Andrew Bayliss On Sparta

Andrew Bayliss On Sparta | HistoryExtra Podcast - HistoryExtra

"‘Pederasty is a common practice in the ancient Greek world. And it was clearly a practice, while being common that had controversy about it. So it's, it's something that's debated, and discussed in primary sources about Sparta but also about other parts of the Greek world. So it's, if you think about what's going on there, the primary sources report this relationship between an adolescent boy and an older man as a form of education, that's what's Xenophon, who wrote a constitution of Sparta, says straight up. He talks about it in the context, he uses the word education. But he's a bit vague about what actually happens in that education process. And that tells you already, there's something that people are uncomfortable about here. It clearly had a mentoring process. 

One of our later sources Plutarch says that when a boy was fighting and cried out in an undignified fashion, the Spartan officials punished his older mentor, because he hadn't followed the rules properly. So clearly, it was about teaching them how to do things, but there was obviously a sense of some sort of sexual activity going on in Sparta and elsewhere in the ancient Greek world. Because Xenophon goes out of his way to tell you that it wasn't sexual in Sparta, and he says that it definitely wasn't sexual. And he stresses that so much that you start to doubt that he might be telling you the truth there. And the obvious counter argument is Plato, in, when discussing his ideal society says, when it comes to sex, Sparta is not our role model. And it's so obvious, that Plato, who was very uncomfortable with the idea of, of what we would see as pedophilia was, was not the right thing to do. 

But it was actually comparatively normal in the ancient Greek world. Xenophon when discussing this says Spartans, not like Ilas [sp?], also in southern Greece or Thebes, in central Greece, where sex between men and boys was normal. So there was clearly some parts of Greece where it was more acceptable than in others, and that's why Xenophon’s trying to stress that it wasn't sexual there.’...

‘How typical or atypical was Sparta of the Greek societies at the time?’

‘So, if you read a book published in the 1980s, or earlier, it would say totally different. And in the last 30 years, modern scholarship is, is diminishing the gap between Sparta and the rest of the Greek world quite significantly. So many aspects of Spartan society can look very odd when you start off looking at them. But the more I sort of dig into there, the deeper you get into the primary sources, and the more carefully you ask the questions, the more you can see, Sparta is not as abnormal as it's often presented.

And it comes down to how you frame your questions in many ways, because so many of the sources for Ancient Greece come from Athens. That you get, it's really easy to compare a place like Sparta to Athens and say, oh, that's different to Athens. Oh, that's different to Athens, or that's different to Athens. Therefore, it's really different. But if you actually start comparing Sparta to other parts of the Peloponnese, central Greek cities, and other aspects of different city states, you then find, well, actually, so many aspects of Spartan society aren't near as different as you think they might be. And one of the obvious ones is politics. Athens is democracy. Sparta is an oligarchy with two kings. Clearly, it's very, very different. But there were loads of oligarchies in the ancient Greek world, Athens was not, was not the norm. When Athens developed into a democracy to begin with, it was the exception'...

‘What would you see as the end point of the Spartan heyday? And how did that come about?’...

‘370, or thereabouts... that's coincides with two great events. One of them is the Battle of Leuctra in 371, where the Spartans are defeated by the Thebans. And that's, that's the moment when any aura or mystique that the Spartan army had is gone. Because of the manner of that defeat, it's a disastrous defeat, they literally run away in battle. The next day, the Spartan King... has to suspend the laws about cowards because he would have basically had to make almost the entire Spartan citizen population cowards because they'd run away in battle. And the following summer, the Thebans swept into the Peloponnese, and they freed the Messenians from Spartan rule, and that basically, it halved the size of the Spartan state, and it took away a huge chunk of their slave population, and it basically ended Spartan power... 

How that happened is not just military defeat, it’s steep decline in numbers of Spartan citizens, which commenced in the fifth century, and rapidly accelerated up until that point in time. So at the time of the Battle of the battle of Thermopylae, Herodotus says there were 8000 Spartan citizens, there might have been a bit fewer than that. But by the time you get to the Battle of Leuctra, there's only 1500… Aristotle says Sparta perished due to small numbers of men...

*Goes on on the appeal of Spartans to sports teams* Spartan eugenic practices was something that appealed to Hitler. And then you combine that with that military prowess, then it's working quite quite nicely as as a role model in that way... In the Soviet era, Sparta looked like a proto communist society where they had divided up the land allegedly into equal plots, and everyone was equal, yet they were all citizens who were prepared to defend Spartan territory, and that was a model that appealed to people within the Soviet Union as well. 

And part of that came also from the identification of the West with the Athenians, a an imperialistic maritime power, you can see where, where people are scholars in America and Britain could identify with Athens as a democratic state with a massive fleet. Whereas Sparta was this sort of backward seeming land based economy, which could easily be be identified with the Soviet Union as well. So it depends on the perspective that people are coming from. I always have to warn my students eventually, that I don't admire the Spartans beyond the certain level because their society is a horrible one. And yes, they fight on the right side of Thermopylae, but too often they were prepared to trample on the rights of everyone else to get what they wanted...

It's not the best preserved ancient Greek city by any means, which is quite interesting when you think about the fact that Thucydides, writing about it towards the end of the fifth century, said that in future years, if only the foundations of the two cities survived, no one would ever believe that Sparta was as powerful as it was, and everyone would think that Athens was twice as powerful as it was, and he was right. Because when you go to Athens, you see the Parthenon, you see the Acropolis, you see all these temples everywhere, and you just think wow, this city state was amazing, you go to Sparta, and the remains are very meager and and the foundations of the temples are remarkably small compared to Athens. So Sparta, Sparta was not a dramatic urban landscape. Sparta was really a collection of villages that got lumped together to form an urban center. But it wasn't, architecture wasn't their thing. Art wasn't their thing.’"

Links - 15th August 2021 (2)

Where the STEM Jobs Are (and Where They Aren’t) - The New York Times - "In the decade ending in 2024, 73 percent of STEM job growth will be in computer occupations, but only 3 percent will be in the physical sciences and 3 percent in the life sciences. A working grasp of the principles of science and math should be essential knowledge for all Americans, said Michael S. Teitelbaum, an expert on science education and policy. But he believes that STEM advocates, often executives and lobbyists for technology companies, do a disservice when they raise the alarm that America is facing a worrying shortfall of STEM workers, based on shortages in a relative handful of fast-growing fields like data analytics, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and computer security... Unemployment rates for STEM majors may be low, but not all of those with undergraduate degrees end up in their field of study — only 13 percent in life sciences and 17 percent in physical sciences, according to a 2013 National Science Foundation survey. Computer science is the only STEM field where more than half of graduates are employed in their field."
Yet people want to send even more students to do STEM, imagining that this will be a silver bullet

'Dune' Adaptation Accused of Erasing Middle Eastern Actors - "Filmmaker Lexi Alexander dryly tweeted: “A film about Middle East culture, shot in the Middle East, without a single Middle Eastern actor in sight. Can’t wait.”'
Dune isn't even set on earth. When you run out of things to complain about, you just invent new ones. So much for the "myth" of the slippery slope

Meme - "Journalist Katie:Friendly reminder to you "gamers' out there. #Feminism #Journalism Dear Gamers: You shouldn't be video games. The chemical that your brain produces when you play video games is the same chemical that your brain produces when you commit murder. (Adrenaline). Gaming is literally condoning violence by programming you to be addicted to the high you get from it & eventually you'll end up committing a crime just to be able to feel that high again."

弌果両汁 memes for 中国の青壮年 - Posts | Facebook - "Fuck the Latin alphabet, all my homies use phonetic approximation with Hanzi"

The Icy Village Where You Must Remove Your Appendix - "There’s a settlement in Antarctica with a school, a post office and a huddle of homes. It’s like other sub-zero villages, except for one thing: families must have surgery to move in... Appendix removal is a necessary precaution for the handful of people who stay longer-term because the nearest major hospital is more than 1,000km (625 miles) away, past the tip of King George Island and on the other side of the Southern Ocean’s icy swell. There are only a few doctors on base, and none are specialist surgeons... Getting pregnant is discouraged – at least in the military – because it’d be too risky."

