Daily Archives: October 7, 2021

For the last 12 months I have been publishing regular articles on racial inequities in the arts with the aim of driving more open conversations about racial bias, its causes and practical solutions. While engagement with the articles is high, there is hesitancy among all demographics when it comes to sharing opinions publicly. More than 50% of responses I receive have come via direct messages rather than publicly shared comments.

When asked, people gave a variety of reasons for choosing not to share their views publicly. These include issues of privacy, employer constraints (such as working for a public broadcaster), not wishing to appear ill-informed and a belief that as a white leader you should leave the conversation about solutions to racial equity to people with lived experience. Each of these reasons and there are more would merit an article on its own. In this piece, I focus on what I think is the biggest barrier to participation: political correctness.

The readers of my articles who include senior leaders, managers and administrators in the arts often have strong, interesting and important perspectives. However, when asked, people from all communities say they are uncomfortable sharing their opinions because they are fearful of saying the wrong thing and being judged.

Conversations on race generate emotion. They can trigger people and opinions can be received with judgement. They can become a minefield of political correctness. When sharing views on the extent of racism, its causes and how it might be solved, you risk causing deep offence if your opinions are deemed to be insufficient (not radical enough) or inappropriate. Online, this can lead to personal attacks which can quickly be amplified, ending in condemnation and a risk to professional reputation.

The term racist is one of the most unacceptable labels in our society. No one will publicly admit to being racist; not even supporters of far-right political parties, much less more left-leaning communities in the arts. Any potential accusation sparks fear to the heart, making open debate more difficult.

The severe and multiple impacts of racial injustice make negative reactions natural. But if our goal is to end racism, we must question the extent to which public shaming helps us or not. Racial prejudice cant be ended without forensic diagnosis of the problem. To achieve this, open conversations are critical. The more people engage, the better our collective understanding of the problem and the more effective the solutions become.

There absolutely needs to be room for challenge, but challenge that is constructive. This is harder to do when tensions are high. To take some heat out of these conversations and shed more light on the extent of racism, its important to find a new and more socially acceptable definition of the term racist. One that people dont necessarily feel proud of but can at least ascribe to, with regret but not shame.

Ibram X Kendiswork on anti-racism helps with this. He contends that theres no neutral position on racism: if you are not pro-actively anti-racist then you are racist. He defines racism as any idea which suggests that Black communities are responsible for the systemic disadvantages we experience. Whats interesting is that, for Kendi, although holding such views is highly problematic it is not sufficient cause for writing someone off.

He understands that this thinking is itself a product of systemic racism and that we are all subject to it. Black, white, left wing or right wing. Racism in his world has no colour or political affiliation. He freely admits to having held racist opinions himself and says the same of some of his heroes like Frederick Douglass and Barack Obama. So, for him, racism should not be used pejoratively, but simply as a descriptor of a way of thinking.

In conversations about race, the reaction to anything deemed ill-informed or politically incorrect is often criticism in which racial prejudice is either inferred or implied. Any accusation or suspicion of racism is toxic so many prefer to remain silent or express their views in a safe space rather than running the gauntlet of sharing their opinions publicly. Kendis widening of the definition makes racism more ubiquitous so its harder to judge others as most of us are likely to have been guilty of racism at some point in our lives.

None of this lets the predominantly white leadership of our sector off the hook. In fact, it may create the space to better hold them to account. While in Kendis view we are all likely to be guilty of racist thinking, ultimately it is still those in power that have most responsibility to change things. Using his approach, we can de-weaponise the word racist and reduce its emotional impact in conversations.

With a less polarising definition we are free to name racism where we see it without the shame and possible consequences that come with it. We can avoid the emotion that prevents us from fully focusing on the job in hand, gain a better understanding of this pernicious problem and move towards the implementation of solutions.

This wont be easy: it will require patience by some, bravery by others and goodwill by all. We are all gatekeepers in these conversations. Lets begin, one conversation at a time, starting here!

We are keen to keep the conversation going. To read more and share your thoughts on this or other articles, connect with me on LinkedIn.

Kevin Osborne is CEO at MeWe360.@_KevinOsborne

This article from social entrepreneur Kevin Osborne, founder of MeWe360 and Create Equity, is part of a series of articles that promote a more equitable and representative sector.

See original here:
We need to talk about race | ArtsProfessional - ArtsProfessional

Im not sure what is politically incorrect, what isnt these days, but screw it some aspects of history are just too absurd to not be amused by. It becomes even funnier when, subjected to certain lenses of political correctness, the mirth is multiplied into top-notch black humour. In todays sermon, colonialism provides just such a wonderful tipping-of-the-table.

Consider a cultural oddity of last century cargo cults that appeared in some undeveloped countries like Papua New Guinea. Locals were blessed with visits from Europeans, who came ashore from huge boats. A primary influence the Europeans left behind was Pidgin English, a shorthand version of English that is endearingly direct (Prince Philip became known on some shores as Fella belong Missus Queen). A sadder aspect was the development of cargo cults simple-living people with little exposure to the outer world who were mesmerized by the bountiful, strange, wonderful objects brought ashore by foreigners. They associated this stuff with the arrival of ships, and many watched and waited years for ships to return, and with them, more miraculous cargo.

Mock those people at your peril, for now the tables have turned in a poetic-justice manner. Those same colonialists that landed ashore Papua New Guinea, bringing the stench of royalty and bedazzling primitive tribes with Euro-goods, are now standing on the shores of the UK, staring out to sea, desperately hoping to see an LNG cargo ship arrive, and Papua New Guinea might very well be the home of that LNG.

