International Events IX: I feel like a mushroom

[TheLastWolf]

IND & SL get new presidents

The former a new VP circa Aug 6

[Zorral]

Is this positive, negative, or just more of the same?

[Padraig]

More of the same in Sri Lanka, which may not go down well.  The role has little power in India, so I suppose more of the same there too.  But I know nothing about her.

[TheLastWolf]

19 hours ago, Zorral said:

Is this positive, negative, or just more of the same?

Wickremasinghe was a Rajapaksa opponent once, now just a proxy so protests resume

13 hours ago, Padraig said:

More of the same in Sri Lanka, which may not go down well.

Damn right

13 hours ago, Padraig said:

The role has little power in India, so I suppose more of the same there too.

It's more of a honour than a real deal. The Prez can pardon convicts and pass emergency or shit but the real power is with the PM.

13 hours ago, Padraig said:

But I know nothing about her.

She's the first tribal and second woman president and the media portrays her as humble, simple and down to earth, much like Abdul Kalam.

[Prue]

On 7/8/2022 at 11:57 PM, Padraig said:

I wouldn't say I know a lot about Japan but I have sensed an unease about how it has dealt with its Imperial past, especially its actions leading up to (and including) WW2, with very unfavorable comparisons made with Germany.  Abe seemed to bring out the worst in this.

This is probably an overly negative view of the guy (written in 2020, when he resigned) but it reflects the general unease certain people have felt towards him.  That's why his wish to rewrite the Constitution worried them.

https://www.policyforum.net/how-will-history-judge-shinzo-abe/

The BBC tried a more balanced view but it still voices a concern.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53950704

Interesting, about school books being whitewashed even more in Japan now... I remember a discussion I had with a Japanese lady years ago when I saw her son's history book. WW II took up *one* page in that book. At least a third of it was a photo of a nuclear explosion. I said something like : 'Ummm.... isn't that leaving out quite a  bit of what happened in the war, and what Japan's role in the war was?' And when I told her about how WWII is spoken about in German schools she said something like: 'Well, feeling guilty is something that is only some strange Christian concept. For Buddhists, everything that has happened in the past is 'down the river' and not worth thinking about....' 

It did have a vibe of 'well, if you Germans are so stupid as to be honest about what happened in the past, instead of hiding everything and pointing fingers at others instead, like all the other countries do...'

And I didn't have that feeling only there. E.g. when I saw the many meters of books in British bookshops about WWI and WWII ,where they can pat their shoulders for being the good guys for a change, compared to the lack of books about the British atrocities committed in their colonies. And the Southern states in the US which try to  leave  out slavery in their  history  books or belittle what it meant for the people who were enslaved. And they don't even have the 'excuse' that they find Christian ideas strange....

I think that all nations should try to depict their own history honestly. 

[Zorral]

Having so little fuel Cuba hasn't been able to spray for mosquitos -- previously the state has always pursued a most vigorous campaign against mosquitos.

Now dengue fever has broken out there, and the hospitals are packed.

Can malaria be far behind?

[IheartIheartTesla]

On 7/21/2022 at 6:20 PM, Padraig said:

More of the same in Sri Lanka, which may not go down well.  The role has little power in India, so I suppose more of the same there too.  But I know nothing about her.

The President in India has a purely ceremonial role, that's true. However, my impression was that the Sri Lankan President had a much bigger role - wikipedia says SL moved from a more British/Westminster style to one more similar to France (which has both a President and a PM). It may be somewhere in between France and England, IMO.

[TheLastWolf]

49 minutes ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

The President in India has a purely ceremonial role, that's true. However, my impression was that the Sri Lankan President had a much bigger role - wikipedia says SL moved from a more British/Westminster style to one more similar to France (which has both a President and a PM). It may be somewhere in between France and England, IMO.

Yes, among the protestors multiple demands is to curtail the President's powers.

[SeanF]

On 7/22/2022 at 9:58 PM, Prue said:

Interesting, about school books being whitewashed even more in Japan now... I remember a discussion I had with a Japanese lady years ago when I saw her son's history book. WW II took up *one* page in that book. At least a third of it was a photo of a nuclear explosion. I said something like : 'Ummm.... isn't that leaving out quite a  bit of what happened in the war, and what Japan's role in the war was?' And when I told her about how WWII is spoken about in German schools she said something like: 'Well, feeling guilty is something that is only some strange Christian concept. For Buddhists, everything that has happened in the past is 'down the river' and not worth thinking about....' 

