Category Archives: Politically Incorrect

The times have definitely changed.

I remember during the first few months of this coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic the Department of the Interior and Local Government would not allow husband and wife to ride a motorcycle together.

It was only after a public outcry that the agency had a change of heart and said couples riding in tandem were okay as long as there was a barrier between them.

Bohol Gov. Arthur Yap, with his degree in economics from the Ateneo de Manila University, even came up with a prototype for the shield.

Probably not wanting to appear politically incorrect, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority also lifted the ban against live-in partners provided that the passenger could show proof that he or she lived in the same house as the driver.

Ah, those were the days when common sense reigned supreme. Which brings me to the point of this column.

Tomorrow is Valentines Day.

You know, when many couples, married or otherwise, would go on a date at restaurants or cinemas or at the Plaza Independencia, depending on their social status, and then head on to hotels, motels or lodging houses, depending on how much money they had left, to consummate their love.

However, since we are still living amid the pandemic, theyll have to exercise extra precautions. And Im not just talking about a Durex Close Fit to avoid any unwanted, ah, accidents. They will also have to wear a face mask at all times while in public because the practice has obviously proven to be effective in keeping Covid-19 at bay.

But once in the privacy of hotels, motels or lodging houses, they can surrender to their passion with reckless abandon and give thanks to Saint Valentine for his martyrdom for allowing them a moment of amorous congress.

Theyll just have to watch out for police personnel who will be monitoring their comings and goings at these establishments.

Apparently, our men and women in blue will be on the lookout for underage girls and not male minors because its okay for the latter to have carnal knowledge, while it is strictly a no-no for the former.

Of course.

By the way, did you know that Valits okay to call him that, right?also happens to be the patron saint of epilepsy and beekeepers?

Go figure.

See the article here:
Briones: Love is in the air| SUNSTAR - SunStar Philippines

Brian Anderson: Welcome back to the 10 Blocks podcast. This is Brian Anderson, the editor of City Journal. Joining me on today's show is Eric Kaufmann. He's an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a professor politics at Birkbeck College, University of London and the author of several books. He's been on the podcast before. His work focuses on demography, religious and national identity and cultural politics.

In a recent report for the Manhattan Institute, "The Politics of the Culture Wars in Contemporary America" he quantifies the nature and extent of the political divides over free speech, cancel culture and race essentialism in the US. It's a massive document with a ton of original research and analysis in it. And we're very glad to run a synopsis of its basic argument in City Journal and to have Eric on the podcast again, so Eric, thanks very much for joining us.

Eric Kaufmann: It's great to be back, Brian.

Brian Anderson: Your report contains some very striking findings. For instance, when they're asked what they consider the most important problem facing the United States, 10% of the survey respondents chose cultural war, cultural war issues. So political correctness, cancel culture as we've come to call it, wokeness, people falsely accused of racism and sexism. They ranked culture wars third just below COVID-19 and the economy and healthcare and ahead of other issues like immigration and the environment. So could you talk about some of the most significant top line results of your research?

Eric Kaufmann: Yeah, I mean, this is, I think quite important because there is a debate over how important the culture wars are to the average person, to the average voter. And often it's suggested that this is just something that pointy-headed academics and journalists think about or think tank people think about. And actually what this sort of analysis, which is pretty standard in political science shows is that actually these issues are now actually have quite a bit of cut through for the average voter.

If I ask sort of people, their talk issue from a list of nine baskets, one of which was about culture wars issues to do with political correctness, cancel culture, wokeness and so on. And I think you need to have as many words in there as possible to sort of trigger that association for people. And what you see is essentially for Republican voters, 50% of them ranked it as a top three issue.

And that's just below, I mean, it's somewhat below immigration, but it's above religion and moral values. It's above things like foreign policy and so on. It's quite high ranking and even for Independents about a third of them put it in their top three and for Democrats about 15%.

So this issue is now above the midpoint and it is for Republicans a leading issue. And I think that starts to mean that it's going to swing elect, it's going to start swinging elections. This is not just an intellectual consideration. So I think that was the first thing that I was really trying to establish is to use this standard, most important issue question and try and put the culture war issues, which are very rarely included. Now they have been included on the Harvard Harris poll, which I cited, which shows a pretty similar result from a longer list of 24 issues. Political correctness, cancel culture was right in the middle. So this is actually quite an important issue now for US politics.

Brian Anderson: Very interesting. In your study, you identify cultural socialism and cultural liberalism as the rival forces in our current Western cultural conflicts. So how do you define these concepts? Because they're, especially when one talks about cultural liberalism in an American context, you're using that in a slightly different way or a very different way. And what does the survey tell us about these two categories you identify?

Eric Kaufmann: Yeah, I think this is just a way of kind of making sense of all the results and putting them into a sort of larger frame. And I think what this is suggesting is that this newer, a newer culture war division is opening up that is somewhat of a shifting of the political access in American politics. And what this means is that you have on the one side, what I would call cultural liberals and liberalism used more in the sense of classical liberalism.

And this means support for due process for free speech, for equal treatment under the law, for scientific reason, scientific method, et cetera. And things which at one time might have been more associated with the left or with what Americans would think of as the term liberal, which reflects that idea of being politically on the left.

If we go back to the 1950s and 60s, for example, some of those issues are now kind of more associated with the right, something like free speech, equal treatment under the law, science and so on. So what we have is on the one side, people who are supporting free speech positions and sort of more scientifically rational positions.

And on the other side, we have what I'm calling cultural socialism, which is instead of equal treatment equality of outcome between identity groups. Instead of due process a presumption of guilt against members of an oppressor group, and also not necessarily support for the scientific method, so perhaps standpoint epistemology or feelings or other forms of knowing elevated above evidence and analytic logic.

So what we have is that juxtaposition, which I think is becoming increasingly central, and I think we'll define actually the politics of the US and other Western countries going forward.

And so instead of thinking about the Cold War, which was really a struggle between economic socialism or communism on the one hand and economic liberalism, the idea of a free market on the other, what we have is a cultural version of this Cold War, which is emerging. On the one hand, cultural freedom, on the other hand, cultural equality of outcome and protecting subaltern minorities from harm is juxtaposed against free speech and other kinds of freedoms.

So yeah, I think that's sort of how I make sense of a lot of the results is. And I think that this is going to be an emerging issue in particular because of the views of those under 30, which incline slightly more, I would argue in favor of cultural socialism than in favor of cultural liberalism.

Brian Anderson: About a quarter of Americans have had direct exposure to what we could call critical social justice ideology at work. Younger employees are most likely to have gone through various training programs in this area and support as you just suggested, what I would call illiberalism, progressive illiberalism and what you're calling cultural socialism.

Your data show that diversity training is linked both to being in favor of cancel culture and also having a greater fear of being subjected to cancel culture. So what explains that particular tension and what does this kind of youthful endorsement of what we're calling cancel culture these days mean for the future of free speech in America?