Karma has a sense of humour.

Nothing against your energy crisis, UK; it truly is a tragedy in the making. The dart of accountability is aimed more at the foreheads of the climate lunatics youve let take the wheel. Their boneheadedness is truly breathtaking; its like they are standing on the deck of the Titanic staring down at the gaping hole in the side, and declaring that what the ship needs first and foremost is a salad bar. Hey, our governments have been infiltrated by those termites also, so Im not laughing; I guess the only difference is that, since our oil/gas sector is rather critical to the economy over here, our government is having a much harder time killing it.

Here in Canada, some of us would love to help out. We would love to send you some natural gas. We have a lot. We just cant get it to you, because we have federal leaders that care far more about what the UN thinks than about how to manage and run a country. A whole country, that is. Putin builds Europe a gas line, then plays games to maximize the haul of rubles. Canada chooses to not even get in the game.

We are working on LNG export capability, despite some bizarre internal obstacles. A few terminals may be ready a few years after you freeze to death. If you want to know why we cant get you any natural gas, a good local place to start for the British is with the whack jobs at Extinction Rebellion, the piteous group of flailing and ignorant anarchists that originated there and spread over here like wildfire, a sort of COVID-18. You can have them back, by the way; they block roads, annoy everyone, convince no one, and wander in circles evading reality until the next siren song beckons them to assemble again in a formation of human mosquitoes.

For full disclosure, we would love to get you some natural gas not just to keep you from freezing to death, but because extracting and selling natural gas pays a lot of the bills. It would pay a hell of a lot more of them if we could get you some of our gas. Erudite industry veteran Dave Yeager posted an excellent synopsis of the issue on Twitter last week: In late September, AECO gas traded at C$2.72/GJ, US Henry Hub gas traded at US$5.03/mmbtu (approx C$6/GJ), and Asian LNG traded at US$29/mmbtu (approximately infinity compared to Canadas pathetic number).

Canadian producers are forced to sell at this bargain basement price because we cant get the product to global market, where it would be most welcome. Canadians are generally oblivious to the amount of money being left on the table, not to mention oblivious to your thundering need for the stuff.

Because your situation there in Europe is so dire, I dont really have the heart to point out that the piano really is being moved over your head, and XR is cutting the rope. Chinas central government officials ordered the countrys top state-owned energy companies from coal to electricity and oil to secure supplies for this winter at all costs, according to people familiar with the matter, noted Bloomberg in a (sorry) firewall-protected article. Good luck competing with them. Over here in Canada, we would liken that to a grizzly bear and a French poodle squaring off over a pork chop. Not being disrespectful of Britains might, mind you; just pointing out that China has 1.3 billion people to keep from revolting, and they are running for the buffet and will shoulder check anyone out of the way without blinking.

I really am loathe to inform you though that it gets worse. Much worse. In nearby India, where coal accounts for almost half of the countrys energy production, more than half of Indias 135 coal-fired power plants have only enough coal to last only three days. Government guidelines suggest a two-week supply. India also has over a billion people, and is also on a life-and-death scramble for hydrocarbons in any form. The UKs 70 million well-looked-after citizens are going head to head with 2.5 billion that need those same fuels for survival.

And on that note, please dont take the above bits of levity as a failure to grasp the seriousness of this global situation. A cold winter will be devastating for much of the worlds population, and Im not talking about a government directive to set the thermostat to 65.

As one clown on Twitter put it, we are past gas-to-oil switching and approaching gas-to-furniture switching. The headlines get ever more ominous. Ten days ago, it was European zinc processors that were cutting output, now, as of early October, massive Dutch greenhouses are going dark and cutting output. I had no idea how huge Dutch greenhouses are, exporting over ten billion in food, but Im sure you knew that, being neighbours. To make the point crystal clear to any apoplectic activists listening in, thats the food supply shutting down, folks.

Make no mistake: this catastrophe has been purposefully engineered by energy charlatans and organizations that convinced the world it no longer needs hydrocarbons and can begin dismantling the hydrocarbon system. Every ENGO celebration of a blocked pipeline is a direct and irrefutable piece of evidence should the unthinkable happen. The games are over. It would be really great to be just writing about positive energy developments, like a burgeoning hydrogen economy, or whatnot, and if the transition had occurred in a rational way, that would be the story. But its not, and wishing you all the best that those cargo ships appear on the horizon. And soon.

Buy it while its still legal! Before the book burnin startspick up The End of Fossil Fuel Insanity at Amazon.ca,Indigo.ca, orAmazon.com. Thanks for the support.

Read more insightful analysis from Terry Etamhere,or email Terryhere.

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Column: European cargo cults? Standing on the shore, waiting for energy cargoa full circle of colonial irony - BOE Report

Times have changed. Thirty or so years ago Ron Collins did a radio ad for Bergasol in which the voice changed from white to black. There was a Silk Cut ad recreating the film Zulu in which the cigarettes were promoted against a backdrop of Zulu warriors casual deaths. And there was a Timberland ad -We stole their land, their buffalo and their women. Then we went back for their shoes. Apparently a Native American chief liked the publicity but may not have appreciated the irony. This is tricky to write about and possibly inadvisable to show examples (but here goes.)

In the past, the idea that women should write ads for women was questioned in favour of the argument that ads for women could be written by good writers, which might include men. But as channels have fragmented I wonder how many good writers can write for the very different social and cultural groups now being targeted, however observant and in tune they are. Historically the advertising business in the UK and the US did not employ many black, Asian or other groups, at least not in the creative departments. There have been notable exceptions, and things have thankfully changed, though women have been well-represented in account management and planning for many years. I wonder though whether more diversity in agencies might have changed anything?