It did have a vibe of 'well, if you Germans are so stupid as to be honest about what happened in the past, instead of hiding everything and pointing fingers at others instead, like all the other countries do...'

And I didn't have that feeling only there. E.g. when I saw the many meters of books in British bookshops about WWI and WWII ,where they can pat their shoulders for being the good guys for a change, compared to the lack of books about the British atrocities committed in their colonies. And the Southern states in the US which try to  leave  out slavery in their  history  books or belittle what it meant for the people who were enslaved. And they don't even have the 'excuse' that they find Christian ideas strange....

I think that all nations should try to depict their own history honestly. 

Germany is very much the outlier.  Most nations revere their conquering rulers.  The fact that Nazis performed bestial deeds and were completely crushed makes them despised.

In general, I think historians rather admire (from a safe distance) the sorts of leaders who blot out entire cities and leave pyramids of skulls in their wake.

[Padraig]

9 hours ago, SeanF said:

In general, I think historians rather admire (from a safe distance) the sorts of leaders who blot out entire cities and leave pyramids of skulls in their wake.

In the past, I imagine there is truth in that.  Although respect might be a better word than admire.

Nowadays, I would think there is a more critical line taken.  Which does lead to the inevitable push back.  Although that is often lead by politicians than historians.

[The Anti-Targ]

12 hours ago, SeanF said:

Germany is very much the outlier.  Most nations revere their conquering rulers.  The fact that Nazis performed bestial deeds and were completely crushed makes them despised.

In general, I think historians rather admire (from a safe distance) the sorts of leaders who blot out entire cities and leave pyramids of skulls in their wake.

Statues of people who would be tried as war criminals today (if they are unlucky enough to be on the losing side of a war, there are no war criminals among the winners of course) taking pride of place in town squares and large numbers of people outraged at the thought of consigning those statues to museums that would have plaques talking about the bad things these people did does suggest that a lot of countries don't want to think too much about the past behaviour of their now dead former leaders.

Never heard of the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Index before, but I saw an article mentioning it, so I thought I would take a quick look. https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-gender-gap-report-2022/digest/ a small snip from the summary.

Quote

Global results and time to parity

In 2022, the global gender gap has been closed by 68.1%. At the current rate of progress, it will take 132 years to reach full parity. This represents a slight four-year improvement compared to the 2021 estimate (136 years to parity). However, it does not compensate for the generational loss which occurred between 2020 and 2021: according to trends leading up to 2020, the gender gap was set to close within 100 years.

Across the 146 countries covered by the 2022 index, the Health and Survival gender gap has closed by 95.8%, Educational Attainment by 94.4%, Economic Participation and Opportunity by 60.3% and Political Empowerment by 22%.

Although no country has yet achieved full gender parity, the top 10 economies have closed at least 80% of their gender gaps, with Iceland (90.8%) leading the global ranking. Iceland remains the only economy to have closed more than 90% of its gender gap. Other Scandinavian countries such as Finland (86%, 2nd), Norway (84.5%, 3rd) and Sweden (82.2%, 5th) feature in the top 5, with additional European countries such as Ireland (80.4%) and Germany (80.1%) in 9th and 10th positions, respectively. Sub-Saharan African countries Rwanda (81.1%, 6th) and Namibia (80.7%, 8th), along with one Latin American country, Nicaragua (81%, 7th), and one country from East Asia and the Pacific, New Zealand (84.1%, 4th), also take positions in the top 10. Nicaragua and Germany are the new entrants in the top 10 in 2022, while Lithuania (79.9%,11th) and Switzerland (79.5%, 13th) drop out this year.

North America is on track to be the first region to achieve parity, but that is still 59 years away at the current rate. If I have grand daughters, their daughters might just live in a full parity world. Or it will be a post-apocalyptic waste land. Though post-apocalyptic wasteland and gender parity are not necessarily mutually exclusive I suppose. Everyone might be equally miserable.

