It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, December 04, 2021
Prosecutors appeal dismissal of Philippines ferry disaster case
The Princess of the Stars capsized after hitting a reef in the central Philippines in 2008 -- only about 50 of the 850 passengers and crew survived (AFP/JAY DIRECTO)
Sat, December 4, 2021, 12:58 AM·2 min read
A lawyer for the families of victims of a 2008 Philippines ferry disaster vowed Saturday to challenge the dismissal of a criminal case against a shipping company executive.
The Princess of the Stars capsized after hitting a reef in the central Philippines during a typhoon in June 2008 -- only about 50 of the 850 passengers and crew survived.
State prosecutors had charged Edgar Go, an executive at the ill-fated vessel's owner Sulpicio Lines Inc, with "reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide" for allowing it to sail despite storm warnings.
But a Manila regional trial court dismissed the case for lack of evidence, according to a copy of the ruling dated November 18 seen by AFP.
State prosecutors have appealed the decision, according to a court filing.
Persida Acosta, the country's chief public attorney who represents families of the victims, said Saturday she will file a similar appeal on Monday.
"It appears there is no one liable anymore," Acosta told AFP. "It's painful to us."
The ship's captain was also charged over the tragedy, but he is missing and presumed dead.
Sulpicio Lines was later renamed Philippine Span Asia Carrier Corp.
The company's vessels have been involved in several maritime disasters in the last three decades.
In 1987, its Dona Paz ferry collided with an oil tanker, leaving more than 4,300 dead in the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster.
Acosta said the families of those killed in the Princess of the Stars accident were still waiting for compensation after the firm appealed the award of 440 million pesos ($8.7 million).
An employee in the company's human resources department told AFP on Saturday that no one was immediately available to comment.
The Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands, is plagued by poor sea transport, with poorly regulated boats and ships prone to overcrowding and accidents.
mff/amj/qan/lb
COLONIAL LOOTING
Stolen Nepali statue returns to its temple after decades in US
A centuries-old sculpture of two Hindu gods was re-installed at its temple in the Nepali capital Kathmandu on Saturday, nearly 40 years after it was stolen and later emerged in the United States.
The stone statue of the gods Laxmi and Narayan was repatriated to Nepal in March by the Dallas Museum of Art and the FBI after a months-long investigation by Nepali and American activists and officials.
It was taken from the temple in 1984 and appeared on display at the Dallas museum six years later, on loan from a collector.
The work, dating back to between the 12th and 15th centuries, is one of a handful of cultural artefacts returned to Nepal from foreign museums and collectors this year.
A priest chanted prayers and locals played traditional music as the statue was carried in a palanquin back to the pagoda-style temple, which was draped in marigold garlands to welcome the work.
It was placed back on its original stone plinth, with a replica that locals had been worshipping instead moved to stand alongside.
"We are very happy. Our efforts of three to four years have been fruitful, everyone is celebrating," said Dilendra Raj Shrestha of the Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign.
Laser sensors and CCTV cameras have now been installed in the temple to protect the statue, he added.
"We are seeing the beginning of a trend, to bring back Nepal's gods from the United States, from Europe, from other countries where they have now ended up," said the US ambassador to Nepal Randy Berry.
"I hope this is the first of many such celebrations."
Nepal is deeply religious and its Hindu and Buddhist temples as well as heritage sites remain an integral part of people's everyday lives.
But many sites are bereft of centuries-old sculptures, paintings, ornamental windows and even doors, which were often stolen after the country opened up to the outside world in the 1950s.
Many pieces were taken with the help of corrupt officials to feed art markets in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.
"I think there is a global change... Many countries are demanding their artefacts back and Nepal is in a great position legally because export was never permitted," said arts crime professor Erin L. Thompson.
A tweet by Thompson questioning the statue's origin and history had prompted the investigation into the sculpture.
Six pieces have been returned to Nepal this year and authorities are seeking more from France, the United States and Britain.
Why so many museums are full of stolen artefacts from Nepal and the people fighting to bring them back home
Nepalese heritage activists are campaigning to bring home some of the thousands of items stolen from temples and monasteries in the country to feed art markets
When a Nepali academic in the US saw a 17th century gold necklace from Nepal in a museum there, she wept and began to pray. ‘I had so many questions,’ she says
Agence France-Presse Published 2 Dec, 2021 Rabindra Puri at his house in Bhaktapur, east of Kathmandu. He is one of the heritage activists campaigning to bring back from overseas museums Nepalese artefacts stolen from the country. Photo: AFP
When Virginia Tech professor Sweta Gyanu Baniya saw an ornate 17th century Nepali necklace in the Art Institute of Chicago in the United States, she burst into tears, bowed down and began to pray.
