French feminist icon and Auschwitz survivor Simone Veil has been granted Frances highest honor: Burial in the Paris Pantheon.

The Pantheon houses the mortal remains of some of Frances greatest intellectual figures, such as Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, and scientists Marie Curie and Louis Braille. Veil will become only the fifth woman laid to rest in the mausoleum, alongside 76 men.

Veil, who died just two weeks before her 90th birthday on June 30, 2017, championed a 1975 law that legalized abortion while she was serving as health minister of France. The Loi Veil still bears her name today, and she has called it her proudest accomplishment.

After leaving that post, Veil went on to become the first woman president of the European Parliament in 1979 and served in this role until 1982. The body of her husband, politician Antoine Veil, who died in 2013, will be moved to join hers in the Pantheon crypt. The Guardian newspaper hailed Veil as the conscience of France.

Veil was given a funeral ceremony with military honors at Les Invalides, the site of Napoleons tomb, and in a show of national esteem, French flags were adorned with black ribbons and European flags flew at half-mast. There, President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to her invincible spirit and afterward tweeted May her example inspire our compatriots.

In a statement, Macron said Veils life was an exemplary inspiration, underscoring her care for the most vulnerable members of society.

Her uncompromising humanism, wrought by the horror of the camps, made her the constant ally of the weakest, and the resolute enemy of any political compromise with the extreme right, the statement read.

Upon her passing, the French episcopal conference sent out a tweet saying: We salute your greatness as a woman of state, your will, to fight for a fraternal Europe, your conviction that abortion is a drama, a comment that elicited some perplexity from observers who thought the bishops should have made some mention to the lives lost because of Veils abortion advocacy.

In 1944, the 16-year-old Simone Jacob was deported together with her eldest sibling, Madeleine, and her mother to the concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, while her father and brother were sent to a camp in a Baltic country and never heard from again. While Veil and her sister managed to survive the camp and were sent back to France after the war, their mother died of typhus at the Bergen-Belsen camp.

Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, who served as archbishop of Paris from 1981 to 2005, enjoyed a many-year friendship with Simone Veil, and reportedly never reproached her for her laws on abortion and contraception. Lustiger, himself a convert from Judaism to Catholicism, had also lost his mother to the Auschwitz death camp, leading him to a particular tenderness toward the Holocaust survivor who had been left as an orphan of the camps.

Some have credited President Giscard dEstaing with a master stroke in sending Veil to the battle front for the legalization of abortion in France, since she was virtually untouchable as an Auschwitz survivor as well as a person known for her moderation and sobriety. He pulled her out of relative obscurity in 1974, appointing her personally as health minister.

Whoever would oppose her would appear odious, if not inhuman, one commentator noted, because she had been transformed by the media into an untouchable icon.

At the time the abortion legislation was passed, Veil asserted her conviction that abortion should always be a last resort.

Abortion should stay an exception, the last resort for desperate situations, she said. How, you may ask, can we tolerate it without its losing the character of an exception without it seeming as though society encourages it?

The original Veil Law included a series of restrictions never found in U.S. abortion law after Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. For one, abortion could only be performed up until the tenth week of pregnancy, a far cry from U.S. abortion on demand for all nine months of pregnancy. Moreover, doctors were required by the law to inform women considering an abortion of the risks to their health and their future pregnancies, and to provide them with the names and addresses of adoption agencies along with information about the services they offer.

The Veil Law required that women show they were in a situation of distress in order to obtain an abortion, a condition that wasnt lifted until 2014.

Despite Veils stated intentions of keeping abortion rare and exceptional, at present more than 200,000 abortions are performed each year in France. In 2016, there were fewer than 800,000 live births in the country, suggesting that more than 20 percent of all pregnancies in France end in abortion. The French birth rate in 2016 hit its lowest level in 40 years, well below replacement levels.

One Frenchman noted the irony that with 100 million killed barbarously in 100 years at the hands of the great tyrants of the 20th century Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot people were still able to celebrate the 7 million children killed before birth in France since the passage of the Veil Law.

When Veil was inducted into the prestigious Acadmie Franaise in 2010 (an event the French describe as enthronement), she manifested her perplexity at her nomination, since the ancient Acadmie had always been the temple of the French language while in her case the honor clearly had little or nothing to do with her literary talents, but seemed due rather to the symbol that she had necessarily become.

Veils reflection at the time has bearing on current affairs as well.

The well-coordinated petitions requesting Veils enshrinement in the Pantheon, which began circulating in France immediately upon her death, certainly bear witness to her popularity and the esteem in which she was held by the people of France.

Indeed, in 2010 a poll conducted by the Journal du Dimanche declared her to be the most popular woman in all of France, especially among women.

The figure of Simone Veil in France is reminiscent of Emma Bonino in Italy, a woman at the forefront of the battle to legalize abortion during the 1970s who was subsequently elevated to the role of Foreign Minister and later became a commissioner at the European level.

In February 2016 Pope Francis praised Bonino as one of Italys forgotten greats, comparing her to important historical figures such as Konrad Adenauer and Robert Schuman. Coincidentally, one newspaper ran a headline suggesting that Bonino had been inducted into the popes Pantheon.

Knowing Bonino to be a controversial figure, the pope said that she offered the best advice to Italy on learning about Africa, and admitted that she thinks differently from Catholics. True, but never mind, he said. We have to look at people, at what they do.

The Pantheon in which Veil is being interred was originally designed as a Catholic church, but the emblematic Parisian edifice had the ill fortune of being completed at the outset of the French revolution with its fierce anti-clerical leanings, and was converted a year later in 1791 into a mausoleum for the burial of great Frenchmen by a decree from the National Constituent Assembly.

Embodying a certain tension between church and state that still endures in France, the Pantheon aptly represents the ambiguous and conflicted relationship between the French and abortion as well as their feelings toward its advocates.

Thomas D. Williams is a Rome-based Catholic moral theologian, author and professor of Ethics. The Rome Bureau Chief for Breitbart News, Williams fifteen books include The World as It Could Be: Catholic Social Thought for a New Generation (Crossroad) and Who Is My Neighbor? Personalism and the Foundations of Human Rights (CUA Press).

Continue reading here:

France accords highest honor to abortion champion and Holocaust survivor Simone Veil - Crux: Covering all things Catholic

Mark Kennedy grew up a Catholic, and a Harry Potter fanatic. Only one stuck.

I considered myself a non-spiritual person, he said. He thought he was done with religion. And then he stumbled on the podcast Harry Potter and the Sacred Text.

The podcast told him that the Harry Potter series the books that he always turned to for solace when he was angry or stressed or in need of an escape could be a source of spiritual sustenance.

I feel like Im born again, he said.

On Tuesday night, Kennedy came to an event space at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in the District with hundreds of fellow fans of the podcast, who have found a surprising spirituality in the magical fiction series, which turns 20 years old this year.

Hosted by Harvard Divinity School graduates Casper ter Kuile and Vanessa Zoltan, the podcast Harry Potter and the Sacred Text became the number-two podcast in America on iTunes soon after it debuted last summer. It has inspired face-to-face Potter text reading groups, akin to Bible study more than book club, in cities across the country. In Harvard Square, ter Kuile and Zoltan host a weekly church-like service for the secular focused on a Potter texts meaning.

In the episode they taped at Sixth & I, they used one chapter of the third Harry Potter book as a vehicle for discussing the topics of trust, betrayal, love and prejudice (against werewolves).

Touring the country this summer, the podcasters have beenmet night after night by adoring, mostly millennial crowds who want to soak up their secular meaning-making.For the growing slice of Americans who label themselves spiritual but not religious, Casper ter Kuile and Vanessa Zoltan are kind of pop stars.

[Meet the nones, the Democratic Partys biggest faith constituency]

The irony is, the pair are skeptical about secularism.

It doesnt speak to peoples hearts and souls, Zoltan said during a recent interview. I get that people get connection and meaning from Soul Cycle, but will [those people] visit you when your mom is dying?

Zoltan and ter Kuile are complicated evangelists for their own cause. Even as their following grows, they are still ponderingsome big questions: Can non-traditional types of meaning-making build community? Can texts that are deeply moving to readers truly hold them to account in the way Scripture has among the God-fearing?

Neither one of them puts much faith in Humanism, thoughZoltan tried working as a chaplain at thelively, cutting-edge secularism center at Harvard called the Humanist Hub, where there is a Sunday school for kids based on ethics. People who dont want to join an organized religion arent looking to label themselves part of a religion for atheists either, ter Kuile said.

Thats all being unbundled. You might get your ecstatic experience at Soul Cycle, and your community in your book group, and your [spiritual] formation in Harry Potter or On Being,' he said.

[Clergy who dont believe in organized religion? Humanists think 2017 is their time to grow.]

The podcasters said they worrythat these disparate experiences leave people much lonelier than experiences that are all tied up within one faith community.

Im scared what were going to do without the buildings. Some of the best things in the world happen in church basements, Zoltan said. Thats where you have sex ed classes, and thats where you have kids on their church trip to build houses, and thats where you house the new immigrant, and thats where you register to vote. Im terrified if there arent these designated spaces. Theyre called sanctuaries for a reason.

On their summer cross-country tour, which concluded in the District this week, the podcasters did fill church and synagogue auditoriumswith fans in their 20s and 30s, many of whom hadnt set foot in a house of worship in years.

[How decades of divorce helped erode religion]

They said that their podcast doesnt aim to offer all the benefits of a religious community, but does strive to provide the moral insights that seekers gain from study of Scripture. In their podcast, they use the rigorous methods they learned in divinity school, like the Benedictine monks practice oflectio divina and the medievalflorilegium,to parse the lines of Harry Potter, which they typically refer to as the text.

In the seven-book adventure story of Harry Potter growing up, mastering his magical powers, forming friendships and fighting the evil wizard Voldemort, ter Kuile and Zoltan find an ethical theme in every chapter, like duty, forgiveness, mercy, love, heartbreak, sanctuary and grace.

Onstage at Sixth & I, they parsed a solitary sentence from the third book, selected by the audience: The important thing is, I was watching it carefully this evening.

Following a Jewish study method called Pardes, they analyzed the sole sentence on four levels, leading from the actual events of the story a professor, looking at a moving map to see if it reveals that his students are in trouble to an eventual sermonic conclusion. I think what I would preach is that everybody needs to be taken care of in different ways. You should take care of the person in the form they need to be taken care of, not in the way that works for you. We have to teach each other how to take care of each other, Zoltan said.

She said in an interview that she hopes this sort of close reading teaches moral values.

To me, the goal of treating the text as sacred is that we can learn to treat each other as sacred. If you can learn to love these characters, to love Draco Malfoy, then you can learn to love the cousin you havent spoken to for 30 years, then the refugee down the street, Zoltan said.

Attendees at Sixth & I lined up to buy t-shirts reading Harry Potter is my sacred text, but Zoltan and ter Kuile say theyre not trying to create a new religious identity, and they dont think anyone comes away from the podcast thinking his or her religion is now Harry Potter-ist. (They also say they have never communicated with J. K. Rowling, who wrote the texts that they study and promote.)

Sally Taylor, 23, came to Sixth & I toting her journal. The trip to Washington to see the podcast taping was her graduation gift to herself for finishing her degree at the University of North Carolina in Asheville. Shes been writing down sparklets aword she learned from the show for phrases that stand out to the listener as imbued with meaning and she wanted to write more during the live taping.

It always gives me guidance in a way I didnt know I needed, Taylor, who said she has no religion, said about the podcast.

Thats the goal. For a book to be sacred, Zoltan said, You have to believe a text can give you blessings. You have to read it with rigor, commitment and practice, and do it with others.

More than 500 cheering Potter fans seemed to agree.