Eric Kaufmann: I think it's a very negative finding in a way for the future of free speech. It suggests there is a sort of package of beliefs, which fit under the label cultural socialism, which a large number of millennials have bought in into millennials and Gen Z. And that sort of deal if you like, that social contract is one that says, I am scared of being canceled, so I'm fearful of losing my job or reputation for something I've said online.

This is one of the questions that I put in this, and this question has been asked, a different version of it has been asked by the Cato Institute and similar kinds of findings, levels have been reported. Roughly 35, 36% of Americans are afraid of losing their job or reputation for things they've said or posted online in the past or in the present. It goes up to close to 50% amongst those under age 40, so it's higher.

But what's interesting is those younger people are much more likely to say, "Well," in fact, a majority of those under age 25 would say, "Well, this is an acceptable price. My fear of being canceled is more or less an acceptable price to pay to protect minority groups." So they're buying into an ideology, which is a pretty sort of, it's a pretty tough ideology that they're willing to accept the risk of being canceled in order to uphold what they see as social justice.

So they're buying the loss of freedom. They're willing to sacrifice their own freedom to uphold their vision of cultural socialism. And that's quite interesting to me, it kind of shows. Because a lot of the questions in the past have simply shown that yeah, people are scared of being canceled and yes, that they support free speech and they're against hate speech, but none of these questions really force people to choose and make trade offs between these values. And when you do that, what you really see is that the older generations tend to prioritize free speech over cultural socialism. The younger generations, if anything, put cultural socialism slightly above free speech.

So I think as that generation enters organizations, they enter that become the median voter. They're going to change the culture of organizations and probably even law to make it essentially to restrict free speech in the name of social justice.

Brian Anderson: And where are, I guess they're absorbing these values from their education from growing up with like-minded friends? Where is this stuff coming from?

Eric Kaufmann: Well, it's interesting. I mean, you can see the use of a lot of these critical social justice terms begins in the academy. And I've seen other data, which is not in this report, which shows that as early as the 1980s, we start to see an uptick and rise, steady rise in the use of these terms in academia.

And then sort of starting in around 2010 to 2015, you start to see what's called the great awokening, a big spike in the use of these terms in the media. And I think it's really the media, social media influencers. That's really where this influence is coming from for younger people. It's also true. They're getting it to some degree in school and they're getting it at university, but a lot of the research does sort of suggest that people's views aren't shaped that much by schooling and university.

So it's heavily through peers, which is in turn heavily influenced by social media and pop celebrity culture and so on. So I think that's, it's really that sort of elite pop culture that's kind of shaping the information environment that's giving rise to these beliefs. And of course, if you look at the views of American students as outlined in other surveys by FIRE, for example, I mean, something on the order of 70% of students think that if a professor says something that offends them people should report, the students should report the professor to the authorities.

You've got something like between 70 and 85% of students say that students who say that Black lives matter is a hate group. I think it's like 85% say that such a person shouldn't be allowed on campus to speak. You can very, very, on some questions, almost overwhelming support for the cultural socialist position. And so yeah, I think really the free speech culture as Greg Lukianoff would say is very much on the back foot amongst this generation.

Brian Anderson: Now people tend to choose where to live and work in a way that results in a significant political segregation, what you term the big sort. So according to your survey data, more than 50%, 56% of Trump and Biden voters are employed in workplaces that are dominated by people who generally share their own political views, their political tribe. And this may account for the fact that Trump voters worry about being politically discriminated against at the rate of 27%, which isn't as high as you might think it.

As those in ideologically homogeneous areas and workplaces, they're not as worried about being canceled because they're surrounded by their friends. So does this herald a future in which the only way to really obtain the freedom of speech is to surround yourself with the like-minded people? What might this imply for the nation's civic and social health?

Eric Kaufmann: Well, I think you're right that to some degree, and particularly for Republicans and Trump voters being in a milieu where I say a workplace which is majority Republican, is going to increase your freedom substantially maybe by up to 20 points. And when I say freedom, your freedom to, for example, express your political views to a colleague. That is, it's under 30% in a left leaning or yeah, left of center leaning workplaces, a Trump voter fewer than 30% would express their political views, whereas in a Republican majority workplace, 75%.

So that's a 45 point gap. If we take Biden voters in Republican leaning institutions and Biden voters in Democrat leading institutions, that gap goes from 45 points to something like 20 something point. In other words, they feel a lot less constrained. They are still somewhat constrained, but they're less constrained.

And yeah, I think the pattern of, it's like the geographic sorting, what Bishop and Cushing called the big sort where central cities and urban areas are increasingly Democrat and exurban and rural areas, increasingly Republican and congressional districts the same. That pattern we also see with workplaces so there are most Republicans are working in Republican workplaces to the extent as well, that people are older are working in smaller firms are more rural. All of those things correspond to a more Republican workplace.

And because Republicans tend to fit those categories, older, more rural, smaller size of organization, more Republican organization, they tend to be insulated to some degree from the speech restrictions and chilling effects that exist in the larger, more Democrat leaning organizations. Now, what that means, one of the things that that means is that this is actually, we saw that statistic about 36% of both Biden and Trump voters saying they're worried about being fired or having their reputation lost due to things they posted.

It's not a difference between the two sets of voters. And I think one of the reasons for that is because Republicans are somewhat insulated in workplace that very only about a quarter of them work in Democrat majority workplaces. And so for that reason, I think, there's a big debate over how, again, how important is cancel culture and the culture war?

I think it's less important than some think, particularly those of us who work in heavily left-leaning sectors such as academia or media. We think that everybody feels what we feel and I don't think that's actually correct. I think to some degree, the skeptics are right, that a lot of Republicans are insulated from cancel culture to some degree, but on the other hand, 36% of people worrying about their jobs is also quite a significant number, and just for reference in certain sectors. So for example, amongst Trump academics fewer than one in 10 would actually reveal their political views to a colleague. So in some sectors, there is a very high degree of self censorship, but in general, more Republicans are, because they're working in Republican workplaces they're not as chilled. They're expression is not as restricted as it might otherwise be and that might be one of the reasons why personal experience of being canceled is not really a very good predictor of the vote in this sample.

Brian Anderson: Your report is based on original data from a large scale survey. It provides a kind of grounding for some of the more philosophical discussions about the culture wars, which have really, of course been going on for decades now. What in your view should lawmakers and politicians take away from this research and more specifically, what kind of recommendations that the policy or political level do the results you've uncovered council?

Eric Kaufmann: Yeah, I mean, I asked quite a number. I polled quite a number of policy questions as well. And what you really see is more people support restrictions on, for example, university's ability to fire professors for politically incorrect speech, or even the ability of tech firms to sort of ban people for legal speech. I mean, those sorts of things if you look at the data, more people would support government regulations preventing that kind of behavior by these organizations that are either public or monopoly.

So that's one public policy takeaway. I mean, here in Britain, we have the Academic Freedom Bill, which again, would very strongly regulate university's ability to engage in those actions. So that seems to have support. The other thing in terms of political diversity, I asked about academia and media, which have both gone from a ratio of about one and a half left to one right in the mid sixties to about between four and six to one left to right today.

