Vienna exhibition tests ethics of displaying human remains


The collection of around 50,000 human body parts at Vienna's Natural History Museum was first conceived in 1796 to help train medical students 

(AFP/JOE KLAMAR)

Blaise GAUQUELIN
Sat, December 11, 2021, 11:31 PM·4 min read

A vast, bloated liver. An infant with lacerated skin. The deformed skeleton of a young girl.

The recent renovation of one of the collections belonging to Vienna's prestigious Natural History Museum provided curators with a new test of how to display its vast trove of human medical remains, some dating back more than two centuries, without crossing modern red lines of ethics and good taste.

The collection of around 50,000 human body parts was first conceived in 1796 to help train medical students.

In today's world, such gruesome galleries raise tricky questions over whether the public good outweighs moral issues such as human dignity, power and exploitation, and the consent of those -- admittedly long dead -- subjects on display for all.

"We try to avoid voyeurism by giving as much explanation as possible," says curator Eduard Winter, pointing out that photography inside the galleries is not allowed.

Winter said he hopes that when museum-goers are confronted with "a 30-kilogramme liver... they will realise what alcohol can do to the human body".

Curious visitors can also learn about the effects of viruses on the body or what burn injuries to blood vessels look like. They can peer at human organs, skulls and body parts -- exhibits that some other countries restrict to researchers.

For its supporters, education around the scientific investigation of disease and human health means access to the collection is in the public interest.

"Everyone will have to face illness one day," exhibition director Katrin Vohland says.

"Some people come because they themselves are affected" by certain health problems, while others "want to know more about how science has progressed," she adds.

- 'New level of awareness' -

The exhibition reopened to the public in September, with only a portion of the world's largest publicly accessible anatomical pathology collection put on display at the renovated museum.

"I knew the former exhibition, but the current one is much better prepared, because everything is described, there is much more information," biology teacher Christian Behavy said during a recent visit to the museum by AFP.

Behavy, who was leading a group of teenagers around the museum, said that his class "could take the information in better" from the exhibits than from textbooks.

Nevertheless, some of the students did seem taken aback by what they saw -- the skeleton of the girl with hydrocephaly, for example, or the preserved body of an infant with lacerations on the skin.

Human remains have been a part of such displays in Europe since the late 16th century when Egyptian mummies were first exhibited.

But according to Marie Cornu, a director of research at France's CNRS institute and an expert on property law as it relates to cultural artefacts, the early 2000s saw a "new level of awareness" on the issue.

The debate was sparked by South Africa's demand for the repatriation of the remains of Saartjie Baartman, a woman from the Khoisan people who was paraded for show in Europe in the 19th century.

After her death, her body was dissected and her skeleton, skull and genitalia were displayed in Paris's Museum of Mankind until 1974.

Controversy also surrounded the plasticising of human remains displayed in blockbuster commercial exhibits in the mid-2000s, with some cities banning the shows on the grounds that organisers could not verify adequate consent and the provenance of body parts.

It has only been in the past 20 years that institutions have "begun to ask themselves questions", says Cornu.

- Changing ethics -

To aid such discussions, the International Council of Museums has put together a code of ethics that stipulates that human remains "should be acquired only if they can be housed securely and cared for respectfully".

This must also be done with due attention to "the interests and beliefs" of the community of origin.

Herwig Czech, professor of the history of medicine at the University of Vienna, says that today it would be unthinkable for "someone to die in a hospital and then reappear in an exhibition".

Eloise Quetel, head of medical collections at Paris's Sorbonne University, has also had to grapple with the ethics of such displays and thinks that "they can't be presented as they were before".

Visitors need to be told "why these collections were put together and preserved", she says.

While the Vienna exhibition doesn't raise as many thorny questions relating to colonialism as those in other European countries, Vohland says care must be taken that nothing was obtained illegally and to "know the context in which the specimens arrived".

"It's very important to know what we can show the public."

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NO ONE IS PRO ABORTION
I am not pro-abortion, but here's why I support a woman's right to choose | Opinion


Barbara R Casper
Fri, December 10, 2021

I listened to the arguments before the Supreme Court regarding Mississippi’s law on abortion and felt compelled to discuss my own evolution in thinking regarding this issue.

In high school, I was adamantly against abortion and actually spoke in church and in other venues about the scourge on society. My naïve teenage self had no understanding of the nuances of the situation, and it was not until I went to medical school that I think I fully grasped the impact of unintended pregnancies on women, especially women of color and those of fewer means.

I am not pro-abortion. In fact, I dare say no one is actually pro-abortion. 

I view abortion as a very sad failure – a failure of adequate reproductive education, a failure of access to contraception, a failure to protect women and girls from rape, a failure of society to support families with children.

All of these factors and more play into a woman’s choice to have an abortion and for those women I know who have taken advantage of their right to an abortion, it has been a difficult, heartrending decision. I absolutely support a woman’s right to make the decision whether she is prepared emotionally and financially to take on the responsibility of raising a child.

It appears that the Supreme Court is prepared to uphold the Mississippi law which seems to portend the end of Roe v. Wade. I am inordinately sad for the women in our country who no longer will be able to make a choice about their own reproductive health.

Opinion: Here's what's at risk if Kentucky loses safe access to abortion | Opinion

If we are going to do this, we need to make sure we are prepared as a society to provide the necessary support for these children and their mothers.

First of all, appropriate reproductive education needs to be provided in schools. This should include a scientific approach to contraception in addition to abstinence.

Contraception should be made readily available to women and girls at any point of contact with health professionals. In addition, adequate mental health support should be available not only for women who feel unprepared to be a mother, but to women and girls who have been victims of rape or are forced to carry a child with a lethal congenital defect.

Once the child is born, we need to ensure that the child will have a safe home, safe water supply and enough to eat. Childcare will be really important so that mothers can work to support their children. In addition, it is imperative that children receive an education to prepare them for a successful life and career in the future.