Want more stories about faith? Follow Acts of FaithonTwitteror sign up forour newsletter.

The man billed as the first atheist in Congress isnt actually an atheist at all

Not what I expected from my interfaith marriage: One teen is Jewish, the other Christian

How The Bachelorette showed millions a different side of the Sikh faith

The rest is here:

'Harry Potter and the Sacred Text' podcast draws non-believers who find meaning in magical fiction - Washington Post

The late President Nelson Mandelas resilence and his commitment to peace, reconciliation and social justice are values that endeared him to people, Nobel Llaureate Prof. Wole Soyinka said yesterday.

The literary giant said Mandelas name inspired doggedness and compassion, adding that his principles will remain a guide for people seeking freedom from oppression.

Soyinka spoke at an event with the theme:Mandelas vision of end to poverty: Reflection and way forward, organised by the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in collaboration with the United Nations Association of Nigeria to mark the Nelson Mandela International Day.

The dramatist said the late anti-apartheid icon personified the idea of humanism. He added that Mandelas selflessness, generosity and sense of humour gave him out as an embodiment of state of total freedom for which every human being crave to attain; a state the Nobel Laureate described asMandeland.

He said: Nelson Mandela was stubborn but he was not dogmatic. His stubbornness and determination make me conclude that this man embodied a certain Never-Never Land, an imaginary perfect world which all of us strive to attain.

We cannot attaint this perfect land, but it is sufficient to know thatMandelandexists and we must internalise thisMandelandand become citizens of Mandelas own Never-Never Land.

The playwright said the best tribute anyone could pay to the memory of the late Mandela was to promote the values and ideas, which he represented.

Soyinka added that Mandelas resolve to entrench peace and unity among all ethnic nationalities in post-apartheid era permanently healed the wounds of oppression to which South Africans were subjected.

Explaining why the United Nations got involved in marking Nelson Mandela International Day yearly, the UNIC Information Officer, Dr. Oluseyi Soremekun, who represented the UN secretary general, said the first black South African presidents dedication to the culture of freedom and conflict resolution prompted the UN General Assembly to pass a resolution in recognition of Mandelas principle.

Soremekun said the theme of the event was in line with the first item of the UNs Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs), which is to end poverty.

He said: We must seek to continue building on Mandelas legacy of fighting poverty through commitment to ensuring social and economic inclusion in the society. Madiba was a model global citizen, whose example continues to guide people towards building a just and peaceful world.

Former Nigerias Ambassador to Australia Ayo Olukanni, noted the role played by Nigerian youths and students in fighting the apartheid regime in South Africa, describing the effort as worthy. He called for mass action against poverty, saying the effective implementation of the SDGs would promote all ideals espoused by the late Mandela.

The Consul-General of South Africa High Commission in Lagos Mr. Darkey Africa, who described poverty as a man-made phenomenon, said Mandelas struggle would not be in vain if governments of African countries initiate sustainable programmes against poverty and conflicts.

The event featured discussion and performance of South African cultural dance.

Original post:

Mandela personified humanism, says Soyinka - The Nation Newspaper

Conductor ranted about the UK leaving the EU and Germans played Land of Hope and Glory in protest

BBC bosses are under fire after the Proms classical music festival was hijacked by anti-Brexit stunts twice in one weekend.

Renowned conductor Daniel Barenboim ranted against the UK leaving the EU and had a German orchestra play Elgars Land of Hope of Glory in protest at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday.

BBC

It came just 48 hours after pianist Igor Levit performed the official EU anthem unexpectedly on Friday night during an encore.

The BBC defended the impromptu performance of Beethovens Ode To Joy as an artistic choice.

But the brazen interventions sparked uproar from Tory MPs, who slammed the BBC for giving a platform to Euro-fanatics.

They were left incensed by a long speech from the conductors podium at Londons world famous music venue on Sunday night and broadcast on TV and radio.

Getty Images

Classical music supremo Daniel Barenboim, 74, hit out at isolationist tendencies and nationalism in its very narrow sense is something that is very dangerous.

And he hinted that Brits voted to leave the EU because of a lack knowledge, saying the main problem of today is that there is not enough education.

And in an interview also broadcast by the BBC before the live show, he claimed English composing hero Edward Elgar makes the best case against Brexit because this is European music.

Alamy

He also went on to claim that humanism could solve terrorism, saying: religious fanaticism cannot be fought with arms alone.

He claimed: The real evils of the world can only be fought with a humanism that keeps us all together. Last night Tory MP Andrew Bridgen raged that the BBC will happily go along with anything that supports the Remain cause.

The Leicester MP claimed it was quite pertinent that they chose Land of Hope and Glory, mother of the free.

Because that is what we will be once again when we leave and take back control of our borders, laws and money.

He added: And the BBC and Proms organisers had better get used to it.

They have had a year to come to terms with the fact we are leaving the EU, and yet still they want to undermine democracy.

And Romford MP Andrew Rosindell added: For the BBC to allow this shows their actively letting Euro-fanatics voice their views, whilst ignoring the democratic majority.

He added: The BBC must be neutral, if its not that is wrong and cant continue, its harming Britain.

The annual Proms concerts showcase classical music from Britain and around the world and are held every summer with many of the concerts broadcast live on Radio 3 and BBC4.

Last night respected classical music commentator Norm Lebrecht said: This was out of order. The Proms are, and must be, politically neutral.

He added: Using the Proms as a political platform risks damaging a national treasure.

Despite a wonderful performance of Elgars less favoured symphony, this was a very bad night for the reputation of the BBC Proms.

Last night a BBC spokesman said: The Proms is not a political platform and all artists are booked on the basis of their musical excellence.

Read the original post:

BBC accused of turning the Proms into a platform for anti-Brexit fanatics - The Sun

Editors Note: The third and last Rabbi featured in the series on non-believing clergy guilt doesnt feel any guilt! How did he manage to avoid it? By becoming a Rabbi at a humanistic Jewish congregation, a subject he wrote about earlier here. While he didnt respond to my series of questions, he did respond with a hopeful message for all non-believing clergy.

=====================

By Jeff Falick

After reading over these questions about clergy guilt, I realized that they really do not apply to me. Once I realized that I could no longer function as a conventional believing member of the clergy, I was so fortunate to find meaningful work as a Secular Humanistic rabbi.

As I have entered the world of Congregational Humanism, as I like to call it, I have had the honor of meeting Humanistic clergy from other traditions, notably those from Humanistic Unitarian-Universalist congregations and from the American Ethical Union. One such meeting took place at Linda LaScolas home on the morning of the June 2016 Reason Rally in Washington, D.C. It was there that I met Amanda Poppei, leader of the Washington Ethical Society. The result of our conversation was the first ever modern-era gathering of Humanistic clergy this past March. Over two days at her congregation, we enjoyed a remarkable opportunity to discuss our unique roles in the vanguard of nontheistic religion.

Throughout the eventwhich was covered by The Washington PostI frequently thought about our colleagues in the Clergy Project, particularly those still in the closet. Here we sat openly discussing our work in godless congregations while so many others who believe exactly as we do are forced to suffer in silence. As a gay man, it reminded me of nothing more than my days in that particular closet as I watched out and proud LGBTQ+ people openly organizing.

The Clergy Project provides a crucial service to those who are transitioning from traditional belief systems and seeking support or even new careers. I would like to extend an invitation to the members to think about working as Humanistic clergy. We who do this work employ the same skill set as other clergy. But we put it to use in the service of Humanism, rather than God.

Certainly it is difficultnearly impossibleto find full-time employment as we lucky few have done. Yet there is so much room for this movement to grow and we who are fortunate to do this work have discovered that a need absolutely exists. The number of nontheists in this country is growing and many of them will be seeking communities to replace the churches and synagogues in which they were raised.

For most who choose this path it will not provide full-time work. Yet I know many clergy, both conventional and Humanist, who work part-time with fellowships and congregations.

Imagine how much more quickly Congregational Humanism would grow if more members of the Clergy Project now exiting their closets chose to build new communities that reflect their newfound commitments! Who better to help build capacity for our hoped-for future wave of (nontheistic) religion?

Please consider joining us!

Bio: Jeffrey L. Falick is the rabbi of The Birmingham Temple Congregation for Humanistic Judaism in Farmington Hills, Michigan.Ordained by the (theistic) Reform Jewish movement, he later became associated with Secular Humanistic Judaism, an approach thatcombines adherence to nontheism with a celebration of Jewish culture and life.He serves as president of the Association of Humanistic Rabbis and on the Executive Committee of the Society for Humanistic Judaism. He blogs on the Patheos atheist channel as The Atheist Rabbi.

>>Photo Credits: By Jeff Falick, personal photo 2017

Follow this link:

The End of Jewish Guilt - Patheos (blog)

After all, art may not have changed the world, but it remains the field where it can be reinvented.

Christine Macel, Biennale Art 2017: Viva Arte Viva1

There is an enormous and perhaps nave expectation that mega-scale art exhibitions will illuminate our global reality. In this regard, the Venice Biennale is always widely anticipated. But such an exhibition will inevitably disappoint, revealing more about the person whose taste and intention are driving the curatorial agenda than about the state of the world.

Equally problematic for the curator is that she or he must develop an organizing principle for the exhibition some years before it is actually mounted. Given the speed at which events unfold, it is almost impossible to be as timely as one would wish. Could anyone have anticipated such a derailed U.S. presidency, Brexit, the scale and tragedy of mass migration, the exponential increase in terror threats, accelerated climate change, or its accompanying anxieties? Added to this complexity is the format of the Biennale itself. The curator controls the content of the Central Pavilion and the Arsenale but has no control over the 36 national pavilions in the Giardina or the other 50 national pavilions in the surrounding vicinity. Nonetheless, the work in all of these pavilions cumulatively contributes to the overall experience of what is called La Biennale.

Without full knowledge of what the world would be like in 2017, Christine Macel, the curator of this years 57th International Venice Biennale, chose the very optimistic and elusive concept Viva Arte Viva, which, she explains, is an exclamation, a passionate outcry for art and the state of the artist. As Macel describes it, Viva Arte Viva is a Biennale designed with artists, by artists and for artists, about the forms they propose, the questions they ask, the practices they develop and the ways of life they choose.2

The exhibition, we are told, is a journey that unfolds over the course of nine chapters, or families of artists. Macel calls these chapters Trans-Pavilions. They are designed to be transnational but also transgenerational, bringing together artists from various places of origin, with ages ranging from 25 to 97. Of the 120 artists shown, 103 have never before exhibited in the Venice Biennale and will be unknown to many visitors. Perhaps most significant to Macels framework is that the exhibition is intended as an experience, an extrovert movement from the self to the other, towards a common space beyond the defined dimensions, and onwards to the idea of a potential neo-humanism.3

Her goal is not just to call attention to the objects but also to the nature of artists lives. The decision to become an artist, Macel writes, in and of itself, requires taking a stance in society, one that is today broadly popular and widely acknowledged, but is perceived nevertheless as an act of calling into question work and its by-product moneyas the absolute value in the modern world.4

As Macel explains, although the artist produces work for commercialization, within the studio the modes of production include an alternative within which the need for inactivity or rather non-productive action, for mind wandering and research remain paramount. This position inevitably has consequences on the way in which free time is perceived by society: it is no longer a time to be spent or even consumed, but a time for oneself.5 Reflecting on that idea, Macel opens her exhibition in the Central Pavilion with images of artists lounging, sleeping, and perhaps dreamingartists engaged in utilizing unstructured time in their beds but also in the studio space for thought and production. Mladen Stilinovis Artist at Work, Franz Wests Asleep, Dawn Kaspers The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, and Rachel Roses film, Lake Valley, are examples of works that explore the complexity of dreams and the centrality of process.

