Capitalism has Failed: 5 Bold Ways to Build a New World… Interesting stuff. I especially love the end, which poo poos the idea of a revolution. I hate lefties that think a big sweeping revolution is the answer. Revolutions lead to chaos, and a power vacuum filled by those most organised or those most violent. Or just leads to a million problems you never foresaw. I back conservatives on this one - slow organic change is smarter and safer. I think that makes the most sense.
So it’s settled. We’ll build a safer, greener world order incrementally like the article I found on the internet suggests. *drinks warm cocoa*
There’s a disconnect with President Obama.
On one hand my pants are charmed right off when I see him giggle or flirt with Michelle or call Kanye a jackass. And yet this endearing, intelligent man is causing unnecessary horror. I’m talking about his use of drone attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan among other places (but I could also be talking about the detention of Bradley Manning without trial, or his decision to break his election promise and keep the Azkabanian Guantanamo Bay prison open). These drones, a controversial form of warfare which Obama has embraced more eagerly than George W Bush did, have been intentionally killing innocent civilians including children, rescuers, mourners and wedding parties.
Predator drones are essentially autopiloted missiles/planes that the US can guide to their targets from the comfort of a US base. Because there is no risk to American lives, drones have been unleashed with reckless abandon. And because there is no risk to American lives, drones have not attracted much interest from mainstream media. The enormous risk to Pakistani or Afghan lives does not sell newspapers. In short, we now have a form of warfare where you can cause enourmous destruction and feel none of the consequences.
The problem is not that there is a disconnect between his glowing image and monstrous acts. It’s the fact that his glowing image is being used to conceal his monstrous acts. And he is doing it so effectively. I know he is causing unspeakable suffering to innocent people somewhere far away (in another country, in a detention cell, in a torture chamber) but right in front of me, all I can see is him singing Al Green, asking Betty White for her birth certificate, and calling Kanye a jackass (again).
It feels like a form of sensory deprivation, but this time used for the opposite of torture. All my senses are being overloaded with fun images of pop culture and toothy grins, which making it so much easier to crowd out the images of unimaginable suffering - images I could never even get my head around in the first place and we’d all, frankly (and wrongly), rather ignore.
Dear Doctors for the Family,
As you are well aware, doctors hold high esteem in our society and so when they form an alliance and partake in a debate their point of view is treated with reverence. As a lawyer, I do not hold society’s high esteem (fair call, society). But I do have a knack for sniffing out flawed arguments. With that being the case, I would like to set my nose to your letter to the Senate on Marriage Equality, dated 28 March 2012.
Firstly, your assertion that ‘children who grow up in a family with a mother and father do better in all parameters than children without’ is misleading. You credit this finding to Professor Parkinson who, sick of his work being misused by anti-gay marriage advocates, has clarified that his report ‘did not engage in any criticism about same-sex relationships of any kind.’ If anything, his comparisons were between the wide variety of straight parenting combos – divorced parents, step-parents, bickering parents, long-distance parents, and so forth. It was not sexuality-specific. Why would you rely on this research, which does not set out to compare straight and gay parents, when there is a plethora of research, which does? Perhaps because you are aware that that research shows that there is no difference between the wellbeing of children whether raised by gays or straights. Indeed, there is research suggesting that children of lesbian couples fare better overall than those of straight couples (which I guess suggests the problem is simply men, amiright ladies?).
This child’s sign calls Gaga an ‘evil queen’ and ‘zionist agent.’
Lady Gaga has been banned from performing in Jakarta after Islamic groups pressured police to refuse her permit. Salim Alatas, the Jakarta head of the Islamic Defender Front claims Lady Gaga is ‘the envoy of the devil’s child and that she will spread satanic teaching.’
This is the first time such protests against a western artist in Indonesia has been successful. Some are rattled at this demonstration of the clout of (radical) Islamic groups in the country. While Indonesia has the largest Muslim population of any country in the world it is still a secular state.
My thoughts are with all the Little Monsters in Jakarta.
Interestingly, Grace Jones, a Jamaican born artist, was actively working in the Parisian fashion world as a model at the time she moved into performance art. Her involvement and popularity in the Parisian fashion world as a spectacle, being a model, may be compared with the likes of Josephine Baker and Saarjite Baartman before her, black females whose bodies became the locus of the Parisian imagination.
Jones’ bold and often confrontational dress and performance style played with and disrupted primitivist myths about black sexuality. In collaboration with artists like Jean-Paul Goude and Keith Haring, Jones transformed her body into medley characters, many of which satirized a primitivist reading of the black female body. The multiple personas of Grace Jones ranged widely from overly sexualized dance performances in which she donned a gorilla or tiger suit to very masculinized self- representations.
Since we’re all on an Avengers high, now is the perfect time for a close look at the fascinating sometimes-Avenger: The Black Panther, Marvel’s first black (/African) superhero. Specifically, let’s look at the 2010 BET animated TV series, Black Panther, because the politics in it are, frankly, stunning.
What politics? Well, here’s the premise: The Black Panther is the leader of the fictional African nation, Wakanda. Wakanda is the exclusive home to a precious mineral called vibranium, an impenetrable metal with exceptional properties, and so The Black Panther’s job is to protect Wakanda’s borders from bastards that want to invade and exploit its riches. This includes French colonialists, ruthless mercenaries and, in the TV series, the modern U.S. government.