Many of the great ads of the past 40 years have used humour. But how many would have been made if they were done now, starting with the three above? Humour is closely connected to creativity. It is hard to analyse humour and I am not going to try, but those that have done so seem to agree that at one level it is aggression robbed of its purpose and that it is (and certainly was in past ages) often cruel. Howard Jacobsen did a programme some years ago about humour in which he talked to bigoted (but immensely popular) comedians like Bernard Manning and Roy Chubby Brown. I think he concluded that it was impossible to prevent jokes, of whatever kind, and that even those that many find offensive can act as a safety-valve.

When I used to co-run workshops around the world we used to start with a joke to make the point that clients and agencies needed to have the same criteria for judging work. The joke wasnt always understood because of language or culture and sometimes simply because of a lack of a sense of humour. But in answer to the question what is the criteria for a joke? of all the times we did the exercise, I think only one delegate replied is it funny? The issue for advertising is that if the creativity of many ads is based on humour (or the combining of two things that arent normally associated which is the essence of many ideas) and humour is subject to political correctness, what will the effect be on the quality of advertising? Steve Henry used to do a presentation in which he showed how easy it was to kill great ads, an update of the famous Bullmore and Bernstein video in which The Man with the Hathaway Shirt was edited to destruction.

I dont know what the solution is. For reasons I have looked at before, a lot of advertising has reverted to direct response. Given that the ultimate aim of advertising is to sell, this is not in itself a bad thing but it does tend to ignore the arguments for brand building and the view that advertising is an investment not simply a cost. Direct response does not lend itself so readily to humour, which takes many forms from slapstick to the human observations in the classic Alka Selzer ads or the hyperbole of Heineken. I believe people in AI are looking at whether robots can not just tell jokes but create them. I dont doubt they might randomly put words together that might be funny (maybe of the Christmas cracker type) but the humour in advertising is more than a joke: it has a truth that reflects human attitudes and behaviour.

Many advertisers now seem so afraid of offending anyone that they end up boring everyone. As Bill Bernbach once said: If you stand for something, you will always find some people for you and some against you. If you stand for nothing, you will find nobody against you, and nobody for you. You cannot stop people finding something funny even if it is politically incorrect. You cannot control thought, but we do control advertising. It should be truthful, decent and honest. These are all increasingly open to interpretation. But advertising needs also to be human and engaging or people will find more ways to avoid it, even while the algorithms get to work.

I realise this is a view based on another age perhaps and there is great and interesting work being done, not just for brands but for causes. I just hope agencies and their clients dont forget that ideas are more than messages and still need human observation and creative connections.

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Giles Keeble: can creativity still function in a woke world? - More About Advertising

STARRING CHERRY COLA PITTS and THE STORM IS HERE are two one acts Vincent Victoria Presents has sewn together to make one night of challenging entertainment. They both run under an hour, and move quickly through their dramatic scenarios. The first is a musical comedy variety show imagining an unapologetically queer black man having a hit show running just behind I LOVE LUCY in the ratings, while the second is a dramatization of the last day of the only civilian to lose her life during the Keep America Great insurrection on January 6th of 2021. At first glance it seems the two could not be intertwined, but director and writer Vincent Victoria never shies away from the seemingly impossible.

The first act of the evening features Vincent Victoria in a rare star turn in one of his own plays as Cherry Cola Pitts. The character first emerged from a fever dream sequence of his production company's first feature film BLAQUE TCHERIE. Victoria decided to develop a play around the character, and told his audience they would be in for a politically incorrect evening. Boy! When he makes a promise, you best listen. The show pulls no punches whether it is "in your face" gay humor or tearing up any veneer behind black tropes within the entertainment industry. Nobody escapes unscathed here, and the politically charged humor seems to jive right in with the era in which it has been written. In the '50s certainly Cherry Cola would be censored to oblivion, but here in the middle of Black Lives Matter and the rise of Lil' Nas X he seems relevant and on point.

Vincent has always had a certain style all his own, and it is no surprise he makes an engaging host of a black themed variety show. He holds the audience easily in his grasp, and makes them laugh and squirm all at once. He's a whirlwind of energy, and it comes off so good naturedly that by the time you read the underlying rage it is too late. He has you! He is an enigmatic figure the likes of the emcee in CABARET, and he takes on dangerous politics and alternative sexuality with the same vim and vigor of Joel Grey back in the late 60s.

There is an ensemble cast around him, composed of his company of players to support the show. They match his energy beat for beat, sing songs, and dance around Cherry Cola to punctuate each barb or joke. Erica Bolden, Terrie Donald, and Jacqueline Harrison have some of the best turns as "The Mammies" who are poking fun at the cliche of having black maids as supporting roles in television and film. Here, they get the spotlight! Maya Flowers, Venise Watson, Wykesha King, and Ansonia Jones are "The Cherries" and "The Sign Girls" who also bring sparkle and shine anytime they hit the center of the stage. Truly it's a Greek chorus of super charged talent supporting Cherry Cola Pitts, and the entire cast acquitted themselves well throughout. The play moves fast, always is on level ten, and fires away quickly through all of its commentary.

