#shes south korean and a new zealander and has lived in both places

[andromedasummer]

one thing i love about my uni is even when the subject we are studying is about far away country or ultra specific phenomenon theres always a book in the syllabus, published by the university, by a member of that country and/or culture, by an expert on that special subject, who happened to attend my university too. who's lived in the same cities i have.

[justanotherexpatinkorea]

Racism is relative

4.13.21

STOP ASIAN HATE 아시안 혐오 멈춰라

It’s weird, being a white American in Asia. At a time when people of Asian descent are increasingly the targets of hate crimes in my home country of America. 

I’m going on my third year living in South Korea. I’m a 외국인, a “foreigner.” I refer to myself as such in conversation, both in English and Korean. In an ethnically homogeneous country, my tall caucasian presence sticks out like a sore thumb. If anyone’s getting a sideways glance it’s me, the weird white person out of place in a sea of Koreans. And I’m fine with that. I made the decision to live here, and I enjoy doing so. Once I learned the rhythms of Korean life, I also learned that at the end of the day people are just people. No matter where you go.

The background of my daily life consists of Asian food, buildings, culture, language -- and Asian people. They’re the bus driver, grocery store cashier, bank teller, crossing guard, police officer, cook, convenience store clerk. And the list goes on. They’re just people. White, Asian, anything. We’re all just human beings trying to live in this world. Should be common sense. Common humanity. But apparently it’s not. 

---------------------------------------

Korean Friend: I’ve actually never left Korea, but once COVID is over I want to travel abroad.

Me: Where would you go?

Korean Friend: Australia, New Zealand, the U.S…

Me: Um, please wait on that third one.

Korean Friend: Why?

Me: *sends links to news reports about the Atlanta spa shooting, increased reports of hate crimes against Asians in the U.S.*

Korean Friend: Oh…

                         That’s scary…

Me: I know...

Korean Friend: I’ll just stick to travelling around here.

In all seriousness, I could not tell him he would be safe travelling to the U.S. And that is shameful and embarrassing to admit. Sadly I’ve grown accustomed to that twinge in my gut, when certain topics arise in conversation with non-Americans. 

In the U.S., Koreans and other people of Asian descent are being murdered and assaulted on the basis of their skin color. Fortunately Korea has rigorous gun control laws, so mass shootings aren’t an issue here. But just because people aren’t being killed by racists doesn’t mean racism doesn’t exist. As a culturally and ethnically homogenous country, Koreans take immense pride in their heritage. Often at the expense of others. 

Foreigners who don’t know better often lump Asian countries together. They assume everyone in Asia eats sushi, bows when they greet you, etc. Korea, Japan, and China are probably lumped together the most often. I used to do it too. I didn’t know enough about any one place to differentiate them in any meaningful way. But I do now.  

------------------------------------

For starters, there’s quite a bit of tension between the countries. Korea’s biggest beef is with Japan. A lot of Koreans have animosity towards Japan for their refusal to fully admit and apologize over the comfort women issue. (“Comfort women” were Korean women and girls forced into sex slavery by the Japanese army during WWII.) And I can’t blame them; there’s a lot of dark, horrible history there. A couple years ago, Korea enacted a boycott on Japan (for alleged economic and trade reasons I won’t get into here). There were stickers emblazoned with “No Japan!” slapped on just about everything. When I taught the “Where are you from?” chapter in my English class, students were blurting it out -- “No Japan!” As if anyone from Japan should simply be shouted down with a “No!” That’s where I started to get uncomfortable. 

As for China, Koreans also have some problems there. For starters, air pollution. China does produce a lot of air pollution that gets blown over the Korean peninsula. But on an average day, it’s only about 50%. Yet many Koreans will mumble and complain about the dirty Chinese factories clogging up the skies, forgetting to mention the other half that’s made by Korea itself. Another factor is tourism (in pre-COVID, days anyways). Some Koreans complain about the loud, noisy, dirty Chinese tourists. Add the coronavirus to an equation already based on stereotypes of uncleanliness and -- I’m getting uncomfortable again. 

Yeah, Japan committed war crimes. Yeah, the coronavirus started in China. I’m not going to deny the facts. But I do have a problem with the attitudes of discrimination that it breeds. 

Which brings me to another point that makes me uncomfortable. This time in a laughable and darkly ironic sort of way. 

----------------------------------------------

Last month, three of the eight provinces in Korea issued administrative orders stating that foreign workers must get tested for COVID within a two week timeframe. This was in response to a handful of outbreaks of factories that employ largely migrant workers. The order targeted foreign laborers from China, Thailand, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, and other similar countries. However,  it did not require Koreans working at the exact same facilities to get tested. We all know too well that the coronavirus does not discriminate, and will infect anyone. 

The government faced a lot of backlash, and the policy was downgraded to a “recommendation.” But one thing was made clear. Foreigners were being singled out as the “carriers'' of coronavirus. We were the threat. 

I say “we” here, but I mean it in an oblique way. In terms of my legal status in Korea, I have more in common with a Southeast Asian migrant worker than my Korean colleagues. I speak pretty good Korean, but not a lick of Thai or Vietnamese. But cultural competence doesn’t matter here. Our “foreign-ness” is the factor at play. 

I would like to add that overall, my foreign-ness is different. I’m white. And unfortunately that’s still a point in my favor. Whiteness and lightness is still seen as preferable. (One of my 6th grade students: “Teacher! Your skin is so white. So beautiful. Not me. I’m too dark. I want to be more light.” My heart shattered into a million pieces, as I tried to tell her she was already beautiful the way she was.) 

One of the ways it has affected me is the questions I get asked at work. Take this one from last May, directed exclusively at foreign English teachers: “Where did you go last weekend? Were you or anyone you know in Itaewon?” (Itaewon is the foreigner district in Seoul, where a large coronavirus outbreak occurred. Funny enough patient zero was not a foreigner - they were Korean.) This may seem like a harmless line of questioning. My phsyical saftey and well-being were in no way in danger. But again the underlying assumption is that foreign = dangerous. 

Ironically, Asians are being targeted in the U.S. while foreigners are being targeted in Asia. But I suppose it’s not really that ironic after all. This is nothing new. History shows again and again, that it’s often our nature to blame and shun that which is different and foreign. This is not unique to the U.S. It’s an issue unique to the human condition. 

Racism exists. It exists everywhere. Especially in the era of COVID. No one is immune. I mean, look at me. I grew up in a church that taught me to maintain the purity of the races, and that interracial marriage was a sin. I’m sure glad I’ve gotten rid of that one. But that was a learned belief. Racism is learned. We must commit to actively un-learning it too. 

[gamerwoo]

The 17th Member of Seventeen

Anonymous asked: i liked the 14th and 15th svt members so i’m excited for the next ones!

Anonymous asked: asking for the 15th one motivated you, so what about asking for the next?? (and ill be back for the 17th)

-

14th Member | 15th Member | 16th Member

Stage name: Hiro

Birth name: Hiro Miyazaki but legalized her name to Hiro Lim after her parents’ divorce (Lim is her mother’s maiden name)

Korean name: Im Hi Ro

Position: Main dancer, lead rapper, sub vocalist

Birthday: September 13, 1996

Zodiac Sign: Virgo

Height: 172 cm (5’8”)

Weight: 54 kg (120 lbs)

Nationality: Australian

Instagram: @/bighiro7teen

Sub-Unit: N/A

Facts About Hiro:

Hiro was born in Auckland, New Zealand.

Her family moved to Adelaide, Australia when she was 6 after her parents got divorced.

She was raised by her mother and her mother’s sister.

She has a brother Jun (Junho) who is older by four years, and a brother Cai (Malacai) who is older by one. Cai is a member of the group Pentagon.

Hiro always wanted to be an idol but planned on focusing on going to college instead of following her dreams despite her mother’s urges. After her mother passed away in early 2015, Hiro left for South Korea to become a trainee.

She became a trainee under Pledis Entertainment in 2015.

She didn’t know any Korean despite her mother and aunt being fluent.

She debuted with Seventeen during Getting Closer.

Her favorite colors are red and purple.

Her favorite animal is the red panda.

She’s terrified of the dark. She used to be afraid of heights until she became a cheerleader and had to be a flyer.

She’s a fan of DAY6, Stray Kids, SHINee, DRP Live, Dreamcatcher, and Monsta X, but also says her and her brother Cai would listen to Pentagon together a lot.

Hiro was a competitive dancer with her brothers ever since they were young. She later picked up cheerleading in school, so she’s able to do plenty of flips and tricks.

Because she excels and both dancing and rapping, they have yet to decide which sub unit to place her in.

Enjoys cooking for the members, and enjoys learning how to make new foods. She learned how to make Korean and Chinese dishes for the members, and enjoys making those over any other kind of food.

Hiro can speak Korean, English, and Spanish.

Even though she’s a quarter Japanese from her dad, she doesn’t know any Japanese. She also doesn’t have any contact with her father after he never showed up for her ring ceremony.

She’s friends with Felix and Bang Chan from Stray Kids.

She ran into Mimi prior to joining Seventeen, so they knew each other beforehand. She said she had seen Joshua and Vernon and wanted to talk to them but was too nervous, but she said Josh was always nice to her when he’d see her.

The member she’s closest with is Jihoon.

The members say Hiro comes off as very quiet and shy, but she can be loud and silly at the dorms.

Hiro likes doing dances that challenge her, like Hit.

She avoids doing aegyo because she claims she’s bad at it and she thinks it’s cringy, but everyone else loves to see her do it.

She doesn’t have many friends born in the same year as her outside of Seventeen. Most of her friends are older or younger than her.

She’s been told her voice is similar to (G)I-DLE’s Yuqi.

The members say Hiro likes being babied even if she won’t admit it.

If she could collaborate with anyone, it would be EXO-SC.

Her hobbies are studying Japanese, cooking, dancing, helping Mimi with her YouTube channel, and sleeping.

Hiro often appears on Mimi’s YouTube channel.

She really wants to make a unit with Bang Chan, Felix, and Rose from Blackpink.

Hiro says she’s really close with her brother, Cai. She even inspired him to become an idol, too.

She shares a room with Vernon and Soonyoung.

Her ideal type is someone more outgoing than her; someone patient and kind.

