Fear | Jotup

I wholeheartedly recommend The President: a brilliant revival of a play of decay, terror and revulsion

Retrieved on:

Friday, April 19, 2024

Red Army Faction, Torture, Hatred, World War II, The Holocaust, Paranoia, Sydney Theatre Company, History, Politics, Life, Imagination, Nazism, Disgust, Creed, Fear, Film industry

These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President.

Key Points:

These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President.
The Austrian is one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, best known in the English-speaking world as a novelist.
By the same token – and this is something Felski neglects to mention – his writing can be extremely funny.

A complex writer

Through childhood and adolescence he was unhappy and suffered from a host of life-threatening lung ailments.
Eventually, his tuberculous-damaged lungs put paid to his youthful musical aspirations of being an opera singer, so he turned to writing.
Throughout his career, Bernhard’s feelings about his homeland were complex and fraught.
He was repeatedly attacked for being a Nestbeschmutzer, which roughly translates as “one who fouls their own nest”.

The political landscape of 1975

The President was Bernhard’s response to the volatile political climate in Europe of the time. The president of Bernhard’s demanding play – a fascist dictator in all but name – has just survived an attempt on his life. Anarchists are responsible. There is a possibility the president’s son, who has disappeared, pulled the trigger.

It was no coincidence the original production opened at the Stuttgart State Theatre on May 21 1975: the same date and city where the key members of the Red Army Faction went on trial.
The Red Army Faction was also vocal and scathing about Germany’s unwillingness to properly confront its Nazi past.

‘Uncomfortable truths’

The creative team behind this version of The President clearly know their history. In his directorial program notes, Creed acknowledges the violent actions of the Red Army Faction would have loomed large in the imagination of audiences in 1975.

Similarly, Weaving has spoken approvingly of Bernhard’s willingness to speak “a lot of uncomfortable truths to his own country”.
In equal measure, however, both Creed and Weaving believe Bernhard’s historically timestamped play can tell us something about the here and now.

Alexander Howard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Caring for older Americans’ teeth and gums is essential, but Medicare generally doesn’t cover that cost

Retrieved on:

Friday, April 19, 2024

As dentistry scholars, we believe Koop also deserves credit for something else.

Key Points:

As dentistry scholars, we believe Koop also deserves credit for something else.
Americans who rely on the traditional Medicare program for their health insurance get no help from that program with paying their dental bills aside from some narrow exceptions.
This group includes some 24 million people over 65 – about half of all the people who rely on Medicare for their health insurance.

‘Medically necessary’ exceptions

The list of circumstances that would lead patients to be eligible is short.
Some examples include patients scheduled for organ transplants or who have cancer treatment requiring radiation of their jaws.
But we believe that dental care is necessary for everyone, especially for older people.

Chew, speak, breathe

While many working Americans get limited dental coverage through their employers, those benefits are usually limited to as little as $1,000 per year.
And once they retire, Americans almost always lose even that basic coverage.
Rich Americans with Medicare coverage are almost three times more likely to receive dental care compared to those with low incomes.

Connected to many serious conditions

Having diabetes makes you three times as likely to develop gum disease because diabetes compromises the body’s response to inflammation and infection.
At the same time, treating diabetes patients for gum disease can help control their blood sugar levels.

Chemo can damage your teeth

Many cancer treatments can damage teeth, especially for older adults. As a result, Medicare has started to reimburse for dental bills tied to tooth decay or other oral conditions after they get chemotherapy or radiation treatment.

More than nice to have

Doctors and dentists are educated separately, and doctors learn very little about dental conditions and treatments when they’re in medical school.
Most dental electronic health records aren’t linked to medical systems, hindering comprehensive care and delivery of dental care to those in need.
Medical insurance was designed specifically to cover large, unpredictable expenses, while dental insurance was intended to mainly fund predictable and lower-cost preventive care.

Medicare Advantage plans

Until Medicare expands coverage to include preventive dental services for everyone, alternative plans such as Medicare Advantage, through which the federal government contracts with private insurers to provide Medicare benefits, serve as a stopgap.
In 2016, only 21% of beneficiaries in traditional Medicare had purchased a stand-alone dental plan, whereas roughly two-thirds of Medicare Advantage enrollees had at least some dental benefits through their coverage.

Frank Scannapieco is affiliated with The Task Force on Design and Analysis in Oral Health Research, and consults for the Colgate-Palmolive Company. Ira Lamster is a member of the Santa Fe Group. He currently receives consulting fees from Colgate, and research support from the CareQuest Institute.

