Talking Points
- A mine explosion in Siberia killed at least 52 and trapped more
- Dozens drown in failed Channel crossing to the UK
- 45 killed in "horror" of Bulgaria's worst bus crash
- Olaf Scholz's left-wing coalition government emerged in Germany
- Karim Benzema found guilty in case that shocked French football
- Mud emerged as a key threat to any Russian invasion of Ukraine
- New Covid variant B.1.1.529 emerged in South Africa
- A proposed cryptocurrency ban in India smashed coin values
- NASA launched a probe to push an asteroid off course
- A US jury found pharmacies bore responsibility for opioid crisis
Dive deeper
Johnny Depp believes he's a victim of it. Dawn French feels "imaginatively restricted" by it. John Cleese is doing a documentary on it. Jon Stewart thinks it doesn't even exist. Yes, it's time to look at cancel culture and the war over academic freedom.
Gender, Sex, and Diversity 101
Let's start by acknowledging that cancel culture is a term so overused and wrung of meaning that it sounds like a David Shing buzzword from the mid-aughts. In our case, we are using the term to describe the phenomena of students or others pressuring institutions to remove educators for expressing views the petitioners deem unconscionable. We've seen two notable examples of this in recent weeks, each on a different side of the Atlantic.
In recent years, British universities have witnessed some of the most intense battles over what is kosher and verboten. We could spend all day musing why that is: the democratisation of platforms within higher education, growing diversity among cohorts, the atomisation of individuals under capitalism, the elevation of individual identity in an increasingly unmoored society, or even simply the fact that universities are meant to be places of debate. Regardless of the driving force, the trend is real. You'll recall efforts to remove the likeness of Cecil Rhodes and other bloody colossi of the British empire from various Oxbridge colleges. Excommunicating the long-dead by renaming buildings or toppling statues begs controversy. But when the targets are still alive, the ensuing fracases reach a whole new level. Enter Kathleen Stock, formerly of Sussex University.
Stock is among a minority of academics who believe that one's gender identity should not outweigh their biological sex, especially "when it comes to law and policy". As an example, she says dating apps can be a concern for lesbians because they feel pressured by having to explain their preferences to trans-women online. Stock's views were cast into the spotlight when she was awarded an OBE at the start of the year. The accolade prompted hundreds of academics to sign a letter admonishing her "harmful rhetoric". The pushback that followed was mighty. Students in balaclavas protested her every appearance on campus with one simple demand: Stock out. Depending on where you stand this is either the repudiation of the cherished liberal right to free speech in academia, or the extinguishing of transphobic views from the public arena. In a feverish environment, Stock resigned from Sussex University.
The UK education minister rounded on vice-chancellors in a recent meeting, accusing them of placing cancel culture ahead of quality education. It's a live issue there: the government recently passed a bill that all higher education institutions must "secure freedom of speech" by making facilities available for groups and speakers regardless of their views. Raise your hand if you think that will have the desired effect!
You can't say that
Here's an even trickier one. In June, professor Allyn Walker of Virginia's Old Dominion University published 'A Long, Dark Shadow: Minor-Attracted People and Their Pursuit of Dignity'. This week, Walker resigned .
Here's the abstract of Walker's book: "Challenging widespread assumptions that persons who are preferentially attracted to minors—often referred to as "pedophiles"—are necessarily also predators and sex offenders, this book takes readers into the lives of non-offending minor-attracted persons (MAPs). There is little research into non-offending MAPs, a group whose experiences offer valuable insights into the prevention of child abuse. Navigating guilt, shame, and fear, this universally maligned group demonstrates remarkable resilience and commitment to living without offending and to supporting and educating others. Using data from interview-based research, A Long, Dark Shadow offers a crucial account of the lived experiences of this hidden population."
In the months after it was published, Walker's work sunk into the well-furrowed path that most academic writing does: few outside the field read it. It was a novel, yes, but uncontroversial piece of research. Until the general public got a whiff of it. An online petition emerged last month accusing Walker of trying to normalise pedophilia; what followed were threats, and specific attacks on Walker's own trans identity. The salient point of their research was that separating morality from attraction and destigmatising "minor-attracted persons" could prevent the abuse of children . The provision of coping mechanisms might prevent non-offenders from becoming offenders. But Walker's critics were not up for debating the finer points of the theory: they were out for a scalp. Certain news outlets truncated the story and bent the research out of shape; Walker was cast as a pedophile apologist. A typical response when reactionaries mistake amorality for immorality.