This premise serves as a springboard for thinly-concealed commentary on US foreign policy and the problems with Western intervention in African nations. Specifically, Black Panther seems to me to be a love letter to the battered ideology of protectionism. Here’s a quick and (over)simplistic rundown: In the mid-20th century, when developing countries in Africa and Asia were freeing themselves of their colonial ties, many opted for protectionism. This is an economic policy to limit the amount of trade externally and instead focus on getting the economy pumping internally (eg. place high taxes on imports/exports so people are inclined to support local business and local businesses will trade with each other and build off each others’ development). Generally speaking, the protectionist policies in many of these countries were a success. But they were rudely interrupted by Western foreign powers that wanted access to their resources and access to their markets. So free market ideology was thrust upon them — sometimes violently — to get them to fling open their borders (eg. IMF loans only given out if countries open themselves up to trade; coups/dictators get the backing/resources of foreign powers if they promise to support free trade policies when in power).
So the series asks a big “what if?”: What if there was a country in Africa untouched by Western intervention? What could it look like today? Black Panther presents Wakanda as the (exaggerated for comic book purposes) utopian answer—a thriving technologically/medically/culturally/economically advanced African nation which gained such prosperity, not only from following a strict protectionist policy, but by rejecting any imperialist impulses of their own that come with power. Wakanda does not use its extraordinary achievements and technological know-how to conquer its neighbours. Instead, it treats its natural resources as a treasure that needs to be protected for the good of the world. The Black Panther makes clear in the series that Western nations (and several neighbouring African ones) cannot be trusted to use vibranium for peaceful constructive purposes.
While the series champions a pro-protectionism stance, Black Panther goes for the jugular when depicting US foreign policy. The US government is portrayed as nakedly imperialist—disrespectful of Wakanda’s sovereignty, motivated by delusions of entitlement to Wakanda’s natural resources and willing to play dirty and team up with dodgy figures to get its way. In my opinion, however, the series stumbles by blaming these flaws on the Bush Administration specifically, rather than acknowledging that such traits have been a common theme in U.S. foreign policy well before President Bush (Jr. or Sr.) and have been a common theme after.
Apart from that gripe, Black Panther is everything you’d hope pop culture could be. It places non-American people of colour at the centre of the story with agency and kick-assiness, embeds the story with interesting, relevant ideas about developing countries and the rights of their people and governments, and while the whole thing is drenched in politics it doesn’t take away a smidgeon of the entertainment value you’d expect from a comic-book action series. Watch the first episode below.
The Pentagon and the CIA have been offering advice, resources and even state-of-the-art military aircraft to Hollywood (and Katy Perry) for decades. In doing so, it has attempted to control the way the US military and the US Government are portrayed on screen. In Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down (2001), for example, in exchange for this help, a character based on a real-life soldier who had also been a child rapist lost that part of his backstory when he came to the screen. For a more detailed look at the connection between the the Pentagon and Hollywood check out this article from The Guardian.
While the Pentagon have been willing to help Hollywood in exchange for some positive PR, they weren’t willing to help Hollywood’s latest blockbuster superhero crew, The Avengers. The reason? The Defense Department didn’t think a movie about comic book heroes, Norse Gods and intergalactic invasions was sufficiently realistic in its treatment of military bureaucracy.
“We couldn’t reconcile the unreality of this international organization and our place in it,” Phil Strub, the Defense Department’s Hollywood liaison, tells Danger Room. “To whom did SHIELD answer? Did we work for SHIELD? We hit that roadblock and decided we couldn’t do anything” with the film.
That’s a pretty ridiculous problem. For the full poop, check out Wired’s article here.
The man on the left is more interesting.
Didier Drogba is a footballer from the Ivory Coast, who played a vital role ending a civil war and bringing peace to his country. Moments after leadinghis nation to the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany back in October 2005 as captain, Drogba decided instinctively to take advantage of his country’s attention and the emotional wave they were on after the victory. He picked up a microphone in the dressing room and, surrounded by his team-mates, fell to his knees live on national television. He begged both warring factions to lay down their arms. It worked. Within a week, his bold wish had been granted.
Drogba then helped move the African Cup of Nations qualifier to the rebel stronghold of Bouake, bringing the warring leaders together to have to celebrate their nation and its sports stars. It was a move that helped cement the peace process after the cease fire. In September 2011, Drogba joined the Truth, Reconciliation and Dialogue Commission as a representative to help return peace to his home nation. Check out more information here.
UPDATE: There’s a doco making the festival rounds right now called The Beautiful Game which looks at the profound power soccer/football has in Africa. Drogba’s story is featured in it. Check it out at a festival near you! Cheers Scrumtruelescent for the heads up!
EXTRA-UPDATE: Fifigoggo has put me in my place about what a simplification it is to say that football ‘saved’ a country. I didn’t mean it as flippantly as that but she has nicely added context, that while Drogba’s actions led to great improvements there are still significant troubles in the Ivory Coast as civil war. We both agree however that Drogba is a legend, and that we should all want to have his babies. Check out her comments here.