Hateful graffiti blights communities and it’s something we need to tackle urgently

Retrieved on:

Friday, April 19, 2024

Hateful graffiti and other imagery plague communities across the UK, spreading a toxic message of division.

Key Points:

Hateful graffiti and other imagery plague communities across the UK, spreading a toxic message of division.
Such graffiti targets people based on race, religion, sexual orientation, disability and gender identity.
This is why we’ve developed an app called StreetSnap to record instances of hateful graffiti and other visuals.
The Weiner Holocaust Library and several other locations around London have been targeted by a spate of far-right racist graffiti.

Under-reporting

Issues such as war, immigration, people seeking asylum and the rising costs of living are changing and challenging communities.
As a result, it is now more important than ever that hateful graffiti and symbols are better understood.
But one Australian study showed that hateful graffiti can heighten people’s perceptions of insecurity and fear of crime.
Hateful graffiti, whether fuelled by malicious intent or simply ignorance, may have the same destructive effect on individuals, groups and communities.

StreetSnap

Our intention is that this will allow for easier communication between various authorities, as well as identification and removal by councils.
More importantly, though, the data gathered can be used to identify and understand patterns and help monitor community tensions.

Melanie Morgan is affiliated with Swansea University and is employed through SMART Partnership Grant Funding from Welsh Government. Lella Nouri receives funding from Welsh Government, Bridgend & Swansea Council. She is affiliated with Swansea University and is the Founder of StreetSnap. She also consults Welsh Government on the Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan.

Asbestos in playground mulch: how to avoid a repeat of this circular economy scandal

Retrieved on:

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Element, Failure, Garden, Health, Certification, Waste management, Directory, Bed, Recycling, RMIT, Risk, Shock, Education, School, Research, History, CWL, Fear, Glass, Housing, Plastic, Safety, Green building council, Public works, Marketing, Legislation, Iron, Lumber

The source of contamination is believed to be timber waste from construction and demolition sites that was turned into mulch.

Key Points:

The source of contamination is believed to be timber waste from construction and demolition sites that was turned into mulch.
So far, 60 locations in Sydney and 12 in Melbourne have been identified as contaminated with asbestos to various degrees.
The severity, spread and impact of the issue convince us to call it the largest scandal in the history of Australia’s circular economy.
A circular economy recycles and reuses materials or products with the goal of being more sustainable.

Scandal is damaging for the circular economy

Unfortunately, this contaminated mulch raises concerns about the reckless implementation of circular economy principles in Australia.
More broadly, this scandal could undermine efforts to advance the circular economy in Australia.
It’s a reminder that the circular economy concept is based on a system-thinking approach, where all elements must work in harmony.

Regulations don’t go far enough

However, it isn’t mandatory for suppliers to test for contaminants in mulch.
The fact is existing policies and regulations, such as the NSW Environment Protection Authority’s Mulch Order 2016, failed to prevent mulch contamination.

Read more:
Buildings used iron from sunken ships centuries ago. The use of recycled materials should be business as usual by now

Why isn’t certification standard practice?

In 2022 and 2023, working with researchers from Griffith and Curtin universities and our industry partners, we explored the use of recycled product certification schemes.
We specifically asked for their views on certification schemes for these materials.

He added:
The cost of certification is a fraction of whatever their marketing budget might be in any single month, let alone a year.
If they can see that their certification becomes part of their marketing budget, then the cost of certification is a single-digit percentage of most marketing budgets.
If they can see that their certification becomes part of their marketing budget, then the cost of certification is a single-digit percentage of most marketing budgets.

What more can be done?

Our research identified seven major drivers for adopting certification schemes when procuring recycled materials, as shown below.
Read more:
Trash TV: streaming giants are failing to educate the young about waste recycling.
In addition, we stress the importance of directories of approved recyclers to ensure end users have access to quality, uncontaminated recycled materials.

Salman Shooshtarian receives funding from the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre Australia Peter S.P. Wong, Professor - construction, RMIT University. He receives funding from Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre. He is affiliated with RMIT University, Australia. Tayyab Maqsood receives funding from the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre.

Grattan on Friday: Ethnic tensions will complicate the Albanese government’s multicultural policy reform

Retrieved on:

Thursday, April 18, 2024

“In 2024, threats to our way of life have surpassed terrorism as Australia’s principal security concern,” he said.

Key Points:

“In 2024, threats to our way of life have surpassed terrorism as Australia’s principal security concern,” he said.
Tensions, especially in western Sydney, are much elevated because of the Middle East conflict.
And the Wakeley attack came just two days after the Bondi Junction shopping centre stabbings, which killed six people.
While that atrocity did not fall under the definition of “terrorism”, inevitably the two incidents were conflated by an alarmed public.
The challenge for political leaders is not just dealing with the immediate increasing threats to cohesion, but with longer term policy.
Andrew Jakubowicz, emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Technology Sydney, highlights the three separate elements of multiculturalism.

