'Is this patriot enough?' Asian-American Army veteran protests racism by displaying wounds from military service during a town hall meeting

Sophia Ankel
3/28/2021

Lee Wong shows off his scars at a meeting in West Chester Township, 

on March 23, 2020. West Chester Board of Trustees


An Asian-American Army veteran showed his scars in a board meeting to prove his patriotism.

Ohio township trustee Lee Wong used his speech to criticize anti-Asian violence.

The impromptu moment came after several racially-motivated attacks against Asian-Americans.


An AsianAmerican government official revealed his military scars during a town hall meeting on Tuesday to protest the recent wave of racially-motivated attacks in the country.

During a meeting of the West Chester Township, Ohio, Board of Trustees, chairman Lee Wong, 69, lifted his shirt and showed his scars to prove his "patriotism," NBC News reported. Wong served in the US Army for 20 years.

Footage of the moment, which has gone viral on social media, shows Wong unbuttoning his shirt while speaking about how tired he is of the Anti-Asian rhetoric he's witnessed in America.

"Don't get me wrong, people love me in this community and I love them, too, but there are some ignorant people that would come up to me and say that I don't look American enough or patriotic enough," Wong says in the video, according to the BBC. "I'm not afraid. I don't have to live in fear."


The 69-year-old then stands up and raises his undershirt, revealing a big, dark scar across his chest.

"Here is my proof. This is sustained through my service in the U.S. military," he says to the room. "Now, is this patriot enough?"

"Prejudice is hate, and that hate can be changed," Wong continued. "We are human. We need to be kinder, gentler, to one another."

Watch the powerful moment below.

Wong's powerful statement comes in the aftermath of several racially-motivated attacks across the country.

Last week, eight people — six of whom were Asian women — were killed in a shooting in Atlanta, Georgia.

According to research published by Stop AAPI Hate on Tuesday, nearly 3,800 anti-Asian racist incidents were reported over the course of the pandemic in the US. Women made up 68% of these reports.

Wong, who came to the US from China at the age of 18, describes himself as a moderate Republican, according to NBC News.


Wong served from 1975 to 1995 and sustained his injuries at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, Mail Online reported.

He has served more than one term as the president of the board of trustees of the Ohio town, where more than 90 percent of the population of 66,000 is White, according to MEAWW.

An Asian-American Official Bared His Chest, Revealing Scars From His Army Service

“People question my patriotism, that I don’t look American enough,” Lee Wong, an elected official in an Ohio township, said at a recent public meeting.

Lee Wong, an elected official in West Chester, Ohio, said he could no longer endure the indignities of prejudice against Asian-Americans, or people questioning his loyalties to America.Credit...West Chester Board of Trustees meeting

By Neil Vigdor

NYT
March 28, 2021

As town meetings go, the discussion was fairly routine, meandering from what Memorial Day celebrations might look like in the second year of the coronavirus pandemic, to a federal grant application for bulletproof vests for police officers.

But when the time came for the trustees in West Chester Township, Ohio, to deliver personal remarks at the group’s most recent meeting, the board’s chairman, Lee Wong, who is Asian-American, did something unusual.

Mr. Wong removed his suit jacket and his tie and unbuttoned his dress shirt, according to a video of the board’s March 23 meeting, which has since drawn widespread attention. Then, he lifted his undershirt, revealing scars on his chest that he said he got while serving in the U.S. Army.

Mr. Wong, 69, said he could no longer endure the indignities of prejudice against Asian-Americans or having people question his loyalties to America.

“Here is my proof,” he said. “Now is this patriot enough? I’m not ashamed to walk around anymore. Before I was inhibited. People looked at me strange.”

It was the board’s first meeting since March 16, when a gunman killed six women of Asian descent in a series of attacks on massage businesses in the Atlanta area, leaving eight people dead.

Prosecutors are weighing whether to classify the shootings as a hate crime, but the rampage came amid a rise in violent crimes targeting people of Asian descent across the United States, which advocates say has been exacerbated by pandemic-related racism.

Mr. Wong immigrated to the United States from the island of Borneo in 1971, according to a profile about him in The Cincinnati Enquirer last year when he ran unsuccessfully for the State Senate.

He is a Republican, though the township board is a nonpartisan body, The Enquirer reported. He was first elected to the board in West Chester Township, a northern suburb of Cincinnati, in 2005.

About halfway through the board’s meeting, Mr. Wong said he would depart from protocol and had something that he wanted to share.

He said he came to the United States when he was 18 and once had been assaulted in a racially motivated attack in Chicago. For too long, Mr. Wong said, he had put up with racism but had been too afraid to speak out because he feared facing more discrimination and abuse.

“In the last few years, things are just getting worse and worse,” he said. “There are some ignorant people that will come up to me and say that I don’t look American or patriotic enough. Now, that really gets my goat.”

What to Know About Gun Laws and Shootings in the U.S.

In the last five years, there have been at least 29 shootings in the United States with four or more fatalities, according to data compiled by the Violence Project. The number of overall injuries from firearms reached a 50-year high in 2017, with nearly 40,000 people killed.

Americans make up about 4.4 percent of the global population but own 42 percent of the world’s guns. Research shows that 31 percent of mass shootings worldwide from 1966 to 2012 were committed by Americans.

The Times examined how weapons were obtained in 19 shootings from 2009 to 2018. Many of the guns used in mass shootings are bought legally and with a federal background check.

At the state level, there is a checkerboard of gun laws that align with the partisan tilt of each state. While 13 Democratic-controlled states have restricted gun access in recent years, 14 Republican states have loosened their gun laws.

He said that Asian-Americans had been subjected to widespread prejudice, particularly restaurant workers.

“They are hard-working Americans,” he said. “Some even served in the U.S. armed forces — not Chinese army. U.S. Army.”

Noting that he had been a U.S. citizen for quite some time, Mr. Wong said that he had served in the U.S. Army for 20 years. He got the scars while serving at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, The Journal-News of Hamilton, Ohio, reported.

Efforts to reach Mr. Wong on Sunday were not immediately successful, but he told CNN that he got the scars after undergoing multiple surgeries for cuts that got infected during combat training.

