Category Archives: Zeitgeist Movement

An earworm has gnawed its way into my brain, looping the same melody over and over. It is Italys most famous resistance song, Bella Ciao, which I recently heard played as a high-decibel dance remix in an exclusive Balinese bar overlooking the Indian Ocean. Well-heeled patrons of diverse nationalities bopped to the catchy tune in the glow of a glorious sunset and, fuelled by exotic cocktails, chanted the chorus. I wondered how a sacred anthem of radical credentials could have strayed so far from its original meanings and contexts.

Bella Ciao began as a partisan anthem, possibly with roots in folk laments sung by exploited workers in the north of Italy. It is associated in Italian minds with the resistance of 194345.

The songs popularity peaked when it was used as a soundtrack for the popular Netflix series Money Heist (2017). It was sung from balconies in Europe during the pandemic; it is de rigueur at political rallies by groups of all political leanings. It is used to sell burgers in Korea and to celebrate quashing an opponent in football matches (Messi Ciao). Unanchored from its local habitation as a protest folk song, Bella Ciao is now a tune that can travel anywhere and represent everyone and everything.

The less benign phrase cancel culture (and its cognate cancelling), which has roots in oral Black vernacular traditions, has suffered a similar semantic drift.

Cancelling originally referred to a practice among the disempowered of calling out socially unacceptable behaviour and discrimination. It has now become a catch-all phrase, imprecisely applied to all manner of people, places and things. It is used to signify everything from vigilante justice, hostile debate, intimidation and harassment, to levelling statues and de-platforming books and lectures in universities and school syllabi.

Cancel culture is often conflated with adjacent phenomena such as outrage culture, boycotts and backlashes. It is linked to debates about censorship, free speech, decolonising the curriculum, wokeness and political correctness. The noisy doxxing and bad faith piling-on feels, to many, like a rudderless surrogate of the judicial process, at once chaotic and ritualised, and has invited comparisons by some commentators to ancient, ritualised practices of scapegoating.

While cancel culture may be a hot topic among journalistic and intellectual elites, a recent UK YouGov survey found that only around a third of Britons (35%) think they know what cancel culture means. Of the two-thirds who dont know what it means, close to four in ten claimed never to have heard the expression in the first place (38%).

That many people have not heard of cancel culture doesnt mean the phenomenon isnt real. On August 19, the NSW Minister for the Arts, Ben Franklin, demanded that Sydneys Festival of Dangerous Ideas cancel a talk about bestiality by eminent historian Joanna Bourke. After being contacted for comment by 2GB talkback radio host Ben Fordham, Franklins office said he was

deeply concerned by the contents of Bourkes scheduled talk entitled The Last Taboo, and is demanding festival organisers remove it from their program.

Festival curator and Ethics Centre director Simon Longstaff refused to comply with the request, stating Bourkes views have been misunderstood. If somebody was to provide a history of cannibalism or slavery, said Longstaff, does that mean they are therefore encouraging us to eat each other or enslave our fellow man? As a result of this media attention, he added, Bourke has been trolled by lowlifes.

In 2019, the Macquarie Dictionary committee named cancel culture Word of the Year, noting it captured an important aspect of the zeitgeist. According to its definition, it describes community attitudes that

call for or bring about the withdrawal of support from [for] a public figure, such as cancellation of an acting role, a ban on playing an artists music, removal from social media, etc., usually in response to an accusation of a socially unacceptable action or comment.

Franklins attempt to cancel Bourke falls squarely within this circumscribed definition.

Read more: Cancel culture, cleanskin, hedonometer ... I'm not sure I like any of Macquarie Dictionary's words of the year

Is this attempt to cancel Bourke simply another example of the anti-intellectualism evident across the political spectrum? Is vitriolic misinterpretation really replacing thoughtful debate?

Attempts at cancelling often aim to inflict maximum reputational or economic damage to otherwise out-of-reach public figures and celebrities. But as the case of author J.K. Rowling suggests, the more famous you are, the more difficult you are to topple. Rowling appears to have suffered no significant career setbacks following calls for her cancellation after she tweeted controversial views on gender identity and biological sex.

Cancelling, in this sense, is a bit like executing the strikethrough option in the keyboard: a function that enables you to draw a line through a word while allowing it to remain legible and in place.

Cancel culture is not always discerning in its targets. The transnational #MeToo movement, to cite one example, has contributed to the exposure of high-profile sexual predators such as Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein, leading to criminal convictions. But other cancellations enact a more casual cruelty on ordinary, innocent people. I am reminded of the US writer Shirley Jacksons story The Lottery (1948), in which a member of a small American community is selected by chance and stoned.

The idea of cancelling or calling out transgressions has its origins in the creative spaces occupied by marginalised groups. Exemplified by hashtag-oriented social justice movements such as #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo, the strategy has been successfully deployed by activists to call out real harms and demand accountability.

Journalist Aja Romano notes the idea of cancelling a person, place or thing has long circulated within Black culture, and traces it to Nile Rodgerss 1981 single Your Love Is Cancelled.

Writer and researcher Meredith D. Clark argues that calling out, which begat cancelling, is an indigenous expressive form of useful anger perfected by Black women. The practice was colourfully deployed to name individual transgressions. In its networked forms, it became a critique of systemic inequality.

It developed into a socially mediated phenomenon with origins in queer communities of colour. In the early 2010s, Black Twitter a meta-network of culturally connected communities made the language of being cancelled into an internet meme.

The term cancel culture, however, has become unmoored from its history and its original significations. In its clamorous current form, it has no coherent ideology: cancellations come just as steadily from the right as the left. Reframed by the dominant culture, and amplified by the media, it has come to be used as a term of approbation wielded against minorities to maintain the status quo.

In the attention economy of the 24-hour news cycle, journalists routinely extract and decontextualise rich traditions of collective resistance (or in Bourkes case, scholarly research) to meet the demand for attention-grabbing content. In doing so, they often fail to explain why these debates should or shouldnt be part of mainstream public discourse.

Franklin is on record as championing freedom of expression and diversity of opinion. Earlier this year, he stated an artists boycott of the Sydney Festival was censorship and that it risked silencing diverse voices and important perspectives to the great detriment of society.

Given free speech is a sovereign human right many liberals and conservatives claim to hold dear, attempting to cancel a reputable academic seems an awkward spot to be occupying. Bourke is a prizewinning author of 14 books and a Fellow of the British Academy. She is an expert on the history of violence in British, Irish, US and Australian societies. Her work includes histories of rape, fear and killing. Her most recent book, Loving Animals: On Bestiality, Zoophilia and Post-Human Love (2020), has been widely reviewed in scholarly journals.

Read more: Was the Sydney Festival boycott justifiable to support Palestine?

How is it that the most ardent defenders of free speech and diversity are often the same people who seek to silence those with whom they do not happen to agree, without a sound knowledge of the ideas on which they are passing judgement?

Lets be clear. Platitudes about freedom of expression, in the contexts we are discussing, are not about the abstract principle of free speech as such. They are about the greyer areas of where we draw the boundaries. What kind of discourse and actions are considered acceptable? Which are morally out of bounds? And, crucially, who gets to decide?

All societies place some limits on the exercise of speech, because it always takes place in a context of competing values. And in the case of cancel culture, this exercise of free speech is mediated by commercially owned social media platforms such as Twitter the main arena of cancel culture which, while free, thrives on the scandal that generates profit.

In this respect, it is useful to remember that the kinds of speech and actions that society deems acceptable are historically contingent and an effect of power relations.

Societies evolve; norms change; attitudes progress; the boundaries of moral acceptability are redrawn over time. It is also in the nature of linguistic meaning to be fluid and provisional, not fixed or rigid. As Judith Butler explains in Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative (1996), speech acts are constrained by a larger set of discursive rules. Those rules are negotiable. In this sense there is, strictly speaking, no such thing as free speech, in the sense of unlimited and decontextualised speech.

An idea deeply embedded in liberal democracies is that people are equally empowered to engage in debate and freely express their ideas. But is this really so? The public sphere is a fractured space of competing elites. Idealistic visions of equal access fail to acknowledge disparities of knowledge and resources between social elites and disempowered groups.

Right-wing politicians and commentators have claimed in recent years that a progressive cancel culture has silenced alternative perspectives and stifled robust intellectual debate. The pejorative label cancel culture has been misappropriated to discredit social justice movements like #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo.

The question that remains to be answered is why, even as pundits condemn cancel culture as the mob running amok, the injustices and systemic inequalities that cancelling strategies evolved to name remain largely in place. The example of Franklin and Bourke suggests hypocritical censoriousness remains part of the dominant political culture.

Understanding the genealogy of cancel culture, and how its language has been reframed and mobilised, may help us see such moral condemnations for what they really are: a reactive rearguard reflex by those in power, who are no longer congruent with the progressive liberal culture that dominates a fractured public sphere.