At the end of the Cherry Cola segment, the scene shifts abruptly to a rather plain bedroom with a huge American flag on the wall. The queer jokester stops in his tracks, and is suddenly standing in a place he no longer recognizes. He looks around lost for the first time of the evening. It is then we realize the show is about to shift into THE STORM IS HERE which depicts the last days of Ashli Babbitt at the pro Trump takeover of the capital less than a year ago.

Vincent Victoria has cast one of his most likeable actresses as the lead, Carrie Lee Sparks. She spouts the expected Trump beliefs and faith in Q Anon, but we can't help but admire her spunk no matter how misguided we know it will end up being. Mark Christian gets a tender first scene as her husband who strangely seems to try and reason with Ashli to stay and work on their struggling pool cleaning business. Then we see Ashli travel by plane, and have a run-in with a black Republican (Reyna Janelle and Ansonia Jones alternating). She finally ends up at the rally, and well... the inevitable happens.

What is most amazing about THE STORM IS HERE is it rarely judges Ashli, and lets her live in her own reality. Carrie Lee Sparks is the perfect actress to make us feel sympathy for anybody, and you just want to protect her even when she has a Trump rally flag draping behind her and she is climbing the Capital walls. The only thing the script misses is Ashli's military background and training which should have enlightened her actions on that fateful day. She also seems to be in a vacuum, and we never get a sense anyone supports her beliefs including her husband. I would wager a fair amount the real Ashli Babbit had strong support from family and friends around her. Here we are romanticizing her independent thought, when in truth it was a mob mentality that was fatal to her.

Both shows have an incredible energy about them, but one thing that stands out is the rapid pace never waivers and remains the same throughout the night. There is not a somber moment in STARRING CHERRY COLA PITTS, and there is no change from Ashli's outrage to "stop the steal!" in the second half. If there is one thing I would have liked to have seen is more variation in tone, but they certainly make up for it in sheer commitment to the themes and the material. Both shows are a challenge to the political climates of their times. We have a mythical pioneer inserted into 1955 television, and then a woman who championed the return to the morality of 1955 and died for it in the present. Maybe this is where they connect the best, both symbols of protest against the values of their present. It's a strange juxtaposition that somehow works, and makes this show a thought-provoking one that you won't easily shake after seeing it.

STARRING CHERRY COLA PITTS and THE STORM IS HERE run until October 17th at the Midtown Arts Center adjacent to the HCC campus. For tickets and information you can head to the website https://www.vincentvictoriapresents.com/ . COVID protocols include the audience wearing masks for the entire performance, and the theater has plenty of room to spread out if needed.

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BWW Review: STARRING CHERRY COLA PITTS AND THE STORM IS HERE at Vincent Victoria Presents - Broadway World

Brian Kemp has been through the wringer.

The first-term governor and University of Georgia alum has caught flak from all sides. Liberals and leftists have derided him since day one for trying to make Georgia 19th century again, whether that be in terms of abortion or voting rights. But surprisingly, the Trump loyalists of the state have been ready to sic the dogs on Kemp, too. To them, he had not gone far enough to essentially steal the Democrat victory in 2020 for former president Donald Trump.

Kemp may need a public image retool to have a shot to keep his office in 2022, so leave it to the self-proclaimed politically incorrect conservative to resort back to what put him on the map in the first place in 2018: xenophobia.

It would be one thing if Brian Kemp just brought his truck back out and revived his promise to round up criminal illegals. Frankly, this rhetoric around the border is boiler-plate for the new wave of Republicans, so it wouldn't be out of place. But if hes going to spew anti-migrant bile, Kemp might as well be consistent.

In order to understand Kemps pick-and-choose logic about immigration, we have to look at the nexus of migrant and refugee crises that we find ourselves in as a nation and a state. Just in recent months, there has been a surge of Haitians crossing our southern border after a torrential hurricane and political instability; the fallout of our deadly follies in nation-building in Afghanistan; and the ongoing abuse and terror committed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on asylum seekers from various parts of the world.

The Department of Homeland Security and ICE, under Barack Obama, Trump and now Joe Biden, has caged human beings, ripped children from their families, blown up native burial sites for the border wall and is now potentially carrying out what could be the largest mass expulsion of would-be asylum-seekers in recent American history. We used to try government officials at The Hague for such deliberate disregard for the value of humanity. No party has clean hands here.

In fact, Biden has cited COVID-19 concerns to turn away this wave of migrants, but NBC News has reported that they are not using the surplus of testing kits at the governments disposal. Trump used this same tactic.

The policy has changed, said Kemp on Fox News on Sept. 22. He refers to some stark difference in border policy between a hawkish Trump and an open-borders Biden that just isnt there. Trumps senior policy advisor Stephen Miller came up with claiming public health concerns to blanket deny migrants in the first place in 2020. Bidens DHS is actively appealing court decisions to continue his predecessors policy. On this issue, the policy is the same.

On Afghanistan, Kemp fares no better. In a statement on Aug. 17, the governor panned Bidens lack of preparation for the Taliban takeover, and signaled possible support of resettlement, albeit over an extended period of time with a thorough vetting process. Even this middle-of-the-road endorsement is an empty one, since such a process is the federal governments burden.

For a 20-year-long conflict to end that poorly, Trump was likely bound to fare the same, if not worse. Kemp never gave a statement decrying Trump's intended withdrawal, which would have removed troops months earlier than Biden. Time and time again, the plight of people trying to escape danger are interpreted differently depending on who's in charge.

Conservatives won the presidency in 2016 and the governorship in Georgia in 2018, and no small part of that was built on a foundation of scapegoating immigrants for the disenchantment many Americans and Georgians felt and still feel.

