‘Flee’ Film Review: Afghan Refugee Shares His Journey in Empathetic Animated Doc
Carlos Aguilar - 

© TheWrapJonas Poher Rasmussen’s FLEE

This review of “Flee” was first published following its premiere at Sundance on Feb. 4.

For many of those wandering the earth in search of a place to rebuild, home is a distant land to which they can never return. Or perhaps it’s whatever geographical location they can inhabit with their loved ones, even if it’s continents away from their birthplace. But if neither of those versions of a safe haven — to stay or to remain together elsewhere — is feasible, what emotional bricks are left to start anew in solitude?

That’s the plight of the conflicted refugee at the center of Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s soul-stirring animated documentary “Flee,” executive produced by Riz Ahmed and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. One of the best movies ever made about the most pressing humanitarian crisis of our time, this storytelling knock-out — and Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner for World Cinema, Documentary — teems with heartrending candor and eloquent firsthand recollections often absent in more observational nonfiction pieces on the topic.

Framed as a sort of recorded therapy session between the subject, Amin Nawabi (an alias used for his protection), and the filmmaker (a longtime friend), “Flee” charts a harrowing odyssey to safety that eventually landed Amin in Denmark, where he now resides with his partner, Kasper. Lying down with eyes closed, Amin first mentally travels back to his childhood in Kabul, Afghanistan, during the 1980s, before the civil war and the American-backed mujahideen forced his family to escape and brave a series of dehumanizing ordeals.

Also Read: Neon Acquires Jonas Poher Rasmussen's 'Flee' in 7-Figure Deal

Made lucid in hand-drawn animated form, Amin’s memories are expressed in two distinguishable styles: The most traumatic, and thus the foggiest, appear through rough lines in muted black and white, like an apparition barely visible in the mist of his subconscious, but with tangible sensorial impact. That minimalist approach changes for sequences in the present and the larger part of the past. The bulk of the craftsmanship is just as evocative but more visually concrete and rendered in a rich color palette. Think “The Breadwinner” or “Waltz With Bashir,” both as aesthetic reference points and thematic cousins.

Far from distancing us from Amin and his detailed retelling of fear and uncertainty, the chosen medium functions as a powerful, immediately visceral way into deeper understanding. Where live-action reenactments would have made viewers aware of the fabrication, here the moving artwork provides direct access to a dreamlike stream of Amin’s innermost thoughts, verbalized through the heartfelt voiceover but truly conveyed in faces of the 2D characters. Animation goes where words or actors alone can’t, empowering Rasmussen and his team to confect a spectacular union of recalled truth and expressive imagery.

See Photos: Sundance 2021: What Has Sold So Far, From 'CODA' to 'Flee'

News footage from the era is occasionally interweaved to enrich our awareness of the historical conditions at the macro level, which were factors in the personal tribulations of so many. Out of Kabul, where he left his faint impression of his imprisoned father, Amin, his mother and siblings arrived in Russia just after the fall of the Soviet Union, only to experience harassment from local police while awaiting funds to move to Western Europe.

In lieu of keeping the unimaginably inhumane treatment they withstood in the abstract, “Flee” exemplifies it with specific scenes that evoke the ache of their harsh reality, sometimes with a hint of absurdity. There are the days they spent watching Mexican soap operas before embarking on a hazardous trip with traffickers, the impotence of not being able to prevent a sexual assault and the overwhelming embarrassment Amin felt when being looked at with condescending pity or indifference by those who’ve never had to migrate to survive. These pieces of unvarnished openness on Amin’s behalf hit hard.

Fighting another identity war through it all, Amin also recalls coming to terms with his sexual orientation as a child but keeping it secret until adulthood. The movie never addresses homosexuality in tragic terms, but rather through the lens of what it meant to grow up in the 1980s with Jean-Claude Van Damme as his movie crush, or jubilantly losing himself to the rhythm of an alternative rock song. Leave it to the human spirit to mine levity even from unthinkable hardship, be it a gentle moment with another boy or his older brother’s accepting gesture.

Nevertheless, the suffering of displacement goes beyond the aggravations endured in order to reach countries that begrudgingly help. It’s about all of what is lost in transit. Rasmussen manages to merge Amin’s account of the physical trip with the indelible scars of the psychological devastation that came once the water has settled. After harboring another tender secret out of fear of losing what he’s laboriously achieved, this open-heart conversation of a movie acts as a second coming-out for him — one that may hopefully clear some of the unresolved personal damage that has interfered in his romantic relationships and other social interactions.

There’s the realization that he’s forgetting Dari, his native tongue, or that no matter how professionally accomplished he becomes, the ghosts will continue to chase him. Still, amidst all those shadows of turmoil, there’s also the possibility of erecting another home — one cemented on his hard-tested resilience and genuine love, a place where he can once and for all rest his head without worries. Of all that Rasmussen does beautifully here, it is that life-affirming arch, traversing sorrow to get to hope, that’s the most moving. Etched without a false note of cynicism or falling into cheap sentimentality, “Flee” harnesses the animated medium in stunning form to grant us a miracle of empathy.

