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tinyshe · 3 years

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Interview with Alexander Dugin – ‘Welcome all newcomers!’

Prof. Alexander Dugin, philosopher and geopolitical expert from Russia, sees the world changing: the old liberalism is being replaced by a new, aggressive, globalist mutation. Manuel Ochsenreiter's interview with Dugin gives a fascinating insight into the globalist future.

Published: June 18, 2021, 11:42 am

Prof. Dugin, in your latest essay you wrote about “Liberalism 2.0”. Is liberalism changing?

Dugin: Of course! Every ideology is a subject to constant change, including liberalism. Right now we are witnessing a dramatic shift in liberalism. It is now becoming even more dangerous, even more destructive.

How do you even recognize such a change?

Dugin: We can observe a certain “rite of passage”. As such, I interpret the situation in which Donald Trump’s presidency culminated, namely in his fall by hand of the globalist elite, represented by Joe Biden. This is nothing more than a “rite of passage” – embodied by gay parades, BLM uprisings, imperialist LGBT + attacks, the worldwide uprising of extreme feminism and the spectacular arrival of post-humanism and extreme technocracy. There are profound intellectual and philosophical processes going on behind all of this. And these processes have an impact on culture and politics.

You write that liberalism has become “lonely”…

Dugin: Modern liberalism seems to have lost its enemies after the collapse of the Soviet Union. This is fatal for this ideology, as it is primarily defined by its demarcation. In my “Fourth Political Theory”, liberalism is defined as the first theory to fight the two “main enemies” – communism (second theory) and fascism (third theory). Both had challenged liberalism: for liberalism claims to be the most modern and progressive theory. But both communism and fascism made the same claim. In 1990 communism and fascism were considered defeated.

This is usually called the “unipolar moment” (Charles Krauthammer) and it was prematurely, as we now know – even raised by Francis Fukuyama to the “end of history”. In the 1990s, however, it seemed that liberalism no longer had any opponents. Smaller burgeoning anti-liberal right, left, and “national Bolshevik” alliances were no real challenge. The absence of its “enemies” for liberalism also meant that it had lost its self-affirmation. Here we see very clearly the “loneliness”, which of course I don’t mean in a melancholy sense. Therefore, the transition to Liberalism 2.0 with a “new impetus” was almost inevitable.

How would you describe that?

Dugin: An opponent had to come back. But actually only the weak, illiberal alliances that can be described as “national Bolsheviks” were offered – even if the so-called movements themselves do not see it that way. Perhaps it is more understandable if one divides the new political camps into globalists (Liberalism 2.0) and anti-globalists. One must not forget: Liberalism 1.0 will not be “reformed”, it will also become the “enemy” of Liberalism 2.0. We can perhaps even speak of a “mutation”. Because there are also old-style liberals who are now more drawn to the camp of anti-globalists because they reject the limitless, hedonistic and total individualism of Liberalism 2.0.

So liberals against liberals?

Dugin: [laughs] Liberalism 2.0 can be seen as a kind of “fifth column” within liberalism. And the new liberalism is brutal and unyielding, it no longer discusses, it does not invite debate. It is a “cancel culture”, it stigmatizes its opponents, it excludes them. “Old” liberals also fall victim to this, as can be seen almost regularly in Europe today. Who are the victims of the “cancel culture”? Maybe fascists or communists? Most of the time it is artists, journalists and authors who have been completely in the mainstream waters – but who are now suddenly targeted. Liberalism 2.0 lets the hammer go round.

Your country, Russia, is seen today as a great opponent of globalism – especially under President Vladimir Putin…

Dugin: The resurgence of Putin’s Russia can be understood as a new mix of the Soviet-style strategy of anti-Western politics and traditional Russian nationalism. On the other hand, the Putin phenomenon remains a mystery – even to us Russians. Certainly, one can recognize “national Bolshevik” elements in his politics, but also a lot of liberal elements. Incidentally, this also applies to the Chinese phenomenon. Here we see again the special Chinese communism mixed with perceptible Chinese nationalism. The same can be said of the growth of European populism where the distance between the left and the right is increasingly disappearing to the point of the symbolic creation of the left-right alliance in the Italian government: I am talking about the agreement between the “Lega Nord” (right-wing populist) and the “5-star” movement (left-wing populist). We see the same phenomenon prefigured in the populist revolt of the “yellow vests” against President Emmanuel Macron in France, in which the supporters of Marine Le Pen fought together with the supporters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon against the liberal center.

The “left-right” alliances you mentioned only existed for a certain period of time, often they fought each other again more than the liberal center…

Dugin: That’s a key point. Since the anti-globalist, right-left alliances are the greatest opponents of Liberalism 2.0, it must constantly fight them, keep them small and also infiltrate them. If anti-globalist left and right in Europe fight each other more than the center, then liberalism 2.0 is the laughing third party. What is more: there is even a certain tendency on the part of the fringes to make pacts with the center in the fight against the other fringe. I think you can see such a situation in all European countries. Thus, Globalism fragments the camp of its opponents and prevents a possibly powerful alliance.

What could such a “powerful alliance” look like?

Dugin: If Putin from Russia, Xi Jinping from China, the European populists and the anti-Western movements in Islam, the anti-capitalist currents in Latin America and Africa had been aware that they are opposing liberal globalism from a somewhat united ideological position and would have adopted left/right and integral populism as their basis, this would have increased their resistance considerably and even multiplied its potential. So in order not to let this happen, the globalists have left no stone unturned to prevent any ideological movement in this direction.

In your essay you refer to Donald Trump as the “midwife of Liberalism 2.0”. What do you mean?

Dugin: I have already said: a political ideology cannot exist if the “friend-foe antagonism” is erased. It loses its identity. To have no more enemy is to commit ideological suicide. So an obscure and undefined external enemy was not enough to justify liberalism. By demonizing Putin’s Russia and Xi Jinping’s China, the liberals could no longer be convincing. More than that: the assumption of the existence of a formal, structured ideological enemy outside the liberal zone of influence (democracy, market economy, human rights, universal technology, total network, etc.) after the onset of the unipolar moment in the early 1990s on a global level would have been tantamount to acknowledging a serious mistake. Logically, an enemy from within had to appear. This was a theoretical necessity in the development of ideological processes during the 1990s.

This enemy from within appeared just in time, at the exact moment when it was needed most. And it had a name: Donald Trump. He embodied the boundary between Liberalism 1.0 and Liberalism 2.0. Initially, attempts were made to establish a connection between Trump and “red-brown Putin”. This seriously damaged Trump’s presidency, but was ideologically inconsistent. Not only because of the lack of real relations between Trump and Putin and Trump’s ideological opportunism, but also because Putin himself is, in fact, a very pragmatic realist.

Much like Trump, Putin is a poll populist, and like Trump, he’s most likely to be an opportunist with no real interest in a worldview. The alternate scenario portraying Trump as a “fascist” is just as ridiculous. Because it has been used by his political rivals too often, it has caused trouble for Trump, but it has also been inconsistent. Neither Trump himself nor his staff consisted of “fascists” or representatives of any right-wing extremist tendency which had long ago been marginalized in American society and only existed as a kind of extreme libertarian fringe or kitsch culture.

How can you then ultimately classify Trump?

Dugin: Trump was and is a representative of Liberalism 1.0. If we put aside all foreign regimes that oppose liberal ideology in their political practice, there will only be one real enemy of liberalism left – liberalism itself. So in order to move forward, liberalism had to carry out an “internal cleansing”. And it is precisely this old liberalism that has been identified with the symbolic figure of Donald Trump. He was the ultimate enemy in the election campaign of Joe Biden, who stands for the new liberalism 2.0. Biden spoke of the “return to normal”. Liberalism 1.0 – national, capitalist, pragmatic, individualistic and to a certain extent libertarian – was thus declared an “abnormality”.

Liberalism focuses on individualism, that is, the individual human being. Other ideologies speak in terms of collectives like the people or the class. What does Liberalism 2.0 do?

Dugin: Right. The figure of the individual plays the same role in the social physics of liberalism as the atom in scientific physics. Society consists of atoms/individuals, who are the only real and empirical basis for subsequent social, political and economic constructions. Everything can be reduced to the individual. That is the liberal law. So the struggle against all kinds of collective identity is the moral duty of liberals, and progress is measured by whether or not this struggle is successful.

A look at Western societies shows that the struggle was largely successful…

Dugin: At that point, when Liberals began to realize this scenario, despite all their victories, there was still something collective, some kind of forgotten collective identity that also needed to be destroyed. Welcome to gender politics! To be a man and a woman means to share a collective identity which dictates strong social and cultural practices. This is a new challenge for liberalism. The individual must be liberated from biological sex, since the latter is still viewed as something objective. Gender must be purely optional and seen as a consequence of a purely individual decision. Gender politics starts here and changes the very nature of the concept of the individual. The postmodernists were the first to show that the liberal individual is a masculine, rationalist construction. Simply equalizing social opportunities and functions for men and women, including the right to change gender at will, does not solve the problem. The “traditional” patriarchy still survives by defining rationality and norms. Hence, it has been concluded that the liberation of the individual is not enough. The next step consists in the liberation of the human being or rather the “living entity” from the individual.

Now the moment is approaching for the final replacement of the individual by the gender-optional entity, a kind of network identity. And the final step will eventually be to replace humanity with creepy beings – machines, chimeras, robots, artificial intelligence and other species of genetic engineering. The line between what is still human and what is already post-human is the main problem of the paradigm shift from Liberalism 1.0 to Liberalism 2.0. Trump was a human individualist who defended individualism in the old style of human context. Perhaps he was the last of his kind. Biden is a representative of the arriving post-humanity.

So far, it all sounds like a smooth march for the globalist elite. Can one counter that?

Dugin: One cannot avoid the realization that both old-fashioned nationalism and communism have been defeated by liberalism. Neither right-wing nor left-wing illiberal populism can win the victory over liberalism today. To be able to do this, we would have to integrate the illiberal left and the illiberal right. But the ruling liberals are very vigilant about this and always try to prevent any movement in this direction in advance.

The short-sightedness of the radical left and radical right politicians and groups only helps liberals to implement their agenda. At the same time, we must not ignore the growing chasm between Liberalism 1.0 and Liberalism 2.0. It seems as if the internal cleansing of modernity and postmodernism is now leading to brutal punishment and excommunication of new species of political beings – this time the liberals themselves are being sacrificed.

Those of them who do not consider themselves as a part of the Great Reset strategy and the Biden-Soros axis, those who refuse to enjoy the final disappearance of good old mankind, good old individuals, good old freedom and the market economy. There will be no place for any of these in Liberalism 2.0.

It will become post-human, and anyone who questions such a new concept will be welcomed to the Unity of Enemies of the Open Society.

And then we, Russians, will be able to tell them: “We have been here for decades and we feel more or less at home here. So we welcome you to hell, newbies!” Every Trump supporter and ordinary Republican is now seen as a potentially dangerous person, just as we have been for a long time. So let Liberals 1.0 join our ranks! To do this, it is not necessary to become illiberal, philo-communist or ultra-nationalist. Nothing like that! Everyone can keep their good old prejudices for as long as they want. The “Fourth Political Theory” presents a unique position where true freedom is welcomed: the freedom to fight for social justice, to be a patriot, to defend the state, the church, the people, the family – and to remain a human.