Berlin terror attack: Man shouting "Allahu akbar!" deliberately mows down motorbikers - "Several crashes that brought a motorway in Berlin to a standstill last night may have been a terror attack, prosecutors in Germany suspect.Six people were injured, three of them seriously, when a 30-year-old motorist drove into a number of vehicles along a stretch of the German capital’s motorway in a black Opel Astra.After running over two motorcyclists at roughly 6.35pm local time the attacker stopped his car, got out and shouted "Allahu akbar"... The attacker is believed to be of Iraqi descent and has been named in German media as Sarmad A... there were also indications that the 30-year-old suspect with an Iraqi citizenship had psychological problems."
I thought liberals tell us only white attackers are said to have mental problems
We may never know why he did it

‘Whatever Happened to the Metric System?’ by John Bemelmans Marciano - The New York Times - "In the 1970s, children across America were learning the metric system at school, gas stations were charging by the liter, freeway signs in some states gave distances in kilometers, and American metrication seemed all but inevitable. But Dean Krakel, director of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma, saw things differently: “Metric is definitely Communist,” he solemnly said. “One monetary system, one language, one weight and measurement system, one world — all Communist.” Bob Greene, syndicated columnist and founder of the WAM! (We Ain’t Metric) organization, agreed. It was all an Arab plot “with some Frenchies and Limeys thrown in,” he wrote... Stewart Brand, publisher of the Whole Earth Catalog, advised that the proper response to the meter was to “bitch, boycott and foment,” and New York’s cultural elite danced at the anti-metric “Foot Ball.” Assailed from both right and left, the United States Metric Board gave up the fight and died a quiet death in 1982... the struggle lasted not a decade but centuries. And in what was to me the book’s greatest revelation, the meter — that alleged vehicle of international Communism — turns out to be American through and through.The father of American metrication was none other than Thomas Jefferson, who in the 1780s turned his attention to replacing the menagerie of doubloons, pistoles and Spanish dollars then in use in the states... the United States became the first country to adopt the decimal system for its currency... As France descended into terror and war, the metric system became entangled in a worldwide struggle over its legacy. To its supporters it stood for reason and democracy; to its detractors, godlessness and the guillotine. It was not until the aftermath of World War II, when new global institutions were established and a host of new nations adopted the meter, that its place as the near-universal measure was secured. In America, however, repeated efforts at metrication, from Jefferson to Jimmy Carter, were scuttled by a formidable combination of hostility and indifference. According to Marciano the debate is now over, since the digital revolution has made conversion instantaneous and a change of system pointless. Still, as his book beautifully shows, clashes over the meter were more often about ideology, not utility"    

Virginia Kindergarteners Will Learn About Slavery Along With Alphabet, Thanks To Curriculum Designed With SPLC - "Virginia kindergarteners and elementary school students in the wealthiest part of the country will be taught about “social justice” alongside their usual curriculum of reading, writing, and basic math starting this upcoming school year.A copy of the new curriculum, obtained by The Washington Free Beacon, will teach children as young as 5 about institutional racism. The curriculum was developed in part by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) Teaching Tolerance. The SPLC has a long history of branding non-bigoted groups as hateful based on ideological differences. The organization is also currently grappling with allegations of racism and sexism, which resulted in two of its top leader leaving the center last year... The curriculum also appears designed to turn young children into activists at an early age.“Students should study examples of role models from the past and present, and ask themselves, ‘how can I make a difference?'”...
'A longtime elementary school teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said that the school system had always taught students about the reality of slavery—lessons that typically begin in the fourth grade. She said the administrative focus to push racial politics on students who do not yet know how to read is motivated by politics, rather than education.'... “What they’re really trying to do is divide people as early as they can, starting now with kindergarteners. They’re really going to be inciting hate,” the teacher said of the new social-justice curriculum. “They’re pointing out that there’s ‘whiteness’ and ‘blackness’ and that’s crazy. We never taught about that in school…. We learn about how to get along with one another and be kind and respect others. But now, with this new curriculum that they’re adding, it’s going to do the total opposite.”"        

Jeremy Roenick Sues NBC Sports, Claims He Was Fired For Being Straight, Supporting Donald Trump - "Roenick alleges that his comments were used as cover and that NBC News really fired him for being a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, according to Fox News. The lawsuit suggests that other NBC commentators have made similar, lewd jokes about coworkers and received a pass from network management.  “The lawsuit says that while Roenick was fired for his comments about Tappen, the network responded differently after NBC figure skating commentators Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir made a comedy promo for the network’s streaming service that referred to a vulgar term for the vagina and other sexual remarks along with footage of Olympic figure skater Bradie Tennell,” Fox reports. He alleges that Lipinksi and Weir frequently made sexually tinged comments about figure skaters when they were covering high profile sporting events for the network but that Weir’s comments were brushed off because he is gay.  Specifically, the lawsuit claims that when Roenick confronted NBC supervisor Sam Flood, that Flood excused Weir’s behavior because he is “gay and can say whatever.” Roenick also says he was denied the opportunity to speak at the 2016 Republican National Convention in support of now-President Donald Trump because NBC frowned on Trump supporters."            

Cafe Owner With History Of Helping Those In Need Now Facing Backlash Just Because He Voted For Trump - "In yet another story highlighting just how intolerant progressives can be, a man who owns and operates a café that hosts drag queens and features Black Lives Matters signs is facing a backlash for saying on MSNBC that he voted for President Donald Trump in 2016 and would do so again.The New York Times published the article, titled, “The Cafe Has Black Lives Matter Signs. The Owner Voted for Trump.” The article outlines throughout all the liberal and good things the owner, Thomas Bosco, has done for the community, yet none of that matters because of who he voted for in 2016"

Facebook - "Yeah so there's a part in Last of us 2 where the directors self-inserted character fucks another man (trans main character in second half of the game) in the ass and it's super graphic lmao"

Sailors told to stop using male-themed Navy terms like 'unmanned' and 'man power' - "The Royal Navy is to ban the use of 'unmanned' and 'manpower' in a bid to fight fears of sexism. First Sea Lord Tony Radakin has called for the changes to be rolled out to avoid female recruits feeling excluded."
If they're turned off by "seaman" how can they withstand the rigor of the armed forces?

Female soldier says she can “whoop any Marine” in Iraq, gets knocked out - "A confident female Soldier who thought she could “whoop any Marine” at her Forward Operating Base in Iraq was given a lesson in what a real boxing match looks like- and was a sore loser afterward.A video shows the female Soldier -who allegedly said she could beat any Marine at the Iraq-based FOB- square up against a male US Marine, who seemed more than comfortable taking her on... In the end, the Soldier was soundly defeated but displayed poor sportsmanship by refusing to shake the Marine’s hand."
Violence against women!

I'm Literally the Guy in the Pic | Know Your Meme - "I'm Literally the Guy in the Pic, also known as Why Can't I Find a Guy Like This?, is a series of photoshopped tweets based off a Twitter exchange between users @reganslatic and @McCartyConnor, in which the latter claims to be a person seen in a photograph posted with the message "Why can't I find a guy like this ugh." On December 21st, 2014, Twitter user @reganslatic tweeted "Why can't I find a guy like this ugh" followed by a photo of a young man with hearts photoshopped by his head. On September 6th, 2016, Twitter user @McCartyConnor[3] replied to the tweet with "hey," @reganslatic replied with "no" and @McCartyConnor responded, "I'm literally the guy in the pic""

Canadian traces origin of AIDS to starving First World War soldier who hunted chimpanzees - "A Canadian professor who has been studying the origin of HIV for decades says he has identified a new “Patient Zero” — a starving First World War soldier stationed in Cameroon who was forced to hunt apes to survive... “My hypothesis is that one of the soldiers got infected while hunting in the forest. A chimpanzee was killed and when cutting the animal to bring it back, there was an injury which got infected with the virus. Eventually, the soldier, after the war, came back all the way to Léopoldville and probably started the very first train of transmission in Léopoldville itself.”... Pepin estimated that HIV initially spread slowly in the city, primarily due to hospitals reusing dirty needles because of shortages, with only about 500 infections by the early 1950s.However, in the 1960s, the population of Léopoldville grew rapidly, the sex trade boomed, and the virus thrived... The virus eventually spread to Haiti, and from there was exported to the United States, and eventually to Western Europe"

Man Who Agrees With The Media, Universities, Corporations, And Hollywood Thinks He's Part Of The Resistance | The Babylon Bee

Romans Used to Ward Off Sickness With Flying Penis Amulets - "today, fascina live on in the English language, in the word “fascinate.” If you’re fascinated with something, in other words, you might just be thinking that it looks like a penis"

How To Irritate Europeans In Just One Sentence

(via How To Irritate Europeans In Just One Sentence – Brilliant Maps)

Someone asked for an explanation so since I typed it all out:

Ireland - "Southern Ireland". This is in contrast to Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK. But the Irish just want to be called Ireland.

Scotland - "Where in England is that?". The Scots hate being called English. They see themselves as a different country.

England - "Los Malvinas son Argentinas". "The Falkland Islands are Argentinian" (in Spanish). They fought a war in the 80s over them when the Argentines invaded.

Portugal - "Do you speak Brazillian right?". Brazil speaks Portuguese. Brazil used to be a colony of Portugal. Now Brazil is the more prominent Portuguese speaking country.

Spain - "So you're latino?". Latino is an American term generally referring to people with Latin American heritage. But Spain was the mother country that colonised most of Latin America.

France - "American wines are better." The French are very proud of their wines and think they're the best in the world.

Netherlands - "'Sinterklaas' is racist". The Dutch Santa Claus (Sinterklaas) has a black sidekick called Zwarte Piet. Those who insist on imposing the American cultural context on the rest of the world ignoring local history, traditions and context through Cultural Imperialism claim this is racist.

Switzerland - "Belgian chocolate is the best!" Switzerland and Belgium are the 2 countries in Europe most famous for their chocolate and there is a rivalry among them.

Germany - "This video is not available in your country". Due to German licensing laws many videos were not available in Germany for a long time.

Austria - "Are you Germans?" Austria uses German and is culturally similar to Germany but they are their own country.

Italy - "I like pasta with ketchup". Italians are famous food snobs and pasta with ketchup is very far from pasta with tomato sauce.