Now a video she posted on social media has made the artefact one of the latest targets for heritage activists sleuthing online to bring home some of the thousands of items whisked out over decades from the Himalayan country.
Only a handful of relics have been returned so far, but they have come from some of the world’s top cultural institutions and pressure for more is mounting.
Nepal’s then king offered the gilt copper necklace, adorned with semi-precious stones, to Taleju Bhawani, his Malla dynasty’s patron goddess, in around 1650.
‘They are gods to us’: Nepal seeks to bring home stolen artefacts from the West
Her temple in Kathmandu, the Nepalese capital, is only open to the public one day a year, but officials removed the work for safekeeping in the 1970s – after which it disappeared.
Baniya says her reaction when she visited the Chicago museum in June was “just overpowering”. This 400-year-old necklace from Nepal is now in a museum in the United States. Photo: Art Institute of Chicago
“I started to weep in front of it,” she says. “I started to just pray normally like I would do in temple.
“I had so many questions. Like why is it here, how did it come here?”
Traces of vermilion pigment used in Hindu worship rituals are still visible on its surface, and Baniya’s Twitter video prompted Nepali authorities to contact the museum to seek its return.
Sweta Gyanu Baniya is a Virginia Tech professor. Photo: Virginia Tech
The Art Institute of Chicago did not respond to multiple requests for comment but its website states the necklace was donated by the private Alsdorf Foundation, which bought it from a California dealer in 1976.
Priest Udhav Kamacharya has served at the temple for 26 years but Baniya’s footage was the first time he had seen the relic.
As he watched, he says: “I felt that the goddess still resides here. We sometimes say the gods are not here any more, but they are. That is why it was found despite being in a foreign land.” Priest Udhav Kamacharya has served at the Taleju Temple for 26 years. Photo: AFP
Nepal is deeply religious, and its Hindu and Buddhist temples and heritage sites remain an integral part of people’s everyday lives.
Many, though, are bereft of their centuries-old sculptures, paintings, ornamental windows and even doors, stolen – sometimes with the help of corrupt officials – after the country opened up to the outside world in the 1950s to feed art markets in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.
“Our art for us is not just art, they are gods to us,” says heritage expert Rabindra Puri, who campaigns to repatriate stolen Nepali heritage and has assembled a collection of replicas for a planned museum on the issue. Rabindra has assembled a collection of replicas for a planned museum. Photo: AFP
In June, the Paris branch of auction house Bonhams was forced to cancel the sale of five gilded copper-bronze idols, wrenched out from the gateway of a temple in the 1970s, after pressure from Nepali officials and activists.
The auction was first spotted by Lost Art of Nepal, an anonymously-run Facebook page that has posted about hundreds of historical and religious objects, flagging their new locations from auction houses to European or American museums.
“We have seen empty temples, empty shrines, empty pedestals and torn toranas [religious arches or gateways] everywhere” in the Kathmandu valley, the page’s administrator said in an email.
“In search for answers, I have collected old photographs from … [all] possible sources,” they added. “The extent of loss of our heritage is much more than what is known or published.”
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art handed over a 10th-century stone sculpture of the Hindu god Shiva in September. Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Campaigners want to make stolen art – thefts continue to this day, primarily from remote monasteries – as sensitive an issue among buyers and collectors as conflict diamonds or elephant ivory.
With heritage repatriation a growing issue for museums around the world – the ancient Greek Elgin Marbles and the Benin Bronzes from Nigeria are probably the best-known controversies – the occasional Nepali recovery is building into a trickle.
Six pieces have been returned this year and authorities are seeking more from France, the United States and Britain.
Visitors learn about the British Museum’s Elgin Marbles that originate from the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. Photo: Getty Images
In March, the Dallas Art Museum and US crime agency the FBI returned to Nepal a stolen 12th- to 15th-century androgynous stone sculpture of Hindu deities Laxmi-Narayan.
This month it will be reinstalled in its original temple location, from where it disappeared in 1984. The museum had held the statue for 30 years but a tweet by arts crime professor Erin Thompson questioning its provenance prompted an investigation.
“These are objects people were worshipping until they were ripped away from them,” she says.