Prof. Dugin, thank you very much for the interview.

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sciencespies · 4 years

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Tear gas is more dangerous than most realise and should be banned, experts argue

https://sciencespies.com/humans/tear-gas-is-more-dangerous-than-most-realise-and-should-be-banned-experts-argue/

Tear gas is more dangerous than most realise and should be banned, experts argue

The laws that govern the use of tear gas are downright illogical, argue human rights advocates.

The very same “riot control agents” recently deployed against citizens in Hong Kong, the United States, Chile, Turkey, Nepal, Greece, France, India, Lebanon and South Africa (not to mention many more) have been banned from international warfare under the Chemical Weapons Convention for decades.

A new report from researchers at the University of Toronto argues it’s high time we amend the rules – particularly as the use of tear gas could contribute to the spread of COVID-19.

These dangerous and indiscriminate gases have been abused by law enforcement for far too long, the researchers argue, and the only way to ensure citizens their freedom of speech and assembly is to put a stop to their use completely.

“While international guidance governing the use of tear gas exists, these soft law instruments have shown to be largely ineffective in constraining misuse of tear gas or in protecting fundamental rights,” says Maija Fiorante, an international human rights researcher.

“Under international law, any use of force by law-enforcement authorities must abide by the principles of necessity and proportionality, but tear gas is hardly ever used in accordance with such principles.”

The sale and trade of tear gas worldwide is largely unregulated, and as a result, it’s often not clear what chemicals exist in each canister, how toxic these chemicals are, or even whether they’ve been safety tested beforehand, the researchers explain.

One of the most popular chemical irritants is CS gas (2-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile), which is said to act like a “powdered barb“, causing a burning sensation in the eyes, throat and nose, copious coughing and crying, and restricted breathing.

As savage as that sounds on the human body, we still have very little epidemiological research on the long-term risks for those exposed.

Given the lack of data, health experts have been calling for a moratorium on the use of these “chemical batons” since the turn of the century, and yet in the years since, the production and sale of CS gas worldwide has continued to surge, becoming a billion dollar industry.

In recent years, however, there have been some worrying results published. A 2014 study from the US military found being exposed to CS tear gas just once strongly increased your chances of developing respiratory illnesses, such as influenza or bronchitis.

These are viral infections that impact the lungs, just like COVID-19, the researchers note, which means the use of tear gas right now on protesters is especially worrisome.

Tear gas also causes people to cough violently, which could further spread the coronavirus among the public.

“Tear gas is not a relatively benign method of crowd control, its deployment effectively crushes the right to freedom of protest and assembly,” says human rights lawyer Vincent Wong.

Health experts from many different fields agree. In recent months, as protests over the police killing of George Floyd have continued, police have been using tear gas routinely to control crowds.

In response, 1,288 public health professionals in the US signed an open letter in June urging law enforcement to stop the use of tear gas, smoke and other respiratory irritants, as they could increase the risk of COVID-19 transmission, while also leaving the lungs vulnerable to infection.

The president of the American Thoracic Society has also called for a moratorium on CS tear gas and OC pepper weapons, such as pepper spray, given the “lack of crucial research, the escalation of tear gas use by law enforcement, and the likelihood of compromising lung health and promoting the spread of COVID-19.”

Still, there are serious concerns about tear gas that exists above and beyond the current pandemic. The American Academy of Ophthalmology has condemned the use of tear gas and rubber bullets because when shot at close distances they can actually blind people.

Several protesters of police brutality in the US have already been blinded or received serious eye wounds from these weapons.

Direct impact is only part of the damage. Even when minimal amounts of tear gas are used outdoors, where chemicals can more easily dissipate, there could be dangerous consequences, the new report states.

Given how far and wide these tear gases can seep, the University of Toronto researchers say the use of these chemicals near hospitals and schools is particularly egregious.

In Hong Kong, whole schools and hospitals had to recently be deep cleaned and their ventilation systems replaced after tear gas seeped in from nearby.

Amid growing concerns from the American public, Planned Parenthood has begun a study on how exposure to these chemicals might impact pregnancy.

If a dose of tear gas is toxic enough, it can even lead to respiratory failure and death, and this risk goes way up when the chemical irritants are deployed in enclosed spaces. Nevertheless, tear gas is being increasingly used in prisons worldwide as a form of riot control.

Amnesty International has concluded in certain cases, the use of tear gas amounts to torture.

Some countries have stricter controls on tear gas than others, but on the whole, there is little enforcement of these rules, and the lack of international regulation means it’s pretty much up to the discretion of law enforcement.

“Although international guidance exists, including UN guidelines on the use of less-lethal weapons, these non-binding documents are vague and ineffective in curtailing violations, giving rise to a situation where tear gas is systematically prone to misuse,” the new report argues.

To avoid further transgressions, this new report joins a chorus of other voices calling for tear gas to be banned from domestic use, just as it is in international warfare.

You can read the full University of Toronto’s International Human Rights Program report here.

#Humans

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newstfionline · 4 years

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Headlines

A world without tourism (AP) With no American visitors to show around the D-Day beaches or the Loire Valley’s chateaux, and no work on the immediate horizon, Paris tour guide Linda Zenou frets about how she’ll pay off a loan and continue to care for her ailing mother in the achingly lean months ahead. “My situation is going to become completely inextricable,” she said. “We have nothing to live on.” For growing numbers of businesses and individuals who depend on the global tourism industry, the question is not so much when the coronavirus pandemic will end but how and if they’ll survive until business picks up. In trying to fend off the virus, countries that put up entry barriers to tourists have done so at a mounting cost to themselves and others. “It’s now survival of the fittest,” said Johann Krige, CEO of the Kanonkop wine estate in South Africa, where the drying up of wine-tasting tourists threatens dozens of wine farms around the historic town of Stellenbosch, near Cape Town. “A lot of them are going to go under because they just don’t have sufficient cash flow,” Krige said. Around the world, travel amid the pandemic is becoming a story of tentative steps forward in some places, but punishing steps back elsewhere, of “yes” to letting back visitors from places faring somewhat better against COVID-19 but not from others where outbreaks are flaring. The result is an ever-evolving global mishmash of restrictions and quarantines, all of which are providing zero long-term visibility for businesses trying to make payrolls and for everyone in the industry from trinket sellers to luxury hotels.

In Canada, hockey’s return is a partial sign of normalcy during precarious times (Washington Post) As professional sports leagues spent the spring searching for ways to salvage their seasons after the novel coronavirus forced a shutdown in March, the best solution for the National Hockey League became increasingly obvious. The safest place to stage a modified playoffs turned out to be also where the sport is most popular. As a country, Canada has been far more successful in controlling the virus, so this week, 24 NHL teams have gathered within strictly enforced perimeters in Toronto and Edmonton to compete in a postseason that begins today. If it’s completed, the Stanley Cup will be hoisted on Canadian soil for the first time since 1993.

In sprawling Capitol, leaders struggle to keep virus at bay (AP) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are under increasing pressure from lawmakers to boost testing for the coronavirus in the Capitol, an idea they have so far rejected because of concerns about the availability of tests across the country. Despite the unusual nature of work in the Capitol—lawmakers fly in and out weekly, from 50 states, and attend votes and hearings together—the two leaders have maintained that they will not institute a testing program for members, staff or the hundreds of other people who work in the complex. The lack of tracking was highlighted this week when a GOP lawmaker, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, found out he had contracted the virus. He was tested only because he had been scheduled to travel with President Donald Trump. The dilemma for Congress is similar to the one facing workplaces and schools as they struggle to reopen. Lawmakers and staff during the summer have been wearing masks, keeping their distance, cleaning surfaces, limiting crowds and working from their homes when possible. But it’s difficult if not impossible to fully protect against the coronavirus without a robust system of testing and tracing, and there’s a lack of infrastructure nationwide to make it happen.

Philadelphia trash piles up as pandemic stymies its removal (AP) What would Ben Franklin think? The Founding Father who launched one of America’s first street-sweeping programs in Philadelphia in the late 1750s would see and smell piles of fly-infested, rotting household waste, bottles and cans as the city that he called home struggles to overcome a surge in garbage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. For the City of Brotherly Love, another unfortunate nickname has been “ Filthadelphia.” Poverty and litter often go hand in hand, and in the nation’s poorest big city, the sanitation department has been short-handed and overworked. The city’s 311 complaint line received more than 9,700 calls about trash and recycling in July, compared with 1,873 in February. Faced with social distancing restrictions, residents are staying home and generating more trash than ever before—about a 30% increase in residential trash collections, said Streets Commissioner Carlton Williams. Baltimore and Memphis are among some of the cities facing similar problems. In Boston, some residents have reported rats the size of cats. People are cleaning out garages and attics, Williams said. That’s in addition to household trash that has increased as more people cook at home or bring home takeout from restaurants that have not yet fully opened. His department also has had to clean up after protests over racial injustice.

Oregon police try to tamp down nightly Portland protests (AP) Oregon police took over protecting a federal courthouse in Portland that’s been a target of violent protests as local authorities try to tamp down demonstrations that have wracked the city every night for more than two months following the killing of George Floyd. Having state and local officers step up their presence was part of a deal between the Democratic governor and the Trump administration that aimed to draw down the number of U.S. agents on hand during the unrest. In preparation for the handover, state troopers, the local sheriff and Portland police met and agreed not to use tear gas except in cases where there’s a danger of serious injury or death, Mayor Ted Wheeler said. Federal agents sent to the city in early July have used it nightly as protesters lob rocks, fireworks and other objects. Wheeler, who himself was gassed when he joined protesters outside the courthouse last week, added that tear gas “as a tactic really isn’t all that effective” because protesters have donned gas masks and often return to the action after recovering for a few minutes.

Hurricane Isaias batters Bahamas as storm targets entire U.S. East Coast (Washington Post) Hurricane Isaias became 2020′s second Atlantic hurricane overnight Wednesday on its way to the Bahamas, which it has already begun to blast with drenching rain, strong winds and ocean surge. The storm is now poised to ride up the East Coast, first encountering Florida this weekend before zipping up the rest of the Eastern Seaboard through the Mid-Atlantic and New England during the first-half of next week. “There is a risk of impacts from winds, heavy rainfall, and storm surge late this weekend from the northeastern Florida coast and spreading northward along the remainder of the U.S. east coast through early next week,” wrote the National Hurricane Center. North Carolina, in particular, may be hit hard by the storm from Monday into Tuesday, where Isaias could crash ashore. Earlier this week, Isaias dropped up to eight inches of rain in southwest Puerto Rico, and knocked power out to more than 400,000 residents on the island. The storm then plowed through the Dominican Republic, strengthening more than expected.

Brazil reopens to tourists (Daily Telegraph) Brazil registered record daily numbers of infections and deaths from the new coronavirus on Wednesday, sending its overall death toll surging past 90,000 people. Despite the record figures, the government issued a decree reopening the country to foreign visitors arriving by plane, ending a four-month travel ban in hopes of reviving a lockdown-devastated tourism industry. The tourism industry has already lost nearly 122 billion reals ($23.6 billion) because of the pandemic, the National Confederation of Trade in Goods, Services and Tourism (CNC) estimates. As a whole, Latin America’s biggest economy is facing a record contraction of 9.1 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

More than three million Chileans seek to withdraw pensions amid pandemic (Reuters) More than 3 million Chileans on Thursday asked to withdraw a portion of their pension funds as a controversial law took effect allowing citizens to tap into retirement savings to buffer the economic impacts of the coronavirus. Long lines formed in Santiago outside the offices of Pension Fund Administrators (AFP) as Chileans sought to take advantage of the new law. The emergency measure allows those with savings to withdraw up to 10% of their pensions. The websites of several of the fund administrators collapsed Thursday amid the deluge of requests, prompting an apology from the companies.