“People question my patriotism, that I don’t look American enough,” Mr. Wong said at the meeting. “They cannot get over this face.”

Mr. Wong said the country had significant work to do to address bigotry.

“You know prejudice is hate,” he said. “We need to be kinder, gentler to one another, because we are all the same. We are one human being on this earth.”

BOURGEOIS ECONOMICS


THE DEEPEST RECESSION, BUT ALSO EASILY THE WEIRDEST

Posted by David Smith 
Category: David Smith's other articles
Previous » Now the economy braces for the shock of the new normal
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Sunday, March 21, 2021

My regular column is available to subscribers on www.thetimes.co.uk This is an excerpt.

This time last year, give or take a few days, I was giving a talk in Birmingham. I had arrived late the night before and had not been out that morning. A couple of members of the audience remarked, however, on how eerily quiet the streets were. A lockdown had not been announced but people had already started to change their behaviour. Little did we know as we exaggeratedly bumped elbows – something I have not done much since – how strange the next 12 months would be.

What was on the way, of course, were more than 125,000 Covid-19 deaths, tens upon tens of thousands of stories of personal tragedy and loved ones unable to see each other even at times of serious illness, death and severe mental strain. What followed were the most onerous restrictions on everyday life and normal business activity that most of us have ever seen and would hope not to see again. Lives were blighted, particularly the lives of the young in education.

For the economy, what followed was, frankly, off the scale. A year ago, the economy was sliding into recession, even before the first lockdown. Gross domestic product fell by 7 per cent in March 2020, contributing to a 2.9 per cent fall in the first quarter of the year, the biggest drop since the three-day week of 1974.

That was just the appetiser. In April, GDP plunged by a further 18 per cent as the economy locked down. That was the main contributor to the 19 per cent slump in GDP in the second quarter of last year, easily the biggest on record. If this is the first draft of history, economic historians will be marvelling at these numbers for decades to come.

But then something rather different happened as restrictions were lifted. Starting in May, the economy grew for six months in a row. It slipped back in November, by 2.3 per cent, grew in December and managed to eke out 1 per cent growth in the fourth quarter, before falling back again by 2.9 per cent in January. We thus got very much better at handling lockdowns compared with the first.

The result of this is that, in the worst recession since the Great Frost of 1709, measured by GDP, there was monthly growth in seven of the 11 months for which we have data. This quarter will see at most a modest fall in GDP. As fort hat “worst since 1709” comparison, which I have used extensively, there are questions whether it its appropriate to compare with a time before the industrial revolution, when the harvest-related swings in economic activity were huge, in both directions, and nearly two and a half centuries before GDP was invented in the way we know it today.

Though the “worst recession for a very long time” label is likely to stick, it may be that the current estimate of a 9.9 per cent GDP fall last year will be revised lower as more data comes in. The Office for National Statistics has said that its estimates are subject to greater than usual uncertainty because of the pandemic.

That is not the odd thing about the past 12 months. Despite all the despair and tragedies I described above, and the severe setbacks for many individuals and businesses, on many measures it did not seem like a recession at all. Corporate and individual insolvencies have, as the Insolvency Service notes, remained low since the first national lockdown. Last month company insolvencies were 49 per cent lower than in February 2020, while individual bankruptcies and debt relief orders were down 42 per cent.

Weekly company incorporations – new business formations – are also showing significant year=on-year gains, as they have been for most of the period of the pandemic. Some say businesses are being established to qualify for government support, but I doubt that is the main explanation.

There are other odd aspects to the recession. You do not expect incomes to rise strongly at a time of economic pain but this is what has happened. In the final quarter of last year wages and salaries in aggregate, the biggest component of household incomes, were up by 2.8 per cent on a year earlier at a time of very low inflation. For 2020 as a whole aggregate wages and salaries showed a rise in real terms.

The big question for the recovery is not whether beleaguered consumers have money to spend, but how much of the £148 billion of deposits, mainly involuntary savings, they built up during the first three quarters of last year - £100 billion more than the previous year – will be spent.

Unemployment, at 5.1 per cent of the workforce, is at a level that many past politicians would have given their eye teeth for, in terms of it being so low. It will rise but probably not by very much, and the Bank of England will soon revise down its prediction of a 7.75 per cent unemployment peak. The Office for Budget Responsibility predicts 6.5 per cent.

The common thread here, as you may have discerned, is the unprecedented extent of government intervention in the economy. Government spending in the current fiscal year, 2020-21, will be the equivalent of 54 per cent of GDP.

The Treasury puts the scale of its Covid-19 support for the economy at £280 billion this fiscal year, and for a total of more than £350 billion this year and next combined. A significant part of those ages and salaries described above will have been provided by the government via the furlough scheme. The government could not prevent the hit to GDP largely but not entirely caused by its own lockdown restrictions, but its actions greatly limited the impact

We are now, one hopes, on the way out of that, and into a period in which the economy can stand on its own feet, though in a webinar I was doing the other day, businesses taking part were not so convinced. Nearly half thought there would yet be another lockdown and roughly 90 per cent believed some restrictions would return next autumn and winter. The champagne corks are not yet popping. Most were also sceptical about the pace of recovery and did not see the economy as the “coiled spring” beloved of Andy Haldane, the Bank’s chief economist.

For consumers, things are now looking up after this extraordinary, and very weird time. Though the survey was done before news emerged of delays in vaccine suppliers, Friday's consumer confidence index from GfK showed a notable bounce of seven points. It has now shown a considerable recovery since the gloom of January, and an even lower point in November, the second lockdown, though it is still quite a bit lower than a year ago.

Consumers, the guardians of those savings that are waiting to be spent, think the past 12 months have been terrible for the economy but the next year will be a lot better. They are more upbeat about their personal financial situation over the next 12 months than they were a year ago. They, like the rest of us, will be hoping for something that is not as weird as the past 12 months have been.

 

US economy experiences the deepest recession of all times – leading macroeconomic influencers

22 March 2021 (Last Updated March 22nd, 2021 08:10)

Economists believe that the US government could not entirely prevent the GDP decline triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic but it is gradually recovering from the plunge.