It is interesting that many of these things are in the Build Back Better bill that is now before the Senate and which some of the very people who are adamantly anti-abortion oppose. Catholic nun, Sister Joan Chittister once said that the movement is really pro-birth and not pro-life. I might have to agree with that assessment and also wonder if those who have been fighting to oppose abortion may find themselves in the position of the dog who catches the car – now what?

You may like: Kentucky among states with instant abortion ban if Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade

Barbara Casper

As I look back over my own life, I can’t help but wonder how an unintended pregnancy would have affected the trajectory of my career. I am certain that my younger self would not have chosen abortion and would likely not have opted to put a child up for adoption.

I doubt seriously that I would have been able to complete college, medical school and residency either as a single or partnered parent. I would not have had the privilege of caring for patients for 35 years and helping to prepare hundreds of students and residents for successful medical careers. Luckily, I did not have to make that choice, but I can’t help but wonder how many women did not have a choice and what impact they may have had. I guess we will never know.

Barbara R Casper MD, FACP is a retired professor of medicine at the University of Louisville who spent thirty-five years practicing internal medicine and teaching residents and students. She is dedicated to health equity.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: From pro-life to pro-choice, here's what changed for me | Opinion

I'm Black But Look White. Here Are The Horrible Things White People Feel Safe Telling Me.


Miriam Zinter
Thu, December 9, 2021

The author.

I was outside my house gardening a few weekends ago when a neighbor, whom I had known for almost 30 years, stopped by so I could pet his large, fluffy dogs. I took my gloves off, squatted down to give the dogs a really good scratching around their ears and felt the sun on my back. What could be better? And then my neighbor said: “Why do you have a ‘Black Lives Matter’ sign on your front lawn when all those people do is kill each other?”

My lovely day screeched to a halt.

“You know I’m Black, right?” I said, standing up as tall as my 5’4” frame would allow, the sun shining on my blond hair. I continued to pet his dogs, because I needed the comfort of petting dogs at that moment, and because I needed to keep my hands busy so they didn’t slap that man’s face.

After the usual back and forth of him saying “No!” and me saying “Yes!” and then him trying to gauge exactly “how Black I was” by asking which of my parents was Black and me replying “Both,” we had a very uncomfortable conversation about racism.

I told him about my father’s struggles to get an education because guidance counselors and admissions agents would not accept Black people into community colleges or SUNY programs in the 1950s and ’60s. I told him that even though my father was a veteran, he could not be approved to use the GI Bill for college or buy a house, since no one would process his paperwork because he was a Black man. I told him that people painted “Go Home Nigger” on the back of our home when my parents finally saved enough money to build a house in the suburbs of Syracuse, New York. And I told him how “Black Lives Matter” calls attention to the fact that Black people are considered less than white people ― and that needs to stop.

I also told him if people don’t understand that Black lives matter, Black people will continue to be murdered by the police and denied opportunities by the establishment. We will not be allowed to participate in the “American Dream,” and we will be made to feel that this is somehow our fault, when it is in fact the fault of a racist society with the full support of our government.

This isn’t the first time I’ve had to have this conversation. Encounters like this have been going on for a very long time for me.

The author's parents on their wedding day in 1963. 

(Photo: Courtesy of Miriam Zinter)

Both of my parents are Black but have white ancestors. Those recessive white genes were passed on to me, and I was born very light-skinned, with blue eyes and light, wavy hair. This was not a surprise. In both of my parents’ families there are “white” babies who pop up each generation. I have aunts, uncles and cousins on both sides of my family who are also white-presenting.

There is the story of my grandmother’s cousin Neville, who left the family in the 1940s to pass for white so he could join the Army and fight in World War II. He married a German girl, returned to Syracuse and never returned to being Black. Family members would see him on the streets and they would look past each other. He was lost to us because he chose an easier way ― and forsook his ancestry. Neville became a cautionary tale for me. I never wanted to be like him.

There is also the story of a great-aunt, Annie Mother, who would pass as white to purchase properties and then sell or rent them to Black family members and other Black families who could not find decent, affordable housing. I wanted to be like Annie Mother, so I pursued a career in social justice, specifically issues related to housing.

My parents originally tried to purchase a home in Syracuse in the 1960s. Most of the houses they made offers on had deed restrictions that stated the home could not be “sold to Negros.” Determined to own their own home, they decided to build a house, and found some land in a subdivision in Liverpool, New York, where the builder was happy to sell to them. Despite this good news, they soon learned they couldn’t get approved for a mortgage. My dad had a good job at General Electric and my parents had savings, but none of this was enough, because they were Black.

My dad accepted a transfer to a position in Alaska, because he could earn double what he’d make in Syracuse. My mom and I moved in with my grandmother for a year and my mom banked all of my dad’s checks. When he returned, my parents paid cash to have their house built in Liverpool.

This was the same house on which people painted “Go Home Nigger.” They did this when we already were home ― there was no other “home” to go to. We lived in a white neighborhood, and I went to a school where all the other students were white. Before I started kindergarten, my parents had “the talk” with me. If you don’t know about “the talk,” let me explain it to you. “The talk” is about race. It’s about being Black in a world run by white people, where white people make the rules. In order to survive, let alone thrive, you need to know you are Black and know what that means, even if you present as white.

My parents were worried. This was 1969. People knew we were Black, and that I would be starting school in a district where there were no other Black children. I didn’t look Black, but I am Black, so we figured I could and would be subjected to racist actions by my peers. We were prepared for groups of white parents to gather at the school to shout at me. Or spit on me. My parents needed me to understand that if this happened, it didn’t mean I was bad. It meant the adults were bad ― and that I’d need to rise above like Dr. King had done.

The author and her sister Suzette being swung by their mom in 1968.

