Storm over Shakespeare’s Tempest as ‘decolonising’ experts say it could be harmful to audiences - "The Tempest could be “harmful” to audiences because of its violent colonial themes, experts have claimed, as part of a theatre project at The Globe to decolonise Shakespeare’s work. The 17th-century play, which focuses on magic and shipwrecks on a remote island, is embedded in a “system of settler colonialism”, according to academics taking part in the theatre’s Anti-Racist Shakespeare programme. It is claimed that scenes such as Prospero arriving at the play’s island setting and suppressing its inhabitants, and the spirit Ariel and the monstrous Caliban, have “violent colonial implications”. The alleged colonial themes in The Tempest are among those that make William Shakespeare’s work “capable of harm” for modern audiences, say the experts... Ms Sayet suggested that in order to stage an “anti-racist” version of The Tempest, producers should ask questions, including “Where does the power live?” and “How do we dismantle oppression in this scene?”. Dr Manning Stevens highlighted the “insistence” on the “monstrosity” of Caliban as a problem in the play, which could be addressed by casting a “beautiful” actor in the role of the enslaved islander...
The idea that theatre can harm you is an anti-theatrical argument that has been around since the earliest London playhouses were built, with their warnings of corruption and plague. Talk of harm is the rhetoric of antitheatricalism - that it’s either going to corrupt you morally or it’s going to kill you But theatres have always been volatile places, not least in Shakespeare’s day when masses would be packed into the “O”, and Shakespeare is always about challenging us - we always have antagonism, we always have an argument on our hands, and nothing is going to work simply by consensus. Out of that conflict comes what we, the audience, think about it."
If you can be harmed by a classic play, you need help
Fair is foul for Shakespeare as his texts are deemed ‘racially problematic’ - "William Shakespeare's plays are “problematic” for linking whiteness to beauty, experts have claimed as part of a Globe Theatre project to decolonise his work. The London theatre has launched a series of “Anti-racist Shakespeare” seminars aimed at “decolonising the plays” to remove barriers that may hinder their enjoyment or performance. A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been deconstructed by academics in the first seminar and found to display “problematic gendered and racialized dynamics”. Academics have claimed that Shakespeare's verse creates a “dark/light binary” which casts dark as negative but being white, or “fair”, as positive... Andrews University Prof Corredera claimed that: “Every play is a race play, as whiteness is part of every play. A Midsummer Night’s Dream has a number of character groups, including fairy royalty, lovers fleeing from Athens, and “Rude Mechanicals” who endeavor to put on a play within a play. Each of these groups can be viewed “intersectionally” through the “dominant racialized modes that each of these groups animates”, Prof Corredera explained. These include elements of “Orientalism” in the squabble between the fairy king Oberon and his queen Titania over a voiceless Indian Boy character, which also suggests elements of “colonialism” in the work... Shakespearean scholar Sir Stanley Wells disagreed with the reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream, telling The Telegraph: “I think the terms fair and dark are very multivalent words. “Fair can mean fair of skin, or in the aesthetic sense of beautiful, or in the behavioural sense. The contrast of light and dark is also, I would say, a human universal. “I think Shakespeare plays with these different meanings, and these different shades of meaning. “I would not represent Shakespeare as a racist, I think he is far more subtle in his portrayal of characters than that. “We do see language such as Ethiope and Moor which could be seen as racist. But there is a difference between the racism of a character and the racism of the writer who is making them speak.”"
So much for the 'myth' of the slippery slope
Now they want to ‘decolonise’ Shakespeare - "Debates about race in Shakespeare are nothing new, of course. But rarely have they been this simplistic. There’s no room here for nuance or complexity. Instead, Shakespeare, responsible for some of the world’s greatest artistic achievements, has been reduced to just another promulgator of ‘whiteness’. It is undeniable that race plays a role in Shakespeare’s work. Take Othello, for example. There Shakespeare uses racial epithets such as ‘thick lips’ and ‘sooty bosom’. Yet it is far too simplistic to see this language as proof of Shakespeare’s racist worldview. For these words and phrases are often used by characters the audience is invited to dislike. So when Iago (surely a contender for the title of Shakespeare’s most evil character) says to Brabantio of Othello that ‘an old black ram / Is tupping your white ewe’, the audience is being encouraged to side against Iago and his racialised insults, not agree with them. Like Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare also grants Othello the opportunity to display his intelligence and mastery of language. So Othello describes how he wooed Desdemona: ‘She’ld come again, and with a greedy ear / Devour up my discourse’. In doing this, surely Shakespeare could be said to be challenging racial stereotypes around the perceived savagery and lack of civilisation of black people? In fact, it is telling that we are still debating whether Shakespeare was drawing attention to racial injustices and stereotyping, or merely expressing the prejudices of his age. This is a testament to the brilliant complexity of his work, and the space it opens up for the audience to interpret it. Sadly, it is precisely this complexity that is being ignored when people are told that a play like A Midsummer Night’s Dream is racialised because it uses words like ‘light’ and ‘dark’. This approach to literature also denies the simple truth that language and opinions change and shift over time. That’s why Shakespeare’s work continues to evolve and develop, too. In the past 100 years alone, Shakespeare’s plays have been subverted, turned on their head, and remoulded through all kinds of adaptations. Aimé Césaire’s 1969 take on The Tempest, Une Tempête, subverted