“Flee” has been acquired by NEON.

Pretty much all Wi-Fi routers are vulnerable to attack, study finds

Mayank Sharma - 
Provided by TechRadar


In a shocking revelation, cybersecurity researchers have discovered over 200 bugs in Wi-Fi routers made by nine popular manufacturers, suggesting that millions of the most common devices around the world are vulnerable to attacks.

Researchers from IoT Inspector and CHIP examined devices from Asus, AVM, D-Link, Netgear, Edimax, TP-Link, Synology, and Linksys, and found a total of 226 potential security vulnerabilities.

"The test negatively exceeded all expectations for secure home and small business routers. Not all vulnerabilities are equally critical - but at the time of the test, all devices showed significant security vulnerabilities that could make a hacker’s life much easier," said Florian Lukavsky, CTO of IoT Inspector

The two devices with the most number of vulnerabilities were the The TP-Link Archer AX6000 with 32 vulnerabilities, and the Synology RT-2600ac with 30 vulnerabilities.

Greater accountability

According to the researchers, some of the security issues were detected across multiple devices, generally because of outdated software. They fathom that, since integrating a new kernel into the firmware is a costly affair, all of the tested routers were running dated versions of the Linux kernel.

Similarly, additional services, such as multimedia streaming or VPN, were usually found to be powered by outdated software.

When contacted by the researchers, all of the manufacturers quickly responded by releasing firmware patches to resolve the issues.

The researchers also used the opportunity to point out that the coalition agreement of the new German government seeks to hold manufacturers accountable for vulnerabilities in their products.

“This increases the pressure on the industry to continuously secure products in order to avoid immense claims for damages,” point out the researchers.

Batten down the hatches with the help of the best firewall apps and services, and ensure your computers are protected with these best endpoint protection tools.

Marcus Lamb died of covid-19 after his network discouraged vaccines. But Christian leaders don’t want to talk about it.

Michelle Boorstein - 

When famed televangelist Marcus Lamb died this week at 64 after contracting covid-19, a who’s who of conservative Christian leaders sent out regrets. Evangelist Franklin Graham said Lamb is now “experiencing heaven.” National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference head Samuel Rodriguez called him a “faithful follower of Jesus ... with a heart for the lost and broken.”

Absent was a painful truth: Lamb had led his global Christian network, Daystar, for months in spreading inaccurate information about coronavirus vaccines and instead promoting treatments that are not proven remedies. The vaccines, a May segment on Daystar said, falsely, are “killing your immune system.”

But the silence and unanswered questions by some Christian leaders, as well as Lamb’s family and network, sit atop what some experts say is a deep base of politics, conspiratorial thinking and a skepticism of anything that appears secular

And that makes frank discussion of Daystar’s activism against vaccines, even in the face of death, unlikely.

Robert Morris, the Dallas-area pastor whose Gateway Church will host Lamb’s funeral Monday, declined to comment on the topic. He “has not and will not engage in the medical debate or dialogue regarding vaccines,” Morris spokesman Lawrence Swicegood told The Washington Post in an email. “Those are personal choices, and one should consult medical advice from their doctor to make their own choice. As a church pastor his sermons at Gateway Church address spiritual issues and biblical content.”On social media, vaccine misinformation mixes with extreme faith

Daystar for months has hosted conspiracy theorists pressing unproven treatments for the virus, including some who framed vaccines and mandates as ungodly and satanic. Lamb and others featured on Daystar described the virus, vaccines and vaccine mandates as evidence of the devil trying to attack followers of a true God.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that this is a spiritual attack from the enemy,” Lamb’s son, Jonathan, said on the network last month about his father’s covid-19 bout, Relevant magazine reported this week. “The enemy,” he said, is angered by the promotion of vaccine alternatives. “And he’s doing everything he can to take down my dad.”

Pollsters say the religious group most reluctant to get vaccinated are White evangelicals. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation research out this week, 25 percent of that group say they still “definitely won’t” get vaccinated. About 14.5 percent of Americans are White evangelicals, according to the Public Religion Research Institute.

Curtis Chang, a divinity school professor who last year launched the Christians and the Vaccine project, said the repulsion among evangelicals to vaccines is multilayered — and in some ways new.

“Built into conservative evangelical Christianity, at its best, is a critical stance towards all institutions. There is this belief: ‘Look, we follow Jesus, and all other loyalties have to be critically evaluated.’ Anything secular is held in immediate suspicion,” Chang said. “That impulse in evangelicalism has gotten so weaponized by a bunch of influences in politics, media and movements like the anti-vaccine movement. It adds a spiritualization of that suspicion, such that they see demonic forces. It’s so entangled.”New survey: Most U.S. churchgoers trust their clergy for covid vaccine guidance, but clergy aren’t really offering it

Graham, the son of Christian icon Billy Graham and president of Samaritan’s Purse, the huge humanitarian aid group, was slammed by some evangelicals in the spring after he urged people to get vaccinated and called the vaccines “pro-life.” Criticism came from people distrustful of medical institutions and those calling the vaccines “devilish” — or both.