Hungary - "Are you hungry hahaha". Hungary the country name is almost a homonym for hungry. It's a bad pun.

Czechia (Czech Republic)/Slovakia - "Are you Eastern Europeans?" They like to be considered Central Europe (the new name for the area after the Iron Curtain fell)

Norway - "Are you the western part of Sweden?" Norway is not part of Sweden. The 2 countries were actually most recently in a personal union (same King) for 9 decades after a war and the Norwegians were unhappy but there's some more complicated history too.

Sweden - "Rape capital of the world". Sweden has the highest recorded rape rate in the world, partly due to its methodology of counting rapes but also due to immigration. This is a contentious issue and even mentioning it often gets you called racist in Sweden.

Poland - "Polish death camps." The Poles like to blame the Nazis for the World War II death camps and gloss over Polish collaboration. There is even a 2018 law under which it's illegal to use such language.

Slovenia - "Alpine Serbs"
Croatia - "Catholic Serbs"
Bosnia - "Muslim Serbs"
North Macedonia - "Southern Serbs"
Serbia was the dominant part of the former Yugoslavia. The other countries which were part of Yugoslavia don't like to be reminded of that. And most of the people in those countries aren't ethnic Serbs either.

Serbia - "Tesla is a Croat". Nikola Tesla the famous inventor was ethnically Serb, but born in modern day Croatia.

Bulgaria - "Still use the Russian alphabet?" Bulgarian and Russian both use the Cyrillic script, with minor variations. Bulgarians like to think their script is unique and not Russian script, even though most people think of Cyrillic as Russian.

Romania - "Beautiful country, I love Budapest". Budapest is in Hungary. Historically Transylvania (a large part of Romania) was part of Hungary.

Baltic countries - "Baltics? You're Russians right?" The 3 Baltic states used to be part of the USSR and were not happy to be part of it. They were the first bits of the USSR to break free.

Greece - "Macedonia for Macedonians". Greece is very sensitive about Macedonia. So much so that they used to force North Macedonia to be referred to as the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and blockaded North Macedonia for a while. Historically Macedonia used to cover much of modern Greece and many Greeks identify as Macedonian.

Turkey - "Can you translate this Arabic sentence?" Turks are not Arabs. The language and even the script are different, though both are Middle Eastern and predominantly Muslim.

Links - 15th August 2021 (1)

From burkinis to the Koran: Why Islam isn't like other faiths - Los Angeles Times - "I understand why many Americans might find Islam puzzling and foreign. There’s no contradiction in the term American Muslim; but that doesn’t mean Islam is like other monotheistic faiths. It isn’t, in part because it doesn’t lend itself as easily to modern liberalism. The more I’ve studied my own religion — its theology, history and culture — the more I’ve come to appreciate how complicated it is and how much more complicated it must be for people who are coming at it from scratch.Contrary to what many think, there is no Christian equivalent to Koranic “inerrancy,” even among far-right evangelicals. Muslims believe the Koran is not only God’s word, but God’s actual speech — in other words, every single letter and word in the Koran comes directly from God... To question the divine origin of the Koran, then, is to question God himself, and God is not easily put in a box, well away from the public sphere.Differences between Christianity and Islam also are evident in each faith’s central figure. Unlike Jesus, who was a dissident, Muhammad was both prophet and politician. And more than just any politician, he was a state-builder as well as a head of state. Not only were the religious and political functions intertwined in the person of Muhammad, they were meant to be intertwined. To argue for the separation of religion from politics, then, is to argue against the model of the very man Muslims most admire and seek to emulate... it suggests there is — or at least there may be — a clash of cultures. Islam seems, at least by Western standards, unusually assertive and uncompromising. Critics might see it as full-blown aggressiveness. But Muslims often point to these qualities as evidence of Islam’s vitality and relevance in a supposedly secular age. To put it a bit differently, this is why many Muslims like being Muslim... to be unapologetically Muslim today is to, in a way, show that other futures are possible, that the end of history may in fact have more than one destination. If Islam has been — and will continue to be — resistant to secularism, then the very existence of practicing Muslims serves as a constant reminder of this historical and religious divergence. I realize that some of my fellow American Muslims will view such arguments as inconvenient, portraying Islam in a not-so-positive light. But it is not my job to make Islam look good, and it helps no one to maintain fictions that make us feel better but don’t truly reflect the power and relevance of religion. In the West, the common response to the challenge of theological diversity has been banal statements of religious “universality.” All too often, interfaith dialogue, however well-intentioned, is about papering over what makes us — or at least our beliefs — different. It is a tenet of our American faith that we’re all basically the same and ultimately want the same things. This is true in some ways, but not in every way."

White VP at CNN threatened to 'kill' longtime black employee over suing the network - "DeWayne Walker, who is black and has worked at the CNN Center in Atlanta for 16 years, filed a lawsuit against the CNN network in May over racial discrimination in job promotions.On August 15, 2019 CNN’s vice president and group creative director Whit Friese allegedly retaliated against Walker, the manager of integrated marketing for CNN, by threatening to kill him during an incident in the CNN Center bathroom."

Political ideology predicts involvement in crime - "Political ideology represents an imperfect yet important indicator of a host of personality traits and cognitive preferences. These preferences, in turn, seemingly propel liberals and conservatives towards divergent life-course experiences. Criminal behavior represents one particular domain of conduct where differences rooted in political ideology may exist. Using a national dataset, we test whether and to what extent political ideology is predictive of self-reported criminal behavior. Our results show that self-identified political ideology is monotonically related to criminal conduct cross-sectionally and prospectively and that liberals self-report more criminal conduct than do conservatives. We discuss potential causal mechanisms relating political ideology to individual conduct."
Liberals are more criminal than conservatives

'Peranakan nasi lemak' that costs (at least) $12.50 sparks controversy online over culinary origins" - "Some have even harked back to the time when upscale Peranakan restaurant franchise Violet Oon offered “Nyonya Nasi Ambeng” without making any mention or reference to nasi ambeng’s origins in Javanese-Malay cuisine... When queried by AsiaOne, Les Amis Group — which owns Lemak Boys — clarified that the restaurant is not a Peranakan based concept and does not serve Peranakan Nasi Lemak.According to the Les Amis Group spokesperson, the three chefs behind Lemak Boys fostered a strong relationship while working at Indigo Blue Kitchen and simply brought over some of their favourite Peranakan flavours. The nasi lemak served at Lemak Boys is not labelled as Peranakan Nasi Lemak as implied by 8 Days, which has since amended its feature."

Karen Kommerce on Twitter - "Peranakan food basically gentrifies malay food so chinese peeperles will eat spicy food"
"Yeah, thanks for wiping out 500 years of Straits Chinese culture with that single blithe statement....."
"Stop calling all Malay kueh and dishes Peranakan also... that is thousands of years of Malay culture, long before the Peranakan people existed.""
"Oh, which part of babi pongteh and purut Ikan are Malay, pray tell...."
"As a boyanese who has delved really deep into my boyanese culture and roots, I completely agree with you! Boyanese are not malays! Stop eroding my culture and roots! Sadly our fellow countrymen are too narrow minded to realise and accept that truth. #boyanesearenotmalays"
Singapore has indeed imported the US's culture wars
The irony is that now "cultural appropriation" is a crime that an entire culture can be convicted of even though it's been around for centuries

Karen Kommerce on Twitter - "Guy that knows nothing about #Peranakan food claims that Peranakan food is ripping off Malay food etc.FFS educate yourself about how different it is  and the kind of labor used...
The reason why real Peranakan costs what it costs... Is that you are getting the home cooked variety that you previously would not have been able to get commercially.The good shit. With the highest quality ingredients, Labour with no compromises.
Honestly, being a lawyer and doing endless 100 hr weeks of due D is less emotionally exhausting and mentally challenging than cooking Peranakan food properly.
PENANG NONYA FOOD NO EXPENSE IS SPARED ALL ATTENTION MUST BE PAID OR YOUR EXISTENCE IS MEANINGLESS AND YOUR FAMILY'S HONOUR IS QUESTIONABLE.So fuck off you Chinese pleb. I have krosang, Kebaya, sarong and tali pendent older than your grandparents.
Sorry guys, you don't get to punch down Peranakan culture..And then when I defend #Peranakan culture, claim I'm punching down "Malay culture" whatever the fuck that means...This is the equivalent of me going #blacklivesmatterand you guys responding... #alllivesmatter
And all the randoms claiming that #Peranakan food comes from "Malay" food ignore the history of Straits Chinese in the region past 500 years.Burmese Mohingga and Penang Laksa are close cousins, fish based...Lots of overlaps with Thai food as well
What I really don't get about minority mean girls is that just because you're a minority, you don't get to get away with casual racism and cultural chauvinism.Just because it happens to you is not an excuse to be mean...
And this is exactly what white people they say when they get called out on their problematic behavior.Don't like me defending my food culture and heritage..... tough luck, suck it up.
oh, back to Curry Kapitan - it looks like a bog standard chicken rendang, but the fresh flavours are far more assertive - with Daun Kadok and lima purut.You can make a simple version ...but it's not the same and you dishonor your ancestors.
Peranakan culture is a tidepool of history - disappearing as the forces of globalisation, especially sinicise and homegnise us, as with the other creole cultures in Asia.Parsi, Dutch Burghers in Sri Lanka, Anglo Indians, Kristang ...  we are people's that will disappear.
We'll be museum pieces at this rate....And all we get is hate from random #sinkheks claiming we appropriated Malay culture and food.@lim_jialiang- sorry, you're the worst kind of asshole, pretending to be inclusive and about social justice while being culturally insensitive.
Jebus, the hate really flows downward - I'm getting all these mean minorities talking shit about Peranakan culture being just borrowed Malay culture.Ignoring 500+ years of assimilation and history in the region.Wow.
Wow - so somehow, somewhere - giving a shit about food and cooking became an elitist mindset ... What kind of instant mee did you grow up on?
Of all the random arseholes starting @lim_jialiangclaiming that Peranakan food is not special ....I realise that none of them have any photos of home cooked Peranakan food.Which mostly means that none of you have Peranakan friends .....and only have the restaurant shiz."