John Ashcroft

John Ashcroft, an economist, shared an article about the Covid-19 pandemic bringing economic activity and regular life to a standstill in the US, with the lives of the youth pursuing their education being the worst affected.

The country recorded more than 125,000 coronavirus related deaths since the Covid-19 outbreak in March 2020. The economy was sliding into a recession even before the first lockdown, as GDP dropped 7% in March contributing to a 2.9% fall in the first quarter of the year, which is being observed as the biggest fall since the three-day week of 1974.

In April 2020, the GDP plunged to a further 18% as the economy closed. This contributed to the 19% slump in the GDP in the second quarter of the year, the biggest drop on record.

However, since Covid-19 restrictions were lifted in May, the economy reported growth in the six upcoming months.

Although being regarded as the ‘worst recession for a very long time’, the label is likely to remain, given the current estimate of a 9.9% GDP fall last year will be revised lower as more data is received and analysed.

The big recovery questions, however, are whether consumers have enough money to spend, and if there will be enough jobs in the coming months.

The deepest recession, but also easily the weirdest … the common thread is the extent of state intervention …
⁦@dsmitheconomics⁩ ⁦@thesundaytimes⁩https://t.co/8qnS1npkVy

— John Ashcroft (@jkaonline) March 21, 2021

 

Armine Yalnizyan

Armine Yalnizyan, a Canadian economist with the Atkinson Foundation, shared an article on how the ongoing pandemic has highlighted the differences in working conditions between teachers and childcare workers.

Since the Covid-19 outbreak, educators, teachers and school officials in New York asserted that schools are not baby care centres and teachers cannot be used as baby-sitters. With some teachers being given the work-from-home option during the pandemic, baby care homes were used as schools for American children, who did not have access to online learning.

It was reported that childcare workers managed the children in the same classrooms which were shut down for teaching in view of the rising coronavirus infections, amid concerns raised by teachers’ unions. The glaring disparity in the treatment of teachers and childcare workers brought to the forefront the discrimination in treatment being meted out to the latter, and them being deprived of basic rights granted to employees.

Many childcare centres were forced to remain open during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, as operators of childcare centres feared that the federal government would not reimburse them if they suspended their operations. Childcare experts stated that the American Rescue Plan, which apportioned nearly $40bn for the industry, provided some relief to these workers.

Atif Mian

Atif Mian, a professor of economics at Princeton University, shared an article about the coronavirus pandemic highlighting the need for aggressive funding into basic science. The drug manufacturing company Pfizer and BioNTech, which are making the Covid-19 vaccine, are ready to use the once abandoned synthetic mRNA (Messenger RNA), in the coronavirus vaccine doses.

The prospects of the synthetic mRNA technology jeopardised scientific careers yet raised hope that it could play a pivotal role in the manufacturing of Covid-19 vaccine which is expected to restore normalcy into the world. Many more drug makers such as German biotech firm CureVac also developed experimental mRNA vaccines for coronavirus.

Experts claim that the value of mRNA, which was abandoned for decades, by scientists and governments alike, should remind the governments of the need to apportion substantial funds for research and development (R&D) into science and technology.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy shows usonce again why he’s got to go

His latest plan to “remake” the Postal Service would result in slower mail, service cuts and higher postage prices.

By CST Editorial Board Mar 28, 2021

  

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy speaks during a House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing on USPS on Feb. 24, 2021 on Capitol Hill. Graeme Jennings / Getty Images

It’s now been a month since President Joe Biden nominated three candidates to the Postal Service Board of Governors, the first step in dumping Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

It’s unclear when the Senate will vote on those nominees, but the stakes get higher by the day. We saw that again this past week, when DeJoy outlined his 10-year plan to remake — read: finish destroying — the agency he began dismantling for political gain under the previous administration.

Several House Democrats on Friday introduced legislation to keep the worst of DeJoy’s plan in check, prohibiting him from lengthening mail delivery times. That’s not enough.

Biden’s nominees must be put in place so they can send DeJoy packing before DeJoy can cause even more damage. As Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois bluntly said, DeJoy’s plan is “designed to sink the postal service, not save it.”

To save $160 billion over the next 10 years, DeJoy wants to further cut post office hours, lengthen delivery times, raise postage prices and impose other austerity measures.

So that mailbox down the block that was removed last year might never be replaced. For all DeJoy cares, it’s on you to get to the post office, during reduced hours, to mail your mortgage payment, business contract or birthday card. And take your chances that your mail arrives on time, since some 30% of items sent first-class would be delivered in four to five days instead of the current standard of two to three days.

Americans deserve better. DeJoy has done enough damage.

Last December, the rate of on-time delivery of non-local mail plummeted to 38%, down from 92% a year earlier. On-time delivery has since rebounded to about 80%, but that’s still below the USPS standard of 90%-plus.

Service has been especially poor in Chicago, as a USPS inspector general’s recent audit found. More than 62,000 letters and packages from four post offices were delivered late between September 2020 and February of this year.

Let’s not forget that DeJoy is also a near-perfect example of conflict of interest, having once owned a stake worth up to $75 million in a shipping firm that saw its contracts with USPS triple in size when DeJoy took over.

DeJoy doesn’t own those shares anymore. He signed them over to his adult children.

“Get used to me,” DeJoy told a House committee last month.

Whatever reforms USPS needs to become financially solvent and efficient, DeJoy cannot be trusted to make them.

Show him the door.

Captain Nick Sloane, The Salvage Master Who Raised The Costa Concordia, Discusses What It Will Take to Refloat The Ever Given – Interview

gCaptain

Nick Sloane, the South African Salvage Master who has led the operation for the U.S.-Italian contractors consortium Titan-Micoperi. REUTERS/Tony Gentile

March 28, 2021

Billions of dollars worth of global trade is hanging in the balance as salvage efforts continue to refloat the MV Ever Given in the Suez Canal.

The impact of the event now rests entirely on how long it takes to refloat the ship to restore maritime commerce through the critical chokepoint that offers the shortest route between Asia and Europe.

So what will it take to refloat the 400-meter-long containership?

