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Caesar

'Temples to colonial theft': Museums in the West should return stolen artifacts to where they came from

Danielle Ryan
RT
Wed, 28 Nov 2018 12:21 UTC
© Reuters / Carlos Barria
"Moai" statues, Easter Island
Is it possible to 'loan' something back to the person or place you stole it from? The British Museum in London, which houses one of the biggest permanent collections of world art and artifacts, certainly seems to think so.

Last week, responding to an emotional plea from the governor of Easter Island, the museum generously announced that it would consider "loaning" an 800-year-old statue back to the territory, which is now part of Chile.

The Hoa Hakananai'a was stolen - or "taken without permission" as The Guardian more delicately put it - in 1868 by the British HMS 'Topaze' and delivered to Queen Victoria. The museum itself uses even more sanitized language. Its online information page about the statue explains that it was "collected" during the frigate's expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and was "gifted" by the Queen to the museum a year later.

"This statue would have originally stood on a specially built platform on the sacred site of Orongo," the museum explains. "It would have stood with giant stone companions, their backs to the sea, keeping watch over the island."
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Black Cat 2

Facing extradition, Julian Assange sends Embassy Cat to live with family


RT
Wed, 28 Nov 2018 15:21 UTC
Embassy cat
© Reuters / Toby Melville
Julian Assange's cat peers out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
As the threat of extradition to the US hangs over Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder has been forced to keep his beloved pet cat safe by sending it away to live in exile with Assange family members.

Residing in Ecuador's London embassy since 2012, Assange's safety became precarious last year when Ecuador elected President Lenin Moreno, a more pro-US voice than that of predecessor Rafael Correa and a man who described Assange as a "stone in our shoe."

Assange has since had his internet at Ecuador's UK embassy cut, his visitation rights severely curtailed, and Moreno's government has revoked the diplomatic credentials of London ambassador Abad Ortiz, Assange's last diplomatic contact in the UK. Add the reported existence of a sealed indictment into the mix, and things aren't looking good for the WikiLeaks boss.
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Megaphone

Twitter's trans-activist decree targets feminists

Meghan Murphy
Quillette
Wed, 28 Nov 2018 00:01 UTC
Meghan Murphy
On November 15, I woke up to find my Twitter account locked, on account of what the company described as "hateful conduct." In order to regain access, I was made to delete two tweets from October. Fair enough, you might think. Concern about the tone of discourse on social media has been widespread for years. Certainly, many have argued that Twitter officials should be doing more to discourage the vitriol and violent threats that have become commonplace on their platform.

In this case, however, the notion that my commentary could be construed as "hateful" baffled me. One tweet read, simply, "Men aren't women," and the other asked "How are transwomen not men? What is the difference between a man and a transwoman?" That last question is one I've asked countless times, including in public speeches, and I have yet to get a persuasive answer. I ask these questions not to spread hate - because I do not hate trans-identified individuals - but rather to make sense of arguments made by activists within that community. Instead of answering such questions, however, these same activists insist that the act of simply asking them is evidence of hatred.

Comment: It didn't take long for the regressive left to start eating its own. Fights within the social justice movement are likely to escalate even more in the near future, as divisions continue to multiply and previously 'oppressed' individuals see themselves recast as 'oppressor'. The entire ideology is a self-consuming black hole that will eventually work itself out of existence; but unfortunately, not without a number of casualties.

See also:

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Bizarro Earth

Indonesia's new 'heresy app' draws fire for targeting of minorities


Rappler.com
Tue, 27 Nov 2018 17:44 UTC
SMART PAKEM APP
© Adek Berry/AFP
SMART PAKEM APP. An Indonesian woman shows a newly launched smartphone application called "Smart Pakem" of Jakarta's prosecutor office in Jakarta on November 27, 2018.
A new Indonesian government app that lets the public report suspected cases of religious heresy is drawing fire as rights groups warn it could aggravate persecution of minorities in the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation.

Users of the app can report groups practicing unrecognized faiths or unorthodox interpretations of Indonesia's 6 officially recognised religions, including Islam, Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism.

"Smart Pakem", which was launched Sunday, November 25, and is available for free in the Google Play store, was created by the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office, which said it would help educate the public and modernize the current reporting process.

The app will also list religious edicts and blacklisted organizations and will allow users to file complaints instantaneously, instead going through the often cumbersome process of submitting a written accusation to a government office.

Comment: For more on the forces at work in Indonesia, see:

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Fire

Chinese chemical factory blast kills 22, injures 22

Wang Jianfen and Hou Liqiang
China Daily
Tue, 27 Nov 2018 18:00 UTC
China chemical plant
Twenty-two people were killed and 22 injured in a blast near a chemical plant in Zhangjiakou in Hebei province in North China on Wednesday.

At 12:41 am, an explosion and fire erupted near a chemical plant in Qiaodong district of Zhangjiakou city, Zhangjiakou Daily said via WeChat.

Police and firefighters at the scene said that the injured were rushed to hospital.
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Arrow Down

In defense of comedians: The complaint against Dani Mateo is an attempt to justify intolerance


El País
Tue, 27 Nov 2018 13:01 UTC
A society that takes its comedians to court is losing its own sense of generosity and greatness
Dan Mateo investigation hate crime Spain
© KIKE PARA EL PAÍS
Dani Mateo outside the courthouse on Monday.
On Monday, the Spanish comedian Dani Mateo appeared before a judge who is investigating whether he committed the crime of publicly offending Spanish symbols, as well as a second count of hate crimes. The investigation is based on a complaint filed by a National Police union called Alternativa Sindical de la Policía over a television sketch that was part of a comedy show on La Sexta.