Faizah Zakaria on Twitter - "There is a polarizing debate on SGTwitter about Peranakan Nasi Lemak and whether it is really a thing/ a thing worth paying highly for. I wouldn’t weigh in on it if not for the tweet below which descended into arguing that Malay as a cultural category doesn’t exist and..."

Hard-Working Plumber Looking Forward To Paying For His Neighbor’s Gender Studies Degree | The Babylon Bee - ""Listen, I'm just a plumber," he said. "I didn't go to college, but I work hard and support my family. I don't know about all that high-falutin gender stuff they teach in college, but I'm sure it must be important since it's so expensive! Happy to help out another person in need."According to studies, there are millions of white girls working at coffee shops across the country while struggling under the crushing student debt they acquired by irresponsibly obtaining college degrees that gave them no marketable job skills. Benevolent politicians have proposed transferring all the wealth from trade workers and minority business owners to help indebted white girls with their student loans so they can still afford their daily latte and cat food expenses... "I'm so thankful for the generosity of our Democrat leaders!" she said. "They really look out for the little folx. Also, down with capitalism and white men!"According to sources, Sam Caughorn owns a successful business he started right after high school. He also has 5 kids, a nice house, and serves as a deacon at his church. "I guess I can spare some change for poor disadvantaged girls like Amber""

U.S. Stimulus Checks Sent to Ineligible, Confused Austrians in Europe: 'Those Poor Americans' - "The U.S. federal government has sent hundreds of stimulus checks to people in Austria during recent months, prompting confusion among these European recipients who say they were ineligible to receive such funds... Other countries have also reported similar occurrences of U.S. stimulus checks mailed by mistake to ineligible recipients during the first round of payments. According to NPR, thousands of individuals across 129 countries, who once entered America on a working visa, had been cashing the checks and spending it in their home countries."
The same people who bitch about how long the cheques take to come also bitch about ineligible people getting it (or business benefiting) when there's a clear tradeoff between speed and accuracy of targeting

This Man Found A Genius Way To Catch Illegal Fishermen By Pretending To Be A Giant Salmon - "As Terry was positioned, in a wetsuit, in the Eel River to catch illegal fisherman at night, he waited for them to cast their lines and once the men took his bait, the warden proceeded to pretend that he’s a fish and reeled himself in. “I kept tugging and pulling, and tugging and pulling [the line]. And he’s groaning. And it was hard to keep from laughing because I knew this guy was going to be surprised.” Grosz recollected the memory."

Parti Liyani case: Defence was prevented from confirming with Karl Liew's mother that he does sometimes wear women's clothes as he claimed - "the High Court ruled to acquit former domestic worker Parti Liyani of four theft charges brought against her by the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) following a police report made by her former employer, Liew Mun Leong.Mr Liew—who recently announced his early retirement from Changi Airport Group, Surbana Jurong, Temasek Foundation and Temasek International—alleged that Ms Parti stole over S$50,000  worth of items belonging to him and his family.However, Justice Chan Seng Onn, in allowing Ms Parti’s appeal against her conviction and jail sentence of two years and two months, branded the Liew family as having “improper motives” against Ms Parti.We noted in a previous article that, two years ago, the district judge in Ms Parti’s trial as well as the prosecution blocked her lawyer’s attempts at bringing up her former employers intentions to prevent Ms Parti from lodging a complaint to the Ministry of Manpower over her illegal deployment to other locations.On top of that, however, the court documents also show another instance of Ms Parti’s lawyer, Anil Balchandani of Red Lion Circle, being prevented from corroborating a fact that Karl Liew had confirmed.When questioning Mr Liew’s son, Karl Liew, over an allegedly stolen female clothing belonging to the younger man, Mr Balchandani questioned him about his tendency to wear female clothing, asking: “Do you have a habit of wearing women’s clothes?”Mr Liew said he wore women’s “t-shirts sometimes”.However, the Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) then felt that question was asked with the intention to “insult or annoy” Mr Liew. And despite clarifying that he was merely establishing facts, District Judge Olivia Low did not allow Mr Balchandani to continue with that line of questioning. However, when cross-examining senior Mr Liew’s wife, identified as Mdm Ng, Mr Balchandani attempted to clarify with her on her son’s habit of wearing women’s clothing but was prevented from doing so.DPP Tan Yanying argued that such a question should not be asked of this particular witness, even though Mr Balchandani countered Mdm Ng would be able to corroborate whether her son did in fact wear women’s clothes as he claimed he sometimes did.The judge said that such a question is “not relevant”."

Facebook - "Mr Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, CEO of Temasek International has commented that Liew Mun Leong has contributed to Singapore and that Singaporeans should hear his side of the issue too. I disagree. Let me explain. The learned High Court judge, Chan Seng Onn, has heard Liew Mun Leong and his son's side of their stories under oath alearly and he has delivered his judgement. That should be enough of the Liew's story telling. In Singapore, everybody contributes in their different ways to Singapore. Liew Mun Leong is not alone and not unique. Furthermore, his contributions aren't free. One very important reason why even until today, people still remember fondly and think highly of our first generation old guard leaders is because when anybody and that included even somebody from among their ranks broke any laws, they faced the music alone. The establishment then didn't muster any resources or connections to cover up, defend or protect their own kind or kakilang and we should never, never fall short of that level of impartiality and high standard if we desire to scale greater heights in our achievements and strengthen our nation building journey together.  Wee Toon Boon paid with jail time for his corruption. Teh Cheang Wan paid with his life for corruption. The late pap law minister EW Barker and former pap MP Chan Soo Sen were charged and fined for drink driving offences in case anybody forgets and NTUC's Phey Yew Kok finally got 60 months jail time for CBT etc. Regarding Liew Mun Leong and his former maid theft case, too many people are following its developments closely. Liew Mun Leong and his family are people with much resources and means and totally capable of defending themselves.  Temasek or any companies or organisations related to Liew Mun Leong, past and present, shouldn't get involved in any way.  Contributions, character and crimes are completely different things and people shouldn't be confused. Think."

Facebook - "Not a word of remorse or regret.  These multi-millionaires paid their maid $300 when she started working for them in their home and claim it’s a sign of what good employers they were, that over nine years her pay was raised gradually to $600. They have put her through four years of hell over a spoilt DVD player, old clothes, a damaged handbag and counterfeit watches. They made her clean a second house, and even an office. She said she was paid $10 for two or three days of this extra work and the payments were not even regular.  So what happens next? Will the Manpower Ministry act? What happens when you tell barefaced lies in court? Why didn’t the Sunday paper, which let Mr Liew Mun Leong impress us all only last year with his Singapore Dream story of rising from failure and a humble background all the way to the top, go back and ask: “Why, Mr Liew? Why?” So much unfinished business in this story."

Links - 14th August 2021 (3)

WATCH: Tucker Carlson slams hypocrite Eric Swalwell - "Eric Swalwell, who has a seat on the House Intelligence Committee and currently represents California's 15th congressional district, is alleged to have had sexual relations with a Chinese intelligence operative, named Christine Fang... Swalwell, who has recurrently accused President Donald Trump of having been involved with Russian interference in United States government, has found himself the center of another scandal involving a hostile foreign power... The Chinese operative, Christine Fang, allegedly targeted prominent politicians in the California region as a part of a "honeytrap" scheme—enticing high-profile targets with the offer of sexual favors... The irony is that Swalwell was one of those who accused General Michael Flynn of having been entrapped in a "honeypot" scheme regarding an alleged Russian agent. Flynn has been exonerated, and the alleged "honeypot," a graduate student in England at the time, has maintained her innocence from the very start."

Caleb Hull (I'm With the CCP Don't Ban Me) on Twitter - "Chinese spies while the entire Democrat Party freaks out over Russian memes"

Ari Fleischer on Twitter - "Bias is often found in stories the press does NOT cover. Another day another lack of the NYT telling its readers about a D Congressman, who sits on the Intelligence Committee, who briefly ran for POTUS, who was caught in a prior relationship w a Chinese spy. But it’s not news"

NYT has not covered the Swalwell Chinese spy honeytrap scandal a single time - "Why is this not "fit to print"?  One reason: Swalwell's a Democrat. Period, end of story."