Well that’s currently the million billion-dollar question. But to get an idea, we reached out to veteran salvage master Captain Nick Sloane for his take on the situation.

If the name rings a bell, it’s because Nick was the person in charge of refloating the Costa Concordia cruise ship in Giglio, Italy, the largest maritime salvage jobs in history.

Nick Sloane is now Director at Resolve Marine Group, one of the world’s leading maritime salvage companies (the appointed salvage company for the Ever Given is SMIT Salvage, a Boskalis company). He agreed and sat down for a Zoom interview with gCaptain’s founder and CEO, John Konrad, and Dr. Sal Mercogliano, a professor of history at North Carolina’s Campbell University and naval historian.

Have a watch below:

For a more in-depth profile on Nick, Vanity Fair did a great piece on him in 2014, at the height of his Costa Concordia fame, which is well-worth the read.

Full Coverage: Ever Given Ground in Suez

*Interview was recorded at approximately 9 a.m. EDT, Saturday, March 27, 2021. Originally published March 27, 2021.

Ever Given Refloating Attempt Postponed to Monday

Stranded ship Ever Given, one of the world's largest container ships, is seen after it ran aground, in Suez Canal, Egypt March 28, 2021. Suez Canal Authority/Handout via REUTERS

Reuters March 28, 2021

gCaptain Update: The Suez Canal Authority and salvors working to refloat the Ever Given will not attempt to pull the ship free Sunday night as they await the arrival of another high-powered tug, pinning hopes of refloating the vessel on Monday’s high tides.

“SCA has decided to postpone the next refloating attempt until sufficient tug power is in place,” shipping agent Leth Agencies said in its Twitter update on the salvage efforts. “TUG ALP Guard has already arrived. Second, TUG Carlo Magna, will arrive Monday morning. In lieu of the tide table, a likely time for the next attempt is Monday evening.”

The next high tides expected in Suez will occur at 11:42 a.m. Monday and 12:08 a.m. Tuesday local time, with the 12:08 high offering the highest tide of 7.0 feet, an increase of a little over 2 inches from the previous high. In this case, it seems every inch counts. -End

By Yusri Mohamed and Aidan Lewis

ISMAILIA, Egypt March 28 (Reuters) – Suez Canal salvage teams intensified excavation and dredging on Sunday around a massive container ship blocking the busy waterway ahead of attempts to refloat it, with two sources saying work had been complicated by rock under the ship’s bow.

Diggers were working to remove parts of the canal’s bank and expand dredging close to the ship’s bow to a depth of 18 meters (19.7 yards), the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said in a statement.

There was no mention of new attempts to release the ship with tugs, though canal officials and sources had said they were hoping to take advantage of high tides on Sunday and Monday to dislodge the vessel.

A specialist tug registered in the Netherlands arrived and would join efforts to refloat the ship on Sunday evening, the ship’s technical manager Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) said.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has ordered preparations for the possible removal of some of the ship’s 18,300 containers, SCA Chairman Osama Rabie told Egypt’s Extra News.

Any operation to lighten the ship’s load would not start before Monday, an SCA source said, as salvage teams try to maneuver the ship free before high tides recede next week.

The 400-meter (430-yard) long Ever Given became jammed diagonally across a southern section of the canal in high winds early on Tuesday, halting shipping traffic on the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia.

At least 369 vessels are waiting to transit the canal, Rabie said, including dozens of container ships, bulk carriers, oil tankers and liquefied natural gas (LNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vessels.

Shippers affected by the blockage may be offered discounts, Rabie said, adding that he believed investigations would show the canal was not responsible for grounding the Ever Given, one of the world’s biggest container ships.

Rescue workers from the SCA and a team from Dutch firm Smit Salvage have been weighing how much tugging power they can use on the ship without risking damage, and whether some cargo will need to be removed by crane in order to re-float it.

Experts have warned that such a process could be complex and lengthy. Rabie said he hoped it would not be necessary, but that Egypt would take up offers of international assistance if it did switch to that strategy.

A ballast tank at the bow of the ship has been damaged, and the vessel will have to be inspected once it is freed, two people familiar with the salvage operation said.

Suction pumps have been deployed to expel water from the tank, SCA sources said, and one of the sources said divers had been working to repair the hole.

SOIL EXPERTS

Dredging has so far shifted at least 27,000 cubic meters of sand and mud from around the ship, the SCA said earlier on Sunday.

However, two SCA sources told Reuters that a mass of rock had been found at the bow of the ship, complicating salvage efforts. That appeared to be confirmed by the focus late on Sunday on digging to remove the lining of the canal around the ship’s front.

Soil experts are on site to advise on recovery efforts and a further dredger was expected to arrive by March 30, BSM said.

From the dredging done so far it was still unclear whether the ship was stuck on soft sand, compact sand or clay, which will determine how easily it may shift free, said one official involved in the salvage operation.

Two new and powerful tugs expected to be in use by Monday could provide a boost. “We believe that is what you are going to need in terms of horse power … to have a decent attempt, a decent chance of trying to float her,” the official said.

The latest efforts come after officials said some progress had been made on Friday and Saturday.

“The rudder was not moving and it is now moving, the propeller is working now, there was no water underneath the bow, and now there is water under it, and yesterday there was a 4-meter deviation in the bow and the stern,” Rabie told Egyptian state TV.

About 15% of world shipping traffic transits the Suez Canal, which is a key source of foreign currency revenue for Egypt. The current stoppage is costing the canal $14-15 million daily.

Shipping rates for oil product tankers nearly doubled after the ship became stranded, and the blockage has disrupted global supply chains, threatening costly delays for companies already dealing with COVID-19 restrictions.

If the blockage drags on, shippers may decide to reroute their cargoes around the Cape of Good Hope, adding about two weeks to journeys and extra fuel costs.

A note from A.P. Moeller Maersk seen by Reuters said it had so far redirected 15 vessels around the Cape after calculating that the journey would be equal to the current delay of sailing to Suez and queuing.

The SCA has said it can accelerate convoys through the canal once the Ever Given is freed.

