CityLab: On Weaponizing Migration

The menace that has triggered this show of force is an unarmed group of migrants—at least half of whom are women and children—several hundred miles away. Most are attempting to flee violence and escape poverty in Central America; a smaller subset are people who have been previously deported from the U.S., and want to return to their families in America. Such migrant caravans aren’t new: In the past, activists from Pueblo Sin Fronteras, a group that has been providing humanitarian aide and legal help to migrants for 15 years, have assembled these groups in order to ensure safer passage to the U.S. and draw attention to the conditions they face in their home countries.[...]

Historians trace the origins of today’s refugee crisis from Central America to the Cold War policies of President Ronald Reagan. The rhetoric has parallels too. In 1983, Reagan warned Americans that if they rejected his plan to send military and economic aid to Central America, “a tidal wave of refugees” would come crashing onto the borders. “This time they’ll be ‘feet people’ and not ‘boat people’ —swarming into our country,” he said at the time. More recently, Barack Obama and David Cameron have also used words like “waves” and “swarms” to suggest vast numbers of outsiders coming ashore, overwhelming American towns and cities. [...]

In an interview with Public Radio International, Professor Gregory Lee at the University of Lyon called this narrative of a nation being consumed by refugees the “inundation” metaphor. His own research explores its usage in the context of immigration restrictions on Asians in the late 19th and early 20th century. The passage of these laws required the portrayal of Asians as the unassimilable other—a group that would drain American society and pose existential threats to its culture. Hence, the racist, dehumanizing terms “yellow peril” and “Asiatic horde.” Fast forward to post-9/11 America, and the same tropes persist for Muslim and Arabs living in the U.S.[...]

When it comes to migration, Americans across the political isle share misconceptions. Simply correcting them will not be enough. “What those who seek to oppose Trump’s migration policies need is a compelling narrative of their own,” Greenhill writes in Foreign Affairs, “one that takes voter concerns seriously, defining problems responsibly and offering comprehensible and attainable solutions.“

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openDemocracy: Back in the USSR: meet the people calling for the restoration of the Soviet Union

According to the charter of the Union of Native Peoples of Rus, the treaties between the Soviet republics and the USSR’s 1977 constitution are still in force. Members of the organisation are clear that the Soviet Union is still in existence, but temporarily occupied by an external enemy, which they consider to be a private company created by Britain and ruled through PM Dmitry Medvedev.[...]

It’s unclear how many people have taken advantage of this offer. SKNR activists can’t give a definite figure, but claim that there are around a million of them. The organisation’s VKontakte social media page has about 800 followers, but in the video clips they post on their site you see the same people over and over again.[...]

The fight for the right to a life based on these documents is the group’s current priority. Its members are attempting to use them to buy airline and rail tickets, as well as creating their own bank cards, attending court sessions and accessing health services. Activists claim it sometimes works. Nina Kokoryshkina, for example, says she acquired a bank card using a Soviet ID document issued by the SKNR.[...]

The idea behind the ceremony was that after the abdication of Nicholas II and his brother Mikhail, the right to rule Russia passed to the Russian people, but there was still no appropriate ritual to enshrine it in law. So after this ceremony finally took place, all SKNR’s supporters began to call themselves co-emperors. They see no contradiction between the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire. They say that there are no documents confirming the collapse of the Russian Empire, which means it should be restored to its state in the early 20th century. But since it’s not easy for people to get their heads around this idea, they first need to recognise the integrity of the USSR.

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openDemocracy: Mimetic power: how Russia pretends to be a normal member of the international community

While explaining the concept to Russian diplomats, Putin viewed Russia’s soft power as either diplomacy, or most likely, propaganda that can be made available, or even enhanced or intensified, at will. Soft power, however, according to Joseph Nye’s discussion of the concept, is the pre-existing ability to influence other countries through attraction, with resources of soft power being a nation’s political values, culture and foreign policy. Being a pre-existing ability, soft power differs from an immediate action that, for example, can be a diplomatic action, propaganda effort or humanitarian gesture.[...]