[katherinecarters]

♡. yoo jeongyeon. female. she/her. — there goes, KATHERINE CARTER, who appears to be a TWENTY FOUR year old GHOST. word is the HOSTESS was born in 1985 and has been in town for SEVENTEEN YEARS. you might know them as + PROTECTIVE  and - RECKLESS. leather jackets, lace, late nights & shaded tattoos.

katherine carter was born kim yeon-a in seoul, south korea on 30th august 1985

her mother was sixteen when she gave birth to her, but instantly put her up for adoption because she couldn’t afford to raise a child and also did not want to be judged

she was adopted by a british couple when she was five years old in 1990 and was brought over from korea to london in the united kingdom

her name was then changed to katherine carter

she has no idea who her birth mother or father are

she is the only adopted child and has three older sisters

katherine had average grades in school, but was part of sports and clubs

when she left high school and decided to study in america where she went to the university in coeur cove to study drama and acting in 2003

she started dating in 2006

she graduated when she was twenty two in 2007

after graduating katherine and her boyfriend who graduated at the same time decided to have time to themselves and travel to australia and new zealand for over a year

they arrived back in coeur cove in early 2009

she decided to stay and live in coeur cove with her boyfriend

on her twenty fourth birthday on 30th august 2009 her and her boyfriend had just left a club around 3am where they were mugged and both were stabbed

her boyfriend only suffered minor injures while katherine was killed at the scene

one of the reasons why she is still tied to the town and hasn’t moved on is because she wishes to see her boyfriend, but mainly her family again

katherine is fully aware she is a ghost, but she doesn’t like to make a ‘big’ deal out of it

she remembers everything from her time alive, dying and even being in a coma before passing on

she is now a hostess at a cafe in town

katherine takes no shit from anyone

she is very protective over the people she cares about and will do anything for them

she is very honest and will say the truth even if it hurts someone

it is very hard for her to open up to people and doesn’t talk about herself or her life before death much

if anybody starts to try and make her talk out about it when she doesn’t want to she’ll shut your ass down

she will fuck around with humans or other beings by moving things around and even attempting to scare them...bc why tf not

RANDOM STATS:

BIRTH NAME: kim yeon-a

FULL NAME: katherine olivia carter

AGE: twenty four

DATE OF BIRTH: august 30th 1985

DATE OF DEATH: august 30th 2009

PLACE OF BIRTH: seoul, south korea

GENDER: female

PRONOUNS: she/her

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: pansexual

HEIGHT: 5′7 ( 169cm )

WEIGHT: 110lbs ( 49kg )

EYE COLOUR: blue ( she was wearing blue contacts when she died and they have stayed that way )

HAIR COLOUR: brown

ACCENT: english

LANGUAGE(S) SPOKEN: english & basic korean

MOTHER: olivia carter

FATHER: peter carter

SIBLING(S): henritetta carter ( older sister ), amy jeong* ( older sister ), julia carter-may* ( older sister ) & jackie johnson* ( older sister )

* marriage surnames

WANTED CONNECTIONS:

close friends who katherine has confided to about her past life and her feeling and extremely trusts them

someone whom katherine has feelings for and ( maybe ) they feel the same way back and have to wait til katherine can walk the earth freely like a human til they can have real contact with each other ( unless they are also a ghost ) or even just a simple hook up they arrange

a best friend/friend(s) she knew back when she was alive

someone whom she was once friends with, but they fell out because she believes that they betrayed her trust

her (ex)boyfriend whom she was with at the time of her death. could have been now a supernatural being or had lived on and came back. could of been avoiding her, moved on, returned etc etc ( i will probably add this to the actual wanted connections on the main if it isn’t taken )

basically flat out someone who she cannot stand at all ( we could plot something for this )

tho please please come to me for plotting !! and love my baby boo

[purplesurveys]

735

Hola, hablas espanol? Un poco. Haha most of my Spanish is based off of context clues from similar words and phrases that we have in Filipino, and the very basic lessons I’ve gotten from Duolingo if that even counts, so I most likely would not survive a conversation. Overall though, I can read Spanish much more quickly and better than I can listen to/speak it. Music is playing right now, isn't it? What song? No but for some reason I have the OST of one of the Mario Kart 8 tracks playing in my head. Do you use AIM? What's your screen name? No, I didn’t really catch that era anymore. How many cell phones have you gone through in your life? I had two of the classic Nokia phones, a flip phone, a hand-me-down from my dad, two iPhone 5S, and my current iPhone 8 so that makes it a total of seven. Do you have a little sister? What's her name? Yeah. We’ve always called her Nina at home but for some reason she chose to go with her full first name in school and everywhere else, so it’s always a source of confusion when her friends and I are in the same room and we call her different names hahaha.

Who was the last person you screamed at? Why were you screaming? I think my mom? I was filming my dad doing one of the Tiktok dances (yep, my parents are into Tiktok lmaooooo) but my mom blocked the camera at some point so I jokingly yelled at her to go away. Can you crack your joints? Which ones? Just my fingers, which is all I ever feel like cracking anyway. What's your favorite name for a guy? And a girl? I repeat my fave girls’ names too much on this damn site, y’all know at least one of them by now. I don’t really think of boys’ names but I suppose my current favorite is Miguel. Are you good at answering trick questions? I don’t really encounter them a lot so I wouldn’t know. Do you use Myspace or Facebook? Or both? I don’t use Myspace/was never addicted to it the way I am to like Twitter now. I do use Facebook for various reasons – to stay connected to family, to be updated with announcements from school, to communicate for work, and to share memes hahahaha. Do you need spellcheck in order to spell things correctly? Not really. Sometimes I’ll Google a word before typing it out to be 100% sure but it’s only usually for words that are commonly misspelled, like ‘occasionally.’ Do you do too many surveys? How many have you done today? I don’t know if taking them daily counts as taking them too much but to be fair I only take one to three surveys a day. I definitely take much fewer surveys than I did, like, seven years ago when I would fill out ten a day. Have you ever changed yourself to impress someone? Who? I remember trying to like bands like The Summer Set, You Me At Six, The Maine, We Came As Romans, This Century, etc in Grade 6 because all the cooler, hipster kids liked them. UGH thinking about how I acted during that period is so cringe because I never even liked any of the fucking music but I tried so hard to, lmao. There were only three bands I ended up genuinely enjoying: All Time Low, Sleeping With Sirens, and We Are the In Crowd. After that I stopped paying attention to what people liked. Who was the last person you gave up on? Why did you give up on them? I think it was Macy. She has changed a lot and it’s obvious we are not as close as before and when we do talk it’s mostly awkward small talk. I don’t know what happened along the way, but I just hope she’s happy. What was the last thing you printed? Is there even ink in your printer? I usually have stuff printed in school because with my dad not being home most of the time, my mom and brother never printing anything, and my sister living in a dorm, it doesn’t seem worth it to keep buying ink just for me. The last thing I printed was a news article I needed to turn in for business writing class. What's your favorite number? Is there any reason that's your favorite? 4. I honestly liked it initially because it’s Beyoncé’s favorite number so I just stuck with that answer for the longest time haha. What kind of shampoo do you use? Does it smell amazing? It’s one of the Dove shampoos. It’s nothing life-changing but seeing as it’s a hair care product, it of course smells nice and decent.   Do you go to concerts? What was the last one you attended? Not a lot. I save my attendance for my absolute favorites which means that so far I’ve been to two Paramore shows and one One Direction show. I make sure they’re bigger, more mainstream acts that don’t happen in the Philippines a lot because it’s my dad who pays, and I wanna make sure what I’m asking him to treat me to is gonna be a super super worth it experience, if that makes sense. Have you ever had a conversation with someone through bulletins? I don’t think so. Do you shop online? With your own credit card, or someone else's? I have food delivered from online but I barely buy other stuff online. I use cash on delivery since I don’t own any kind of card. Who's your best friend? How long have you known each other? I’ve known Angela for 15 years and Gab for 9. Who was your first boyfriend/girlfriend? Why did you break up? She freaked out and thought we were rushing too much at 17, which she was right about. Have you ever gotten your nails done? Or do you get them done regularly? Never but Gabie keeps telling me that we should have a nail day hahahaha. Idk, I’ve never been comfortable with the idea of someone working on my fingers or toes or any part of my body. Have you been outside yet today? What were you doing? Sure. I stepped out into our backyard to walk my dog for a few minutes in the afternoon; in the evening my family and I had dinner on our rooftop which is technically a part of outside. Tell me about the last thing that made you laugh until it hurt. It was one of the more recent segments from a Korean reality show I watch. It’s not gonna be funny if I narrate it lmao but suffice it to say it’s a show about kids and their dads, and the kid that I watched in particular is exceptionally smart for his age and says a lot of witty things. One of the things he said was bullseye for me and I ended up nearly screaming in laughter at 3 AM. When was the last time you got a new bed? Is your bed comfy? 2008. We never changed my bed from when we first moved here. Yes, I’d say it is. What kind of games did you play on the playground when you were younger? I loved playing at the sandbox because I found the texture really fun to touch and play with; I also liked the swing and the trapeze bars.

Have you ever buried a time capsule with a friend? Did you dig it up yet? Nope. I find them very interesting though. Tell me one thing you'd like to change in 2010. There's gotta be something. That was a whole-ass decade ago, holy shit. I don’t remember what I sought for 2010 back in 2009 but I imagine one of them is for me to find a friend to be with because it was in 2010 that two of my closest friends, Andi and Angel, both migrated to New Zealand and Canada. Spoiler alert: I didn’t, and I was sad the entire year. Do you have or want any tattoos? Of what? Yes. The only design I can think of right now is my dog’s pawprint. Do you remember the first time you ever drove a car? Who were you with? Yeah, it was in my parents’ old Mitsubishi Lancer. I was with my mom and I drove too close to curbs/walls the entire time haha. Do any of your friends drink excess amounts of alcohol? Do you? JM drank a lot at the start of the quarantine to the point that I started to get worried, but I think he’s lessened his intake in the last few weeks. Other than him I don’t know anyone with a drinking problem. I certainly don’t have one. What color is your favorite hoodie? When did you get it? Hoodies aren’t really my thing so I don’t have a favorite one. How many pairs of shoes do you have? Are they under your bed? Around 10-15 would be a safe guess. They’re in a shoe rack in a bodega-like space underneath our stairs. What exactly is under your bed? Is it a mess? Not a mess. I just have my old WWE magazines and other various magazines that I collected as a teenager with Beyoncé and Kristen Stewart on the cover stored in two large containers. Have you ever been in handcuffs? Why, exactly? Not by the police, lol byeeeeeeeeeeee What's your favorite thing to do when drunk? Would you do this sober? I join games a lot more and I’m generally friendlier and louder. I can be the first two when I’m sober, just a lot more reserved. When was the last time you bled? What happened? I caught a mosquito sucking blood off of my knee a week ago. Have you ever had to be put to sleep at a hospital? Why? Nope. Do you actually have a calendar on your wall? What are the pictures of? I do not. When are you planning on moving out of your parents' house? In 2-3 years when I’ve saved enough, probably. I’m itching to do it as soon as I can though. Tell me about your day today. :) It was my parents’ 23rd wedding anniversary so we had a bigger brunch that consisted of pancit Malabon, several sticks of barbecue, sisig, and various kakanin to celebrate. The afternoon was uneventful and I just spent most of it brushing up on my Spanish lessons hah, then I had a quick siesta; then for dinner we had burgers from a local place that recently opened again while the quarantine is ongoing. Are you a fan of dogs? Do you have any pets? I LOVE dogs, except for chihuahuas which I genuinely am unable to start liking because of (most of) their personalities. I will definitely care for one if I see them starving at a road but ugh idk, I just like all other dogs a lot more. And I know there are cuddly and behaved chihuahuas out there but I’ve simply seen more feisty ones and since then it’s been hard to have my mind changed about them. Who was the last person in your family to graduate high school? Was it you? My sister graduated in 2018. Have you ever been on a cruise? How many? Where did they go? Yeah, just once, for my 18th birthday. I went to China, Japan, and South Korea.

[donqhox-blog]

BLACKPINK

⠀⠀⠀

BLACKPINK (블랙핑크, stylized as BLΛƆKPIИK) is a 4-membered girlgroup under YG Entertainment. The group debuted on the 8th of August, 2016 with the single “Square One”.