Respect for the justice system's decisions means that silence must be kept over the fact that the judge accepted the complaint and summoned Mateo to a hearing. But when it comes to the complaint itself, filed by a police organization citing the defense of citizens' rights and freedoms, it is necessary to underscore that theirs is a private initiative, not an automatic application of the law. And as a private initiative, rather than protecting citizens' rights and freedoms, what it really seeks to do is to define them, and in this way to award itself the job of limiting those very same rights and freedoms.

The complaint talks about the symbols of Spain, demanding respect for them in the name of "democratic society." But it is precisely because this is a democratic society that nobody, least of all a police organization, should invoke democratic principles to report a comedian, or to demand from him a type of respect that is easily confused with an invitation to self-censorship.

Comment: See: Comedian faces hate crime charge and four years in jail for blowing his nose on the Spanish flag

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Fire

St. Petersburg: Large fire breaks out on Russian icebreaker under construction, injuring two

Joseph Trevithick
The Drive
Tue, 27 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC
Viktor Chernomyrdin icebreaker fire
The blaze is the latest in a series of major accidents at Russia's beleaguered naval bases and shipyards in 2018.

Information is still coming in, but Russia's future Project 22600 icebreaker the Viktor Chernomyrdin, which is under construction at Admiralty Shipyard in St. Petersburg, has caught fire, injuring at least two people in the process. This adds to a string of fires on board Russian government-owned vessels in 2018 and comes less than a month after a major Russian Navy accident in which the floating dry dock PD-50 sunk while the aircraft carrierAdmiral Kuznetsov was on board undergoing a major overhaul.

The fire broke out around 7:00 PM local time in St. Petersburg on Nov. 27, 2018. By approximately 9:00 PM, the fire reportedly spread to two of the ship's five decks and covered a total area of more than 3,000 square feet, according to a statement from the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations. The fire eventually spread to another deck. Some 15 fire trucks and more than 75 firefighters were on scene battling the blaze. Unconfirmed reports say that a short circuit started the fire and led to the initial injuries.

Comment: Notice the slightly disparaging tone that the author, likely American, has subtlety infused in his reportage.

According to this, the Chernomyrdin "was set to become the biggest and one of the most powerful diesel-powered icebreakers in the world."

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Camcorder

Missouri Rep. Bruce Franks, who claims police used excessive force at 2014 Berkeley protest, releases video of arrest to support his lawsuit

Kim Bell
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Mon, 26 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC
Bruce Franks arrest Berkeley 2014
© David Carson
A St. Louis police officer arrests Bruce Franks Jr. (center) on December 24, 2014 during a protests at a Berkeley gas station after a police officer fatally shot teenager Antonio Martin.
Missouri Rep. Bruce Franks Jr. released video Sunday night of his arrest at a protest after a 2014 police shooting in Berkeley, saying it supports a lawsuit he filed two years ago claiming officers used excessive force.

Franks, an activist who said he was at the protest to keep the peace between protesters and police, released a statement and the video on social media. He says the video, much of which appears to come from police body cameras, shows him being kicked, beaten and pepper-sprayed while he posed no threat.

Officers named in Franks' lawsuit have denied the accusations against them in court filings. One defense lawyer for officers named in the suit would not comment on the video Monday; another was unavailable.

The video Franks released is about two minutes long and edited. Some clips show his arrest close-up. A part that appears to have been taken from TV footage filmed at a distance has been slowed down and highlighted. Other clips, apparently from police body cameras, show officers talking about "getting a couple good licks in on somebody" and complaining about all the lights on the gas station lot and the protesters filming their actions.


Comment: Rep. Franks, seemingly undeterred by this experience had another run-in with police during a Black Friday protest in 2017: Black Lives Matter protesters storm St. Louis Galleria mall on Black Friday

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Eye 1

Precrime 'Minority Report'? Police in UK want to use AI to stop violent crime before it happens

Chris Baraniuk
New Scientist
Mon, 26 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC
British police
© Richard Baker/In Pictures/Getty
Could AI predict crime?
Police in the UK want to predict serious violent crime using artificial intelligence, New Scientist can reveal. The idea is that individuals flagged by the system will be offered interventions, such as counselling, to avert potential criminal behaviour.

However, one of the world's leading data science institutes has expressed serious concerns about the project after seeing a redacted version of the proposals.

The system, called the National Data Analytics Solution (NDAS), uses a combination of AI and statistics to try to assess the risk of someone committing or becoming a victim of gun or knife crime, as well as the likelihood of someone falling victim to modern slavery.

West Midlands Police is leading the project and has until the end of March 2019 to produce a prototype. Eight other police forces, including London's Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police, are also involved. NDAS is being designed so that every police force in the UK could eventually use it.

Comment: The goal here is to be capable of casting a very, VERY wide net on people who have particular political profiles - and who may or may not be about to commit a crime...

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Red Flag

Comedian faces hate crime charge and four years in jail for blowing his nose on the Spanish flag


RT
Tue, 27 Nov 2018 21:45 UTC
woman with Spanish flag
© Darren Staples / Reuters
A Spanish comedian has been hauled in front of a judge for blowing his nose on the national flag on TV. The provocative act sparked widespread outrage but defenders of the joker say the case raises freedom of expression concerns.

The comic and TV host Dani Mateo used the flag as a handkerchief as the punchline of a skit on the popular satirical news show El Intermedio last month. On the program he joked that he was going to read the only text that "genuinely creates consensus in Spain: the patient guidelines in a packet of Frenadol."

As he read out the instructions for the cold remedy, Mateo pretended to sneeze and blew his nose on the Spanish emblem. "Christ, sorry!" he exclaimed. "I didn't want to offend anyone. [...] I didn't want to offend Spaniards, nor the king, nor the Chinese who sell these rags. Not rags, I didn't mean rags," he quipped.
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