[SeanF]

4 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Statues of people who would be tried as war criminals today (if they are unlucky enough to be on the losing side of a war, there are no war criminals among the winners of course) taking pride of place in town squares and large numbers of people outraged at the thought of consigning those statues to museums that would have plaques talking about the bad things these people did does suggest that a lot of countries don't want to think too much about the past behaviour of their now dead former leaders.

 

Often, they think about the deeds, and decide that  the leader was a bit of a lad.  Genghis Khan, for example, is revered in his country.

[The Anti-Targ]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/27/nz-moves-ahead-with-world-first-tobacco-laws-in-bid-to-create-smoke-free-generation

Quote

New Zealand legislators have vowed to break the “disgusting and bizarre” hold of cigarette companies, introducing world-first legislation that will stop the next generation from ever being able to legally buy cigarettes.

On Tuesday the government introduced its new laws to try to create a smoke-free generation, installing a steadily rising purchasing age so that teenagers will never be able to legally purchase cigarettes. The new measures, which were debated in parliament, are considered a world first – and have attracted a mixture of praise for innovation and concerns at their untested nature. As well as the shifting smoking age, they would dramatically reduce the nicotine in cigarettes, and force them to only be sold through specialty tobacco stores, rather than corner stores and supermarkets.

An interesting legislative experiment, an attempt to effectively de-commercialise tobacco. There is a legal minimum age for smoking and I suppose that will remain. So no one is going to be arrested or fined for smoking (unless they do it in the wrong place). I guess the hope is more difficult access for teens will make the uptake very low at this age, and that this will translate to extremely low uptake rates later in life with the ultimate effect of it not being commercially viable to sell tobacco in New Zealand.

I would also like the equivalent of a health warning label to be required for movies and TV shows made with the help of tobacco money. I'd like the same for movies and TV shows made with alcohol money too.

[Which Tyler]

De-commercialising seems fine, as does increasing both legislation and taxation; but prohibition?
The same goes for alcohol, and potentially for caffeinated drinks.

As someone who would prefer to see the legislation and decriminalisation of other recreational drugs, I can't support a criminalisation for cigarettes - however well meaning.

[TheLastWolf]

Dumb brutes know shit about art, heritage and architecture. Lutyens Delhi maybe a colonial vestige but from a historical pov it needs to be preserved not remade into something grotesquely modern at unnecessary taxpayer expense just for vanity. That too the amount that could've been spent to fight the pandemic...the thousands of trees cut in an already smog filled choking city (New Delhi one of the most polluted in the world)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Vista_Redevelopment_Project

Meanwhile the morons

https://swarajyamag.com/politics/central-vista-a-great-opportunity-to-revive-hindu-architecture-has-been-missed

Recently

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/emblem-atop-new-parliament-building-violates-design-of-state-emblem-says-plea-in-sc/article65672425.ece

[The Anti-Targ]

Very strange goings on here with terrorism...trolling? In the last week about 20 schools have received bomb threats from what police believe, at this stage, to be an overseas based call-bot. Apparently a similar thing happened in 2017, but I have no recollection of this in the media at that time. Have there been similar things happen elsewhere? Seems unlikely this would only happen in New Zealand, twice, with an overseas origin for the calls.

[Lord of Oop North]

1 hour ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Very strange goings on here with terrorism...trolling? In the last week about 20 schools have received bomb threats from what police believe, at this stage, to be an overseas based call-bot. Apparently a similar thing happened in 2017, but I have no recollection of this in the media at that time. Have there been similar things happen elsewhere? Seems unlikely this would only happen in New Zealand, twice, with an overseas origin for the calls.

Something like that happened in Canada around 4 years ago.

[The Anti-Targ]

I guess the aim is to maintain a general state of unease and loss of safety in developed countries that otherwise have pretty low rates of mass violence, so that everyone is on edge and ready to wildly panic at a moment's notice. I guess some people feel like they benefit from an emotionally unstable world.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Look on the bright side, at least it's not a call bot with a broad Indian accent from Microsoft/Amazon/McAffee/Netflix/whateffs.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

In lighter news.

We have a verdict in the Wagatha Christie libel case. Not to spoil too much, team Coleen, baby!