Excess deaths during Europe’s coronavirus outbreak were highest in England, according to U.K. analysis (Washington Post) England topped Europe’s grim league table for highest levels of excess deaths during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new analysis published Thursday by Britain’s Office for National Statistics. The analysis of more than 20 European countries—including the four nations of the United Kingdom—found that England’s death rate was 7.55 percent higher this year through the end of May, compared with its five-year average. Spain was next, with a 6.65 percent increase over its average. Scotland was 5.11 percent above its average and Belgium 3.89 percent. Because different countries have used different methods to calculate coronavirus deaths, many scientists consider excess mortality a more reliable way to measure the impact of the virus and to draw comparisons. Excess mortality would include not just fatalities that were directly related to covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, but also the deaths of people who were hesitant to seek care for serious conditions or who did not receive the usual level of care while the health system was focused on the pandemic.

Beach ban (Foreign Policy) As temperatures rise above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32°C) in England and local lockdowns are imposed to prevent further coronavirus outbreaks, British police are preparing to keep crowds away from the sea after approximately 500,000 people flocked to beaches in Bournemouth and Poole during an earlier heatwave in June.

Clashes on Pakistan border leave more than a dozen Afghan civilians dead, Afghan officials say (Washington Post) More than a dozen Afghan civilians were killed and many others wounded Thursday when clashes broke out on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Afghan officials said. Ahmad Bahir Ahmadi, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province, which borders Pakistan, said 15 people were killed and 80 wounded. One Afghan official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said more than a dozen Afghan civilians were killed. The Afghan Defense Ministry blamed Pakistani forces for the attack. The Pakistani Foreign Ministry appeared to reject that assertion, saying in a statement Friday that “Afghan forces opened unprovoked fire on innocent civilians gathered towards Pakistan’s side of the international border." “Pakistan troops responded to protect our local population and acted only in self-defense,” the statement said, claiming Afghan forces opened fire first and casualties also occurred on the Pakistani side of the border.

China tightens its grip on Hong Kong (Foreign Policy) The crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong continues as the local government announced on Thursday that it was barring 12 pro-democracy activists from running in the upcoming legislative elections scheduled for September. The move follows Beijing’s passage of a draconian national security law earlier this month that severely limits the civil liberties of Hong Kongers, aiming to curtail opposition to the ruling pro-Beijing administration. Pro-democracy candidates rode a wave of public discontent in the recent local elections in November, notching major victories across the territory that shocked observers in mainland China.

The Dictator Who Waged War on Darfur Is Gone, but the Killing Goes On (NYT) On camels, horses and motorbikes, dozens of Arab militiamen stormed into the remote village in Darfur, in western Sudan, firing wildly, witnesses said. Houses were pillaged, animals stolen and water tanks smashed. Villagers ran for their lives. United Nations peacekeepers scrambled to the scene but said they found the road blocked by obstacles placed in their way, and continued on foot. When they arrived after two and a half hours, it was too late. At least nine people lay dead, including a 15-year-old boy, and another 20 were seriously wounded, according to the United Nations. The attack in Fata Bornu, a remote hamlet of 4,000 people, echoes the grimmest days of the Darfur conflict in the 2000s. But it happened just this month—over a year since euphoric protests toppled Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the detested dictator whose alleged atrocities in Darfur earned him an indictment on genocide charges in an international court. But while the revolution brought some change to Sudan’s cities, that is not the case in Darfur, where the notorious janjaweed—nomadic Arab militias—still ride free. Heavily armed gangs continue to massacre, plunder and rape in scorched-earth tactics that recall the worst days of Mr. al-Bashir’s rule.

Zimbabwe on the brink (Foreign Policy) The streets of the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, were empty on Friday save for hundreds of soldiers and police dispatched to squash planned anti-government protests amid rising public anger over corruption, food shortages, and rampant inflation. The government has cautioned that protests will be regarded as an insurrection and that anyone who attends them will “only have themselves to blame.” Tensions have risen dramatically in recent months as the pandemic has tipped the country’s fragile economy into crisis. The local currency, which was reintroduced last year after being shelved for a decade due to a hyperinflation crisis in the late 2000s, has imploded with inflation over 700 percent, obliterating people’s savings and salaries. The World Food Program warned this week that by the end of the year 60 percent of the country’s population would lack food security, and it appealed to the international community to step up to prevent “a potential humanitarian catastrophe.”

#headlines #news

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phroyd · 5 years

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SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco, long at the heart of the technology revolution, took a stand against potential abuse on Tuesday by banning the use of facial recognition software by the police and other agencies.

The action, which came in an 8-to-1 vote by the Board of Supervisors, makes San Francisco the first major American city to block a tool that many police forces are turning to in the search for both small-time criminal suspects and perpetrators of mass carnage.

The authorities used the technology to help identify the suspect in the mass shooting at an Annapolis, Md., newspaper last June. But civil liberty groups have expressed unease about the technology’s potential abuse by government amid fears that it may shove the United States in the direction of an overly oppressive surveillance state.

Aaron Peskin, the city supervisor who sponsored the bill, said that it sent a particularly strong message to the nation, coming from a city transformed by tech.

“I think part of San Francisco being the real and perceived headquarters for all things tech also comes with a responsibility for its local legislators,” Mr. Peskin said. “We have an outsize responsibility to regulate the excesses of technology precisely because they are headquartered here.”

But critics said that rather than focusing on bans, the city should find ways to craft regulations that acknowledge the usefulness of face recognition. “It is ridiculous to deny the value of this technology in securing airports and border installations,” said Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law expert at George Washington University. “It is hard to deny that there is a public safety value to this technology.”

There will be an obligatory second vote next week, but it is seen as a formality.

Similar bans are under consideration in Oakland and in Somerville, Mass., outside of Boston. In Massachusetts, a bill in the State Legislature would put a moratorium on facial recognition and other remote biometric surveillance systems. On Capitol Hill, a billintroduced last month would ban users of commercial face recognition technology from collecting and sharing data for identifying or tracking consumers without their consent, although it does not address the government’s uses of the technology.

Matt Cagle, a lawyer with the A.C.L.U. of Northern California, on Tuesday summed up the broad concerns of facial recognition: The technology, he said, “provides government with unprecedented power to track people going about their daily lives. That’s incompatible with a healthy democracy.”

The San Francisco proposal, he added, “is really forward-looking and looks to prevent the unleashing of this dangerous technology against the public.”

In one form or another, facial recognition is already being used in many American airports and big stadiums, and by a number of other police departments. The pop star Taylor Swift has reportedly incorporated the technology at one of her shows, using it to help identify stalkers.

The facial recognition fight in San Francisco is largely theoretical — the police department does not currently deploy such technology, and it is only in use at the international airport and ports that are under federal jurisdiction and are not impacted by the legislation.

Some local homeless shelters use biometric finger scans and photos to track shelter usage, said Jennifer Friedenbach, the executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness. The practice has driven undocumented residents away from the shelters, she said.

Still, it has been a particularly charged topic in a city with a rich history of incubating dissent and individual liberties, but one that has also suffered lately from high rates of property crime.

The ban prohibits city agencies from using facial recognition technology, or information gleaned from external systems that use the technology. It is part of a larger legislative package devised to govern the use of surveillance technologies in the city that requires local agencies to create policies controlling their use of these tools. There are some exemptions, including one that would give prosecutors a way out if the transparency requirements might interfere with their investigations.

Still, the San Francisco Police Officers Association, an officers’ union, said the ban would hinder their members’ efforts to investigate crime.

“Although we understand that it’s not a 100 percent accurate technology yet, it’s still evolving,” said Tony Montoya, the president of the association. “I think it has been successful in at least providing leads to criminal investigators.”

Mr. Cagle and other experts said that it was difficult to know exactly how widespread the technology was in the United States. “Basically, governments and companies have been very secretive about where it’s being used, so the public is largely in the dark about the state of play,” he said.

But Dave Maass, the senior investigative researcher at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, offered a partial list of police departments that he said used the technology, including Las Vegas, Orlando, San Jose, San Diego, New York City, Boston, Detroit and Durham, N.C.

Other users, Mr. Maass said, include the Colorado Department of Public Safety, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, the California Department of Justice and the Virginia State Police.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is now using facial recognition in many airports and ports of sea entry. At airports, international travelers stand before cameras, then have their pictures matched against photos provided in their passport applications. The agency says the process complies with privacy laws, but it has still come in for criticism from the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which argues that the government, though promising travelers that they may opt out, has made it increasingly difficult to do so.

But there is a broader concern. “When you have the ability to track people in physical space, in effect everybody becomes subject to the surveillance of the government,” said Marc Rotenberg, the group’s executive director.

In the last few years, facial recognition technology has improved and spread at lightning speed, powered by the rise of cloud computing, machine learning and extremely precise digital cameras. That has meant once-unimaginable new features for users of smartphones, who may now use facial recognition to unlock their devices, and to tag and sort photos.

But some experts fear the advances are outstripping government’s ability to set guardrails to protect privacy.

Mr. Cagle and others said that a worst-case scenario already exists in China, where facial recognition is used to keep close tabs on the Uighurs, a largely Muslim minority, and is being integrated into a national digital panopticon system powered by roughly 200 million surveillance cameras.

American civil liberties advocates warn that the ability of facial surveillance to identify people at a distance, or online, without their knowledge or consent presents unique risks — threatening Americans’ ability to freely attend political protests or simply go about their business anonymously in public. Last year, Bradford L. Smith, the president of Microsoft, warned that the technology was too risky for companies to police on their own and asked Congress to oversee its use.

The battle over the technology intensified last year after two researchers published a study showing bias in some of the most popular facial surveillance systems. Called Gender Shades, the study reported that systems from IBM and Microsoft were much better at identifying the gender of white men’s faces than they were at identifying the gender of darker-skinned or female faces.

Another study this year reported similar problems with Amazon’s technology, called Rekognition. Microsoft and IBM have since said they improved their systems, while Amazon has said it updated its system since the researchers tested it and had found no differences in accuracy.

Warning that African-Americans, women and others could easily be incorrectly identified as suspects and wrongly arrested, the American Civil Liberties Union and other nonprofit groups last year called on Amazon to stop selling its technology to law enforcement.

But even with improvements in accuracy, civil rights advocates and researchers warn that, in the absence of government oversight, the technology could easily be misused to surveil immigrants or unfairly target African-Americans or low-income neighborhoods. In a recent essay, Luke Stark, a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft Research Montreal, described facial surveillance as “the plutonium of artificial intelligence,” arguing that it should be “recognized as anathema to the health of human society, and heavily restricted as a result.”

Alvaro Bedoya, who directs Georgetown University’s Center on Privacy and Technology, said that more than 30 states allow local or state authorities, or the F.B.I., to search their driver’s license photos.