A military commander sculpture looted by British soldiers from the Kingdom of Benin in 1897, at the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. Photo: Getty Images
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art handed over a 10th-century stone sculpture of the Hindu god Shiva in September, the third item it has repatriated to Nepal since 2018.
In Bhaktapur, devotees worship another androgynous Laxmi-Narayan idol, protected behind a locked iron gate.
Expecting mothers continue the ancient tradition of offering it oil to predict the gender of their baby. But it is a replica. The 15th-century original went missing in the early 1980s.
Badri Tuwal, 70, remembers how residents cried in mourning the day the idol disappeared. “We don’t know where it is,” he says, “but I hope someday we can celebrate its return.”
FASCIST INTERNATIONALE European Nationalists Eye New Alliance At Warsaw Talks
Leaders of European far-right and nationalist parties met in Warsaw on Saturday with the aim of creating a new alliance that would become the second-biggest grouping in the European Parliament.
The talks at the Regent Warsaw Hotel bring together 14 parties and are being hosted by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Poland's ruling right-wing populist Law and Justice (PiS) party.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and French far-right leader Marine Le Pen attended, as well as Santiago Abascal, the head of Spain's Vox party.
Le Pen, a candidate in France's presidential election in April, said on Friday that the meeting would be "an important step" but she did not expect any imminent announcement of a new group.
"We can be optimistic about the launch of this political force in the months to come," she said.
Around a dozen activists protested outside as the talks got underway, shouting "No to fascism!".
One notable absentee is Matteo Salvini, leader of Italy's League, which put out a statement saying that "the time needs to be right" for the new group.
Salvini was one of the signatories of a declaration in July by 16 parties and movements announcing plans for a "grand alliance" in the European Parliament -- the prelude for Saturday's talks.
The League and Le Pen's National Rally are in the European Parliament's Identity and Democracy Group, while PiS, Vox and the Brothers of Italy party are in the European Conservatives and Reformists Group.
Orban's Fidesz left the centre-right European People's Party, the biggest group in the European Parliament, in March and is looking for a new home.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said forming a new group could take months Photo: AFP / Wojtek RADWANSKI
"We want to change the politics of Brussels," Orban wrote on Facebook ahead of Saturday's meeting.
"We've been working for months to create a strong party family, hopefully we can make a step towards this goal today or tomorrow," he said.
Ewa Marciniak, a political scientist at the Polish Academy of Sciences, said participants would try to "minimise the differences between them", including on issues such as relations with Russia, as well as attitudes to abortion and LGBTQ rights.
Instead she said they would emphasise "their willingness to go back to the roots of the European Union".
Poland and Hungary accuse the EU of undermining their sovereignty while Brussels says the two countries are rolling back democratic freedoms.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Friday said Europe found itself at "a turning point" and called for member states to put an end to the "usurpation that is concentrating power in the hands of the European elites".
Le Pen met with Morawiecki and Orban in October, expressing support over their stand-off with the EU and their firm stance against mass immigration.
But on Friday she said that forging a new alliance would not be quick, warning that "bringing together political movements is a long haul. It takes time".
Volcanic fertilization of the oceans drove severe mass extinction, say scientists
Volcanic deposits both on land and on the seafloor are rapidly weathered, releasing nutrients like phosphorus to the oceans (example shown here is Montserrat, West Indies). Credit: Dr Tom Gernon/University of Southampton [@TMGernon]
Scientists at the University of Southampton have discovered that two intense periods of volcanism triggered a period of global cooling and falling oxygen levels in the oceans, which caused one of the most severe mass extinctions in Earth history.
The researchers, working with colleagues at the University of Oldenburg, the University of Leeds and the University of Plymouth, studied the effects of volcanic ash and lava on ocean chemistry during a period of extreme environmental change around 450 million years ago. Their findings are published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
This period brought about intense planetary cooling, which culminated in a glaciation and the major 'Late Ordovician Mass Extinction'. This extinction led to the loss of about 85% of species dwelling in the oceans, reshaping the course of evolution of life on Earth.
"It's been suggested that global cooling was driven by an increase in phosphorus input to the oceans" says Dr. Jack Longman, lead author of the study based at the University of Oldenburg, and previously a postdoctoral researcher at Southampton. "Phosphorus is one of the key elements of life, determining the pace at which tiny aquatic organisms like algae can use photosynthesis to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into organic matter". These organisms eventually settle to the seabed and are buried, ultimately reducing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which then causes cooling.