“Settlement policy, which deals with arrival, survival and orientation, and the emergence of bonding within the group and finding employment, housing and education
"Multicultural policy, which ensures that institutions in society identify and respond to needs over the life course and in changing life circumstances, and
"Community Relations policy, which includes building skills in intercultural relations, engagement with the power hierarchies of society and the inclusion of diversity into the fabric of decision-making in society - from politics to education to health to the arts.”

The Albanese government last year commissioned an independent review of the present multicultural framework.
Although the review is not due for release until mid-year, the May budget is likely to see some initiatives.

Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Philip R. Lane: Disinflation in the euro area: an update

Retrieved on:

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Stock market development and familiarity (language and distance) are considered key determinants for home bias.

Key Points:

Stock market development and familiarity (language and distance) are considered key determinants for home bias.
The literature neglects however that investors often invest in foreign funds domiciled in financial centers.

Clairmont tells the story of the woman Byron cast aside

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Grief, Noise, Empathy, Ageing, History, Female, Child, Human, Death, Romantic, Woman, Great, Love, Fever, The Great One, Engineering, Fear

A rebellious, freedom-fighting Romantic poet, Byron’s reputation is the stuff of legend, his legacy assured and revered in the European literary canon.

Key Points:

A rebellious, freedom-fighting Romantic poet, Byron’s reputation is the stuff of legend, his legacy assured and revered in the European literary canon.
While the star of Byron’s literary fame rose, however, many fell by the wayside, cruelly discarded by the poet.
It was the summer of 1816, dubbed the “year without a summer”“ thanks to a volcanic eruption in Indonesia.
She later described it in her author’s introduction to the 1831 edition of her terrifying and groundbreaking novel.

A different perspective

Viewed from the perspective of Claire Clairmont – but not narrated by her – the novel imagines and explores the feelings of the person who propelled Shelley and Mary Godwin to accompany her to Lake Geneva so that she could pursue her passion for Byron.
She leaves Byron’s bed one morning, intoxicated by the illusion that: "She’s a lover of a Great One.
Elsewhere, Byron calls her a handmaiden, making his feelings for her brutally clear by shaming her in front of the other guests.
The story is narrated across three different decades of Clairmont’s life, with chapters on the three decades interspersed throughout the novel.

Life after Byron

Byron of course looms large, first in his attempts to end Clairmont’s pregnancy, and then in his insistence that their daughter, Allegra, live with him, only then to send her away to school.
The novel also portrays the absence of empathy between Godwin and Clairmont throughout their lives, by drawing from correspondence and journal entries.
Byron and Shelley both died young, and in middle age, the mutual suspicion between the two surviving women persists.
It explores the painful sacrifice and erasure of female suffering at the altar of more “heroic” male narratives of love, idealism and creation.

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Angela Wright does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Why so few witches were executed in Wales in the middle ages

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

While there were an estimated 500 executions in England, and between 3,000 and 4,000 killings in Scotland, only five people were hanged for witchcraft in Wales.

Key Points:

While there were an estimated 500 executions in England, and between 3,000 and 4,000 killings in Scotland, only five people were hanged for witchcraft in Wales.
Early modern Wales was unique in its outlook on witchcraft.
Distinct elements of Welsh culture, including superstition and religion, halted the witch trials seen across the rest of Britain and Europe.

Accusations of witchcraft

We know from those trial records that suspicions and verbal accusations of witchcraft like those seen across the rest of Britain and Europe were common in Wales.
They also happened under similar circumstances where accusations often followed an argument, or a request for charity which was denied.
Their accusers were neighbours, relatives and in many cases, people with financial and personal reasons to make accusations.
This left juries in early modern Wales in serious doubt about how sensible witch accusations were.

Religion

The people of Wales were not without religion, but they preferred prayer to doctrine.
Generally, Welsh people could not read or understand the Bible, which was not fully translated into Welsh until the late 1500s.
There is evidence that many people continued to seek the aid of charmers instead of the church.
This sort of formal cursing was often phrased as a petitionary prayer to God, emphasising the overlap between witchcraft and religion in Wales.

Mari Ellis Dunning does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

A landslide forced me from my home – and I experienced our failure to deal with climate change at first hand

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Gill, Electricity, Climate change, Drainage, Climate, Research, Policy, Insurance, Plant, Landslide, Lobbying, Water, Tree, Family, Fear, Weather

These cracks soon became a landslide affecting several homes overlooking the Gill, ultimately swallowing tonnes of land and trees and leaving chunks of our properties at the bottom of the valley.