Fandom: BLINK.

Music video(s): Boombayah, Whistle, Playing With Fire, Stay, As If It’s Your Last, DDU-DU DDU-DU.

Social media: Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, vLive, Website.

JISOO — 지수

Birth name: Kim Jisoo — 김지수.

Birth date: January 3, 1995.

Birth place: Seoul, South Korea.

Nationality: South Korean.

Blood type: A.

Height: 162 cm — 5′3″.

Weight: 45 kg — 99 lbs.

Sibling(s): One older brother, one older sister.

Position: Vocal, visual.

Social media: Instagram.

Training period: 5 years (July 2011).

Language(s): Korean, Chinese, Japanese.

Music video appearances: HISUHYUN - I’m Different, EPIK HIGH - Spoiler + Happen Ending.

CF appearances: SAMSONITE RED, Nikon 1 J5, SMART UNIFORM, Angel Stone, LG Stylus2.

Pets: Dalgom (dog).

Ideal type: A nice guy who is especially more caring for her, prefers cute guys over sexy ones.

Has a white belt in taekwondo.

Used to be an MC for Inkigayo (February 5, 2017-February 3, 2018).

JENNIE — 제니

Birth name: Jennie Kim — 제니김.

Birth date: January 16, 1996.

Birth place: Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, South Korean.

Nationality: South Korean.

Blood type: B.

Height: 163 cm — 5′4″.

Weight: 50 kg — 110 lbs.

Sibling(s): None.

Position: Rap, vocal.

Social media: Instagram.

Training period: 5 years, 11 months (August 2010).

Language(s): Korean, English, Japanese.

Music video appearances: G-Dragon - That XX.

Collaborations: Black (with G-Dragon), Special (with Lee Hi), GG Be (with Seungri).

Pets: Kai & Kuma (dogs).

Ideal type: Someone who is a hard worker, prefers sexy guys over cute ones.

Lived in Auckland, New Zealand for 5 years and studied at ACG Parnell College.

ROSÉ — 로제

Birth name: Roseanne Park.

Korean name: Park Chaeyoung — 박채영.

Birth date: February 11, 1997.

Birth place: Auckland, New Zealand.

Nationality: South Korean.

Blood type: B.

Height: 168 cm — 5′6″.

Weight: 46 kg — 101 lbs.

Sibling(s): One older sister — Alice Park.

Position: Vocal, dance.

Social media: Instagram.

Training period: 4 years, 2 months (May 2012).

Language(s): Korean, English, Japanese.

Collaborations: Without You (with G-Dragon).

Instruments: Piano, guitar.

Ideal type: Someone nice and genuine, with a good/unique voice. She prefers cute guys over sexy ones.

Waist: 60.69 cm — less than 24 inches.

Pants size: 0 — 24.

Was raised in Box Hill, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and attended Canterbury Girls Secondary College where she was a cheerleader. She moved back to South Korea in 2012.

Placed 1st in YG Entertainment’s auditions in Australia. 

She is left-handed.

Appeared on “King Of Masked Singer”, passed the first round but couldn’t pass the second round.

LISA — 리��

Legal name: Lalisa Manoban — ลลิสา มโนบาล.

Birth name: Pranpriya Manoban — ปราณปริยา มโนบาล.

Birth date: March 27, 1997.

Birth place: Bangkok, Thailand.

Nationality: Thai.

Blood type: O.

Height: 167 cm — 5′6″.

Weight: 46 kg — 101 lbs.

Sibling(s): None.

Parents: Father, mother, stepfather — Marco Brueschweiler.

Position: Dance, rap, vocal.

Social media: Instagram.

Training period: 5 years, 3 months (April 2011).

Language(s): Korean, Thai, English, Japanese.

Music video appearances: Taeyang - Ringa Linga.

CF appearances: NONA9ON.

Instruments: Ukulele.

Ideal type: Likes older guys, someone who can take good care of her. Also likes kinghearted men who can cook and who have a lifestyle that fits her. Prefers cute guys over sexy ones.

Only one accepted into YG Entertainment after the audition in Thailand in 2010.

Childhood friends with GOT7′s BamBam, both formerly part of a dance crew named We Zaa Cool.

[theaveragekenyan]

On repeat...

Nairobi City residents will be required to take part in monthly clean-ups of their neighbourhoods. 

Nairobi Metropolitan Services director general Mohammed Badi made the announcement on Saturday as he launched the Ngong River Clean-Up  at Karagita, Mihang’o ward.

“Each and every citizen of Nairobi county is supposed to dedicate one day a month in a clean-up exercise of the area. This is going to come into law and it will be a must,” he said.

Story excerpt, The Daily Star. (Nairobi), 12/10/20. 

Hold on a sec…you go what?

These are just a few questions I have regarding that story.

What date will this start?

Which day of each month will it be?

Where will it take place?

How am I expected to get there?

What time will it start?

What time will it end?

Will I need special clothing, PPE?

Will I be provided with tools and equipment?

Is their insurance cover?

Is there dental?

Do I need to pack a lunch?

I know for a fact, the average Kenyan is not asking these questions, they’ll ignore this story for as long as possible. They may have a surprised, shocked and intensely divisive conversation about the story, something like…

“I can’t believe we’re going to be cleaning Nairobi once a month”

“I know, unbelievable right?”

“Unvelivebale” 

No information will be traded during this conversation because no information has been produced. That example is typical of how much detail is required for Kenyas to make conversation. 

They’ll then wait for the announcement the day before and then make all plans regarding the clean up 30 minutes before it’s about to happen. 

Recently, there was a Public Holiday announcement made. Hooray, excellent news!, all except the announcement came one day before the public holiday was scheduled, that is common practice.

I would love to organise a “tut for our heroes” on the hour, every hour so that people can show their disapproval. That would communicate the utter apathy Kenyan’s display when it comes to communication. 

Communication in Kenya is remarkably poor. The amount of information required to run the country is considerably low. There’s no attention to detail and stuff just happens. It’s not even as structured as the 'Chaos theory’, there is no theory. 

Generally, when speaking, explaining, messaging or communicating in Kenya a golden rule is, never use pro-nouns. Whatever the subject, that is being spoken about, will always have to be referred to in first tense. 

For example a sentence like;

“John went to the shop, on his way there, he became lost”

Just like John in this sentence, the average Kenyan is now lost. 

On his way where?

Who was lost?

Why was something lost?

It will need to be written or spoken like this.

“John went to the shop. On John’s way to the shop John became lost, John could not find the shop John was going to” 

That’s how clear you will have to be if you want to complete the story in one sentence. 

It makes no sense, because the average Kenyan communicates in no more than 5 words to explain everything they need to do for the day. 

Why the syntax hugely alters once translated in English, is nonsensical. 

For the majority of the time Kenyan’s will not understand foreigners and our speech patterns. In Nairobi, I have spoken to Bangladeshi, American, South African, Swiss, Indian, French, Belgian, Spanish, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Colombian, Brazilian, Australian, New Zealand, Korean and Mexican nationalities, they could all grasp and communicate the majority of conversation in English better than the average Kenyan. 

Let me be clear, this not about speaking in better English, it’s all down to inexperience of communication here. 

I’d say a great example of the lack of communication, is whilst shopping. 

Even in the majority of the modern shopping mall centres communication is often limited to silence.

9 times out 0, this is exactly how paying for goods at the till pans out. 

ME: ARRIVE AT TILL

Till Assistant: NO GREETING

ME: I’m used to it now SAY NOTHING BACK. 

Till Assistant SCAN ITEMS

ME: PROD WATER CONTAINER REMAINING IN TROLLEY BECAUSE IT’S TOO HEAVY TO PLACE ON COUNTER.

TILL ASSISTANT: NODS, STRUGGLES TO SCAN WATER

NODS AND WAVES HANDS UNTIL WATER IS SCANNED.

ME: EMPTY HEAD. 

TILL ASSISTANT: COMPLETES SCANNING ITEMS.

ASSUMES I KNOW EACH INDIVIDUAL PRICE AND HAVE TOTALLED THE GOODS MYSELF. 

HOLDS OUT HAND FOR PAYMENT.

ME: “How much?”

TILL ASSISTANT: TURNS DIGITAL DISPLAY UNIT AROUND FOR ME TO READ HOW MUCH.

ME: NEGOTIATE REQUIRED PAYMENT PROCESS. HOLD UP MY PHONE DISPLAYING THE STORES REWARD SCHEME APP.

TILL ASSISTANT: “Do you have the app?” 

ME: “Yes”

TILL ASSISTANT: PERFORM REQUIRED STORE APP ACTION,

WAIT FOR REQUIRED PAYMENT METHOD.

ME: HAND OVER PAYMENT.

TILL ASSISTANT: IMPLEMENT PAYMENT PROCESS 

ISSUE RECEIPTS

PREPARE FOR NEXT CUSTOMER

ME: COLLECT SHOPPING GOODS

EXIT STORE 

SAY “TWAT” Quietly, BUT JUST LOUDLY ENOUGH TO DISPLAY DISPLEASURE.

A huge positive under the current lockdown measures is that masks are compulsory, whilst the average Kenyan wears their mask on their chin, the majority of people have adapted to wearing masks really well. This is because their communication has always sounded like it’s coming from underneath a mask, so no change required.

Voice tones and levels are a complex nature that I’ve never been able to understand.

A very common tone I hear on the streets is a high pitched nasally bleat that bypasses the mouth totally. The sound appears to emanate from the mouth and lips and they do move in synch, but this tone is created purely by the upper part of the ENT physiology. 

The tone is mainly spoken by women in a rich and colourful way, it’s piercing, so I can only imagine it was developed to cut through a certain environment, like a bus full of Goats. 

Men also have their version of this tone and I hear this around Buses, Market Places and Sporting action. Again, the sparse tone is used to cut through and rise above the naturally chaotic environment. From seeing Indiana Jones movies, I know this is a traditional African, Middle Eastern, Indian traditional tone as well. 

I prefer this tone of voice because I can actually hear it well. The tone I despise most is the hushed, humble, mumble the average Kenyan adopts when speaking to me, because the nasal whine seems reserved for Kenyan’s only and particularly when doing business. For all other times, if the Kenyan isn’t used to speaking to Westerners in a comfortable tone, the humble mumble is what you’ll have to get used to. 

I’ve been told on many occasions, the Maasai people have incredible hearing abilities because of their history of living on the grassy plains, it’s all about hunting and survival and not being attacked. When you’re in KFC choosing your meal option, there’s no need to speak so quietly, the chickens are not going to run. 

Of course, Kenyan’s can tolerate and operate perfectly well at these low audio voice levels, it’s just me and a whole host of Aliens that can’t.

I’ve meet a ton of under privileged youngsters whilst I’ve been here and none of them have had a “big voice”.

That one needs to be heard in this world is always the first thing I try and teach people here. I explain their voices will be judged and their confidence and abilities depend upon this clear expressive tone. 

It’s amazing to see the children adapt to this new speaking level. It’s first met with a clearing of the throat and then much shy laughter, but the levels do increase  and by the time it’s time to leave, they’re at least not having to repeat themselves as much. 

It’s sad, because I’m sure it’s down to oppression, a false state of respect and doing dodgy deals. 