Volcanic deposits both on land and on the seafloor are rapidly weathered, releasing nutrients like phosphorus to the oceans (exame shown here is Montserrat, West Indies). Credit: Dr Tom Gernon/University of Southampton [@TMGernon]
"The unresolved puzzle is why glaciation and extinction occurred in two distinct phases at this time, separated by about 10 million years", states Dr. Tom Gernon, Associate Professor at the University of Southampton and co-author of the study. "That requires some mechanism to pulse the supply of phosphorus, which is hard to explain".
The team identified that two exceptionally large pulses of volcanic activity across the globe, occurring in parts of present-day North America and South China, coincided very closely with the two peaks in glaciation and extinction. "But intense bursts of volcanism are more typically linked to massive CO2 release, which should drive global warming, so another process must be responsible for sudden cooling events", explains Dr. Gernon.
This prompted the team to consider whether a secondary process—natural breakdown or 'weathering' of the volcanic material—may have provided the surge in phosphorus need to explain the glaciations.
"When volcanic material is deposited in the oceans it undergoes rapid and profound chemical alteration, including release of phosphorus, effectively fertilizing the oceans," states co-author Professor Martin Palmer from the University of Southampton. "So, it is seemed viable hypothesis and certainly one worth testing".
Abrupt climate change at the end of the Ordovician Period (~450-440 million years ago) caused the second largest mass extinction in Earth history, including the demise of the trilobite, Selenopeltis (pictured, in Oxford University Museum of Natural History). Credit: Dr Tom Gernon/University of Southampton [@TMGernon]
"This led our team to study volcanic ash layers in much younger marine sediments to compare their phosphorus contents before and after they were modified by interactions with seawater" said Dr. Hayley Manners, a lecturer in Organic Chemistry at the University of Plymouth. Equipped with this information, the team were better placed to understand the potential geochemical impact of extensive volcanic layers from enormous eruptions during the Ordovician.
"This prompted us to develop a global biogeochemical model to understand the knock-on effects on the carbon cycle of rapidly adding a surge of phosphorus leached from volcanic deposits into the ocean", says Dr. Benjamin Mills, Associate Professor at the University of Leeds and co-author on the study.
The team discovered that widespread blankets of volcanic material laid down on the seafloor during the Ordovician Period would have released sufficient phosphorus into the ocean to drive a chain of events, including climatic cooling, glaciation, widespread reduction in oceanoxygen levels, and mass extinction.
Whilst it might be tempting to think that seeding the oceans with phosphorus may help solve the current climate crisis, the scientists caution that this may have more damaging consequences. "Excess nutrient runoff from sources like agricultural fertilizers is a major cause of marine eutrophication—where algae grow rapidly and then decay, consuming oxygen and causing substantial damage to ecosystems at the present day", cautions Dr. Mills.
The scientists conclude that whilst on short timescales massive volcanic eruptions can warm the climate via CO2 emissions, equally they can drive global cooling on multimillion-year timescales. "Our study may prompt reinvestigations of other mass extinctions during Earth history", concludes Dr. Longman.'Volcanic winter' likely contributed to ecological catastrophe 250 million years ago: study
A dinosaur trove in Italy rewrites the history, geography and evolution of the ancient Mediterranean area
by Università di Bologna
An adult and two juvenile individuals of the dinosaur Tethyshadros insularis showing the different appearances exhibited by immature and mature specimens in the ancient environment of Villaggio del Pescatore, the first locality in Italy preserving many dinosaur individuals of the same species. Credit: Davide Bonadonna
Italy is not exactly renowned for dinosaurs. In comparison to its excellent artistic and archaeological heritage, dinosaur fossils are very rare. Not surprisingly, the discovery of the first isolated dinosaurs in the early 1990s generated excitement, but are now considered nothing more than an exception to a general rule. During the reign of dinosaurs, between 230 and 66 million years ago, the ancient Mediterranean area would have been hard to map, formed by countless small islands far from all major mainlands—Europe, Africa, and Asia—unsuitable to sustain large animals like the dinosaurs. Or so we believed.
Now, a new study published in Scientific Reports and coordinated by researchers from the University of Bologna unveils the first palaeontological site with multiple, exceptionally complete dinosaur skeletons from Italy: the Villaggio del Pescatore site, located in the Duino-Aurisina municipality, near Trieste, in north-eastern Italy.
These beautiful skeletons belong to the species Tethyshadros insularis and represent the biggest and most complete dinosaur ever found in this country. The team describes the skeletons of some of the most beautiful and pristine dinosaurs from the site (in particular of a new individual nicknamed "Bruno") and highlights the occurrence of seven (probably 11) individuals at the Villaggio del Pescatore.
