All posts tagged: Nation

Book Review: Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial that Riveted a Nation

Book Review: Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial that Riveted a Nation

Published by skeptic

BOOK BY BRENDA WINEAPPLERANDOM HOUSE, 2024 “It’s all about the fabulous monkey trial that rocked America!” That was the slogan on the poster of the 1960 film Inherit the Wind, but it describes Keeping the Faith, Brenda Wineapple’s new book about the Scopes trial just as well—or even better, considering that Inherit the Wind was only loosely based on the events in Dayton, Tennessee, during the scorching summer of 1925. Where Inherit the Wind portrayed Tennessee v. Scopes as a battle between science and religion, declaring a truce as Henry Drummond, the Clarence Darrow figure, packs a Bible and Darwin’s On the Origin of Species together into his briefcase, however, Keeping the Faith construes it as a duel between rival political visions. “The Scopes case asks, then and now, where the country was headed, where it should be headed, and how to make it better and kinder in light of privation and prejudice and disillusionment and war,” Wineapple suggests in her preface (pp. xxix–xxx). But it takes a considerable while for her to reach the …

Jokowi signals continuity in Indonesia’s 2025 budget, touts achievements in final State of the Nation speech

Jokowi signals continuity in Indonesia’s 2025 budget, touts achievements in final State of the Nation speech

Published by skeptic

ANOTHER APOLOGY Dressed in a black outfit of the Betawi people – a group native to Jakarta – for his State of the Nation address, Mr Widodo bade farewell and apologised to the people for the second time this month. While he had tried to give his best, he understood that his achievements could not please everyone, he said during a 20-minute speech at the People’s Consultative Assembly meeting, a yearly tradition before Independence Day celebrations on Aug 17. “I and (Vice President) Ma’ruf Amin apologise. I apologise to every heart that may be disappointed, for every hope that may not have been realised, for every dream that may not have been achieved,” said Mr Widodo. His previous apology, during a congregational prayer event on Aug 1, was labelled by critics as a ploy to gain sympathy. At last year’s State of the Nation address, Mr Widodo had emphasised continuity of policies ahead of the February general election while asserting he had no authority to determine who the presidential and vice-presidential candidates would be.  Ahead of …

The Nation Resurgent, and Borders, Too

The Nation Resurgent, and Borders, Too

Published by Sam

At the heart of the rapid rise of the nationalist right, with its view of immigrants as a direct threat to the essence of France, there appears to lie a growing feeling among many French people that they are no longer at home in their own country. That feeling, a vague but potent malaise, has many elements. They include a sense of dispossession, of neighborhoods transformed in dress and habits by the arrival of mainly Muslim immigrants from North Africa, and of lost identity in a fast-changing world. The National Rally, whose anti-immigrant position lies at the core of its fast-growing popularity, has benefited from all this. “No French citizen would tolerate living in a house without doors or windows,” Jordan Bardella, the smooth-talking 28-year-old symbol of the National Rally’s advance to the brink of power, told France 3 TV this past week. “Well, it’s the same thing with a country.” In other words, nations need effective borders that can be sealed tight. This message, echoed by rising nationalist parties across Europe, and a central …

How the small Pacific island nation of Vanuatu drastically cut plastic pollution | Environment

How the small Pacific island nation of Vanuatu drastically cut plastic pollution | Environment

Published by skeptic

For generations, the people of Erakor village in the Pacific nation of Vanuatu would pass their time swimming in the local lagoon. Ken Andrew, a local chief, remembers diving in its depths when he was a child, chasing the fish that spawned in its turquoise waters. That was decades ago. Now 52, Andrew has noticed a more pernicious entity invading the lagoon: plastic. “The plastic would form a small island inside the lagoon, it was so thick,” Andrew says. “We used fishing nets to pull some of the trash out, but we didn’t know how to get rid of it all. We couldn’t conquer it, there was just too much.” While residents were struggling to empty Vanuatu’s waters of plastic, the country’s politicians were considering another solution. Could they stop the waste directly at the source? Small island nations like Vanuatu face a series of unique challenges when it comes to plastic pollution. Many rely on imported goods to sustain their populations, and receive tonnes of plastic packaging every day as a result. Ocean currents …

How Britain became a food bank nation | General election 2024

How Britain became a food bank nation | General election 2024

Published by skeptic

Photograph of an open tin of chickpeas Photograph: Guardian Design In Leeds, a child fails to turn up at school because she and her mother are sharing her family’s one and only pair of shoes. In Liverpool, one of two brothers turns up for football training each week because they are sharing the one pair of football boots the family can afford. In Swansea, a girl is bullied at school by her classmates because she has no trainers at all. In Wigan town centre, another teenage schoolgirl is found walking alone on a Saturday afternoon wearing her school uniform and explains that these hand-me-down garments given to her by a teacher are the only clothes she has. These experiences of hardship, relayed to me while travelling around Britain, are just the tip of an iceberg of widespread destitution and national shame. The far more severe suffering of 3 million children at the sharpest end of our poverty emergency is unseen and unreported, often hidden even from neighbours and friends. These millions start the day going …