Big voices, and I’m not talking about coked up John Belushi speech levels here, but simple measured voice tones appear reserved for people in power and people who’ve travelled. For everyone else, it’s either nauseating nasals or the humble mumble. 

The whole concept of communication is new here and it’s funny how so called experts talk about their knowledge.

Whilst travelling in a car together, I remember overhearing one communications “expert” for a large NGO explaining to her colleague how she’d noticed that Coca-Cola billboard ad’s are so easy to spot because they are red. She was very excited to have noticed this and to pass on this knowledge about Cokes communication strategy. I wouldn’t even expect to be taught that on the most basic communication course in the world, for people that have no communicating experience at all, on day 1. 

Another “Communications Expert and Life Coach” once explained to me that there were courses available to foreign workers arriving in Nairobi to help them pronounce their words like Kenyan’s, a chance for foreigners to adopt a Kenyan accent. 

Whilst I agree, it would level the playground in terms of not expecting Kenyan’s to adjust their levels of communication to sound like Kate Winslet, I just don’t think it would work. Everybody has at least three accents in them; the phone, the mate and the chat up. Everybody adapts naturally and adjusts to their surroundings without training. 

I’ll be honest, from experience, I pronounce words in a Kenyan accent all the time. The other day I needed a Paint Scraper, you, know a normal triangular’ish shaped piece of metal with a handle. I looked and looked in the superstore, but I couldn’t find them. So, I now have to ask. I know this is going to be tricky, so I practice saying “scraper” in Kenyan. What would Olivier do? Well, I’m sure he couldn’t have pulled off a better pronunciation than mine.

“Ssssc-dddddd-rappah” extra sibilance on the S, extra hard C , a Gielgud rolled ‘R’ and then basically ‘Rapper’ on the end. I said the word 3 times, but no, this assistant could not get what I was saying. Off she walks to ask her her colleague. I can see shaking of heads as they both walk back to me. 

“Sorry, you are saying what”? The new colleague asks, I repeat in my best Nairobi street accent again. This time I include a gripped hand action, “ahhhhh scraper, out of of stock” . The lady says it exactly as I would have normally have done, enough to make me think I was in Tesco and not Carrefour, Nairobi. 

There is definitely a discussion about adapting accents to new countries, I know how tricky it can be for foreigners in any country adapting, but that’s the fun about it, sadly in these modern times, nobody has a toleration for foreigners accents.

There’s a new initiative in Kenya called ‘BBI’, ‘Building Bridges Initiative’. It is intended the initiative will shape Kenya for the next few generations and deliver a widespread change of democracy to help Kenya develop and prosper in the future. The BBI summary I’ve just written is, currently, more than the average Kenyan knows about the policy and I fear they won’t know much more about it for a for a long time either because nobody is telling them anything correctly, but at least we’ll have cleaner streets once I start my rounds. 

[ucflibrary]

May was officially designated as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month by Congress in 1992 (Public Law 102-450 if you want to read the specifics).

As you can imagine, Asian Pacific American covers a fair amount of area. An Asian Pacific American is an American (whether born, naturalized, or other) who was born on or has heritage from anywhere on the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island). These areas cover a wide array of languages, cultures, religions, and ethnicities that have brought countless skills, hopes and dreams to the United States. The more voices that are heard the better we all are so (if you’ll pardon the *dun dun*) these are some of their stories.

Click Keep Reading to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the 20 titles by or about Asian Pacific Americans suggested by UCF Library employees.

A Song for Cambodia by Michelle Lord, illustrated by Shino Arihara A biography of Arn Chorn-Pond who, as a young boy in 1970s Cambodia, survived the Khmer Rouge killing fields because of his skills on the khim, a traditional instrument, and later went on to help heal others and revive Cambodian music and culture. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

American History Unbound: Asians and Pacific Islanders by Gary Y. Okihiro Focusing on a survey of US history from its beginnings, this book reveals our past through the lens of Asian American and Pacific Islander history. Suggested by Peter Spyers-Duran, Cataloging

Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America by Erika Lee and Judy Yung From 1910 to 1940, the Angel Island immigration station in San Francisco served as the processing and detention center for over one million people from around the world. The full history of these immigrants and their experiences on Angel Island is told for the first time in this landmark book. Suggested by Peter Spyers-Duran, Cataloging

Asian American Dreams: the Emergence of an American People by Helen Zia This book is about the transformation of Asian American; from a few small, disconnected, and largely invisible ethnic groups that is influenced in every aspect of American society. It explores the junctures that shocked Asian Americans into motion and shaped a new consciousness, including the murder of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American, by two white autoworkers who believed he was Japanese; the apartheid-life working conditions of Filipinos in the Alaska salmon canneries; the boycott of Korean American greengrocers in Brooklyn; the L.A. riots; and the casting of non-Asians in the Broadway musical Miss Saigon. The book also examines the rampant stereotyping of Asian Americans, which has an impact on key issues concerning all Americans, from affirmative action and campaign finance to popular culture and national security. Suggested by Chris Saclolo, Special Collections & University Archives

At America's gates: Chinese Immigration During the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943 by Erika Lee Devoted to both Chinese immigrants and the American immigration officials who sought to keep them out following the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, this text explores the consequences for the Chinese and for the USA as a nation of immigrants. Suggested by Peter Spyers-Duran, Cataloging

Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling: Career Strategies for Asians: the Essential Guide to Getting In, Moving Up, and Reaching the Top by Jane Hyun The popular media often portrays Asian Americans as highly educated and successful individuals’ the "Model Minority." As the ethnic minority with the largest percentage of college graduates, many Asian Americans do enter the professional workforce. However, many of them seem to stall in their careers and never make it to the corner offices. Leading executive coach Jane Hyun explores how traditional Asian values can be at odds with Western corporate culture. By using anecdotes, case studies, and exercises, Hyun offers practical solutions for resolving misunderstandings and overcoming challenges in an increasingly multicultural workplace. Suggested by Peter Spyers-Duran, Cataloging

Cora Cooks Pancit by Dorina K. Lazo Gilmore When all her older siblings are away, Cora's mother finally lets her help make pancit, a Filipino noodle dish. Includes recipe for pancit. Suggested by Cindy Dancel, Research & Information Services

Global Families: a History of Asian International Adoption in America by Catherine Ceniza Choy Based on extensive archival research, Global Families moves beyond one-dimensional portrayals of Asian international adoption as either a progressive form of U.S. multiculturalism or as an exploitative form of cultural and economic imperialism. Rather, Choy acknowledges the complexity of the phenomenon, illuminating both its radical possibilities of a world united across national, cultural, and racial divides through family formation and its strong potential for reinforcing the very racial and cultural hierarchies it sought to challenge. Suggested by Peter Spyers-Duran, Cataloging

In the Country: Stories by Mia Alvar Exploring the Filipino experience spanning decades and continents, these fully rendered tales express wonder and sadness leavened with humor. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

Na Mamo: Hawaiian People Today by Jay Hartwell Biographies of ten contemporary Hawaiians engaged in a variety of traditional cultural practices. Each chapter is introduced by a chant or poem composed by a Native Hawaiian. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food by Jennifer 8 Lee A woman's search for the world's greatest Chinese restaurant proves that egg rolls are as American as apple pie. Suggested by Christina Wray, Digital Learning & Engagement Librarian, and Carrie Moran, User Engagement Librarian

The Gangster We Are All Looking For by Lê Thi Diem Thúy In 1978 six refugees—a girl, her father, and four “uncles”—are pulled from the sea to begin a new life in San Diego. In the child’s imagination, the world is transmuted into an unearthly realm: she sees everything intensely, hears the distress calls of inanimate objects, and waits for her mother to join her. But life loses none of its strangeness when the family is reunited. As the girl grows, her matter-of-fact innocence eddies increasingly around opaque and ghostly traumas: the cataclysm that engulfed her homeland, the memory of a brother who drowned and, most inescapable, her father’s hopeless rage. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri Stories about Indians in India and America. The story, A Temporary Matter, is on mixed marriage, Mrs. Sen's is on the adaptation of an immigrant to the U.S., and in the title story an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

The Making of Asian America: a History by Erika Lee The Making of Asian America tells the little-known history of Asian Americans and their role in American life, from the arrival of the first Asians in the Americas to the present-day. An epic history of global journeys and new beginnings, this book shows how generations of Asian immigrants and their American-born descendants have made and remade Asian American life in the United States: sailors who came on the first trans-Pacific ships in the 1500s; indentured "coolies" who worked alongside African slaves in the Caribbean; and Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, and South Asian immigrants who were recruited to work in the United States only to face massive racial discrimination, Asian exclusion laws, and for Japanese Americans, incarceration during World War II. Over the past fifty years, a new Asian America has emerged out of community activism and the arrival of new immigrants and refugees. No longer a "despised minority," Asian Americans are now held up as America's "model minorities" in ways that reveal the complicated role that race still plays in the United States. But more than that, it is a new way of understanding America itself, its complicated histories of race and immigration, and its place in the world today. Suggested by Ven Basco, Subject Librarian, and Peter Spyers-Duran, Cataloging

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen The story of a South Vietnamese captain--a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America--who returns to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. Suggested by Ven Basco, Subject Librarian

The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera As her beloved grandfather, chief of the Maori tribe of Whangara, New Zealand, struggles to lead in difficult times and to find a male successor, young Kahu is developing a mysterious relationship with whales, particularly the ancient bull whale whose legendary rider was their ancestor. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston A memoir of the American-born daughter of Chinese immigrants who lived within the traditions and fears of the Chinese past as well as the realities of the alien modern American culture. Suggested by Christina Wray, Digital Learning & Engagement Librarian

The Woman Who Could Not Forget: Iris Chang Before and Beyond the Rape of Nanking by Ying-Ying Chang Iris Chang's best-selling book The Rape of Nanking forever changed the way we view the Second World War in Asia. It all began with a photo of a river choked with the bodies of hundreds of Chinese civilians that shook Iris to her core. Who were these people? Why had this happened and how could their story have been lost to history? She could not shake that image from her head. She could not forget what she had seen. A few short years later, Chang revealed this 'second Holocaust' to the world. But who was this woman that single-handedly swept away years of silence, secrecy and shame? Her mother, Ying-Ying, provides an enlightened and nuanced look at her daughter, from Iris' home-made childhood newspaper, to her early years as a journalist and later, as a promising young historian, her struggles with her son's autism and her tragic suicide. Suggested by Ven Basco, Subject Librarian

Third Asiatic Invasion: Migration and Empire in Filipino America, 1989-1946 by Rick Baldoz Rick Baldoz explores the complex relationship between Filipinos and the U.S. by looking at the politics of immigration, race, and citizenship on both sides of the Philippine-American divide: internationally through an examination of American imperial ascendancy and domestically through an exploration of the social formation of Filipino communities in the United States. He reveals how American practices of racial exclusion repeatedly collided with the imperatives of U.S. overseas expansion. A unique portrait of the Filipino American experience, The Third Asiatic Invasion links the Filipino experience to that of Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Chinese and Native Americans, among others, revealing how the politics of exclusion played out over time against different population groups. Suggested by Ven Basco, Subject Librarian

To the Stars: The Autobiography of George Takei, Star Trek’s Mr. Sulu by George Takei Popular Star Trek television star George Takei recounts his life and career from his childhood internment in World War II camps through his visionary experiences on the set as Mr. Sulu. Suggested by Cindy Dancel, Research & Information Services

[ladystylestores]

Your Wednesday Briefing – The New York Times

First deadly China-India clash in decades

At least 20 Indian soldiers died in a brawl with Chinese troops in the Himalayas, instantly raising tensions to a high pitch between India and China.