And what you saw was kind of bipartisan consensus that actually in favor of as much, if you like emphasis on political diversity as on racial and gender diversity. So as, or more emphasis should be placed on political, getting more political diversity as is placed currently on gender and racial diversity in academia and the media, so that got bipartisan support.

And again, so there's some indication in both the regulation of organization's ability to cancel and also support for political diversity alongside, that you should be emphasizing political diversity as much or more than race and gender diversity in these organizations. I mean, that was getting much more support than the other. And I think that's kind of telling because these are both directions that I think in my view anyway, I think that governments need to be moving in because I guess I'm less of the view that the marketplace is going to sort of drive out the universities that are canceling people and support the universities that back free speech.

I'm more skeptical that that process can happen in a lot of spheres in society. I'm sort of more of the view that governments need to take an active role in regulating what certainly public institutions are allowed to terms of canceling and disciplining people for speech or some of the equity and diversity policies, which pay absolutely no attention to viewpoint diversity allow for political discrimination and only focus on race and gender. So I think those takeaways, I think, are important for policymakers.

Brian Anderson: Yes, I remember we discussed some of these issues the, the last time you were on 10 Blocks. A final question. The report's been out for a little bit now. I'm wondering what kind of feedback you're getting, what kind of reaction it has provoked? What has the social media response been like?

Eric Kaufmann: Yeah, I mean, I think that the City Journal piece certainly got picked up very widely and commented upon. And I think that was sort of the, that piece, which was really talking about the idea that cancel culture is not going away. That actually we're just at the beginning because the younger generation is really significantly more supportive of cultural socialism and less supportive of cultural liberalism that we need to be prepared for a future in which there is much more of a battle over the entire liberal system which underpins the law, that that is actually something that we're going to have to fight for.

And I think that is sort of something that got picked up the most and people commented on the most. I didn't get a whole lot of pushback. I mean, there is always the game of trying to interpret the meaning of words like free speech that people who are kind of more of the cultural socialist bent will try and interpret liberalism as meaning smuggle in a lot of egalitarianism.

In other words, well, if people don't feel safe, then they don't feel free, therefore we have to prioritize safety of minorities over the freedom of majority. I mean, that kind of logic, which I think is actually a distortion of the meaning of the terms liberalism and so on.

So I think actually that is the only push back I had but I wouldn't say that there's been a ton of pushback and also likewise, the findings that, and which we didn't go into as much, that these issues split left wing or Democrat voters and unite Republican voters, meaning that this is a very good wedge issue for the Republicans and a very dangerous issue for the Democrats. I think that also has not received a great deal of pushback. So I guess broadly I'm encouraged by that. I haven't heard a whole lot of arguments trashing it, so I guess that's a good thing.

Brian Anderson: Okay. Well, that's good to know and it's really a terrific piece of work, Eric. It's called, the report is called "The Politics of the Culture Wars in Contemporary America." Very interesting discussion today. Don't forget to check out Eric Kaufmanns's work on the City Journal website, http://www.city-journal.org. Will link to his author page in the description, and you can find all sorts of fascinating material there.

You can also find City Journal on Twitter @cityjournal and on Instagram @cityjournal_MI. And as always, if you like what you've heard on today's podcast, please give us a nice ratings on iTunes. So Eric, great to have you on again, and thank you very much for your time today.

Eric Kaufmann: Thanks very much, Brian.

Read this article:
The Future of the Culture War - City Journal

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Get the Instant Pot version for $8.99 and the Air Fryer one for $11.45, both from Amazon.

See the original post here:
34 Useful Things Under $30 For Anyone Who Wants To Be 30, Flirty, And Thriving - BuzzFeed

Antarctica has long been a bone of contention, but the real Apocalypse around it will begin in 2048. If not before.

Source: focus.ua

Last June, the Journal of The Royal Society of New Zealand published a paper by scientists from the University of Otago proving that New Zealand's original inhabitants, the Maori, discovered Antarctica at least a thousand years before Europeans arrived there in the early 19th century. For this sensational conclusion, New Zealand researchers have studied Aboriginal oral history, as well as all sorts of documents and reports published by various organizations that do not have common academic or commercial channels. It turns out that the Polynesian leader Hui Te Rangior, together with his team, swam into the waters of the Antarctic back in the 7th century and, perhaps, was the first person to set foot on the White Continent.

The discovery may seem like an ethnographic fun, an additional detail in the museum's exposition. However, it fits better into the well-known formula: History is politics thrown into the past. As the scientists themselves have stated, we are creating a platform on which to have much broader conversations about New Zealand's relationship with Antarctica. Why? Because the battle for Antarctica is something that humanity will have to endure in the not too distant future. And each of several dozen countries must find its own casus belli for this a pretext for war.

The legend of El Dorado around the South Pole has fascinated many Europeans since Sir Francis Drake. On the first day of 1739, the French captain de Lozier looked at the cloudy, foggy and ice-bound coast the one that would later be called Bouvet Island. Then he returned home with a description of majestic icebergs and black-and-white penguins that looked like large ducks, but with fins instead of wings.

Almost three decades later, in August 1769, James Cook on the barge Endeavour left England with a secret order to search for the mysterious Southern Continent and find it before the French navigators. He did not find milk rivers and jelly banks. If the Southern Continent existed, then, as Cook had to state after his round-the-world trip, he lay in harsh regions beyond the 40th parallel. But Cook did not calm down. A little later, he made another expedition. On January 30, 1774, he reached 7110, 300 miles beyond the Antarctic Circle. The ice forced him to turn back.

Antarctica holds more than 80% of the world's fresh water perhaps the most important resource in the era of climate change on Earth, which should be fought for.

The Russians and the British landed in Antarctica with a difference of 3 days. It's not hard to imagine how these differences could be used in future disputes over the rights to Antarctica

Photo: Pexels

The story of the race to the South Pole by Robert Scott and Roald Amundsen has grown into legends so that it almost turned into a legend itself. The Norwegian, having bet on dogs (as on what you can ride and what you can eat), won, having reached his cherished goal on December 14, 1911. The Briton, who decided to go on a pony, lost. Having reached the pole a month later than the rival, he, along with the members of his expedition, died on the way back from hunger, cold and physical exhaustion. In the Norwegian film Amundsen Lord George Curzon at a feast in honor of the outstanding Norwegian polar explorer, which was given at the Royal Geographical Society in London, made a toast to the real heroes of the Amundsen expedition dogs (this is how Amundsen described this episode in his scandalous memoirs & # 171; My life as an explorer & # 187 ;).

This drama is often seen as a mixture of romance and vanity. Although the trigger for it was quite economic reasons. In 1908, Great Britain put forward the first territorial claims, which later, after the death of Scott, were formalized by a corresponding royal decree. The role of the deceased researcher in this was noticeable. It was Scott, shortly before his expedition to the South Pole, who claimed that unheard-of coal reserves are hidden in Antarctica. And he was not wrong.