EDITOR'S NOTE: These are thorny issues. And they are too often flattened and decontextualised in the media. Even the two cases we've highlighted are not truly alike. Our question is a simple one: should either of these people have had to resign? Reply to this email with your thoughts.
Worldlywise
American justice
All eyes have been on US courts as several high-profile cases came to a head. On Thursday, three white men — Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael and William Bryan — were convicted for the slaying of a Black man, Ahmaud Arbery . In February 2020, the men chased and shot Arbery in Georgia, apparently believing him to be responsible for several break-ins and burglaries in the neighbourhood. Lawyers for the men argued they were trying to perform a citizen’s arrest of the unarmed Arbery, which was legal in Georgia at the time, and subsequently shot him in what they claim was self defence. The jury didn’t buy this claim — after all, it was the men who chased Arbery with a gun. After the guilty verdicts, lead prosecutor Linda Dunikoski reaffirmed her faith in the judicial system . “The jury system works in this country and when you present the truth to people, and they can see it, they will do the right thing,” she said. But that sentiment is not shared by many in Georgia's Black community – even in Arbery's case, the local authorities had to be shamed into taking action.
Last Friday, the verdict of another murder case sparked outrage in the US and garnered the world’s attention. Kyle Rittenhouse, 18, was acquitted on all charges after shooting three other white people — two of whom died — at a Black Lives Matter rally in Wisconsin in August 2020. Like the men responsible for Arbery’s death, Rittenhouse argued he had acted in self defence. Despite having unlawfully crossed state lines in possession of a weapon to safeguard property that was not his, the Defense's argument was accepted by the mostly-white jury. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump offered the following reflection — “if we were talking about a Black man the conversation and outcome would be starkly different. But we’re not. We’re talking about Kyle Rittenhouse, a racist, homicidal vigilante who, like so many white men before him, not only escaped accountability but laughed in its face.” President Joe Biden also expressed his disappointment: "While the verdict in Kenosha will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included, we must acknowledge that the jury has spoken.” Rittenhouse argues his case “never had anything to do with race” and was really about “the right to self defence”. In a slew of media appearances and conservative celebrity meet-and-greets the young gunman also claimed to support the BLM movement.
In both cases, the right to self-defence collided with the right to life. This ought to be an inalienable right, but in a country with too many guns, it is too often stripped away in a hail of gunfire.
A fork in the road
After two years of civil turmoil at levels not seen since the Pinochet era, Chileans delivered a resounding rejection of business-as-usual politics in Sunday’s presidential primary election. Ultra-conservative Jose Antonio Kast received a surprise 28 per cent of the vote , beating 35-year-old leftist Gabriel Boric on 25.8 per cent. Neither received the 50 per cent majority required for an instant victory and will now contest a presidential run-off on December 19. The choice could not be more stark. Kast, a pro-Pinochet conservative, has been called ‘Chile’s Bolsonaro’ . He campaigned on a platform of small government and law & order. Boric, a tattooed former student activist and organiser, wants to overhaul the welfare system, raise levies on Chile’s lucrative primary industries, and reduce the work week from 44 to 40 hours. Holding the keys to victory is Franco Parisi, a popular libertarian economist who came third in the poll while campaigning entirely from his home in the U.S. state of Alabama.
Chile’s most significant civil unrest in decades began with a student-coordinated campaign against rising public transport fees. But it quickly spread to encompass issues such as cost of living, welfare, and privatisation. Though their reasons were diverse, protesters were unanimous about one thing: reforming the country’s repressive constitution imposed by military dictator General Augusto Pinochet in 1980. In a rare referendum, 79 per cent of voters demanded a new constitution written solely by their fellow Chileans. They also united against current President Sebastián Piñera’s brutal crackdown on protesters by his security forces (Piñera has since faced an impeachment trial over revelations in the Pandora Papers and is not eligible to contest this election). Boric is strongly in favour of Chile’s Constitutional Convention, who in July elected a progressive indigenous academic to lead the reform process. Kast attracted intense scrutiny during the campaign for his open support of Pinochet’s dictatorship .
