Hidden gay lives: Laurie Taylor uncovers the ‘fabuloso’ history of Polari, Britain’s secret gay language with Paul Barker, Professor of English Language at Lancaster University. He also talks to the cultural historian, James Polchin, about the ways in which 20th c American crime pages recover a little discussed history of violence against gay men, one in which they were often held responsible for their own victimisation.
20 February 2020
Today in Focus: The end of the affair: how Britain walked away from the EU
John Palmer was the Guardian’s correspondent in Brussels in 1973 when the UK entered the European Economic Community. Now, 46 years later, Jennifer Rankin is in Brussels for the Guardian as British MEPs are packing up and leaving. They tell Anushka Asthana how membership has changed Britain. Plus: Dan Sabbagh on Huawei’s role in British infrastructure.
Caravan Magazine: Intimations of an Ending
Right now, seven million people in the valley of Kashmir, overwhelming numbers of whom do not wish to be citizens of India and have fought for decades for their right to self-determination, are locked down under a digital siege and the densest military occupation in the world. Simultaneously, in the eastern state of Assam, almost two million people who long to belong to India have found their names missing from the National Register of Citizens, and risk being declared stateless. The Indian government has announced its intention of extending the NRC to the rest of India. Legislation is on its way. This could the lead to the manufacture of statelessness on a scale previously unknown.
The violence of inclusion and the violence of exclusion are precursors of a convulsion that could alter the foundations of India, and rearrange its meaning and its place in the world. The Constitution calls India a secular, socialist republic. We use the word “secular” in a slightly different sense from the rest of the world—for us, it’s code for a society in which all religions have equal standing in the eyes of the law. In practice, India has been neither secular nor socialist. In effect, it has always functioned as an upper-caste Hindu state. But the conceit of secularism, hypocritical though it may be, is the only shard of coherence that makes India possible. That hypocrisy was the best thing we had. Without it, India will end. [...]
But what was bad for the country turned out to be excellent for the BJP. Between 2016 and 2017, even as the economy tanked, it became one of the richest political parties in the world. Its income increased by 81 percent, making it nearly five times richer than its main rival, the Congress Party, whose income declined by 14 percent. Smaller political parties were virtually bankrupted. This war chest won the BJP the crucial state elections in Uttar Pradesh, and turned the 2019 general election into a race between a Ferrari and a few old bicycles. And since elections are increasingly about money—and the accumulation of power and the accumulation of capital seem to be convergent—the chances of a free and fair election in the near future seem remote. So maybe demonetisation was not a blunder after all. [...]
In its latest report, released in October, the National Crime Records Bureau has carefully left out data on mob lynchings. According to the Indian news site The Quint, there have been 113 deaths by mob violence since 2015. Lynchers, and others accused in hate crimes including mass murder, have been rewarded with public office and honoured by ministers in Modi’s cabinet. Modi himself, usually garrulous on Twitter, generous with condolences and birthday greetings, goes very quiet each time a person is lynched. Perhaps it’s unreasonable to expect a prime minister to comment every time a dog comes under the wheels of someone’s car. Particularly since it happens so often. Mohan Bhagwat, the supreme leader of the RSS, has said that lynching is a western concept imported from the Bible, and that Hindus have no such tradition. He has declared that all the talk of a “lynching epidemic” is a conspiracy to defame India.
In its latest report, released in October, the National Crime Records Bureau has carefully left out data on mob lynchings. According to the Indian news site The Quint, there have been 113 deaths by mob violence since 2015. Lynchers, and others accused in hate crimes including mass murder, have been rewarded with public office and honoured by ministers in Modi’s cabinet. Modi himself, usually garrulous on Twitter, generous with condolences and birthday greetings, goes very quiet each time a person is lynched. Perhaps it’s unreasonable to expect a prime minister to comment every time a dog comes under the wheels of someone’s car. Particularly since it happens so often. Mohan Bhagwat, the supreme leader of the RSS, has said that lynching is a western concept imported from the Bible, and that Hindus have no such tradition. He has declared that all the talk of a “lynching epidemic” is a conspiracy to defame India.
Spiegel: A Search for the Source of Italy's Malaise
Is it really possible that the residents of a country envied worldwide for its "italianità," for its vigor, elegance and culture, are actually, deep inside, unhappy? Almost every second Italian makes precisely that claim, the highest such value in Europe. Between the Brenner Pass in the far north and the island of Lampedusa in the south, a share of the populace more than twice the EU average feels lonesome and neglected. Two-thirds are afraid of losing their job. Life expectancy keeps rising in the country, but the birth rate continues to break records as it plummets. [...]
But their deep disgust with everything having to do with the state, widely seen as voraciously greedy and uncaring, has grown since the onset of the 2011 economic crisis. Migration across the Mediterranean as well as the European Commission's alleged paternalism have reinforced a comprehensive feeling of an external threat. The average Italian, Sicilian Andrea Camilleri has written, isn't particularly concerned with the outside world. "It is enough for him to know the location of his home, his church, his pub and his city hall. His curiosity does not extend beyond that." [...]
According to official EU statistics, Rome is less livable than either Bucharest or Sofia if you ask the city's own residents. The Facebook page belonging to the group "romafaschifo" – Rome sucks – is full of posts about the aesthetic downfall of this "savaged" city, as the journalist Corrado Augias would have it. [...]
The most recent report from the researchers at Censis, which was released just before Christmas, noted that Italy was in danger of degenerating into a "fearful, mistrust-ridden society." Almost half of all respondents now support "a strong man in power" who no longer must submit to elections or parliamentary approval.
Social Europe: Why EU action on minimum wages is so controversial—yet so necessary
In an op-ed published by EUObserver just before the consultation, Therese Svanström, president of the Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees (TCO), wrote: ‘Most importantly [sic] … is the fact that the EU lacks legal competence in the area of wages.’ Thus, rather than convincing arguments about why precisely EU action would be bad, the piece primarily reflects a fear of losing control and a defensive stance, asserting that ‘well-functioning systems for collective agreements simply cannot be ordered from Brussels’. [...]
The commission has made clear that it would not oblige countries which do not have a statutory wage to introduce one, thus making most of the contenders’ arguments null and void. The framework should focus on the objectives, in terms of coverage (the percentage of the labour force receiving at least the minimum wage) and level (most probably expressed as a percentage of the median wage), not on a specific type of instrument.
Svanström hypothesises that ‘what goes up, might come down’, implying that the EU could use the framework to lower wages in times of crises. The history of EU social policy rather teaches us that its regulations are always minimum standards. So these cannot be used to lower national standards and what is already a minimum cannot be lowered. [...]
Twenty-two EU countries currently have a minimum wage under 60 per cent of the median (the benchmark recommended by the International Labour Organization). An EU framework could matter a great deal for those countries, creating political pressure and institutional incentives to improve wages and even, in the medium term, engender upward convergence.
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