Read more:

Friday essay: Joanna Bourke, the NSW arts minister, and the unruly contradictions of cancel culture - The Conversation

Finding Rest: After the desecration of grave sites and the forced eviction of an Ojibwe village more than a century ago, lands of Wisconsin Point in Superior have been returned to the Ojibwe people. Last Thursday, tribal, state and federal officials signed the lands back to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The celebration and ceremony transferring the sacred lands was held on the Fond du Lac reservation. An exhibit of images from Wisconsin Point were displayed. Among those attending were Fond du Lac Chairman Kevin Dupuis, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Superior Mayor Jim Paine, Superior City Council President Jenny Van Sickle and U.S. Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland. Jenny, the first Indigenous president of Superior's City Council, told Quinn Gorham of KBJR6

that while this does not fix the past, it sets a better future. Taking responsibility is difficult and not something we can do all the time, but something we can always work towards." Since before the arrival of Europeans to the area, Wisconsin Point hosted an Ojibwe community and burial sites. Many though not all remains in the site were removed about 1918-19 after U.S. Steel expressed an interest in building an ore dock there. Later the company decided against the location as too sandy to accommodate the docks, according to a history piece posted by the Catholic Diocese of Superior. Less obvious grave sites were left on the point and later a stone marker was placed and members of the Fond du Lac Ojibwe maintained the site. The removed remains, including those of Chief Joseph Osaugie, were placed on a hillside along the Nemadji River, part of the St. Francis Xavier cemetery. Descendants of Chief Osaugie (at the table in the photo) attended. Superior Mayor Jim Paine posted of the ceremony and celebration, "Moments ago I presented the deeds returning the Wisconsin Point cemetery and Nemadji burial site to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. It may be the most important thing Ive ever done. Over a century ago, the City seized the cemetery from the Indigenous peoples of the Point, exhumed the bodies, and placed them in a mass grave by the river, where erosion stole away most of the remains. But now, thanks to the patient work of the Fond du Lac leadership, St. Francis Church, city staff, and especially the unstoppable Councilor Jenny Van Sickle, these people have come home. The Governors of Wisconsin and Minnesota, Senator Tammy Baldwin, Deputy Secretary of the Interior, and countless local elected officials and indigenous leaders came to pay their respects as we all made history. Im a bit overwhelmed at the magnitude and significance of it all but I mostly just feel humbled and grateful." Tribal Chairman Kevin Dupuis told WCCO, "The things they fought in the past, it's not a new fight. We just picking up where they left off and our job is to secure something here in present so we have a future for the unborn and that should be for everybody."

Say What??: Michigan Technological University doctoral student Ryne Rutherford made quite the discovery recently which made a lot of media headlines. Ryne discovered new-to-the-U.P. cacti growing in the heights of the Huron Mountains. Megacast did a video interview with Ryne, who says this isn't the first time cacti have been found in Marquette County's granite glades. Ryne explains his study by noting, "basically I'm doing an ecological study on granite bedrock glades in the Huron Mountains and my study includes insects, a lizard, lichens, and plants. It consists of a study of the microclimate on rock outcrops and the impacts of human recreational use on granite bedrock glades." There are places in the U.P. where the landscapes and climate conditions more resemble those out West, he says, "and in a couple of places, there are cacti." A small species the fragile prickly pear was known, but this most recent discovery may be the first example of theeastern prickly pear cactus found in the Upper Peninsula. Other stories on the discovery were from Liliana Webb of the Detroit Free Press andSheri McWhirter of MLive. Ryne tells Sheri that the eastern prickly pear has been spotted near Lake Michigan, but not in the Upper Peninsula.

Sharing Space: The wild rice harvest and the waterfowl hunting season will again overlap this year in September on the same waters, the DNRs in Wisconsin and Minnesota have noted in advisories this week. Wisconsin has newly "date regulated" four bodies of water with specific harvesting dates. Those are Chippewa Lake in Bayfield County; Island Lake in Vilas County; Minong Flowage in Douglas County; and Pacwawong Lake in Sawyer County. A full list of wild rice waterbodies and regulations for Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan can be found on the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission Manoomin (wild rice) site. "Taking precautions and keeping an eye out for other people in and near rice beds can keep everyone safe as they enjoy their time outdoors," the Wisconsin DNR notes. In Minnesota, wild rice waters on the reservations of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and White Earth Nation are closed to early hunting seasons for teal and geese. "Since wild rice is ripening at the same time as Minnesotas early waterfowl hunting seasons, over-water waterfowl hunters are urged to be aware of and cautious about wild ricers no matter where they hunt," the Minnesota DNR notes. Inland, the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa released an update Wednesday on the Nett Lake wild rice harvest forecast, anticipating harvest by the second week of September.

All Access: The beaches of Thunder Bay have a new ally for folks needing an extra lift on sandy terrain. The city has posted a photo with the Sleeping Giant in the distance and the new floating beach wheelchairs up front. The chairs are available at Boulevard Lake and Sandy Beach. "We are excited to offer all visitors access to our beaches, as well as the water," the Community Aquatics posted. "The float-able armrest and special tire feature allow easy transport from the beach into the water. One can float in the chair or easily slide off into the water. If you are interested in using our beach wheelchairs, please ask a lifeguard for assistance."

Make Plans: Here are a few events coming up soon to put on a fun-do list:

Monday, Aug. 29: Peter White Public Library in Marquette hosts a night of surfer rock with the band Ramble Tamble. Set up your umbrella and beach chair, slather on some sun screen, and hang 10 on the Front Street steps of the library.

Today, Aug. 25: Come join local musicians Steve Brimm and Erika Vye playing, as they say, Mostly Americana influenced songs you dont know by heart but should. They take the stage tonight at 7 p.m. in the Donnie Kilpela Memorial Park in Copper Harbor for the weekly Performances in the Park.

Thru Saturday, Aug. 27: These will be the last few days of the Grand Marais Art Colony's 7-5 Exhibition, part of its 75th anniversary celebration. Stop by Studio 21 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. until Saturday to see the works of seven incredible artists Leslie Smith III; Danny Saathoff; Mika Laidlaw; Tony Ingrisano; Jonathan Herrera Soto; Magdolene Dykstra and Mary Brodbeck. Each has five pieces in the show.

Friday-Sunday, Aug. 26-28: Esko hosts the 61st annual Lakehead Harvest Show with all things farm-related. There will be a petting barn, tractors (and a tractor pull) parades, harvest competitions and plenty of family friendly activities, food and fun. Gates open daily at 9 a.m. First prize at the raffle is a 1950 John Deere MT or a John Deere 110 Riding Mower from Moose Lake Implement.

Fridays: Renegade Improv is back on stage, 10:30 p.m. Fridays at Zeitgeist Teatro Zuccone in Duluth. Improv, of course, can be dangerously funny. Enter at your own risk.

Thru Sept. 2: Don't miss a ride on the Murder Train Express, pulling out of The Depot in Duluth for one more week. The North Shore Scenic Railroads Elegant Dinner Train promises a meal, mirth, merriment and mayhem on its "disoriented express." The trains leave the station at 6 p.m.

Today, Aug. 25: Head down to the latest Porchfest concert at the SS Meteor Whaleback Museum Ship in Superior to enjoy Hodag and Hooch starting at 6 p.m. You can also enjoy free tours of the Meteor and mocktails in the bar. Mystery Mobile Catering and Concessions will be on site.

Friday-Saturday, Aug. 26-27: The dragons have returned to Superior. The Lake Superior Dragon Boat Festival will liven up Barkers Island with opening ceremonies Friday evening and a full day at the races for the special dragon boats and the teams paddling them. Upwards of 90 teams of 20+ paddlers participate. There will also be vendors, food and outside fun.

Saturday, Aug. 27: Reel Livin Resort & Campground is sponsoring the 2nd annual Kilt Golf Outing & Fundraiser, held at the Spider Lake Golf Resort Course. This year Golfing for Gavin in Hayward will help with medical expenses for Gavin Gochenaur, injured while on a family skiing trip. Currently he has no sensation or movement below his neck and shoulders except for a little movement in one bicep. The family needs medical equipment and funds for other expenses. For the Saturday event, there are golf competitions plus a raffle for great prizes like Brewers tickets including tailgate party passes, fishing pontoon for a day, and fishing guide. beautiful hand carved bench and coat rack, bags set, and custom fire pit. Find details online.

Friday, Aug. 26: Enjoy a safety conversation with "everyone's favorite redneck" Hurbert Rowland along with Kristen Almer at Heartwood Resort in Trego. ATV/UTV Safety Presentation starts at 4:30 p.m.

Today, Aug. 25: Star Wars fans converge on the Sault Ste. Marie Museum from 4-6 p.m. for its Night @ The Museum: Lego Star Wars. Enjoy the massive collection of Lego Star Wars sets on display from The Brickspace. These sets cover almost the entire Star Wars saga and go as far back as the theme's launch in 1999. Battle your way throughout the galaxy with SvennyMCG who will have some classic and modern Star Wars games on site. Or nibble Star Wars-themed donuts and beverages while supplies last. There will also be giveaways throughout the night. You are encouraged to dress up in your favourite Star Wars cosplay for a chance to win cool Lego Star Wars prizes. This event celebrates the 45th anniversary of Star Wars, the 90th anniversary of the Lego Brick and the 2nd anniversary of The Brickspace!