Asked this week why he did not mention the vaccine issue in his tributes to Lamb, Franklin Graham wrote to The Post that he had noted that Lamb died of complications from the virus.

“I have been very clear about my support for vaccines. As a Christian, I am pro-life, and I believe vaccines are tools that are being used to save lives,” Graham wrote. “Of course, Daystar Television Network and millions of others have a different opinion, and even though we may disagree, I respect them. Like all medical treatments, vaccines are a personal choice.”

The issue can be explosive for businesses that serve vaccine skeptics. Some Christian media executives say they hear from many angry customers when they promote vaccines.

Dan Darling lost his job as spokesman for the National Religious Broadcasters in August after he publicly endorsed vaccines from an evangelical perspective. The NRB is a conservative-leaning group of Christian media professionals.

“While most evangelicals have seen the prudence and safety of the vaccines, there are many who are hesitant,” Darling wrote to The Post. “Part of the reason for this skepticism is a deep distrust of American institutions, many of which have failed in recent years. And part of the reason is misinformation. I’m saddened by the passing of Marcus Lamb. His ministry was very influential and was felt by millions around the world. We should mourn every death from COVID and pray for an end to this pandemic.”

Even Daystar, which devotes prominent space on its network and webpage to doubt about the vaccines, declined to comment when asked about this topic. A spokesperson declined to say whether Lamb was vaccinated.

Sarah Posner, a journalist who has written two books about the Christian right, said “the predominant theology” for watchers of networks such as Daystar — the second-biggest Christian network in the world, according to its competitor CBN — centers on life as a spiritual battle in which faith healing is possible.A pastor’s life depends on a coronavirus vaccine. Now he faces skeptics in his church.

“Marcus Lamb was seen by his audience as a very godly Christian figure who is telling them that the vaccines are bad and these [alternative treatments] are good and to do these things instead,” Posner said. “So how could he get covid? Because satanic forces are against his truth-telling and are trying to bring him down.” She added that secular politics is also an essential part of the picture for White evangelicals, who are overwhelmingly politically conservative. “If vaccines are being promoted by Democrats or a government controlled by Democrats, they must be bad.”

Chang, a former evangelical pastor, cites Pew Research polling showing that White evangelicals as recently as 2016 overwhelmingly favored vaccine mandates, at rates around 76 percent.

“It’s this extreme hijacking of the evangelical movement by these forces,” he said, adding that he does not expect Lamb’s death to change the segment of the vaccine-resistant. “It’s like a cult — you just revise and tweak the belief system to accommodate the new fact.”

Marcus Lamb's career and anti-vax message speak to power of Christian broadcasters (Opinion)

Opinion by Nicole Hemmer -

At least five conservative radio hosts who warned their audiences against the vaccine have died of Covid in recent months. But the death of Marcus Lamb this week highlights a different network of misinformation that has nearly as broad a reach in conservative circles but receives far less attention in political media: conservative Christian broadcasters.

Marcus Lamb, a televangelist who founded the Daystar network and was a major source of Covid-19 misinformation, died after being hospitalized with the disease. Lamb's son, Jonathan, described his father's diagnosis as "a spiritual attack from the enemy... As much as my parents have gone on here to kind of inform everyone about everything going on in the pandemic and some of the ways to treat Covid, there's no doubt that the enemy is not happy about that, and he's doing everything he can to take down my dad." A statement from Daystar Television Network said in part, "The family asks at this time that their privacy be respected as they grieve this difficult loss, and they wish to express their deep love and gratitude for all those who prayed during Marcus's health battle. Continue to lift them up in prayer in the days ahead."

Those concerned about the effects of misinformation and disinformation have devoted a great deal of attention over the past two years to addressing the problem, especially as it relates to the pandemic and Covid vaccine: their focus tends to be on outlets like Fox News, Newsmax and One America News, as well as the right-wing talk radio shows that clog the nation's airwaves.

This parallel network of media is both popular and profitable. Daystar, the network Lamb co-founded in 1993, claimed $233 million in assets in 2011, and is carried on nearly every major satellite and cable provider in the US. Among peer outlets, it was not alone in its reach: Trinity Broadcasting Network is even larger, and Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network produces some of the most well-known Christian shows in the country, including The 700 Club. Add to that a cohort of national and local radio programs dedicated to conservative Christian broadcasting, and you have a network of media outlets that enormous audiences of Americans consume on a regular basis, and that most political outlets tend to ignore.

There are reasons that this sector of conservative media gets overlooked. The first is historical: conservative Christian broadcasts with a political bent have been around for nearly a century, with roots in the radio show of Father Charles Coughlin, who moved across the political spectrum before settling on a vitriolic anti-New Deal, antisemitic politics by the late 1930s. In the 1950s and 1960s, a new generation of hardline anti-communist radio preachers emerged, with programs like Billy James Hargis's Christian Crusade and Carl McIntire's 20th Century Reformation Hour.