Now with Biden in office, Kemp is all at once trying to backpedal to a more centrist stance while still being cynically critical of the president. When Biden does something Trump might have done, it's a disaster. In the moments where Biden is tough on immigration, it's not enough.

Of course, little of this will matter in Kemps attempt to keep his job. His political career appears to be completely subject to Trumps will. The former president got closer to endorsing Stacey Abrams than giving Kemp any compliments at his packed rally in Perry, Georgia on Sept. 25.

For now, Brian Kemps time in the wringer continues. The more time Trump spends taking jabs at him to his Georgia faithful, the longer Kemp will have his work cut out for him.

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OPINION: Kemp's hypocrisy disregards the humanity of migrants - Red and Black

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A women paddle boards along Lake Ontario in the extreme heat in Toronto on July 19, 2019.

Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press

Re Canada Falling Behind On Promised Climate Goals, Report Says (Oct. 6): It comes as no surprise to me that Canada is on pace to fall well short of its emissions goals.

The promises made by our federal government remind me of the magical thinking of childrens stories such as Peter Pan and The Little Engine that Could, thinking that goes something like, If we think positive thoughts, we can achieve wonders. I stopped believing in fairy tales long ago.

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What I want to see from our government is a reality-based plan to fight climate change. Specifically, I want to see a sectoral carbon budget with annual reporting and clear, science-based steps for how emission reductions will be achieved. I also want to see independent monitoring and public reporting of our progress. Is that really too much to ask?

Liz Addison Toronto

Re Airbus A220 Success In France Is Built On Canadian Failure (Report on Business, Oct. 6): The sale of Bombardiers C Series jet to Airbus for US$1, after burning through almost $2-billion in government funding, reminded me of the words of my father: Nothing happens until somebody sells something.

Once again, Canadian innovation and conscientious technology has been lost because of a failure to make the sale. The results look like a blinding glimpse of the obvious when government is committed to taxing the most successful leaders until they leave, regulating industries until they choke and hurting international trade deals through arrogance and constant lecturing about moral superiority.

I believe energy, agriculture, manufacturing and technology are all operating at less than full potential because of government ideological imperatives. We cannot borrow our way to prosperity; we should get out there to sell our products and capitalize on our assets.

George Brookman ICD.D, CM; Calgary

Re Health Care Conversation (Letters, Oct. 4): The 11 per cent of GDP figure commonly cited for Canadian health care spending includes private care, among the highest in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and reflects a narrow range of public benefits and low coverage of prescription drug costs.

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According to OECD data, Canada spends 7.6 per cent of GDP on public care; 4.9 per cent is specifically spent on public hospital and physician care (the two core components of medicare). On a per capita basis among comparably wealthy countries, Canadas spending on universal care is below average and spending on hospitals virtually the lowest.

Despite resource constraints and wait-time issues (not unique to Canada), the country compares well overall in OECD measures of health care quality and outcomes, including among the highest cancer survival rates.

We dont excel in everything, but neither does any other country. What might we accomplish with a better-resourced public system?

Sandra Macpherson Victoria

Re Canada And The U.S. Must Secure Critical Minerals (Oct. 4): Citing unexploited Canadian and U.S. reserves of elements from cobalt to praseodymium, contributor David Jacobson calls for the creation of a North American-based supply chain in these materials and the products that come from them. Without referring directly to China and its potential to disrupt supply, he clearly wants us to collaborate in guarding North Americas security and economic prospects against attack from our principal adversary.

The former U.S. ambassadors proposals sound actionable. They are also within our power to accomplish. In developing our own views on them, we ought to talk to Mexicans as well as Americans about the adverse local consequences, as well as the continental benefits, of critical mineral mining.

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Franklyn Griffiths Toronto

Re The Supreme Court Rules (Editorial Cartoon, Oct. 4): Cartoonist David Parkins rightly ridicules the Supreme Courts verdict upholding Ontarios unilateral slashing of Torontos city council in the midst of its last municipal election. It was indeed a reckless wrecking blow to local democracy.

However, it should be noted that not all Supreme Court judges endorsed the decision. The ruling passed by the slenderest of margins, a 5-4 decision. It was a squeaker verdict.

Toronto came within one vote of establishing a precedent of autonomy from provincial tutelage for all municipalities in Canada. The tide is turning toward greater local self-rule.

What the Supreme Court would not set free, the public can. Its now up to voters to elect provincial and municipal leaders who most value local democracy.

Myer Siemiatycki Toronto

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Re How This Company Is Using Data-driven Drug Discovery To Fight Disease (Report on Business, Oct. 6): Cyclica president Naheed Kurji has given us hope that one day there will be something available to help children suffering from CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder, a condition so rare that many have not heard of it.

Having a granddaughter with this condition, it is devastating to see the terrible seizures and know that they affect brain development. Families need all the support they can get to help cope with this genetic mutation.

My thanks for highlighting this condition.

Ada Hallett Ottawa

Re Eliminating Gifted Programs Deprives Talented Students (Oct. 4): Another benefit of now politically incorrect gifted programs: I refer to the taunts and worse inflicted on above-average nerds like myself and my friends, and how grades 11A, 12A and 13A were my happiest school years as I felt challenged, recognized and, most important, at ease among my peers.

Steven Diener Toronto

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Re Cosmo The Cat Ran Our Lives (First Person, Oct. 5): Cat lovers will recognize the joys and challenges of living with a semi-feral feline. They will roam when and where their cat fancies takes them.

When I was in grade school, our cat Daniel decided to live with the priest at the end of our street. I would get off the school bus and see him sunning on the presbytery balcony. He never came home.