Mr. Bedoya said that these images are tantamount to being in a perpetual police lineup, as law enforcement agencies use them to check against the faces of suspected criminals. He said that the difference is that an algorithm, not a human being, is pointing to the suspect.

He also said that comprehensive regulation of the technology is sorely lacking. “This is the most pervasive and risky technology of the 21st century,” he said.

Daniel Castro, director of the Center for Data Innovation at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, is among those who opposed the idea of a ban. He said he would prefer to see face-recognition data accessible to the police only if they have secured a warrant from a judge, following guidelines the Supreme Court has set for other forms of electronic surveillance.

But proponents of the bans say they are an effort to hit the pause button and study the matter before harm is done. The proposed ban in Somerville, the Boston suburb, was sponsored by a councilor, Ben Ewen-Campen. “The government and the public don’t have a handle on what the technology is and what it will become,” he said on Tuesday.

Next door in Boston, Ed Davis, the former police commissioner, said it was “premature to be banning things.” Mr. Davis, who led the department during the Boston Marathon attack, said that no one in the United States wanted to follow the Chinese model.

But he also sees the potential. “This technology is still developing,” he said, “and as it improves, this could be the answer to a lot of problems we have about securing our communities.”

Joel Engardio, the vice president of Stop Crime SF, said that he agreed that current facial recognition technologies were flawed, but said that the city should not prohibit their use in the future, if they were improved.

“Instead of an outright ban, why not a moratorium?” Mr. Engardio asked. “Let’s keep the door open for when the technology improves. I’m not a fan of banning things when eventually it could actually be helpful.”

Kate Conger reported from San Francisco; Richard Fausset from Atlanta and Serge F. Kovaleski from New York. Reporting was also contributed by Natasha Singer and Adeel Hassan in New York.

Phroyd

#san francisco (calif)#software #facial recognition

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suchasuckerformontages-blog · 5 years

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Cold Pursuit (2019)

directed by: Hans Petter Moland

written by:Frank Baldwin

Thoughts:

Originally filmed in 2014 Cold Pursuit is an American remake of a Norwegian movie . While I usually don't love people remaking perfectly fine movies with more budgets to harvest financial gain (See LOL, Head full of Honey, The Upside), I guess it can be an opportunity to outdo yourself and reach a wider audience which I think was what happened here as it was directed by the same guy both times. Anyways in this case I was sold after watching the trailer. To the tunes of Bad Moon Rising you get one perfectly cut scene following the other (though sadly not in the original version). And I have to say the film delivers what you'd expect after the trailer: exactly the kind of macabre humor that I'm into.

It was funny because of its absurdity. A snowplow driver living in quiet skiing resort Kehoe starts killing members of a local drug cartel after the murder of his son with skills he learned by reading crime novels. One after the other dies without so much as a black title card acknowledging his death. The way they establish a distance to the brutal violence depicted by the characters being so incredibly sober whilst committing it in a Preacher kind of way is what I loved about it.

You also sometimes get things entering the frame in funny and unexpected - in short Edgar Wright sort of- ways like the protagonist dragging the gangster he just beat up across the car park or the dead son being pushed up on the rack from below.

However while I was digging the overall tone and humor I also noticed that they overused the stylistic and comedic device of a steady shot of silence with one sound disturbing it. I mean it was funny the first time but the fifth time around...

And there was an abundance of steady shots in general. Sometimes there were shots that just kept on forever that in my opinion could have easily been cut. I think it might have been a conscious choice to create the sort of calm atmosphere that makes all of the action even more absurd but the movie in addition to the advertisements added up to three hours and I believe that not every single one of the scenes had to be as long as they were.

But that's not to say that the movie was boring or deprived of clever directional and creative choices. For example as I saw it there were clear motives such as the act of disappearing in death and life as the several characters disappeared without any striking impacts on the ones that were left (apart from one exception that I'm going to mention again later) thus making you wonder about it and perhaps even more present the exploration of father-son-relationships.

The first one isn't really dissected as much as it is simply omnipresent throughout the plot (the end credits literally read “In order of disappearance”), the second one however is what I would describe as the essence of Cold Pursuit: It follows a father who seeks revenge (or something of sorts) for the murder of his son. His opponent is a drug lord whose innocent son is later kidnapped by our protagonist and the drug lord`s opponent, the leader of the Native American cartel wants to avenge the murder of his son. The two fathers who deeply cared for their sons and lost them were the two left while Viking whose son served as a moral authority and a mirror for his father died at the end.

I could go into detail about how else the father-son-relationships were shown and kept coming up but the movie already does that. Now inevitably because it is a movie about fathers and sons there are not a lot of meaningful female characters in it. But to be honest I didn't really care that much. The problem isn't with one film not passing the Bechdel or the Mako-Mori test anyways it's about the scarily huge amount of them. Having said that I totally acknowledge the right for movies like this one to exist as well. After all movies should be about the human experience and yes, surprisingly men are also human. I also didn't really care that much because even though most if not all the important roles were men you could still identify with them because of the plot's reliance on relationships and every character having a purpose. It's interesting to note here that the protagonist actually loses all his relationships (there were only three family members to begin with, two of which died and one leaving him) throughout the movie while going on a killing spree and not sparing a line about his motives and still seems weirdly likable so I guess you'd need to congratulate Liam Neeson's acting and the way his character is written as such a blatantly and genuinely nice guy.

Notwithstanding he's not without flaws. His wife actually leaves him due to their complete lack of communication by leaving a blank card which I think is really smart and might be a commentary on women's roles in the movie but also doesn't seem do have any repercussions on the protagonist.

Apart from the female perspective being less present there is also a general issue and conflict of representation that I think might be rooted in the fact that it's a comedy.

The issue is the following, people are represented for example there is a Native American drug cartel and there are feisty women but in the one moment they are treated with dignity and in the next their faith or behaviour is played for laughs as if it wasn't valid in the first place or as if a women being superior to a man were something hilarious. I felt like especially with the Native American cartel there was a dissonance between validating its members experiences (e.g. when their leader went into a souvenir shop full of forged Indian cultural objects) and just making fun of them (e.g. when one of them couldn't light a branch at the place where another had died). Then there was the only black character who is a hitman that gets killed for his lack of loyalty, which is just great. And then there is the protagonist's brother's Asian wife with whom the brother talked in her native tongue and seemed to be on one level with on the one hand but who was still characterized in such a superficial way on the other hand.

Now I think the conflict is that it's a comedy. And I could stop right there. It's a comedy and it's supposed to be funny so it's going to make fun of everybody. Which I think it did very well. Even the white villain (if you can even call him that because it would mean drawing a distinction between which people someone kills when really you shouldn't ever kill anyone at all if it can be avoided) was presented in a mocking way. He's the boss of a drug cartel but obsessed with eating healthy, screams and has a tantrum during which he throws around a stability ball. All pretty funny but for some reason kind of terrifying and intimidating at the same time. He is also the only openly racist character so... good job.

It's not all bad either though. I do believe that they did a pretty good job with the black screens and choosing to show different symbols according to the faith of the person who died, instead of always taking a cross.

I also loved that they included a gay couple that wasn't a walking stereotype or only there for laughs. Of course one of them had to die though but it was the only death or disappearance that had an impact on the story because the remaining one later betrayed his boss for having killed his partner.

My overall assessment is that although there was something a bit off about Cold Pursuit which I think was due to its long lasting shots and precarious handling of representation it was also what I expected in the best way possible: a dark comedy and a good one at that, the writing of the characters especially, the acting and the unique setting of the story were what made watching it truly worthwhile.

#cold pursuit

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eagle-eyez · 3 years

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When it comes to speeches, Joe Biden is no Barack Obama, but he is no Donald Trump either. With his rather limited vocabulary, Trump somehow manages to get his message across. Biden is not an orator. He frequently mumbles up words and sometimes forgets what he was about to say, but still loves to speak with a flourish, frequently searching for punchlines and idiomatic expressions. One of Biden’s favourite phrases is: “the United States will again lead not just by the example of our power but the power of our example.”

Let’s just say the punchline didn’t age well.

As the world stays witness to unprecedented, dreadful scenes from Kabul where the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis still remains unfathomable, “power of America’s example” is ironically raising serious questions of Washington’s credibility and competence, not to speak of doubt among its allies and partners over its reliability. The way the cookie has crumbled in Afghanistan, it appears to confirm the notion that the US is an unreliable ally. Conversely, the developments have made it vulnerable to rhetorical attacks from adversaries, who have wasted no time in driving home the advantage.

When Biden speaks of the “power of our example”, he refers to American hegemony and influence in ensuring the state of relative peace that has existed since the Second World War when the US pulled its weight as the chief security guarantor of the global order. That image of a competent hegemon ready to defend the order it has installed through a complex network of allies, partners and institutions now lie in tatters.

It isn’t just the decision to pull out of Afghanistan and leave the beleaguered central Asian state to its violent, theocratic fate after two decades of machinations, it isn’t just the desperate exit deal cut with a terrorist outfit to fashion the final scuttle, it isn’t just the footage of chaos and dysfunction beamed from Kabul that stripped away the aura of US competence, and it isn’t just the lame excuses that a finger-pointing Biden laid out during his address when he blamed everyone else and yet claimed martyrdom for the debacle.

A combination of all these factors leads to the central message — hammered home for a decade by successive Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Biden administrations — that the US has grown tired of its beat as the globocop and wants to return home. This sense of resignation found its fullest expression in the denouement in Afghanistan and the speech that Biden delivered where he attempted to spin the chaos into some sort of a grand strategy.

In 2002, as chairman of the senate foreign relations committee after the 9/11 attacks, Biden had exhorted the then US president George W Bush to open American purse strings towards building institutions and promoting centralized democracy in Afghanistan. In a speech in February 2002, Biden had said: “History is going to judge us very harshly, I believe, if we allow the hope of a liberated Afghanistan to evaporate because we are fearful of the phrase ‘nation-building.’”

On Monday, trying to defend the debacle in Afghanistan, Biden claimed, “Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation building. It was never supposed to be creating a unified, centralized democracy.”

The distance that Biden has travelled from 2002 to 2021 mirrors the time is has taken for the US to reorient its focus. It is this that shows Pax Americana, whose epitaph has been written many times before, may finally be dead.

As professor Brahma Chellaney writes in Project Syndicate, “This is a watershed moment that will be remembered for formalizing the end of the long-fraying Pax Americana and bringing down the curtain on the West’s long ascendancy. At a time when its global preeminence was already being severely challenged by China, the United States may never recover from the blow this strategic and humanitarian disaster delivers to its international credibility and standing.”

Much as the White House has tried to furiously spin the narrative — with Biden doing a clever bit of deception during his speech — the intelligence and policy failures by successive US administrations that led to the shambolic exit plan, and the clusterfuck of an execution strategy after being caught on the wrong foot by The Taliban’s rapid advance, have contributed to massive reputational damage for the United States. And it has come at an ill-timed moment when it is locked in an intense strategic competition with a presumptive superpower.