According to modern estimates, the depths of Antarctica contain 150 billion tons of coal. The US Geological Survey claims that the local oil fields are superior to those stored in pantries Saudi Arabia and reach 7 billion tons. Gas is also more than enough more than 4 trillion cubic meters. Uranium is more than in the Congo. There are deposits of copper ore, nickel, molybdenum, mica, lead, graphite, zinc, diamonds and gold. But perhaps the most important resource in the era of climate change on Earth is fresh water. More than 80% of its global reserves are concentrated here.

These riches are so overwhelming to the imagination that patterns of all sorts of myths are woven around them. Perhaps the most famous, passing through the department of conspiracy theory, is about & # 171; Schwabenland & # 187;, & # 171; the promised land & # 187;, created on the White Continent by order and for the needs of Adolf Hitler. In January 1939, the Fuhrer sent an expedition to Antarctica, which began research in the area of Queen Maud Land. But this modest scientific contribution, conspiracy theorists believe, is not the end of the matter. The Nazis, they believe, equipped a network of under-ice bunkers here and even conducted experiments on the production of aircraft. One of the apocrypha testifies that in October 1944, the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy of the Third Reich, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, speaking to the cadets of the naval school in Labe, said: & # 171; The German submarine fleet is proud that far, on the edge of the earth, it built for the Fuhrer and the Fatherland a real earthly paradise, an impregnable fortress. Mysterious Schwabenland within the framework of this theory, reeking of the myth of Valhalla allegedly became a refuge for the Fuhrer. He did not shoot himself, but died safely there in 1971 (according to another version, Hitler cruised between Antarctica, Colombia and Argentina). And yes, of course, the secret services of the two superpowers, the USSR and the USA, knew about it.

Polar Silk Road. Chinese workers drain meltwater as part of the opening of the Comandante Ferraz station in Antarctica

They started talking about such a parallel world after the 1946 American Highjump expedition (High jump) led by Admiral Richard Byrd, which included 13 warships and more than 4 thousand people, of which only a few dozen really were scientists, ended without much triumph. Its purpose was to teach military personnel and test materials for a possible war in Antarctica in extreme cold conditions. It took eight months, but it ended almost twice as fast and with the loss of three people. And when Byrd returned home, word spread that Americans were attacked by some unknown aircraft like flying saucers. They had to retreat, although the moment to make Antarctica theirs was, as they say, right for this.

Important

The Empire of Water: How River Control Gives China Unlimited Power

There were also statements that the USSR prevented the success of the case. The corresponding statement was made by George Kennan, whom the Los Angeles Times later called the architect of the Cold War. Kennan called for the speedy organization of a rebuff to the exorbitantly growing ambitions of the Soviets, who, after the successful end of the war with Germany and Japan, are in a hurry to use their military and political victories to plant the harmful ideas of communism not only in Eastern Europe and China!.

The curtain of secrecy over Operation High Jump still exists. But the basis of all conflicts around the White Continent is still not high-tech surviving Nazis, and his wealth.

One had to go through several clashes in these harsh places (for example, the Argentines with the British in 1952, after which lawsuits began) to understand that a legal settlement here is an urgent need. In December 1959, the Antarctic Treaty was concluded in Washington, which entered into force in 1961 after it was signed by 12 states; during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) 1957-1958, the following countries operated in Antarctica: France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Soviet Union, UK and USA. These countries have established 55 Antarctic stations.

According to the latest data, 54 states have acceded to the treaty. 29 of them, including all original signatories, have the right to vote. Ukraine, which has the station Akademik Vernadsky in Antarctica, is one of them.

The Argentines have come up with a recipe for how to prove their right to Antarctica. At the end of 1977, they brought a pregnant woman there, who gave birth to a baby there the first on the continent.

The treaty itself did not deny or support national claims to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica, but it did prohibit all parties from establishing military bases, conducting military maneuvers, testing any weapon (including nuclear), or disposing of radioactive waste in the area. He encouraged freedom of scientific research and the exchange of scientific information and personnel in Antarctica. In 1991, in addition to the treaty, the Madrid Protocol was signed, which entered into force in 1998. The agreement, providing comprehensive protection for the Antarctic environment and dependent and associated ecosystems, banned mineral and oil exploration for 50 years and included rules for protecting the Antarctic environment.

The main Achilles' heel of the protocol is the period after which everything in Antarctica can change. That time will come in 2048. All participating countries are preparing for it and it is unlikely that it will do without a fight. At least diplomatically. Methods in order to claim their rights to some of the Antarctic delicacies after the specified period are chosen differently.

Tourist liner in Antarctica

Photo: Pexels

Belay Lounge not everyone's history is as long as that of the New Zealand Maori. Or at least like Russia and Great Britain. Therefore, sometimes you have to turn on other mechanisms to prove birthright. Perhaps the best recipe was invented in Argentina, precisely when, after the death of Juan Peron, a military dictatorship ruled the country.

At the end of 1977, a citizen of this country, who was seven months pregnant, was taken by plane to the Esperanza Antarctic base, where on January 7 of the following year a baby named Emilio Marcos Palma was born, who immediately became a hero in his homeland. Of course, he was immediately granted Argentine citizenship, and he himself was entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the first person in history born on the continent of Antarctica (although there was already a Norwegian Solveig Jacobsen before him, she was born in 1913 on the island of South Georgia, however this area, which contains the ashes of the polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, is not always included in the Antarctic).

Important

For the first time in 20 years: Ukrainian icebreaker went on a scientific expedition to explore Antarctica (video)

Emilio has become a trump card for future negotiations on the ownership of that sector of the White Continent, which Buenos Aires continues to claim.

Emilio Marcos was not the last Argentine born in Esperanza, as the very program launched by the then government went beyond this isolated case. During the reign of the junta, a dozen families were brought to the base with the same biblical goal: Be fruitful and multiply. And they didn't disappoint either. Moreover, the experience of Argentina prompted Santiago, an obvious competitor of Buenos Aires in this segment of Antarctica, to take similar actions.

The Chileans organized in 1984, the birth of Juan Pablo Camocho at his Frei Montalva base in the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. The civilian settlement was later named Villa las Estrellas. Simon Romero, a New York Times reporter who has been there, described in January 2016 such sights as a school, sports facilities, and a cemetery. He noted: Fewer than 200 people live in this outpost, founded in 1984 during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, when Chile sought to support its territorial claims in Antarctica. Since then, this tiny village has been at the center of one of Antarctica's most remarkable experiments: subjecting entire families to isolation and extreme conditions in an attempt to achieve a semblance of normal life at the bottom of the planet.

Whether the experiment succeeded or not, the context makes us think more about its legal aspects.

Today, states that want to bite off as much of the delicious snow cake as possible, like sprinters, are frozen at a low start. No one perceives 2048 as something infinitely far away. On the contrary, everyone reasonably believes that the battle has already begun. And the winner is the one who will not lag behind the requirements of the times.

In August 2011, the Lowy Institute of International Policy of Australia published a paper entitled Antarctica: Assessing and Protecting Australia's National Interest, urging Canberra to start preparing for the 2048 conversation. After all, Australia is the player with the largest share in Antarctica, claiming 42% of the continent. Its claim to the continental shelf in Antarctica is equal to the size of the entire Arctic Ocean.