 (Photo: Courtesy of Miriam Zinter)

In our home, Dr. King was whom we strived to be. Even at 4 years old, I knew who he was. I was taught King’s principals of nonviolence. My parents marched on Washington with King and hoped for a better world for me. I set off for school the next day, prepared to walk through a gauntlet of screaming hatred. I was on the lookout. But there didn’t seem to be anything happening. If any protesters had been there, they probably wouldn’t even have known I was Black. With my blond braids and my sparkling new outfit from Sears, I might have walked right by them. I was ready to learn ― and learn I did. But just because there weren’t protesters doesn’t mean there weren’t challenges.

My kindergarten teacher did not feel it was appropriate for a Black child to learn and play with white children. She left me inside the classroom on my own while the other students played. I stood by the window and cried. My parents complained to the principal ― a child of Italian immigrants ― and he stepped in. I was then permitted to play with my classmates. Worried that my teacher would not engage me in the same ways she did with the other students, my parents worked with me on my alphabet, math and reading every night after dinner. I excelled.

When we moved from Syracuse to Rochester, New York, our new neighborhood was also largely white. I didn’t even find this strange. I fit in and made very good friends, some of whom I am friends with to this day. But I always knew I was Black, and forgetting who I was simply wasn’t an option.

In middle school, my history teacher told the class that if we really wanted to insult Black people, we should call them “Uncle Toms.” In high school, one student came dressed as a klansman for Halloween, carrying a noose. Another student, wearing blackface and a loincloth, ran around in front of him. When the few Black students and a number of our white classmates complained to the principal about it, we were told we needed to “develop a sense of humor.” Another student, who would later become a teacher, called me a “white nigger.” I found myself constantly defending affirmative action, busing and desegregation with friends and classmates whose parents thought that if Black people “infested” their white world, chaos would ensue.

Many years have passed since then, but sadly, this madness hasn’t stopped.

My neighbor, the one who asked me why “Black lives matter,” is not the only one who has felt comfortable asking me such a question or making a statement rife with racism.

White people think I am white too, and therefore feel safe saying all kinds of horrible things they might not say publicly. I’ve had people tell me it “disgusts” them to see interracial couples. They’ve told me they don’t understand why Black neighborhoods look so “ghetto,” and that Black people are “animals” or “thugs.” Many of these people are educated, and hold jobs or positions that give them some form of power or influence over Black people. They are doctors, judges, lawyers, social workers and politicians.

 That’s frightening.

The author (far right) and her sisters, Karina (left) and Suzette, listening to their dad read a bedtime story in 1969. (Photo: Courtesy of Miriam Zinter)

In every instance where I’ve encountered racist rhetoric, I have made it my business to speak up. I have told (or reminded) these people that I am Black. I have told them my family’s story. And I have done whatever I could to educate them about the systems of racism that exist in this country.

Sometimes they say: “But you’re different!” Then I ask them if other Black folks they know are also “different.” When they say yes, I ask them: “How are all the Black people you know ‘different’? When are you going to realize that we are not different? That you have been misled into believing that Black people are somehow bad, and that what you see with your own eyes ― these Black people you know, and know are not different or bad ― are good people like you?”

And that floors them.

There is a purposeful and strategic force dedicated to segregation and racism. There are people who benefit from Black people and white people remaining in conflict. When people of different races live together and truly want to know and understand each other, it is harmonious. But when races are separated, it breeds suspicion and distrust. It becomes “us versus them,” and it weakens us as a nation.

Living as a Black woman who looks white has allowed me to experience white privilege firsthand. Because people assume I am white, it is assumed I am honest, smart and trustworthy. Many times I have thought to myself: If I looked Black, how would these people treat me? And I have known, without a shadow of a doubt, that I would be treated with disdain or suspicion, or as a criminal. I know in many instances that if I looked Black, the police would have been called to question me. And this sickens and angers me. How many of our Black brothers and sisters have had the police called on them simply for the act of living their lives?

As a nation, we need to stop this. The best way to achieve change is to accept and learn about our racist past and the injustices visited upon our Black citizens. It’s deeply concerning that people are protesting the possibility of our country’s history being accurately taught in schools. The only way for America to be great is to accept all of our citizens at face value, and the only way to do that is to understand our intertwined roots ― our history and all the pain and tragedy that exists within it ― and face this, together, head-on.

Miriam Zinter is a Black woman who presents as a white woman. She began her career as a community organizer, was the executive director of a not-for-profit neighborhood organization, became the senior housing programmer for the City of Rochester and now works in the housing finance sector. She serves on a number of boards that serve people who are homeless and people who are poor. She is married, with two adult children and a spoiled shiba inu dog. Her parents live down the street from her, and she values every day she has with them. She has two sisters whom she loves very much and speaks with every day. She loves animals, comedy, books, food and wine. You can follow her on Twitter at @MimZWay unless, she says, “you are a hateful troll ― then just move on ― and live your own life.”

Do you have a compelling personal story you’d like to see published on HuffPost? Find out what we’re looking for here and send us a pitch.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

SUNDAY SERMON

Rastafari want more legal marijuana for freedom of worship

 

A Rastafari attendee holds a cannabis cigarette during an event by the Rastafari Coalition marking the 91st anniversary of the coronation of the late Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I in Columbus, Ohio on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. As public opinion and policy continues to shift in the U.S. and across the world towards the use of marijuana, some adherents of Rastafari question their place in the future of the herb that they consider sacred. (AP Photo/Emily Leshner)


LUIS ANDRES HENAO and KWASI GYAMFI ASIEDU
Fri, December 10, 2021

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Mosiyah Tafari banged on drums and chanted psalms with other Rastafari in a ballroom where the smoke of frankincense mixed with the fragrant smell of marijuana — which his faith deems sacred.

The ceremony in Columbus, Ohio marked the 91st anniversary of the coronation of the late Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I, whom Rastafari worship as their savior. For hours, the group played traditional Nyabinghi music on their most important holy day.