My friends cat Puss would disappear for days at a time. His family assumed she was a skilled survivalist. One day his mom went to pick up Puss off the sidewalk. Suddenly a woman came barrelling toward her. What are you doing with my Minou!

Unbeknownst to the two women, they had shared the same cat for 10 years, assuming she belonged to them. Cats belong to no one. There are some who believe that if they were bigger, they might want to kill us!

Roxanne Davies North Vancouver

Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com

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Oct. 7: What I want to see from our government is a reality-based plan to fight climate change is that really too much to ask? Canada on pace to fall...

The Birmingham Comedy Festival sees venues across the city hosting comedy acts old and new, from the sell-out soloist Russel Brand to up-and-coming Brummie podcast, Tea with the Devil. Amongst this dazzling line-up, including many free events, I was drawn to the double-bill performance of the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre at the atmospheric Old Joint Stock. Billed as the Earths Funniest Footwear, and having performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, I was ready to laugh my socks off (could not resist).

The reviewer faces a difficult task with this sock duo whether to describe the performance as edgy musical comedy, pantomime, improvisation, or pure farce. The answer has to be that it had elements of all three, and was all the better for it. From the very start, Kev F. Sutherland was able to create two distinct, completely convincing sock characters, who bantered and battled with each other throughout. Slick costume changes and intelligent comedy made this set more Sesame Street than trashy Punch & Judy, making a prominent addition to the puppet show repertoire.

Slick costume changes and intelligent comedy made this set more Sesame Street than trashy Punch & Judy

The first hour-long set, Fingers Crossed, showcased a range of pieces that the Socks have produced during isolation, including highlights of their Zoom performances. This made for some clever topical comedy, such as the song We Can See Inside Your Zoom, documenting the pitfalls of online comedy sets (where interrupting dogs and dodgy outfits are among the annoyances). Their opening song, Im A Sock, was delightfully simple and introduced us to several of the shows classic props, from a paper piano to a guitar that magically plays itself.

Interaction with the audience was quick-witted without being cutting, and the Socks made the most of the local audience: this is Birmingham. When they laugh, theyre being ironic. Moments of more risqu humour were well-timed and carefully selected, so as not to overwhelm the relatively tame viewers.

One of my favourite moments of this set was the Johnny Cash song, where the pair satirised the country singer with a guitar track that perpetually increased in key. Very on-brand, this hilariously falsetto tune revealed an advanced understanding of musical comedy.

Certain parts of the show fell a bit flat, such as the oddly abrupt Shakespeare sequence (which did, however, don the Socks in two adorable ruffs), and the slightly confusing tale of St Patrick. Having said that, it seemed that each member of the audience had their own side-splitting moment, which for me had to be the rendition of Earth Song. Holding up placards, the Socks poked fun at Michael Jacksons indecipherable lyrics, in a hilarious you-had-to-be-there number.

Moments of more risqu humour were well-timed and carefully selected

After an impressive magic trick (which voiced the classic line youll notice theres nothing up my sleeve), and a bashful light-sabre battle with plastic straws, the Socks closed their first set. Returning after 30 minutes, they brought us their award-winning show Superheroes, complete with countless costume changes, and even more songs.

Superheroes began by surveying the audience for our favourite action heroes, resulting in hysterical impressions from the Socks. Their first musical number, What A Wonderful Film, satirised the generic tropes of superheroes, revealing Sutherlands inside knowledge as a comic-strip creator. Several catchy phrases (my favourite being, The Guardians of the Deep-Fried Galaxy Bar), brought us to the main part of the set, where we were treated with figures like Batman, the Joker, Thor and even a fist-only cameo from the Hulk.

Among this predominantly male cast, the female superheroes did have their own special moment, with Poison Ivy and Harlequin performing their own number about the Bechdel test. With hilarious lines that asked us, is it woke? Or is the film just full of blokes?, a topical issue about representation was handled well.

The Socks were consistently engaging and metatheatrical, combining fast reactions with an evident passion for puppetry

While not as fresh-feeling as the first set, this second show managed to entertain the audience for another full hour. The lowlights, such as the Your Brothers A Racist song that did not quite live up to the ironic humour of its predecessor from Avenue Q, were balanced out with uproarious tracks like Supermans own number that saw him rapidly taking his glasses disguise on and off in a delightful farce.

The Socks were consistently engaging and metatheatrical, combining fast reactions with an evident passion for puppetry. As part of the Birmingham Comedy Festival, this offered something refreshingly different to politically incorrect stand-up, and I hope that the Socks (and Sutherland) will come back to Birmingham again soon.

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Two household names, Julian Clary and Matthew Kelly, unite in this touching play which sees

Clary as Norman, the loyal dresser to Kellys ageing Shakespearian actor, Sir.

Despite being a beautiful study of decline, there are many wonderfully funny lines, not to mention some very politically incorrect ones, as The Dresser fights to get a confused Sir on stage as King Lear.

Written by Ronald Harwood (perhaps best known as the writer of the hit movie The Pianist) in 1980, it is set in the early 1940s and examines the relationship between the two men, as well as those with the actors wife, her Ladyship (Emma Amos), and the devoted stage manager Madge (Rebecca Charles).

Clary brings all his charisma to the part, playing it with many of his own well known mannerisms, while Kelly dominates as the elderly thespian who is, at one moment, all booming voice and vain ego and, the next, simply a befuddled pensioner.