Key Points:

These cracks soon became a landslide affecting several homes overlooking the Gill, ultimately swallowing tonnes of land and trees and leaving chunks of our properties at the bottom of the valley.
The local council has forced my family out of our home, which is now teetering on the edge of a cliff.

This is worrying, as events like these will become more and more common in the years to come.
Although Hastings is a coastal town, our property is inland, so this could happen to anyone, anywhere.

No one wants to take responsibility

This response – or lack thereof – reveals a troubling incentive structure, where the fear of assuming liability results in inaction.
Our attempts to be rehoused or to have the landslide damage addressed were met with challenges at every turn.

Previously rare events aren’t factored in

The landslide reveals current climate governance frameworks are inadequate, since they simply don’t consider previously rare events like these.
This means landslide victims have to do it themselves, at enormous personal cost, and often without any prior technical or policy experience.

A call for systemic change

In an ideal world, this issue would be dealt with by local authorities or utility companies.
So we need policies that empower (or force) local authorities and utility companies to act without fear of legal liability.
As the climate changes, catastrophes like this one can happen to anyone, no matter how secure we may feel.

Ralitsa Hiteva is a member of the Green Party.

Shifts in how sex and gender identity are defined may alter human rights protections: Canadians deserve to know how and why

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Recent education policy changes and protests about sex education reveal increasing concern and polarization over how sex and gender identity are taught in public schools in Canada.

Key Points:

Recent education policy changes and protests about sex education reveal increasing concern and polarization over how sex and gender identity are taught in public schools in Canada.
They also expose the significant role now played by school boards in constructing the meaning of gender identity and gender expression.
Changes in how words and terms are used can impact our ability to know about people’s lives and protect their rights.
Significant shifts are taking place around how we define and understand sex and gender in education and public policy in Canada.

Sex, gender and law

Yet sex, gender identity and gender expression are not defined in human rights legislation in Canada.
They should be able to express their concerns and participate in open discussions about the meaning of words we share.

Changes in the definition of sex

The Charter of the United Nations prohibits sex discrimination.
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights precludes discrimination based on sex.

Changes since 2018

Since 2018, the word sex is increasingly defined by the federal government as something that is “assigned at birth.” But there is no consistency across federal departments and agencies. Some continue to define sex as a biological question of male or female. Those that define sex as assigned at birth do not consistently explain how sex is assigned or by whom.

Conceptual shifts around word ‘woman’

Similar conceptual shifts are taking place around the word woman.
The word woman was formerly linked to sex and used to refer to female people.
Now, government departments including the Department of Justice increasingly use the word woman to refer to all people who identify as women.

Defining gender identity

When gender identity was added to federal human rights legislation, the Department of Justice defined gender identity as:
“each person’s internal and individual experience of gender.
A person’s gender identity may or may not align with the gender typically associated with their sex.”
“A person’s internal and deeply felt sense of being a man or woman, both or neither.
A person’s gender identity may or may not align with the gender typically associated with their sex.”

School boards define terms differently

Researchers have identified that secular boards across Ontario define gender identity and gender expression differently from one another.
Some school boards now define gender identity as something everyone has.

Data collection shifts away from sex towards gender

A shift away from sex and towards gender (identity) has occurred in data collection practices at the federal government level.
In 2018, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and the Department of Justice Canada recommended “ways to modernize how the Government of Canada handles information on sex and gender.” They recommended that “departments and agencies should collect or display gender information by default, unless sex information is specifically needed.” They used “sex” to refer to biological characteristics, and “gender” to refer to a social and personal identity.

Open discussions are overdue

As Canadian society shifts to accommodate the legal recognition of gender diversity, there will be tensions. Ultimately, courts will be tasked with deciding how some of those tensions are resolved, when sex, gender identity and gender expression are all protected in human rights laws. In the meantime, as a society, we need to openly and transparently grapple with some increasingly important questions:
First, how will foundational concepts such as sex, gender identity and gender expression be defined and given effect in education, law, public policy and beyond?
Second, how will tensions between experiences, interests and rights associated with sex and those associated with gender identity and/or gender expression be resolved?
Third, who is best placed to decide how these questions are answered in education, law, public policy and beyond?
Everyone who may be impacted by the answers to these questions should be included in the conversation.
Debra M Haak receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canadian Bar Association Law for the Future Fund, and the Queen's University Faculty Association Fund for Scholarly Research.