"Cannabis is something that puts you in contact with the spiritual aspect of life in the physical body,” said Tafari, a member of the Columbus-based Rastafari Coalition, which organized the event.

“It's important for Rastafari because we follow the traditions of the Scriptures and we see that cannabis is good.”

For Rastafari, the ritualistic smoking of marijuana brings them closer to the divine. But for decades, many have been incarcerated because of their use of cannabis. As public opinion and policy continues to shift in the U.S. and across the world toward legalization of the drug for both medical and recreational purposes, Rastafari are clamoring for broader relaxation to curtail persecution and ensure freedom of worship.

“In this system, they’re very focused on, ‘Oh, we can make a lot of money, we can sell these medicinal cards, we can sell this ganja,’ but what of the people who have been persecuted? What of the people who have been sent to jail, imprisoned, even killed,” said Ras Nyah, a music producer from the U.S. Virgin Islands and a Rastafari Coalition member.

“We must address these things before we get too ahead of ourselves,” said Nyah, who attended the ceremony wearing a tracksuit in the Rastafari colors of red, green and gold.

The Rastafari faith is rooted in 1930s Jamaica, growing as a response by Black people to white colonial oppression. The beliefs are a melding of Old Testament teachings and a desire to return to Africa. Rastafari followers believe the use of marijuana is directed in biblical passages and that the “holy herb” induces a meditative state. The faithful smoke it as a sacrament in chalice pipes or cigarettes called “spliffs,” add it to vegetarian stews and place it in fires as a burnt offering.

“Ganja,” as marijuana is known in Jamaica, has a long history in that country, and its arrival predates the Rastafari faith. Indentured servants from India brought the cannabis plant to the island in the 19th century, and it gained popularity as a medicinal herb.

It began to gain wider acceptance in the 1970s when Rastafari and reggae culture was popularized through music icons Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, two of the faith’s most famous exponents. Tosh’s 1976 hit “Legalize It” remains a rallying cry for those pushing to make marijuana legal.

Rastafari adherents in the U.S., many of them Black, say they have endured both racial and religious profiling by law enforcement agencies due to their ritualistic use of cannabis.

Tosh’s youngest son, Jawara McIntosh, a singer and marijuana activist who performed under the stage name Tosh1, was serving a six-month sentence for possession after police said they found over 65 pounds in his rental car, when he was attacked in a New Jersey jail in 2017 and was left in a coma. He died last year.

The attack prompted his sister Niambe McIntosh, Peter Tosh’s youngest daughter, who was a teacher in Boston at the time, to become an advocate for criminal justice reform and launch a campaign to fight the stigma surrounding cannabis and support those affected by its prohibition.

“I realized that his story had to be shared because no family should ever ... face these harsh consequences over a plant,” said McIntosh, who also heads The Peter Tosh Foundation, which advocates for legalization.

The so-called war on drugs declared by President Richard Nixon more than five decades ago prompted a rise in anti-possession laws including stricter sentencing.

The negative impacts of the drug war have, for years, drawn calls for reform and abolition from mostly left-leaning elected officials and social justice advocates. Many of them say that in order to begin to unwind or undo the war on drugs, all narcotics must be decriminalized or legalized, with science-based regulation.

”We had founded the Peter Tosh Foundation originally with the 'Legalize It' initiative geared at promoting the science, the spiritual benefits of cannabis," McIntosh said, “but also recognizing that those that have been harmed by prohibition should most be at the forefront of this new booming business."

The concern is shared by other U.S.-based Rastafari as corporations look to invest in and profit from recreational and medical cannabis.

“Maybe take some of those finances, those many millions and billions and trillions of dollars, and invest them back into brothers and sisters who have been incarcerated over a long period of time,” Tafari said.

“Invest in our communities that have been damaged ... maybe allow some of the Rastafari to be a part of those business endeavors as well.”

Shifting public opinion and policy on cannabis has led countries including Canada, Malawi and South Africa to ease laws in recent years.

While it remains illegal on the federal level in the United States, lawmakers from Oregon to New York have passed a raft of legislation legalizing cannabis in a third of U.S. states.

A Gallup Poll released last year indicated that 68% of Americans favor legalizing marijuana — double the approval rate in 2003. In mid-November of this year, Republican lawmaker Nancy Mace of South Carolina introduced legislation in Congress that, if passed, would decriminalize cannabis federally — an impediment cited in many states that have opted not to pursue legalization on their own. But it would not change local-level restrictions, meaning that states would still determine their own marijuana statutes.

In Jamaica, authorities gave the green light to a regulated medical cannabis industry and decriminalized possession of small amounts of weed in 2015. The country also recognized the sacramental rights of Rastafari to their sacred plant.

“We are able to access a certain kind of connection with creation, and that is ultimately the sacramental gift that we seek to defend,” said Jahlani Niaah, a lecturer in Cultural and Rastafari Studies at Jamaica’s University of the West Indies.

Jamaicans are now allowed up to five plants per household for personal use only. But Niaah said this has not stopped run-ins with police.

“Rastafari have had various challenges where they’ve had herbs confiscated and disappeared in police custody and continue to be abused in relation to claiming a sacramental right,” he said.

“There’s really a slip between the pen and the practice.”

Jamaican Minister of Justice Delroy Chuck said in a statement that “instances of perceived discrimination are unfortunate” but the government continues to facilitate equality and inclusion in the legal regime.

“In fact, there has been and continue to be several sensitization sessions undertaken since the establishment of the legislation,” Chuck said. "These include sensitization sessions with our law enforcement agencies.”

Other Jamaican Rastafari are concerned that they have been left out of the burgeoning business.

“The people who went to prison, who had to run up and down from police and police helicopters, they financially could not afford to get involved in the medical ganja industry,” said Ras Iyah V, a Rastafari advocate and former member of Jamaica’s Cannabis Licensing Authority. In 1982, he was convicted, served a short sentence and paid a fine for cannabis possession.