Its quite a claustrophobic piece, set backstage in a ramshackled theatre as wartime bombs continue to drop, but succeeds as a thorough investigation of friendship and of those wonderful rep actors who simply dont exist any more.

The play continues until Saturday.

Sarah Hardy

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Julian Clary and Matthew Kelly appear in The Dresser - Lynn News

Rugby league legend Peter Sterling had an emotional send-off in his final appearance on the Sunday Footy Show, as he wraps up his media duties at Nine following the NRL grand final on Sunday night.

After 30 years on Australian televisions following a successful playing career with the Parramatta Eels, Sterling is hanging up the mic and stepping down from his role at Nine.

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The NRL analyst who made famous the line, "If we freeze play here", reflected on his impressive media career.

"It's been a great time because it's never felt like work," Sterling said after viewing the best moments from his time on The Footy Show and commentating for Nine.

"When you look at that [highlights reel], it's just ridiculous stuff and really enjoyable with good people.

"I've got to thank this network, they took a punt on me 30 years ago and I don't think either of us thought it would last that long - but here we are."

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about 2021 NRL grand final

Sterling revealed that it took him a while to warm up to the role in front of the camera, but once he got there he relished the experience.

"I wasn't a big fan early on because I liked the more serious side of things but it was one in, all in," he said.

"There's not a favourite moment. It was just something different every week.

"Fatty (Paul Vautin) was fantastic. Fatty was The Footy Show and I loved being alongside him.

"I look back at things now and you just wouldn't get away with half the stuff. It was politically incorrect in so many different ways.

"Fatty was great and working alongside Ray Warren as well. I did work probably my first six weeks concussed because when Rabs goes for the binoculars the elbows flare up and I didn't realise that for a while. So after a while you'd know he was going for the binoculars you'd duck and weave."

Sterling gave a heartfelt thanks to the many people who supported him in the last three decades which left the panel of Erin Molan, Brad Fittler and Ruan Sims on the verge of tears.

"I need to take an opportunity to thank the network, and everybody behind the scenes," he said.

"Everybody whose job it is to make us look and sound good, thank you so much for all of the years. I hope you never felt unappreciated because it's certainly never been that way.

"I want to thank the players, coaches and teams over the years for being so accessible. If you have been beaten on a Friday or Saturday, the last thing you want is to come and talk about it on a Sunday morning, but they make themselves available to us.

"Most importantly the people at home who let us into their lounge rooms on a Sunday, thank you for making us so welcome. I hope we've provided you good conduit to the game and appreciation and enjoyment for what has been so good to us.

"I'll miss you all, but I'll be watching from a distance."

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Peter Sterling shares emotional message as 30-year TV career comes to an end - Wide World of Sports

When Germans went to the polls last week, voters in Berlin faced an unusual candidate on their ballot sheet: A Jewish, gay ex-IDF soldier.

However, Marcel Goldhammer was not running for any of the mainstream center-right or center-left parties between whom power traditionally fluctuates in Germany, or even for the insurgent Greens: the kippah-wearing contender belonged to the radical right, fiercely xenophobic Alternative for Germany.

Emerging out of a wider climate of Euroscepticism in 2013, the AfD soon radicalized and, tapping an anti-immigrant wave, became the strongest opposition party following the 2017 elections, with the third largest bloc in the Bundestag. Last weeks Federal election saw AfDs support slip in western Germany, but it was able to win around a quarter of votes in parts of the formerly Communist east.

The AfD is largely ostracized by mainstream politicians, and has been consistently opposed by the organized Germany Jewish community. Its extremism led the countrys domestic intelligence service to place it under surveillance earlier this year, on suspicion of trying to undermine Germany's democratic constitution, a move that was later suspended before the recent elections.

So why would Marcel Goldhammer find a political home there?

The AfD is part of an emerging trend across Europe of radical right parties which declare that their anti-Muslim and anti-migrant stances actually benefit Jews by combatting the antisemitism that, they claim, has risen in tandem with the Islamist invasion of the continent.

Thus the radical right which, at least in the case of Germany and Austria, has won endorsements from neo-Nazi elements for its commitment to nationalism and xenophobia, proclaims it is protecting Jews. In Goldhammers words: "Only the policies of the AfD protect Jewish life in Germany."

The AfD have tried to institutionalize this claim by formally welcoming Jews into the party. It launched a Jewish branch in October 2018. The attendees, though, were outnumbered 20 to one by a counter-rally held by an unprecedentedly unified German Jewish community, led by the Jewish Student Union of Germany.

The communitys representative body, the Central Council of Jews in Germany, declared, that, "The AfD is not a party for JewsThe AfD is a party in which hatred of the Jews and the denial of the Holocaust have a home. The AfD is antidemocratic, inhumane and, in many parts, right-wing extremist."

However, the Jews in the AfD branch soon found success, with the election of Dimitri Schulz to the Hesse state parliament. Despite wearing a kippah during a trip by German parliamentarians to Israel, Israeli government officials refused to meet with him, abiding by its boycott of the party.

The then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus son, Yair, didnt consider the boycott binding when he engaged warmly with a leading AfD legislator on Twitter, echoing AfD language by calling for Europe to be rid of the "evil, globalist" EU and return to being "free, democratic and Christian."

Goldhammer is the latest in this string of Jewish AfD candidates, a fervent right-winger who pushes his Jewish identity for maximum shock value and effect.

His kippah and Hebrew phrases are given prominent positioning on his election-posters, a transparent attempt to present AfD as a Jew-friendly party, while he burnishes his rightist credentials by backing Donald Trump, Orbn's Hungary, alt-right media favorite Breitbart News, and appearing on YouTube with German far right conspiracy theorist Oliver Flesch.