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Captain Nick Sloane, The Salvage Master Who Raised The Costa Concordia, Discusses What It Will Take to Refloat The Ever Given – Interview7 hours ago
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(Reporting by Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia, Aidan Lewis, Omar Fahmy, Mahmoud Mourad and Momen Saeed Atallah in Cairo, Anthony Deutsch in Amsterdam; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Alex Richardson, Elaine Hardcastle, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Daniel Wallis)(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021.

Suez Canal: Ever Given moves 30 metres as preparations are made to remove cargo to make it lighter

The 220,000-tonne Ever Given has been wedged across the Egyptian shipping lane since Tuesday

Egypt’s president has ordered preparations are made to remove cargo from the ship (Photo: Maxar Technologies/AP)

By Benjamin Russell
March 28, 2021

The container ship stuck in the Suez Canal has been moved almost 30 metres by workers trying to free the stricken vessel.

The 220,000-tonne Ever Given has been wedged across the Egyptian shipping lane since Tuesday, and experts have warned that freeing the ship could take weeks.

But fresh hope was given to the situation on Sunday when rescue crews reportedly managed to move it by around 30m, according to NBC News foreign correspondent Raf Sanchez.

Around 14 tugs are currently working in the canal, with two further attempts to free the Ever Given expected to take place on Sunday.

A pilot working with the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said he hoped the chance of success would be boosted by spring tides offering deeper water.

Two additional tugs, the Dutch-flagged Alp Guard and the Italian-flagged Carlo Magno, arrived in the Red Sea and were heading to the site to work alongside dredgers as they continue to vacuum up sand from beneath it and remove mud caked to the ship’s side.

The Ever Given has caused a backlog of cargo ships (Photo: Suez Canal Authority via AP)

They have so far shifted 27,000 cubic metres of sand around the ship to reach a depth of 18m, according to the SCA.

Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has also ordered preparations are made to remove cargo from the ship in a bid to make it lighter.

Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie, the head of the SCA said he was optimistic about the progress they were making.

He said: “There are positive indicators from yesterday and the day before yesterday.

“The rudder was not moving and it is now moving, the propeller is working now, there was no water underneath the bow, and now there is water under it, and yesterday there was a 4-metre deviation in the bow and the stern.”

He added: “We’re dividing the day into two halves, 12 hours for dredgers and 12 hours for tugs, because not all times are suitable for tugs due to the tide.”

More than 320 ships are waiting to travel through the waterway, either to the Mediterranean or the Red Sea.

A number of backed up ships are known to be carrying livestock, raising concerns about their welfare as time goes on.

Gerit Weidinger, EU coordinator for Animals International, said: “My greatest fear is that animals run out of food and water and they get stuck on the ships because they cannot be unloaded somewhere else for paperwork reasons.”

Read More
Suez canal: Grounded Ever Given cargo ship moves for first time but it is still unknown when it will be free

Many ships en route to the area still have the canal listed as part of their course, however other vessels are opting to navigate the Cape of Good Hope in order to avoid it.

The company that owns the ship, Shoei Kisen, said getting the ship moving was “extremely difficult”, but that there were no injuries or oil spillage caused by it running aground.

Mr Rabei said on Saturday that he hoped the ship would be re-floated “today or tomorrow, depending on the ship’s responsiveness to the tides”.

Discussing the cause of the accident, he added: “An accident this big has several mistakes, several causes, part of it is a technical mistake, which is under investigation.

“There could also be a human error, which is also under investigation.

“There could be a lot of mistakes, but we can’t say what they are now.

“The only mistake we can be sure of now is the wind and the sandstorm. This is not the main one, like I said, but the rest will become clearer in the investigation.”

Beeple and nothingness
The ontology of NFT Art
Issue 95, 25th March 2021

Anthony Cross | Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at Texas State University.

Uncovering the ontology of NFTs - the artwork-cryptocurrency crossovers being sold for millions - reveals a profound uncertainty about their nature, and the rights they confer. But beyond this ambiguity, will the vast sums of cash (or cryptocurrency) being thrown at NFTs ruin the whacky and wonderful world of internet folk art? Writing originally for Aesthetics for Birds, Anthony Cross investigates.

It was the Beeple heard round the world: on Thursday, March 11th, Christie’s sold a collage of digital art images for 69 million dollars. Beeple, real name Mike Winkelmann, is the artist responsible for the work; this makes him the third-highest selling living artist behind Jeff Koons and David Hockney.

Prior to the sale, Beeple had a modest artistic practice, posting original 3D images online daily. Most of these “everydays” are technically competent but nondescript abstracts—the sort of thing that you might use as a desktop background. Recently they’ve grown more referential, including images of a breastfeeding Donald Trump, Tiger King dethroned, and the coronavirus as a scifi movie monster. How, exactly, did Beeple’s work find itself in a Christie’s auction, outselling Lucien Freud and Damien Hirst? The answer has a lot to do with his chosen format for sale: an ‘NFT’, or non-fungible token.

What’s an NFT?

The abbreviation stands for ‘non-fungible token’. NFTs are crypto tokens, just like Bitcoins and other cryptocurrency: Each NFT is a pointer to an address on a publicly verifiable and distributed blockchain. Owning an NFT means that you own the cryptographic key required to demonstrate your ownership; this can be verified by consulting the blockchain, which lists you—or more precisely your digital wallet—as the owner.

The person who holds the NFT is the owner. It’s like possessing a digital deed to the object in question.

Most crypto tokens are fungible - any bitcoin can be exchanged for any other - but NFTs are unique. This means that NFTs can be used as identifiers for unique objects. More importantly, by attaching an NFT to a particular object—like basketball highlights, digital albums or even tweets—sellers can use NFTs to transfer ownership of these objects. The person who holds the NFT is the owner. It’s like possessing a digital deed to the object in question.

NFTs are especially useful for selling digital art. By linking digital art pieces to specific NFTs, artists have created opportunities for the individual ownership and collection of objects that were otherwise replicable, shareable, and ownerless (think of internet memes). Consider the example of Nyancat, a GIF image-turned-meme dating from 2011 featuring an 8-bit cat with a Pop Tart body: this GIF has been circulating throughout the internet for a decade, featuring most prominently in an insanely catchy YouTube video set to music. The creator of the original GIF, Chris Torres, recently sold an NFT linked to a one-of-a-kind version of Nyancat for roughly $600,000.

