Cute and kitsch - Simon May, visiting professor of philosophy at King’s College London, explores cuteness and its immense hold on us, from emojis and fluffy puppies to its more uncanny, subversive expressions. Also, the changing significance of kitsch, from garden gnomes to Eurotrash. Ruth Holliday, Professor of Gender and Culture at the University of Leeds, suggests that judgements of taste have shifted ground rather than relaxed. They’re joined by the cultural critic, Peter York.
4 April 2019
BBC4 Analysis: Will China and America go to war?
Will the growing competition between China and the United States inevitably lead to military conflict? One leading American academic created huge attention when in 2017 he posed the idea of what he called a "Thucydides Trap". Drawing on the work of the ancient Greek historian, he warned that when a rising power (Sparta) threatens an existing power (Athens) they are destined to clash, unless both countries change their policies. He warned that the same pattern could play out with the US and China. Since then, President Trump has engaged in combative rhetoric over trade, while China has fast been modernising and upgrading its military. BBC Diplomatic Correspondent Jonathan Marcus considers whether Washington and Beijing can escape the trap - or whether the growing economic, strategic and technological rivalry between the two nations will inevitably end in conflict.
Quartz: Too rich, too comfortable: Why Japan is so resistant to change even as disaster looms
Under the leadership of Shinzo Abe, it can feel as if Japan is enjoying a revolution of sorts. Sweeping economic reforms are finally shaking up its long-stagnant economy, while more foreign workers are entering the country than ever before. Soaring tourist numbers and major sporting events, like this year’s Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Summer Olympics, are also keeping “Cool Japan,” well, cool.[...]
But none of these advantages will help the country tackle its serious economic and demographic problems. That’s according to Brad Glosserman, a 12-year resident of Japan and author of a new book, Peak Japan: The End of Great Ambitions (Georgetown University Press, 2019). Glosserman, now deputy director of the Center for Rule-Making Strategies at Tama University in Tokyo, decided to write the book after the earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan in 2011. He wondered whether those calamities would be enough to shake Japan out of its comfortable, familiar stupor. His conclusion? Not so much.[...]
The nature of the challenges facing Japan, and the need to reverse those trends that everybody acknowledges are bad, requires structural shifts. And the Japanese are not prepared to do that. “We like what we have, we’re a small ‘c’ conservative country, we are not prepared to adopt a system that somebody else thinks we need when we’re not sure of it ourselves,” they say. Japan is not like a society trapped in the amber—of course it’s changing and evolving, but these are evolutionary, not revolutionary changes. What the Japanese are is very Japanese. This is a country that believes in law, resilience, stoicism, sucking it up and getting through it. That, as one politician put it to me, is an absolute brake on change in this country. [...]
For those on the right who seek reforms to realize their dream of a more powerful and influential Japan, they must balance their impact on social norms and idealized social structures. With women, the tension here is between what the government knows it has to do to unleash their economic potential in society, but there’s also the notion of a woman’s place in the household—I think Abe really does believe in that. There’s been all sorts of policy nudges that the government could have done, but they haven’t, like making childcare widely available. That tension has resulted in begrudging changes that are too late. [...]
People will look back at the emperor and think that he was an extraordinary man in so many ways. He was a voice of reason, a voice of calm and serenity. He encapsulated the very best of Japan. There’s even speculation that he actually decided to abdicate as one way of stopping the prime minister from getting his constitutional revision to Article 9.
Quartz: The ancient connections between atheism, Buddhism and Hinduism
As a scholar of Asian religions, however, I’m often struck by the prevalence of atheism and agnosticism—the view that it is impossible to know whether a god exists—in ancient Asian texts. Atheistic traditions have played a significant part in Asian cultures for millennia. [...]
The Buddha himself rejected the idea of a creator god, and Buddhist philosophers have even argued that belief in an eternal god is nothing but a distraction for humans seeking enlightenment. [...]
According to Jainism, the universe is eternal, and while gods may exist, they too must be reborn, just like humans are. The gods play no role in spiritual liberation and enlightenment; humans must find their own path to enlightenment with the help of wise human teachers. [...]
Around the same time when Buddhism and Jainism arose in the sixth century BC, there was also an explicitly atheist school of thought in India called the Carvaka school. Although none of their original texts have survived, Buddhist and Hindu authors describe the Carvakas as firm atheists who believed that nothing existed beyond the material world. [...]
Another example is the Mimamsa school. This school also rejects the idea of a creator God. The Mimamsa philosopher Kumarila said that if a god had created the world by himself in the beginning, how could anyone else possibly confirm it? Kumarila further argued that if a merciful god had created the world, it could not have been as full of suffering as it is.
The Guardian: May’s bombshell means the Little English nationalist revolution is over
The carefully crafted illusions the May administration were founded on have crumbled into dust. After three years of civil service expertise wasted, billions of pounds of growth lost and two years’ worth of legislative time squandered, Theresa May stopped trying to get Brexit through with Tory votes and turned to Jeremy Corbyn. [...]
