The Atlantic: Does Germany Hold the Key to Defeating Populism?

Meanwhile, others around the world are embracing right-wing populism, from the Britons’ stunning decision to leave the European Union to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist agenda to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s authoritarian policies. Trump’s election has appeared at times to inject fresh energy into the right-wing parties of Europe. As some countries there brace for national elections this year, the prospects for these parties look bright. In France, for example, far-right National Front party leader Marine Le Pen is expected to advance to the second round of balloting in April’s presidential elections; recent polls show her beating scandal-ridden conservative candidate Francois Fillon in the first round. [...]

But despite hysterical headlines claiming that the AfD’s presence augurs a “return of the Nazis,” support has remained tepid at best. In recent elections in Lower Saxony, the party garnered only 7.8 percent, below its stated 10 percent goal and far less than the CDU’s 34 percent. In an election last weekend in the Saarland, the CDU won over 40 percent of votes. The AfD won only 6.2 percent, barely clearing the threshold to take seats in the regional parliament. [...]

And there are stark attitudinal differences between Germany and other Western countries, as reactions to recent terrorist attacks highlight. Whereas French President Francois Hollande stated that “We are at war” and declared a state of emergency in the wake of the 2015 Paris attacks, Merkel’s reaction to the 2016 Berlin Christmas market attack was quiet, calm, and comforting. While Trump used the occasion of the Orlando Pulse massacre to congratulate himself on his own doomsday prognostications, the German people have “refused to panic.” [...]

Germany’s commitment to atonement is most obviously and creatively expressed in its passion for monuments. In 1992, for instance, the German artist Gunter Demnig began laying small stones capped with brass in front of buildings where Jews had lived. These stones are engraved with the names of those who had lived there before being deported and murdered by the Nazi regime. In the decades since, tens of thousands of so-called Stolpersteine have been laid; all manufactured by Demnig, but put in place by various people, they are a common sight in most German cities.

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Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell: Are GMOs Good or Bad? Genetic Engineering & Our Food

The Atlantic: At Group Sex Parties, Strict Rules Make for Safe Spaces

Rules and group sex have gone hand in hand for decades. The more risqué the sexual party, the tighter the guidelines, particularly in the BDSM world where partygoers consent to physical pain. “The space, people’s bodies are sacred,” Kinky Salon co-founder Polly Whittaker, aka Polly Superstar, recalls from her many years in the BDSM and fetish scene. “You do not talk while someone is having a scene, you don’t laugh, you don’t stare … They’ve created this incredibly strict structure because what they’re doing there is working through some really heavy shit and they need safety for that.” [...]

“We believe that it is a fundamentally radical political act to deprivatize sex,” write authors Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy in their famous book, The Ethical Slut: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships & Other Adventures. “Group sex offers the opportunity to challenge ourselves,” they write, “to move our sexuality out into the open, banners flying, with lots of support in getting past the fears and bashfulness and lots of friendly people to applaud your ecstasies.” [...]

“As it turns out, the first ‘key parties’ weren’t about sexual pleasure so much as a response to the existential issues triggered by facing the highest death rates of any branch of the U.S. military during the war,” Ryan told me in an interview. “These guys had a one in three chance of dying during one of their missions in the Pacific. They got together and had sex parties, not as a way of getting more sex … but as a way of deepening the bonds that held their deeply interdependent community together. The tacit understanding was that the men who survived would look after the widows of those who didn’t.” [...]

And this is where the rules come in. These parties, when executed with care and sensitivity, can break social norms and offer what seems to be a healing space around collective issues of sexuality. That doesn’t mean it’s always easy or fun. “People have different experiences. And I think it’s really complicated, particularly our histories around sexual trauma,” Whittaker explains. “Especially women, when the statistics show how crazy the levels of abuse are. So I think creating a space where sexuality isn’t a shameful thing, where it’s not something that is being imposed on you is a very liberating thing for women.”

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Al Jazeera: China's new-found love for Confucius

China's Confucius Institute is the biggest public diplomacy programme in the world. There are now more than 1,000 Confucius institutes and classrooms in 120 countries (and counting). Confucius institutes are major university-based teaching centres, while Confucius classrooms are smaller language learning support units for high schools.

Confucius also increasingly represents Brand China inside China itself. With 4,000 years of history to draw on, the Communist Party seems to have chosen Confucius to replace Mao as the country's icon. Mao's image may still appear on the currency, but these days Confucius dominates the school curriculum. [...]

For a brief time in 2011 there was even a statue of Confucius just off Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing; it was mysteriously removed and relocated to a less conspicuous location after just four months. There is tension between Maoist true believers and Confucius' new acolytes. Confucius's yellow star is rising, but Mao's red star hasn't fully set yet. [...]

Communist China's first leader, Mao Zedong, identified Confucius with the subjugation of women. He blamed Confucianism for promoting a conservative ideology of the family that prevented women from receiving an education and promoted the barbaric practice of foot binding, in which girls' feet are tightly wrapped to stunt their growth.

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Al Jazeera: By-elections to test Aung San Suu Kyi's popularity

Saturday marks the first time the country has gone to polls since NLD swept to power, in an early indication of views on her leadership amid increased fighting with armed ethnic groups and slower economic growth.

Hundreds of voters lined up outside polling stations on the outskirts of Myanmar's commercial capital Yangon, though the scene lacked the fanfare and enthusiasm that marked the historic 2015 polls. [...]

While the outcome of the by-elections will not affect the balance of power within the parliament where the NLD enjoys a large majority, it offers a chance to gauge the popularity of the administration in a country where nationwide public polls are not available.

Win Htein, one of the NLD's top leaders, said the party faced language barriers and problems with armed groups in the Shan state districts being contested. Fighting in some of those areas has intensified in recent months. [...]

Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi is also facing international criticism for her government's handling of a crisis in the Muslim-majority Rakhine region, where soldiers have blocked access for aid workers and are accused of raping and killing civilians.

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Business Insider: 21 fascinating vintage photos that show how much Paris has changed since the 1900s

Ever wondered what the places around you looked like in the past?French art director Julien Knez wondered the same thing as he walked around Paris, and spent the summer of 2015 taking photos of famous Parisian sites while holding up vintage photos of what they used to look like in front of the lens.

The result is a photo book, "Paris, Fenêtres Sur l'Histoire," which contains 80 images of modern Parisian streets overlaid with old photographs that reveal what the French capital looked like over 100 years ago.

Knez worked with photos he found from between 1871 and 1968, bringing key moments from Paris' history — such as the great flood of 1910 and Hitler's visit to the city in 1940 — into its present.

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