There are interesting—and difficult—philosophical questions to be considered here. I will pose a few of them in order start a real discussion about NFTs within the philosophy of art.

NFTs and the Ontology of Art

What, exactly, is the ontological status of an NFT in relation to the work linked to it? And how might the issuance of an NFT change or update digital artworks like Nyancat, which are already in existence, and have already been widely shared and copied?

Philosophers of art have long marked a difference between singular artworks like original paintings and those which are multiply instantiable, like novels and photographs. In the latter case, there are many instances of these artworks in circulation, and encountering any of them offers us full acquaintance with the work. Digital artworks seem to fall into the latter category: there are countless instances of Beeple’s everydays circulating around the internet which can be enjoyed simply by loading the image. What are these multiply instantiable artworks? Abstract objects? Types with many individual tokens? Or are they simply the set of all of the existing instances?

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Stephen Bayley, Andrew Bowie, and Mel Evans ask how art gets its pricetag.

Depending on our answer to this question, an artist issuing an NFT—say, for Nyancat or an ultra-rare Pepe—might fundamentally change the artwork itself. Consider a more traditional parallel: the limited edition print. When an artist issues a limited run of prints, they are privileging those copies compared to any others in existence. Artists use their authority to designate which instances of their work count as genuine encounters. Karen Gover takes this further, arguing that the licensed prints are somehow included in - and change - what the work fundamentally is.

But this analogy is not perfect: First, with respect to many NFTs, there is no physical object associated with the NFT at all. There is simply a set of digital bits that is identical to any other digital instance of the work. So, it is unclear whether NFT artists designate some instance of the work as licensed or genuine in any meaningful way. Second, it is not clear that digital artists have the relevant authority to determine what is and is not an authentic instance. Take Nyancat again: Torres sold an individual version of Nyancat, but it is not clear that Torres has any authority over Nyancat, the viral internet meme.

Ontologicallly speaking, you do not seem to be getting a special or privileged instance of the work when you buy what’s associated with an NFT. Nor does it seem that issuing an NFT necessarily changes the nature of the work. All of this raises an important question: What exactly is it that you are getting when you buy an NFT?



Getting NFT Right(s)

Dig through the Christie’s condition of sale for Beeple’s work and you’ll find the following:

You acknowledge that ownership of an NFT carries no rights, express or implied, other than property rights for the lot (specifically, digital artwork tokenized by the NFT)….You acknowledge and represent that there is substantial uncertainty as to the characterization of NFTs and other digital assets under applicable law.

NFTs are simply pointers. They are cryptographic tokens that point to a piece of digital art or collectible. A profoundly unsettled issue is what rights come with that pointer. The buyer and seller of an NFT agree on what sale of the pointer means, and what rights it gives over whatever it points to. In this way, NFTs are tools for transferring property rights from buyer to seller. But, for many of the digital artworks being sold via NFTs, it is unclear what these rights are.

When buying a traditional artwork, ownership includes control over its display and performance: where to hang it, who gets to see it, and so on. It is not clear that sale via NFT gives you this sort of control. All of the images in Beeple’s $69 million collage are still freely available on the artist’s website. These are exactly the same digital files that were sold via the NFT. What’s more, they seem to have exactly the same provenance and official authorization. Nor does owning an NFT guarantee any control over their reproduction and display online. This is ownership with none of the benefits.

When buying a traditional artwork, ownership includes control over its display and performance…It is not clear that sale via NFT gives you this sort of control.

At the same time, it is not clear that digital artists have ownership rights to transfer in the first place. While Pepe the Frog’s creator, Matt Furie, has had some legal success in stopping unauthorized uses of Pepe, it is far from certain that Pepe-the-meme is his property. Buying an NFT of Pepe from Furie would give you ownership of that image. But owning a one-off Pepe is not the same as owning the meme itself. Pepe the meme is a collective, participatory artwork that resists ownership. NFTs do not seem capable of giving ownership of the internet art that we care about.



NFTs, Stonks, and Getting Paid

A final and major concern about NFTs is the eye-popping amount of money involved. No doubt, the explosion in the NFT market is largely the result of the huge growth of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. The buyer of Beeple’s work was a cryptocurrency whale known as “Metakovan.” He has stated that he is purchasing NFT art and collectables primarily as investments.

On the one hand, this is a potential boon to digital artists looking to get paid. NFTs allow artists to create artificial scarcity, making way for a market for digital art. That said, this market might only reward the most successful artists. Between registration and transaction fees, most artists are unlikely to turn a huge profit in NFT sales. But this is no different from the overheads involved in traditional art sales for which galleries take commission.

More significant, though, is the kind of market that is emerging for NFT sales. Insofar as the market is explicitly viewed as an investment platform, market forces will encourage the development of specific kinds of art. This is already happening in the world of fine art. Sarah Hegenbart has written about the rise of “zombie formalism”, a trend in the art market for slick, abstract art designed to cater to the needs and desires of ultra-rich investors. Artists such as Lucien Smith and Damien Hirst tend towards creating bland, vaguely interesting works whose primary aim, in Hegenbart’s words, is “generating value out of nothing.”

Internet art is a kind of folk art—akin to a massive, collaborative project of generating aesthetic value. It reflects some of our strangest and most wonderful predilections. Most of us make and share memes and images because it’s fun, and because we like to be part of this gigantic, collective project. My worry is that the cash (or cryptocurrency) being thrown at NFTs will commercialize and marketize this culture. Will its content shift away from the wonderful and weird, towards the bland world of Beeple and cryptokitties? It is also possible that digital art will become just another investment platform: the next GME, the next Bitcoin, the next stonks. That, I think, would be a major cultural loss.


Aesthetics for Birds (AFB) is a blog that aims to bring together people working in aesthetics, philosophy of art and the art world, in a way that is accessible to everyone. Exlpore the blog at Aesthetics for Birds and twitter at @ArtfFockTweets for enriching thoughts and perspectives in these areas of philosophy and arts.