It seems inevitable that the issue of mineral resources will be raised again in 2048, the document says. This will likely lead to a resurgence of previous arguments from India and Malaysia that Antarctica should be preserved as the common heritage of mankind and its resources should be shared fairly. It would therefore be prudent for Australia to initiate diplomatic consultations with other claimant states in order to develop a common position in response to expected future pressure to withdraw.

Doaa Abdel-Motaal, an environmental expert, says human migration to Antarctica is something to seriously consider

Such views are not exceptional. Everyone understands that the Antarctic Treaty is nothing more than suspension. He, as BBC journalist Matthew Teller, who visited the White Continent, wrote, has no teeth. Faced with increasing competition for surplus natural resources, and unpredictable intelligence gathering opportunities, all he can do like my penguin is scream and slap his feet in the snow.

The main question is not whether the invasion of Antarctica will occur in 2048, but whether it is possible to find an algorithm that would direct it to a civilized channel. Doaa Abdel-Motaal, an environmental expert who traveled to the Arctic and Antarctic, in her book Battle for the Seventh Continent (2016) argues that factors such as global armament, the rise in climate refugees that the world is about to witness, and an increasingly critical search for energy resources will make Antarctica and Antarctica in general a highly sought-after target. The harsh climate will soon cease to be a safety certificate for this region (it was he, and not the Treaty, she believes, that protected the White Continent from a massive invasion).

Is there any good news? There is. Its name is Svalbard. It is the model that guides the Norwegian Arctic outpost, Abdel-Motaal believes, should be taken as the basis for a legal settlement.

By establishing sovereignty without exclusive ownership of economic resources, this model has created a new approach to territorial governance, she writes. It could solve many of Antarctica's problems, allowing territorial claimants to realize their claims while allowing the rest of the international community to share in the benefits of wealth.

Important

India and Pakistan, all against all: why it is important to be upstream in the 21st century

Abdel-Motaal's formula that politicians need to start actively including Antarctica in the climate refugee equation is a little scary. Especially when you remember that some Norwegian politicians have already tried to start a conversation about housing for refugees in Svalbard, albeit without success. However, Abdel-Motaal believes that migration to Antarctica is something that should be considered in all seriousness.

While this idea may seem inhumane, perhaps even politically incorrect due to unfavorable conditions on the continent, this will change, she writes. The harshness of the Antarctic climate can be overcome in the same way as in Greenland, and even this harshness may not seem so bad compared to the alternatives that refugees have.

Such perspectives give off surrealism. 2048 year. There is no war. There are two streams going towards each other. To Antarctica ships with refugees. From there ships towing icebergs to dry shores.

The idea of such transportation was first discussed about two hundred years ago. But in 1970-1980, two French scientists Paul-Emile Victor and Georges Mougin took it seriously with the approval and support of Saudi Arabia. In 2009 they resumed their work using computer simulations. According to their calculations, an iceberg weighing 7 million tons can be delivered from the shores of Newfoundland to the Canary Islands in 141 days, and it will be able to drink 35 thousand people with healing moisture all year round. It is not clear why no one in Hollywood has yet made a new dystopia with thriller elements on this topic. He could finally become a prophet.

Excerpt from:
Battle for Antarctica. Why scientists believe that the Apocalypse may break out on the white continent - The Times Hub

Memes are a universal language of the internet. Not only do we share them to laugh, but also to communicate, criticize, and reflect on the current trends. Essentially, they speak of, or rather make a meme of whats really buzzing right now: think of 2020 and 2021 memes, Squid Game memes, and Mike Pences fly on the head memes.

Some memes, on the other hand, refer to the things that most of us find very relatable. They identify a common experience, a feeling, and even an opinion. How come such personal things are so universal, you wonder? Well, we may not have the answers to the phenomenon, but we surely have a lot of hilarious memes of our daily lives in the hooman world to chuckle upon.

And thanks to the Instagram page Is You Funny, below is a whole collection of them to scroll through. According to the pages description, its the most relatable page on the gram, and it seems like a whopping 2.7M followers would totally agree.

Read more here:
50 Funny Memes That Are All Too Relatable, Shared By This Instagram Page - Bored Panda

The way we hire, onboard, and manage talent in todays digital age is evolving at an incredible rate. We live in an age of time-short business leaders searching for rapid hiring processes. Thankfully, were also seeing an increase in the number of innovative talent acquisition tools and apps.

For instance, the recruiting software market size was valued at approximately $2.21 billion in 2020 and is projected to rise to $3.88 billion by 2028. Companies are also increasing their solutions such as Applicant Tracking Systems software to scan through resumes. Approximately 99% of Fortune 500 companies use ATS today.

To make the search for talent not just more effective, but more lucrative too, various software innovators have launched new solutions to support recruitment teams. Here are some of the most innovative talent acquisition tools to make waves in 2022.

One of the toughest parts of attracting the right candidates for a job opportunity is writing an effective job description. Not only can it be difficult to highlight the kind of important information likely to get people excited by your job, but a lot of job description writers have trouble with a bunch of potential biases.

Your job description can suffer from:

The OnGig Text Analyzer is an AI-enhanced solution that can browse through your job description for you. It will highlight examples of everything from gender bias to confusing paragraphs. The analyzer even suggests alternative words and phrases that help you optimize your job description.

Designed to tackle the problem of poor hiring decisions at its root, Unboxable is an out-of-the-box new solution that helps hiring managers and recruitment teams to distinguish job fit in a candidate before theyre offered a role.

In todays complex talent acquisition market, theres more to hiring the right professional than previously. Finding someone with the right selection of skills, or even the right experience, isnt sufficient. You also need to find people who can effectively synergize with the rest of the team.

The Unboxable Job Simulator helps companies to determine which people are most likely to mesh with their existing team. It looks at everything from their workplace processes to their working style, character traits, and more. Unboxable claims its engine allows companies to predict a good hire with 93% accuracy, reducing the risk of turnover.

Onboarding is an important part of the talent acquisition process. Its crucial to ensure that your hire is a success.

Unfortunately, the onboarding process is frequently overlooked by many companies, who rush through the introductory period in an attempt to rapidly fill gaps in their talent pool.

Fortunately, new HR technology like Enboarder can help manage the entire onboarding process for you. This solution can take over many of the complex parts of onboarding from the moment a professional signs a new contract. The Enboarder app conveniently helps with everything from sharing useful information about your business with your hires, to connecting them with team members.

For recruitment professionals, a successful onboarding app can improve the overall hiring experience. It will lead to a better employer brand for the company in question.

Created to transform the complicated hiring process, Recruitee is collaborative hiring software that allows companies to build their teams together more effectively. The great thing about Recruitee is it allows companies to involve as many necessary people in the hiring process as possible, with minimal stress.

You can connect people on the same platform. You can then give all of your team members a list of potential recruits to sort through. There are also filters to help you search through your talent pool more effectively, standardized applicant evaluation templates, and Kanban boards to help you track where you are in the hiring process.

Recruitee also helps with the post-hiring process, by giving you a way to keep track of your team members and determine who you should consider promoting in the future.