The decision to withdraw unilaterally from Afghanistan (undermining the authority of the civilian government, its ally) can still be rationally explained, given the increasing domestic antagonism towards ‘forever wars’. No leader in a democracy may remain immune to public sentiment. It is difficult to see why anyone may hold a grudge against the US for ending a 20-year military engagement in a corner of the world that is no longer central to its security concerns. In the long term, it makes the US appear less trustworthy, but it is a debate worth having.

What cannot be debated, however, is how helpless and clueless the world’s most powerful nation seemed — given all its resources — when the Taliban walked into the presidential palace and took charge of Kabul. The answer to questions over the botched-up pullout cannot be “but we cannot stay there forever”, as Biden tried to do.

The scenes of utter chaos with some Afghan nationals clinging on to a moving US Air Force jet in a desperate bid to flee the country have become the “defining image” of American failure in its longest war. It doesn’t speak highly of US diplomatic clout when triggering memories of Saigon, 1975, American diplomatic staff has to be evacuated off the roof, when the US has to plead with the Taliban not to attack its embassy and when the US defense secretary Lloyd Austin admits that the “US military does not have the capacity at this point to extend security forces beyond the perimeter of the Kabul airport in order to get more civilians safely evacuated out of Afghanistan.”

It is a staggering admission, one that accurately reflects the unravelling of US power.

Beyond the immediacy of the tragedy, the US faces some tough questions over its strategic reorientation. Biden has been trying to make a case that withdrawal of troops and military resources from Afghanistan is necessary for the US to concentrate on the strategic challenge it is facing from China and Russia. And yet the message that was underlined throughout the tragedy in Kabul is not that ‘America is back’, but ‘America is going back’.

Biden has identified China as America’s greatest competitor, and one of the key foreign policy tenets of his administration, as he had described in a speech in February 2021, is that “we’ll… take on directly the challenges posed by our prosperity, security, and democratic values by our most serious competitor, China… We will compete from a position of strength by building back better at home, working with our allies and partners, renewing our role in international institutions, and reclaiming our credibility and moral authority, much of which has been lost.”

Biden was ostensibly taking a swipe at the outgoing Trump administration, but it is difficult to defend American moral authority when the world notices how it has abandoned the Afghan nationals to their fate who had risked their lives to assist the US. This is a nation that is struggling to evacuate the thousands of American citizens still hiding in different parts of Afghanistan who cannot even make it to the airport. The fate of around 80,000 visa applications for Afghans who worked with the US government is even more uncertain.

For all his faults, and there were many, Trump wasn’t a hypocrite. He didn’t care what would happen to America’s ally, the civilian government in Afghanistan, and had no moral pretensions on defending the safety and rights of Afghan women and minorities. His mission was clear — to get the military to end its engagement in Afghanistan and he cut a deal with the Taliban bypassing Ashraf Ghani. It robbed the Afghanistan government of the semblance of authority and empowered the Taliban. Not that it caused Trump any bother.

The trouble with Biden is that on one hand he talks about restoring America’s ‘moral authority’, claims that ‘America is back’, vows to work with allies and partners and then doubles down on a deal that was cut by throwing Afghanistan’s civilian government under the bus. Some critics have pointed out that Taliban’s ascendance and the collapse of the civilian government and its military was caused by America’s abandonment of its ally.

This betrayal happened at two levels. Policy and strategy. Putting the cart of military withdrawal before the horse of a political settlement faced with a deadly fighting force weakened America’s hands and consequently sucked the morale out of the Afghan forces (many of whom were poorly paid and lacked motivation). And the rapid withdrawal of the troops, tech and support bulwark (including US contractors who kept Afghan fighter jets airworthy) was the coup de grace. In the final few days, many members of Afghan security forces and warlords battling the Taliban simply cut side deals and ran away.

As HR McMaster and Bradley Bowman write in Wall Street Journal, “Negotiators from Washington pursued diplomatic engagement with a brutal and determined enemy without complementary military action and after announcing our intention to withdraw. The late George Shultz’s observation holds true: ‘Negotiations are a euphemism for capitulation if the shadow of power is not cast across the bargaining table’.”

In the final reckoning, these events not only damage confidence in US capacity for judgment and competence but also erode America’s credibility as an ally. To quote Husain Haqqani, former Pakistan ambassador to the US, in The Hill, “In their eagerness to withdraw from Afghanistan, two successive presidents refused to respect the views of America’s ally, the government of Afghanistan. That does not send a great signal to America’s allies around the world. American allies will now have to worry that the US can abandon them at short notice for domestic political reasons — not a good reputation to have while preparing for peer competition with China.”

US actions, in turn, have strengthened the notion that its power is in terminal decline. It is difficult to argue otherwise when the US president makes an impassioned plea about why it is not America’s job any more to remain invested in battles in faraway lands — forgetting that it is precisely these commitments that had made US hegemony possible.

And China has jumped in. Afghanistan has presented China with the perfect opportunity to drive home the message that the US is a declining power, increasingly lacks the ability to fashion outcomes favourable to itself, and consequently is in no position to uphold its elaborate commitments and security guarantees.

In a series of articles and editorials, the Chinese state media has “exulted in the US withdrawal, with official outlets slamming Washington for its ‘messy failure’, ‘humiliation’, and ‘impotence’.”

Of particular interest to Beijing is the Taiwan question. The nationalistic Global Times has warned Taiwan that it cannot repose faith in the US and that the debacle in Afghanistan is a “lesson for the DPP”. To reinforce its message, the Chinese military on Tuesday carried out “assault drills near Taiwan, with warships and fighter jets exercising off the southwest and southeast of the island.”

“America is now widely seen as a superpower in rapid decline”, announced an op-ed in Global Times. “A pale shadow of what it once was. Its defeat in Afghanistan will have major implications across the world; It brings into question the competence of its political and military leadership, its willingness to engage in further military entanglements, and its reliability and commitment as an ally. If it can make such a huge miscalculation and suffer such a catastrophic defeat in Afghanistan, then who is going to trust its judgement in East Asia, or the South China Sea.”

American allies and partners are taking note. Taiwan, an ‘unofficial’ American ally that lies at the crossroads of US-China competition and great-power muscle flexing has reacted with worry and dismay over whether the US may be relied upon during an emergency.

Its president Tsai Ing-wen in a Facebook post admitted on Wednesday that “recent changes in the situation in Afghanistan have led to much discussion in Taiwan,” and added that “I want to tell everyone that Taiwan’s only option is to make ourselves stronger, more united and more resolute in our determination to protect ourselves.”

The US has been forced to come out with a statement that its commitment to Taiwan “remains as strong as it’s ever been” and that Taiwan is a “fundamentally different question in a different context.” It is evident, however, that China feels more emboldened at US weakness on display in Afghanistan and it is likely to increase its bullying of Taiwan. It is evident that Afghanistan will cast a long shadow over US security partnerships in Asia.

It is not a surprise, therefore, to note that Japan, that has tied own security with the defence stability of Taiwan, express growing concern over the realignment in balance of power in Asia. Japan’s defence minister Nobuo Kishi, according to Sydney Morning Herald, has said “the shifting power balance between the US and China ‘has become very conspicuous’ while a military battle over Taiwan had ‘skewed greatly in favour of China’.”

Consequently, Japan has announced that it will spend more in defence, tipping the defence spending in next fiscal over the long-standing cap of 1 percent of gross domestic product for the very first time.

The increasing lack of faith among its allies and partners on US security guarantee and worry over China’s growing hegemony in Asia further reinforce the narrative of US decline. It may fuel further Xi Jinping’s expansionist designs.

An interesting aspect to consider is whether the developments in Afghanistan will impact India-US ties, or affect the growing strategic partnership?

Walter Russell Mead raises the question in the Wall Street Journal in arguing: “For more than 70 years India, whose massive population and economy make it a linchpin of any American strategy in Asia, has seen the world through the lens of its competition with Pakistan. Now, as Islamabad cements its ties with Beijing, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan hands Pakistan a strategic victory and strengthens the most radical anti-Indian and anti-Western forces in its government. Few in New Delhi will perceive this catastrophe as a sign of Washington’s competence or reliability.”

Questions over US reliability in the present context are inevitable, but, as scholar Tanvi Madan points out in Twitter, such questions are not new to India and are “almost baked into calculations regarding the US.”

I’ve been asked a lot about the impact of devps in Afghanistan on India’s rel w US. Been hesitating to get into it rn cuz: -not what matters at the moment -still an evolving dynamic -too soon to tell -it depends on a few factors 1/

— Tanvi Madan (@tanvi_madan) August 17, 2021

Unlike Japan or even Taiwan, India doesn’t rely on a US security guarantee and its strategic closeness with Washington has been necessitated and fuelled by China’s growing heft and expansionism in the region. This has found expression in the framing of a Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, that is not an Asian NATO. Therefore, questions on US competence and reliability are likely to remain peripheral to the India-US equation and should continue as long as China continues with its belligerent ways. That said, the spillover effect from Afghanistan may affect the pace of the strategic alignment, that may further depend on the change in US-Pakistan dynamics post Taliban’s ascension.

The larger point, however, remains that the Afghanistan debacle has dealt possibly a fatal blow to US power, prestige and influence. It spells the end of the American unipolar moment in history.

from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/3y54IAy

#World

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firstumcschenectady · 3 years

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“Rainbows and Rain” based on Genesis 9:8-17 and Mark 1:9-15

When do you look for rainbows? After it rains, right? The Genesis story connects the rainbow with God's promise not to flood the earth – again. It is an oddly timed symbol for such a promise, because by the time it stops raining and the rainbow shows up … it has stopped raining and the fear of flooding is likely already relieved.

Or, maybe that's the beauty of it.

Because during a rainstorm we can anticipate it. “When this is over, we can look for a rainbow!” So, even during the storm, we anticipate it's ending and the reminder that all will be well.

Of course, in these days of climate changed by humans, rain can be rather scary at times. Floods come more often, and more destructive than usual. But that actually fits. The ancient Israelites were desert people and deserts have weird relationships with rain. That is, they need water for life, and have less of it than most, but because the earth is so parched most of the time, and water tends to come in deluges rather than sprinkles, heavy rainstorms quickly lead to flash flooding.

The ancient Israelites may have had some of our current misgivings about torrential rain, and this story may have been a way to center in the midst of their fears. While it rains, you can anticipate God's promise. When it is pouring, you start preparing for God's sign of hope.

While I believe that the rainbow became a symbol for LGBTQIA pride because of the diversity of colors representing celebrating the diverse ways of being, I have always appreciated this anticipatory hope aspect of it as well. The choice of the rainbow symbol, to those aware of this Genesis story, is a choice to say, “things aren't good now, but they're gonna be.”

Or, in the language of the African American church tradition, “God is the one who makes a way out of no way.” (I'm so thankful for the creation of pride flags that intentionally include people of color as well as the trans community in the beauty of human diversity.)

Dear ones, the rainbow feels like a good symbol in the midst of our current “Rainstorm”, doesn't it? Or perhaps you want to call it a monsoon. Your choice. ;)

Which, come to think of it, is also the Jesus narrative, and our gospel lesson today. So much of what happens in the story assumes a greater knowledge of the time of Mark and Jesus than we generally have, so let me retell the story with some context put in:

“In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth (Nowhereville) of Galilee (sketchy!) - leaving behind his family, friends, and village – everything he knew, everything he was. He was baptized by John – a rural Holy Man, in the River Jordan, the traditional waters for the Ancient Jewish People. Baptism marked Jesus as a student of John's, it also symbolized his choice to leave behind his society and culture and obligations, and follow only the Divine.