Chinese spies specifically focus on US politicians like Eric Swalwell: experts - "xperts familiar with Chinese espionage say that the case of Chinese spy Christine Fang is far from being isolated. In fact, that is the common MO of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)... Once a victim is compromised, generally more and more sensitive information is forthcoming in exchange for the silence of the CCP on his or her wrongdoings. Sometimes even girls who are still minors are used for this purpose. "

School Board Won’t Reverse Fourth-Grader’s Suspension for BB Gun Incident During Virtual School - "he allowed a BB gun to briefly appear on his screen during virtual Zoom school"

The Hotdog Laserhouse - "Kaiserneko of Team Four Star once met Jeff Goode, the creator of Jake Long. According to the conversation they had, Disney specifically prepares their creators for the possibility of pornography being drawn of their characters...
'Disney has this weird rule in their artist contracts- everything you create while in their employ is THEIRS. Even in the off time. Its one of the reasons they are reviled in the industry. But the rule was set in place to basically steal good ideas from their staff or force them to ONLY work on Disney ip’s while employed.The jokes on them though. They didn’t count on most artists being giant perverts (this story is also why i laugh when people tell me drawing smut will ‘ruin your art career’)So! Disney being bastards ended up earning them smut of everything they’ve ever created.  And also per their policies they had to keep it. Every artist knew about the smut vault and our buddy here had photocopied a chunk of it. Yes… 2-3 feet of smut was just a chunk of it.'"

Impossible Burger vs. beef: Which is better for the environment? - "There's currently no black-and-white answer to this question, and based on research articles and interviews with experts, it seems like there might not be a real answer for a while."What's better for the environment is such a loaded question because 'environment' doesn't just mean climate change," Dr. Frank Mitloehner, an environmental expert and professor in the Department of Animal Science at the University of California, Davis told CNET. He points out that we also have to think about the impact on air and water quality when evaluating whether plant-based or animal meat is better for the environment.Considering all of the factors, Mitloehner says there's just no simple way to determine whether plant-based foods or animal-sourced foods are objectively better for the environment... One study even suggests that lab-grown meat could actually be worse for the environment over time... every food -- whether sourced from animals or plants -- has a unique impact on the environment, Mitloehner says."If we compare gallon to gallon the consumption of real milk from a cow and almond milk, then the real milk will have a carbon footprint 10 times higher than the almond milk," Mitloehner says. "But the almond milk has 17 times the water footprint -- you need 17 times more water to make the equivalent amount of almond [milk] to real milk."... Mitloehner's biggest piece of advice is to simply plan your meals properly to avoid waste, regardless of whether you eat animal products or not... About 20% of all animal-sourced foods are wasted and about 50% of all plant foods are wasted"

Barbershop owner sues Colorado governor over COVID-19 relief earmarked for minority-owned businesses - "The white owner of a Colorado Springs barbershop sued Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday over newly-passed coronavirus relief designated for minority-owned small businesses, claiming the relief is unconstitutional.Etienne Hardre, owner of Locals Barbershop, claimed in the lawsuit — which also names the state’s Minority Business Office and its director as defendants — that the $4 million in aid earmarked for businesses that are at least 51% minority-owned is unconstitutional because access to the aid is based entirely on race, and the state failed to show how the aid remedies discrimination or racism. “The Supreme Court has held that if you are going to do race-conscious measures, you are required to specify the past or present discrimination you are remedying,” attorney Michael Kuhn said. “And societal, so-called systemic racism isn’t sufficient.”"
White privilege is getting excluded from programs due to your race

He Designed A Smartwatch App To Help Stop His Dad's PTSD Nightmares - "he put together a team to program a smartwatch to detect the onset of night terrors based on the wearer's heart rate and movement. The idea, Tyler says, was to use technology to imitate something service dogs were already doing — recognizing a traumatic nightmare and then nudging or licking the person to disrupt the bad dream. He thought the smartwatch could do this with a gentle vibration.The tricky part was to provide "just enough stimulus to pull them out of the deep REM cycle and allow the sleep to continue unaffected"... More people will soon be able to benefit from Tyler's invention. An investor purchased the rights to the app and started a company called NightWare.Last month, the Food and Drug Administration approved the app, which works with an Apple Watch, to treat PTSD-related nightmare disorders. It will soon be available by prescription through the VA."

Vice TV host asks Jake Paul 'Was it racist to knock a black man out?' - "Vice TV's Cari Champion and sports commentator Jemele Hill asked YouTuber Jake Paul it it was racist to knock out NBA star Nate Robinson, who is a black man, in their viral boxing match... Reporters Champion and Hill interviewed Paul on Vice TV in a video released December 3rd, pressing the young YouTuber on the racial implications of his knockout victory against the ex-basketball player."
If you refuse to fight a black man, you're racist too. So the only solution is to agree to "fight" him but throw the match

Thread by @QueerlyAutistic on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Honestly, I never even watched Game of Thrones, but I could happily read a thousands books analysing how quickly it just fucking vanished from the cultural zeitgeist after being such a fundamental part of it for a decade, because that shit is SO fascinating to me.
Like, there's 'fucking up the ending' and then there's 'systematically destroying something that was a fundamental part of contemporary popular culture to the point where it ceased to be in any way relevant to popular culture at all'.
I could watch years worth of video essays and read thousands and thousands of papers just exploring how it happened because it only ended a year and a bit ago but it's like GOT never existed in popular culture at all.
'The Art Of Fucking Up More Catastrophically Than Anyone Could Ever Imagine' - I would buy it."

St. Anthony residents receive anonymous letter, shaming them for their Christmas displays - ""We kind of decided because of the letter that it was just finally time to put up our lights," said St. Anthony Village resident Rachel Blodgett.At least four of her neighbors received an anonymous letter shaming them for the Christmas decorations.In the letter, the anonymous sender addresses the Christmas light displays in each yard, stating in part: "The idea of twinkling, colorful lights are a reminder of divisions in our society and systemic biases against neighbors who don't celebrate Christmas, or who can't afford to, during these unprecedented times.""
Harrison Bergeron when?

Ami, the tiny cube on wheels that French 14-year-olds can drive - "Citroën’s ‘urban mobility object’ is classed as a light quadricyle and can be driven without a full licence... It can be recharged from a standard home socket in three hours and, in its basic grey-and-orange edition, costs €6,000 (£5,550) to buy outright, or, with €100 down, €78 a month – roughly what most Parisians pay for an all-zone metro and suburban rail pass... There’s a rudimentary heater, and if the idea of letting a 14-year-old loose on it seems unnerving, Krygier points out that unlike with a scooter – the most likely alternative for many of the Ami’s younger potential customers – you get the stability of four wheels on a proper chassis, and are safely enclosed in a solid tubular steel frame.The Ami hits 45km/h pretty quickly and can go no faster, but in habitually gridlocked Paris – where speed limits vary from 20km/h to a theoretical 50km/h – that is neither necessary nor, most of the time, even possible (the Ami is not allowed on expressways). The brakes are reassuringly efficient, and a standard parking bay fits two Amis."

Meme - "Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe tells white farmers 'to go'"
"Mugabe is asking back the white farmers he chased away"
"Zimbabwe Begs White Farmers To Return As Country Plunges Into Famine"
"Zimbabwe to start paying white farmers compensation after April"

Unmarried Ontario couple had no children and no house but man must still pay support, appeal court rules - "A wealthy businessman will have to pay more than $50,000 a month in spousal support for 10 years to a woman with whom he had a long-term romantic relationship even though they kept separate homes and had no children together... Under Ontario law, an unmarried couple are considered common-law spouses if they have cohabited — lived together in a conjugal relationship — continuously for at least three years. But that doesn’t necessarily mean living in the same home... he insisted she sign a marriage contract and came up with several drafts. She refused. Throughout their relationship, the two kept separate bank accounts and never owned property in common"
Since women go for richer men...

Spirit passenger removed from plane after bizarre tirade - "A passenger was removed from a Spirit flight for being a royal pain — after claiming she is a queen from California during a tirade about white privilege and a trip to the toilet... “Don’t push me,” she says. “Did you see what she did? She put her hands at me. She wants me to go to jail, y’all. See how she’s antagonizing me?”The woman, whose mask hangs below her chin, then tells the crew member that she has “white privilege.”“It’s over with — it’s 2020. Wake up, you got a mask on. So you’re under the government, too. You’re confined and you don’t have white privilege anymore,” she says.“I’m a queen … California,” she continues. “She was from a black queen.”The woman then directs her ire at a fellow passenger, who tells her to just go to the bathroom.“You go to the bathroom!” she responds. “You shut up and stay in your lane! You got nothing to do with this, little girl. I’m not talking to you. Listen to your mama.”She then turns back to the flight attendant.“You don’t run America. You run yourself,” she says."

Can Putting a Frog in Milk Keep It Fresh? - "Of the 76 peptides identified in secretions of common frogs (Rana temporaria), many have antibacterial properties... Preserving food in the pre-refrigeration era was tough. Cellars and salting helped, but even in Russia’s cold climate, fresh milk proved tricky. The longer milk stays unrefrigerated, the more bacteria will grow, making milk sour and sometimes dangerous to drink.