If hiring the right employee for your team means putting candidates to the test so you can see their skills in action, Xobin could be just the app for you. This recruitment and talent acquisition software allows business leaders and recruitment agencies to screen through 1000s of resumes. They can then select applicants based on their skills.

Firstly, find the candidates you want to get to know a little better. After that, you can use the built-in remote online assessment software and virtual interview tools to put your candidates skills to the test. There are tons of pre-built skill assessments for things such as coding and MCQ already built into the platform.

You can also use Xobin to shortlist the talent you want to move into the next stage of the interview process. It only takes a couple of clicks, so its easier to keep track of the hiring process.

Skill shortages are making it harder to find the right talent.

Remote work is expanding your potential candidate pool around the globe. As a result, recruitment professionals and hiring managers need a lot more help.

Innovative talent acquisition tools can make it much easier. They not only find the right talent for your team but ensure the long-term success of each hire too.

Read the original:
Talent Acquisition: 5 Innovative Tools for 2022 - The Tech Report

This is a rush transcript of "The Five" on February 9, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

DANA PERINO, FOX NEWS HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Dana Perino along with Judge Jeanine Pirro, Geraldo Rivera, Jesse Watters, and Greg Gutfeld.

PERINO: It's five o'clock in New York City, and this is THE FIVE.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VIVEK MURTHY, U.S SURGEON GENERAL: I'm deeply concerned as a parent, and as a doctor, that the obstacles of this generation of young people face are unprecedented and uniquely hard to navigate. And the impact that's having on their mental health is devastating.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO (on camera): The Biden administration admitting mandates are hurting America's school kids, but it is still refusing a full return to normal. That dire warning from the surgeon general about children's mental health not swaying the White House and some Democrats to unmask kids.

New York the latest state to end an indoor mask mandate for businesses but not for schools. And while Dr. Fauci says we are almost passed the, quote, "full-blown" stage of the pandemic, the CDC director is not ready to move on from masks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROCHELLE WALENSKY, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL: We've always said that these decisions are going to have to be made at the local level, and that policies at the local level will look at local cases.

At this time we continue to recommend masking in areas of high and substantial transmission. That's much of the country right now in public indoor things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO (on camera): And even though blue states are ditching mask mandates and the media is getting on board, the White House is not ready to budge either.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: People are tired of masks. I would say not even if you look at the polling, though. There's also a huge chunk of people who still want masks. When you are in a high transmission area which is everywhere in the country, you should wear a mask in indoor settings, including schools.

There are states who have rolled back their mask guidelines, that have given more flexibility to communities. They're different. It's not uniform whatever state has done. And certainly, we continue to advise and recommend abiding by public health guidelines.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERINO (on camera): They are not giving her a lot to work with, Jesse.

JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: Dana, I've never been this confused about what's going on. I had to write this all down because even I couldn't remember it. So, Democrat governors have full statewide mask mandates, and other Democrat governors just have mandates in schools, and other Democrat governors are lifting mask mandates in schools. And the White House agrees with all of that, but if a Republican governor does not, then that they don't agree with. All right. So, we have that.

Now this is where it gets really complicated. So, what specifically does the White House support? Well, the White House says they are listening to the CDC. Well, what does the CDC say? The CDC says they still support masks, yet masks hurt children.

And then they ask well, who should the American people listen to, the CDC or the governors? And the CDC says listen to the governors. OK? It gets better. And then you ask the White House well, White House, what if the governor says no mask but the CDC recommends mask, what should the people do? And the White House says listen to the CDC and also listen to the governor.

They can't understand what they are doing themselves. They say they are following the science and the science is changing so the Democrats are changing with the science, but Republicans didn't follow the science but got to the science before the Democrats?

PERINO: Yes.

WATTERS: So, it looks like the Republicans were right the whole time.

PERINO: I can see why you are confused.

WATTERS: Yes. It's very complicated.

JEANINE PIRRO, FOX NEWS HOST: Yes.

PERINO: I want to ask Greg about this. Because Sean Patrick Maloney is a Democrat in charge of trying to reelect House Democrats. And he basically had this tweet here. Democrats' plan to fight COVID is working. Cases are down and vaccines are widely available. Now it's time to give people their lives back. With science as our guide, we are ready to start getting back to normal.

GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS CO-HOST: You know, I said this yesterday that they're trying to look like they are leading the parade rather than chasing it. Because it's the people that are chase -- when he says we're going to - - it's time to give people back their lives, no. The people actually are taking it back.

WATTERS: Right.

GUTFELD: You can't give it to them. I mean, this is a bona fide public moment where the American public knew that the government wasn't going to give up -- give up anything because they're too scared. So, the public had to exert their will, and it's all over the world.

Now you are seeing it in every country. And it's amazing. This is true democracy. People are voting with their feet and with their faces, because they knew that -- they saw how the government work. The Democrats always love to ask in any kind of issue what about the children? What about the children? When it's climate change, what about the children? Nutrition, what about the children. But not here. And the reason is it's guilt by association.

Who's with the children? The rubes, the domestic terrorists, the white supremacists, the other people. Right? So, you can't be on the same side as them even if they are correct. So, this is what happens when you smear entire groups, with like one bad apple you see a confederate flag, you go, they're all racist.

So, right now, they are being stubborn, they would rather just look like idiots and be triple vaxxed, you know, double masked, wear a plastic face guard -- which I call the Pelosi, rather than just actually live a free life the way everyone else is.

GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT-AT-LARGE: I like it.

GUTFELD: However, I want to make a point. It's absolutely necessary and helpful to change your mind based on data. Right? There's nothing wrong with that, there's nothing wrong with being late, but you should think of the possibility for that before you mock the dude who got there before you. When you make --

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: When you call them Neanderthals.

GUTFELD: Yes. When you call them Neanderthals or just idiots or whatever, and then you change your mind. If you think there's a possibility, you're going to change your mind, maybe hold off on mocking the guy who was brave enough to go first, because he was. He was brave enough to go enough and you're all now following him.

PERINO: And you know what else the Democrats are following, Geraldo? It's the changing political signs. They got information that said that the American people were way passed it, that they understood what Omicron -- it was not as deadly, but that it's better to be vaccinated, so you don't go to the hospital. Now cases are dropping and people are moving on and all of a sudden, the Democrats are like, yes, me too.

RIVERA: Well, I think that Greg, for all his eloquence, which way too political a spin on it. I understand the politics, but your point, Dana, is the working point, that's the active point. Omicron killed COVID. Everybody got COVID.

PERINO: Yes.

RIVERA: Everybody who was vaccinated, it was like this, is that all there is?

PERINO: Yes.

RIVERA: And then now, suddenly, with people with the herd immunity spreading, and everybody now having tasted the poison and lived. Now, they want out. Everybody wanted out from the get-go.

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: They had to be forced, Geraldo. That's not a political point. That's a real point. The government had to be forced to do this, or else they'd still be clinging to this like some of the -- the White House is still clinging.