Friday-Sunday, Aug. 26-28: Ribfest, one of Thunder Bay's most popular and tastiest festivals, pairs the saucy creations from some of North Americas very best professional ribbers with talented local food vendors, artisans and live music. It's at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition and proceeds go to Our Kids Count.

Notable: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is hosting three public scoping meetings for Enbridge's Line 5 Pipeline Tunnel project Environmental Impact Statement. A public scoping meeting is specific to the National Environmental Policy Act process where the lead federal agency gathers comments of the proposed project. Two sessions are virtual and one is in St. Ignace. The virtual sessions, limited to 1,000, are Sept. 1 from 5-8 p.m. EST and Oct. 6 from 1-4 p.m. EST. The meeting in St. Ignace will be on Sept. 8 from 3-8 p.m. EST in the the Little Bear Arena. In addition to allowing verbal public comments, the in-person meeting will also provide opportunity for attendees to comment in private to a stenographer and there will be live computer stations to submit comments via the Line 5 Tunnel Environmental Impact Statement website.

Photo & graphic credits: U.S. Indian Affairs; Nedahness Rose Greene Photography; Ryne Rutherford; Bois Forte Band of Chippewa; Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission; City of Thunder Bay; Peter White Public Library/Grand Marais Art Colony/Lake Superior Dragon Boat Festival/Sault Ste. Marie Museum

Follow this link:

Around the Circle This Week: August 25, 2022 - lakesuperior.com

The human rights movement is in the crosshairs. As democratic backsliding has spread across the globe, human rights are increasingly seen as losing or having failed.

When I embarked on my career more than three decades ago, human rights were seen to matter. I first went to Central America in 1987 to document killings by US-backed armed forces, right-wing death squads, and left-wing guerrillas. At the time, human rights were part of the zeitgeist of US foreign policy and media attention. After I co-authored a report on numerous breaches of labor rights in El Salvador, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, President Reagans former UN Ambassador, felt compelled to respond in the Washington Post in order to shore up congressional backing for continued military and economic aid. When I monitored Myanmars elections in 1989 (the first of Aung San Suu Kyis victories stolen from her) and investigated summary executions and torture in Indias Kashmir and Punjab regions in 1990, rights to vote, to live, to enjoy physical security carried weight in international diplomacy. Our findings were of interest to states. A few years later, when I oversaw human rights monitoring for the OSCE in Bosnia following the Dayton peace agreement and then litigated cases at the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of Roma victims of violence and discrimination from several countries, rights lay at the core of Europes broader political project aimed at reuniting the continent in the aftermath of the Cold War.

How times have changed.

In recent years, as democracy has receded and authoritarianism has risen in much of the globe, human rights are getting a large share of the blame, whether for provoking sharp backlash from illiberal strongmen [and] right-wing populists, for acting with hubris in refusing to acknowledge its failures or for not taking seriously the forces that lead so many people to vote in majoritarian strongmen in the first place.

Lets concede that, like other struggles for justice and equality, the human rights movement is far from perfect. Some of the critiques have merit.

So, it is said, rights defenders place too much emphasis on moral principle to the exclusion of real-world results. As a rights lawyer, I take pride perhaps too much in trying to stand on what I see as the correct side of an issue. And its true that popular support for democracy and rights rests at least as much on their ability to deliver social and economic advances for real people. The human rights movement is often most effective when it marries principle to the pragmatic reality of everyday struggles through strategic planning and nimble adjustment.

Another concern is that human rights have become a lawyers playground. Yes, legal backing and judicial enforcement give rights tangible force. Still, too much rights discourse is freighted with legalese and dominated by those with legal training.

And some activists have until recently not given sufficient emphasis to the rights implications of widening economic inequality that has contributed to polarization and popular frustration. Many may wonder to what extent the dependence of so many human rights groups on wealthy private philanthropy has affected their focus.

But some critiques go too far. The naming and shaming tactic long favored by many NGOs has no doubt lost some capacity to galvanize in an age when social media offers up a ready supply of mass shootings and atrocities. And yet, recent controversies make clear that rights rhetoric, and the reputational gains and damage that it bestows, can still pack a punch. Earlier this month, Amnesty Internationals allegation that the fighting tactics of Ukrainian forces endangers civilians provoked a firestorm of outrage. This spring, during and after a historic visit to mainland China, Michele Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, encountered withering criticism for declining to speak out about Chinese government abuses in Xinxiang. Amnestys action and Bachelets inaction stung because, like it or not, words retain some power to shame.

And its a distortion to lay much of the blame for the rise of populist authoritarianism at the feet of the human rights movement. Its not the tools of human rights that are giving rise to autocrats; rather, its the absence of economic opportunity for many, the paucity of imaginative political alternatives and those strongmens own ruthlessness in flouting democratic rules. For better or worse, rights activists many of them thinly-resourced lack the financial or political capital to compete on an even playing field with governments that command vast tax revenues, multi-national corporations or well-heeled political candidates and parties.

More to the point, most human rights actors have a fundamentally different mission from political leaders and once-liberal governments even though many critics conflate human rights advocates with those political forces. Whether in office or in opposition, well-intended or not, most politicians have as their principal goal the assumption, preservation, and consolidation of political power. By contrast, the main aim of the human rights movement is to hold those in power accountable for the way they exercise it.

Politicians in electoral regimes seek to build and retain numerical majorities. Rights activists are concerned with the rights of all, including the economically disadvantaged and racial, gender and other minorities often overlooked or overridden by the majority.

Many critics focus their concerns on the most prominent brand names, but much rights work today is carried out, not by international organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, but by an array of national and grassroots groups addressing problems with care and sophistication in the countries where they live and work.

For example, in Argentina, in recent years reproductive rights groups joined forces with a diverse coalition of women to challenge long-standing abortion prohibitions. By carefully framing abortion as an issue of social justice and public health, they sparked sustained popular mobilization and protest which led the Argentine Congress to legalize abortion in December 2020. Rights groups have engaged in similarly variegated and comprehensive campaigns to gain legislative and judicial victories for the right to abortion in Colombia, Ireland, and Mexico.

In Kenya, local human rights groups have forged robust partnerships to capitalize on their respective strengths to slow a government-led rush to adopt an imported, exclusionary digital identification system. In the process, they have enabled advocacy with government officials and litigation in domestic courts on issues of data privacy and non-discrimination. Some groups focused on community mobilization and awareness-raising, while others sponsored social media campaigns and WhatsApp groups and still others led talks with government insiders and took cases to court. As a result of this well-coordinated campaign, the government was compelled to promulgate a legal foundation for digital identity and a law on data protection that had been sought for more than a decade.

Creative legal argumentation has persuaded courts in Germany, the Netherlands, and other countries to ground recognition of corporate and state responsibility for climate change in rights-based claims on behalf of children, future generations, and other stakeholders.

By defending and expanding the space for public dialogue, by lifting up the voices of marginalized communities, and by protecting the guardrails of systems which aspire in principle, if not in practice, to the rule of law, rights defenders have played major, if indirect, roles in enabling mass movements and political parties to push for systemic changes in Chile, Colombia and, potentially, Sri Lanka.

Even in the United States, the ground-breaking achievements of the civil rights movement more than half a century ago in the streets, in the courts, and in the halls of government laid a crucial foundation for more recent mobilization by Black Lives Matter activists to confront the continuing manifestations of white supremacy in the United States and abroad.

Finally, rooting rights work in local communities and tailoring it to the needs of each place do not mean that we should give up on universal principles. Recalling that certain commitments have been subscribed to by most governments grants them more weight than they would otherwise have. Values shared by all, or nearly all, matter even though they are often honored in the breach, in part because they underscore our common humanity. The fact that virtually the entire world has agreed to outlaw torture, and to protect the rights of children, sets down a marker of what is not acceptable (even if it remains possible) and provides a framework for political discussion both within, and among, nation states.

The rights movement has much room to grow as it contends with political forces in many ways less favorable than those that prevailed a quarter century ago. Honest reflection prompted by thoughtful critics is essential. But the pathways to winning dont require that we abandon the movements moral foundations or its distinctive methodologies. To the contrary, rights advocates should draw on their own increasingly diverse experiences to highlight and tackle inequality, address corporate as well as state violations, strengthen alliances with popular movements, and build on the numerous examples of creative activism that have produced positive, if limited, results.

Read more from the original source:

Human Rights in the Crosshairs - Just Security

Australias former Prime Minister (PM) Scott Morrison has created a political firestorm for having himself sworn in with five additional ministerial portfolios, mostly without the knowledge of the cabinet collectively or the individual minister concerned. The first of these was the health portfolio, done with the knowledge and concurrence of the health minister.