As he was coming out of the water, he had a God-experience, a rather beautiful one. It was as if the heavens were torn open and God was more accessible, and the Spirit came right there to be with him. Jesus heard a voice offering a blessing, claiming him! "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." In such a way, he who had left his kin was adopted into God's family.

After such a profound blessing though, the Spirit of God send Jesus into the wilderness. Jesus did not choose it, the wilderness is the place where it is hard to sustain life, and he was alone, and he struggled, and he was tempted, and he had to figure out what it would mean for his life to be a Holy Man too. He was there for 40 days, like Moses was awaiting an audience with God. With God's help – again proving Jesus as God's kin – Jesus made it through.

When he came back out of the wilderness, his teacher John had been arrested. He was on his own as a Holy Man. He went back to Galilee, that suspicious place he was from, and started speaking God's 'good news.' Which didn't sound exactly like people expected it to. He said, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.'”1

That “good news” seems to require a little bit more examination. One scholar points out, “'Gospel' was most commonly used in antiquity to announce benefits to the populace.”2 Another summarizes what Jesus says with, “He boldly announces that the reign of God – with its dreams of justice and love, equality and abundance, wholeness and unity- is dawning.”3

Jesus is a rainbow.

He is a sign of hope, in the midst of the storm. He comes out of nowhere, is claimed by God, and offers a message of hope and promise. The world with its power hierarchies, the world that counts some people as “disposable”, the world where economies exist to let rich people get richer on the labor of the poor, the world that wants to appropriate religion to support the powerful, the world that tells the 99% to fight each other for the scraps left over after the 1% have been fed, the world which says to take care of yourself and your own first and let other's fend for themselves – the WORLD's powers are at an end. A new reign is coming, and it will look entirely different.

In God's kindom, there is no hierarchy, everyone is working toward for the common good. In God's kindom there are no disposable people, all are treated as beloved children of God. In God's kindom, there are neither rich nor poor. Instead, each person offers their gifts and labor for the betterment of the whole, and resources are distributed according to need. In God's kindom, we all treat each other as “insiders” and work for each other's well-being as well as our own.

To repent is to let go of the fear, the competitiveness, and the judgements of the WORLD, and allow the love, the hope, and the compassion of the kindom to take root.

This isn't easy. It never has been. Nor is it now. Judgements are hard to let go of, including judgements of ourselves. They're extra hard in matters of life and death, like vaccines, and access to health care, and decisions about masking and distancing and schooling and childcare and caution vs. risk these days. Right? The issue is that these judgments slip far too easily into shame, including self-shame from people who have gotten COVID, which IS blaming victims.

I don't claim the authority to know about the best vaccine distribution plan, but I do think it is useful to take a kindom look at our pandemic lives. What does it look like when we look from love, hope, and compassion?

From that angle, I see a lot of gratitude: for the ways people have adapted to make all of us healthier, for creativity and hard work in trying to keep things going as they need to, for those offering care or services even when there is risk to self involved.

I also see more clearly the injustices of the moment: that not all “frontline workers” have had a choice about if they want to be in the frontlines at all, and that far too many people are forced by economic circumstances to take risks they don't want to take. That people of color have been impacted in a multiplicity of ways: with less access to adequate housing, with more people doing “essential work”, with less access to protective gear, with higher poverty rates that require taking greater risks, with less access to health care, and with less responsive health care when it is accessed. (To name a few.) Each of these systemic pieces of racism in our society are highlighted by the higher infection rates and higher death rates among people of color, and show us yet again the impact of disparity on people's very lives. Lack of equity kills, and movements from the world-as-it-is to the World-as-God-would-have-it-be are movements from death to life.

Looking at the pandemic from the kindom view, mostly, I'm overwhelmed with compassion: for the impossible decisions everyone is making to the best of their ability; for the dehumanizing isolation so many are living with; to the life-draining balancing acts being asked of mothers, fathers, and caregivers. From this view, judgements lighten, and love grows.

Finally, the kindom view reminds us that we are no stronger than our “weakest link.” That is, we are unable to be healthy in isolation. Until the WORLD is vaccinated, all of us are at risk. And that's always been true, but now we can see it clearly.

We're all in this together. We're all in this storm together (although it impacts us differently.) And from the midst of this storm, we're all reminded that at the end of the storm, the rainbow comes. God doesn't abandon us in the storm, hope doesn't die, the kindom is at hand, repent and believe. Entering into the kindom's values will help kindom come. Remembering the rainbow helps us live through the storm. Thanks be to God. Amen

1Summary influenced by:

Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1998 and 2008, ~128.

Bruce J. Malina and Richard L. Rohrbaugh Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003) 146-7.

Debie Thomas, “Beasts and Angels” https://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/2924-beasts-and-angels 2-14-21, accessed 2-18-21.

2Malina and Rohrbaugh, 148.

3Myers, 91.

February 21, 2021

Rev. Sara E. Baron First United Methodist Church of Schenectady 603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305 Pronouns: she/her/hers http://fumcschenectady.org/ https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

#Thinking Church #Progressive Christianity #FUMC Schenectady #Schenectady #UMC #The United Methodist Church #Sorry about the homophobic UMC world #Rev Sara E Baron #Lent #Rainbows #Baptism of Jesus #Jesus is a rainbow #Signs of Hope #A Lent of Hope #Pandemic from a kindom view #Compassion

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newstfionline · 4 years

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Headlines

Where reopening is working (NYT) Across much of the United States and Europe, the coronavirus has been spreading less rapidly than many people feared. Over the past six weeks—as communities have started to reopen, Americans have flocked to beaches and lakes and European schools have reopened—but the number of new cases has continued falling in many places. Across the Northeast and Midwest of the U.S., they’re down more than 50 percent, and often much more, since May 1. Nationwide, weekly deaths have fallen for six weeks in a row. And Europe “seems to have turned a corner,” Caitlin Rivers of Johns Hopkins University says. How could this be? Public health experts gave two main answers. One, the virus spreads much less easily outdoors than indoors. “Summer—being outside, warmer weather, humidity—seems to help, and we may have underestimated how much it’s helped,” Ashish Jha, the incoming dean of Brown University School of Public Health, told me. Two, many people are taking more precautions than they were in February and March. They’re wearing masks, remaining six feet apart and being careful about what they touch. The combination appears to have eliminated most “superspreader events,” like parties, concerts and restaurant meals, where multiple people get sick. Such events may account for 80 percent of all transmissions, research suggests.

Beleaguered and besieged, police try to come to grips with a nation’s anger (Washington Post) The crowds have thinned and the smoke has cleared, with more than a week of nationwide protests leaving in their wake a nation increasingly resolved to change a broken law enforcement system. But they also have left police officers badly shaken, and in some cases physically bruised. Nationwide, police leaders say the rank and file are struggling to come to grips with the level of animus they encountered on the streets, as epithets, bricks and bottles all came hurtling their way. Police have been targets of protest many times before, of course. But never quite like this. “I’ve had members say they feel like a Vietnam veteran returning home to a country that hates them,” said Robert Harris, a Los Angeles police officer and director of the force’s police union. “It’s not that our members expect thank-yous. It’s the difficulty in knowing that the protesters want to be treated with equality and fairness and respect, and what they’re protesting for isn’t afforded to the officers themselves.” “The morale is low,” he said. “They’ve taken quite a beating.”

Federal Debt Tops $26 Trillion for First Time; Jumps $2 Trillion in Just 63 Days (CNS News) The debt of the federal government topped $26 trillion for the first time on Tuesday, when it climbed from $25,960,547,920,986.11 to $26,003,751,512,344.91, according to data released today by the Treasury Department. The federal debt had topped $24 trillion for the first time on April 7, 2020.

A Single Session of Exercise Alters 9,815 Molecules in Our Blood (NYT) When we exercise, the levels of thousands of substances in our bloodstream rise and drop, according to an eye-opening new study of the immediate, interior impacts of working out. The study is the most comprehensive cataloging to date of the molecular changes that occur during and after exercise and underscores how consequential activity—and inactivity—may be for our bodies and health. Over all, the researchers were taken aback by the magnitude of the changes in people’s molecular profiles after exercise, according to Dr. Michael Snyder, the chair of the genetics department at Stanford University and senior author of the study. “I had thought, it’s only about nine minutes of exercise, how much is going to change? A lot, as it turns out.”

United will require passengers to complete health assessments before they fly (Washington Post) United Airlines on Wednesday became at least the second U.S. carrier to ask travelers to answer questions about their health status before they fly, part of a strategy to ease the minds of travelers concerned about flying in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. United’s “Ready-to-Fly” checklist will ask travelers to confirm that they have not experienced any coronavirus-related symptoms in the 14 previous days or been in close contact with any individual who has tested positive during the same time period. It also will require passengers to verify that they are aware of the airline’s policy requiring face coverings when aboard an airplane.

Are religious communities reviving the revival? Outdoor worship is a US tradition (Religion News Service) Religious communities have been forced to find alternative ways to worship together during the coronavirus pandemic. For some that has meant going online, but others have turned to a distinctly non-digital practice steeped in this history of the American religious experience: outdoor worship. Prayer sessions in parking lots and services in green spaces formed part of an improvised response to the lockdown by religious leaders and they may now be part of the plan as the United States emerges from the crisis. Indeed, a team of clergy and scientists have issued a new guide suggesting, among other recommendations, that baptisms could take place in “flowing streams, lakes or in beach settings.” So are brick-and-mortar houses of worship essential? It is a question that states and courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have asked in considering the extent to which states can or should place restrictions on meetings in religious buildings. Religious communities, too, have reflected on whether the term “church” describes a building or a community. While white evangelical Protestants have been some of the more vocal protesters of government restrictions on houses of worship during the pandemic, they actually have a long history of embracing outdoor worship in services and revivals.

Watch kids near water (NYT) This year, with outings to the community pool, day camps and pool parties still on hold, kids cooped up at home will be eager to get in the water as the weather warms. Experts worry that parents are stretched too thin to provide the required supervision, leading to an increase in child drownings this summer. As of mid-May, both Florida and Texas—the top two states for child drownings in pools and spas—are already seeing higher numbers than last year. If you have toddlers and you think you don’t have to worry because you don’t have a real pool—just one of those little plastic or inflatable baby pools—you still have a hazard sitting in your yard. Little kids can drown in less than two inches of water. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, drowning is the leading cause of injury death in children ages 1 to 4, and nearly 70 percent of the time, it happens when children aren’t supposed to be in the pool.

Zoom censors video talks on Hong Kong and Tiananmen, drawing criticism (Washington Post) Several prominent critics of the Chinese government, including protest leaders in Hong Kong and pro-democracy activists in the United States, have accused Zoom of shutting their accounts and severing live events in recent weeks under pressure from Beijing. The three incidents are reviving concerns about the fast-growing Silicon Valley company’s susceptibility to Chinese government influence weeks after the firm began facing scrutiny over security, including its routing of data through China. Coming in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the episode also highlights the world’s dependency on services such as Zoom and their ability to control speech. Zoom on Thursday acknowledged that “a few recent meetings” related to China have been disrupted. In each instance, event organizers told The Washington Post that they relied on Zoom in lieu of in-person events because of social distancing and travel restrictions. And each of the Zoom accounts and events was created and hosted outside mainland China but appeared to be quashed under Chinese government pressure after publicly advertised.