This privileging of the artists values and practice recalls Hannah Arendts distinction between laborers and workers. According to Arendt, laborers have no choice but to labor in a never-ending process of production and consumption without opportunity for originality or creativity. Workers, on the other hand, have the potential to create original concepts, and their work allows for dreamtime, leisure time, and playtime, within which workers can imagine the world anew. The artist, Arendt writes, is the only worker left in a laboring society.6 This emphasis on the making of things and its effect on human experience is the strength of the show but also its weakness.

Macel attempts to get at the state of the world through examining the, at first, internalized and then externalized processes that artists engage in as they reimagine their experience of the world and give it form. Explorations of the unconscious and of hidden aspirations are central to Macels mission. Artists reveal their thought processes through materiality, metaphor, color, texture, play, and abstraction. They choose form and scale to affect the unconscious, to overstate and to understate and often to disarm. So we should not be surprised when we turn a corner in the Pavilion of Time and Infinity and encounter Liliana Porters installation, El hombre con un hacha y otros situaciones brevasa narrative of rage, disorder, lost history, and turbulence orchestrated (it would seem) by a male miniature protagonist wielding an ax and destroying his world.

Macels framing of arts relationship to society in an indirect and often playful way stands in distinct contrast to Okwui Enwezors uncompromisingly political 2015 Biennale, All the Worlds Futures, in which Enwezor exhibited artists who addressed contemporary issues head-on. That Biennales audience was captive to an unrelenting narrative confronting the problematic state of the worldpostcolonialism, racism, sexism, the abuses of capitalismin each corner of the Arsenale and the Central Pavilion. Performances included readings of Das Kapital. Enwezor received a great deal of criticism for his stridency. Artnet News described his Biennale as the most morose, joyless, and ugly biennale in living memory, which, in the name of global action and social change, beats the visitor up with political theory rather than giving us the pleasures and stimulation of great art.7

This years Biennale leads us on a meanderingand often seductivejourney with many detours. But the concern for the state of the world is never overt enough either to alienate or to satisfy the need for revelation as to where we might go from here. As a result, it has generated much frustration. Barbara Casavecchia writes in Art Agenda that the curator avoids tackling distressing universal subjects like politics, populism, racism, or identity, preferring instead to group 120 individual positions in accordance to vague, conservative, and elementary (school) categories such as earth, traditions, colors, time, the common, books, joys and fears.8

In the London Evening Standard, Matthew Collings described much of the show as awfully lightweight.9 New York Times critic Holland Cotter likewise experiences the show as bland, unconvincing, and strangely untimely. The Pavilion of Shamans particularly distressed him. At the opening, the space was populated by Amazonian Indians playing indigenous instruments in a performance of religious rituals. Cotter found the musicians presence disconcerting, a reprisal of the primitivism debate about the Wests complicity in a global economy that imports the Other for our pleasure while destroying the Others world. True to this Biennales frustratingly muted politics, Cotter continues, no curatorial statement appears acknowledging these issues.10

It is as if Macel has skipped over the contemporary art worlds decades-long conversations about postcolonialism, gender, difference, and so forth. Rather she intends to reflect on a theory of neo-humanism through artistic practice. To this end, she has created a series of conceptual pavilions in which the demarcations are indistinct and the terminology romantic, vague, and, at times, retro in its archetypal universality, neither illuminating the present nor moving us forward. In the Pavilion of the Shamans, dedicated to those who subscribe to the definition of the artist as shaman, Macel hopes to create a new dimension at a time when the need for care and spirituality is greater than ever; the Dionysian Pavilion is a hymn to sexuality and inebriation and celebrates the female body; the Pavilion of Time and Infinity is designed to ask, What form would a metaphysical approach to art take?11

A more deliberate attempt to define neo-humanism might have led Macel to examine what it actually means to be an artist in the world today, when the life of so many artists in troubled societies is unbearable, repressed, and even life-threatening and where the stakes for the survival of the species and the planet are under increasing duress. In this Robotic Age, when the concept of the human demands much more examination, as we create a hybrid race of machines that will leave the species without work, Macel might have asked, What will this talk of leisure and reflection come to mean when humans are replaced in the workforce and leisure is all we have to occupy our time? What will define humanness if the millions who have lost their homes to climate change and mass migration can never establish them again? Artists live in this world as citizens and have a great deal to contribute to debates around such questions, but these questions, which might have moved this exhibition, with its emphasis on artists, meaningfully into the present, are not addressed.

At a time when the threat of autocratic rule, so dependent on the simplification of complex issues and nostalgia for the past, casts shadows on many parts of the world, Macel precariously chooses to leave contradictions vague and unexamined. In presenting the eighth pavilion, for example, she writes, the Pavilion of Colours can be described as the fireworks at the end of the journey through the Arsenale, where all the questions presented in the preceding pavilions come together to provide what might be described almost as an out of self experience prior to the final chapter. There is no doubt that Sheila Hickss Escalade Beyond Chromatic Lands is a glorious eventa wall of brilliance and texture. But, when disarmed by such vibrancy, do we actually come to transcend ourselves and find revitalized comradeship with others?12

In spite of these abstractions, there is much that surprises and excites in this Biennalethe love of process; the passion for craft, skill, and materiality; the gorgeousness that offers relief from the world. For this we are grateful. But the exhibition is lacking in urgency.

Many will suffer or already are suffering from an inflicted worldlessness, to use Hannah Arendts phrase (a state of being that she, as a historically displaced person, well understood).13 Macel goes back to find artists like the fabulous Anna Halprin and her Planetary Dance or David Medalla and his A Stitch in Timeartists and work that tries to heal and create communality. But she does not then go forward to those contemporary artists who are also deeply engaged in the public sphere and who, collaborating with scientists, technologists, futurists, sociologists, urbanists, climate change experts, and diverse societal networks, are trying to create a more sane and communal sense of the world, while also developing new knowledge across disciplinary barriers.

This liminal space of possibilitythis crossing of bodies of knowledgecould help articulate a future role for artists in society. But artists working with such new methodologies are not clearly in the forefront of Macels project, and when they are presented (as Olafur Elliason and his Green Light: An Artistic Workshop), they remain isolated and inadequately contextualized.

To truly explore her idea of a potential neo-humanism related to artistic practice, Macel might have framed a greater part of this exhibition around those artists who are helping our species understand that we must become the caretakers of the earth and of each other, now, before it is too late.

Notes 1. Christine Macel, introduction to Biennale Arte 2017: Viva Arte Viva, Short Guide (Venice, Italy: Marsilio Editori, 2017), 39. 2. Macel, Biennale Arte 2017: Viva Arte Viva, 38. 3. Ibid.

4. Ibid. 5. Ibid. 6. Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958), 126127. 7. Benjamin Genocchio, Okwui Enwezors 56th Venice Biennale is Morose, Joyless, and Ugly, Artnet News, May 8, 2015, https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/okwui-enwezor-56th-venice-biennale-by-benjamin-genocchio-295434. 8. Barbara Casavecchia, 57th Venice Biennale Viva Arte Viva, Art Agenda, May 13, 2017, http://www.art-agenda.com/reviews/57th-venice-biennale-viva-arte-viva/. 9. Matthew Collings, Venice Biennale 2017: The Verdict on the 57th Edition of the Worlds Biggest Art Event, London Evening Standard, Friday, May 12, 2017, http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/arts/venice-biennale-2017-the-verdict-on-the-57th-edition-of-the-worlds-biggest-art-event-a3537376.html. 10. Holland Cotter, Biennale: Whose Reflection Do You See? New York Times, May 22, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/22/arts/design/venice-biennale-whose-reflection-do-you-see.html. 11. Macel, Biennale Arte 2017: Viva Arte Viva, 42. 12. Ibid. 13. Arendt, The Human Condition, 54.

Excerpt from:

VIVA ARTE VIVA: The Venice Biennale in an Anxious Age - HuffPost

The terror attack on Amarnath pilgrims on Monday night, killing seven (five of them women) and injuring 19 others, by suspected Kashmiri militants has raised new questions about the nature of militancy in the Valley.The militants attacked a bus full of pilgrims in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district at around 8.20 pm on Monday, while they were returning from Baltal to Mir Bazar after the pilgrimage.

This is only the second time Amarnath pilgrims have been fired upon and killed; the first time such incident happened in the year2000, when the base camp for the pilgrimage located at Pahalgam was attacked, in which 32 people including 21 pilgrims were killed.

Representational image. IBN

A later inquiry into the killing, however, revealed that the main target of the militants were the security forces deployed to provide protection to the pilgrims; though many pilgrims became victims when they came under the indiscriminate firing by the militants.

But Monday's attack was clearly intended to kill and wound Hindu pilgrims, as security forces were not present there to provide cover. This has raised questions over the composite culture that Kashmiris have been proud of for generations.

The attack also poses questions about the security set-up in Kashmir to provide protection to the pilgrims. The official version of the incident so far tells us that the bus attacked by militants was not registered nor were the pilgrims travelling in it. The official account says that the registered pilgrims and buses had moved in a convoy along with the security cordon on Monday afternoon.

How were unregistered pilgrims and buses allowed to travel, despite several security check posts? How was the bus allowed to travel well after 7 pm deadline fixed for the movement of pilgrims? This raises a question on the oversight exercised by the security set-up.

The security apparatus will, of course, now move into ahigher gear to hunt down the specific militants involved in this terror attack and bring them to justice. But the question is: How does the state deal with the rising militancy, which is seemingly spiralling out of control?

As Monday's attack showed, Kashmiri militants are now operating in autonomous zones of their own autonomous in terms of both organisation and space. They owe no allegiance to any leader or organisation. The public face of the Kashmiri militancy, Hurriyat Conference, has categorically condemned Monday's attack.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the Hurriyat leader, minced no words when he said: "As the unfortunate news of the yatris' killing reaches us, leadership and people of Kashmir are deeply saddened and strongly condemn it. To us, the pilgrims have and will always be respected guests."

This is a sentiment that had prevailed in Kashmir for generations. That explains why the Amarnath pilgrims were not set upon by the aggrieved Muslim youth even in the tense after years of the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Pakistan-based militant organisation Harkat-ul-Ansar had given a call in 1994 to all Kashmiris to disallow the Amarnath pilgrimage until their demand for the removal of bunkers at Hazratbal Shrine in Srinagar was conceded by the government.

The government agreed to remove the bunkers but the Pakistani militant group raised further demands, which many Kashmiris found egregious. They disregarded the Pakistani boycott of the pilgrimage call and instead extended cooperation to the pilgrims.

In fact, in all the years the Kashmiri militancy was at its peak in 2008, 2010 and 2016 the Amarnath pilgrimage has had a successful run without any kinds of man-made disruption. In fact, many pilgrims had nice things to say about the hospitality they received from the local Muslim population (the only major incident in which large-scale deaths were reported was in 1996, when uninterrupted rain in the region resulted in a freezing cold wave that killed more than 200 pilgrims and paralyzed hundreds of others, some permanently).

In that regard, the 10 July attack marks a new chapter in Kashmiri militancy. How the people of Kashmir deal with it would determine the future of Kashmiri sub-nationalism (Kasmiriyat, as they say). If they come out on the streets in large numbers to unequivocally condemn this attack and demonstrate their solidarity with the Amarnath pilgrims, they will succeed in reaffirming the spirit that embodies the much-vaunted composite culture of Kashmir.

If the people of Kashmir refrain from exhibiting their popular anger against the dastardly act of a few militants that has besmirched their long-held beliefs and actions, then they would possibly drive Kashmir into a cul-de-sac of communal inferno with severe repercussions for years to come.