Those shows arose alongside more traditional right-wing radio that focused more tightly on politics, shows like The Manion Forum and The Dan Smoot Report that launched in the early 1950s and grew in influence throughout the 1960s. But while the ideas and audiences of the religious and political shows overlapped -- they all warned about the twin evils of Soviet communism and US liberalism -- the institutions they built with the influence they wielded were distinctly separate. The religious broadcasters were embedded with churches and conservative evangelical organizations, while the political shows developed ties with the Republican Party and more secular operations.

They also relied on different forms of authority. Political shows often rooted their arguments in ideological frameworks rooted in assumptions about the benefits of traditional hierarchies, conservative interpretations of founding documents and ideas, and the fundamental correctness of Christian and western values. For religious shows, the appeals were more spiritual: preachers claimed to have spiritual gifts and a direct connection to God.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the rise of an organized and active religious right in the Republican Party began blurring the lines between religious and secular broadcasters on the right. No one embodied that gray area more than Pat Robertson, whose Christian Broadcasting Network represented one of the earliest and most successful forms of televangelism in the US. Making inroads into cable broadcasting in the 1960s, Robertson created a televangelist empire, one that made him wealthy, famous, and politically powerful.

The son of one of Virginia's staunch segregationist senators, Robertson was no stranger to politics. Still, his decision in 1987 to run for the Republican nomination for president had the potential to demolish the walls between televangelism and Republican Party politics.

But voters -- even the increasingly evangelical Republican base -- did not buy the argument that preaching was a path to the presidency. He had a hard time overcoming what TV host John McLaughlin called the "wacko factor," the mix of unusual religious practices and outrageous political statements Robertson had engaged in over the years. In addition to speaking in tongues and engaging in faith healings, he had recently called non-Christians "termites" and said only Christians and Jews should be eligible to hold office in the US. Add to that a series of televangelist scandals in the 1980s that didn't implicate Robertson but did tarnish his profession -- and both Robertson and religious broadcasting slipped out of the mainstream and into a subculture largely invisible to nonevangelicals.

Yet just because few people were paying attention to religious broadcasters did not mean they lost their influence -- or their interest in politics. The Christian Broadcasting Network received White House press credentials in the 1980s, and officials from the George W. Bush, Obama and Trump administrations appeared on its shows. In fact, for all the focus on the cozy relationship between Donald Trump and Fox News, he and his team fostered close ties with the Christian Broadcasting Network well before he ran for president. In his first year in office, Trump sat for more interviews with the network than with CNN, ABC or CBS.

The Trump administration regularly turned to media personalities like Christian broadcasters who embraced Trump's message while relying on a different kind of authority than mainstream journalism or, during the pandemic, credible scientists. Conservative religious broadcasters were perfect for this: because viewers often understood this programming as an extension of worship practices, they trusted the preachers as a matter of faith and divine intercession..

That was true both when preachers like Marcus Lamb encouraged his viewers to vote for Donald Trump (citing Trump's willingness to appoint conservative judges who might overturn abortion rights and same-sex marriage laws) and when he began telling them in the summer of 2020 to be suspicious of any Covid-19 vaccinations. Over the course of the next year, the network developed a significant archive of Covid misinformation, not only airing anti-vaccination misinformation but promoting unproven prophylactics like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as replacements for the vaccines.

Conspiratorial misinformation has long been part of radio and television preaching, from Coughlin's false rantings about a worldwide Jewish conspiracy to McIntire's opposition to water fluoridation to Pat Robertson's bizarre warnings of a "new world order" run by the Illuminati and the Freemasons under directions from Satan. In that context, Lamb's pandemic misinformation seems predictable, even mild. But for him, it came at a much higher price: a life that ended at age 64 from the disease he convinced himself -- and many of his followers -- could not harm him as much as the vaccine that likely could have saved his life.

Plumber finds about 500 envelopes full of cash, checks behind loose toilet at Joel Osteen’s Houston megachurch

Muri Assunção - 

It’s a miracle!

A plumber working at Joel Osteen’s Houston megachurch said that he found a stash of cash and checks hidden in a wall behind a loose toilet.

Around 500 envelopes filled with cash and checks were found as insulation was removed from the wall earlier last month.

The stunning discovery was made on Nov. 10. According to Click2Houston, the plumber later called a local radio station to talk about his incredible finding.

“There was a loose toilet in the wall and we removed the tile…well they removed the tile,” the caller, who hasn’t been named, said.

“[I] Went to go remove the toilet and I moved some insulation away and about 500 envelopes fell out of the wall, l, and I was like ‘Oh wow!,’ the man told host George Lindsey during a show at 100.3 The Bull, a local country music radio station.

“I went ahead and contacted the maintenance supervisor that was there and I went ahead and turned it all in,” he added.

In a statement, Joel Osteen’s massive non-denominational Christian megachurch confirmed that “an undisclosed amount of cash and checks” had been recently found” “while repair work was being done at Lakewood Church.”

Church officials “immediately notified the Houston Police Department and [the church] is assisting them with their investigation. Lakewood has no further comment at this time.”

It’s unclear how much money was recovered, but the discovery raises some questions. Seven years ago, about $600,000 was reported missing from a church safe.