Caliban’s position as the colonised. Helen Mirren’s portrayal of a female Prospero, re-named Prospera, in 2010 posed an interesting challenge to gender roles in The Tempest. When these adaptations are good, they seamlessly respect Shakespeare’s work while inviting audiences to think about the way in which the words can shift their meaning in different, exciting contexts. When they’re done badly – like The Globe’s ‘blind casting’ of Hamlet and As You Like It under Michelle Terry’s directorship in 2018 – you stop thinking about Shakespeare altogether. And this seems to be happening again with the Globe’s attempt to decolonise the Bard. There is something narcissistic about this latest attempt to make classic literature mirror contemporary sensibilities. Shakespeare’s Globe says its seminars will ‘empower’ its audience to ‘find a way into the conversation of anti-racism’. But should that really be the Globe’s objective? It seems that instead of nurturing a love of Shakespeare in the next generation, the Globe seems to be happy to sacrifice him in order to honour its corporate commitment to ‘making the Globe a truly anti-racist organisation’. This will do little to further a serious discussion about racism and politics in 2021, and even less to enthuse young people about Shakespeare. That’s a tragedy worthy of the man himself."
CA podcaster gets visit from police after AOC tweet - "A left-wing, anti-war activist says he was left “shaken” after two police officers came to his apartment in California last week, accusing him of threatening Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter... Ocasio-Cortez’s office has publicly asked for help in identifying critics in the past, however. On Feb. 4, her campaign emailed supporters asking them to “scan your social media to find posts with misleading information” about the congresswoman, and “use the built-in report feature to flag them for moderators.” Previously, in February 2019, AOC tweeted that her office was being flooded with “bigoted calls” and said it “forwards all the threats to Capitol Police to build files.”"
It's only bad when Republicans do it
Kellie Chauvin and a history of Asian women being judged for whom they marry
Of course, it's always open season for the white men who date Asian women
This Is What A Cup Of Tea Looks Like In 22 Different Countries - "Mauritania’s version of the popular north African mint green tea has a specific serving ritual. Drinkers take three cups each, increasing the sweetness of every new cup, so that you start bitter and end sweet."
The Ghost Airline That Has Linked Cairo and Tel Aviv for Decades - " The unmarked plane belonged to Air Sinai, which only flies between Cairo and Tel Aviv. In 1979, Israel and Egypt signed a historic peace treaty, overseen by the United States, which inaugurated diplomatic relations between the two countries and made Egypt the first Arab nation to recognize the State of Israel. Air Sinai, founded in 1982, fulfills a term in the treaty that had to be implemented within three years of signing: the two countries must maintain active civilian aviation routes—meaning there always had to be a direct flight between Israel and Egypt. It just didn’t have to be public. “Virtually all of the Arab world boycotted Egypt after the treaty,” explains Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer, who oversaw the fulfillment of the treaty terms as the U.S. ambassador to Egypt from 1979 to 1982. He added that this reaction by neighboring countries, plus the general animosity towards Israel among Egyptian citizens, made Egypt reluctant to fly the Cairo-Tel Aviv route publicly on its national carrier, EgyptAir, which was a leading airline throughout the Arab world. “Part of Egypt’s calculation was that such a visible link poured vinegar on the situation,” he says. That reluctance led to the creation of Air Sinai, which allowed Egypt to fulfill the terms of the treaty without directly implicating EgyptAir. Air Sinai used EgyptAir pilots, planes, and flight attendants, operating under a wet-lease agreement that effectively meant no difference between the two airlines, except on paper. Caution was still taken: The lack of any external logos on the planes afforded some privacy to the flight, and many have wondered if the Egyptian military keeps tabs on travelers between the two countries. Ambassador Kurtzer said he wouldn’t be surprised if the Egyptian military has some stake in the airline. The reluctance also meant extreme privacy around Air Sinai’s existence. For most of its history, anybody looking online for tickets between Cairo and Tel Aviv would find a host of options for airlines offering indirect flights with stops in places like Amman, Jordan or Istanbul, Turkey. They might find a few references to a direct flight operated by an airline called Air Sinai, but any attempt to book it would end in a message to call a travel agent or contact the airline directly. The problem with that advice was that Air Sinai had no website, no public schedule of flights, and no mechanism for online bookings. There was no number to call. Though the airline had technically been a subsidiary of EgyptAir since 2002, EgyptAir pretended there was no connection. The only way to book a ticket through Air Sinai, for those in the know, was to go through a full-service travel agency or email the company, having found their address through word of mouth. An employee would then ask for a scan of your passport and an international wire transfer to cover the cost of the ticket... In February 2020, flyairsinai.com popped up. Suddenly, anybody had the option to book an Air Sinai flight. Passengers could select any of the daily flights without needing to send emails back and forth to someone in the Air Sinai office. They could even use credit cards. While one could see this as a sign of increased warmth between Israel and Egypt, the transparency isn’t quite there. The website describes itself as a third-party travel agency only. There is no listed contact information, nor any social media presence. The site and its web developer are based in the United Kingdom. When asked directly about flyairsinai.com, an Air Sinai employee responsible for booking tickets denied having any connection to the site, though she added an emoji smiley face to the end of her email. She then stopped responding to any requests for comments. By all accounts, the planes remain unmarked."