Deadliest day since Myanmar military coup as 107 killed with children said to be amongst fatalities

Sunday 28 March 2021


Video report by ITV News Reporter Graham Stothard

A record number of civilians, including children, have been killed in the deadliest day since Myanmar's military coup last month.

An independent researcher in the city of Yangon put the death toll at 107, with the bloodshed having spread over more than two dozen cities and towns.Security forces in the south-east Asian nation have been accused of opening fire on armed civilians, killing dozens of innocent people, including children, in a bloody crackdown on the annual armed forces day

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Children are thought to be amongst the 100 killed in Saturday's protests. Credit: AP

Saturday's death toll surpasses estimates for the previous high on March 14, which ranged from 74 to 90 deaths.

As of Friday, the number of protesters killed since the takeover was 328, said the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which documents deaths and arrests. This figure does not take into account the deaths which took place on Saturday.

It said its tally only includes verified cases, with the actual number of casualties “likely much higher.” It said eight people were killed on Friday.

CCTV footage from the city of Dawei showed security forces opening fire at point-blank range on three men who rode past their pick-up truck on a motorbike.

Security forces were captured on camera shooting at three men on a motorbike at point-blank range. Credit: AP

Footage showed the bike crashing into a gate and two of the men running off under renewed fire from what appeared to be police officers.

The third man could be seen falling on the ground after being hit, then carried onto one of the security vehicles

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Police fired at two of the men as they fled. Credit: AP

It was later confirmed the third man survived and was being treated in hospital.

Myanmar security forces met renewed anti-coup protests with unsparing violence on Saturday, firing live rounds into crowds across the country and killing scores of people in more than two dozen towns and cities.

While the military celebrated the annual holiday with a parade in the country’s capital, Naypyitaw, people across Myanmar called for bigger demonstrations.

The protesters refer to the holiday by its original name, Resistance Day, which marks the beginning of a revolt against Japanese occupation in World War 2.

In the small town of Launglone, around 3,000 anti-coup protesters took to the streets with no interference from security forces.

It was a rare peaceful demonstration on a day when police and soldiers brutally suppressed opposition to last month's takeover, firing into crowds and killing dozens across the country.

The head of the military Min Aung Hlaing used the country's Armed Forces Day to try to justify the overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government on February 1.

Myanmar’s Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing Credit: AP

In a televised speech before thousands of soldiers at a massive parade ground at the capital Naypyitaw on Saturday, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing referred to “terrorism which can be harmful to state tranquility and social security,” and called it unacceptable.

In his speech, Min Aung Hlaing accused Ms Suu Kyi’s government of failing to investigate irregularities in the last polls, which her National League for Democracy party won in a landslide.

He said his government would hold “a free and fair election”.
   

Military personnel participate in a parade on Armed Forces Day Credit: AP

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the regime had hit a “new low” on Saturday.

“Today’s killing of unarmed civilians, including children, marks a new low," Mr Raab said.

“We will work with our international partners to end this senseless violence, hold those responsible to account, and secure a path back to democracy.”

The slaughter has provoked an international outcry, with the British ambassador among the diplomatic missions raising concerns that children are among the dead.

Dan Chugg, the British ambassador in Yangon, said that the “security forces have disgraced themselves by shooting unarmed civilians”.

“At a time of economic crisis, Covid and a worsening humanitarian situation, today’s military parade and extrajudicial killings speak volumes for the priorities of the military junta,” he said.

The European Union’s delegation to Myanmar said on Twitter: “This 76th Myanmar armed forces day will stay engraved as a day of terror and dishonour. The killing of unarmed civilians, including children, are indefensible acts.”

State television MRTV on Friday night showed an announcement urging young people to learn a lesson from those killed already about the danger of being shot in the head or back.

Police personnel participate in a parade during the national Armed Forces Day Credit: AP

The warning was taken as a threat because many protesters have been shot in the head, suggesting they were deliberately killed.

The announcement suggested some young people were taking part in protesting as if it was a game, and urged their parents and friends to advise them not to participate.

The junta detained Ms Suu Kyi on the day of the takeover. It continues to hold her on minor criminal charges while investigating allegations of corruption against her that her supporters dismiss as politically motivated.


Myanmar police officers flee to India after claiming they were ordered to shoot protesters


At least four shot dead after Myanmar civilian leader vows ‘revolution’ against junta


CCTV captures Myanmar security forces firing at point-blank range on passing motorcyclists

Myanmar protests continue after more than 100 killed in bloodiest day since coup

Sunday 28 March 2021, 

Video report by ITV News Senior Correspondent Paul Davies

Protesters returned to the streets of Myanmar on Sunday to press their demands for a return to democracy, just a day after security forces killed more than 100 people in the bloodiest day since last month’s military coup.

Demonstrations were held in Yangon and Mandalay, the country’s two biggest cities, as well as elsewhere. Some protests were again met with police force.

At least 114 people were killed on Saturday as security forces cracked down on protests against the February 1 coup which ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government, according to the online news service Myanmar Now.

Several children under 16 were reported to be among the dead.

Similar death tolls were issued by other Myanmar media and researchers, far exceeding the previous highest on March 14.

Anti-coup protesters gesture with the three-fingers symbol of resistance during a demonstration in Thaketa township in Yangon Credit: AP

The number of killings since the coup is now more than 420, according to multiple counts.

The coup reversed years of progress towards democracy after five decades of military rule and has again made Myanmar the focus of international scrutiny.

Saturday’s killings by police and soldiers took place throughout the country as Myanmar’s military celebrated the annual Armed Forces Day holiday with a parade in the country’s capital, Naypyitaw.

CCTV captures Myanmar security forces firing at point-blank range on passing motorcyclists

The bloodshed quickly drew international condemnation, both from diplomatic missions within Myanmar and from abroad.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was shocked by the killings of civilians, including children.

“The continuing military crackdown is unacceptable and demands a firm, unified & resolute international response,” he wrote on Twitter.

In the United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a tweet that his country is “horrified by the bloodshed perpetrated by Burmese security forces, showing that the junta will sacrifice the lives of the people to serve the few”.

The military chiefs of 12 nations issued a joint statement condemning the use of force against unarmed people.