In March 2014, the church sent out a letter to its then-more than 40,000 members to let them know about the theft.

“We were heartbroken to learn today that funds were stolen from the church over the weekend. This includes cash, checks and envelopes containing written credit card information, and it is limited only to those funds contributed in the church services on Saturday, March 8 and Sunday, March 9, 2014. If you made a contribution during these weekend services, we would encourage you to pay close attention to your accounts over the next several days and weeks and report any suspicious activity to your financial institution or credit card company immediately,” the letter read.

Republicans launch bill to make history of COMMUNISM...

Morgan Phillips, Politics Reporter For Dailymail.Com - 

Yesterday 

Republicans are launching a bill that would prompt schools to incorporate the 'failed' history of communism into their curriculum.

The 'Crucial Communism Teaching Act,' which has 60 House co-sponsors, comes after Republicans hit out against critical race theory in schools and teachings such as the 1619 Project.

'The only equality communism offers is being equally poor equally hungry equally oppressed and equally exiled. The truth is communism is a cancer,' Rep. Maria Salazar, R-Fla., said at a press conference announcing the bill.

Salazar, whose parents were Cuban exiles, claimed that one-third of Gen Z has a favorable view of communism, and over 40% of millennials 'say they don't know much about Marxism.'

'American students should learn about the Soviet gulags ... where Stalin purposely starved 3.5M Ukrainians,' Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, said at the press conference.


© Provided by Daily Mail(


© Provided by Daily Mail(

'They should learn about Mao's great leap forward in cultural revolution that killed 10s of millions of Chinese. They should learn about modern day slavery happening right now with Uighur Muslims.'

'From the Marxist-infused radicalism of the '60s to the critical race theory trends of today, I don't think the Soviets could have imagined a better ally than the Democrat socialists of America today, some of which currently serve in our Congress,' the Texas Republican continued.

The bill is meant to 'ensure communism remains in the trash heap of history where it belongs,' he added.

'Students should know their classmate wearing a cool Che Guevara t-shirt is not being chic,' Crenshaw said.

The federal government's authority over public education has always been limited, as most is left up to states and localities. The federal government provides only 7% of the money spent on public education.

And under the Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaced No Child Left Behind during President Obama's tenure, the federal government is banned from telling schools what to teach.

But, the legislation simply builds a curriculum and provides materials through the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation for states and local educators to use.

ORIGINAL ANTI COMMUNISTS

The legislation is modeled after a Florida bill signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that directs the state Department of Education to develop a curriculum to educate students on the evils of communism and totalitarian regimes.

The bills comes as Republicans have embarked on a fight against teaching critical race theory, or the idea that racism is embedded in our society and upheld by institutions.

Eleven states have enacted bills banning the teaching, or the use of the 1619 Project in curriculum. The 1619 project is a New York Times Magazine series that argues the founding of America should be marked when the first slaves arrived here, in 1619. It puts slavery and racism at the center of American history.

Earlier this year Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Mo., and Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., introduced companion bills that would have banned teaching critical race theory in schools. That legislation got 51 co-sponsors in the House. 

'Art from the soul': Prize awarded to artists with disabilities

December 3 is International Day of People with Disabilities. Germany's euward art prize aims to give greater visibility to works created by those with intellectual disabilities.



Andreas Maus is the 2021 Euward art prize laureate


Eyes wide open, a woman runs through a hail of bombs, crying out in pain, her naked body burning. In this war scene captured on paper with ballpoint pen, Cologne artist Andreas Maus gave shape to the suffering of the German civilian population during World War II.

The works won Maus this year's euward art prize, one of the most important international awards for paintingand graphic arts for people with intellectual disabilities. The prize is awarded every three years by the Munich-based Augustinum Foundation.

Maus' works and those of two other euward winners were on display in summer 2021 at Munich's Haus der Kunst, one of Germany's most prestigious museums. Klaus Mecherlein, a German art educator, established the art prize for painting and graphics over 20 years ago.

"We wanted more visibility for the art of people with cognitive disabilities," Mecherlein told DW, adding that goal has been achieved with the euward award.

'Art from the soul'

The art educator heads the euward archive and the Augustinum studio in Munich, where artists with intellectual disabilities work.

What distinguishes the art of people with and without impairments?

"Art experts would see the difference right away," said Mecherlein, adding that artists with intellectual disabilities don't focus so much on the impact of their work when drawing or painting.

Theirs is an art that "comes entirely from the soul, an art of great directness," he said. Andreas Maus is a good example. Born in 1964, the Cologne artist focuses on pressing contemporary issues like exclusion, violence, persecution, war and killing.

Interest in artistic "directness" is on the rise. In Berlin, ART CRU gallery director Alexandra von Gersdorff-Bultmann shows so-called outsider art by people with mental illnesses or disabilities.

She wants to encourage their creative abilities, and considers their art to be particularly "genuine." People with impairments simply let brush, pen or canvas do the talking.

"I want these artists to never lose faith in themselves and to make use of their potential," the gallery owner said in Berlin's Tagesspiegel newspaper.