When the Jamaican government launched a program in 2017 aimed at helping “traditional” ganja farmers transition into the legal industry, he was hopeful that it could help the Rastafari community. But today he is "very disappointed in terms of how it is going. The vast majority of our ganja farmers are not able to participate because they don’t have any land.”

Setting up a 1-acre cannabis farm following the guidelines established by Jamaican law can cost thousands of dollars, he said.

“The cannabis industry has now been taken out of the hands of Rastafari and the traditional ganja farmers and placed in the hands of rich people,” he said. “It makes us very bitter because we don’t see any justice in that.”

___

AP journalist Emily Leshner contributed to this report.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

PHOTO CAPTIONS

SHOOT TO KILL ORDERS; HEAD SHOT
Israeli troops shoot dead Palestinian in West Bank clash, health ministry says

Fri, December 10, 2021

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian and injured others on Friday during clashes at a protest against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry and medics said.

The Israeli military said that hundreds of Palestinians had gathered in the area, south of the Palestinian city of Nablus, burning tyres and throwing rockets towards troops at the scene.

The troops "responded with riot dispersal means to restore order. We are aware of reports that a Palestinian was killed," the military said in a statement.

The Palestinian killed was shot in the head, and died soon after being rushed to hospital, the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement. Four other Palestinians were injured by Israeli fire, and over 50 others suffered from tear gas inhalation, medics said.

The West Bank is among territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war where Palestinians seek statehood. Violence has simmered there since U.S.-sponsored talks between the Palestinians and Israel broke down in 2014.

Palestinians have staged weekly protests in the village of Beita, south of Nablus, to voice anger at a nearby Israeli settler outpost, often leading to violent clashes with Israeli troops.

The settlers agreed to leave the outpost in July under an agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, following weeks of demonstrations by Palestinians lighting fires that often engulfed the outpost in smoke.

But many of the outpost's buildings have remained, locked and under military guard. Palestinians, who claim the land the outpost is on, have vowed to continue their demonstrations.

Most countries deem the settlements illegal. 

MEDIA ZIONIST BULLSHIT
Israel disputes this, citing biblical and political connections to the land, as well as its security needs.

(Reporting by Rami Ayyub and Ali Sawafta; editing by Barbara Lewis)

OFF TO METALAND

Japan’s Nintendo game console pioneer Uemura dies at 78

By MARI YAMAGUCHI


Masayuki Uemura, a Japanese home computer game pioneer whose Nintendo consoles sold millions of units worldwide, poses for a photo in Japan on July 10, 2013. Uemura, the lead architect behind Nintendo Co.'s trailblazing home game consoles, died Monday, Dec. 6, 2021, Ritsumeikan University said in a statement. He was 78. The cause of his death was not released. (Kyodo News via AP)


TOKYO (AP) — Masayuki Uemura, a Japanese home computer game pioneer whose Nintendo consoles sold millions of units worldwide, has died, according to the university in Kyoto where he taught. He was 78.

Uemura, the lead architect behind Nintendo Co.’s trailblazing home game consoles, died Monday, Ritsumeikan University said in a statement. The cause of his death was not released.

Born in Tokyo in 1943, Uemura studied electronic engineering at the Chiba Institute of Technology and joined Nintendo in 1971.

Uemura was tasked by then-president Hiroshi Yamauchi in 1981 with developing a home console for games like Donkey Kong, which was a huge hit in the United States at the time but only available for arcade use.

The so-called Famicom game system hit the Japanese market in 1983 as Nintendo’s first cartridge-based console, allowing users to play popular games that came in cassette formats. The upgraded Super Famicom was released in Japan in 1990.

The Nintendo Entertainment System, as it was known, hit the United States in 1985 and eventually became a global sensation with more than 60 million consoles sold worldwide, bringing international recognition to a company that previously made traditional Japanese card games, other playing cards and toys.

After retiring from Nintendo, Uemura taught game studies starting in 2004 at Ritsumeikan University in the ancient Japanese capital, which is also home to Nintendo.

“We offer our heartfelt appreciation for Mr. Uemura’s huge contributions to the development of the game industry by introducing a variety of video game consoles including family computers,” Ritsumeikan University said in a statement. “May he rest in peace.”

Daughter of first American astronaut to launch on Blue Origin flight

Good Morning America co-anchor Michael Strahan and Laura Shepard Churchley, the eldest 

daughter of NASA asronaut Alan Shepard, the first American to travel to space.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is set to blast its third private crew to space on Saturday, this time including the daughter of the first American astronaut.

The spaceflight will last roughly 11 minutes, launching from the company's base in Texas and soaring to just beyond the internationally-recognized boundary of space, 62 miles (100 kilometers) high.

The six-member crew will unbuckle and enjoy a few minutes' weightlessness before the spaceship returns to Earth for a gentle parachute landing in the desert.

The launch date was pushed back because of high winds, but is now set for 8:45 am local time (1445 GMT) on Saturday.

Laura Shepard Churchley, whose father Alan Shepard became the first American to travel to space in 1961, will be flying as a guest of Blue Origin.

The company's suborbital rocket is in fact named "New Shepard" in honor of the pioneering astronaut.

Michael Strahan, an American football Hall of Famer turned TV personality, is also a guest, while there are four paying customers: space industry executive and philanthropist Dylan Taylor, investor Evan Dick, Bess Ventures founder Lane Bess, and Cameron Bess.

Lane and Cameron Bess will become the first parent-child pair to fly in space. Ticket prices have not been disclosed.

Blue Origin's suborbital rocket is called New Shepard in honor of the pioneering astronaut.

"It's kind of fun for me to say an original Shepard will fly on the New Shepard," Shepard Churchley, who runs a foundation that promotes science and raises funds for college students, said in a video. "I'm very proud of my father's legacy."

Alan Shepard performed a 15-minute suborbital space flight on May 5, 1961, just under a month after the Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, orbiting the planet.