John Walker Actor Wyatt Russell is Receiving Death Threats for Playing Captain America
Too bad he's a white man, so liberals can't pretend that this is due to sexism/racism
Jamil Jivani: Viewers trusted Larry King. Today's media should think about why - "On one of the final episodes of Larry King Live, comedian Jon Stewart congratulated Larry King for leaving CNN. “You made the right choice. You’re the last guy out of a burning building.” It was a joke, but also telling of the direction of mainstream media. The credibility of journalists has eroded dramatically since King’s 25-year run on cable news came to an end in 2010. In fact, for the first time ever, the majority of Americans don’t trust traditional media, according to the most recent Edelman Trust Barometer... Back in 2010, few could have predicted how polarizing American politics would become. But King and Stewart were concerned about polarization back then. King pressed Stewart to share the motivation behind a rally that he and Stephen Colbert organized in Washington, D.C. Stewart explained, “Seventy-five to eight-five per cent of the country are reasonable people who get along. They may not agree on things, but can do things … And the other 15 per cent control (the country), the dialogue, the legislation.”... King also asked Stewart about early examples of cancel culture (the term wasn’t in vogue at the time). CNN had just fired on-air personality Rick Sanchez for calling Stewart a bigot. King asked, “Were you hurt by (Sanchez) calling you a bigot?” Stewart refused to attack Sanchez’s livelihood or encourage calls to “cancel” him. With a smirk, Stewart said, “no.” It was a measured, considerate conversation. The kind that we desperately need more of, in light of the latest firings at The New York Times and the Niskanen Center over misguided social media posts. King and Stewart recognized that Sanchez made bigoted comments of his own, but didn’t lose sight of the reality that Sanchez is a human being who needs to earn a living. They wrestled with how and why a person should be fired. Stewart also questioned CNN’s motives. The clear-eyed discussion about early cancel culture is partly due to King’s healthy approach to engaging with Twitter. The social media app was relatively new while Larry King Live was on the air, but King did reference it on his show. Stewart found this use of Twitter to be unnecessary; asking why King would need to refer to Twitter when asking him a question. King replied, “We like to involve the audience. It’s a gimmick.” Yes, a gimmick! If only more people in the news business had maintained King’s perspective on social media. Journalists now see Twitter as a primary tool of communication, and where the standards of political correctness and journalistic ethics are decided. Author Bari Weiss put it masterfully when resigning from America’s supposed paper of record: “Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor.” Certainly, the same can be said for many other publications that bow to Twitter mobs or erroneously use Twitter to gauge public opinions on important topics."
Why China can build high-speed rail so cheaply - "In under a decade, China has built a high-speed rail network totalling more than 10,000km. It eclipses every other country’s high-speed network and even that of the entire European Union. Not only that, to build it China spent two-thirds or less what other countries have spent. According to a World Bank paper published last week, China’s high-speed rail so far has cost between $17m and $21m per kilometre, even though it has a high ratio of big-ticket viaducts and tunnels. In Europe that figure is $25m-$39m per kilometre, while in California, the only US state currently planning a high-speed line, it’s more like $56m/km. Some of the reasons are not surprising. For instance, in a country where according to the World Bank 978 million people lived on less than $5 a day in 2008, labour has been cheap. And in an authoritarian state like China, the cost of moving people out of the way is low. The paper’s authors note that site work and right-of-way costs in litigious California are around $10m/km, or 17.6% of the total cost, while in China land acquisition and resettlement costs are below 8% of project cost. But other reasons may be more interesting both to the developed world and to regions like Africa that are sorely in need of transformative infrastructure. For one thing, the sheer scale of China’s rail programme and the state’s firm commitment to it unleashed the country’s technical and manufacturing capabilities. The declaration of a credible plan to build 10,000 km of high-speed rail over six to seven years energised the construction and equipment supply community, the paper says. Assured of very high volumes, companies and state institutions ramped up capacity quickly and invested in innovative techniques... “Further, large volumes and the ability to amortize capital investment in high-cost construction equipment over a number of projects contributed to the lowering of unit costs.” The Chinese government also has the clout to standardise designs – for embankments, track, viaducts, electrification, signalling and communication systems – which cuts cost and duplication of effort."