The justification was the realization that the declaration of a biosecurity emergency had transformed the health minister into a de facto dictator with the power to ignore Parliament and override all existing laws, including human rights protections against state excesses. Yet, the chief problem is the law itself that grants such sweeping power to one person and should thus be repealed or amended. Im not holding my breath.

The biggest mistake was to hand over control of the Covid agenda, in the name of The Science, to federal and (especially) state chief health officers who tend to be bureaucrats more than leading scientists engaged in cutting-edge medical research. In the blink of an eye, they morphed from obscure officials to petty tyrants.

The former federal chief medical officer Brendan Murphys footnote in history might yet be his refusal to define a woman in Senate hearings because its a very contested space. Timidity ensured he prioritized career ambitions over biological fact. Then again, Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) talks of pregnant people, so maybe Im the one who needs to get with the zeitgeist.

Australian authorities in effect copied New Zealand PM Jacinda Arderns doctrine of the health ministry as the single source of truth on coronavirus.The unavoidable consequence of this was attempts, with legacy and social media help, to marginalize and silence all dissenting voices. The more the latters warnings come true, the greater is the loss of trust in experts, institutions and ministers.

On August 13 the Australian Medical Professionals Society published a wide-ranging letter addressed to all Australian colleges and associations of health, medicine and science. Along with the attached report by Dr Phillip Altman, the letter is an authoritative catalogue of mistakes made in Australias pandemic management and the many harms resulting from it, the dubious science behind it, the limitations of vaccines, and the questionable efforts of regulators to come between doctors and patients.

The Covid report from New South Wales Health for the week of July 1016 said: The minority of the overall population who have not been vaccinated are significantly overrepresented among patients in hospitals and ICUs with Covid-19. Just two pages later, the same report gave the number of unvaccinated people admitted to hospital and ICU as zero.

The sentence is repeated verbatim in the latest weekly report for August 713, with the number of unvaccinated people admitted to hospital just one and to ICU zero. By contrast, of those whose vaccination status was known, 98.7 percent of Covid patients admitted to hospital and 98.2 percent admitted to ICU during the week (and 84.8 percent of the dead) had received two or more vaccine doses.

Even by the standards of public health authorities across the world gaslighting the people in order to nudge them into docile and often performative compliance with official edicts, this level of internal contradiction of narrative with data is breathtaking.

Covid vaccines are undeniably leaky. Their real-world effectiveness lasts a disappointingly short time. One explanation could be that with mass infections and the resulting naturally-acquired immunity, the vaccinated have lost their competitive advantage. Mass vaccination campaigns in the middle of a pandemic can possibly also give anevolutionary advantage to mutations with greater vaccine escape properties.

Professor Kenji Yamamoto of the Okamura Memorial Hospital reinforced a warning from the European Medicines Agency of the potential for frequent booster shots to harm the immune system. Another study in the New England Journal of Medicine shows infections among double-vaccinated and boosted people can last somewhat longer. An Icelandic study showed a significantly higher probability of reinfection of the boosted. The Epoch Times reported on studies showing successive doses of mRNA vaccines can desensitize the body and teach it to become more coronavirus spike protein-tolerant.

Conversely, breakthrough reports in the mainstream media of evidence of the deadly long-term harms of lockdowns themselves are growing. On August 18 the UK Telegraphs science editor Sarah Knapton reported official statistics indicate that The effects of lockdown may now be killing more people than are dying of Covid.

The causes are exactly what many had predicted from the start:

Even now, however, as Will Jones points out, there is a great reluctance to discuss the serious adverse events, including deaths, associated with and caused by vaccines themselves. Concerning safety signals continue to grow. For example, a preprint study in June by several experts analyzed data from Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccine trials. They found that the risk of hospitalization from a vaccine-related adverse event was higher than the risk of hospitalization from Covid itself. Until such time that these are properly investigated, we will lack accurate and reliable data on the scale and severity of the problem.

Australias relative success in 202021 was helped by fortuitous circumstances. Being an isolated island country, geographically distant from the worlds major international traffic hubs and population centres, made border controls easier to institute, police and enforce. The international and domestic restrictions on travel, movement and activities kept Covid-related deaths to around 1,000 until September 2021.

Then they exploded (Figure 1). In 202021, the governments response to the harsh international spotlight on the curtailment of many freedoms was to point to results. By now the performance-based international comparison has lost lustre. Australias rate of cumulative Covid cases per million people has surpassed the US, UK and EU rates. Both case and mortality figures track the rise in the boosted since mid-December 2021. To be fair, though, the death toll is still well below the European, British, US and South American figures (Figure 2).

Its worth looking more closely at the change from 202021 (Figure 3) to the trajectory this year (Figure 4).

Until the end of last year, European, North and South American countries experienced the worst of Covid-19-related fatalities while the Asia-Pacific was mostly clustered towards the bottom. This year, by contrast, despite Omicron not being as deadly as the earlier variants, this region has suffered quite badly, as can be seen in the shift of the eleven countries death totals from Figure 2 to Figure 3.

Once again, this is suggestive of the intuition that virus gonna virus and waves are regional and policy-invariant. Even for Japan, the cumulative death rate for 7.5 months this year has already reached its total death rate for 22 months until the end of 2021.

The mantra that vaccines are safe and effective has become a tiresome cliche. They are partially protective for a limited time, certainly not effective and may not even be all that safe. The best pathway to herd immunity was through the combination of natural immunity from prior infection and vaccines.

Countries that avoided mass infection through strict isolation measures built up an immunity debt that left their populations more vulnerable once they reopened to globally circulating pathogens.

When the highly infectious if less lethal Omicron variant struck, vaccines developed to combat the original Wuhan strain proved unfit for purpose in controlling the spread.

Meanwhile Denmark has banned vaccines for anyone under 18 unless prescribed by a doctor based on an individual assessment of high risk. Similarly, people under 50 will no longer get a booster unless recommended by a doctor.

Bowing to the growing body of studies and the weight of accumulating data, on August 11 the globally influential CDC issued new guidance. It marks a quiet yet major retreat from previous Covid management, based on the triple acknowledgment of transient protection from vaccination and boosters against infection and transmission, breakthrough infections among vaccinated, and naturally-acquired immunity through infection. The CDC also quietly dropped the false claim that the mRNA and spike protein do not last long in the body.

The guidelines have moved sharply away from social distancing, quarantining, track-and-tracing, asymptomatic testing and even vaccine requirements, abolishing the distinction by vaccination status for most settings. Their net threefold effect is to transfer much of the responsibility for risk reduction from institutions to individuals, to prioritize preventing severe illness over slowing transmission, and to switch from sweeping population-wide precautions to targeted advice for vulnerable populations.

If this looks similar to the much-reviled Great Barrington Declaration of October 2020 that merely restated the pre-Covid-19 medical-scientific consensus, thats because it is.

This is a revised and updated version of an article first published in The Weekend Australian on August 2021.

Ramesh Thakur, a former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General, is emeritus professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.

READ MORE

Here is the original post:

Australias Lockdown and Vaccine Narrative Has Fallen Apart - Brownstone Institute

On a mundane Saturday night during lockdown last year, I was tapping through Instagram Stories to pass the time. Like so many millennials, I turn to the app mostly to send my friends memes and screenshots that sum up universal truths about our late-twenties lifestyle. A tweetmade into an Instagram postby Canadian author Jonny Sun caught my attention. It read:

Im an ADULTwhich means I dont have any HOBBIESIf I have any FREE TIME AT ALLI will go LIE DOWN

I came to a stark realization: I dont have any hobbiesand nobody else I knew seemed to either. It had been nearly a decade since I played the piano. Aside from the dodgeball league I joined impromptu at the height of unemployment one year, I never fostered the time and commitment toward a joyful activity when I wasnt on the clock.

In the first several months of the pandemic, I remember calculating the weekly hours I saved by not commuting and asking myself how I could use that time more effectively. Naturally, I relied on Instagram trends to help with my identity crisis. I started by aggressively completing an adult colouring book while everyone around me made body-shaped candles. Photos of sourdough baking and people concocting at-home quarantinis cluttered my timeline. While these activities captured the zeitgeist of the pandemicespecially in those early monthsI allowed myself to believe that in the midst of those hours between solving puzzles and baking bread, my hobby would miraculously turn up. Surely, if everyone was struggling with the long and dark days of the pandemic, posting an Instagram Story would make me feel less alone. I found myself leaning into all of my online community, determined to share my DIY renovations with my small but loyal audience. At the peak of my crafting phase, I painted my bedroom walls purely out of boredom. Ever since that accomplishment, I have been possessed by a certain kind of hubris and invincibility. What handy task will I do next?

But the popularity of these social mediadriven pastimes also faded. And therein lies the problem: I had sought the help of an algorithm to help me figure out how to spend my free time. In my mind, it was easier to get lost in a rabbit hole of content than take the time to discover what might actually interest me. But amid all this pressure to find my hobby, Ive been asking myself: What does it actually mean to have one, especially at a time when were living so much of our lives online?