What happened when Moscow realised that it was dramatically failing to use “soft power” to influence Western nations through attraction? Not only after 2014 but even before, they must have realised that the Kremlin’s political values did not match prevailing Western values and that its peculiar international behaviour – no matter how assured they were of its legitimacy and credibility – was one of the reasons for the deterioration of the relations with the West. Russian official diplomacy and public diplomacy can still draw upon what they believe to be Russian high culture as an important resource of soft power, but it has limited value considering the failures that overshadow Russia’s cultural achievements.[...]

Russia’s mimetic power is the ability to influence Western nations by creating the impression that Russia is a normal member of the international community and emulating what pro-Kremlin actors perceive as Western soft power techniques. By presenting Russia as a credible and responsible international partner, Moscow is trying to convince the West – especially following the Ukraine-related escalation of the conflict between the West and Russia – to lift the sanctions, go back to “business as usual”, and ultimately stop any attempts to democratise Russia (Moscow sees the latter as Western attempts to bring about a regime change in Russia). The emulation of perceived Western soft power techniques serves two objectives: first, to contribute to the creation of the image of Russia adapted to the Western normalcy, and, second, to undermine Western resolve to stand up to Moscow’s subversive activities.[...]

For example, Russian officials would regularly slam Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for allegedly infringing on the rights of Russian-speaking minorities, while Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs would publish a series of “white books” discussing “violations of human rights and the rule of law in Ukraine” at the same time as other Russian agencies send military forces to invade Ukraine. Yet when human rights “go too far”, implying that Moscow fails to wriggle out of particular criticisms, Russian officials have a readymade excuse: Western human rights contradict “the fundamentals of our culture based on Orthodox Christianity”.

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IFLScience: Republicans And Democrats Have Very Different Sexual Fantasies

So, what did he find? While people from all political persuasions reported fantasizing several times per week, self-identified Republicans get off on themes surrounding infidelity whereas self-identified Democrats prefer BDSM. [...]

Take the Republican fantasy of infidelity, for example. The GOP runs on a platform idolizing the nuclear family and, consequently, traditional notions of marriage. This means activities like extramarital affairs, orgies, and partner swapping (whether that be the "key parties" of the '70s or their 2018 equivalent) are strictly off-limits (at least theoretically) – and that makes them exciting. It may also explain why there are more Republican than Democrat members of Ashley Madison, the dating service for people already in relationships.[...]

In contrast, the Democrats are a party that strives for greater social, economic, and political equality – and yet, they fantasize about machoism, bondage, and dominance-submission play. Lehmiller reckons it is the blurring of consent and imbalance of power in BDSM that makes it taboo (especially when a man and a woman is involved), and also exciting, for Democrats.[...]

It's not just sexual fantasies that separates the two sides of the aisle. Other surveys have shown Republicans prefer classic rock and country (think: Lynyrd Skynyrd and Blake Shelton), while Democrats are more likely to listen to Bob Marley and The Beatles, and you're more likely to spot a Republican at Grainger or Pottery Barn than Forever 21 or Urban Outfitters.

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Politico: Berlin’s Brexit déjà vu

This week the Spectator’s James Kirkup documented how David Cameron misread Merkel from the beginning. “Cake was never on her menu, either before or after the referendum,” he wrote.

It seems the more Merkel resisted Downing Street’s overtures, the more convinced the Conservative Party became it was all just part of an elaborate negotiating ritual, as if Germans had suddenly become masters of subtlety.

Instead of acknowledging that Germany’s commitment to the EU’s four freedoms is its raison d’état, Tory expectations that “Mutti” Merkel would come to the rescue with a workaround, Mary Poppins-like, only intensified.[...]