The exhibition 'Art Defies Disability' toured across Germany for three years

In Germany, von Gersdorff-Bultmann is seen as a pioneer in the field of outsider art. However, interest in the creativity of people with disabilities goes back more than 100 years. In the 1910s, the German psychiatrist and art historian Hans Prinzhorn (1886-1933) analyzed the creative works of mentally ill people. His large collection is now on display at the University of Heidelberg.

Prinzhorn avoided the word "art"; instead, he spoke of pictorial works. After World War II, French artist Jean Dubufett (1901-1985) developed a concept of anti-intellectual art inspired by children, the naive and the mentally ill, which he called "art brut" (raw art). The British art scholar Roger Cardinal (1940-2019) eventually coined the term outsider art.
Creating conditions for artistic work

Art brut, art cru, outsider art — the terms don't mean much to Melanie Schmitt, an art historian and therapist who runs Kunsthaus Kaethe:K near Cologne. For the past year, 11 people who need cognitive support have been living and working in the Kunsthaus studios.

"We want to raise the creative potential of these people and create the conditions for their artistic work," said Schmitt.

Firat Tagal, seen here immersed in his work

Firat Tagal's Kunsthaus studio is piled high with large-format acrylic paintings of architecture and pop culture. Elias von Martial, who like Tagal is in his mid-20s, specializes in drawings that revolve around myths, combat and fantasy.

"When I draw there could be an earthquake outside, and I might not notice," he said. The young man would like to study at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, a goal Schmitt believes he can achieve.

Andreas Pilz knows of many such artists who are serious about their art.

"Promoting these people is a never-ending task," Pilz told DW. The art expert was in charge of an exhibition of works by people with and without disabilities, which toured Germany for three years and ended in 2017.

"It's about the art, not the disability," he said.

 

Libya court reinstates Kadhafi’s son as presidential candidate: media

By

 AFP

 -

December 2, 2021

A court in southern Libya on Thursday reinstated Seif al-Islam Kadhafi, son of slain leader Moamer Kadhafi, as a candidate in next month’s presidential election, Libyan media reported.

He had lodged an appeal earlier in the day at the court in Sebha against the electoral commission’s rejection of his application last month.

The commission had pointed to articles of the electoral law stipulating that candidates “must not have been sentenced for a dishonourable crime” and must present a clean criminal record.

Western officials have talked up a United Nations-led peace process and insist on “inclusive” and “credible” elections starting on December 24 in the North African country, despite serious disputes over how they should be held, and their credibility.

Libya is seeking to move beyond a decade of violence that has rocked the oil-rich nation since a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed Kadhafi senior in 2011.

Seif al-Islam, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, had registered to run on November 14 but was among 25 candidates whose bids have were rejected by the elections board last week.

It said the 25 had been rejected on legal grounds as well as information from officials including the public prosecutor, a police chief and the head of the passports and citizenship department.

Seif al-Islam had lodged an appeal in Sebha, but last week a “group of outlaws” launched an “odious” attack on the court, forcing it to shut hours before the appeal hearing, the government in Tripoli said.

He was the first heavyweight candidate to sign up for the election, after emerging from years in the shadows and telling The New York Times in July that he was planning a political comeback.

In the rare interview, Seif al-Islam said he wanted to “restore the lost unity” of Libya after a decade of chaos.

He had been sentenced to death by a Tripoli court for crimes committed during the revolt that toppled his father.

A rival administration in eastern Libya later pardoned him.

The ICC has repeatedly asked for him to be handed over for trial for crimes against humanity, specifically “murder and persecution” allegedly committed using state forces across Libya in February 2011.

But Seif al-Islam is far from being the only controversial figure to lodge a bid for the presidency.

Among them is military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who controls much of eastern and southern Libya. He is hated by many in the west of the country after he launched a year-long assault on Tripoli between 2019-2020.

A Tripoli appeals court on Wednesday rejected two petitions against interim prime minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah’s candidacy.

WHITE SUPREMACY

Pipeline: Cascade of white owners has slowed NFL change
By EDDIE PELLS

Houston Texans owner Bob McNair watches from the sidelines before an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals Saturday, Dec. 24, 2016, in Houston. Over the past 100 years, around 110 men and a handful of women have owned controlling portions of NFL teams. Of that select group, all but two have been white. (AP Photo/Eric Christian Smith, File)


Over the past 100 years, around 110 people have owned controlling portions of NFL teams. Of that select group, all but two have been white.

This basic head count might offer the simplest explanation for how, even with rules in place for nearly two decades that are designed to improve diversity, the league has struggled to build a pipeline for bringing Blacks and other minorities into coaching and front-office positions.

The lead investigator for the latest NFL Inclusion and Diversity Report gives a nod to the less-than-satisfying nature of the numbers in that report by leading off his opening message with the reminder: “Progress is a process.”