An Indian military spokesman said on Tuesday that three Indian soldiers were killed during the fighting, which involved rocks and wooden clubs, and 17 others succumbed to injuries and cold in the freezing, high-elevation terrain. Preliminary reports indicated that the soldiers had not been shot.

Indian media reported that Chinese soldiers had been killed, but this was not confirmed by Beijing.

The two countries had been working to de-escalate border tensions following several face-offs between Chinese and Indian troops in recent weeks.

Context: The violence is a continuation of a long-running dispute between India and China about the precise location of their jagged Himalayan border, known as the Line of Actual Control. They fought a war over it in 1962 that ended in an uneasy peace.

What’s next: “Neither side wants a war, especially India, because China has a far superior military,” Jeffrey Gettleman, our New Delhi bureau chief, told me. “Both sides are now trying to calm things down, at least that’s what the governments are telling us. What’s actually happening up on the Himalayan border, that’s another story. It’s a very remote area, off-limits to all but a few lonely herders and Indian and Chinese troops.”

Beijing closes schools to contain outbreak

Beijing raised its level of health alert to the second highest on Tuesday, ordering schools to close and urging people to work from home, as the government pressed to stop a spike in coronavirus infections.

Medical authorities confirmed another 27 infections, creating a total of 106 cases since last week, all traced to the sprawling Xinfadi wholesale food market in the city’s south.

City officials face intense pressure to extinguish the new outbreak. President Xi Jinping has made defending Beijing from virus infections a priority.

Dozens of cities and provinces across China have in recent days stepped up monitoring and quarantine measures for people from Beijing.

Here are the latest updates and maps of where the virus has spread.

In other developments:

New Zealand recorded two new coronavirus cases in travelers who had returned from Britain, breaking a 24-day streak without new infections.

Hong Kong will relax some social distancing restrictions on Thursday, allowing wedding banquets and live music concerts to resume.

Local officials in Tulsa, Oklahoma, are worried about an outbreak ahead of President Trump’s first campaign rally in months — slated to be held in a 20,000-person indoor arena on Saturday.

An Oxford University study of the effects of dexamethasone, an inexpensive steroid, on Covid-19 patients showed promising results.

North Korea demolishes office shared with South

North Korea blew up a building where its officials had recently worked side by side with their South Korean counterparts in a liaison office. It was a clear message from the North of its displeasure with the South.

South Korean border guards heard an explosion and saw smoke rising from Kaesong, the North Korean town where the building was located. The blast was so powerful that windows in nearby buildings were shattered. (Watch the video.)

No South Koreans had worked in the office since January, when it was closed during the pandemic.

The North said the explosion reflected “the mind-set of the enraged people.”

Background: The office was opened in 2018 as a sign of thawing relations, and was the first channel for full-time, person-to-person contact between the Koreas.

Choe Sang-Hun, our Seoul bureau chief, said, “The Korean Peninsula may be plunging back into another phase of rising tensions. For months, North Korea has voiced its frustration with the South, repeatedly warning that it has lost faith in dealing with Seoul.”

If you have 5 minutes, this is worth it

Taking stock in a landscape of loss in Iraq

From the moment Iraq’s new prime minister stepped off a helicopter for a tour of Mosul, the city most damaged by the Islamic State, he plunged into a landscape of loss. Everywhere there were wrecked buildings, communities shredded, and the shadow of “the disappeared” — people taken by the Islamic State and never found, and those killed or imprisoned by Iraqi forces or militias.

Our Baghdad bureau chief, Alissa Rubin, went with him as he took stock of years of destruction. “People are bearing the burden of something they did not cause,” he said.

Here’s what else is happening

Hungary: Parliament passed legislation on Tuesday that critics say would cement into everyday use the sweeping powers claimed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban to fight the coronavirus.

In memoriam: Sarah Hegazi, an Egyptian L.G.B.T. activist who had been arrested after waving a rainbow flag, then jailed and tortured, took her life in Canada. In a final note, she wrote: “To the world: You’ve been greatly cruel, but I forgive.”

Snapshot: Above, a restaurant in Lake Worth Beach, Fla., in May. Outdoor seating at restaurants has become a popular solution for cities trying to reopen carefully. But in places like New York City, there’s been some backsliding, with people disregarding social distancing because they feel safe outdoors.

What we’re reading: This piece in The Atlantic is an ode to the cluttered home. Maybe clinging to your stuff, like those extra jars of spaghetti sauce, is more in sync with pandemic life these days.

Now, a break from the news

Cook: This compound butter adds richness and pungency to simple grilled meats, fish, toast, vegetables, beans, pasta or eggs. It’s a snap to make.

Watch: The documentary “My Father, a Spy,” which follows the translator and journalist Ieva Lesinska-Geibere as she assesses her relationship with her father, a K.G.B. spy who defected to the United States in the 1970s.

Do: We have a few tips on picking a meditation app that could help you steal a few minutes of Zen.

At Home has our full collection of ideas on what to read, cook, watch, and do while staying safe at home.

And now for the Back Story on …

Deeper danger for Philippine journalists

The conviction of Maria Ressa, the award-winning journalist and founder of the news website Rappler who was found guilty of cyber libel in the Philippines on Monday, is being seen as a blow to press freedom in that country.

Alexandra Stevenson, our business reporter in Hong Kong who has been covering the case, spoke to Carole Landry, on the Briefings team, about the decision.

How much of a chilling effect will Maria Ressa’s conviction have on the media in the Philippines?

The media in the Philippines has been under pressure for some time. President Rodrigo Duterte bullies reporters and calls them “sons of bitches” at news conferences, officials have denied reporters’ access to official presidential events, and trolls have organized online campaigns to single out reporters and call them names like “presstitutes.” Yes, that’s a hybrid of the words press and prostitute.

The verdict of this case is different because it institutionalized some of this hostility. It was a test case for the definition of cyber libel. The case was originally dismissed by regulators because the time limitation — one year — had run out. But more senior officials applied a new argument to cyber libel, essentially saying that because an article can be updated online, it counts as continuous publication, making the libel a continuous crime. With Monday’s verdict, experts now say that publishers of online content can be sued for up to 12 years after something is published.

President Duterte has not been shy about his contempt for the media. Does this court ruling signal a hardening of his approach?

The Duterte administration has become more effective at silencing journalists. The president has threatened for years to take away the license for ABS-CBN, the national broadcaster. In May, the telecoms agency actually forced the network off the air, leaving a massive information void in parts of the country where the only source of general information for basic services and the weather is the broadcaster.

How has the coronavirus pandemic played into this shift?

We’ve seen more authoritarian-leaning governments around the world take advantage of social distancing rules to tighten their grip on protests and freedom of expression. In that same vein you could argue that a crackdown on the media in the Philippines is easier to pull off now because the rest of the world has limited bandwidth for more news.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Melina

Thank you To Melissa Clark for the recipe, and to Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh for the rest of the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S. • We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about the landmark Supreme Court ruling in the U.S. • Here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: Italy’s capital, to Italians (four letters). You can find all our puzzles here. • Lauretta Charlton, an editor for our Hong Kong newsroom, spoke with Glamour magazine about reporting as a black journalist.

Source link

قالب وردپرس

from World Wide News https://ift.tt/3fwQGyG

[dwestfieldblog]

‘’A GREAT DAY FOR CIVILIZATION’‘

THE BLACKNESS OF DARKNESS FOREVER

'Verily a polluted stream is man, One must be an ocean to receive a polluted stream without becoming unclean'. Indeed...November-December '2019'...Anarchy for the UK? Looks as if Boris is working for the other side in a similar way to Trump. Ride the populist wave and spark a gathering civil war. I remember reading some years ago about how the SAS were trained in knowing exactly where to place a small amount of explosive to bring down machinery, rather than a James Bond type explosion. Just set it right and allow the machine to destroy itself through its own natural momentum. Every time these two fat blonde fools open their mouths it reminds me of this. They appear to be helping to destroy it all from the inside...will the constitutions of these two noble (arf) countries survive their egos? The education system is breeding a mass of fools and large parts of social media are indeed being weaponised to stir up emotions, working hard to pull it all down.

A looming election in Britain and a current party in power who has received millions from Russian oligarchs to encourage various unions to split apart. Hexagram 23 is thrown again. The other choices are just as dangerous. Nobody of any use whatsoever to vote for. Don't look back, good days ahead eh? Anyone remember Boris saying in 2018 that Britain was 'truly headed for the status of colony'? Yes Mr Johnson, but not a European one. Meanwhile, onwards...

Children are born with a strong sense of curiosity to explore their senses and ask questions. By the time they leave College and University this often seems to have been reduced to mere drug taking without any actual increase in perception...and the need to join a political or religious group. The leaders of such groups do not encourage the curious in nature, as individuality is less than essential to to a leader who requires obedience and the transference of energy. Stirring up righteous emotions takes the place of both rational thought and instinct...and the inquisitive rebels become fervent drones or else passive without actually being tranquil. Never forget the accurate part in Monty Python's Life of Brian where the gathered mass repeat (apart from one) 'YES, WE ARE ALL INDIVIDUALS!' Small wonder the butchers smell easy meat on a daily basis...but at least the lambs are ‘’woke’’, eh?

I recently read the long paragraph of topics NOT to be used by comedians in universities in America and Britain. Ready? 'Racism, sexism,classism, ageism, abelism, homophobia, biophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia, or anti-religion or anti-atheism; These topics can be 'discussed' but 'in a respectful way'. Comedy kids! The PC snowflake future of these countries will be devoid of humour, only safe jokes on the mundane...and at some point even skits on mass murderers will be banned so as not to cause offence to killers several sandwiches short of a picnic.

P.C quote...'I happen to agree with the P.C. cult about many things. (In fact I only differ with them in not liking their intolerance, their fascist tactics, their introduction of Maoist brainwashing to our groves of Academe, their utter lack of humor, their continuous violations of ordinary common sense, their evident desire to destroy our Constitution and their lack of simple human decency') Robert Anton Wilson Cosmic Trigger Three, Hilaritas Press 1995/2018. Speaking of whom...

'The secret of power and wealth? You know how dumb the average guy is? Well, by mathematical definition, half of them are even dumber than that'. RAW. And therefore simpletons to manipulate for votes, money, sex and power. Endless slogans of 'Vote for me, I appear to share the same prejudices as you and of course I believe our country should rise again'. Etc. And so things will remain, until a few more of us consciously choose to edit less and tune in more, changing reality tunnels into reality labyrinths in good humour, there is unlikely to be the fabled phase transition... but it is coming. May Be. Trust me, I am an almost fully realised lunatic. Those with twofold vision will be unable to stop the wheel of evolution. As above, so below, inward is outward. Non simultaneously apprehended events....