It is Boric who faces an uphill battle in the race for Chile’s pro-market centre. Many attribute the success of the world’s largest copper exporter to a market-friendly mining industry, particularly when compared to other Latin American countries who have fallen victim to the ‘resource curse’. The Chilean peso surged after Kast’s victory and some of the country’s biggest mining giants have rallied behind the economic status quo. Chile held out against the red tide of Latin American communism and has thus far resisted the resurgent ‘pink tide’ of socialism. But the country’s recent history of unrest suggests that the status quo is not working for many. Neighbouring Peru chose socialist Pedro Castillo to right their ship, but the conservative neoliberal Kast is now the favourite to take the helm in Chile. “If Chile was the cradle of neoliberalism, it will also be its grave,” says Boric. It remains to be seen whether Chileans will help Boric dig that grave – or one for his political career.
The best of times
The second-best time to plant a tree
Some weeks ago we celebrated the reopening of the Great Mosque of Al-Nuri in Mosul. As the community rebuilds from the worst urban conflict in modern human history, some are looking well into the future. A team of volunteers is planting trees across the city to provide life and shade. Hundreds of young trees will soon become thousands. It may seem like an afterthought, but in an increasingly hot and water-scarce country these trees will help nourish Mosul. Iraq's second city will bloom again.
How do you increase women and girls' participation in sports?
Give them a sports bra . Sometimes the solutions are that simple.
The worst of times
No oceanic feeling in Oceania
Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, has been left smouldering after days of political unrest . Growing discontent against the sitting government over the impact of the pandemic on the economy and a recent decision to break diplomatic ties with Taiwan stoked this fire. A long-running feud between the island of Guadalcanal (which is home to Honiara) and the country's most populous island, Malaita, underscores criticism over the diplomatic manoeuvring. Australia has deployed police and soldiers to Honiara to "calm" the situation, though Canberra's claim that it is not intervening on behalf of one side or another does not hold water.
The long arm of the law is holding a cattle prod?
Let's hear a round of applause for Interpol's new president: Major General Ahmed Nasser al-Raisi . The high-ranking official in the United Arab Emirates Interior Ministry is directly responsible for prisons in which torture is commonplace and spy networks which have turned Abu Dhabi and Dubai into two of the most heavily-surveilled cities on the planet. Great choice!
Weekend Reading
The image
The quote
"I was just in Hong Kong and I made a joke that the Communist Party is celebrating its hundredth year. So is JPMorgan. I'd make you a bet we last longer. I can't say that in China. They are probably listening anyway."
– JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon had a little fun during a speech at Boston College this week. He apologised and walked it back in record time, presumably after an aide reminded him of his bank's $20bn exposure in that market. You'd think the European Super League debacle would have tempered Dimon's interest in gambling against the odds.
The numbers
50,000,000 barrels of crude oil
- The US is releasing a significant stockpile of crude oil from its strategic reserve to dampen prices at the pumps. That's a fair glug! If we were to pick a car at random, say, a 2002 Holden Commodore, we'd be able to refill it 132 million times. China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the UK have also followed suit, creating a very odd axis of power aligned against the interests of OPEC.
A 7-hour premiership
- Magdalena Andersson's stint as Prime Minister of Sweden did not last a standard work day. Coalition governments in multiparty systems rely on cooperation, consensus, and respect. They can appear brittle and complex from afar. No sooner had Andersson been elevated as the first female PM, she resigned after losing a vote on her budget plan. Don't write her off as a historical oddity just yet: she could be returned to the top job as soon as Monday.
The headlines
"NFT beats cheugy to be Collins Dictionary’s word of the year." – The Guardian . Yes, that's the sound of popular culture passing you by.
"Space Pagans and Smartphone Witches: Where Tech Meets Mysticism"
– The New York Times . See above.
The special mention
We're having a difficult time pinning our special mention badge onto this week's winner. A clear favourite in the field of "Excellence in Early Education", Unko-sensei has delighted children in Japan with his simple explanation of the national tax code. He also happens to be an anthropomorphised cartoon poo with the title of professor.
A few choice long-reads
- Recep Tayyip Erdogan has survived a coup, clashed with all his neighbours, and elevated himself to the status of Ataturk. Foreign Policy argues the one thing he couldn't outmuscle was the lira – and now it might spell the end of him.
- Businessweek reports that medical debt is crushing Americans and that healthcare companies aren't even aware of their own practices.
- Share this one around with your nearest and dearest this holiday season: stop buying multivitamins. A welcome broadside from The Atlantic.