EU pushes back on Beijing (Foreign Policy) China’s aggressive diplomacy in Europe is now causing serious pushback. The European Union, normally reluctant to speak out against Beijing, has accused the government of running “targeted influence operations and disinformation campaigns in the EU, its neighborhood, and globally,” along with Russia. The move may be a response to earlier criticism that the EU softened a report on the same topic. Meanwhile, Britain’s swerve away from China has been fast, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson proposing a D-10 alliance of democracies—the existing G-7, plus South Korea, India, and Australia—to build 5G networks free of Chinese influence. The Hong Kong crisis has further soured U.K.-Chinese relations, with Beijing warning that it may pull out a British nuclear power construction deal. Since the original nuclear deal was widely seen as a disaster in the U.K., this doesn’t give Beijing much leverage.

Poland troop plan falters (Foreign Policy) After U.S. President Donald Trump said he would remove 9,500 troops from Germany, plans to relocate troops further east in Poland have fallen into disarray, Reuters reports. A plan announced in June of last year to send 1,000 U.S. troops to Poland permanently has been held up over disputes over how much of the bill Poland would cover, where to station the troops, and whether they would gain legal immunity while stationed there.

Lack of beds slows Delhi’s virus fight (AP) In New Delhi, a sprawling capital region of 46 million and home to some of India’s highest concentration of hospitals, a pregnant woman’s death after a frantic hunt for a sickbed was a worrying sign about the country’s ability to cope with a wave of new coronavirus cases. “She kept begging us to save her life, but we couldn’t do anything,” Shailendra Kumar said, after driving his sister-in-law, Neelam, and her husband for hours, only to be turned away at eight public and private hospitals. Two and a half months of nationwide lockdown kept numbers of infections relatively low in India. But with restrictions easing in recent weeks, cases have shot up, rising by a record of nearly 10,000 on Thursday, raising questions about whether authorities have done enough to avert catastrophe. Half of Delhi’s 8,200 hospital beds dedicated to COVID-19 patients are already full and officials are projecting more than half a million cases in the city alone by July 31.

Chinese recovery (Foreign Policy) Some data indicates that the speed of economic recovery in China may be faster than feared, with oil use already back to 90 percent of pre-coronavirus levels. Domestic demand for consumer goods is strong, but a lack of global demand is hamstringing Chinese manufacturers: Reopened factories are struggling to find customers.

Floyd killing finds echoes of abuse in South Africa, Kenya (AP) Collins Khosa was killed by law enforcement officers in a poor township in Johannesburg over a cup of beer left in his yard. The 40-year-old black man was choked, slammed against a wall, beaten, kicked and hit with the butt of a rifle by the soldiers as police watched, his family says. Two months later, South Africans staged a march against police brutality. But it was mostly about the killing of George Floyd in the United States, with the case of Khosa, who died on April 10, raised only briefly. Despite racial reconciliation that emerged after the end of the apartheid system, poor and black South Africans still fall victim to security forces that now are mostly black. The country is plagued by violent crime, and police often are accused of resorting to heavy-handed tactics. Journalist Daneel Knoetze, who looked into police brutality in South Africa between 2012 and 2019, found that there were more than 42,000 criminal complaints against police, which included more than 2,800 killings—more than one a day. There were more than 27,000 cases of alleged assault by police, many classified as torture, and victims were “overwhelmingly” poor and black, he said. And in Kenya, the police force has for two decades been ranked the country’s most corrupt institution. It’s also Kenya’s most deadly, killing far more people than criminals do, according to human rights groups.

#headlines #news

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multipleservicelisting · 3 years

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The tourists who believe travel restrictions don’t apply to them

(CNN) — As pandemic quarantines go, this might be the best: sprawling on a hotel balcony overlooking azure Caribbean waters as you bake gently in the sun.

But it isn’t enough for some.

The past month has seen a slew of high-profile cases of tourists getting in trouble for breaking the rules while on a sun-and-sand vacation.

In December, Skylar Mack, an American student, was jailed for two months when she flew to the Cayman Islands and, instead of quarantining for two weeks at her hotel as the law obliged her to do, popped out two days later to attend a jet ski competition in which her boyfriend was competing.

In January, former British beauty queen and model Zara Holland and her boyfriend Elliott Love quarantined at her four-star hotel in Barbados for the required five days, before taking a second PCR test, as is required for travelers from high risk countries. So far, so good — except that when Love’s second test came back positive, rather than face further quarantine, the couple made a dash to the airport to try and catch a flight home.

Then there was the British couple, again in Barbados, who tried to spice up self-isolation by inviting a local resident over for sex (she was caught climbing over the hotel fence), and the Jamaican tourist who popped out of his hotel quarantine for a soft drink — and has ended up doing jail time.

Staying put in the sun seems like the easiest thing anyone’s been asked to do so far in the pandemic — so why are people breaking the rules?

‘Switching off’

Countries around the world have implemented travel restrictions. Shown here: a testing center in Rome.

Antonio Masiello/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images

“Whenever people are presented with an extremely frightening scenario, previous research has shown that they switch off,” says clinical psychologist Bhavna Jani-Negandhi, who believes that health warnings should be at an “optimal level for people to take notice.”

In the case of, say, the harmful effects of smoking, warnings can be tailored up or down, to increase the chance of people taking note. But with regulations that need to be kept at a certain level to protect the local population, it’s not possible to beat about the bush.

In the pandemic, says Jani-Negandhi, “facts cannot be tailored. It seems that some people are behaving in a manner that would suggest they are switching off to the facts — believing that it will not happen to them and that only the most vulnerable are at risk.”

What’s more, according to one travel industry expert, the lack of coherency on travel restrictions across the globe doesn’t help.

“There’s no consistency, and travelers are being badly misled by the fact that there are no global rules,” says Paul Charles, Virgin Atlantic’s former director of communications who now runs his own PR consultancy, The PC Agency, and has become something of a thorn in the UK government’s side over its regular flip-flopping of travel regulations.

Charles has a vested interest in getting the travel industry back up and running, of course; but he believes a global approach, led by the G20 countries, would be the ideal way forward.

He says that a “global consistent testing program, so that everybody could be tested on departure with high-quality results within 30 minutes” would transform the way we are currently traveling (or not).

However, in the meantime, he says, any restrictions have to be enforced for travelers to behave them.

“I think the rules have to be fully supported by law — in a pandemic, you have to have strict enforcement so you achieve the outcome of lower infection rates and lower deaths,” he says.

“That’s perhaps been one of the issues — governments haven’t backed up tougher rules with tougher enforcement. Economies around the world are being ruined because people are breaking the law, meaning tougher measures are being put in place for longer.”

‘It only takes one uncaring person’

Skylar Mack was jailed when she broke her 14-day quarantine, two days in

Courtesy Jeanne Mack

Strict enforcement is exactly what the Cayman Islands are going for. As far back as January 2020, “We began planning and preparing for what we expected to be the eventual arrival of the virus on our shores,” says Roy Tatum, Head of the Office of the Premier, Alden McLaughlin.

Early measures included bans on travel from affected countries, and additional screening of arrivals. But despite precautions, the first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in March. In response, the islands closed their borders and implemented a 14-day quarantine in government-controlled facilities for anyone entering the country, as well as implementing lockdowns and curfews, closing schools, and restricting access to care homes, hospitals, prisons and breaches.

The result? As of January 10, just 359 cases and two deaths during the entire pandemic.

“We have sacrificed much since the initial lockdown at the end of March, which has helped eliminate the virus within our local community,” says Tatum. “Today, people are able to live somewhat normal lives and many businesses have been able to open.

“The only way the virus is able to reinfect our community is if it arrives on our shores from the outside.”

But since “hundreds” of residents were prosecuted and fined for breaking the initial lockdown, there have been just seven potential quarantine breaches investigated, two of which have gone to court.

Skylar Mack was visiting her boyfriend, Vanjae Ramgeet, a Cayman Islands resident, when she fell foul of the law in November.

Allowed in as the partner of a resident, she should have quarantined for two weeks.

Instead, after just two days, she removed the tracking device that was making sure she stayed in one place, and joined her boyfriend at his jet ski event.

When police caught up with her, she was found to be not wearing a mask, and not social distancing.

Her initial sentence of four months in jail was halved on appeal in December. Ramgeet received an equal sentence.

But despite protestations from her family, who appealed to US President Donald Trump for help, and received a supportive tweet from his son, Eric, the authorities of the Cayman Islands — a self-governing British Overseas Territory — have not backed down.

“Should Covid-19 become widespread in our small community it would be potentially devastating,” says Tatum.

“We are talking about a disease that has the ability to kill people and destroy an economy. That the reason why anyone who deliberately flouts the important public health laws and regulations of our Islands that are in place to protect the wider population, should be subject to strict penalties.

“There also needs to be a deterrent to ensure people understand the seriousness of the virus and the importance of the public health law and regulations.

“It only takes one careless, uncaring person to move about our community to create serious health issues, including potential death by restarting community transmission.

“We have a small population and a close community that still treasures and respects our elders, who, as we all know, are very high risk.

“In addition, if the Cayman Islands had to go back into a lockdown situation, the effect on our local economy, and the impact on our children, elderly and indeed the broader population, would be considerable.”

‘You must be held accountable’

Barbados is allowing tourism, but travelers must quarantine on arrival.

Shutterstock

So far this year, it’s Barbados that has hit the headlines for tourists behaving badly, as they flock to the Caribbean. Many of thse traditional alternative winter sun destinations are out of bounds due to closed borders, which perhaps explains the slew of offenders descending on the region.

When Elliott Love, ensconced in the plush beachside Sugar Bay hotel, tested positive, he and girlfriend Zara Holland cut off their quarantine wristbands and checked out.

They caught a taxi to the airport and attempted to board a plane for the nine-hour flight back to the UK, knowing that the new UK variant is thought to be up to 70% more transmissible.

They were arrested as they went through security on December 29. Holland was given a $12,000 (US$5,900) fine, instead of a nine-month prison sentence, and was bailed for an undisclosed amount. Love — who was tried several days later, when he was no longer testing positive for the virus — was fined $8,000 ($4,000).

Neither Holland or the couple’s lawyer responded to a request for comment.

But they’re not the only tourists behaving badly in Barbados. On January 1, Swiss national Ismail Elbagli was fined $6,000 (US$3,000) when he left the hotel where he was quarantining, having tested positive.

Elbagli argued that his wife had received a call confirming a negative test that morning, and assumed it covered both of them. His fine was reduced from $8,000 in light of the circumstances.

In reaction to social media outcry that white tourists were being fined, while the only Black rule-breaker was jailed, Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes told the court that prison terms were a last resort, if paying a fine was not an option.

Neither the Barbados tourist board nor the government were available to comment on the restrictions.

However, Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Kenneth George has laid the blame for the island’s increasing case numbers partially at the door of rule-breaking tourists.

And in a video posted to Facebook shortly before Holland’s trial, Prime Minister Mia Mottley said: “We are very clear that on those persons who are visiting us, and to the extent that anyone is breaching our protocols, the government of Barbados through the Covid Monitoring Unit will take the necessary action for any visitors.