China, seventy years of glorious and highly successful communism, well done to the personality cult of Winnie the Pooh. Took them this long to ban South Park. ARF. Don't forget kids, 'the imposition of order=escalation of chaos. The more laws there are, the more crime there will be.' Tell that to the judge...Remember...'The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. IT WAS THEIR FINAL,MOST ESSENTIAL COMMAND' .1984  

Trump said Greta Thunberg 'seems like a very happy girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!''. She then put that as her description on her facebook page:-) Goddess bless her. Fascinating but not surprising the papers with editors connected financially with concerns that involve oil etc, are writing editorials about how she is being manipulated and that her Asbergers (which she calls a superpower) makes her a loony. Love that she rejected the environmental award. And now she is Time magazine's Person of the Year, Trump will steam all the more and twitter out yet more methane. ('Every time he sits down, his voice gets muffled'.) Eve was the first human to think for herself...and men like you have never forgotten this eh? Grimly amazed to hear his female press secretary Grisham say his former Chief of Staff 'was totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great president'. She wasn't being sarcastic just applying more brown lipstick. North Korean platitudes in the USA. Cheese Boy and the Old Dotard, coming soon to a nightmare near you...

(A day after I wrote that paragraph, Trump did indeed tweet his disgust and jealous sarcasm, whereupon she promptly took his words once more and updated her biography again to 'A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend'. Perhaps she reminds him of a similar smart girl who refused his clumsy advances when he was that age and is seeking delayed revenge. Or just trying to make his oil/resource friends laugh.  His gimp master Putin certainly is. 'Condemned to eternal bullshit' to quote Mr John Lydon. Meanwhile away from the chaos, the darkness and the gate of the land of Night and entropy defined as a gradual decline into disorder, some levity is needed to slow the descent into bleakness ...)

Artificial Intelligence is to be given intellectual property rights...is this really a good idea? Discuss between yourself. Being Terminated by a robot is bad enough but being sued by a machine? Or do the Free Laws apply here? Well, when we cannot believe what we see, we see what we can believe. The state is concentric but the individual is eccentric eh? A random shuffle of cut ups, amazing how often they can make coherent sense, depending on what state the brain is in...I used to be a Libertarian but they had too many rules.

Or, as Alien Sex Fiend once said..'Everybody wants what everybody's got and everybody's got what everybody wants,soldier lies bleeding where a church once stood.' I love you cos you got green hair...Live fast, die young and leave a beautiful corpse, like Curt Cobain. I am a work in regress. Conditioned reflexes are built onto the imprints. Imprints are only changed through work or by a shock of one type or another. Bad news for the lazy cowards among us. 'Apothecary, give me something to sweeten my imagination!'  

...Some days later, a new campaign slogan from Boris to 'forge a new Britain'. In the meaning of fakery and counterfeits? I spent five minutes today reading Trump's Twitter account and felt my mind shivering in horror. This man seems to be seriously mentally ill. And suddenly impeachment (albeit a long time coming) is on the table.  Lurve the quote today from a Republican that 'abuse of power is not a crime'. In a democratic country? Could he be dirt on the road by next year? A smear on the wind shield, a nasty smell in the corner of a locked room? Will the Land of the Free (ARF) have a fresh awakening? Delicious to hold this thought for a while.....

One week later...

And so it was that Boris won an outright majority. And that is where we are in Britain, the other choices were so dreadful, we chose the evil of three lessers. You CAN fool most of the people all of the time. Let's keep repeatedly mentioning the millions of pounds donated to his Conservative party by oligarchs, the four jobs he lost because of lying, the children he does not pay child support to, the absolute lack of respect he commands on the world stage, his endless endless mask of buffoonery, avoidance of questions with a charade of good humour, his lack of manners, ridiculous failed projects paid for by public money, his cover ups, Brexit NHS lies and...and... and all of this happened before he was elected prime minister. THAT'S how poor the alternatives were. And his friends who are shorting stocks in order to cash in on Brexit. These businessmen, like those in the apocalyptic religions, looking forward to the End, to be raised higher in the rapture of Big Money. Nice grip on decency and morality to wish for the destruction of your country for the sake of your pockets. Mutton dressed up as a wolf in a judas goat's clothing, bleating,'This is the way, follow me and ignore the rotating knives;...

Wish and hope to be proved wrong, I have no problem whatsoever with being shown I am wrong when I am. I learn something positive about human nature then and my cynicism is overcome for a while. Not sure what we offer the world other than what we already have given and of course, weapons. Our best minds fled to America, Switzerland, New Zealand etc a long time ago. I expect Scotland to rid herself of English bullshit in no short order. Much as the USA, we became united through violence, the force of manipulation and then the desire to be stronger together. If a large part of the kingdom wishes to split in order to maintain previous relations with Europe, who seem to have behaved far better to it than did England, then go for it ye Celts. Looks as if the English really enjoy being told what to do by posh boys with a shaky grasp of morals. Pathetic. If I wasn't a Christian I'd...oh wait, I'm not...

Sick of these alpha male dumb foul-hearted swine equating power with only brute force and see those who care to evolve as weak. Those who believe respect comes only through fear will have a rude awakening, sooner...or much later. 'So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause'.  

And once again for all you Aristotelian black and white types, no I am not a Socialist or a Communist or a Liberal. I just have a deep dislike and mistrust of poncey arrogant lying snobs whose behaviour is far worse than those with a quarter of the education and opportunities they had. Again, perhaps I am wrong and Boris will suddenly rise and show his mettle and be the exact opposite of all he has been and done before. There is a percentage of possibility. My instinct says 'Don't hold yer breath'.  Or...'All things are a coincidence of opposites' Bruno of Nola. So, hope.

Peptides select the reality you experience, so get working on widening the spectra of possibilities and get neurotransmitting all ye psychonauts...at least laugh more...

I am sure it seems lazy just to dump yet another load of favourite quotes in these blogs as ballast,with which to add weight to my rather vague or ranted writings but you deserve some actual mind food during these screeds eh? So...'...brains are made of cells which are made of atoms which are made of electrons which are superimpositions of waves'. And the waves are influenced by...'The hidden variable theory of consciousness asserts (1) there is a sub-quantal level beneath the observational/theoretical structure of ordinary quantum mechanics; (2) events occurring on this sub-quantal level are the elements of sentient being.' Dr. E H Walker and N Herbert. Page 174. I need add nothing to that because it is all there, but...Imagine, if you Will...

And thus...

'We find that our consciousness controls physical events through the laws of quantum mechanics'

'The sum total of all minds is one'. Schroedinger.

'I don't ask that my opinion be made into law'.The republican's favourite hated comedian Bill Maher, speaking about prejudices on weed, sex, comedy, childbirth, books, films etc etc. 'Society runs at the speed of its slowest member'...Thus spake Jim Jeffries, explaining very clearly why various human made laws exist...and why the 'train' of evolution is scarcely moving thanks to all the dead weight it has to pull behind the engine/the first car. (Where within, all the scientists, philosophers, poets and engineers are thinking...; If I just pull out this peg and separate the cars 'Do you know how fast we would be moving?' ) Go for it lucid 3D dreamers...soon.....

An insane God burning its infinite energy on lower things, well why not? It passes eternity in the Akashic hologram eh? 'The hardware remains local, but nobody can localize the software'. Hope this is clear enough.  

'Beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror which we are barely able to endue and we are so awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us. Rainer Maria Rilke. while listening to Swans from another dimension. I have never read anything from RMR, Kahil Gibran or Rumi that wasn't as magickal as Blake or Yeats. Eternity manifested in the light of day, something infinite behind everything appeared...

Time for us to step back out and away from all the old repeating news. To pay it no mind and certainly no heart. Just let go and leave it behind, allow them to get on with their ruin as we step discreetly to one side. Play your part by standing apart.

A lot of this year has felt pretty foul for various self induced reasons but has been enlightened (literally) considerably by good friends, great books, a couple of summer months on weed, and the beauty, grace, blood and power of PJ Harvey, Thighpaulsanndra, Puscifer, Swans, Killing Joke and the immortal COIL. Readers, I wish you a healthy, good hearted 2020... See you later, perhaps in a fulgurous exhalation conglobed in a cloud by the circumfused humour...

'If you have been on the upside of luck, build longer bridges, not higher fences'  

SPIRAL OUT...KEEP GOING...AND ILLUMINISE NOW )+(  LOVE.

[wbouldingblog-blog]

Hello, dear readers. This is strange. We’re not on the move. We’ve been in the same place for 6 days, so there’s not been a natural break in proceedings to update you AND we’ve got another 2 days before we finally make it to New Zealand. Most importantly, we’ve crossed the equator and are now having to do handstands all the time here in the southern hemisphere and wear special harnesses to stop us falling off this side of the flat earth. Here’s how we made it.

After an uneventful night in a windowless hotel room in Ho Chi Minh (apart from a second cheesy foodgasm experience in Pizza 4Ps – we couldn’t get enough of it), we were checking out and, of course, it was at this moment, 2 hours before our flight to Singapore left, that the credit card machine stopped working. Luckily, as is often the case in HCMC, there was a guy with a scooter available to take Henny to another branch of the same hotel to pay there, where the machine was actually working. Henny was returned on the same scooter, and we hopped in a fresh-faced (couldn’t have been more than 22) Uber driver’s car and wove through the traffic to the international terminal of the airport.

Once inside, we played a game of ‘Where’s The Check-in Desk?’, followed by a lightning round of ‘Which Queue Is The Fastest?’, where the plot twist was that they were all glacially slow. Once at the desk, we were offered emergency seats (fistbump – legroom!) and made our way to immigration, where the authorities made sure to line everyone up to have their passports checked by smartly-dressed sloths. We eventually made it through and got through security (where more attention was paid to the football on the TV than to the x-ray machine) and found a little café, where we grabbed a baguette (I wanted more pho but there wasn’t enough time ☹), and sat down at our gate just as they started boarding. Once we’d finished our food and climbed on board (the extra legroom was aaaaaaaaamazing), we settled into our travelling routine of dozing, reading and listening to music. Before we knew it, we were at the gloriously modern arrivals terminal of Singapore Changi airport.

The difference was immediate and superb. The information desk spoke an English better than most of south London. The airport was spacious, with great big relaxation gardens featuring Koi carp-filled ponds and chirruping cicadas, an entire entertainment deck (as if we were on a cruise ship) with consoles, ‘jam room’, and cinema, and more shops in one place than I’ve seen in a terminal building. The catch? The price. Our first set of coffees outside of cheap Asia was in the 15 euros range (I did, admittedly, have a sausage roll too, but that was the cheapest of the three items). We’d gone from being able to live like royalty (if we’d wanted to) to being able to just sit quietly and sip at our coffees, trying to maximise the enjoyment.