Professional Privilege Checkers Inc. - Posts | Facebook - "Remember in 2015 when we said gay marriage is a slippery slope and now we have pedophilia on Netflix? Better yet remember when we said in the 60s that artificial birth control would be a slippery slope and now we live in the most sexually degenerate society of all time?"

Meme - "I'm a graduate in Medieval Studies, and when I try to explain some myths about it, people look at me as if I was insane. The Enlightenment propaganda is so strong, that telling the truth about Medieval era sounds like a crazy right- wing conspiracy theory.
And this is a serious problem. Many school textbooks, media, etc. promote most of these myths, which are inherently biased and dangerous, because they distort the truth.
The Enlightenment historiography is still the most successful propaganda ever made; it refused to die, because the [anti- Christian] sentiment which these thinkers had promoted seems to be popular ever since.
Demonizing the Other is the best way to begin a fight, because it gives you the feeling of the moral superiority. In our case, this has been done by distorting and misinterpreting historical facts, and inventing myths and false villains and heroes.
This genius propaganda has affected and influenced most of us, therefore it's not surprising how our imagination has been constructed. For example, when we think or talk about [the] historical horrors, the vast majority will think of the those 'dark' Middle Ages.
lronically, we rarely realize that the most morbid and inhumane crimes were committed during the Enlightenment and Modern era. Concentration camps, gulag, genocides, eugenics, racism, reign of terror, totalitarianism, etc. The aforementioned catastrophes are a result of the ideology which promoted the cult of progress, reason and science, which ended becoming the cult of irrationality, regress and crimes.
But of course, rarely will we hear that being denounced, because we still live in that era, where one of the most criminal and bloody act of history [the French Revolution] is presented as 'glorious' and 'good'.
The Enlightenment way of thinking may have 'freed' people of believing in God, but at the very moment when this philosophy rose, ideologies were born.
So, today, many don't believe in religion because they consider it dogmatic, but unconsciously and dogmatically believe in this ideology: Enlightenment.
Full post on my blog... Reading suggestions: The Civilization of the Middle Ages - Norman Cantor Religion and the Rise of Western Culture & Understanding Europe -Christopher Dawson Medieval civilization - Jacques Le Goff The Birth of Europe - Roberto S. Lopez God's Philosophers by @DrJamesHannam"

The History Of Japan: Everything You Wanted To Know

The History Of Japan: Everything You Wanted To Know | HistoryExtra Podcast - HistoryExtra

"‘What do we know about very early Japanese civilization and how old? How old is it?’

‘So we think there have been people living in Japan on the Japanese islands probably for about 30,000 years, maybe 35,000 years, you can dig up edge ground axes and all this kind of thing. So we're fairly sure they've been there for a while. But the first written records for Japan to actually find out in detail what was going on. We don't really have those until the early centuries AD. So Chinese visitors came across and had a look of what was going on there. They discovered these, sort of a series of small chiefdoms dotted around the archipelago. So there's no place yet that would understand itself as being Japan, just these different chiefdoms. 

And the first known and named person in Japanese history is a shaman Queen called Himiko who was in power, she came to power almost as a teenager in her early 20s, in about 190 AD. And she was a combination of a shaman and a military ruler. And so the picture we get from the Chinese observers talking about her kingdom, they call her, they sort of saw her as ruling by magic and sorcery as well as force of arms. So you get a sense of a community, which is ruled by her from behind palisades guarded, no one ever really sees her, communing with the gods for the good of the realm. Her brother, we think, does much of the sort of day to day work of ruling the realm. And it's a fairly hierarchical place, as well. I know people think about Japan now as a fairly hierarchical society. The earliest suggestion we have is of a fairly hierarchical place based around people's wealth and status, based in turn around the amount of rice wealth they control, precious metals, like brass from which you make bells and mirrors and swords and these sorts of things. So yes, status society, controlled by a mixture of her shamanic power, and also the force of her warriors’ arms, but even then, that's really only one out of perhaps 100 or so chiefdoms, although hers, we think is the most powerful, and it's certainly the one that we know the most about from this early period.’...

‘What contribution did ancient Japan make to global culture?’

‘It's a good question. Partly because people would have trouble agreeing on what would be a Japanese contribution versus a Chinese contribution. So from around the five hundreds AD, you have this heavy sustained contact with China. So a lot of what we think about as being Japanese has origins in China. So Japanese Buddhism comes from China via Korea, a lot of its temple architecture, rice, we talked about other elements of its cuisine. The kimono also has its origins in Chinese style court dress. So the point at which you can say there's a real definitive Japanese contribution, I might, I might highlight two things, I suppose.

One would be going right the way back that Japan produces some of the world's oldest pottery. So the very early period, we call it Jomon, which we date from roughly 14,500 BCE, all the way through to 500 AD. So it's a huge long period. But that period is defined in part by the discovery of what they call rope patterned pottery, so quite simple clay pots with a rope pattern around them. That's what Jomon means. For a while we thought that was the world's oldest pottery, so a lot of Japanese would point to that as being a big early contribution. Unfortunately for Japan, they found some in China, which is about 20,000 years, BC, so a little bit older. But still some of that old pottery in Japan, I think, is really important. And even now, there are styles of pottery in Japan, Bizenyaki [sp?] is one example, which really emphasize not a polished result, but a kind of beautifully rustic aesthetic to it. So that sort of pottery, that kind of ceramic, I think, is a really early Japanese contribution.

If I had to name another early one, it would probably be what a lot of your readers and listeners would know as Shinto. The Shinto religion, the way of the gods. It's not really called Shinto until you know, towards the modern era. But this sense of human life taking place amidst these flows of energy that go right through nature, through the natural world, the earth, vegetation, other animals, being part of a flow of energy. So Queen Himiko who we spoke about, one of her big roles, we think, was to call down some of the gods into particular features of the landscape, a tree, a waterfall stream, and worship them, there in natural form. So what used to be called kind of animism, the sense of nature being pervaded by the divine... So if you wanted two examples from ancient Japan, I'd say probably those two: that natural rustic aesthetic for its ceramics, and then that sense of the world being inhabited by the divine...

Buddhism comes into Japan, we think, around 550AD. So it's been around for 1000 years by that point in Asia, and it passes through China, through the Korean Peninsula and makes its way into Japan... people are quite skeptical early on. it's thought, it's treated as a migrant religion. And there's a worry that the gods we've been speaking about, the ones that have, you know, what we now call Shinto that they might be offended by this interloper. And early on Japan goes through a couple of natural disasters, at which point people blame Buddhism, they say the native Gods clearly are offended. And so they throw Buddha statues into a canal, they burn down a temple. So it takes a while to get going after 550. But you could say probably by around 900, or 1000, it's becoming the dominant institutional form of religion in Japan.’...

‘Why did the West not colonized Japan for so long, whereas others such as China couldn't resist?’

‘Much of the reason I would argue is that Japan wasn't of all that much interest to people in the West. India was thought to be far richer. There were lots of legends about the wealth of India. The same is true of China’...

‘It's funny. In Japan, if you go all the way back to, what, 700s through to the middle of the 1100s, you've got a period of imperial rule. After that the Emperors are more or less the puppets of powerful aristocratic families and later of the shoguns. And then after 1868, the Emperor sort of reappears. The Meiji Emperor, just a teenager when he comes to power, as I say, taken as a figurehead by these new rulers in Japan. But the Emperor doesn't have a great degree of power. The new leaders are very smart about setting the Emperor up as divine or reminding people of his divinity, as someone to be respected, as someone whose authority is absolute, the Japanese Constitution, the modern constitution from 1889 until Second World War basically says people's rights are a gift from the Emperor, and he will take them back if they turn out to have abused them. So very clever use gets made of the Emperor as a figurehead and a symbol. But the degree to which he has any actual power is is pretty debatable.’...

‘And the theme of conflict continued into the 1930s for Japan, didn't it?’

‘Yes, absolutely. Some people would say perhaps the change point comes in the 1920s. You have a generation of political leaders and military leaders from this tumultuous period I've talked about from the late 1860s onwards, who are remembered now as being founding fathers, great people, visionary, but also quite, perhaps quite realistic and mature in their vision of where Japan or to place limitations on itself as a world power. A lot of those guys start to die off in the 1910s and early 1920s. And you get a generation coming through who've never really known vulnerability, for Japan. And the view they increasingly start to take, and you really see it among young officers in the military in particular is, Japan isn't being given the respect it deserves. 