Shepard, who died in 1998, went on to be the fifth of twelve men to have set foot on the Moon.

Previous Blue Origin flights have flown the company's billionaire founder Bezos as well as Star Trek actor William Shatner to space.

Bezos, who made his fortune with Amazon envisages a future in which humanity disperses throughout the solar system, living and working in giant space colonies with artificial gravity.

This, he says, would leave Earth as a pristine tourism destination much like national parks today.

The year 2021 has been significant for the space tourism sector, with Virgin Galactic also flying its founder Richard Branson to the final frontier, and Elon Musk's SpaceX sending four private citizens on a three-day orbital mission for charity.

The industry's predicted growth means that, starting from next year, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Friday it will stop awarding astronaut wings badges to commercial space travelers, though it will continue to recognize them on its website.

"The Astronaut Wings program, created in 2004, served its original purpose to bring additional attention to this exciting endeavor," said FAA Associate Administrator Wayne Monteith, in a statement.

Daughter of first American in space on next Blue Origin flight

© 2021 AFP

In the groove: Congolese rumba fans aim at coveted UN culture list


Congolese rumba pioneer Papa Wemba. His death in 2016 triggered an outpouring of grief (AFP/JUNIOR D.KANNAH)

Laudes Martial MBON in Brazzaville and Annie THOMAS in Kinshasa
Sat, December 11, 2021, 11:47 PM·4 min read

The band strikes up the rumba, and the dance floor in Kinshasa fills with couples who sway to its slinky, sensual rhythm.

Rumba is a music that has an international following, especially for its brassy Cuban version.

But in Congo, the guitar-driven local variant has a deep and passionate following, and devotees hope that next week the genre will be declared a world cultural treasure.


The Democratic Republic of Congo and its smaller neighbour, the Republic of Congo, are jointly pushing for the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to inscribe their rumba on its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

If so, it will join Cuban rumba, Jamaica's reggae music, Finland's sauna culture, the hawker food of Singapore and other cherished human innovations.

"This is a moment we have been waiting for impatiently," said Jean-Claude Faignond, who manages the Espace Faignond dance bar, a legendary hangout in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo.

"Is rumba an intangible heritage?" he asked, before replying: "It's pure happiness -- immortality."

"Rumba is a passion shared by all Congolese... It reaches into all areas of national life," said Professor Andre Yoka Lye, director of the National Institute of Arts in DR Congo's capital Kinshasa and president of a "joint commission for the promotion of Congolese rumba".

Rumba is "a unifier, bringing people together, as well as the past and present."

- Out of Africa... and back -

The story of the rumba is rooted in the days of the slave trade.

Africans who were captured and transported to the Americas had no possessions when they arrived, but brought with them their culture and their music.

Once there they crafted the musical instruments they had played back home -- "percussion instruments, membranophones, idiophones and also the African piano, the xylophone," explained Gabriel Kele, head of musicology at DR Congo's National Museum.

As time went by, "the instruments evolved," said Kele.

As did the style of music, which shifted towards jazz in North America and rumba in South America.

Eventually the music came home.

It returned to Africa, often disseminated by traders or travellers who brought 78 rpm records with them, and was adopted and adapted by local musicians.

Congolese rumba in its modern form dates back around a century, but started to hit its stride in the 1940s, spreading like wildfire in Kinshasa and in Brazzaville, its sister across the Congo River.

It's a music of cities and bars, of meetings and nostalgia, of "resistance and resilience," of "sharing pleasure" -- a music with its own way of life and dress codes, Professor Yoka said.

In the musicologist's office, a well-used and weather-beaten instrument sits on a shelf.

"This is Wendo's first guitar," Yoka explained reverently.

The instrument was played by Wendo Kolosoy (1925-2008), whom devotees refer to as the "father" of Congolese rumba. His 1948 song "Marie-Louise", with its spangly guitar hook, is a classic of the genre.

- Love and politics -

Sung mainly in Lingala, rumba songs typically are about love -- but political messages have also been a feature.

For many Congolese, the music became intertwined with decolonisation from France and Belgium.

The 1960 hit "Independence Cha Cha" performed by Joseph Kabasele and his African Jazz Orchestra spread beyond the two Congos, becoming an unofficial anthem of African independence.

There have also been less glorious periods of the Congolese rumba, when the music was exploited as propaganda by those in power.

"There have sometimes been deviations," Yoka acknowledged.

Congolese music is rooted in oral traditions and person-to-person contact, which explains why it is so lively and quick to evolve.

But because the culture is not codified, it tends to gets little international recognition, which explains the push for UNESCO acknowledgement, say those promoting the bid.

Rumba's history is fluid -- it's a tale of return and renewal, said Yoka.

One of its greatest practitioners, Papa Wemba, "The King of Rumba Rock," died in 2016, but the genre remains strong.

"Koffi Olomide is rumba, Fally Ipupa is rumba.... Even those who are more restless, such as Werrason and JB Mpiana, are nostalgic about returning to their roots," said Yoka, rattling off the names of modern rumba maestros.

On the floor of her restaurant Quick Poulet in Kinshasa, 65-year-old Maman Beki, wearing a long yellow dress with gold embroidery, is dancing away.

Her steps are sure, her movements natural and effortless.

Kinshasa's famous nightlife is restricted these days by the anti-Covid curfew, which starts at 11pm. But every Friday and Saturday, a band livens up the evening at Quick Poulet.

Beki says she got her passion for the music from her father, who won rumba-dancing competitions in his prime.

"I love to dance," she says in between songs, "It's in the blood."

lmm-at/bmb/pvh/ri/dl

Ali's grandson Nico Ali Walsh improves to 3-0


Sat, December 11, 2021,

Nico Ali Walsh lands a punch in his middleweight victory over Reyes Sanchez at Madison Square Garden (AFP/Sarah Stier)

Nico Ali Walsh won his third fight of 2021 with a majority decision over the previously unbeaten Reyes Sanchez in a non-title middleweight fight on Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Ali Walsh, the grandson of Muhammad Ali, has been busy in the ring since turning pro four months ago. He improved to 3-0 by winning the four-round fight on two of the three judges' scorecards. One judge gave Ali Walsh all the rounds while another scored it even, 38-38. The third judge had it 39-38.