We were going to be here for 12 hours. We wandered around looking at things we will never be able to afford, booked ourselves on the free city tour for the evening and even crossed into a different terminal to see if there were any major differences (none apart from the air conditioning being three degrees lower). We wandered some more, marvelled at the gardens, went to the loo (still not able to beat my shopping centre experience) then looked at phones, as mine was about to give up. I found a good few models, but they’re all still a bit too expensive at the moment, particularly as I’m not sure what my job situation will be in the next few weeks. We went and attempted to play on some games on the entertainment deck, but the computer was slower than I’d thought. After some button-mashing on street fighter II (Henny must have been cheating – I lost convincingly both times) and Henny being devoured by the ghosts on Mrs Pacman, we headed over for our tour, which took us to two major sites in Singapore. First was the Merlion, a new fountain which represents the wealth of the city pouring out of the lion’s mouth. The word ‘Singa’, we found out, means ‘lion’ and ‘Pura’ means ‘city’ (a prince saw a lion on a hunting trip here, so the tale goes), so the lion symbol represents the city itself, the fishy tail its marine economy. Second stop were the Gardens by the Bay. These newly-created, eco-aware gardens are fantastic for getting lost in (as a French couple displayed by being 15 minutes late to the pick-up point) and for getting good sunset pictures of the Marina Bay Sands hotel. After two hours of walking and seeing new sights, we headed hungrily back to the airport, skipped through security and went to a food hall, where I had some Thai green curry and Henny had some Korean barbecue.

  Once we were gastronomically satisfied, we headed to the cinema, where we caught the action-packed finale of Fast and Furious 8, and I got an email about another translation, which was to be submitted in 2 days (or whatever it was after taking into account the time difference – this has really messed up my perception of time). I went to charge the laptops and begin work on it while Henny watched the beginning of Boss Baby (the only film in the cinema’s repertoire that I’d wanted to see, but hey ho). The hour before we needed to get to our gate disappeared into a flurry of typing and it was soon time to say goodbye to Changi and hop on a plane which would take me over the equator for the first time.

Our seats were, sadly, not in the emergency escape aisle this time, and we were surrounded by people who seemed to want to cough up their insides every five minutes, or sniff at 20-second intervals without using a tissue. This continued through most of the flight and is what I blame for my currently-annoying throaty cough. We slept through most of the flight though (it only lasted 7 hours) and were suddenly on our way down to land in Melbourne. We got off the plane, ran to the immigration barriers and, after a brief moment of panic when the automatic gate didn’t recognise me, I engaged in some sport-based banter with the immigration official and was let through unmolested. We had to wait for a bit for our bags, but eventually got them, Henny purchased her new-country sim card and we hopped on the express bus to take us to the city.

We trundled along the freeway (the Aussies seem to have taken the American word for this one) and, at some point along the journey, we turned a bend to see the towering heights of the Melbourne skyline spread out ahead of us. It was fantastic – a moment for a Hans Zimmer score, maybe from the Gladiator soundtrack.

We hopped off the larger bus at southern cross station and onto a smaller bus (more like the local ones we get in England – Surrey peeps, think the 465 to Kingston) to take us the United Backpackers hostel, where we’d be spending the next couple of nights. Through the small yellow entrance which you’d just walk past if you weren’t looking for it, the hostel was clean and bright and everything you could wish for from a place that wasn’t a hotel. Henny claimed a top bunk and I took a bottom bunk (on the other side of the room; most beds were already taken in our dorm) then, after a refreshing let’s-not-smell-like-plane-any-more shower, we headed out for Henny to show me briefly what there was to see in our little corner of Melbourne, including a glimpse of federation square and Coles, the supermarket chain. I initially baulked at the prices, but soon did the maths for the exchange rate and worked out that it was just like inner-city London prices; high, but manageable as long as you were careful.

Henny had been liaising with her former au-pair mum and the girls, and so arranged to go and meet them at their hotel (they live in Canberra but had come to stay in Melbourne for the weekend) while I finished off a particularly urgent translation and made some friends at the hostel at the same time. After I’d finished my translation, I headed off to meet the ladies at their hotel. The girls are diabetic and have a beautifully cute and patient dog called Molly who is also a registered assistance dog; she can smell when their blood sugar levels are dangerous and will alert Adrienne (mum) or their carer at school so that they can take action. After lots of stroking the dog and hearing about their adventures so far, we headed out for dinner, little Molly Polly trotting along alertly beside us.

Everyone wanted sushi, so we walked the 15-or-so minutes it took to get to a particularly well-rated one in a shopping centre near the central shopping area of the city. We’d finally found somewhere to get to the sushi conveyor belt which would sit all 5 of us (Molly could stay on the floor), when a man, who looked as if he’d taken inspiration from Ken (of Barbie fame) for his plastic-moulded hairdo, flatly, yet with an apology or two, refused us service, citing the fact that our dog couldn’t be in the restaurant. Despite Adrienne’s best efforts, showing him the assistance dog card and explaining the need for him, the man (like his hairdo) was not for moving.

Flinging a threat of legal action in the court of human rights over our shoulders along with some Paddington-esque Hard Stares, we left the centre and headed to the David Jones (think an Australian John Lewis) food court for some reduced-price (it was the end of their trading hours) sushi and fried chicken, which was lovely. The girls had a minor spat over a sip of milkshake (apparently the other’s spit would still be in the straw and original owner needed a replacement), which escalated and gave Adrienne a chance to highlight the differences between antipodean and middle-class British parenting approaches – there was no messing around with her. Direct and to the point, with a hint of frustration in her tone and vocabulary, she told the girls that there would be no replacement and that was that. Our sushi eaten and milkshake-wars in a state of ceasefire, we headed out to the street and parted ways, arranging pickup times for the morning after next when we were to head to the zoo for the day!

Before heading to the Zoo though, we had much to see of the Melbourne CBD, so the next morning, we went on a walking tour, learning about the history of Melbourne, the meaning of various sites and their importance in the development of the city, as well as some of the more notable citizens, including a particularly nefarious Robin Hood-inspired Irishman by the name of Ned Kelly. He and his gang were bank robbers and did the common people a service by combining their raids with the destruction of personal loan documents, which, unsurprisingly, made them rather popular. We saw the laneways where countless street artists had applied their skilled hands to jazz up the between-streets, and ended up with a beer in the pub. Here, Henny took her leave to go and see an old friend from her previous time in Melbourne, and I went on a lovely long walk around some other parts of Melbourne with some of the guys from the walking tour. When we’d had enough (the sun was baking), we headed back to our hostel and had a game of pool over a beer, which I lost (the pool that is, not the beer).

    Once I’d got over the loss, I chilled in the aptly-named ‘chilling room’ until my evening’s entertainment arrived. Steph got to the hostel around 7 and we had a drink at the bar, whilst realising that it had been 7 years since we had last seen each other – she had been a supervisor at the farm a long time ago. She now works for Victoria Zoos and had managed to wrangle us free tickets for Melbourne Zoo for the next day. The free stuff didn’t stop there; she’d also won a competition at a Chinese dumpling place and had free dumplings for a year! The dumplings were excellent and I added some crisp pork belly to the order too, which was fabulous – melt-in-your-mouth tender and crunchy where you wanted it to crunch. Afterwards, we headed to what has become one of my favourite places in the world. A bar called Bartronica – a heady mix of retro-gaming awesomeness, pinball and beer. We played and lost heavily at Mario Kart (I was so good back in the day!), then I started kicking some serious gaming butt at smash bros., where Link sword-spun his way to secure me victory countless times. I had a go at Family Guy pinball, the Who song running through my head the whole time (… a pinball wizard’s got such a supple wriiiist… but not from holding a pint of beer), but couldn’t quite engage my inner Tommy to dominate the leaderboard.

We returned briefly but unsuccessfully to the Super Smash Bros., but I couldn’t emulate my previous success against much stronger competition (sorry Steph!) and so we headed our separate ways, promising to meet up again before Henny and I jetted off to Kiwiland.

The next day was full of excitement – we packed up our things, moved out of the hostel and headed downstairs to be picked up by Adrienne again and taken to the zoo. It was a baking hot day, so I wore my England rugby cap (carefully chosen to do maximum damage to local sensitivities after last year’s tour) and a pint of sun cream to keep out the ozone-free rays.

The girls (and Molly) raced around the zoo, the girls flitting like freed butterflies from one exhibit to the next, Molly following suit, a little perplexed by the richness and variety of scents coming her way. Molly was only allowed in certain areas, marked in pink on the map, so Adrienne took care of her at those times. We saw lions, tigers, sea snakes, African wild dogs, pelicans, monkeys (but no gorillas – they were hiding from us, we decided), iguanas, macaws, meerkats and penguins. We also saw a lot of Australian wildlife, which the girls weren’t as interested in as I was, having seen it all before; kangaroos, wombats, emus, kookaburras and a platypus were all fascinating to me but old hat to them.

The girls did, however, manage to spend some time (and a decent amount of their poor mum’s cash) in the gift shop, much like I’d done at the tender age of 10. Adrienne then drove us to our new home with Chris and Leesh, at their flat in the trendy suburb of Collingwood near Fitzroy, Melbourne’s answer to Neukölln or Shoreditch. They are renting a comfortable, modern 2-bed + open-plan kitchen/diner/living room flat in the former Yorkshire brewery, which has been redeveloped into a large housing complex complete with rooftop garden (with a BBQ, naturally) and gym. We said hello, dumped our stuff in our lovely little room, and headed back outside to meet Adrienne, who took us to Lygon street, a famous foodie street. It is a street, it is full of food, but 90% of it is Italian ristorantes, whose borderline aggressive front-of-house teams all seem to emulate Vietnamese street sellers (“You come eat here, I have very happy customers, I give you good deal, best price best price”). Not quite in the mood for pizza, we opted for a very tasty fish and chip place and tried all the deep-fried delicacies they had to offer. Things almost kicked off with Molly again, but the waitress was nice and understanding and Molly could remain under the table.

By the time we’d polished off the last of the nice thick chips, it was time for the girls to hit the hay and for us to go and meet Chris and Leesha at one of their friend’s gigs, where he would be playing funk/soul/r’n’b beats from 11. The bar was called Boney and the décor took us the 16,000ish kilometres back to Berlin. Arty things hung from walls, lighting was minimal and red and the patrons were suitably (under)dressed or just in the black-jeans-and-beard hipster garb necessary in this sort of place. We grabbed a drink with our hosts, headed upstairs to see his friend play to a room packed to the rafters with smoke from a smoke machine and not much else – we were the only four who had come to see him so far. Gradually though, other acquaintances dribbled in and the music got louder with each new audience member, so much so that we couldn’t really get acquainted with the newcomers, and decided to dive back downstairs. C&L joined us later, then left for their next gig. We called it a night (‘This is a night!’) then went back to our new room (possibly stopping for a McD’s 10-piece chicket nugget box) and slept until it was socially acceptable to wake up.

The next day dawned, but in our quiet, dark, cool cave of a room we didn’t notice until it was almost too late. We were supposed to meet the girls at 10.30 at the Victoria Markets (yay more shopping), which would take nearly half an hour to get to. Luckily, the girls and Adrienne had already headed to a different set of markets before, so we made our leisurely way down to the markets and had a breakfast of bacon and egg bap for me (plenty of ketchup, thanks) and a beetroot and feta salad for Henny. Just as we were polishing off the last morsels, we felt a familiar fluffy presence next to us and found that the girls had found us. Off we went on a zig-zag path past all the stalls with their various trinkets and tourist tat. I found a new adapter for my chargers as well as 2 decks of cards for 5 dollars (bargain). The girls found a few things that they liked, including a fake diamond-encrusted name tag for Molly and a set of earmuffs for themselves, in preparation for the harsh winter ahead.