RIVERA: But I think why make that political? Why not say Omicron --

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: I'm not making it political. I'm telling you what I think.

RIVERA: Omicron happened. Omicron changed the field?

GUTFELD: Yes.

RIVERA: Omicron changed the whole reality.

(CROSSTALK)

PIRRO: Well then why is the CDC saying you still need to wear a mask if Omicron --

RIVERA: Because everybody is trying to spin --

PIRRO: No, because it is political, Geraldo. It is absolutely political. When Youngkin was elected, it was ground zero for parents and children. Everyone said this guy is the villain. So, when New Jersey Governor Murphy says no masks for kids, he is a hero, but Youngkin was a villain. OK?

This is the left recognizing that this is an election year. It's 2022. They are going to lose like crazy in November. John Hopkins came out and they said look, the closures, the lockdowns, the masks made virtually no difference in our society. So, let's get this over with.

And when the CDC comes out and they said, well, Rochelle Walensky says, quote, "we've always said the decision should be made at the local level."

WATTERS: She does.

PIRRO: This woman doesn't have the backbone to say what she thinks!

(CROSSTALK)

RIVERA: It's about Omicron --

PERINO: Can I ask you something, judge? Given that the surgeon general testified today about the very dangers for children and mental health, would parents have some sort of a collective action --

PIRRO: No.

PERINO: -- against them for not taking the masks off?

PIRRO: No, the only collective action they have is at the voting booth. You know, the damage, --

RIVERA: I agree.

PIRRO: -- and I have said this before, history will not look kindly upon us for what we have done to our children. For these teachers to not be masked and for the kids to have to be masked when the kids are the least vulnerable and the most susceptible to the psychological/emotional damage is a crime. It should be actionable, but realistically it's not.

RIVERA: I have to make one last statistical point. If you had Omicron and you -- and got well, because everyone got well but just about who -- if you are vaccinated, double vaccinated and boosted and you got Omicron that was a nonevent in your life, other than an inconvenience, and maybe you couldn't compete in the Olympics. That's what changed. A year ago --

(CROSSTALK)

GUTFELD: In your life!

RIVERA: A year ago -- a year ago, no one knew where this was going.

GUTFELD: I did.

RIVERA: They were just trying. Give them the benefit of the doubt. They were just trying to make the best of a horrible situation.

PERINO: Well, and we have vaccines.

PIRRO: The benefit of the doubt when they wouldn't even tell us where it came from or that they were funding --

(CROSSTALK)

RIVERA: They didn't know!

PIRRO: -- gain of function. They were funding gain of function when we were trying to figure it out when China wouldn't help us out. Look, this has been political --

(CROSSTALK)

RIVERA: We'll see what history says about that, I don't know.

GUTFELD: Here's the deal.

PIRRO: I know.

GUTFELD: Dana?

PERINO: Yes.

GUTFELD: Which one of you is going to nominate me for the Nobel Prize? Because who said on this show, February 1st was going to start.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: I mailed it -- I mailed it yesterday.

GUTFELD: And look at this. It is -- it has unfolded like a glorious production, a giant dream!

PIRRO: Like who knows?

GUTFELD: I don't even think I belong on television anymore.

RIVERA: We're already given you the MVP over Tom Brady from your high school.

PERINO: All right.

RIVERA: Enough.

PERINO: Up next, a squad member claims defunding the police is not the problem, even during a crime wave.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WATTERS (on camera): It's defund forever for the radical left as President Biden and other Democrats desperately try to get away from the movement that is political kryptonite. Squad member Cori Bush, whose own car got riddled with bullets during the crime wave is refusing to stop using the slogan ahead of the midterms, saying quote. "Defund the police is not the problem. We dangled the carrot in front of people's faces and said we could get it done, and that Democrats deliver, when we haven't totally delivered."

Meantime, the liberal crime free for all continues. Who needs to worry about Biden inflation, when you can just steal to your heart's content? The New York Post capturing this guy nabbing 10 steaks from the Trader Joe's.

I don't know, judge, if my ride got riddled with bullets, I might think twice about defunding the police.

Continue reading here:
'The Five' on California cities - Fox News

First Published Feb 8, 2022, 10:22 AM IST

The backlash from social media users has prompted some brands to pull out ad campaigns. Let's take a look at some of them

Image: Politically-incorrect social media ad campaigns by Pakistan-based outlets of KFC and Pizza Hut and a Hyundai Motors dealership.

Social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, are today a powerful tool either to construct a brand image or destroy the market competition. Sometimes political comments or advertising messages based on religion, caste, creed or region do not land well on social media and end up stoking a controversy. Many times, the backlash from social media users has prompted brands to pull out their advertisement campaigns.

Currently, Pakistan-based outlets of KFC and Pizza Hut and a Hyundai Motors dealership have irked Indians over their social media endorsement of Pakistani propaganda related to Kashmir. Let us take a look at some of the other brands that have faced the ire of online users.

Also Read:On Kashmir post row, Hyundai Motors India gives new clarification

Image: Tanishq Jewellersadvertisement screenshot

Tanishq Jewellers

In October 2020, a Tanishq ad that showed a pregnant Hindu woman escorted by her Muslim mother-in-law to her bridal shower ceremony was not well received by the netizens. It faced so much online backlash that the company had to withdraw its commercial.

The online users had accused that the ad was meant to promote love jihad. For days, the hashtag #BoycottTanishq was trending.

The idea behind the Ekatvam campaign is to celebrate the coming together of people from different walks of life, local communities and families during these challenging times and celebrate the beauty of oneness, Tanishq, a Tata product in its statement had said.

Image: Fabindiaadvertisement screenshot

Fabindia

In October 2021, ethnic wear brand Fabindia had to pull down its promotional ad after it faced flak on social media. Users accused the brand of 'demeaning' the Hindu festival of Diwali. In the ad, an Urdu word was featured 'Jashn-e-Riwaaz' (celebration of tradition).

The company was branded as anti-Hindu and accused of hurting Hindu sentiments by linking its festivals with the Muslim views. The company had to come up with a clarification, which said that its current range of products -- under the name Jashn-e-Riwaaz -- were a celebration of Indian traditions. The company further said that the advertisement was not for the Deepavali collection of products which was separately named as 'Jhilmil si Diwali'. The hashtag, boycottFabIndia, was also trending on social media then.

Image: Surf Exceladvertisement screenshot

Surf Excel

In 2019, the detergent making company, Surf Excel ad that displayed Hindu-Muslim unity during the Holi festival, also drew the ire of the public on social platforms. The combined tagline of the ad Daag Acche Hai and Rang Laaye Sang did not go well with the right-wing groups. The company said it was meant to show the love between two communities.

Image: Amazonposter screenshot

Amazon

In March 2021, Amazon.com Incs Prime Video streaming service apologised to its audience after some of the scenes in its 'Tandav' series were found to be objectionable for Hindu religious beliefs.

FIRs were filled at different police stations in states like Uttar Pradesh. It was alleged that Hindu gods and goddesses were depicted in a derogatory manner in the drama series.