“A professional military follows international standards for conduct and is responsible for protecting – not harming – the people it serves,” it said.

“We urge the Myanmar armed forces to cease violence and work to restore respect and credibility with the people of Myanmar that it has lost through its actions.”

The statement was issued by the defence chiefs of Australia, Canada, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Human rights group Amnesty International revived criticism that the international community is not doing enough to end the state violence in Myanmar.

Anti-coup protesters prepare makeshift bows and arrows to confront police in Thaketa township in Yangon Credit: AP

“UN Security Council member states’ continued refusal to meaningfully act against this never-ending horror is contemptible,” said Ming Yu Hah, the organisation’s deputy regional director for campaigns.

The Security Council has condemned the violence but not advocated concerted action against the junta, such as a ban on selling it arms.

China and Russia are both major arms suppliers to Myanmar’s military as well as politically sympathetic, and, as members of the council, would almost certainly veto any such move.

In recent days the junta has portrayed the demonstrators as the ones perpetrating violence for their sporadic use of Molotov cocktails.

On Saturday, some protesters in Yangon were seen carrying bows and arrows.

The junta has said its use of force is justified to stop what it has called rioting.

Repression in Myanmar

BY MEL GURTOV 

COUNTERPUNCH

 MARCH 26, 2021

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Democracy in Myanmar suffered a severe setback on February 1 when the Tatmadaw, the country’s military, seized power.  The coup did not come as a complete surprise: the National League for Democracy headed by Aung San Suu Kyi won the general election for the second straight time. Although the military, which until 2012 had ruled Myanmar/Burma for about 50 years, still held the most powerful cabinet seats, it evidently could not tolerate this stinging defeat. It has declared a state of emergency and imposed martial law in large swaths of the country.

The coup was met by an extraordinary outburst of popular protest, reminiscent of the 1988 uprising against military rule that resulted in thousands of deaths.  The military’s response to the peaceful protests this time has been horrific: a violent crackdown, including use of torture and kidnapping; attacks on people’s homes and on hospitals that are treating injured protesters; and “disappearing” people, whose relatives are unable to learn their fate. News reports say the body count is over 200 at this writing, but based on reports from my contact in Myanmar, that figure is a considerable understatement.  (For example, this contact tells me that in one 3-day period in March, in just one district of Yangon, the capital, there were “242 fatalities, 60 arrested and missing, 27 dead bodies missing,” according to a medical team.)

As for the political opposition, Suu Kyi and many members of the NLD have been detained at some unknown location. The New York Times reports that an unofficial opposition group has formed under the leadership of a speaker in parliament before the coup.  The group, calling itself the Committee Representing the Myanmar Parliament, has promised a federal form of government that would give equal rights to Myanmar’s many ethnic groups, some of which remain in active rebellion against the government.  (Nothing was said about justice for the Rohingya Muslims.) This change would be in keeping with the country’s history as a community of ethnic groups that happen to be incorporated in a nation-state.  As Prof. John Badgley, a noted authority on Burma’s history and politics, observes:

Over 40% of [Myanmar’s] citizens are minorities, whereas all of senior military responsible for enforcing law and order, including political transitions, are steeped in [the majority] Burman culture. Their heritage includes sacred language defined by Pali verses taught by monks devoted to anachronistic beliefs. Their family cultures are shaped by Theravada beliefs unique to Burma. As a consequence most Burmese political transitions have been guided by protection of their sacred order, as defined by Tatmadaw.

Though the UN, the US, and some other countries have urged the military to reverse course, only one country—China—has any real influence over the military’s behavior.  But all China has done is urge the military to protect Chinese-run businesses, many of which have been torched, from “terrorism activities.” China has joined in a UN statement of “concern,” but otherwise is perfectly content to see democracy squashed in a neighboring country in which it has significant economic interests. Normalcy to China means a military in control of event.

There is no protection for the protesters, who continue to hold out across the country in the slight hope international intervention will at least bring a halt to the military’s repression. Maybe the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will try to mediate, or international businesses, watching the bottom line take a hit as Myanmar’s economy grinds to a halt, will speak up. The US and the European Union have imposed sanctions on some Tatmadaw officials. But the major US media have been virtually silent on events in Myanmar—a few articles in the New York Times and the Washington Post, for example. The mass demonstrations in Belarus against a dictator got much more attention.

We may ask: Where’s the outrage?

Mel Gurtov is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Portland State University, Editor-in-Chief of Asian Perspective, an international affairs quarterly and blogs at In the Human Interest.

Myanmar protesters nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Norwegian academic says campaign should 'inspire other non-violent pro-democracy movements'


PUBLISHED : 26 MAR 2021

Local residents cheer on a convoy of motorcyclists preparing to stage a protest ride in Launglone, Dawei on Friday. (Dawei Watch via Reuters)

OSLO: The civil disobedience movement that has sprung up in Myanmar since the military coup has been nominated for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, a Norwegian academic said on Friday.

Kristian Stokke, a professor of sociology at the University of Oslo, said the movement represents an exemplary peaceful response to the power grab by the army on Feb 1.

“The civil disobedience movement is an important mass mobilisation for democracy in Myanmar that is taking place, so far, with non-violent means,” he told AFP.

“This pro-democracy movement, especially if successful, can also have consequences outside Myanmar and inspire other non-violent pro-democracy movements elsewhere at a time when democracy is under pressure from authoritarian forces.”

According to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (AAPP), a local monitoring group, 320 people have been killed and nearly 3,000 arrested since the coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi — who herself received the prestigious award in 1991.

“What is important and gives a glimmer of hope is that what started as a response to a military coup has become a broader alliance across the many differences, especially ethnic ones, within Burmese society,” Stokke said.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee only accepts nominations submitted before the Jan 31 deadline, so the proposal submitted last week by Stokke and five other academics can only be considered for next year’s prize.

Tens of thousands of people, among them parliamentarians and ministers from all countries, former laureates and certain university professors, are eligible to submit a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The committee itself does not disclose who was considered or even nominated other than announcing the winner, though those who submit a nomination can publish it.

The 2021 peace prize winner will be announced on Oct 8. The World Food Programme (WFP) won last year.