We had to do some shopping for our promised (my fabled) roast dinner, so we almost tearfully parted ways with the girls for the time being and made our way around to find some decent veg and wine. We then toddled back to C&C’s and, after a while chilling out on the roof (Henny had to finish off her Hoi An post) and a couple of visits from a territorial pug, we prepared for the night’s entertainment: an outdoor cinema extravaganza with a picnic and Get Out. We took a nice ride in a taxify (similar to Uber but better for the drivers and customers apparently), and got to the botanical gardens, where we walked down a dusky path to a great big blow-up screen, in front of which a crowd of people were lying on the grass. We set up camp, tucked into our picnic and opened bottle after bottle then a box of wine, while the events of Get Out (a very, very good Black Mirror-like film) played out in front of us. But that wasn’t the only thing I was watching. As the sun had set, hundreds of crow-sized fruit bats had started winging their way to their twilight dinner above us. I sat, captivated by the slow, graceful movements of the huge bats. Luckily, I managed to pay enough attention to both and, once my wine-addled, bat-distracted, Get Out-head-blown state was brought to a close, we got in another taxify and roared home, where someone (Chris? Was it you?) decided to watch Whiplash (a film about a drummer – awesome) on their projector, just to keep the cinema feel going. It was fantastic – so much was relatable in the film, though maybe I had yet to experience the stresses of being a professional drummer like that. Tapping my legs in time to the music still bouncing around my head, we went to sleep and ended our second night in Collingwood.

This is also where I’ll leave you guys for the time being; there’s plenty more to come! For now though, I’ll just try and keep my eyes open – I’ve just taken some cough medicine and it’s one of those ones with ‘do not operate heavy machinery after use’ or something like that. Do laptops count as heavy machinery?

Yours drowsily,

Boulders

Superb Singapore + marvellous Melbourne (part the first) Hello, dear readers. This is strange. We’re not on the move. We’ve been in the same place for 6 days, so there’s not been a natural break in proceedings to update you AND we’ve got another 2 days before we finally make it to New Zealand.

[edgysocial]

New Post has been published on http://edgysocial.com/weekend-roundup-north-korea-nears-the-brink/

Weekend Roundup: North Korea Nears The Brink

Not even two months into office and with only a skeleton national security team in place, U.S. President Donald Trump is facing what could be the most perilous nuclear-related military confrontation since the Cuban Missile Crisis over half a century ago.

Fearing an outbreak of “actual war” as North Korea has threatened, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi this week urgently called on its ally to end all missile tests and for the U.S. and South Korea to suspend joint military exercises. He warned that the U.S. and North Korea are “like two accelerating trains coming toward each other, and neither side is willing to give way.”

The potential calamity that could result from a clash between the two most unpredictable leaders in the world makes the search for a breakthrough more urgent than in previous crises. In their response to the latest tests, China has sought to pressure Pyongyang by halting coal imports, a key source of income for the Hermit Kingdom. But compounding the conundrum of how to bring North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to heel, China is at the same time furious over the installation of a U.S.-South Korea missile shield aimed at the North but whose prying radar “can ‘reach’ into Chinese territory.” Completing the perfect storm, South Korea’s Constitutional Court on Friday upheld the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, thus removing her from office. After many years of slow burn, the North Korean menace has reached an inflection point where the whole region is at risk of conflagration.

Clearly it is time to try a new strategy beyond sanctioning and isolating North Korea to stop its nuclear threat. Madame Fu Ying, one of China’s top diplomats who has been dealing with Pyongyang since 2003, made the case to me recently in Beijing that this long-standing approach is not working, but only making the beleaguered regime more belligerent. Pulling out a chart tracing the decades-long path to nuclear armament and ballistic missile development, Madame Fu said the pattern is clear: when there are talks, the buildup stalls; when there are sanctions, the North doubles down on amassing an ever-more powerful arsenal.

“The U.S. keeps pressuring China to stop Kim, and we have gone along with that,” she said. “But it is America that, in the end, holds the key to resolving the crisis. That key is direct negotiations with North Korea as a step towards a peace treaty and a guarantee against regime change.” Absent that, her argument went, the only path to security from the North’s perspective is its weapons.

Despite other tensions, the highest priority now is for China and the new Trump administration to join as indispensable partners in pursuing a path along the lines Fu Ying has suggested. In such a scenario, North Korea would still likely retain a nuclear capacity ― unlike Iran, it already crossed this threshold long ago. But, in return for recognition and security, the Kim regime would be obliged to halt new testing and dismantle all intermediate and long-range missiles that could carry nuclear warheads to other countries, especially Japan.

Former U.S. Defense Secretary William J. Perry, who participated in U.S. talks with North Korea’s leaders back in 1999, takes this diplomatic option seriously: “I believe that North Korea might well agree to give up testing of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles and agree not to sell or transfer any of its nuclear technology in return for economic concessions from South Korea and security assurances from the U.S.”

To be sure, such a deal would be hard for any U.S. administration to swallow. It rankles deeply to act as if rewarding aggressive behavior. But in this case the only other course to the U.S. negotiating directly with North Korea is the continuing buildup of an even greater destructive capacity that could be unleashed in an inevitable future war. As Perry writes, “I do not suggest this approach with any enthusiasm. But our only realistic alternative is military force.” 

If this far from perfect arrangement could be made, it would not only serve to reduce the immediate danger, but also serve as a new foundation for security and cooperation ― instead of confrontation ― between the U.S. and China on other issues at conflict in East Asia. 

One such area where Beijing and Washington are bound to clash, but will need to cooperate, is trade. As the West turns against globalization, Ivan Tselichtchev writes from Hong Kong that Asia is becoming the champion of free trade, building new links with each other that don’t depend on the American market. 

Key leaders are also clashing elsewhere outside Asia. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan this week “accused the other of acting in bad faith” in a controversy over whether Erdoğan’s allies can campaign in Germany among the many Turks who live there ahead of an April referendum that would consolidate the Turkish president’s autocratic powers. Writing from Berlin, Fabrizio Tassinari sees this fraught moment ― the culmination of tensions all along the road of Turkey’s failed effort over decades to join the European Union ― “as the end of Turkey’s European history.” In an interview, French writer Jean d’Ormesson worries that the “real victim” of populism, both in the U.S. and Europe, is democracy. “All of France is moving to the right,” he laments. Nick Robins-Early reports on how “far-right bots” are behind the social media surge of French nationalist leader Marine Le Pen.

The issue of Islam and refugees continues to roil American politics as the Trump administration announced a revised travel ban this week. Taking the long view, Muslim scholar Akbar Ahmed advises Trump to learn from the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II who, at the height of the Crusades, was able to work with his Muslim counterparts in Jerusalem to establish tolerance and the sharing of religious sites. Anastasya Manuilova reports from Moscow that there has been a noticeable decline in “Trumpophilia” as the “bromance” between the American president and Russian President Vladimir Putin dwindles amidst the Trump-Russia controversy in the U.S.. For most Russians, she says, “Putin’s bromance with Trump is already on its deathbed, and with it, any chance for a genuine reset.”

Following up on our interview last week with Indian author Pankaj Mishra, Gregory Rodriguez writes that, “[Mishra] sees the destruction of local, intimate, long-rooted systems of meaning as opening a spiritual Pandora’s box within which lies infinite doubt and disillusion.” To wrestle with the “nothingness” left behind, Rodriguez argues that “Western liberals need to admit that we have finally reached the limits of the Enlightenment’s cult of secular individualism.” 

Even as tensions increase over North Korea’s nuclear weapons, Ariel Conn raises the specter of a new threat on the horizon ― an “AI arms race” as the technology spreads to develop lethal autonomous weaponry.

Finally, our Singularity series this week examines a plan in New Zealand to rid the country of predatory plants and animals by 2050 through the use of “genetic engineering techniques to render invasive species infertile, exterminating them from within their own DNA.” 

WHO WE ARE

  EDITORS: Nathan Gardels, Co-Founder and Executive Advisor to the Berggruen Institute, is the Editor-in-Chief of The WorldPost. Kathleen Miles is the Executive Editor of The WorldPost. Farah Mohamed is the Managing Editor of The WorldPost. Alex Gardels and Peter Mellgard are the Associate Editors of The WorldPost. Suzanne Gaber is the Editorial Assistant of The WorldPost. Katie Nelson is News Director at The Huffington Post, overseeing The WorldPost and HuffPost’s news coverage. Nick Robins-Early and Jesselyn Cook are World Reporters. Rowaida Abdelaziz is World Social Media Editor.

EDITORIAL BOARD: Nicolas Berggruen, Nathan Gardels, Arianna Huffington, Eric Schmidt (Google Inc.), Pierre Omidyar (First Look Media), Juan Luis Cebrian (El Pais/PRISA), Walter Isaacson (Aspen Institute/TIME-CNN), John Elkann (Corriere della Sera, La Stampa), Wadah Khanfar (Al Jazeera) and Yoichi Funabashi (Asahi Shimbun).

VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS: Dawn Nakagawa.

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Moises Naim (former editor of Foreign Policy), Nayan Chanda (Yale/Global; Far Eastern Economic Review) and Katherine Keating (One-On-One). Sergio Munoz Bata and Parag Khanna are Contributing Editors-At-Large.

The Asia Society and its ChinaFile, edited by Orville Schell, is our primary partner on Asia coverage. Eric X. Li and the Chunqiu Institute/Fudan University in Shanghai and Guancha.cn also provide first person voices from China. We also draw on the content of China Digital Times. Seung-yoon Lee is The WorldPost link in South Korea.

Jared Cohen of Google Ideas provides regular commentary from young thinkers, leaders and activists around the globe. Bruce Mau provides regular columns from MassiveChangeNetwork.com on the “whole mind” way of thinking. Patrick Soon-Shiong is Contributing Editor for Health and Medicine.

ADVISORY COUNCIL: Members of the Berggruen Institute’s 21st Century Council and Council for the Future of Europe serve as theAdvisory Council — as well as regular contributors — to the site. These include, Jacques Attali, Shaukat Aziz, Gordon Brown, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Juan Luis Cebrian, Jack Dorsey, Mohamed El-Erian, Francis Fukuyama, Felipe Gonzalez, John Gray, Reid Hoffman, Fred Hu, Mo Ibrahim, Alexei Kudrin, Pascal Lamy, Kishore Mahbubani, Alain Minc, Dambisa Moyo, Laura Tyson, Elon Musk, Pierre Omidyar, Raghuram Rajan, Nouriel Roubini, Nicolas Sarkozy, Eric Schmidt, Gerhard Schroeder, Peter Schwartz, Amartya Sen, Jeff Skoll, Michael Spence, Joe Stiglitz, Larry Summers, Wu Jianmin, George Yeo, Fareed Zakaria, Ernesto Zedillo, Ahmed Zewail and Zheng Bijian.

From the Europe group, these include: Marek Belka, Tony Blair, Jacques Delors, Niall Ferguson, Anthony Giddens, Otmar Issing, Mario Monti, Robert Mundell, Peter Sutherland and Guy Verhofstadt.

MISSION STATEMENT

The WorldPost is a global media bridge that seeks to connect the world and connect the dots. Gathering together top editors and first person contributors from all corners of the planet, we aspire to be the one publication where the whole world meets.

We not only deliver breaking news from the best sources with original reportage on the ground and user-generated content; we bring the best minds and most authoritative as well as fresh and new voices together to make sense of events from a global perspective looking around, not a national perspective looking out.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Business – The Huffington Post