When I asked Robert Stebbins, a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Calgary who specializes in leisure studies, about whether any of my pandemic pursuits added up to a hobby, he told me that hes been contemplating questions on the subject for the better part of fifty years. Leisure, in a common-sense version of it, is fundamentally not work, he told me over the phone. It doesnt define anything. It defines what its not.

So, then, what is it?

Few people in sociology seem to find this a remarkable or regrettable deficiency in the field, Stebbins tells me. Serious leisure, a term he coined, is the systematic pursuit of an activitylike rock climbing or singingthat usually requires a special skill. In other words, we need to put serious effort into a hobby in order to reap its rewards over time. Just like we dedicate our time and energy toward a career, committing ourselves to a serious leisure activity is one of the keys to achieving a fulfilling life, he says.

At the turn of the twentieth century, the monotony of specialized industrial work and increasing urban expansion led workers to demand more time away from the bustle of the city. In response to the rapid industrialization that followed the American Civil War, when the emerging labour movement advocated for reduced work hours, eventually leading to the eight-hour workday and the five-day workweek, there was finally time for leisure.

Over the next century, as lavish Silicon Valley headquarters, pizza stations, and in-office gyms became the new norm, work culture blurred the lines between our professional and personal lives. Somewhere along the way, many people within my Y2K cohort took work merch and free booze to compensate for long hours and unpaid vacation. For a lot of us, the rise of precarious employment and job insecurity created a toxic relationship with work that left little time or energy for anything else.

Millennials have been dubbed the lost generation, destined to be poorer than those who preceded us. As numerous studies have shown, even the best-off millennials, who are generally more educated than their parents, suffer from high unemployment rates and stagnant earnings trajectories. Unfortunately, as many in my generation slogged their way through the Great Recession, overpriced avocado toast in hand, they proved those miserable studies true. Its no wonder the number of young adults staying or returning home has steadily risen, especially at the peak of the pandemic. A meme that keeps cropping up on my timeline sums up the predicament perfectly. It reads: Im 1st world poor. Which means I own a smart phone and an expensive laptop so I can go online and check that I have no money in the bank.

As a cohort, were constantly being told to have side hustlesmasked as hobbiesin order to have multiple streams of income in todays gig economy. It can be hard to foster new skills that have nothing to do with a pay cheque when were constantly being told well never afford a house. According to Rentals.ca, the average rent for all Canadian properties listed on the site in March 2022 was $1,818 per month. Considering that the national average annual market income was about $55,700 in 2020, for many people, this works out to approximately one-third of their monthly pay cheque. If the purpose of a hobby is to fulfill me outside of my professional life, how can I attain some level of satisfactionor, better yet, happinesswithout the pressure of needing to monetize it looming over me?

Im not the only one struggling with this question. For proof, look no further than Etsy, where you can find local artisans selling everything from wedding face masks to seed kits. According to its 2020 Seller Census report, the mean age of the almost 200,000 active Etsy sellers in Canada is 38.7an older millennial. Of those surveyed, over 70 percent said that their small businesses provide an important source of supplemental incomeon average, nearly 10 percent of their household earnings. This monetization of hobbies demonstrates where the future of work might be headed: its not hybrid, its asynchronous. So what does this mean for how we think about hobbies?

According to Sarah Frier, the author of No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram, hobbies arent dead; our definition of what they are is just changing. More often than not, she says, millennials are now finding visual hobbies online. Pandemic obsessions like cross-stitching and at-home bartending became desirable skills because we kept seeing posts that endorsed them. Whether or not we consider ourselves to be influencers or curators, the very nature of Instagram teaches us to be. The actual design of the app encourages us to perform for others, says Frier. Even something like reading, which isnt an inherently visual hobby, has been turned into a kind of aesthetic. As of July 2022, a quick Instagram search under the hashtag #bookstagram yielded a casual 79 million posts. Each score we get on a post teaches us how to make our next one gain more likes, comments, and shares. Thats a feedback cycle that encourages us to go after these really visual hobbies, says Frier.

Its impossible to ignore the cultural weight we put on our online personas. Even those who dont actively use social media cant avoid its impact, since the items we buy and the vacations we take are often influenced by the app, says Frier. For better or worsebut mostly for worseour personal brands require continued upkeep and innovation at great emotional expense. Unlike TikTok and Snapchat, which value consumption and entertainment, Instagrams focus has always been on displaying the version of yourself you want others to see. Simply put, Instagram has become a resume for how interesting you are.

During my identity crisis over the past two years, Ive become a cyclistbecause its not enough to enjoy cycling, I must be a cyclist. In the fall of 2020, I ordered a lavender beach cruiser on Amazon. My best friend came over and helped me assemble the bike, which became my raison dtre in real life and online. I tracked my progress on Strava and photographed my fall rides every day for thirty daysboth of which I regularly shared on my Instagram profile.

Of course, my physical and mental well-being has improved thanks to cycling. But attaching these listicle-friendly identifiers to our social media bios obscures a muddier truth. My time on the internet has certainly blurred the distinction between my online identity and my offline personhood. Ive placed a lot of value on metricson numbers that are meant to determine how funny I am, how insightful, how attractive, how talented. But I would not genuinely invest in these things if I had not, on some level, agreed that I am my social media profile.

As we reemerge into the world, hopefully feeling a little more grounded in the newer versions of ourselves, I sense many of my peerslike meare starting to rethink how they spend their free time. Over the past two years, being stuck indoors allowed me to pause, to reevaluate how I can enrich my life without the scrutiny of an online audience all the time. That doesnt mean these apps have become less relevant. Instagram, and social media in general, is a tool at best. Ive embraced the ways it has allowed me to learn more about social justice issues, connect with other writers and, of course, to try new things.

Im still figuring out what hobbies Id like to pursue, but Im not on a deadline. Maybe I wont find my next great hobby on the app, or maybe I wont find one at all. But learning about myself has no expiration date. That could be a hobby in itself, right?

Alisha Sawhney is a writer, editor, and podcaster based in Toronto. She has written for the Opinion section of the New York Times and for Macleans, among others. She was previously a staff editor at HuffPost Canada.

Isabella Fassler is a Toronto-based illustrator with a BAA in illustration from Sheridan College.

For only $10 per month, you can support the work of The Walrus online. All supporters will receive a complimentary tote bag, gain access to exclusive updates, and join the community that powers the work we do.

Become a Supporter

More:

Why Dont Millennials Have Hobbies? - The Walrus

Were a nation of drivers, acquiring more cars with bigger engines and driving them further every year. But, despite our emissions crisis and congestion problems, the worlds bestselling and cheapest EVs arent allowed on our roads and the transport minister says thats not changing any time soon.

The worlds most popular EV isnt available in New Zealand. The Wuling Hongguang Mini EV jointly developed with US car giant GM sells for between US$4,000 and US$6,000.

If it was available in Aotearoa and attracted the clean car discount you could pick one up for less than the price of an e-bike or possibly even for free. No doubt its that super low price that saw it nudge the Tesla Model 3 from the top-selling EV spot in March last year.

So, what do you get for that bargain-basement price? A boxy, four-seater car with a top speed of 100km/h and a range of 120km.

And China is far from alone in having micro-EVs on offer for under NZ$12,000. The Citroen Ami sells for 7,300 (NZ$11,660). With a top speed of 45km/h and just two seats, the Ami is not technically a car and therefore can be driven by anyone over the age of 14.

The micro-car was Citroens biggest-seller last year and is popular not only in Frances cities but in rural areas.

The Ami is the first of what promises to be a new category of micro-EVs in Europe. The very funky, BMW Isetta-inspiredMicrolino goes into production in Switzerland in the coming months.The Ami and Isetta are classified as quadricycles rather than cars, but in terms of urban transportation they provide many of the benefits of a car for a fraction of the price. The problem is they cant be legally driven on our roads.

The Wuling is currently in a grey zone with a Waka Kotahi spokesperson saying it would probably also be classed as a quadricycle. However, a Lithuanian-produced model of the Wuling recently went on sale in Europe as a fully-fledged motorway-capable car and European safety regulations are every bit as stringent as New Zealands.

Transport minister Michael Wood says he saw an Ami on a recent trip to Oslo and has been lobbied about allowing quadricycles on our roads but isnt yet convinced theyre right for New Zealand. The appropriateness of micro-vehicles for New Zealand conditions was identified as an area that needed attention under the Emissions Reduction Plan, he says, but was unlikely to be done before the end of 2023 or 2024.

Its a dialogue weve had and clearly there are some benefits on the electrification side but were pretty successfully electrifying our fleet anyway. The other argument is about road space which is more of a congestion argument than a decarbonisation argument.

The key tradeoff and regulatory issue is around safety, he says. They almost all inevitably rate at the lowest safety rating of zero to one star. So thats the policy challenge.