In 2021, the process produced these statistics: Black players make up about 70% of team rosters but the league has only three Black head coaches, while it had eight in 2011; Black coaches who fail in their first try in the jobs get inordinately fewer second and third chances than their white counterparts; the NFL this year recalibrated its much-celebrated Rooney Rule, which ensures minority candidates for front-office positions are identified and interviewed, to make sure teams talk to at least two such candidates for front-office positions and coordinator roles.

Academics who study the subject say the latest set of underwhelming numbers, along with the latest set of changes implemented in an attempt to improve them, are in line with the century-long history of a league that has been controlled by rich white men.

“To understand this problem, you have to look at it from a broader macro-historical lens,” said John Singer, who teaches courses on diversity and social justice in sports at Texas A&M. “It goes back to an old-boys network. It’s an informal system in which wealthy men, particularly wealthy white men with social and economic backgrounds, help each other out.”

In many ways, the academics say, the arc of diversity and inclusion in the NFL mirrors that in America itself. It’s more complex than simply saying owners have long been more comfortable hiring people who looked and talked like them, though that certainly could be one element in play in a league that didn’t hire a single Black head coach between Fritz Pollard in the 1920s and Art Shell in 1989.

“There’s also a matter of who they think is most marketable, who resonates with their fan base,” said Anthony Weems, an assistant professor at Florida International University who wrote a dissertation on NFL owners and the social structure they created over a century.

“Over time, a lot of these owners are the same people, or the teams got passed down in the family. So it’s almost like, ‘Why would things have changed if the actual players in those positions haven’t changed?’” Weems said.

The professors agree that it was no surprise earlier this year to see the racist emails that surfaced between Jon Gruden and former Washington executive Bruce Allen. Also not shocking, but far less spotlighted, was the scenario that played out in 2017 when Texans owner Bob McNair said “We can’t have the inmates running the prison.”

McNair apologized and said he hadn’t been speaking about the players. When he died in 2018, ownership of the team passed to his wife.

“There was backlash for sure, but why are they running Gruden out of a job when they allowed McNair to operate just fine and he passed the team down?” Weems said. “It’s indicative of a larger culture.”

Jaguars owner Shad Khan, one of the league’s two minority owners, said he was taken aback when he tried to buy a controlling stake in the Rams in 2010.

“I had met some people at that time and the apology that went around, the conjecture was, ‘You will never get approved because you’re not white,’” he said.

But he said those thoughts didn’t match up with the reality. He moved on from the Rams and ended up buying the Jaguars in 2011, and paints a much more optimistic picture about NFL ownerships’ relation to race.

“I think the league is at the forefront and they’re going to be doing more,” Khan said. “And my being in the middle, yes, I’ve seen a change.”

In a short essay that accompanied the latest diversity and inclusion report, lead investigator C. Keith Harrison writes about the academic topic of attribution bias, which, he explains, are errors made when trying to explain why people make decisions they make. It undercuts the idea that, for instance, all decisions made by a largely white group of owners might be based solely on race.

Still, the results remain the same, and Harrison points to other academic studies that conclude the impact of biased behavior does add up over time.

“In the context of the NFL, African Americans and other human beings of color pay their dues, and when it appears to be their turn it is often a white coach hired again. And again. And again,” he writes.

He used the example of Urban Meyer’s attempt to hire Chris Doyle as an assistant for the Jaguars as a prime example.

Doyle’s hiring was squelched after accusations surfaced about his racist remarks and bullying of players during his 22 years at the University of Iowa.

That episode illustrated what many people see as one core problem in the NFL’s diversity issue: A century’s worth of white owners have built a system in which white coaches and leaders get far more second and third chances, while Black coaches are harder to find and don’t have as many chances to fail. For instance, since 1963, 15 white coaches have been given a third head-coaching job, compared to zero coaches of color. (The report says Tom Flores was the lone coach to be afforded a third chance, but authors did not respond to The Associated Press when it asked what the third job was. Flores coached the Raiders and Seahawks.)

Cyrus Mehri, who co-founded the Fritz Pollard Alliance, which, according to its website, “exists to champion diversity in the National Football League,” said the league office is not to blame for the systemic diversity issues in the NFL.

“It’s the owners,” Mehri said, in a quote embedded in the diversity and inclusion report. “We have spectacular candidates, and we still have decision making (among owners) that’s irrational.”

John Solow, a professor who studied the NFL while teaching at Iowa and now is at Central Florida, who co-wrote a paper on the Rooney Rule in 2011, said that in the universe the owners have created, it can be argued that it’s hard to tell if Black assistant coaches are being discriminated against because, compared to whites in the same positions, there haven’t been enough of them over the years to do a truly scientific study on the issue.

For instance, between 2012-2021, whites were hired for 168 of the 219 (76%) open coordinator positions, which are considered the top launching pads for head-coaching jobs. That almost mirrors the hiring pattern for head coaches: Whites have been tabbed for 51 of the 62 openings (82%) since 2012.

“But then, you have to go back a step and say ‘Why aren’t there (more) Black assistant coaches?’” Solow said. “And then you ask ‘Was there discrimination?’ And we couldn’t really find any. But we also couldn’t really find any evidence that the Rooney Rule was working.”

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AP Pro Football Writer Mark Long contributed to this report.