So a couple of really quick examples. Japanese diplomats try to get a racial equality clause built into the Treaty of Versailles. European countries, Westerners generally, block them. The United States immigration policy is clearly a racist policy against so called yellow peril, the Chinese and also the Japanese. They do deals on naval ratios with the British and the Americans, the Japanese see themselves as losing out in that. This all contributes to a sense that Japan's diplomats are spineless, politicians are a little bit useless. And in order for Japan to protect itself in the world, really, it needs to have a strong military, and it needs to secure itself on the Asian mainland… this younger generation think that we need to secure ourselves more on the Asian mainland, otherwise, we're going to be overrun, because they think they're kind of being hemmed in… there is a sort of encirclement theory that some in the Japanese military would say, we are done for as a country, if we don't assert ourselves’"

Links - 14th August 2021 (2)

Canada Post suspends employees who refused to deliver the Epoch Times - "Two Canada Post carriers were reportedly suspended after refusing to deliver the Epoch Times because they politically disagreed with their editorial stance... they felt the Epoch Times' negative coverage of the Chinese government encouraged hate and xenophobia towards Asians, prompting them to refuse to deliver the paper... The paper was founded by Chinese Americans, and is focused editorially on covering the censorship and human rights violations committed by the Chinese government as well as the nefarious agenda of the Chines Communist Party... "If the delivery of mail is up to the individual carrier to decide based on his/her impression of ‘hatred’, no one can trust the post office any more... We are a media started by Asian immigrants. There is no way we would publish content that is anti-Asian. Please read our content more carefully. To a media that’s leaning left, we may seem on the right. We believe we are neutral and independent. We disagree with your label""
Considering that the Epoch Times itself is run by Chinese people, this is ironic
Conflating criticism of the CCP with anti-Asian hate speech is a sneaky rhetorical trick
The left only likes minority immigrants when they toe the line

How Britain stole $45 trillion from India - "New research by the renowned economist Utsa Patnaik... Drawing on nearly two centuries of detailed data on tax and trade, Patnaik calculated that Britain drained a total of nearly $45 trillion from India during the period 1765 to 1938... Prior to the colonial period, Britain bought goods like textiles and rice from Indian producers and paid for them in the normal way – mostly with silver – as they did with any other country. But something changed in 1765, shortly after the East India Company took control of the subcontinent and established a monopoly over Indian trade.Here’s how it worked. The East India Company began collecting taxes in India, and then cleverly used a portion of those revenues (about a third) to fund the purchase of Indian goods for British use. In other words, instead of paying for Indian goods out of their own pocket, British traders acquired them for free, “buying” from peasants and weavers using money that had just been taken from them... On top of this, the British were able to sell the stolen goods to other countries for much more than they “bought” them for in the first place, pocketing not only 100 percent of the original value of the goods but also the markup... anyone who wanted to buy goods from India would do so using special Council Bills – a unique paper currency issued only by the British Crown. And the only way to get those bills was to buy them from London with gold or silver. So traders would pay London in gold to get the bills, and then use the bills to pay Indian producers... If India had been able to invest its own tax revenues and foreign exchange earnings in development – as Japan did – there’s no telling how history might have turned out differently. India could very well have become an economic powerhouse. Centuries of poverty and suffering could have been prevented... during the entire 200-year history of British rule in India, there was almost no increase in per capita income"
Amazing voodoo logic. Even if you think taxation is theft, the British would not be no different from all other governments
This sort of anti-trade mentality is why merchants were despised in Ancient China and suggests that shops are all "stealing" from us since they're middle men. Clearly the solution is to loot the local department store to prevent their "theft"
It seems they believe fiat money is immoral and we should return to the gold standard

World history by per capita GDP - "Angus Maddison, the famed British economic historian who passed away earlier this year, is best known for his estimates of world gross domestic product (GDP) that go back all the way to the year 1 AD... the growth of India’s GDP between 1500 and 1600 was 22.7%, between 1600 and 1700 it was 22.2% and between 1700 and 1820 it logged 21%. So it’s not as if there was any huge decline in the rate of growth. Of course, that doesn’t preclude the possibility that Indian growth, too, may have taken off if the country was not under the thumb of the British. But China continued to be an independent country, albeit one much plagued by the Western powers, and its rate of growth too during the period was nothing to be proud of. What the data seem to be saying is that the coming of the British did not, at least in the first 100 years of colonial rule, make much of a difference to the growth rate of the Indian economy... In 1 AD, India’s GDP per capita was $450, as was China’s. But Italy under the Roman Empire had a per capita income of $809. In 1000 AD, India’s per capita income was $450 and China’s $466. But the average of the West Asian countries, such as Turkey and Iraq, was much higher at $621. In terms of general prosperity, therefore, it was the Arab world that was doing well a millennium ago. The Caliphate in Baghdad was a centre of power at the time and both science and culture flourished. By 1500, though, new centres of prosperity had emerged. India’s per capita income was $550 and China’s $600 in 1500. The Arab world had declined. But standards of living in Western Europe at that time had already gone far ahead... 1600 was the year the East India Company was founded. In contrast, India’s per capita income continued to be $550, while China’s was $600. Note that even Ireland, one of the poorest of Western Europe’s countries, had a per capita income of $615, higher than India’s and China’s. In short, the per capita GDP numbers mirror the changes in power, prosperity and cultural and scientific achievement."
I guess the British were to blame for India's lack of economic development before the East India Company ever arrived

Charles Venable Resigns as Head of Indianapolis Museum of Art - The New York Times - "the museum was seeking a director who would work not only to attract a more diverse audience but to maintain its “traditional, core, white art audience.” A group of 85 Newfields employees and members of the board of governors released a public letter on Tuesday calling for Venable’s resignation. More than 1,900 artists, local arts leaders and former employees of the museum also issued an open letter over the weekend calling for his removal. They asked the museum’s major funders to pause financial support until reforms, including a more diverse board and curatorial staff, could be implemented... it was meant to indicate that the museum would not abandon its existing audience as it moved toward greater diversity, equity and inclusion... the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has had to reckon with what employees called structural inequities. Gary Garrels, formerly its top curator, resigned in July amid staff anger, after he used the term “reverse discrimination” in an all-staff Zoom call."
Clear proof that the explicit goal of anti-racism is to alienate and marginalise white people, and destroy institutions

York University academics see the evil of racism in three wise monkeys | News | The Times - "The three wise monkeys have been a cultural trope throughout the world for centuries as a symbol of seeing, hearing and speaking no evil.Academics at the University of York have decided that they could be seen as an oppressive racial stereotype, and pulled an image of the animals from their website to avoid offence... Scholars who have studied Japanese culture expressed surprise that anyone could take offence at the image, which became popular in Japan in the 17th century before spreading to the West. The animals are associated with the Tendai school of Buddhism, in which they are seen as helpers for divine figures. Tim Clark, who retired as curator of the British Museum’s Japanese collections in 2019, said that he had “no idea” why they might be deemed controversial... A spokeswoman for the University of York said that the organisers of the online conference, entitled Sensorial Fixations: Orality, Aurality, Opticality and Hapticity, were worried about a possible insult to ethnic minorities.“The Japanese symbol of the three wise monkeys was used to represent a postgraduate conference about the sensory experiences of the body, and it also appeared on a document that asked for submission of research papers to the conference on a range of areas, one of which included papers that represented black, indigenous and people of colour,” she said.“It was considered . . . that a monkey, which has been used in a derogatory way in the past, could cause offence in this context, despite this not being the intention of the organisers, so the image was removed.” The highest profile case of the three wise monkeys being labelled as racist began in 2007, when four activists in the union Unison used the image to criticise leaders who were turning a blind eye to their concerns. The leaders responded by saying that the image was intended as a racial slur against one of them, who was black.The activists were vindicated in 2013 when an employment tribunal awarded them £49,000 after ruling that no reasonable person would interpret their use of the monkeys as racist. Lord Moore of Etchingham, former editor of The Daily Telegraph, highlighted the academics’ decision in his column in the Spectator magazine.“One of the difficulties about being woke is that you develop a sort of hypersensitivity to particular phrases and images, which ultimately makes it almost impossible to say or do anything because you are concerned that someone may take offence,” he said.“You accept the premise that you could easily be guilty of doing wrong — they use the phrase ‘our privileges’. They say at the end: ‘We continue to strive to learn and we are deeply sorry.’ It’s almost as if they have inflicted upon themselves a show trial in which they do a stammering confession.“A lot of the time is spent blaming other people but it also comprises shaming yourself — abasing yourself because you have committed an inadvertent blasphemy. It’s very like a pseudo-religion. It’s people constantly saying: ‘We have sinned’.”"
The "myth" of the slippery slope strikes again!

Tories in a culture war of their own over the meaning of ‘woke’ | News | The Times - "Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the House of Commons, told MPs this morning that the “woke brigade” had “done the nation a service” in highlighting Britain's “proud” history by objecting to controversial monuments last summer.Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, wrote last weekend that the government would crack down on “woke worthies and town hall militants” who attempted to remove or rename public art with links to the slave trade."

Vada Pav: The ‘Indian burger’ McDonald’s can’t master

Nearly 50 years since its invention, the story of the vada pav hits the big screen at Jio MAMI - "A potato vada wedged between two pieces of bread is the favourite on-the-go snack for many Mumbaikars, yet, few know about Ashok Vaidya, the man who is credited with coming up with the idea for the snack at his stall outside Dadar railway station in 1966. Now, a new short documentary tracing his legacy has been selected for the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival."

Opinion | Do Kids Really Need to Learn to Code? - The New York Times - "WhiteHat Jr., which operates in India and the United States, mounted an advertising blitzkrieg in India telling parents that our children need to learn coding from the age of 4, 5 or 6 — or they will fall behind in life. Indian celebrities promoted the brand and spread the fear of losing out among families.WhiteHat Jr. was forced to take down five of its advertisements after the Advertising Standards Council of India, a self-regulatory body, found them in potential violation of its code... Unemployment has remained a great concern in India over time, and parents forced their children, irrespective of their aptitudes, to become doctors or engineers or to get management degrees because of the fear that if their children did not join any of those professions, they were certain to be failures... Tens of thousands of those engineers and doctors have no jobs now. Hundreds of engineering colleges are shutting down in India. Substandard private colleges in small towns and villages mushroomed to meet the demand and produced a generation of unskilled, unemployable engineers and doctors... Relentless advertising campaigns are telling Indian parents that coding is critical because making children code will develop their cognitive skills. Storytelling does all that too. And singing songs."