Paradoxically, Wood says the potential popularity of micro-EVs could be in conflict with the governments commitment to reducing the kilometres travelled by privately owned automobiles conversely encouraging people who walk, cycle or take public transport to use a micro-EV instead.

Self-described micro-car evangelist Toa Greening says safety concerns are overblown when compared to the risk posed by e-scooters which can be legally driven on our roads without a helmet. Hes sceptical of Woods suggestion that micro-EVs could see a modal shift from active and public transport modes to micro-EVs. As a casual cyclist I really doubt it, as we cycle in part for the enjoyment of it.

Greening has been banging on about micro-EVs for the best part of a decade. He made it on toCampbell Live back in 2014 when he imported a Tango 600 to try to drum up interest in mass producing the US-designed micro-EV in New Zealand. Its a very narrow, very fast micro-EV that made headlines around the world when actor George Clooney bought one in 2005.

In 2018 Greening launched a Pledge Me campaign seeking half a million dollars to fund the setting up of a micro-car leasing programme. Just $2,000 was pledged possibly because the Tango 600 wasnt and isnt road legal in New Zealand.

Greening is convinced the Tango 600 ticks off the biggest two challenges facing transport in the 21st century: congestion and emissions.

If youre wondering how any car can help reduce congestion, the answer, according to Greening, is in the Tango 600s width. Its narrow enough that, in theory, you could fit two side-by-side in a single lane.

The Tango 600 like Elon Musks Tesla aimed to attract car drivers over to EVs with the promise of high-speed and high-performance vehicles that could hold their own against top-of-the-line ICE (internal combustion engine) competition.

With a top speed of more than 240km/h, the Tango 600 is more an enclosed superbike than the electrified shopping trolley that is the Citroen Ami. Greening says micro-EVs are the perfect replacement for a familys second car: ideal for trips to the supermarket, school drop-offs and city commuting.

Greening has estimated that a fleet of 280,000 micro-EVs similar to the Tango 600 would reduce Aucklands carbon emissions by 2.1 million tonnes per year. In 2018, transport contributed 4.3 million tonnes of carbon emissions to Aucklands total.

Greening calculated that 1.3 million tonnes of carbon emissions would be saved from the switch from petrol and diesel cars to EVs, and 0.8 million tonnes from a reduction in congestion due to vehicles like the Tango being able to drive two abreast in a single lane.

Congestion increases emissions simply because traffic is slowed and cars spend longer on the road.

Micro-EVs might be a new concept in New Zealand, but micro-cars arent.

The Fiat 500, better known in New Zealand as the Bambina, weighed in at just under 500 kilos, about the same as the Citroen. More than 5000 of the tiny cars named for its CC rating, not its weight were assembled locally and in 1960 you could buy one for just 499.

The contrast with its direct descendant, the Fiat 500 Dolcevita, encapsulates the story of motorcars over the last half century. While still one of the smallest cars on the road, the Dolcevitas 1.2 litre engine is more than twice the size of the Bambinas. The new model is nearly double the Bambinas weight, and its grown in length by more than half a metre.

The Bambinas price tag adjusted for inflation comes to just under $25,000 about what you would pay for the Dolcevita.

There have been numerous safety and performance improvements over the years, but the one metric thats barely changed is its fuel efficiency and therefore its carbon emission. The newer car manages 4.8 litres per 100km compared to 5.1 litres for the original.

Sixty years of technological improvements have barely moved the petrol, or emissions, gauges. (The Bambinas fuel efficiency would see it qualify for a clean car discount.) The Dolcevitas 1.2 litre engine is about half that of the average car sold in New Zealand, where the number of vehicles per person trebled between the 1950s and early 2000s. And between 1980 and 2000, total annual vehicle kilometres travelled in New Zealand more than doubled, from 18.52 billion to 37.33 billion. Engines have also grown in size. By 2006, the average engine size of a vehicle in NewZealand was more than 2.2 litres, up from 2 litres at the beginning of the decade.

It would be a stretch to say the Bambina was an expression of the motoring zeitgeist of the time its production run coincided with the height of the yank tank phase in the US but it offered an alternative vision that was in line with the nascent environmental movement of the 1960s and 70s.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction, E.F. Schumacher wrote in the 1973 bestseller Small is Beautiful.

Only time will tell whether New Zealand has the courage to embrace the micro-EV trend being embraced from Beijing to Paris.

Follow Bernard Hickeys When the Facts Change on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast provider.

Read the original post:

Cheap, green vehicles are taking off overseas. Why are they banned here? - The Spinoff

Approximately five years have passed since the violent persecution of Rohingyas by Myanmar authorities led to the consequent influx of refugees to Bangladesh. The government of Bangladesh has generously provided the Rohingyas safety and sanctuary, at a time when the anti-refugee sentiment was at its zenith in much of the European countries and the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh had turned their back on the Rohingya's plight.

The protracted inhabitation of the refugee community in Bangladesh has triggered a slew of detrimental consequences on the country, however, the country remains unswerving in supporting the community.

It seems that the international communities have grown visibly apathetic towards Rohingya's predicaments, as other pressing international crises in Afghanistan and Ukraine had transfixed world attention, consequently leading them to disregard the anguish of one of the most persecuted communities of the world.

In this context, the funding to sustain the Rohingya refugees has considerably dwindled, further amplifying the onus of sheltering and sustaining the community largely on Bangladesh. This is evidently at odds with the "burden-sharing principle" that is supposed to underpin the response of the world community towards the crisis.

The funding for the Rohingya crisis is framed, under the framework of the Joint Response Plan (JRP), a scheme that is renewed every year, and projects the financing to sustain the Rohingya refugees. The plan is spearheaded by Bangladesh and the country mobilises approximately 136 partners, of which 74 represents Bangladeshi organisations.

The JRP for 2022 has sought more than US$881million to support around 1.4 million people, including refugees and host communities.

However, the fund mobilisation of the preceding years had been dismal, on the heels of a concatenation of international crises Covid-19 induced economic stagnation, paralysing supply chain disruption, and the crisis in Afghanistan. The fund for humanitarian assistance that hovered around 72 and 75 percent of the aggregate spending the first three years since 2017, had diminished to 65 percent in 2020, with increasing apathy towards the Rohingya refugees, as the crisis continues to get obscured by the international community.

The lack of funding has impeded the distribution of food, basic health care and other support that the Rohingya community acutely needs. Besides, the Cox's Bazar region, that hosts the majority of the refugee community people, is distinctly vulnerable to climatic disasters, escalating the imbroglio of the refugees as well as the host communities.

Furthermore, the world is reeling from the repercussions occasioned by the pandemic, the after-effects of which still continue to reverberate in the form of paralysing inflation across the world. This is coupled with the prolonged Ukraine war, which has left the global supply chain in shambles, further worsening the predicament of developed and developing countries alike.

Bangladesh's economy is also grappling with this condition. In keeping with the world market, the economy of the county has endured skyrocketing inflation and economic woes. Besides, the general economic condition of the country doesn't bode well, as the graduation from the Low Developed Country (LDC) status will be accompanied with a litany of challenges.

In this context, sustaining Rohingya for an indefinite period isn't a plausible prospect for Bangladesh, as funding from the donors is poised to decline further in the future, thus putting more strains on Bangladesh's economy to solely fend for Rohingya.

Besides, the memories of gruesome persecution of the Rohingyas coupled with their deplorable living condition, meager resources and chronic unemployment has made Rohinyas distinctly prone to crimes and arguably enhances their susceptibility to radicalism. This has profound ramifications for the Cox's bazar region, which has been historically plagued by crimes, drug-trafficking and illicit trade.

Experts contend that the plunge in the funds will further exacerbate the perils of human trafficking, gang violence, drug-related crimes, domestic violence and early marriage, and will expose the Rohingya youths to the impulses of radicalism. Averting this consequence will require ensuring proper education and involving the Rohingya community in income-generating activities.

In the context of their prolonged deprivation in the camp, severed from their ancestral habitation, a spontaneous movement has recently gained traction among Rohingyas termed as "Go-Home Movement" which indicates Rohingya's heightened awareness and aspiration for a sustainable and dignified repatriation.

Thus, in the context of dwindling international funding and withering attention for the Rohingya refugee crisis, only two options might mold international response in resolving the crisis either, to further enhance support for the Rohingya in order to ensure the community safe and dignified life in the camp, or to mobilise international pressure in a manner to compel the Myanmar authorities in ensuring conducive condition for the repatriation of refugee, in accordance with zeitgeist of "Go-Home Movement".

However, the first option is not sustainable, given the sheer number of Rohingyas currently inhabiting Bangladesh, which is one of the most populated countries of the world and plagued by its own sets of challenges. Besides, the "Do No Harm" principle, one of the cornerstone norms underpinning international refugee governance, will be transgressed, as prolonged fostering of the refugees at the cost of host population will evidently elicit dissatisfaction from the host community. And this might sharpen the rifts between the refugee and the host communities.

