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Year: 2017

BREAKING: Ahed Tamimi taken by Israeli soldiers

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(TFC) – Ahed Tamimi, well-known Palestinian activist, has been taken from her home by Israeli forces. She’s best known for her appearances in YouTube videos originating in the Occupied Territories. Her curly blonde hair earned her the nickname “Shirley Temper”, and her absolute defiance and fearlessness earned her the respect of people all over the world. For many, she is the face of the Palestinian resistance. She was named The Fifth Column’s Young Person of the Year in 2015. In a Facebook post, her father stated, “The Israeli Occupation Forces raided my home and…

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Hate speech breeds hate, says new research

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(JR) – Hate speech is not hard to find in 2017. A new study in Aggressive Behavior reveals that such verbal violence begets more hate and prejudice. Three Polish academics conduct three experiments in Poland on attitudes toward hate speech targeting Muslims and LGBT groups (“two minorities particularly affected by hate speech in Poland”). Their findings on how desensitization works, they say, can be applied globally. In the first, the researchers randomly select 1,007 Polish adults and expose them to six examples of verbal violence. They ask each to rate the examples on a seven-point scale from “not…

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Keep Calm and Send Nudes: A Sedgwick County Jail Story

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Wichita, KS (KE) – Women are propositioned by strange men asking for nude photos everyday. But what do you do if the man asking for your nudes has just booked you into jail and has your home address, phone number and workplace information? Sedgwick County Sheriff Deputy Austin Martens pulled over a then 20 year-old woman and arrested her for possession of marijuana paraphernalia, booked her into the Sedgwick County Detention Facility, and then, inexplicably Facebook messaged the young woman asking her to send him nude photographs of herself, according to the…

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Joan of Arc, our one true superhero

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(Conversation) – One need not be a parent of a young child, as I am, to be conscious of the full-blown resurgence of the superhero in contemporary popular culture. Beyond the dizzying proliferation of fetishised merchandise to do with Marvel and DC protagonists and the frankly obscene sights of middle-aged folk squeezed into uncomplaining lycra and leotards at Comic-Con gatherings, one may sense the spectral presence of the hero, that crucial cultural figure which has beguiled humanity since the epics of Homer and the demigods of ancient mythology. Yet there…

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The Fall of Chinese Internet Czar Lu Wei

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Lu Wei, the former gatekeeper of the Chinese Internet, attended attend a signing ceremony in Seattle, the United States, on Sept. 23, 2015. Chinese state owned Xinhua photo. (GVO) – According to an announcement released on November 21, 2017 and posted on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Lu Wei, the former head of the Chinese Internet regulator, has been placed under corruption investigation. Lu Wei was the director of the Administration of Cyberspace between April 2013 and June 2016. With his iron fist control over the Internet,…

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Muslim Man Set on Fire and Murdered Amid Rising Islamophobia-Fueled Killings in India

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The alleged perpetrator has been identified as Shambunath Raigar (38), whose speech filled with Hindu fanaticism in a number of YouTube videos. Screenshot from a video uploaded by Vir Bhoomi. (GV) – India’s rising instances of attacks on minorities by Hindu supremacists hit an alarming crescendo in the first week of December, when a migrant Muslim worker was hacked and then burnt alive in Rajsamand, Rajasthan by a Hindu known to speak in fanatical terms online about his hatred against Muslims. The victim, 50-year-old, Mohammed Afrajul, hailed from West Bengal, a state in…

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Classifying ‘national types of beauty’: from cigarette cards to Miss Universe

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(Conversation) – In the early 1900s, international tobacco companies produced cigarette cards both to strengthen soft cigarette packets and to promote their brand. The cards often pictured soldiers, planes, boats or sporting heroes, and smokers were encouraged to collect whole sets. In 1928 Major Drapkin and Co., a tobacco company once based in London, produced a uniquely different set from those described above. A series of 36 exquisitely printed black and white photographs called “National Types of Beauty” portrayed women of various races, who according to the British colonial eye…

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Our Social Structure is Rigged

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(OW) – “It’s structure vs. agency,” my professor said to me, as if that cleared everything up. It didn’t. It was my first week of graduate school in sociology, and I had no idea what he was talking about. Fast-forward three years, and I’m now teaching an into sociology class myself, trying to explain the very same point to my students. If you live in the U.S., you’re familiar with our social structure. You need a college education to qualify for many better paying jobs. Your children can go to the…

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Pedestrian Tickets Lead to Hundreds of Suspended Driver’s Licenses

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Jacksonville, FL (ProPublica) – More than half the 2,000 people who received pedestrian tickets in Duval County, Florida, from 2012 to 2016 saw their driver’s licenses suspended or their ability to obtain one limited, according to an analysis by the Florida Times-Union and ProPublica. The tickets, which carry what can seem like a modest $65 fine, can have more significant consequences for those who get them and refuse to pay or are unable to do so. Over five years, a total of 2,004 pedestrian tickets were issued in Duval County, which is…

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A Local Newspaper’s Full-Page Feature on Nuclear Radiation Survival Stirs Panic in China

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Jilin Daily’s full page feature on nuclear radiation. (GVO) – On December 6, 2017, Jilin Daily published a full-page feature on nuclear weapons and how to protect oneself in case of a nuclear radiation. This led many, in particular, residents from northern China to ask if the newspaper report is an anticipation of a United States military action against North Korea’s missile test. Jilin province is located in north China near North Korea. Jilin Daily is affiliated with the local government of the province. On November 29, North Korea launched a…

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