It is also a testing time for the Hurriyat Conference to establish its credentials as the protector of Kashmiri interests. The Hurriyat leaders have, time and again, asserted that their fight is against the security forces, which they accuse of resorting to severe human rights violations; the Hurriyat leaders are also ranged against the existing political establishment which, they insist, has deprived them of genuine political rights.

But if Kashmir as a melting pot of cultures, religions and beliefs has to be protected, then the militant attacks on pilgrims, in fact on any innocent congregation, must be condemned without any reservation. If the Hurriyat fails to do so, it would fail in its duties to the Kashmiris and would be pushed towards further marginalisation in Kashmiri affairs.

The role of the state and the central government is also crucial at this juncture. It is a matter of strange coincidence that the militant attack on the Amarnath pilgrims has happened twice in our history, both times when aBJP-led government has been ensconced in power at the Centre.

It serves a greater irony that the first attack against the pilgrims occurred when Atal Bihari Vajpayee who had coined the famous words 'Kashmiriyat (Kashmirs composite culture), insaniyat (humanism) and jamhooriyat (democracy)' as the governing principles of Kashmir was the prime minister.

The second attack has taken place when Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has called for sterner state action to curb militancy, compared to Vajpayee is holding absolute power. Modi carries an additional burden on his head as his party is also sharing power in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Modi government would be tested in the days to comeand would have to decide if it would dismiss the state government and impose governor's rule in Jammu and Kashmir to deal with the rising menace of militancy.

Read the original here:

Amarnath Yatra attack marks crucial turn in Kashmir militancy: What will govt do to assert relevance in Valley? - Firstpost

July 7

The assertion in the June 25 Travel article Where Luther is a name brand that Martin Luther propelled Europe from Middle-Ages darkness to Renaissance humanism, inspired the Enlightenment and ... gave birth to the modern Western world was absolutely wrong on three counts and partially wrong on a fourth.The High Middle Ages were not dark.Renaissance humanism had begun at least 150 years earlier in Italy.What inspired the Enlightenment more than anything else was the publication of Isaac Newtons Principia Mathematica in 1687. Thus, Luthers Reformation is only partially responsible for giving birth to the modern Western world.

Donald L. Ross, Bethesda

I very much enjoyed and appreciated the June 25 Travel article about Wittenberg, Germany. However, I would challenge the description of Martin Luther as an anti-Semite. True, Luther said some horrible things about Jews in his later writings, but he said even worse things about others, including the pope, Turks and peasants who rose up against their masters.For Luther, the criterion for criticism wasnt a persons race but rather if he put them in the category of enemies of the gospel. In 1523, much earlier than the essay the Travel article quoted, Luther wrote a wonderful piece called That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew, a very enlightened treatise for a man of his time and one in which he glowingly praised the Jewish people.(At that time, Luther hoped that after reading his works, they would suddenly all convert. When they didnt, he turned against them and put them in the same category as the pope: enemies of the gospel, in his opinion.)

So, while Luther was a man of his time, he was no anti-Semite as we would understand the term today. Also, the global Lutheran communion has officially repudiated Luthers harsh comments about Jews in the essay that is cited in the otherwise very informative article.

James B. Vigen, Orangeburg, S.C.

The rest is here:

Setting the record straight on Martin Luther - Washington Post

Tomasz Pierscionek is a doctor specialising in psychiatry. He was previously on the board of the charity Medact, is editor of the London Progressive Journal and has appeared as a guest on RTs Sputnik and Al-Mayadeens Kalima Horra.

The dream that we may one day transcend our physical and intellectual barriers through advancements in cybernetics and nanotechnology could became a reality during this century. But would this be a blessing or a curse?

As science expands its frontiers and technology continues to evolve, ideas once deemed fanciful or considered part of science fiction find themselves within the realm of possibility. New discoveries may give rise to unique potential and perils, as the field of ethics struggles to keep pace with the latest technological advancements. The dream that one day we humans may eclipse our physical and mental fetters through augmentation by cybernetics or nanotechnology could become a reality. Although transhumanism and posthumanism are considered modern concepts, the idea of improving or transcending the human condition has been explored in philosophy and literature since at least the mid-19th century.

In his bookThus Spoke Zarathustra, 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche introduced the concept of the bermensch (overman or superman) as a goal towards which humans ought to strive, whereby they take control of their own destinies, work collectively towards the betterment of humanity and create a higher set of ideals to give their existence greater meaning. Nietzsche wrote Man is something that shall be overcome. (The notion of bermensch was later corrupted by the Nazis, who integrated it into their perverse racial theories).

Samuel Becketts playEndgame (1957) suggests some possible outcomes from refining the human body with technology, before rejecting transhumanism as a sinister concept: the very technology which keeps Becketts characters alive, after they have exceeded their natural lifespans, also entraps them and makes them over-reliant upon it. Even as far back as 1839, American writer Edgar Allan Poe made reference to unnatural life extension in a satirical short story The Man That Was Used Up where a mysterious and eulogized war hero, whose body parts have been replaced with prosthetics, needs to be assembled piece by piece each day by his African American valet.

Artificial limbs, mechanical heart valves, and devices such as pacemakers already exist to reduce disability and improve, or extend, an individuals quality of life. British engineer Professor Kevin Warwick and his wife took things to another level in 2002 when they had microchips and sensors implanted into their arms, and connected to their nervous systems, enabling them to feel each others sensations. Professor Warwick could reportedly feel the same sensations as his wife from a different location.

Some might dismiss this project as a curious gimmick, but Warwick has voiced plans to expand the project and develop a community of fellow cyborgs connected via their chip implants to superintelligent machines, creating, in effect, superhumans.

He hopes such future technology might greatly enhance human potential, commenting Being linked to another persons nervous system opens up a whole world of possibilities.

The prospect of attaining superior intelligence or physical attributes may be tempting or appear liberating, but cybernetic enhancement could, theoretically, also be used as a means of control. Whoever manufactures the technologies that augment humans would be in a very powerful position and wield an immense degree of control over their human customers (or subjects). Moreover, cybernetically enhanced humans could see their microchips hacked, have their sensations detected by unwanted parties and stored in a database, or be at risk of receiving unsolicited or unpleasant impulses. Might we evolve from homo sapiens to homo servus?

Read more

Ray Kurzweil, American author and advocate for transhumanism, predicted in his 2005 book The Singularity Is Near that within a few decades time the human organism will become upgraded, due to mindboggling advancements in genetics, nanotechnology and robotics, to create, in effect, a new species with superior skills and intelligence, virtually immortal lifespans, and unforeseen capabilities. Kurzweil predicts the Singularity will occur by the middle of this century and realize the culmination of the merger of our biological thinking and existence with our technology, resulting in a world that is still human but that transcends our biological roots. There will be no distinction, post-Singularity, between human and machine or between physical and virtual reality.

While considering the possibly that augmented humans might exist within our lifespans, it becomes clear that the technology to transcend our bog-standard homo sapiens existence would not be available to all simultaneously. The wealthy, or otherwise privileged, could become yet more powerful and emotionally distant from those they rule, or over whom they exert economic control. Would the elites use bermensch making technologies to forever establish themselves as a ruling class with God like powers to laud over the Untermensch poor and oppressed who toil until their comparatively short and expendable lifespans give out?

Alternatively, if the means to augment humans became widely available, would there be pressure to convert to a transhuman state? Would those who transcend, or those who refuse to do so, be discriminated against? While many barriers presently divide humans (economic, religious, cultural, political, ethnic), is it wise to introduce what could become yet another excuse for division and antipathy?

Of course, military applications of human enhancing technologies would soon be found. Armed forces across the globe would want to give their soldiers an edge over the enemy. Soldiers having no physical, physiological, or cognitive limitation will be key to survival and operational dominance in the future, says Michael Goldblatt, former director of the Defense Sciences Office (DSO), part of the US Department of Defense's DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). DSOs scientists have reportedly sought ways to make soldiers remain active on the battlefield for up to seven days with little or no sleep, and have considered how neural implants might improve cognitive function or allow future soldiers [to] communicate by thought alone.

Whilst we humans spend much time feuding and fighting, is it wise to give ourselves superhuman abilities before we have developed the ethical reasoning, moral compass, and maturity to wield such power? Upgrading ourselves by way of advances in genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics could usher in a new era of ultimate freedom, where even the most oppressed are liberated from their drudgery, or condemn the human race to permanent slavery. Although new technologies can be used for either laudable or nefarious purposes, they are typically used for whatever purpose creates the most profit.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

See original here:

Would human enhancement create Supermen or super tyrants? - RT

Tubelights general celebration of the values of friendship and humanism over those of brute nationalism is appreciable. But the presentation of these ideas is puerile and dumbed down to the extreme

Jul 1, 2017-

Another Eid, and like clockwork, theres another Salman Khan biggie out on screens. This time, the star has reteamed with director Kabir Khanthe man who had helmed two of the actors more recent hits in the form of 2012s Ek Tha Tiger and 2015s Bajrangi Bhaijaanto bring to us the new Tubelight, a reworking of a 2015 Hollywood anti-war drama, Little Boy. Tubelight takes that poorly-received story of a young childs desperate desire to bring his father home from the battlefield in World War II and repurposes it to fit the context of the Indo-Sino War in 1962.

However, while the shift in setting is achieved smoothly enough, and the films overall message about inclusion and tolerance is both timely and well-intentioned, it is in execution that Tubelight, in a manner reminiscent of one of its own much-derided knock-kneed characters, trips, fails wildly and tumbles face-first to the ground.

Rather than the feel-good lesson on the power of belief that it seeks to be, this slow-moving, synthetic and incredibly simplistic excuse for a film will feel, by the time you reach end credits, more like a brutal test of the power of your patience.

Ever since hed been a child, Laxman (Khan) had, by his own admission, been a little slow on the general uptake, earning him the unimaginative moniker of tubelight from his ever-sneering contemporaries. Fortunately, younger brother Bharat (Sohail Khan) has always had his back, fighting off the bullies andmore so owing to the early loss of their parentsbasically hand-holding Laxman through his travails in life.

Until the day the army arrives in their picturesque little town in the Kumaon hills, and calls upon the young men therein to enlist in order to stop the potential Chinese encroachment along the border.

Bharat aces the tests and is almost immediately drafted, and so he heads off, leaving behind a distraught and utterly helpless Laxman.

It should come as no spoiler that the entire point of a story such as this one is to show our hero gradually coming into his own, learning to rely on himself and demonstrating his worth to an otherwise dismissive society.

Playing a major part in that evolution in this case is a friendship Laxman strikes with a little boy (Matin Rey Tangu) and his mother (Zhu Zhu) who have just moved into the neighbourhood, and whose distinctive appearancetheyre Indian, but their ancestors were from Chinaearns them instant ill will. Laxman, then, finds himself caught between defending the pair, and the prospect of losing his only brother to Chinese forcesand struggling not to conflate the two, as his fellow townspeople have so easily done.

The attempt to say something, anything, about distrustful and often downright discriminatory attitudes and behaviour towards people from the North-East in India,

particularly at this point in time, is appreciable, as is Tubelights general celebration of the values of friendship and humanism over those of blind, brute nationalism.

But the presentation of these ideas is puerile to the extreme, more a page out of a sixth grade Moral Science book than a film that isnt targetedat least not to my knowledgespecifically at under-12s. Indeed, that sense of having ones intelligence underestimated lingers throughoutparticularly when the kindly Banne Chacha, played by the late Om Puri, is giving Laxman a crash course on Gandhian ideals, scenes that are so over-earnest, they make you cringe.

Thats the trouble with the constant sermonising in Tubelightits too dumbed down to really evoke any sort of response, essentially just a load of numbing noise.