Besides, the protracted crisis will deteriorate the security situation in the region. In this context, the second option which entails swift international action in pressurising the Myanmar government is more prudent and will yield sustainable solutions to the crisis.

At a time when the funds for the Rohingyas are dwindling, and when the international community has grown evidently disinterested in safeguarding the community, the sustainable course of action that the international community should undertake is the safe and dignified repatriation of the Rohingyas through international mechanisms. This will eliminate one of the pressing refugee crises of the world. If the world community however fails to resolve the crisis, the grievances and dissatisfaction among the new generation of the refugee community will pester, making them uniquely exposed to crime and radical overtures, thus destabilising the whole region.

The author is an international affairs researcher, currently affiliated with the Central Foundation for International and Strategic Studies (CFISS). His research interests include South Asian Security, Regionalism and Political Economy.

Go here to see the original:

The clock is ticking on the Rohingya crisis - The Business Standard

Kings and Queens have always been shapers of society; King Tut shaped the Egyptian tourist industry, King Henry VIII worked wonders for the turtleneck trade, and The Acid King, Augustus Owsley Stanley III, defined the counterculture movement. Anyone from a long line of Augustus-es is bound to have some bearing on society, but in the tumbling dominos of culture, the third fellow in this long line of Kentuckian politicos presented a pivotal moment of diegesis that set pop culture on a different trip. This is the weird story of the wests wayward rock n Walter White.

The long and the short of it is that Augustus Owsley Stanley III brewed LSD so pure that Owsley is actually listed in the dictionary alongside the definition: An extremely potent, high-quality type of LSD. Tom Wolfe, the novelist who once wrote: The problem with fiction, it has to be plausible. Thats not true with non-fiction, coined this phrase. You could argue that Wolfe was the proto-voice of a generation and that he, along withKen Kesey, Jack Kerouacand other notable contributors, helped to give rise to pop culture. But every engine of influence needs fuel, and that was where Stanley III stepped in.

Before he became the chef behind a thousand epiphanies and crafted the sound of the Grateful Dead, he went against his family history of entering government and became a professional college drop-out. His window wouldnt arrive until 1963 when he was 28 years old. But before then, he was an Air Force pilot, a ham-radio operator, a broadcast engineer, a father and a twice divorcee. He was also a sporter of a Fu Manchu moustache that welcomed so many ladies he may as well have called it his Foof Manchu Muff Duster, a multiple petty-crime felon, and a student of Russian, French and ballet.

With a CV like that, do you think he was able to support himself as a professional dancer for long? Nada, his niche was yet to be foraged, but importantly, a point which has sadly almost become a footnote in his wildly unravelling life, he was also a geniusand that can help even the most vagrant of vagabonds.

In 1963, that vivacious intelligence led him to become a student at Berkley, and that was a critical year in our cultural history. You see, it seems very un-1960s-like to mention admin, but in 1963, the patent for LSD expired, and a lot of the culture thereafter spun out from that tie-dye three years where mind-bending was basically legalised. It wasnt just the hippies at it either. The CIA, an organisation that has seemingly welcomed more well-manicured arseholes than every one of Hugh Hefners pool parties combined, were dabbling in its kaleidoscopic properties to such an extent that they gave 297mg of it to an elephant called Tusko. Tusko died.

Stanley IIIs time had come. He took acid in 64 for the first time and heard The Beatles the following week. Stanley IIIs future seemed to be standing in his spinning vision, jangling the lab keys. He learned everything he needed to know about the synthesis of this potent danger in three weeks and was not the type to sit around wondering what best to do with that knowledge. If he were alive today, however, it would be here that he interjected and said that his aim in the lab was not to brew substances that got you high but to obey the transfiguring principles of alchemya notion that only someone who was high could understand.

Thus, it is clear from this imagined interjection that a collision of contributing factors occurred during this period: acid, music, and the bullshit to go along with it. Stanley III was a ready-made scion of the counterculture. However, a fourth tributary would join this trifectahis roommate and girlfriend at the time was Melissa Cargill, a skilled chemist and heir of the uber-wealthy Cargill-Macmillan family. How such a thing could happen is a mystery of fate. The result was that they had the know-how, funds, connections, and get-out-jail cards to make a real go at blowing the minds of a generation.

In fact, when they were selling cheap methedrine to raise funds to enter the acid trade, their bathtub lab was busted, but Stanley III was able to hire the vice-mayor of Berkley, and charges were dropped. There are many questions about the lax drug enforcement during this time and why it took three years for legislation to be passed making the substance that Charles Manson and many others who stepped one toke over the line dabbled in to a debauched degree illegal. However, well get onto those clandestine CIA mysteries later.

Off the back of this legal windfall, Stanley III, who was nicknamed Bear as a teen because of his premature production of short and curlies, set up the Bear Research Group. As such, he could attain acid-making technology under the guise of science. Thereafter, asSteely Dan would one day sing, On the hill, the stuff was laced with kerosene, but yours was kitchen clean. This ballet dancing drop-out was now making the most pristine acid in the west (and the world, for that matter).

Thanks to Ken Kesey, a generation of creatives had been swayed toward the technicolour ways of acid. Many of these were all on the same bus: a multicoloured wanderer called Furthur. This near-mythical vehicle travelled through the unfurling expanse of America and its consciousness. It contained Kesey, Wolfe, and Neil Cassidy (the actual driver in KerouacsOn The Road), and these guys were after the best acid around. It was only a matter of time before the Merry Pranksters (as they were known) careened into a big mad Bear and crowned him The Acid King.

These tripping folks would pull up at various spots around the country and have picnics. Therein, Kool-Aid containing acid was served up, and the spun-out folks in attendance would take in a band bashing out rock n roll. Their journey was a vehicle for the counterculture, and one of the bands absorbed in the gatherings was none other than the Grateful Dead. Stanley III met the Dead at one of these picnics and told them he knew just as much about sound engineering as he did about acidthen he was in the band.

Shortly after, the music world would all be tripping out on Owsleys Acid. He even supplied The Beatles during theMagical Mystery Tour. Thus, there are no surprises about the origin of I Am the Walrus. Bands were tumbling down the rabbit hole of his renegade possibilities, but his drive to pursue the power of alchemy sustained and spread into his sound work. As the Owsley Foundation States: Owsley essentially recorded every artist that ever played through a sound system that he built.

Thus, his sonic journals helped to develop the general sound of an entire generation of musicians. With the likes of Miles Davis, Johnny Cash, Jefferson Airplane, Fleetwood Mac, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, the Flying Burrito Brothers and 80 other massive artists in his roster, it isnt far-fetched to say that it was Stanley III who defined the sound and minds of a generation. He was the puppet master making the marionette of counterculture move in weird ways.

And through it all, he still had to keep brewing. During his time on the acid run, Stanley III is believed to have produced at least five million doses of some of the finest wall-shifting tabs to grace the market. Moreover, he didnt just enjoy the dealers boon of administrative oversight. Once criminality was imposed in 1966, Stanley and Cargill simply shifted production to a lab in Denver, Colorado, and began brightening the daydreams of counterculture kids once more.

Their new headquarters were stationed across the street from Denver Zoo, and tales are bountiful in the regions subterranean realms of old acidheads staring agog at a gibbon or some other higher simian and having evolutionary epiphanies whizz into their addled minds. All the while, funky gibbons looked on, wondering why a hippy with swirling eyes was delivering a brown spine extension to their flared pantaloons and watching them peel a banana with their feet. It was as if the Maharishi himself had ceased being a fraud and manufactured a miracle before their googly eyes.

A short trip away from this head-spinning simian hotspot, youd find Hunter S. Thompson playing golf also while on Owsley Acid. But Thompson would also provide a cautionary talehis golf swing was reportedly explosive if not smooth, and his third drive was solid and long. Still, if he missed a putt, he would fling his club into the nearest body of water and proceed to blast the ball home with the 12-gauge shotgun he carried in his golf bag. He would later turn that shotgun on himself.

And that is a critical denouement that defies all the fun. You watched that high of the hippie thing descend into drug depression, Joni Mitchell once said. Right after Woodstock, then we went through a decade of basic apathy where my generation sucked its thumb and then just decided to be greedy and pornographic. In short, a generation of peace and love had stepped one toke over the line, and the fate of their revolution was dower after that.

Stanley III was finally arrested for his dealings in 1970. He remained in prison for two years. Therein, he learnt another trade. This time it was metalwork and jewellery-making. It seemed like the music scene had sobered up when he was released. As he stated: I found on my release from jail that the [Grateful Dead] crew, most of whom had been hired in my absence, did not want anything changed. No improvements for the sound, no new gear, nothing different on stage. They wanted to maintain the same old same old which under their limited abilities, they had memorised to the point where they could sleepwalk through shows.