Labour’s proposed Brexit deal would sign Britain up to the customs union and enter a state of “dynamic alignment” with the rules of the single market. This is not the equivalent of a Norway-style deal, because it allows Britain to participate fully in the single market – with the obligation to accept freedom of movement – but to diverge over time by paying a price in lost market access. [...]
There are people on the remain side who have convinced themselves that an otherised, alien, hostile entity called the “working class” wants Brexit so badly that there will be a far-right revolt if a new referendum is called. All the deep polling shows this is nonsense. There have, as promises turned to dust, been clear swings among working-class women, Muslim voters and low-paid young people, leaving a polling majority for remain.
For certain, a second referendum will be difficult. But mass ideologies deflate suddenly. There cannot legitimately be a no-deal option on the ballot paper – in which case, I expect the minority of dedicated white nationalists and xenophobes to throw the towel in. We need to break it to them as gently as possible, and offer as many as possible a way back to consensus politics, but May’s bombshell means simply: the Little English nationalist revolution is over.
Vox: Chicago elects first black, openly LGBTQ woman as mayor
Chicago just became the largest United States city to elect a black woman and openly gay person as mayor in a history-making vote.
Lori Lightfoot, a lawyer and the former president of the Chicago police board, defeated Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Tuesday to become the next mayor of the Windy City. She will succeed Rahm Emanuel, Chicago’s two-term mayor and former chief of staff to President Barack Obama. [...]
Preckwinkle tried to cast Lightfoot as a political novice who lacked experience in electoral politics, but, as Bloomberg noted, many were attracted to her “clean slate” appeal. During the race, Lightfoot outpaced Preckwinkle with endorsements and gained the backing of the media, the business community, and candidates who did not make it to the runoff. Meanwhile, the Chicago Teachers Union endorsed Preckwinkle. So did Chance the Rapper and Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL), among others.[...]
The city’s police department and the black community have a fraught relationship, and its handling of the 2014 police shooting of Laquan McDonald, a black 17-year-old, is part of what pushed Emanuel out. The case gained national attention after video footage released more than a year after the shooting showed the police lied when they claimed that McDonald had lunged at the officer who shot and killed him.
The Guardian: Brunei brings in stoning to death for gay sex, despite outcry
Brunei’s small underground LGBT community has expressed shock and dismay over Brunei’s plan to bring in the punishment of death by stoning for adultery and gay sex. [...]
The new punishments, which also include amputation of hands and feet for thieves, will make Brunei the first country in east or southeast Asia to have a sharia penal code at the national level. Several mostly Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia also adhere to sharia law.
The penal code was formally published in 2013 but the government said the laws would be enacted over a period of several years, with the most controversial delayed after international outcry. [...]
The United Nations labelled the laws “cruel and inhumane” and well-known figures have lined up to add to their names to the chorus of condemnation, including former US vice president Joe Biden and actress Jamie Lee Curtis. George Clooney and pop star Elton John have called for Brunei-owned hotels to be boycotted. [...]
But the sultan shows no sign of backing down, and the Muslim-majority country issued a statement at the weekend insisting that Brunei “enforces its own rule of law”. In a public address on Wednesday, he called for “stronger” Islamic teachings in the country and said said that Brunei was “fair and happy”.
Quartz: Air pollution is a bigger killer than tobacco use in India
In India, China, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, the entire population lives in conditions where levels of the hazardous PM2.5 pollutants in the air are above the World Health Organisation’s permissible limits, the study says. It adds that 60% of the population in India is also exposed to household air pollution due to the burning of firewood and other biomass such as cattle dung cakes for cooking. [...]
In 2017, about 1.2 million people died in India due to air pollution-related illnesses such as lung cancer, type-2 diabetes, and pneumonia, the report says. This makes air pollution the third biggest national health risk, higher than even tobacco use. [...]
While it is second only to China in the number of PM 2.5-linked deaths, India also recorded the highest number of deaths caused by household air pollution in any country.
euronews: Which country in Europe has the highest imprisonment rate?
It dropped 6.6%, from 109.7 inmates per 100,000 of people in 2016 to 102.5 last year, according to the Council of Europe. [...]
Russia has by far the highest proportion of people behind bars in Europe, with 418.3 inmates per 100,000 of the country's population.
Many ex-Eastern Bloc countries also have high incarceration rates: Russia is followed by Georgia (252.2), Azerbaijan (235) and Lithuania (234.9), the highest in the EU.
Europe’s lowest incarceration rates were found in Iceland (46.8), Finland (51.1), Netherlands (54.4), Sweden (56.5), Denmark (63.2) and Norway (65.4). [...]
Iceland had the biggest jump in the proportion of people behind bars between 2016 and 2018, recording a 25.4% increase. [...]
France had the highest suicide rate per 100,000 inmates at 12.6, just ahead of Austria at 12.3, and Germany at 11.8.
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