Another major contributor to the films overall manufactured, inauthentic air isand hardcore Salman fans can opt out from reading here on outthe lead performance, possibly the weakest link, and very possibly Khans worst avatar to date.

For a long time now, the actor has been coasting on roles that involve very little acting per se, mostly big-budget vehicles where it seems he only needs to show up, shake a leg or two, spout a few dramatic put-downs, in between taking on relentless action set-piecesand if it hasnt earned him the love of critics, its been more than enough for his legions of admirers.

One cant really blame him, though, for wanting to try something different, partly to distance his public image from that distinct brand of shirtless machismo hes long been peddlinga desire thats increasingly crept into his most recent outings on screen.

But what he does in Tubelight is a misfire of epic proportions: For one, although its never expressly told how old Laxman is, its still stretching belief a quite bit to have him played by a 50-something actor.

And Khan, seemingly channeling Hrithik Roshans already-questionable portrayal of an adult man witha developmental disability in Koi...Mil Gaya, botches this stint so bad its actually hard to watch, especially when hes trying to come off all childlike and innocent, or even worse, when crumpling his face up to shed some tears.

Never, ever, have the actors limitations been more evident than they are here, and not once do you believe in his ridiculous caricature of a character. In fact, everyone, including real-life brother Sohail Khan, who, lets admit, isnt the heftiest of performers by any other account, and the diminutive Tangu, who is basically given to alternating between cutesy posturing and yelling his linesare still a vast improvement on Khan.

One of the few positives in Tubelight is the incredible scenery that it captures, shot in various locations around north India, including Manali. However, when we zoom into the little settlement where Laxman lives, with its overly-colourful houses and characters, theres an artificial quality to the wholesome small-town camaraderie on display,a little too perfect, a little too practiced to truly feel real.

If I were you, Id skip this one. Then again, given that Khans films are, by his ownestimation, critic-proof, if youre a fan, you probably wont take my advice.

Published: 01-07-2017 09:28

See original here:

Barely a flicker - The Kathmandu Post

By Faye Reiff-Pasarew By Faye Reiff-Pasarew June 29 at 6:00 AM

Faye Reiff-Pasarew is an assistant professor of hospital medicine, director of the humanism in medicine program and unit medical director at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Sweetheart, youre too young to understand, my patient a man in his 60s, someone accustomed to commanding a room barked at me from his hospital bed. Medical problems had recently upended his life, and he was having a hard time adjusting. I cant believe I have to talk about this stuff to a young girl.

I hear it all the time. Though Im 34 and have been an attending physician for several years, after nearly a decade of medical training, patients routinely ask how old I am, tell me I look like a baby and, most infuriating, call me cute or adorable, as if I were a preschooler playing dress-up. A few have even asked to be seen by a real doctor instead of a girl. Its an experience thats not unique to me but familiar to many other young women in the profession. And while young men may similarly struggle to prove themselves as doctors, theyre never called sweetie.

Yes, its condescending and annoying. But this is not about being thin-skinned. My job is to provide the best possible careand to do that, I need my patients trust. Caring for them depends on their confidence in me.

Every time a doctor walks into a room, they have a professional obligation to overcome potential misgivings. I care for people whove been admitted to the hospital because something has just gone very wrong as an internist specializing in hospital medicine, I deal with everything from heart attacks to potentially life-threatening infections and they need medical interventions right away. I dont have the luxury of time during multiple office visits to earn their trust. Any delay can be dangerous. We cant afford nor can our patients for our recommendations to be taken with a grain of salt.

[Telling women to apologize less isnt about empowerment. Its about shame.]

Case in point: Last year on a flight from Detroit to Minneapolis, a passenger became unresponsive, and flight attendants called for medical help. But according to passenger Tamika Cross, a young African American obstetrician, when she offered to assist, she was told: Oh no sweetie put [your] hand down, and we are looking for actual physicians or nurses. Eventually, another doctor, an older white man, was allowed to help. Cross said she was waved off because she didnt fit the flight attendants description of a doctor.

The problem here apart from race and gender stereotyping is that when a physician treats a patient in an emergency, every minute counts. And it raises the question: what did even the presumably short delay cost the sick passenger? If the older white male doctor hadnt been on board, would Dr. Cross have been permitted to try to save the passengers life?

Just last week, a woman at a medical facility in Canada was recorded saying, Can I see a doctor please thats white, that doesnt have brown teeth, that speaks English? The video went viral and the episode, appropriately, prompted outrage, but women and people of color in the medical profession arent shocked.

These patient biases have been well documented, and are unfortunately reinforced by the healthcare system. Even though studies have shown that female providers produce lower mortality rates among older patients and are more patient-centered than men, our effectiveness is not reflected in patient satisfaction scores that wind up influencing doctor compensation: Female doctors earn 74 percent of what male physicians do. Even in the relatively new field of hospital medicine, which skews younger and closer to even on gender, women are still underrepresented in leadership positions and scholarship.

Physicians today are encouraged to navigate these difficult interactions with humility and empathy sit at the bedside, listen without interrupting and avoid giving orders. At the same time, female doctors are encouraged to exude confidence and assertiveness, to demand the respect were not always initially given. This is a tricky balance. If my patient calls me nurse, I have to clarify my role, refocus the conversation on the medical situation and yet not undermining our delicate rapport.

Ive focused my career on trying to foster humanism in medicine. That includes using poetry to teach medical students about diagnosing cancer; podcasting about art and illness; creating resources for caregivers and inviting patients to speak at grand rounds. Ive come of age influenced by narrative medicine, engaging with patients through their stories. But my belief in embracing patient perspectives sometimes runs up against my sense of social justice. When patients belittle me, even unintentionally, I grapple with respecting their narrative and maintaining respect for myself.

[The word adulting is gross. Its also sexist.]

Should I, and other women physicians, continue our patient-centered approach and hope the arc of history bends towards gender equity? Or do we have to train ourselves to project confidence in a way that doesnt threaten male patients or undermine our inclination to be less authoritative than our medical predecessors? Either way, we need to ask our institutions medical schools, hospitals and private practice groups to stand behind us, acknowledge the realities we face and work with us to find solutions. That might mean featuring female doctors in ad campaigns; providing sufficient gender-neutral parental leave so young women are not disadvantaged at the start of their careers; or tailoring the medical school curriculum to include practical strategies for female physicians to respond to demeaning language and to communicate with both confidence and empathy.

What it definitely means is that patients should understand that our ability to effectively direct their treatment is in their interest.

The day after my sexagenarian patient decried having to deal with a young girl, he introduced me to his wife as the young nurse. I briefly corrected him, introduced myself again as his physician and then sat and listened to his story because, ultimately, that is my job. I tried to understand how this unexpected illness had led to his feeling a loss of control and vulnerability. I saw how that might make him feel defensive. I cant brush aside demeaning language, but I can understand what motivates it. I can find a way to empathize with patients who are suffering, even when they offend me. And, hopefully, I may eventually change my patients ideas about what a real doctor is.

Continue reading here:

I'm a young, female doctor. Calling me 'sweetie' won't help me save your life. - Washington Post

Recently, I visited a certain museum in Shanghai with Dr. Gabriele Neher, an art expert at the University of Nottingham in the U.K. Together, at Nottinghams campus in Ningbo, in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang, we run a professional development course for museum personnel, in collaboration with top art institutions in Britain, the U.S., and China.

Gaby and I watch museums the way other people watch planes. Often, we have a hard time even looking at the artifacts on display, having become so attuned to issues of storytelling, exhibition design, visitor experience, and signage. Its hard to see the products when youre focusing so hard on the packaging. The second we step through the doors, we make a beeline for the audio guide booth, or comb the gift shop looking for creative merchandizing ideas.

This particular institution is a hallowed spot in Shanghais museum scene. The low-lit gallery gives off an air of grandeur and houses a number of fine pieces in sealed display cases. Labels placed alongside each artifact tell you what youre looking at: Vase, Southern Song, 12th century, for example.

The objects were indeed beautiful, but Gaby and I walked out of the museum unsatisfied. Having gone inside hoping to learn about Chinese porcelain, our brains had gone numb under a bombardment of highly specialized, fragmented information: Painted pot with bird pattern, Shilingxia Type, Majiayao Culture, ca. 3800 B.C.

There was no explanation of the significance of the birds, of the features of Shilingxia pottery, even of where Majiayao was. I want to know why I should care about pots! Gaby sighed, exasperated. Why should I care about these things?

She had a point. At no point during the exhibition was the importance of the collection explained to us. We left no more knowledgeable about the function of porcelain in Chinese culture. Perhaps the pots we had seen had been stolen by rampaging warlords or used to broker a peace deal between the countrys erstwhile warring factions. But if so, the museum remained tight-lipped about it, and we never got to hear its stories. If visitors with Gabys credentials shes a specialist in Renaissance art and an enthusiastic Chinese history buff are falling by the wayside, what hope can there be for Chinas casual museumgoers?

In the West, our traditional idea of a museum evolved from the Wunderkammer, or cabinet of curiosities. These Renaissance-era collections of objects curated by private individuals, hoarders of rare plants or indigenous artifacts, were gradually opened to the public after the collectors themselves donated them to museums. The collections of Sir Hans Sloane and Elias Ashmole, for example, were bequeathed to what are now Londons British Museum and Oxfords Ashmolean Museum, respectively.

These fairly modest personal collections evolved into the grand public spaces that we frequent as part of a personal or institutional ritual think of the school field trip, annual visits on public holidays, and so on. Much has been made of museums as a kind of modern cathedral, and indeed, the cavernous architecture, the silent space for contemplation, the break from real life, the sense of transcendence invoked by certain works of art all of these reinforce our image of museums as somehow sacred.

Thomas Krens, former director of the Guggenheim Foundation, evokes this kind of architectural rapture in discussing his original vision for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Alongside architect Frank Gehrys soaring silver forms, he hoped to recreate the sense of awe felt by a 13th-century French peasant, who would scarcely have seen more than a two-story inn previously, standing agape before the vast Chartres Cathedral what Krens describes as massive technology rising out of the landscape, a building calculated to stimulate an emotional religious reaction.

One Christmas, I experienced my own little moment of aesthetic rapture while viewing Janet Cardiffs work The Forty-Part Motet at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. The piece consisted of a series of microphones installed in a recreation of the Rideau Street Chapel, a beautiful 19th-century building that had formed part of a convent until its demolition in 1972, and which was rebuilt inside the National Gallery in the late 1980s as a permanent exhibit.

As I circled the microphones, crystalline voices rang out from them, filling the entire space with heady choral music. Listening to the voices echoing through the halls in succession, I was moved to tears, shielding myself from the other visitors. For the nonreligious like me, experiences such as this constitute a contemporary version of the sort of divine encounter experienced in a temple or church. It is this brand of wonder that we seek within the walls of a museum.

Of course, not every museum has the ability to evoke a quasi-religious experience, but good museums can still tell stories that pique the curiosity of the public, engaging them and encouraging them to learn more. I like to think of such museums as akin to my favorite high school teacher, who managed, through humor and charisma, to make math seem fun. Yet in China, we are more often greeted by the curmudgeonly old schoolmarm, rapping our knuckles as if to say: This is my elite collection of objects. It is a privilege merely for you to cast your eyes upon them. In taking this stance, many museums alienate the public, waste valuable educational opportunities, and fail to build the strong intergenerational bonds that would keep feet walking through their doors for years to come.

A recent visit to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam demonstrated this perfectly. I was lazily walking through the galleries and noticed an inconspicuous silver vessel. The chalices label explained that it was an old beer mug, and went on to describe entertaining anecdotes about Dutch drinking culture. In my minds eye, I envisioned some rollicking scene closer to Game of Thrones than to historical fact but the main thing was that it immersed me in the world of medieval Holland, a feeling of absorption I didnt get when I observed the porcelain vases in Shanghai.