To complete that déjà vu feeling, look for breathless predictions that Friedrich Merz, a leading candidate to replace Merkel with a long history of mandates for investment firms, gets why Europe needs to cut the U.K. some slack.

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openDemocracy:#EleccionesBrasil: 5 insecurities behind the victory of Jair Messias Bolsonaro

Only Mexico, with its anti-cyclical tendencies, Ecuador and Costa Rica, have managed to buck the trend, and the traditional left in Venezuela and Nicaragua have also adopted repressive and authoritarian traits (Bolivia is a particular case).[...]

The deep crash of the Brazilian economy in 2015/2016 hit the population hard. A country used to strong economic growth suddenly found itself in a state of decline by 7.4%, producing a huge sense of economic insecurity among the population.[...]

The gesture of shooting with both hands has become a symbol of identity of the ‘Bolsominos’. With more than 60000 murders per year and a prison population of more than 725,000, the third largest in the world, fear and violence and the promise to put an end to banditry struck a chord with Brazilian voters.[...]

To these three insecurities two more can be added: identity insecurity, that has seen a battle between civil rights and diversity up against traditional family values and the Bible, and informational insecurity, that has seen attacks on conventional media outlets, writing them off as liars and manipulators.

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The Washington Post: A blockbuster Polish movie about abusive priests triggers a new wave of accusations

Scenes from the film are based on Lisinski’s accounts of being abused and attempting to seek justice. “To survivors like me, watching this movie feels like watching a documentary, because it’s so accurate in showing the powerful mechanisms that protect the Church,” he said. “Their influence is finally eroding now, we hope.”

Lisinski’s organization, called Do Not Fear, has received thousands of calls and letters since “Kler” premiered in late September. The group said it has heard from more potential victims in that time than it had in the past five years combined. Of those people, about 200 have made accusations the group deems credible and sufficiently detailed.

The movie also struck a chord among Poles in general. “I watched it because the church keeps saying that it’s blasphemy, and I wanted to judge myself,” said Jorek Hornowski as he left a cinema in central Warsaw. The 32-year old goes to church every Sunday but said the movie had not surprised him. “After all, it’s based on facts,” he said. “All of those allegations were known before. But I think this movie is forcing us to finally talk about it in public.”[...]

One key question is whether the Catholic Church itself can be blamed for complicity in sexual abuse. Although church representatives have said no, a Polish appeals court upheld a landmark ruling this month that ordered the church to pay more than $250,000 in compensation for an abuse case, possibly paving the way for similar verdicts amid the wave of new accusations.

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The Guardian: Pet sounds: why your dog loves listening to Bob Marley

Far from being a novelty, dog-oriented music is fast becoming a successful new genre, with the production company RelaxMyDog at the forefront of the trend. Founded in 2011 by entrepreneur Amman Ahmed and producer Ricardo Henriquez, the service reaches an audience of 10 million users a month: 600 years’ worth of their content was streamed in September alone.[...]

Ahmed is coy when explaining the somewhat vague musical formula behind their success, though. It comprises, he says, of “a range of frequencies that the dogs can hear, combined with music that is designed to be relaxing to humans, since if the human is relaxed, that energy can be projected on to the dog also”. Rather than engaging in scientific research to influence their compositions, “the best research comes from actual users”, he says, who provide regular feedback through their YouTube channel’s 600,000 subscribers.

One such piece of feedback was that dogs were responding well to reggae music, which has led to a new series of dog reggae. This finding is backed up by a 2017 study conducted by the Scottish SPCA and the University of Glasgow. The research found that while classical music had an initial calming effect on the dogs, after a few days they became bored. Instead, reggae and soft rock came out as the best genres for reducing stress, barking and heart rates. The SPCA’s head of research, Gilly Mendes Ferreira, speculates this is because “those genres have a rhythm that is similar to the dogs’ own heart rate. When a puppy is feeling stressed it will snuggle into its mother and use her heartbeat as relaxation, so this music mimics that.”

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