an email exchange.

Many of the counterprotesters seem to come from outside the communities where these events take place, so it is difficult for police to establish relationships with them ahead of time . The fact that some of them are armed with less-lethal or lethal weapons makes these events more dangerous and anxiety-promoting for police.

Sometimes, groups try to outflank police or take unpredictable routes that make it difficult for police to anticipate where they are going to be and when, he said.

Police are reasonably concerned about threats to their own safety during these very chaotic events where extremists on the left and the right can easily end up triggering violence.

He said it is critical that police have good intelligence on when and where events are going to take place.

Kalamazoo police had been tracking Proud Boys since July. The night before the rally, police determined that Proud Boys were in town, staying at area hotels.

The Proud Boys were thought to be planning to show up at 2 p.m. Aug. 15. A Kalamazoo pastor obtained a permit for a prayer vigil for that morning at Arcadia Creek Festival Place to counter their presence.

The Proud Boys showed up a half-hour early. Marching down East Water Street, they were met by protesters. Both sides had armed participants as fighting began.

Police had surveillance from officers in an unmarked car and the seventh floor of a building for an aerial view. Someone radioed that 200 Proud Boys members were headed toward the other group. An investigator said in a police report that a counterprotester with a club ran at the Proud Boys, as if to incite a violent response.

Fighting ensued.

Public Safety Chief Karianne Thomas has said 111 officers from five police agencies were ready to respond but they were minutes away when the trouble started.

Police had expected that Arcadia would be the scene of any trouble but had surveillance in several areas. The operational plan called for police to stay in the background - be less visible - and respond if trouble broke out. Thomas said that a large-scale police presence on its own can lead to a contentious situation.

She said the tactic, begun after a June 1 protest that ended in civil unrest, has worked at protests until the Proud Boys came to town. The department also faced criticism for how it responded to the June protest, held in the wake of George Floyds death in Minneapolis, with some in the community questioning the use of tear gas and other tactics used to disperse protesters.

Such gatherings are unpredictable, Thomas said.

Its human dynamics and people are trying to make it seem like it was a simpler situation than it was, she said previously. It was anything but that.

The Proud Boys early arrival was a factor in how events played out, Thomas said.

She has observed similar incidents across the country. No response is perfect. What works one day might not work another, she said earlier.

Thomas could not be reached for comment specifically for this story.

This is a new era for us in responding to such events and we are continually learning from them and trying to listen and make change so we can keep this community safe, Thomas said previously.

On the day of a protest or rally, police need a plan to keep the sides apart to prevent violence, experts say. Police also have to ensure the law is applied equally.

In Kalamazoo, police arrested 10 people, including an MLive reporter and legal observer, though charges were dismissed in most cases. Thomas later apologized for the reporters arrest.

Critics were upset that no one associated with the Proud Boys was arrested.

There is a growing narrative in the U.S. right now that police are aligned with right-wing groups, Maguire said.

That perception is harmful for police legitimacy. Police must ensure that they are perceived as content neutral to establish or preserve legitimacy. That content neutrality is required under the First Amendment.

The 2015 Presidents Task Force on 21st Century Policing addressed police response to mass demonstrations after rioting followed police shootings of unarmed Black men. It was part of an overall strategy to improve relations of police and the communities they serve.

Among the recommendations: Law enforcement agencies should create policies and procedures for policing mass demonstrations that employ a continuum of managed tactical resources that are designed to minimize the appearance of a military operation and avoid using provocative tactics and equipment that undermine civilian trust.

When police look like theyre in a military formation with riot gear, it can have a dramatic influence on how they are perceived and how events turn out, the report said.

Straub, the director of the Center for Mass Violence Response Studies and former Spokane, Washington, police chief, has conducted critical incident reviews for events such as the San Bernardino terrorist attack and Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting.

He said many cities are having to prepare for fringe groups, protests and counterprotests.

Its really a very difficult dynamic going on across the country, he said.

Back in 1998, the Ku Klux Klan held a rally in Kalamazoo. An 8-foot chain-link fence and a line of police officers in riot gear kept the Klan away from others who showed up. Former City Commissioner Zadie Jackson recalled it turned into a non-event because no one really reacted to the Klans presence.

In a sense, it was easier to prepare for groups like the KKK, Straub said.

So many almost pop-up groups have been created that the rules and understanding have gone by the wayside. Some of these groups there are no rules and theyre not going to follow any rules, he said.

Now were seeing pop-up protests, with disparate groups showing up, with a much higher level of violence. It is really challenging for police, and I would say incredibly dangerous for the community. In a heated situation, police are caught in the middle. Not just in Kalamazoo, but across the country.

He said demands that a police chief be fired or city commissioners be recalled which has happened in Kalamazoo are not helpful. Rather, he said, residents should push for better policies. It is a challenge. Community members can be traumatized. Police officers, too.

Straub said police and city leaders should be very transparent about what they did and why they did that. Share what worked and didnt work and what they will do in the future.

Read more:

Kalamazoo police chief responds to criticism of handling of Proud Boys rally

City review of police response to Kalamazoo Proud Boys rally finds areas for improvement

None of them saw a single repercussion, counter-protester says of Proud Boys who rallied in Kalamazoo

Army veteran says Proud Boys broke his nose and hand in Kalamazoo

Activists say Kalamazoo blew it with preliminary report on police response to Proud Boys rally

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Police need to keep opposing protest groups separated, experts say after Proud Boys rally - MLive.com