What sets apart institutions like the Rijksmuseum is that they care about interpreting specialized knowledge for the public. Their so-called content interpreters take the arcane facts supplied by the museum curator and translate the attendant jargon into something that engages the person in the street. In China, though, the curatorial team is usually insistent on keeping the conversation between a few specialists and ignoring everyone else in the room. Sadly, some of the worst offenders come from my field: contemporary art.

Part of the problem with exhibition didactics is the structure and hierarchy of the museums themselves. Most Chinese museums follow the curator-as-king model, whereby all other departments are subservient to the curator guiding the conversation. The curators agenda is often to appear knowledgeable and intelligent to other curators they dont really care much about whether you or I understand them.

In order to build up a loyal following, Chinese museums need to place other departments on an equal footing with their curators. They must respect the unique knowledge of other members of staff and give them a say in how exhibitions are crafted and managed. This will require a radical change of mindset, from being somewhat self-important institutions focused too much on their collections, to becoming client-oriented, public-first organizations.

My greatest hope lies with private museums, whose paltry state funding means they depend on customer footfall to stay alive. But there are also whispers of hope in the state sector as well. The Shanghai Natural History Museum, whose exhibits were designed by internationally renowned museum planning firm Gallagher & Associates, has made great strides in creating compelling visitor experiences, including 360-degree films and live specimen tanks with daily demonstrations, all ensconced in some seriously mind-blowing architecture. Sure, it falls a little short of transcendental, but if the patter of thousands of feet up and down the hallways is anything to go by, it is moving in the right direction.

Editor: Matthew Walsh.

(Header image: A visitor looks at a specimen of an Arabian oryx at the Shanghai Natural History Museum, Shanghai, Oct. 25, 2016. Lai Xinlin/Sixth Tone)

Read more here:

Mute Museums: Why Chinas Institutions Fail to Connect ...

Much analysis of Yuval Noah Hararis brilliant new book, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, focuses on the harrowing dystopia he anticipates. In this vision, a small, geeky elite gains the ability to use biological and cyborg engineering to become something beyond human. It may upgrade itself step by step, merging with robots and computers in the process, until our descendants will look back and realize that they are no longer the kind of animal that wrote the Bible [or] built the Great Wall of China. This would necessarily involve the concentration of data, wealth and power, creating unprecedented social inequality.

In the early 21st century, argues Harari, the train of progress is again pulling out of the station and this will probably be the last train ever to leave the station called Homo sapiens.

Few of us Homo sapiens are eager to take such a trip, apart from some dataists who pant for the apocalypse. But, as Harari repeatedly insists, the prophets job is really an impossible one. Someone living in the 12th century would know most of what the 13th century might have to offer. Given the pace of change in our time, the 22nd century is almost unimaginable.

Yet the predictions are not the most interesting bits of the book. It is important primarily for what it says about the present. For the past few hundred years, in Hararis telling, there has been a successful alliance between scientific thought and humanism a philosophy placing human feelings, happiness and choice at the center of the ethical universe. With the death of God and the denial of transcendent rules, some predicted social chaos and collapse. Instead, science and humanism (with an assist from capitalism) delivered unprecedented health and comfort. And now they promise immortality and bliss.

This progress has involved an implicit agreement, In exchange for power, says Harari, the modern deal expects us to give up meaning. Many (at least in the West) have been willing to choose antibiotics and flat-screen TVs over the mysticism and morality behind door No. 2.

It is Hararis thesis, however, that the alliance of science and humanism is breaking down, with the former consuming the latter. The reason is reductionism in various forms. Science, argues Harari, revealed humans as animals on the mental spectrum, then as biochemical processes and now as outdated organic algorithms. We have opened up the Sapiens black box and discovered there neither soul, nor free will, nor self but only genes, hormones and neurons.

This rather depressing argument is well presented, with a few caveats. Hararis breezy style is sometimes in tension with his utter nihilism. Here is a moral rule: You can either be cheery or you can describe the universe as an empty, echoing void where human beings have no inherent value. But you cant do both.

And Hararis treatment of religion is, charitably put, superficial. He seems to think that the absence of an immortal soul can be proved by dissection. Scientists have looked into every nook in our hearts and every cranny in our brains. But they have so far discovered no magic spark. For future reference, religious believers dont generally view the liver or the pineal gland as the seat of the soul. And when Harari claims that religion is no longer a source of creativity and makes little difference, it is tempting to shout Martin Luther King Jr. at your e-reader.

But Harari has one great virtue: intellectual honesty. Unlike some of the new atheists, he recognizes that science is incapable of providing values, including the humanistic values of Locke, Rousseau and Jefferson. Even Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker and the other champions of the new scientific worldview refuse to abandon liberalism, Harari observes. After dedicating hundreds of erudite pages to deconstructing the self and the freedom of will, they perform breathtaking intellectual somersaults that miraculously land them back in the 18th century.

Harari relentlessly follows the logic of reductionism as it sweeps away individualism, equality, justice, democracy and human rights even human imagination. Yes, God is a product of the human imagination, but human imagination in turn is the product of biochemical algorithms.

This is the paradox and trial of modernity. As humans reach for godhood, they are devaluing what is human. Omnipotence is in front of us, almost within our reach, Harari says, but below us yawns the abyss of complete nothingness. A humane future will require someone to offer a bridge across the chasm.

Read more from Michael Gersons archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook .

Read the original here:

Humans reach for godhood and leave their humanity behind - Washington Post

State repression may be rational, a means to a higher goal. Or it may be vindictive. In the case of the authorities jailing of Liu Xiaobo, its clearly the latter. The dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been granted medical parole after being diagnosed with liver cancer.

Its been said that his 11-year jail term imposed in late 2009 for co-authoring the dissident Charter 08 statement was Beijings way of killing the chicken to warn the monkey. But his more serious offence seems to have been his winning the Nobel Peace Prize after his sentencing. Beijing had always wanted a Chinese citizen to win a Nobel for national pride, but not one it had sent to jail. In 2012, it had its wish when novelist Mo Yan, a senior figure in the official literary establishment, won the prize for literature.

Liu Xiaobo reunited with family outside jail for first time in 8 years

Any efforts to treat Liu more leniently would have been for naught, because the peace prize represented a profound affront to the central government. In response, it severed diplomatic ties with Norway. Relations were only fully restored last December.

Liu, of course, deserved much better. For all his lifelong criticism and dissent against the state, he did it one big favour. As a key player in the 1989 Tiananmen protests, he criticised student leaders such as Chai Ling for calling for bloodshed.

When the military crackdown started, he and Taiwan-born dissident musician Hou Dejian negotiated with soldiers and convinced reluctant student protesters to leave the square voluntarily, thereby enabling the authorities to claim subsequently that no one was killed at the symbolic heart of the nation. Liu is usually linked to pro-democracy figures like Fang Lizhi and Wei Jinsheng. But his literary output has been prodigious, for someone who has only known two types of Chinese institutions school and prison. His Western-inspired humanism and liberalism are close to those of Hu Shi, the philosopher, linguist and diplomat. His cultural iconoclasm was inspired by Lu Xun, Chinas greatest modern writer.

Who is Chinese Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo and whats his story?

These men represent a path to national rejuvenation through humanist moral values. Most Chinese today, led by the central government, prefer a more materialistic path through the pursuit of power and wealth. Perhaps in the future, we will learn that the two are not mutually exclusive.

Perhaps in the future, speaking out will no longer need to be an act of moral and mortal bravery.

Read more:

Liu Xiaobo is China's sacrificial lamb - South China Morning Post

After completing this movie, Kurosawa didnt make another film for four years and never worked again with long-standing star Toshiro Mifune, so its something of a watershed in his career

By Richard James Havis

24 Jun 2017

Japanese master director Akira Kurosawas films are renowned for their humanism, and Red Beard (1965) marks the apotheosis of this approach. The story of an arrogant young doctor who learns the value of dedicating himself to others from an older and wiser man is explicit in its humanistic message.

It was an important film for Kurosawa, who told writer Donald Richie that he had finally said all he had to say on the subject. After Red Beard, Kurosawas work became bleaker, existential and more experimental.

Set in 19th-century Japan, the film has an unusual structure, as the story of the young doctor is intercut with vignettes about the impoverished patients he treats. Newly qualified Dr Yasumoto (Yuzo Kayama) is sent to a hospital for the poor, which is managed by the domineering Dr Niide, aka Red Beard (Toshiro Mifune). Yasumoto, who is in line to become the doctor to a shogun, cant believe hes expected to work in such hellishly deprived conditions.

At first he rebels, by hanging back on his duties and refusing to wear his uniform. But through the guidance of Red Beard, the heart-rending stories of the patients and his treatment of an abused prostitute, Yasumoto learns that lifes true reward is gained by humility and serving others.

The story is occasionally sentimental an unusual quality for Kurosawa and it has some odd diversions, including an incongruous martial-arts sequence more befitting a film about Wong Fei-hung than a social drama. But Kurosawa lays out the exposition with a masterful hand, and makes his point in a direct manner without being didactic.

As with all of his films, Kurosawa was meticulous in recreating the late Tokugawa era. He used roof tiles from 100-year-old buildings and wood from old farmhouses to create the sets. As a backdrop, the director built a small city, which was big enough to accommodate tour groups while the film was being shot. Interestingly, most of Red Beard is set indoors, so this impressive city is only glimpsed through doors, except in an earthquake sequence, for which Kurosawa burned part of it down.

Red Beard marked a few closures for Kurosawa. It was the last film he made for Toho studios and the last of his films to feature his long-time star Mifune, who appeared in 15 others. Their personal and professional relationship came to an end after Red Beard; it is thought that each man resented the others fame. Kurosawa didnt make another film until Dodesukaden, in 1970.

Red Beard will be screened on July 1 at the Hong Kong Science Museum, in Tsim Sha Tsui, as part of the Cine Fan programme.

Original post:

Flashback: Red Beard (1965) Toshiro Mifune plays doctor in Akira Kurosawa's humanist drama - South China Morning Post

By Eliot Stein By Eliot Stein June 22

Its 8 a.m. in rural east Germany and Gunter, a hulking tree trunk of a man, is swinging a hammer over his head, pounding together the steel frame of a 90-foot-tall lookout tower resembling a bible.

This is a big year for us! he exclaims over a chorus of jackhammers. The world is coming, and we want to build something special so people remember who we are.

Welcome to Wittenberg, a tiny town with a big heart and an even bigger bible. You might have heard about this place in history class, and if youre anywhere in Germany this year, you probably will hear its name again.

It was here that, on Oct. 31, 1517, an obscure monk walked down the street from his cloister, may have nailed a piece of parchment to the door of a church and sparked a religious revolution. The rebel was Martin Luther, and his 95 theses railing against church corruption not only ripped Christianity in two but propelled Europe from Middle Age darkness to Renaissance humanism, inspired the Enlightenment and arguably gave birth to the modern Western world.

This year marks the 500th anniversary of Luthers public plea that triggered the Protestant Reformation. From May to November, millions of visitors are expected to attend more than 2,000 events throughout Germany honoring Luthers legacy as part of Reformation Summer. But the center of the global jubilee is here in Wittenberg, a charming two-street town on the Elbe River that is best measured in steps exactly 1,517 of them, if you believe the welcome sign at the train station.