Ali Walsh said he was thrilled to be fighting in the iconic arena where his grandfather battled Joe Frazier for the heavyweight championship in March 1971.

"It is amazing," the 21-year-old Ali Walsh said. "This (Garden) is a piece of history. Just to be in here, let alone fighting here, is a big honor."

Ali Walsh easily won the first round, backing up Sanchez by letting his hands go and landing combinations. He hit Sanchez with a solid overhand right late in the second round that hurt the fellow American fighter. Sanchez managed to finish the second round and then delivered his best round of the fight in the third.

Ali Walsh tried to get the knockout in the fourth but Sanchez proved to be a evasive target as the fight went to the scorecards.

Ali Walsh beat Jordan Weeks by a TKO in his pro debut in August in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Two months later he won by another TKO over James Westley in Atlanta.

gph/bb

'Monster' Inoue: Japan's unbeaten boxer with dynamite in his fists

Andrew MCKIRDY
Sat, December 11, 2021


Naoya Inoue (left) battles to victory over Nonito Donaire in an epic 2019 World Super Series final (AFP/Kazuhiro NOGI)

Naoya Inoue's nickname is "Monster" and with good reason -- he is regarded as one of boxing's best pound-for-pound fighters and has won all his 21 bouts, 18 by knockout.

The reigning WBA and IBF bantamweight world champion made his Las Vegas debut last year with a typically devastating knockout win and fights back home in Japan for the first time in two years on Tuesday.

Thailand's Aran Dipaen is expected to pose few problems at a sumo hall in Tokyo for the ferocious-punching 28-year-old Inoue, who has set his sights on unifying all four major bantamweight belts next year.

"I want to win in a way that completely exceeds expectations," Inoue said ahead of the fight with Dipaen, the IBF's sixth-ranked challenger, who has a 12-2 record with 11 knockouts.

"I don't want to let him touch me. I don't want to let him even graze me."

Inoue, who comes from a boxing family, burst on to the scene as an amateur and has blitzed his way through opponents since turning professional in 2012.

Although he is a star in Japan, his limited exposure in the US means he is still something of an enigma overseas.

After knocking out Australia's Jason Moloney in the seventh round of an eye-catching Las Vegas debut in October 2020, he returned there in June this year to dispatch Michael Dasmarinas of the Philippines inside three rounds, again by KO.

- 'Generational talent' -

Veteran American promoter Bob Arum -- who signed Inoue to his Top Rank stable to fight in the US -- had no doubts the Japanese fighter is set for global stardom.

"Naoya Inoue is a generational talent, the sort of fighter who comes around once a decade," said Arum -- who has worked with greats from Muhammad Ali to Manny Pacquiao in a legendary career spanning half a century.

"He will be a major star stateside in no time. You are looking at an all-time great who is entering the prime of what will be a historic career."

Inoue took up boxing at an early age.

His father Shingo is a former amateur while his younger brother Takuma is a fellow professional with a 15-1 win-loss record and has held the WBC interim bantamweight title.

Naoya Inoue started his career at light flyweight, capturing the WBC crown in only his sixth professional fight.

He vacated the title to challenge Argentine WBO super flyweight champion Omar Narvaez, and knocked him out in the second round.

Inoue moved up to bantamweight and claimed the WBA belt in his first title fight, before winning the World Boxing Super Series in November 2019.

His epic final victory over Filipino veteran four-weight world champion Nonito Donaire in a brutal contest was voted fight of the year by the Boxing Writers Association of America.

It was the first time Inoue had been seriously tested in his professional career.

He suffered a fractured right eye socket and double vision early in the fight before battling back to floor Donaire in the 11th round and seal a unanimous points win.

- Quiet perfectionist -

Dipaen is unlikely to give him a similar workout in Tokyo, but stronger challenges lie ahead as Inoue eyes a bout against another Filipino, WBO champion John Riel Casimero, next year.

Inoue is a perfectionist who regularly proclaims himself unsatisfied with his performances, even after blowing opponents away.

He might be a "monster" in the ring, but Inoue is quiet and mild-mannered away from boxing. He married his childhood sweetheart and has three children.

Inoue has ambitions of a move up in weight class once he has finished steamrolling the bantamweight division.

Inoue's focus remains solely on a successful defence of his WBA and IBF belts on Tuesday.

"There are lots of expectations on me for this fight, but if I get caught up in the atmosphere, where everyone wants me to knock him out early, I won't actually be able to box," local media quoted him as saying of the Dipaen contest.

Whatever lies ahead, should he win as expected, Inoue will continue to do it his way.

"I want to approach each match the same, regardless of who my opponent is," he said. "You have to keep a cool head."

amk/pst/dh

Video captures tornado swirling across US state; over 100 feared dead in storm | VISUALS

As many as 100 people are feared dead after a swarm of tornadoes tore through the US heartland on Saturday, flattening buildings and setting off a scramble to find survivors beneath the rubble.


India Today Web Desk 

New Delhi

December 12, 2021

Tornado sweeps across US states(L); Debris from destroyed buildings and shredded trees littered the ground in the tornado's wake (Credit: AP photo/Twitter)

As many as 100 people are feared dead after a swarm of tornadoes tore through the US heartland on Saturday, flattening buildings and setting off a scramble to find survivors beneath the rubble.

Saying the disaster was likely one of the largest tornado outbreaks in US history, President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration for the state of Kentucky, the hardest hit by the calamity.

The unseasonal stormfront devastated the small town of Mayfield it tore apart a candle factory, crushed a nursing home, derailed a train and smashed an Amazon warehouse. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said upwards of 70 may have been killed when a twister tore through the middle of the state, adding that the number may eventually 100 across 10 or more counties.