During the campaign, Goldhammer tweaked the AfD's election slogan, "Germany. But normal" to "Jews. But normal," attempting to position himself as therealrepresentative of the Jewish community. That was an attempt to grandstand an unusual pre-election public statement by 60 Jewish representative organizations against the AfD who declared they were united in their "conviction that the AfD is a danger to our country."

Goldhammer responded aggressively, deriding the AfD's Jewish opponents as "government-funded 'professional Jews,'" language some consider resonant of antisemitic conspiracy theories as well as an accusation of self-serving betrayal.

Goldhammer did not win enough votes to sit in the Bundestag. However, his candidacy is symbolic of attempts by the AfD, and other radical right parties, to instrumentalize Jewish identity and lived experiences to their advantage.

And there is another instrumentalizing dynamic the radical right uses in relation to the Jewish community: the issue of Israel. Goldhammer himself claimed the AfD would "stand by Israel" and that he himself had "defended Jews [by serving] in the IDF."

Over-emphasis of support for the Israeli state is utilized to deflect accusations of racism. In the same way, Brazils hard right President Jair Bolsonaro waves the Israeli flag at his rallies (and is intensifying his relationship with the AfD); UK anti-Muslimagitator Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, attended a pro-Israel rally during this summers Israel-Hamas conflict, using the same tactic to present as philosemitic.

Pro-Israel radical right sentiment is based on an essentialized conception of Israel as the resolute last frontier of Europe against a perceived homogenous, hostile, violent, repressive Muslim and Arab world. This fragile friendship likely rests on support for right-wing Israeli administrations and their policy agendas and does not represent an endorsement of Jewish self-determination across the breadth of Zionist expression.

For Jews in the AfD like Goldhammer, the adoption of this view represents a reprioritization of different elements of their Jewish identity where pro-Israel collective identities overpower others. Its a process that sociologist David Snow calls identity salience hierarchy.

One cause of a new Jewish-far right partnership is the deliberate misrepresentation of the sources of antisemitism, attempting to marry anti-antisemitism with Islamophobia.

Clearly the issue of antisemitism is problem for Jews enamored of the far right, and so a solution is found: To declare that todays antisemites are exclusively Muslims. That requires a deliberate misrepresentation of the facts (antisemitism is present across the political spectrum) but also an ideological commitment to marrying the fight against antisemitism with Islamophobia.

Not only that, Jews are extremely useful for the far right as unimpeachable talking heads who can openly blame Muslims for bigotry, thus justifying a wider hostility towards and exclusion of Muslims as party policy. The open letter signed by German Jewish community institutions correctly identified that, "In the AfD's program, Jews serve solely to express the party's anti-Muslim resentment," whereby Jews who express liberal or anti-racist values are cast aside or condemned as illegitimate.

This stems from a fundamental reimagining of Jewishness, where Jews are perceived to be a pro-Israel, white, anti-Muslim, assimilated, right-wing monolith and can thus be welcomed as members of their perceived "in-group."

That goes hand-in-hand with the construction of a European "Judeo-Christian" culture to explicitly exclude Muslims and migrants, ignoring the existence of non-European or immigrant Jews, negating the centuries of antisemitism perpetrated by the Church.

The radical right does not like Jews for what theyare; they like Jews for their idea of who theywantthem to be.

While Jews in the AfD remain a small fringe group, and Goldhammer ultimately was unsuccessful, the ways in which Jewish causes have been instrumentalized in a national election, and the fielding of a Jewish radical right candidate for the Bundestag, highlight the potential salience of their narratives on a national scale.

If hed succeeded, Goldhammer could have been the only Jewish lawmaker in the Bundestag, thereby claiming to "represent Jews" at the highest levels of German democracy.

A pro-Israel candidate may be attractive to some Jewish voters, but it is vital that communities understand how Jewish issues are being misrepresented and abused to promote insidious anti-Muslim and anti-democratic values.

The far-right in Germany has changed; they no longer look like they did in the 1940s, or even the 1990s. The stereotype of skinheads, brown uniforms and steel-toed boots are few and far between, and while swastikas and Hitler salutes are still practised by overtly neo-Nazi groups they are no longer the rallying cries of parliamentary racists and fascists.

Todays radical right plays a highly stylized, carefully constructed PR game, casting out unfashionably explicit antisemitism in favor of more widely-accepted Islamophobia.

However, antisemitism continues to pervade the AfD and similar parties, evidenced in the employment of "Great Replacement" conspiracy theories, the idea that a cabal of powerful Jewish influencers and funders are masterminding a non-white, non-Christian demographic invasion of Europe, in which anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish narratives are united.

The Jewish community cannot be fooled into thinking that these people are allies or merely politically incorrect friends that Jewish communities can politely ignore.

The future of Muslim, and Jewish, life in Europe, rests on robust, principled and astute opposition to the demagoguery and incitement of the far right, whether the perpetrators are neo-Nazi street gangs, political leaders, or even members of our own community.

Ruben Gerczikow is a Jewish reporter and columnist based in Germany, researching far-right extremism, antisemitism and conspiracy ideologies, including the past years anti-vaxxer protests in Berlin. Twitter:@RubenGerczi

Hannah Rose is a Research Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at Kings College London, where she is pursuing her PhD on far-right extremism and antisemitism. She is an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Freedom of Faith and Security in Europe. Twitter: @hannah1_rose

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Why Jews join the German far right - Haaretz