By official estimates, upward of 2 million tourists will descend on Wittenberg this year and that could pose a problem. But for the past 10 years (dubbed the Luther Decade in Germany), the 2,135 residents who live inside Wittenbergs historical heart have been busy transforming this sleepy hamlet halfway between Berlin and Leipzig into something of a spiritual and cultural Rome for the worlds 814 million Protestants and nearly 80 million Lutherans. This years jubilee is easily the biggest thing to happen here in the last 499 years, and the towns determined to nail it.

I like to think that we are the biggest small town in the world, says Wittenbergs mayor, Jochen Kirchner. We have been preparing for this moment for so long, and now its our time to shine.

My interest in Wittenberg is more structural than spiritual: How does a place with only 2,000 hotel beds in the surrounding area prepare to host so many visitors? So, in anticipation of Reformation Summer, I boarded a train in April and traveled 80 minutes south from my home in Berlin to spend a few days and find out.

I quickly realized that Wittenberg is Luther literally. The town officially changed its name to Lutherstadt Wittenberg (Luthers Town) in 1938, and today it exists as a sort of open-air shrine to the jowly reformer who lived and preached here for most of his life. After passing by the towering Luther bible at the train station, walking down Luther Street and dropping my bag at the Luther-Hotel, I set out to retrace Luthers famous march from his Augustinian monastery (now the Lutherhaus museum) to the Castle Church.

Religion aside, Wittenbergs picture-perfect backdrop and upbeat, Renaissance spirit is enough to enchant those without the slightest interest in the Reformer . Cheery guides in 16th-century shawls and medieval hoods lead tours through the towns pastel-colored mansions and steep-gabled towers. Bikes bounce along the cobblestones of the pedestrian-only Collegianstrasse, past four Luther-related UNESCO World Heritage sites. And flowers bursting out of boxes hang over two trickling canals that were recently uncovered to evoke the atmosphere of Luthers era. Remarkably, the whole place was largely spared from damage in World War II, allegedly because of ties to Lutheranism by many Allies.

Even at 9 a.m., the outside of the Castle Church is buzzing with tourists. As the sea of pilgrims parts, I notice that the wooden door where Luther allegedly hammered home his 95 theses has been replaced by two mammoth bronze doors with his talking points inscribed in Latin. A choir group from South Korea soon breaks into Luthers famous hymn A Mighty Fortress is Our God, and is quickly drowned out by the drilling noises shaking the foundation of the church itself.

Youve come right in the heart of the tsunami, Wittenbergs head of tourism, Kristin Ruske, tells me across the street in the towns tourist information center. No one has ever hosted a 500-year jubilee before, so were learning as we go.

In the last few years, the state of Saxony-Anhalt, the German federal government, and the European Union have poured more than 70 million euros (about $78 million) into Wittenberg to help the town brace for this years flood of visitors.

As a result, most of Wittenbergs major Reformation sites have undergone renovations or are scrambling to finish them.

Officials recently parked on the Elbe river a floating hotel ship that can sleep 300 guests, and new exhibits and attractions are popping up everywhere including an immensely popular 360-degree Luther panorama; seven open-air Gates of Freedom installations; and an exhibition that Wittenbergers enthusiastically call Luther! 95 People 95 Treasures. The town is even transforming its old prison into Luther and the Avant-garde, a contemporary art exhibition with paintings hanging in the former cells.

Our tourism office has also tripled its size and started printing pamphlets in eight languages, Ruske says. I remember when it was just German.

Since 2014, a massive globe has been cemented to the towns Market Square with a clock showing a three-year countdown until the start of this years Reformation Summer kickoff, which came on May 20.

And since last November, 15 volunteers from Wittenberg have been working aboard an 18-wheeled Luther Storymobile truck that is rolling through 67 European towns and cities in 19 countries to educate people about the causes and lasting effects of the Reformation.

Theyre far from alone. In fact, during my two-day stay here, it seemed like every Wittenberger I met was doing something endearing to make their tiny town a more welcoming place.

Theres Uwe Bechmann, a tour guide who recently strapped a camping stove to the back of his rickshaw and now sells sizzling Lutherwursts. (If you like Luther and you like bratwurst, youll like Lutherwursts!)

Theres Andreas Metschke, who runs one of the last historical printing-press shops in east Germany and has taught himself to greet guests in 17 languages. (Next up: Swahili!)

And then theres Heidrun Rssing, a 69-year-old historian who put an ad in the local paper in March and now leads 14 eager participants in a course called To Be a Fit Host. Each week at the towns evening school, Rssing educates fellow Wittenbergers about the dates and events that set the Reformation in motion, as well as potential questions that visitors coming from different countries might have. I thought Wittenbergers should be prepared to welcome the world, not just with their hearts, but with their historical knowledge, he said.

Back at my hotel, I burrowed into an English-language guide that Rssing gave me (and wrote). As it turns out, Luther was a pretty interesting guy.

Among other things, after surviving a lightning-bolt blast, he promised a saint that he would quit law school and become a monk; he was fake-kidnapped by his pals and hid out in a castle; he grew a beard and pretended to be a knight named Junker Jrg; he translated the New Testament into German in 10 months; he smuggled a nun out of a convent by hiding her in a herring barrel and later married her; he housed orphans and refugees in his home in Wittenberg; his writings spiked European literacy rates and standardized the German language; and his 95 theses can be viewed as the worlds first viral message.

Luther was also a vicious anti-Semite. He blamed evil stares from Jews for the illness that killed him; penned a 65,000-word treatise titled, On The Jews and Their Lies; and his anti-Jewish rhetoric is widely believed to have significantly contributed to the development of anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany.

The next morning, I noticed that you can find Rssings Luther guide in many of the mom-and-pop souvenir shops lining Wittenbergs two main streets. And if youre in the market for Luther socks, liquor, mugs, noodles, beer steins, keychains, jigsaw puzzles, Playmobil figurines, candles, chocolates, or T-shirts, you can find those, too.

I think that, in the past, Wittenbergers lived with the Reformation, but now some live off of the Reformation, said Johannes Block, head pastor at the Town Church of St. Mary, where Luther delivered more than 2,000 sermons. Its a great contradiction, but today only 12 percent of Wittenbergers are Protestant.

Ironically, the area around the Protestant mecca has recently made headlines as the most godless place on the planet. According to a 2012 study by social scientists from the University of Chicago, east Germany is home to the highest percentage of atheists in the world, with just 8 percent of its population claiming to believe in God. Churches here are being sold off at such a blistering pace and so many devotees are dying off each year that Christianity is actually expected to become a minority religion in Germany in the next 20 years. Yet, like so many people here, Block remains optimistic.

I have great hope that this years jubilee will encourage people to get back in touch with the church, he says. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Wittenberg, and just like the Reformation, we hope to feel the effects for years to come.

Eliot Stein is a writer based in Berlin. His website is eliotstein.me.

More from Travel:

Bamberg, Germany: A city of just 70,000 people but nine breweries

Germany to Italy on two wheels

In Germany, site of the first bike tour in history has much to offer modern-day visitors

See more here:

A quiet German town welcomes some 2 million visitors for Martin Luther's 500th - Washington Post

Facebook, Twitter, and other web companies are facing increased pressure to remove hate speech, fake news, and other content in Europe, where lawmakers are considering new measures that critics say could infringe on freedom of speech.

In the wake of recent terrorist attacks in Britain, Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron said last week they are considering imposing fines on social media companies that fail to take action against terrorist propaganda and other violent content. The European Union, meanwhile, recently moved closer to passing regulations that would require social media companies to block any videos containing hate speech or incitements to terrorism.

But nowhere is the pressure more acute than in Germany, where lawmakers are racing to pass new legislation that would impose fines of up to 50 million ($55.8 million) on tech companies that fail to remove hate speech, incitements to violence, and other obviously illegal content from their platforms. Companies would have to remove clearly illegal content within 24 hours; they would have up to one week to decide on cases that are less clear.

The Social Networks Enforcement Law, first announced in March by Justice Minister Heiko Maas, aims to hold social media companies more accountable for the content published on their sites, and to ensure they are in accordance with Germanys strict laws on hate speech and defamation. But the bill has drawn vehement criticism from rights groups, lawyers, and a diverse mix of politicians, who say such steep financial penalties could incentivize tech companies to censor legal speech out of caution. Critics also claim that the proposed legislation known as the Facebook Law would give social media companies undue power to determine what people can say online, effectively outsourcing decisions that should be taken by the justice system.

a wholesale privatization of freedom of expression

Joe McNamee, executive director of the Brussels-based digital rights group EDRi, says the German law would compel social media companies to shoot first and dont ask questions later in relation to anything thats reported to them. He also believes it would move Europe closer to a wholesale privatization of freedom of expression, with large internet companies deciding what they want the public the discourse to be, and how much restriction to impose to have legal certainty.

Maas defended the bill during parliamentary debate last month, describing it as a necessary measure to curb the spread of illegal speech. "The point of the proposed legislation is that statements that violate the law must be deleted," Maas said, according to Deutsche Welle. "These are not examples of freedom of speech. They're attacks on freedom of speech. The worst danger to freedom of speech is a situation where threats go unpunished.

Maas has been a particularly outspoken critic of Facebook, claiming that the social network should be treated as a media company, which would make it legally liable for hate speech, defamation, and other content published to its platform. The justice minister also criticized Facebook for failing to remove flagged hate speech in 2015, amid rising anti-migrant protests violence across Germany; prosecutors in Hamburg opened an investigation into Facebooks European head later that year for ignoring racist posts.

Facebook, Twitter, and Google agreed to remove hate speech from their platforms within 24 hours, under an agreement with the German government announced in December 2015. But a 2017 report commissioned by the Justice Ministry found that the companies were still failing to meet their obligations. Twitter removed just 1 percent of hate speech flagged by its users, the report said, while Facebook took down 39 percent. The companies struck a similar agreement with the EU in May 2016, and although Facebook has made progress in reviewing and removing illegal material, the European Commission said in a report last month that Twitter and YouTube are still failing to adhere to the voluntary accord.

Facebook and Google have also taken steps to combat fake news in Europe, amid concerns that misleading content could influence elections. Facebook began labeling fake news in Germany and France earlier this year, and it partnered with Correctiv, a Berlin-based nonprofit, to help fact-check dubious news stories.

Facebook pushed back against Germanys proposed law last month, saying in a statement that it provides an incentive to delete content that is not clearly illegal when social networks face such a disproportionate threat of fines.

It would have the effect of transferring responsibility for complex legal decisions from public authorities to private companies, the statement continues. And several legal experts have assessed the draft law as being against the German constitution and non-compliant with EU law.

When reached for comment, a Twitter spokesperson referred to a previous statement from Karen White, head of public policy in Europe, following the release of the European Commissions report. Over the past six months, we've introduced a host of new tools and features to improve Twitter for everyone, the statement reads, in part. Weve also improved the in-app reporting process for our users and we continue to review and iterate on our policies and their enforcement. Our work will never be done.

You cant just delete what these people are thinking.

Chan-jo Jun, an activist German lawyer who has filed several high-profile lawsuits against Facebook, says hes ambivalent about the draft law because it lacks what he sees as a crucial component. In a phone interview, Jun said the law should allow for users to appeal Facebooks decision to remove flagged content, and to force the company to hear the voice of the person whose post has been deleted. Free speech may be jeopardized without such a mechanism, he said, though he believes there is still a need for government oversight of social media.

If we think criminals should be prosecuted on the internet, then we have to make sure that German law applies on the internet, as well, Jun said, and that it is not only being ruled by community standards from Facebook.

Maas is looking to pass the bill before the Bundestags legislative period closes at the end of June the last chance to do so before national elections in September though it faces opposition from a broad range of politicians. Lawmakers from the far-left and far-right have strongly criticized the bill, as have organizations such as Reporters Without Borders. McNamee says that even if the law does pass, it likely will not hold up to legal challenges in Germany or Europe. In a non-binding ruling handed down last week, a German parliamentary body determined that the bill is illegal because it infringes on free speech and does not clearly define illegal content.