Image: Daburadvertisement screenshot

Dabur

In October 2021, the company was forced to apologise for hurting Hindu sentiments after the Dabur-owned beauty brand Fem launched an advertisement, featuring a same sex couple for Karwa Chauth festival. The festival is about married Hindu women who fast for the long and healthy lives of their husbands.

Dabur had to pull down its ad.

Image: Mankind Pharmaadvertisement screenshot

Mankind Pharma

In 2018, condom maker Mankind Pharmaceuticals landed in controversy after its hoardings campaign to mark Navratri festivities showing former porn star Sunny Leone with the phrase 'This Navratri, play but with love' drew online criticism from the public.

The hoardings campaign had come up in parts of Gujarat. The company had to withdraw the campaign and apologise.

Image: CEAT Tyresadvertisement screenshot

CEAT Tyres

In 2021, an Aamir Khan-starred advertisement for the CEAT tires had sparked lots of debate in digital space after the actor requested the audience not to burst firecrackers on the streets.

See the rest here:
From KFC to Pizza Hut and Amazon: Global brands who earned social media's wrath - Asianet Newsable

Badhaai Ho, the film that was one of the biggest surprise hits of 2018, made the audience and the Hindi filmmakers sit back and notice that mainstream films could be out of the box, and still work wonders. The film was a big hit at the box office, and even picked a National Film award. Four years later, the producers of Badhaai Ho are back with a spiritual sequel titled Badhaai Do. Starring Bhumi Pednekar and Rajkummar Rao, Badhaai Do is directed by Harshvardhan Kulkarni.The film is based on the subject of lavender marriage (where a man and a woman, who are queer, pretend to be straight and get married to each other to avoid social/parental pressure), and like many other films in a similar space, this one too is a comedy.

Harshvardhan shared with us that his way of looking at the subject was slightly tongue in cheek and not a requirement that was thrust upon him. This is how I like cinema to be. It is middle of the road, it is funny, quirky and full of life and obviously, there are a lot of emotions too, he said. That being said, Harshvardhan added that humour in a film like this does not necessarily need to be slapstick or juvenile; it can be a parody, irony or just go dark. You are laughing but you are feeling the pain inside, it is very delicately woven into this film. I wouldnt say it is a funny film or a comedy film. Its the way you might be moved by it despite you laughing all the way, he said.

In the recent past, films like Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhanand Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga have dealt with queer subjects, and gained audiences acceptance. But in the case of Badhaai Do, Harshvardhan said, they wanted to do more. He shared that other films expected tolerance from the audience because it is about the queer community. With Badhaai Do, he said, We went one step beyond and we said, we are going to be allies. We are not going to be just accepting, tolerant, empathetic, and all of that. We are actually going to be allies. This idea of being an ally was woven into the script as Harshvardhan explained that none of the family members of the characters know about their sexual orientation but the audience is privy to that information right from the start. The audience knows and are a part of their journey. They are going through it all, which need not necessarily be serious all the time, he said.

But humour, as we know, is subjective. The queer community is still miles away from getting wholly accepted in mainstream cinema but the audience today is quite vocal about calling out insensitive jokes or tearing apart politically incorrect statements. Despite the filmmakers being careful, there have been gaffes in the past. Does this lead to a lot of second-guessing? He shared that to take care of something like this, it is necessary for them to be not be so adamant about their decisions and create an inclusive workspace, which includes hiring consultants from the community. We had a script consultant who is from the queer community and so there was enough give and take. I love to work like that, he said. Harshvardhan added that not just one person, they shared the script with a group of people. He added, So many things were told to us. Certain things we felt were yaar, its okay, we are ready to take that flak. Because it is never going to be 100 per cent politically correct. Your politics could be very different from mine but there is still a larger view, which one should be sticking to. We have taken utmost care in doing that and not just second-guessing.

While the films two primary protagonists are from the queer community, Harshvardhan shared that there is more to their characters. He shared, There is a line in the film where Bhumis character is explaining to someone that our sexuality is not the only thing about us. He spoke about the many other facets of her life her parents, her job as a PT teacher, her friends and so many other idiosyncrasies that have nothing to do with her sexual orientation. I am interested in exploring those facets as well.

The two-and-a-half-minute trailer of Badhaai Do introduces the audience to the setup of the film, lavender marriage, and Harshvardhan shared with us that the film does not celebrate lavender marriage but they definitely wanted to explore the reason for its existence. He shared, The queer community was scared of the discrimination from the family and the society because, for the society and the family, homosexuality was wrong. Thats why people were in the closet. He explained it in the context of Badhaai Do, These characters decide that this is a good way to live, like roommates. Like just get married and not have the pressure from our parents. You will realise that nobody is going to be celebrating this, this is just the set up.

Harshvardhan added that a film just cant be about liberated people, and it is necessary for the audience to understand the root of the problem. For people to understand, they need to understand it from the grassroot level. It will probably get a wider reach and I feel that that might convert people into becoming allies in the future, he concluded on a hopeful note.

Excerpt from:
Badhaai Do director says they did not just want acceptance from the audience: We want to be allies - The Indian Express

If you were Argentine, you would be a Peronist. President Alberto Fernandez returned to star in a particular moment with his pair of China, Xi Jinping, who did not hesitate to characterize him as one more follow of the former president Juan Domingo Peron. This intervention by the Head of State reveals the politically incorrect diplomacy of his management and recalls the precedent of John Dominic Biden.

If you were Argentine, you would be a PeronistFernandez told the Chinese leader as the nearly hour-long meeting at the Great Hall of the People was drawing to a close, the Tlam agency reported. According to those present on stage, the intervention aroused laughter and crowned a meeting that was described by the spokesmen as relaxed and very cordial.

However, this pearl adds another item to a diplomatic history of the president full of contradictory episodes. In May 2021, during an official act, the Head of State tried to draw a parallel between the management of the Front of All and the new United States Government led by Joe Biden, whom he called Juan Domingo Biden.

I remember when not long ago the covers of the Argentine newspapers celebrated that Amazon did not allow its workers to unionize. Yesterday John Dominic Biden He called for unionization as a way to promote social rights in the United States, emphasized the national president during the act.

This Sunday, the national official appealed to the same resource to captivate the tribune despite the fact that it is a gesture that does not move the ammeter of international relations. On the contrary, the intervention could be read as a new buffoonery by pigeonholing the leaders of the two world powers as Peronists when both Beijing and Washington consider the other nation as an enemy.

This last Friday, Alberto Fernndez was also the cover of the newspapers after his controversial intervention during the meeting with the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin. At the beginning of the meeting, the Argentine Head of State raised with the Kremlin leader: I am determined that Argentina has to stop having such a great dependence on the Fund and the United States, it has to make its way to other sides and Russia has a very important place there.

We have to see how Argentina becomes Russias gateway to Latin America in a more decisive way, he added. The declarations resonated strongly in the midst of the negotiation with the IMF to agree on a new plan in order to be able to face the payment of the 45 billion debt that the country maintains with the organization.

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Alberto Fernndez and another questionable diplomatic maneuver in China: "If you were Argentine, you would be a Peronist" - Then24.com