Skeletal reconstructions of the two individuals of Tethyshadros insularis, with the immature specimen nicknamed "Antonio" (above) and the mature, newly described skeleton of "Bruno" below. Credit: University of Bologna
The palaeontological site of Villaggio del Pescatore, with people from ZOIC working to extract the fossils from this astounding dinosaur trove. Credit: ZOIC s.r.l.
The skeleton of Bruno, an adult individual of the dinosaur Tethyshadros insularis described in this new study. Credit: P. Ferrieri (courtesy of Soprintendenza Archeologia, belle arti e paesaggio del Friuli-Venezia Giulia)
The study also reviews and rewrites many evolutionary hypotheses to interpret the ancient Mediterranean context. Originally, geologists interpreted the area that today is the Villaggio del Pescatore site as part of an island in the middle of a proto-Mediterranean ocean called Tethys. This supported the incorrect interpretation that the relatively small, first dinosaur skeleton found at the site (nicknamed Antonio), was actually a dwarf species, an example of the so-called island rule (the evolutionary miniaturization of bigger animals in an insular environment due to the scarcity of resources).
In this new study, the research team documents that Antonio is an immature individual, whereas Bruno, which is bigger in size, represents an older individual—and that could have been still growing at the time of its death.
New geological data gathered by the team also provided the age of the site and its fossils: approximately 80 million years ago, in the Cretaceous period. This is about 10 million years older than previously thought; quite a long time, even when dealing with dinosaurs. At that time, what is now north-eastern Italy was a land facing a vast ocean but connected to western Europe and Asia. This means that in addition to the small islands that characterized the ancient Mediterranean, many migratory routes for large terrestrial animals like the dinosaurs might have been possible across land bridges of what we nowadays call Italy.
The skull of "Bruno", the newly described skeleton of the dinosaur Tethyshadros insularis. Credit: A. Giamborino (courtesy of Soprintendenza Archeologia, belle arti e paesaggio del Friuli-Venezia Giulia)
A simplified evolutionary tree showing where Tethyshadros would fit between its hadrosauriform relatives, the so-called duck-bill dinosaurs. Credit: University of Bologna
The bones of "Antonio" under the microscope, showing the bone cells (black, circled dots): the fossilised bone tissues were analysed to infer the relative age of the dinosaur skeletons at the time of their death. Credit: University of Bologna
This new research highlights the pivotal role of the Italian dinosaur fossil record for evaluating important scientific hypotheses on these ancient animals. As the site is already protected, new research activities may represent an opportunity to include the geological and paleontological heritage in the "must-see" list while visiting the Belpaese.
More information: Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza et al, An Italian dinosaur Lagerstätte reveals the tempo and mode of hadrosauriform body size evolution, Scientific Reports (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-02490-x
‘We lost touch with empathy’: Iraqi Oscar entry exposes migrant tragedy on Europe’s doorstep
After premiering at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, Haider Rashid’s migrant thriller “Europa” has been selected as Iraq’s contender for best international feature film at the upcoming Academy Awards. FRANCE 24 spoke to the Italian-Iraqi director about the humanitarian crisis at Europe’s borders and his hopes of representing Iraq at the Oscars.
A timely and chilling thriller, “Europa” offers a vivid portrayal of the ordeal experienced by migrants desperate to enter Fortress Europe. Co-financed by the Iraqi and Italian culture ministries, among other supporters, it is the latest migrant-themed work by Rashid, whose father was forced to flee Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in the late ‘70s, taking the very Balkan Route that is the focus of his film.
“Europa” is informed by first-person accounts of migrants who undertook the perilous journey and extensive interviews with NGO workers, human rights lawyers and public officials. It follows a young Iraqi migrant named Kamal as he attempts to dodge brutal border guards and deadly migrant-hunters at the Bulgarian border with Turkey.
The film’s probing, handheld camera scours Kamal’s bruised and exhausted body with relentless close-ups as he runs, leaps, crawls and scurries up trees in a frantic race for survival. The young migrant is played with mesmerising intensity by Adam Ali, a British actor of Libyan origin with a slender build and a face from silent movies.
“Europa” has appeared at film festivals across Europe since its international premiere at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes. FRANCE 24 spoke to its director ahead of the film’s Arab premiere at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah next week and its release in Iraqi cinemas on December 10.