Emergency workers sifted through the wreckage left behind in the tornado’s wake. Debris from destroyed buildings and shredded trees littered the ground; twisted metal sheeting, downed power lines and wrecked vehicles lined the streets. Windows and roofs were blown off the buildings that were still standing.


About 40 workers had been rescued at the candle factory in Mayfield, which had about 110 people inside when it was reduced to a pile of rubble. It would be a "miracle" to find anyone else alive under the debris, Governor Beshear said.

"The devastation is unlike anything I have seen in my life and I have trouble putting it into words," Beshear said at a press conference.

‘LIKE A BIG BOMB EXPLODED’

Video and photos posted on social media showed brick buildings in downtown Mayfield flattened, with parked cars nearly buried under debris. The steeple on the historic Graves County courthouse was toppled and the nearby First United Methodist Church partially collapsed.

"We've got some siding and roof damage here, but just across the road there's a brewery that half of it is gone. It's just totally gone, like a big bomb exploded or something," Justin Shepherd, a coffee shop owner in Bowling Green, Kentucky, told Reuters.

Six people were killed in the collapse of the Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, with another injured worker airlifted to a hospital, fire Chief James Whiteford said. Investigators searched the rubble throughout the day for additional victims and 45 people survived.

Governor Bill Lee on Saturday toured tornado-torn parts of western Tennessee in which four people had been killed.

In the neighbouring state of Arkansas, one person was killed and five seriously injured when a tornado tore through a nursing home with 90 beds in Monette.

Another person was killed when a twister destroyed a Dollar General Store and laid waste to much of the downtown area in Leachville, Arkansas. "It really sounded like a train roaring through town," said Lt. Chuck Brown of the Mississippi County Sheriff's Office.

‘A HISTORIC EVENT’

The genesis of the tornado outbreak was a series of overnight thunderstorms, including a super cell storm that formed in northeast Arkansas. That storm moved from Arkansas and Missouri and into Tennessee and Kentucky.

Unusually high temperatures and humidity created the environment for such an extreme weather event at this time of year, said Victor Gensini, a professor in geographic and atmospheric sciences at Northern Illinois University.

"This is an historic, if not generational event," Gensini said.

(With inputs from AP and Reuters)

Tornadoes: devastating but still not well understood

"Tornadoes are nature's most violent storms"

A tornado rips through a residential area after touching down south of Wynnewood,

 Oklahoma on May 9, 2016. (AFP/Josh Edelson)

Robin LEGRAND
Sat, December 11, 2021, 

Tornadoes are a frequent and often devastating weather phenomenon most commonly seen in the United States, but meteorologists are still unable to say exactly how they originate.

"The US typically has more tornadoes than anywhere else in the world, though they can occur almost anywhere," according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

Hardest hit are Great Plains states like Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, though they are also common in many other states, all east of the Rocky Mountains.


- Origins -

Scientists still struggle to pinpoint the precise way in which these powerful storms form.

"Much about tornadoes remains a mystery," according to the National Severe Storm Laboratory, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). "They are rare, deadly and difficult to predict, and they can deal out millions or even billions of dollars in property damage per year."

What is known is that they generally result from so-called "supercell" thunderstorms characterized by extremely powerful updrafts, according to NOAA.

"Within the storm, a strong vertical wind shear causes a horizontally rotating cylinder of air. The updraft lifts the rotating cylinder within the supercell. The rotating cylinder of air narrows, becoming stretched, and spins faster and faster, forming a tornado."

The NWS notes: "Tornadoes develop extremely rapidly, and may dissipate just as quickly. Most tornadoes are on the ground for less than 15 minutes."

- Devastation -

"Tornadoes are nature's most violent storms," according to the NWS, with winds that can reach nearly 300 miles per hour (500 kph). They can wreak devastation on a path more than one mile wide and 50 miles long -- or longer.

The devastating tornado that killed dozens in Kentucky on December 11, 2021 stayed on the ground for 227 miles, said Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear. That would be a record, if confirmed.

On average, tornadoes claim 50 lives in the US each year, NOAA said.

The spring of 2011 brought the deadliest spate of tornadoes in recent history, with more than 580 people losing their lives in April and June. They caused damage estimated at $21 billion.

After a tornado passes, scientists evaluate its strength based on the damage inflicted and on measurements of wind speed.

They then classify it using the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale, which assigns ratings from EF-0 to EF-5. EF-0 means "light" damage and wind gusts of 65 to 85 mph, while EF-5 signifies gusts of over 200 mph and "incredible" damage. (Before 2007, the original Fujita scale used ratings of F-0 to F-5.)

- Survivors' tales -

The NWS has gathered first-person accounts from tornado survivors like William, a resident of Smithville, Mississippi, who was at home "watching the news" when a powerful storm struck in 2011.

He heard a local meteorologist say "the storm was coming to Smithville and I just stood there watching, waiting, looking at the TV and thinking this isn't gonna happen.

"About 30 seconds later, the power went out and the entire house shook for a minute and then stopped and I thought it was over, so I was about to get up from my floor when the shaking began again and wouldn't stop this time. I felt the pressure drop and as the shaking got louder, I got worried.

"Then it felt like the house exploded. I woke up one hour and a half later in a field a quarter mile away from the house with cuts to my body and a deep cut to my head."

Michelle, a resident of the small Oklahoma town of Skiakook, survived a 1991 twister.

"The noises I heard during the tornado hit was indescribable. I do remember hearing nails squeak out of boards as they were being forced out...," she said.

"When it was all over, the tornado that hit our town was measured F4. It leveled several of the brick homes in that neighborhood...

"I have rheumatoid arthritis so the intense low pressure temporarily disabled me. I couldn't walk.

"It was the absolute most frightening experience I have ever been through."

rle/bbk/dw