Maas has expressed support for Europe-wide laws on hate speech and fake news, though EU regulators have traditionally favored a more self-regulatory approach to policing online content. Yet new EU data protection rules slated to go into effect next May point to a more aggressive stance. Under the regulations, technology companies found to violate consumer privacy could face fines of up to 4 percent of their global turnover. (Facebook earned nearly $28 billion in global revenue in 2016.)

Up until now, one could argue that large tech companies have been able to, by and large, get away with saying, oh, its all technology and its all very difficult, says Joss Wright, a research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute. Lately, however, European regulators have shown an increased willingness to take on tech companies directly, Wright adds.

In Germany, however, some activists worry that lawmakers who support the bill may be looking to score political points ahead of this years elections, while ignoring deeper societal issues that have allowed hate speech to propagate.

We fear that after this law comes to action, the whole debate is over for the politicians, and we are just right at the beginning, says Johannes Baldauf of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, a Berlin-based NGO that tracks and combats hate speech and extremism. Baldauf, who leads a project tracking hate speech online, says there has to be some sort of legislation to curb illegal speech, though he believes it should be coupled with public awareness campaigns and public debates about what drives racism and xenophobia.

You cant just change the mind of the people by proposing a law, Baldauf says. And you cant just delete what these people are thinking.

Read the original post:

Germany wants to fine Facebook over hate speech, raising fears of ... - The Verge

2017 marks a quarter century for one of the UKs leading Masters programs in Human Geography at the University of Bristol.

To celebrate, the School is launching a newly designed information booklet that features the art and images from past and present staff and postgraduate students.

Well known and respected within the field, the Masters in Human Geography: Society and Space programme in the School of Geographical Sciences has been at the forefront of contemporary human geographical postgraduate research and education since its inception in 1992.

The programme began as a collaboration between the Department of Geography (as it was called then) and the then School of Advanced Urban Studies (now part of the School of Policy Studies). It was started under the leadership of Professor Sir Nigel Thrift, then a professor of Human Geography at Bristol, and today an Honorary Doctorate and Emeritus Professor with the School of Geographical Studies.

Under Sir Nigel, the Society and Space program rapidly became a world leader in delivering innovative and cutting edge theoretical and critical research in contemporary human geography. The programme aimed to provide then, and continues to do so today, a thorough understanding of the theoretical debates around issues of society and space, and how these translate into practical research agendas and the formation of critical politics and policy. Teaching continues to be based around topic specific modules, seminars, and research dissertations, some of which, every year, go on to be published in leading academic journals.

Famously, the Society and Space programme, as it is known throughout the discipline of human geography, became associated with the development of non-representational theory. Non-representational theory (NRT) has transformed, sometimes controversially, many conceptual and empirical landscapes within cultural and political human geography, and is now almost indelibly associated with human geography research at Bristol. So strong has been the legacy of the course with NRT that the programme will also be the subject of analysis in a forthcoming book on non-representational theory (with Routledges Key Ideas in Geography series) by 2006 graduate of the program, Paul Simpson.

Given its history, the MSc programme is known for training a very high number of students who go on to study PhDs at Bristol and elsewhere. Early graduates of the course, and critical exponents of NRT, have made their names and careers from research inaugurated on the program. Leaders in the field of Human Geography like John Wylie, Beth Greenough, Emma Roe, James Ash, and Nick Gill are all alumni of the MSc.

Owain Jones, an early graduate, and now Professor of Environmental Humanities at Bath Spa, commented on his experience with Society and Space: I can say without any exaggeration that doing the course was a life transforming and enhancing experience (as university postgraduate education should be). I did not do an academic degree [prior to Society and Space] but an arts practice based degree, so the MSc really marked my conversion to academia and to geography.

Today, the focus on non-representational theory has morphed and matured into a demanding, deep curriculum that encompasses topics ranging from affect, technology, and biopolitics, to posthumanism and experimental methodologies, to decolonial and postcolonial geographies, to post-development, political ecology, and hermeneutics. ESRC accredited, the course offers qualitative and quantitative training, and is also a regular contributor to the SWDTP and the University of Bristols Doctoral College. Every year we are pleased to welcome ESRC funded 1+3 students keen to study contemporary issues of society and space as they translate into practical research agendas and critical, innovative analyses of the present.

2016 saw the launch of a course blog which features articles written by current students and staff. As part of their course, all students contribute accessible synopses of their research dissertation ideas to the blog.

If you would like to learn more about Society and Space, please do visit our blog, download the web ready booklet, send enquiries to geog-pgadmis@bristol.ac.uk or feel free to contact the course director, Naomi Millner, herself a graduate of the program.

Read the rest here:

Human Geography Master's celebrates 25 years - University of Bristol

Tue Greenfort Tue Greenfort Eats Den Frie June 16August 13, 2017

Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art Oslo Pl. 1, 2100 Kbenhavn Denmark

denfrie.dk

A section of industrially farmed land and a fertilizer fountain. Prototaxitesa 400-million-year-old fungus, the primeval fungus and fungus of all fungi. The Periphylla Periphylla jellyfish, a barometer of the state of the ocean. Wasteland, terrain vague, vacant lotall terms for areas that are not earmarked for any specific purpose, but bear the marks of human activity and random remains. In the exhibitionTue Greenfort Eats Den Frie, the galleries are infiltrated by living organisms and organic processes in dialogue with their surroundings and their human audience. With great precision, Tue Greenfort draws our attention to the complex relationship between human self-perception and nature. Fascinated by the mechanisms and mysteries of the natural world, he challenges the economic, social, political and biological realities that challenge our apparently persistent view of an omnipotent humankind, superior to its surroundings. It is with great pleasure that we open the doors to the large-scale total installationTue Greenfort Eats Den Frie, which extends throughout all six galleries of Den Frie. Greenforts title refers to the French philosopher and science historian Michel Serres classical textThe Parasite. Serres compares human relations with the parasites relationship to the host body. The relationship between host and guest, the gestures of invitation and acceptance, are a recurrent theme for Serres. For Greenfort, it is the exchange between the art institution and artist that comes into play. In accepting the invitation to exhibit at Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, he ingests and eatsliterallyDen Frie and eats his way into the very innards of the art institution. In doing so he tampers with the division of roles, asking: who gives and who receives? Who is the parasite and who is the host? Who is eating who? When Greenfort focuses on issues like the loss of biodiversity in Danish agriculture, or oxygen depletion in the oceans, he does so without any pedantic finger pointing. What is at stake here is not that clear-cut, and the artist is more interested in localising and identifying the complexities that form the foundations of our mindset. Numerous artists have addressed climate issues in recent decades, but Greenfort distinguishes himself by having a nuanced, philosophical and far-reaching view of our perspective on nature and what he terms "the crisis of the Enlightenment." The wider theoretical context for the exhibition is Greenforts interest in post humanism and the Anthropocene epoch.According to numerous theorists, we now live in the Anthropocene age, a new geological epoch in which the planet has been shaped as much by human presence as by nature itself. Humans have left such marked traces on earth that they will be visible in the geological layers of the future, making any conventional distinction between nature and culture increasingly blurredand increasingly irrelevant.Greenforts work goes beyond them, setting the stage for a renegotiation of the concept of nature and what he calls a post-Anthropocene political, ecological approach. Here he draws inspiration from the art historian T. J. Demos and his critical here-and-now analysis of theoretical, contemporary artistic and curatorial views of Anthropocene thinking and climate issues.

Tue Greenforts interdisciplinary practice addresses the relationship between the public and the private, nature and culture, formulatingoften with aesthetic effecta direct critique of the current climate debate, as well as economic and scientific methods of production. The issue of the artists role in society and their unique autonomy are both key points of departure for the exhibition. Greenfort works with what he calls an open work category, i.e. processual works of art that focus more on relations than concluding statements. With inspiration from the dynamics of nature, he problematises and thematises urgent contemporary issues surrounding ecology and its history. In keeping with SerresThe Parasite, here it is Greenfort who becomes the parasite, the outsider, who infiltrates the art institution to stir things up and provoke a public debate. As the artist himself says: Art has the ability to elaborate on and open up discourses without being labelled and categorized as this or that political faction.

Tue Greenfort has become a key voice on the international art scene with a large number of major exhibitions to his name, including his participation in dOCUMENTA 13 and Skulptur Project Mnster 2007 as well as solo exhibitions at SculptureCenter in New York and Secessionen in Vienna. This is, however, the first time Greenfort has been given the opportunity to have the exclusive use of so much space, makingTue Greenfort Eats Den Friehis largest solo show in Denmark to date.

For more information, please do not hesitate to contact curator and head of press Kit Leunbach atkl [at] denfrie.dkor on T +45 23326870.

See the original post here:

Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art - E-Flux

Thelate Zulkifli Dahlan (1952-1977) was a trailblazing visual artist that tragically had his life cut short.

KL-born Zulkifli, or better known as Jo to his fellow artist friends, died aged 25 of lymphoma cancer in August 1977, and left behind an artistic legacy over 1,000 pieces of works that has yet to be truly appreciated and reappraised until now.

The Bumi Larangan: Zulkifli Dahlan exhibition at the National Visual Arts Gallery (NVAG) in KL takes a look back at the promising and legendary talent, who was a true individual and team player in the local art community.

Zulkifli, who never received formal art training, was one of the founders of the Anak Alam art collective, which promoted multi-disciplinary arts and culture in the 1970s, and he also was the first artist to win the Young Contemporaries competition award launched by NVAG in 1974.

The Bumi Larangan show isnt short on Zulkiflis popular paintings, especially works like Kedai-Kedai (1973) and Realiti Berasingan: Satu Hari Di Bumi Larangan (1975), which communicate his beliefs and diverse ideas about the human experience and freedom.

His visions about humans, humanity, nature and the future are certainly amazing and staggering, writes Nur Hanim Khairuddin, an independent curator, in the Bumi Larangan catalogue.

In Bumi Larangan, there are many sketches and studies that have never been shown before, which add to the exhibitions comprehensive overview on Zulkiflis career.

Zulkifli Dahlans Untitled (lino print on paper, 1970s).

Many of the works exhibited focus on Zulkiflis fusion of hybrid humans, flora, fauna and machines cramming surreal landscapes, while several detached, unconnected side narratives and scenes in the artworks will leave viewers amused and curious about the artists thoughts and concerns.

The gallery walls, filled with cartoonish, caricatural figures in surreal landscapes, bring to light Zulkiflis imaginative yet contemplative mindset. Bumi Larangan, from a curatorial standpoint, nails the artists history and the wild visual demands of his creativity, which bridges naive art and the graphic schema of cartoon (art).

The themes that he dealt with, particularly those relating to the discourses of humanism and post-humanism as well as socio-cultural issues, reflect profound contemplation and visionary thought of a young artist, she adds.

The many sketches and studies that have never been shown before add to the exhibitions comprehensive overview on Zulkiflis career, which began in eccentric earnest in the late 1960s, before he explored more unconventional work tinged with humour, hope and cynicism in the 1970s.

The exhibition is the result of a project, which started in 2015, to study and document a collection of Zulkiflis work kept by his family.

Bumi Larangan: Zulkifli Dahlan is on at the National Visual Arts Gallery, Jalan Temerloh, off Jalan Tun Razak in KL till July 2. The gallery is open daily from 9am to 5pm (during Ramadan).

All comments are moderated. Your comment may not show up immediately. Please keep it clean and on topic. Offensive comments will not be published.

Read the original:

Zulkifli Dahlan died young but he left behind an immense legacy in art - Star2.com