“We believe that by far the majority of them are compliant, but the handful who have chosen to ignore our mores, ignore our customs, ignore our laws and guidelines… you must be held accountable.”

Why one traveler broke the rules

One traveler broke the UK lockdown to travel to Venice in June.

Andrea Pattaro/AFP/Getty Images

So what’s going on in the heads of people when they break the law when traveling?

For one rule-breaker, it was merely the idea of seeing how far they could go.

The UK resident, who requested to remain anonymous for fear of losing his job, told CNN he traveled from London to Venice for a vacation in June while the UK was still in lockdown and all but essential travel was banned.

“It was at the end, when lockdown was about to be lifted, and the news was saying how people are booking holidays and everything was getting booked up. I thought, I want to travel, but not with the crowds — when it’s still quiet,” he says.

“I’d seen images of famous landmarks being empty, so it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance.”

At the time, Italy was allowing travelers from the UK, so he was breaking no rules on arrival, even though he was on departure. “I didn’t see it as breaking the rules too much — I was thinking for myself, basically,” he says.

“Italy was more safe at that point than the UK, so by going, Italy was more at risk — but they were the ones with the open borders.”

He flew via Dublin, which was locked down at the time, but allowing transit passengers.

“But I had a couple of hours between flights and out of curiosity wanted to test what happened,” he says.

So instead of staying in the airport, as he was obliged to do, he went outside — and nobody stopped him.

“I was looking for a bus to the city center to see if there was time to get a Guinness. But there was no shuttle, and with nothing running I didn’t want to spend too much money on Ubers.”

The UK traveler doesn’t see his infractions in the same light as those travelers to the Caribbean who he calls “bad” and “irresponsible.”

But he says that one thing that made him feel comfortable with traveling when he shouldn’t, was seeing footage of travelers arriving in the UK at the start of lockdown. The UK never closed its borders (and has only recently stopped arrivals from countries exposed to the new South African variant); but when Passenger Locator Forms and then quarantine were introduced, travelers were filmed arriving, clearly unaware of the restrictions.

“That’s why I felt pretty safe [breaking the rules],” he says.

He also says that on return to the UK’s Stansted airport, he was not asked for his Passenger Locator Form, or told to quarantine for 14 days, as he was obliged to do at that point. He did do so, though says that a couple of days afterward, quarantine restrictions were lifted so he ventured out.

Psychologist Bhavna Jani-Negandhi says his behavior is understandable.

“When people see others break the rules, then they could wonder why different rules apply and they might try getting away with it,” she says.

But for some, arriving in countries where the travel restrictions are enforced by the law may come as a sharp surprise.

from Multiple Service Listing https://ift.tt/3nIuzJe

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osmw1 · 3 years

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Crowbar Nurse Chapter 17 — Conscious of Change

“Sera, the brakes… Sera! Please!”

“Huh...?”

“Stop the truck! Get my cane off the pedal!”

“Oh... Uhh, right!” I heeded Elizabeth’s shrieking and pleading, dislodging the cane depressing the accelerator. But before the truck could come to a halt, we had sent a Minotaur airborne. Its faint mooing trailed behind as it soared through the sky.

“Is something the matter?” I slowly lifted my head up to look at her, but Elizabeth was focused on bringing the truck to a halt.

“It’s them. They were there.”

“Who’s ‘them’?”

“The Administrator!” Elizabeth let go of the steering wheel and plastered her face to the driver’s side window. She was dripping with absolute terror. Her sight was fixed on someone in a pink dress... Or rather, it was on the monster that the person in pink was battling. It wasn’t very like her to be in such a big shock.

Before I knew it, I was already standing up and squinting into the distance to where Elizabeth was pointing.

“The Administrator is that...thing?” I realized I was scowling at it.

Well, that thing sure is big.

It was the size of a big pickup truck, maybe even a cube van. Tanned—and oddly enough—slimy. Protruding out its flank were its ribs or something. And it had eight, no, ten reddish eyes on its body.

What a mysterious amalgamation of human bodies…

“I wouldn’t have expected that thing to know how to code a game.” My eyes were half-closed as I vomited my inner thoughts.

“It sure doesn’t look the part,” Kiryu nodded along to my stream of consciousness.

“Right? I suppose that thing breaks code more than it does make code.”

The three of us stooges all had our hands and faces pressed up against the windshield.

“Wait, is that thing not a monster from some game? It definitely looks like it’s something out of a mid-90’s Super Fam RPG! It’s called the Last Evil Demon or something or other.”

“Come on, that’s way too cliched,” Kiryu shook his head in disapproval. “And there’s no way you’re old enough to be in the Super Fam generation.”

“You’re correct. Most likely, I had only watched my older brother play it. The Super Fam was already so old by the time I was old enough to play. I could never get the cartridges to save, so I never really got into it myself.”

“Oh, that’s probably ‘cause the back-up batteries were probably dead is why. You gotta take apart the cartridge and then swap out the button cell inside to fix that.”

“You do realize that now is not the time for this?!” Elizabeth snapped back, cutting short Kiryu’s retro game trivia corner. “Anyway, no! Listen! That thing was more…humanoid before. I have the feeling that it used to be able to speak! I swear, I recognize the faces stuck on it!”

“You have a…a feeling that it could speak before?” Kiryu furrowed his brows.

I snapped to attention too when I heard Elizabeth shout. So what she’s saying is that thing used to be human before it turned more and more monster-like?

Before I could ask, I was interrupted by the truck shaking furiously.

“Eeek! Wh-What was that?!” Elizabeth shrieked out with her head between her knees.

Kiryu was more proactive. Looking out the window and clicking his tongue, he reached over to arm himself with his crowbar. “Damn, the bastards are climbing onto the truck!”

Mere moments after, a Heart reached in from the window with one of its tentacles.

“Gaaaah!” Elizabeth curled up in the fetal position as she screamed for her life.

It took Kiryu a split second to react, striking the slithering appendage and knocking it over.

I looked out from the window on my side too. A number of Hearts and zombifying monsters were crawling up towards us. No doubt this is because we stopped the truck.

“Oh no, no, no! Gotta get them off of us!”

With the stock of the rifle nestled in my shoulder, I pointed out and down from the truck and started blasting. There was quite a good handful clinging on, not to mention that we didn’t have the help of the Army from Hell either. We had to quickly get them off of the truck before their numbers overrun us, so I asked for help. “Elizabeth! Grab the extra rifle over there and lend us a hand!”

“H-Huh? Umm, uhh…okay!” She seemed a little hesitant retrieving the gun strapped onto the seat. And then as if imitating me, Elizabeth pointed her gun out the window and started firing.

But…

“Augh!” A single shot from the assault rifle was enough to send her tumbling backwards and onto her behind. “Sera! I can’t! I can’t do this! The recoil is far too strong for me!”

“Huh?”

“How the heck are you strong enough to handle it anyway?! Did you grow up shooting like an American or something?!”

“Huh. Good point.”

There was a painful icy feeling seeping into my chest. Why hadn’t I been aware of it before? There’s no way a tiny young girl like Sera would be able shoot a rifle like this. But the thought had previously crossed my mind. Of course there’s no way a regular person would be able to control the recoil of an automatic rifle. I suppose my excuse is that in the heat of battle, and with so many things to panic over, the concern simply disappeared from my mind.

I had another terribly uncomfortable gut feeling.

Elizabeth had said that the Administrator was originally human, and it was able to converse too, right? Who’s to say that my body isn’t changing the way like how the Administrator’s is? What’s happening to me and my body?!

“—Save the fretting for later, Sera! Concentrate on getting to You!” Kiryu called out to me in between swings of his crowbar. His voice somehow always calms me down, always brings me back to the moment.

“You’re right… Let’s get them!”

“Good. You focus on eliminating the enemies! Elizabeth, try and shake ‘em off! I’ll step on the gas for you!”

“G-Got it!” Elizabeth threw herself over to the steering wheel in a fluster and the truck shunted forward. Wriggling through the window and onto her hand was another tentacle. And as soon as she squealed, Kiryu swung his crowbar and pitched the monster away from the cab.

“L-Let’s go!” Elizabeth roared and the truck did too.

“Elizabeth! Steer the truck right into the Administrator! We should be massive enough to take the impact straight on!”

“Okay!” She might said it with conviction, but Elizabeth’s face reflected her anxiety as she braced herself for what was about to happen. The truck surged ahead, on course to hit our target.

We all had our tasks and there was something I needed to do. Something only I can do.

As I leaned out of the window and tossed my infinite ammo rifle onto the hood of the truck, Kiryu barked out, “Sera?!”

I paid his panicking no heed. My skirt fluttered in the wind as I hopped up on top of the truck.

I really am physically changing, aren’t I?

My first priority was securing my rifle. And as I stood up onto the hood, I couldn’t help but ruminate.

My body is changing.

Never have I had the physical fitness to climb on top of a speeding truck.

Just what is going on with my body? But it’s no time to be pondering to myself right now.

I absorbed my surroundings to shake the thought off my mind and realized that we were in a do or die situation. I knew I had to take care of the monsters climbing onto the truck.

Did I have a plan B? What? Hell no! It’s not every day you get to use the Hammer of Dawn!

A few got thrown off when the truck sped forward, but there were more zombies still clinging on. What’s worse was that some of them were gunning for the driver’s seat. With a rifle in one hand and a crowbar in the other, I did what I had to get them off.

I took a quick glance at the Administrator. We were close—just another ten, fifteen seconds until impact.

Wait. What?

It only took the quick second or two, but I had realized when I looked at them. In her pink dress, You was firing all the heavy weapons she had at the Administrator. Her weapons tore up the buggy neon ground, exposing a differently colored world beneath. However, it didn’t seem like the monster cared at all.

The Administrator’s ignoring You…because he’s focused on something else?

I knitted my brows, but I knew I had no time to dwell on it right now. There were still three, four enemies left to deal with—all of them Eaters too. But we were on rough roads and the zombies had poor footing, sending back down to the ground as soon as they stood onto the hood.

The Administrator was only a stone’s throw away. I climbed back into the cabin and braced for impact. “I got rid of the pesky ones! Time to get the big one, Elizabeth! Oh, and try to miss You if you can!”

“Gee, I wouldn’t have— Never mind, get ready!” she yelled at the same time as we made contact.

The crash of the impact and the detonation of the airbags shook us to our cores.

“Ngahhh!”

■ Administrator An amalgamation of many human faces. This kind of creature can be seen in many types of games, perhaps revealing the lack of originality of its creators.

According to Elizabeth, it seems as though the Administrator had the ability to speak Japanese. However, it does not seem to be mentally all there yet. What does the Administrator manage? Does it actually have the ability to govern anything? Or perhaps, is someone else responsible for everything? Find out…in the upcoming chapters.

Author’s notes: A bit of a digression, but the whole “Plan B? Hell no!” bit is from Gears of War, Act 5 Chapter 7: Train Wreck. It’s become quite the meme amongst Japanese PC gamers.

contents: /ch001/ /ch002/ /ch003/ /ch004/ /ch005/ /ch006/ /ch007/ /ch008/ /ch009/ /ch010/ /ch011/ /ch012/ /ch013/ /ch014/ /ch015/ /ch016/ /ch017/ /next/

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