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WHITE SUPREMACY

Study: Black, Asian Britons have higher COVID-19 death rates


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Vaccinator Daniel Zadorozni gives a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in London, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021. Britain says it will offer all adults a booster dose of vaccine within two months to bolster the nation's immunity as the new omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads. New measures to combat variant came into force in England on Tuesday, with face coverings again compulsory in shops and on public transport. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)


LONDON (AP) — Almost two years into the pandemic, Black people and members of other racial and ethnic minorities in Britain are still dying with the coronavirus at higher rates than white residents, likely because of lower vaccination rates, a government-commissioned report said Friday.

The research found that vaccination has sharply reduced COVID-19 death rates for people of all ethnicities. But Black and South Asian Britons die at higher rates even though white people are more likely to test positive for the virus.

“In the first two waves, the higher death rate seen in ethnic minorities was primarily due to their higher risk of infection compared to whites — particularly in older age groups,” said Dr. Raghib Ali, the British government’s independent adviser on COVID-19 and ethnicity.

In recent months, Ali said, “we are seeing lower infection rates in ethnic minorities than in white people, but rates of hospital admissions and deaths are still higher, with the pattern now matching levels of vaccine uptake in higher risk groups.”

British health officials have launched information campaigns and worked with community groups and religious leaders to combat vaccine hesitancy among ethnic minorities. Ali said they have had some success, with vaccination rates in older Black African and Pakistani people seeing the biggest increase of any group in the six months before October.

But overall vaccination rates remain highest in white people and lowest in Black groups. About 90% of adults in Britain have had at least one vaccine dose, but the figure is under 80% among Asian communities and less than two-thirds among people from Black African and Black Caribbean backgrounds.

The government appointed Ali after it became clear that some ethnic groups were being hit harder than others by COVID-19.

Research has highlighted multiple factors. Some ethnic groups have higher prevalence of underlying health conditions and are more likely to live in large, multi-generational households. People from ethnic minorities also hold a big share of frontline jobs, such as taxi and mass transit drivers, that saw high infection rates early in the pandemic.

Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch said the “understanding of how COVID-19 affects different ethnic groups has transformed since the pandemic began.”

“We know now that factors like the job someone does, where they live, and how many people they live with, impacts how susceptible they are to the virus, and it’s imperative that those more at risk get their booster vaccine,” she said.

The U.K. government is aiming to offer everyone 18 and up a third, booster dose of vaccine by the end of January. Health officials hope the increased protection will help keep the new omicron variant at bay, even if it proves more resistant to vaccines than other strains.

Much remains unknown about the variant, including whether it is more contagious, as some health authorities suspect, whether it makes people more seriously ill, and whether it can thwart vaccines.

Britain has confirmed several dozen cases of omicron — including a cluster linked to a concert by pop group Steps in Glasgow — and authorities say the variant is spreading in the community. But the delta variant remains by far the dominant strain.

Britain has recorded more than 145,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest toll in Europe after Russia.

While several other European countries have imposed new restrictions on daily life or introduced vaccine mandates, Britain has held back, though masks are once again mandatory in shops and on public transit.

Amid jitters from businesses that holiday-season trade is at risk from the new variant, the Conservative government urged people to continue to shop and socialize.

“The message to people, I think, is fairly straightforward — which is: keep calm, carry on with your Christmas plan,” Conservative Party chief Oliver Dowden said.

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Survey: Florida dogs ranked most obedient, Washington the least


A Samoyed won the working group competition at the 145th annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in Tarrytown, New York, on June 13. According to a survey, Florida has the most obedient dogs and Washington the least. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo


Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Florida, Utah and Arizona are the states with the most obedient dogs while Washington, Michigan and Illinois have the least obedient pooches, according to a poll the website OneVet released Thursday.

The poll came from a survey of more than 3,100 dog owners with at least 50 owners from each state. Respondents rated their dog's obedience level on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being not obedient at all and 5 being the most obedient.

OneVet also asked a series of supplemental questions centered around teaching obedience in both new puppies and fully grown canines.

Florida ranked as the state with the best-behaved dogs with a rating that is 6.79% higher than the national average, followed by Utah at 6.31% and Arizona at 5.39%. Arkansas and North Carolina tied for fourth with a rating 4.53% higher than the national average.

On the other end, Washington was found to have the least obedient dogs with a rating 7.42% below the national average, followed by Michigan at -6.76%, Illinois at -6.16% and Indiana at -5.21%.

"On average, dogs across the nation were rated 3.37 out of 5 by their owners when it comes to obedience," OneVet said. "This is certainly not a bad score, but clearly, there is room for improvement.

The survey also found 67% of dog owners started training their dogs in the first year they were born, 49% of male dog owners think their dogs are trained better than other people's dogs, and 43% of dog owners admit that they judge other people on how well their dog is trained.

Another 20% of dog owners have sent their dogs to obedience training classes, 57% of pet owners said their dog listens better at home than out in public and 33% of female dog owners said they were prevented from taking their dogs to dog parks or restaurants due to obedience issues.