Want Smarter Kids? Teach Music, Not Coding, According to MIT - "there's not much, if any, connection between coding and today's point-and-click environment. Almost nobody in business, for example, requires much programming skill beyond, say, creating a spreadsheet. Furthermore, the basic coding skills taught in K-12 bears no resemblance to how professional programmers produce code. The "teach kids to code" movement therefore justifies such instruction because it supposedly improves math and language skills.However, that appears not to be the case, according to a December 2020 study conducted at MIT, which found that: "Understanding computer code seems to be its own thing. It's not the same as language, and it's not the same as math and logic." By contrast, what actually does increase other skills and brain power is teaching kids to play a musical instrument, according to a January 2021 study conducted at the University of Zürich and published in The Journal of Neuroscience."

Olympics branded a 'mockery' after inclusion of breakdancing for Paris Games - "squash had been overlooked yet again... Before breakdancing, officially named “breaking” beat it, squash has lost out to sports including skateboarding, sport climbing, BMX, surfing, golf and wushu, which the IOC permitted to run in parallel to the official games in Beijing in 2008... “It’s sort of making a mockery of what the Olympics is,” Martin said. “When you look at what it all used to stand for, the Olympics, it definitely fits in the category. What does the Olympics stands for these days, I don’t really know."

Cornell Offers Race-Based Exemption From Mandatory Flu Shot Policy for Students Who Identify As “Black, Indigenous, Or A Person Of Color” Racist policies strike again. And then if minorities suffer more, that can be blamed on "racism"

Kate Manne on Twitter - "Many forms of privilege we discuss are material: wealth, health, resources, freedoms, support. But there's also such a thing as *moral* privilege--the presumption that you're a good person, doing good in the world, not harm, even when the opposite is the case. Such is whiteness. This is especially true of white men. But white women are hardly immune to it. And it makes white women all too liable to be complicit, as they try to be one of the "good ones," i.e., not guilty, by the lights of white supremacist patriarchy."
From a Cornell professor
Original Sin in wokeness can never be cleansed

The purpose of the Special Olympics (and Trans Mania)

I've previously linked Arnold Schwarzenegger's disgraceful attack on a "troll" who questioned the Special Olympics, which was the textbook definition of an ad hominem attack and yet was widely applauded.

Although teleology may be thought of as "stupid" and "evil", examining the issue of the Special Olympics can clarify the issue of competitive divisions in sports.

Whether the Special Olympics is justified comes down to what you think the spirit and purpose of the Olympics and, more broadly, sports is.

The original motto of the Olympics was "Faster, Higher, Stronger". It should be uncontroversial to say that this is true for sports in general.

They are about celebrating and rewarding the peak of human achievement.

Yet, the Special Olympics are restricted to a subset of people who, almost by definition, are not going to be able to achieve as much as others.

Of course, you could say that the Special Olympics celebrate the participants' indomitable spirit, or how hard they try.

Yet, in sports, the criterion for winning is your performance, not how hard you try. If I am a cancer patient who runs the 100m as hard as I can and do it in 30 seconds, someone in perfect health who does it in 29 seconds while barely breaking a sweat is going to beat me despite trying much less hard and not facing the same obstacles as me.

Of course, one could say that we already have divisions in sports today. The biggest of these is sex - men and women compete in different divisions, because we recognise that they have different capabilities and so it would be unfair for women to have to compete with men. Similarly, some sports like weightlifting have weight categories so someone who is 90kg won't stomp on someone who is 50kg.

But then, not all categories are accepted as legitimate. We don't have sports events restricted to people from poor countries, the obese or people who have limited training/experience. And immutable characteristics cannot be the defining criterion deciding category legitimacy, since people largely don't choose to come from poor countries.

Furthermore, one could extend this logic even within the Special Olympics itself. According to the Special Olympics, if your IQ is below 70-75 you could qualify. Is it "fair", though, for someone with an IQ of 69 to be competing with someone with an IQ of 50?

Whatever it is, one could indeed make a case for why the Special Olympics are valuable based on factors other than pure human performance. But sadly I see no one trying to do that. Instead everyone is just taking for granted that the "troll" is "stupid" and/or "evil" and is just jumping on the bandwagon to bash him.

This whole discussion also has contemporary relevance with the issue of trans women in women's sports, and the unfortunate side effect of some intersex women being excluded since testosterone level is now being used as a way to qualify participants (to try to mitigate the risk of unfairness to cis women).

Perhaps a normal athlete should try to identify as intellectually disabled and then compete in the Special Olympics. He would surely have a high chance of winning more medals.

Links - 14th August 2021 (1 - Sarah Tiong)

MasterChef Australia’s Sarah Tiong Calls Out Triple M Host’s ‘Racist’ Greeting: ‘Check Yourself And Do Better’- "“MasterChef Australia: Back To Win” contestant Sarah Tiong has called out a “racist” encounter she faced from a Triple M host on Wednesday.Tiong told her Instagram followers that Triple M Sunraysia greeted her by trying to speak Chinese during a phone interview.“Ni hao ma,” they said before speaking Cantonese “oh wait, would it be ‘lei ho ma?’ Anyway.”The recently evicted MasterChef star said she doesn’t think the greeting went to air but she terminated the interview right away.“I felt uncomfortable and shocked. The call was immediately ended”... Sarah said the host’s mere presumption that she may speak or want to speak Mandarin or Cantonese and then flippantly dismissing the ability to distinguish the two languages is racist... “MasterChef Australia’s: Back To Win” host Melissa Leong backed Sarah and reminded Australians that this sort of behaviour is a daily battle for many people of colour in this country.“It is not funny or clever,” Melissa said.“It just illustrates how deep rooted racial toxicity is in this country, and anyone with a voice in media should know better.”"
When victimhood is currency, greeting someone is offensive
She's played up her heritage before so for her to turn around and cry racism here is ridiculous. Probably wants to get publicity after being kicked out
Use of the word "toxic" is a good sign you're toxic

Malaysian Chef Sarah Tiong & her MasterChef Experience - "Does your Malaysian background give you an advantage in this competition? It definitely did, because Malaysian cuisine is all about combining different flavours, cultures, and history of food. For me to have been exposed to that and be kind of a part of that is quite inspiring, it really gives me a creative edge, and I got a good understanding of flavours from that."

Sarah Tiong on Instagram - "It's understanding the culture of my family and where they came from"

Sarah Tiong • Food • Family • Love - "Mum comes from a small village in East Malaysia. She came to Sydney, Australia in her late teenage years. Like most immigrants, she came with nothing but her strength of character."

Entertainment: Sarah on Her MasterChef Experience: "I'm Hoping to Find a Little More Belief in Myself" - "My family's from East Malaysia, and they grew up in a very small village, so it plays a huge role in the kind of food that I've grown up with. My mum's talent for cooking and her passion for having a wide appetite for all types of cuisines plays a huge role in what I do on-screen, as well as how I cook at home. So it's really important for me to bring in my Malaysian heritage, and bring in the types of techniques as well that I know from home-cooking"
So much for the importance of her Malaysian heritage

OnHand Agrarian - Posts | Facebook - "some entitled little Ah Tiong girl living in Australia has accused a radio show host of being racist when he tried to greet her in mandarin and cantonese. Putting aside the fact that her name is literally Sarah 中(Tiong), there is nothing wrong with being greeted in a language people think you speak.I’m often mistaken for Malay, Filipino, Thai, Burmese and if I stay indoors long enough, Chinese. And people often greet me in those languages when they mistakenly assume I’m of that race. But I’m Peranakan and my surname is 林(Lim). Is it insulting? No! Someone took the effort to notice my features and mannerisms and then went out of their way to acknowledge what they thought was my culture. That is the exact opposite of racism!No, what REALLY bugs me, as a farmer who very proudly grows heritage foods from the ASEAN region, is that this person, who’s so upset at being greeted in mandarin, is happily cashing in on her pigmentation to push her pig agenda! Just take a look at her engagements over the years and the way she markets herself.Would it be racist if someone gave her chopsticks? A chinese chef’s knife? A packet of bak kut teh spices? Invited her to a Kim chi tasting event? Evidently not.So if you’re going to cry “racist” at someone greeting you in a chinese language, cry racist at everyone else who’s asked to be the token chinese (and Korean) person at a chinese “inspired” event.Condolences to Triple M Sydney 104.9for what this hypocrite did. Don’t let this hypocrite stop you from using different languages. There is plenty of actual racism in the world. Let’s build more bridges."

MasterChef Australia - Posts | Facebook - "We're really going to miss Sarah Tiong's incredible positivity in the MasterChef kitchen 🧡 Watch her full exit interview"
So much for positivity

MasterChef viewers think Sarah Tiong flipped off her co-stars as she left the show