Your film has won critical acclaim at European festivals. How important was it to get the nod from Iraq too?
I’m extremely honoured to represent Iraq at the Oscars; it makes me feel welcomed and embraced by the country – and even more proud of my mixed heritage. I’ve experienced exile vicariously through my father’s experience; it has been more than forty years since he fled Iraq but it is somehow still part of our family life. Now I’m delighted to be doing something for the country, especially with “Europa”, which is a very culturally-fluid film, with support from both Europe and the Arab world.
We made “Europa” as a sort of release from our own fears about the growing xenophobia and racism in Europe, but also to speak about what is happening to entire generations of Arab youth, of Iraqi youth, particularly those born after the regime [of Saddam Hussein] was toppled, who have grown up in extremely difficult and unstable circumstances.
The film has been embraced by cultural institutions and filmmakers in Iraq, both for its subject matter and approach; they appreciate its innovative nature. It speaks about Iraq’s youth in a new way, in a country where everybody knows someone who has fled. I believe the decision to support the film financially and choose it to represent the country at the Oscars (...) shows awareness of what is happening in Iraq and of the enormous need to build a better future for the country, especially for the young.
“Europa” is the first joint Italian-Iraqi-Kuwaiti production. How significant is the Kuwaiti involvement in this project?
I think most people who were old enough at the time remember very vividly experiencing or watching the Gulf War unfold. I’ve had the opportunity to visit Kuwait several times and found great friends and collaborators there (...). I think it’s very meaningful that 30 years after the war the two countries have a good, peaceful relationship of cooperation and are working together on a cultural endeavor such as this film.
“Europa” is now set for its Arab premiere after touring European festivals. How have audiences responded to your movie?
The most amazing experiences have come when screening the film for younger audiences, students especially. They engage with it in a way no other audience has: they are passionate about the character, the story and the style of the film. Their enthusiasm gave us a lot of energy, hope and some insights: it’s not true that teenagers have no interest in arthouse, “social” or “political” cinema, you just have to find a way to engage them. I feel that the choices behind this film – in terms of its immersive style, that is maybe reminiscent of some video games, in terms of rhythm, but also in terms of focusing on a young character who is just like them – speak to young audiences and make them eager to think and discuss.
Have the EU’s border standoff with Belarus and the latest migrant tragedy in the English Channel, off the coast of France, given added urgency to your film?
I think the film shows events that have a pressing relevance, regardless of which border they take place on. I came up with the concept of the film in 2016 and five years on the situation hasn’t changed. If anything, it’s even worse: it’s a humanitarian crisis of enormous proportions that will last for decades if it is only dealt with as an emergency. It’s a structural problem that most institutions don’t really want to fix.
We are all so used to hearing about it that it’s become normality; a lot of people scream for or against it, but it feels distant. We made “Europa” to try to shake people out of this, to make them experience how close it is and how random it is that these dramatic events are not happening to them. It’s just a stroke of luck that should not be taken for granted, Europe’s history teaches us that.
From Poland to England, calls and attempts by civilians to push back migrants have become increasingly common, while politicians routinely talk of suspending or rewriting international law to keep asylum seekers at bay. What does this say about our societies?
We have lost touch with the concept and the feeling of empathy, which I believe should be at the centre of any society. It’s a simple concept, which is why I think politicising the debate on immigration is the greatest gift to political forces based on populism – immigration shouldn’t be a political issue, it is a human issue and should be spoken about with realism and humanity.
It is shocking to watch news of what is happening on the Poland-Belarus border and in the English Channel, as much as it was shocking to watch images of Haitian migrants being chased by mounted Border Patrol near the Rio Grande, on the US-Mexico border. Of course it recalls moments from the film, these are desperate journeys of survival against nature and violent pushbacks and attacks; every day there are lives at high risk across borders. It is an inhumane and criminal treatment.
The tragic situation unfolding at Europe’s borders is referenced, documented and sometimes manipulated by a variety of actors, including journalists, activists and politicians. What is cinema’s role in portraying this crisis?
I think cinema can help give a different perspective, a more human point of view, giving viewers a taste of someone else’s experience. Our aim with “Europa” was to put the audience in the shoes of someone who’s trying to survive through a forest as he’s chased by migrant hunters and attacked by border police forces, and to give them the opportunity to ask themselves how such events sit with them. Cinema has reached a very mature time in its history, technically and artistically, it can have an impact on audiences and I believe there is a responsibility to use it for a purpose of human interest.
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.
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.
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.
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.