The world was harsher now. He ventured on tour and found cities falling into some comic book dystopia. The prelapsarian dream of the sixties lay in ruin, like a long-forgotten civilisation that the History Channel will say was built by aliens and abandoned centuries from now, failing to mention his forsaken bathtub where it was all born. The zeitgeist, now, was one of gritty tumult and grimy turmoil. A barren field of dirt had supplanted flower power. Opiates had replaced opulent excesses, and the only ubiquitous munificent bounty that money couldnt buy was poverty. Sometimes you eat the Bear, and sometimes the Bear eats you.

In 1982, Stanley III believed a thermal cataclysm would render the Northern Hemisphere climatologically uninhabitable. As ever, he was always just trying to look a little too far ahead. Nevertheless, he moved to Australia and found himself a suitable realm. It was in the bush, where the only highways were imaginary. Here, he made his jewellery and would frequently fly back to the states, where he sold pieces of wearable art to Keith Richards and the likes at backstage bashes.

All the while, he continued to advocate an all-meat diet claiming that humans are born carnivores. And he lived happily with his wife, Sheilah. He met her when she was a clerk at the Grateful Deads ticket office. He lived a happy life out there until he died in a head-on collision in 2011. The bulk of his legacy, however, had died four decades earlier. Hunter S. Thompson was right when he lamented that his incarceration marked the death of the 1960s; it happened in 1970.

Theories are rampant about why his drug dealing was allowed to go on for so longwere the CIA aware that such exposure to LSD would curtail the movement? Theres no concrete evidence for any of these claims, so I wont go on. Theres nothing concrete about anything in his Rorschach blot of an existence. Thus, the mystery goes on, just like his indelible impact on culture and sound. That much is concrete, and theOwsley Stanley Foundationhas the tapes to prove it.

Follow Far Out Magazine across our social channels, onFacebook,TwitterandInstagram.

Most popular

See the original post:

Augustus Owsley Stanley III: The sound engineer who kickstarted the counterculture movement - Far Out Magazine

Shailene Woodley has never been shy about sharing what shes passionate about. The Emmy-nominated actor developed a passion for environmentalism at a young age. This manifests in a lot of different areas of her life. It makes the Big Little Lies alum very conscious of where she sources her food from and fuels her interest in herbalism. She even got arrested for protesting the Dakota Access pipeline back in 2016. Due to her love of nature, the actor earned the label of hippy early on in her career.

But hippy is hardly the only label used to describe Woodley. Fans of the Endings, Beginnings actor have also coined her way of life a crunchy granola lifestyle. This is due to some of the more unorthodox rituals that Woodley has put in place. The Divergent alum has spoken openly about everything from making her own tinctures, to eating clay, to suntanning her nether regions.

But what does Woodley think about her various labels? The Secret Life of the American Teenager alum revealed that they used to bother her early on in her career. However, as shes gotten older, shes embraced her hippy label with open arms. While speaking to The Guardian, Woodley got candid about this shift.

RELATED: Shailene Woodley Praises Friends for Tolerating Her Nomadic Lifestyle

I mean, Iusedto get offended by that, Woodley admitted. But now Im just like, Great, you want to call me a hippy? So many things about the hippy movement were f****** beautiful, Im all about it. Continuing on, Woodley shared that shes seen the shift in how environmentalism has slowly become a major part of the zeitgeist.

When I was talking about these things 10 or 15 years ago, it was before people knew what environmentalism was, Woodley explained. The most environmental thing you could do then was recycle. There wasnt a lot of narrative around these things. Soofcourseyoure going to be ostracized in some way, be labeled as other, because its not mainstream. Now? Every single f****** influencer or model or CEO is talking about this! Look, I dont take offense at being called The Hippy of Hollywood if it means one or two people are going to learn some things.

RELATED: Shailene Woodley Wore Almost No Makeup in 1 of Her Movies: It Added a Lot to the Film

And it seems that people are indeed learning from Woodleys lead. This is particularly true of the actors that she works with. Theo James, who starred opposite Woodley in the Divergent movies, shared that he learned to be more conscious of where his meat was sourced from. Clearly, Woodleys passionate nature is rubbing off on some of her peers. It seems that embracing her hippy label was the right move for the actor.

RELATED: Shailene Woodley Eats Clay, but How Much Does She Consume?

See the article here:

Shailene Woodley Used to Get Offended When People Called Her a Hippy - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Netflixs coming-of-age teen dramedy Never Have I Ever is entering its third season with the premiere dropping on the streamer this Friday. It follows the trials and tribulations of American Indian high-schooler Devi Vishwakumar (played by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) and her circle of friends attending Sherman Oaks High.

Of those close-knit friends are Fabiola and Eleanor, played by Lee Rodriguez and Ramona Young respectively. The two were recently in Phoenix to promote the show and answered some questions about the changing tide in female teen culture, the young men who affect that, and how their characters are changing the landscape of social acceptance.

There hasnt been a shortage of coming-of-age shows in the past 40-plus years. From Happy Days to The Wonder Years to every conservative parents worst nightmare, HBOs Euphoria, these programs hopefully give truthful insight into the current generations slice of life. Never Have I Everfits into a place between heavy drama and situational comedy.

Both Rodriguez and Young agree that their show is an apt representation of their zeitgeist.

I think there's a lot of like modern-day elements that are incorporated, says Rodriguez. And I know when Mindy [Kaling] first created the show, she really wanted to set it in modern times. And there are elements of that in our show in Season 3; there's like a lot of like texting, phone, DM stuff. So, that's very relevant.

Kaling is an actress, writer, director, and producer who shot to stardom on the popular American sitcom The Office. In 2020, she created Never Have I Ever alongside executive producer and writer Lang Fisher. The idea was to create a coming-of-age story that loosely resembled Kalings life as an Indian American teenager in Boston. It was praised for breaking stereotypes often depicted in popular media about that culture.

Although Fabiola and Eleanor are there for Devi, the partial personification of Kaling, they have their own personal arcs. For instance, Fabiola is a gay student trying to make her way through school. Rodriguez, 22, who came out publicly in 2020, says one of the things she loves about playing Fabiola isnt that shes openly gay; its how shes not stereotyped because of her identity. The actress says her experience was unlike her characters.

For me personally, I was clueless in high school, she explains. It wasnt until after high school where I was like, You know what, it is OK for me to, you know, like more than one gender. In high school, I just didn't think about it. And so, yeah, Fabiola is ahead of me personally. I wish I would have been more, I don't know, where I questioned myself a little bit more.

For Young, who plays Eleanor, the question isnt about her characters sexual orientation shes straight. Its what to wear to school every day. As the levelheaded one of the group, she keeps the peace, but her wardrobe can sometimes be flamboyant or distractingly colorful right down to the accessories. The question might be that with all the sartorial distractions, is it a diversion from something more personal?

Young, 24, says her character is just creative, but sometimes her clothes do define her mood. I think in Season 1, actually, there's an episode where Eleanor gets really depressed, and instead of dressing up, she wears all beige.

I wouldnt think too deeply about it, Young adds. I think most of that comes from the creative mind of Glinda [Suarez], who's a genius costume designer. Sometimes, she'll be like, 'I put this piece on you because it symbolizes this scene and this moment.' So, she does all of that. And I just get the joy of wearing all this awesome stuff.

Behind the adolescent drama of Never Have I Ever, there are strong female characters. Prominent still is how they deal with the males in their lives. The adult characters find themselves navigating through traditional cultural relationship tensions with the opposite sex. While the youngsters, in between math and English studies, have to contend with puberty, too.

Devi is a tad insecure with her once-womanizing boyfriend Paxton (Darren Barnet), who is also a fellow student. While the series other prominent male character, the academic-minded Ben (Jaren Lewison), harbors feelings for Devi himself. The males in the series lean heavily on their female counterparts for support, but they also seem to be the cause of all the problems.

With the #MeToo movement and the fight for womens rights currently at the forefront of American politics, what message does this send about toxic masculinity and gender roles in the modern age? Young is quick to defend the show.

I think there is a lot of development and growth happening in both the female and male characters, says Young. I know, like maybe Fabiola and Eleanor are far from perfect and the same with Ben and Paxton; we're all just figuring it out.

Now that Season 3 is a wrap, both Rodriguez and Young are free to perform in other projects. While Young is having the time of her life doing shorts, and venturing out into writing, Rodriguez says she will continue acting and delving further into her music career. Lee is one of the most talented musicians I have ever heard in my whole life, says Young.

Rodriguez is also an environmental activist who finds the recent Supreme Court rulings against the Environmental Protection Agency disappointing, saying, It does get a little depressing, but I mean all you can do is keep fighting and keep using your voice.

For fans of Never Have I Ever, there is good news and bad news about the future of the show. Young says, Were going to do our fourth season its going to be our fourth and final.

There is no word on when that season will air. But all episodes of this upcoming season are scheduled to start streaming on Friday, August 12.

Follow this link:

Never Have I Ever Co-Stars Visit Phoenix, Talk About Their Netflix Hit Teenage Dramedy - Phoenix New Times