South Africa: a nation at the crossroads – in pictures | Global development

South Africa: a nation at the crossroads – in pictures | Global development

Published by skeptic

With the country’s highest rates of unemployment, the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality in Eastern Cape province offers a snapshot of the state of South Africa’s housing, employment, poverty, crime, and public service delivery. As the country goes to the polls, many of those voting will be part of the ‘born free’ generation who were born after apartheid ended in 1994. On a visit to Nelson Mandela Bay in December, the photojournalist Ilvy Njiokiktjien spoke to many about their disillusionment with modern South Africa but also their hopes, ingenuity and resilience Source link

‘Politicians? They’re mugs, all of them’: Paul Weller on music, style and the state of the nation | Paul Weller

‘Politicians? They’re mugs, all of them’: Paul Weller on music, style and the state of the nation | Paul Weller

Published by skeptic

In a roof garden, high above central London, stands Paul Weller, reed-slim in a pale mac, black trousers and shades. Silver hair slicked back, slight smile, lord of all he surveys. He looks so cool, it’s almost funny. Why hasn’t he put on weight? Why hasn’t he lost his hair? How come he can wear those sunglasses and not look like he’s trying too hard? Because he’s Paul Weller, that’s why. Being cool is one of Weller’s USPs, and it has been ever since the Jam’s first Top of the Pops appearance, in 1977, for In The City. He, Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler all wore the same outfit: white shirt, skinny tie, buttoned-up black jacket, black trousers. But Weller’s haircut was better, his jacket tighter, he wore it all more convincingly. He’s had so many style iterations over the years. There are few heterosexual men who’ve tried, at different times, a slicked-back flicka, plus denim cutoffs and espadrilles, as well as a chop-fringe feather cut with sports shirt and mum slacks, and managed to …

Is a previously unheard-of First Nation just Canada’s latest Pretendian case? | Canada

Is a previously unheard-of First Nation just Canada’s latest Pretendian case? | Canada

Published by skeptic

The headquarters of the Kawartha Lakes First Nation sits off a single-lane highway 100 miles north-east of Toronto. Between signs advertising the sale of all-terrain vehicles, hand-scrawled messages on the three buildings decry government corruption. At the centre of the lot, near signs for the “Redneck Church” and “Chief Willy’s Man Cave” stands a 26ft tipi. Alongside banners commemorating missing and murdered Indigenous women and the victims of Canada’s residential school system, Confederate flags flap gently in the wind. To its 20 members, this is the heart of Canada’s newest First Nation. But seven local Indigenous chiefs claim it is the site of a brazen fraud that threatens to erode their hard-fought constitutional rights. In recent years, Canada has grappled with a wave of “Pretendian” cases – in which people falsely claim Indigenous identity. Meanwhile, the use of Indigenous symbols and slogans has also grown increasingly common among the country’s far right. Members of Kawartha Lakes First Nation argue they are exempt from laws and taxes, echoing the rhetoric of the extremist sovereign citizens movement, …

The Tiny Nation at the Vanguard of Mining the Ocean Floor

The Tiny Nation at the Vanguard of Mining the Ocean Floor

Published by Sam

Two ships arrived in the Cook Islands in the South Pacific in March of last year. One was a familiar sight: a massive cruise ship, bringing hundreds of tourists to the pristine shores of this nation of 15,000 people. The other, a neon-orange vessel hauling complex scientific equipment, was more unusual. On a nearby wharf, Prime Minister Mark Brown and many other prominent citizens had gathered to celebrate the smaller boat’s arrival. To Mr. Brown, the cruise ship represented his country’s troubling dependence on tourism. He described the other vessel, owned by an international mining company, as a harbinger of incredible wealth. The Cook Islands is at the vanguard of a quest to mine the ocean floor for minerals used in electric car batteries. Mining these deposits has never been attempted on a large scale, but their reserves are so vast, proponents argue, that extracting them could power the world’s shift away from fossil fuels. It would be a transformation for the Cook Islands, as well: Seabed mining could generate tens of billions of dollars …

Gourmet Park pop-up by Food Truck Nation opens at Kampong Bugis

Gourmet Park pop-up by Food Truck Nation opens at Kampong Bugis

Published by skeptic

What better way to rekindle the kampung spirit than with food? Gourmet Park Kampong Bugis Pop-up, a multi-concept food haven with five homegrown brands, will be at 66 Kampong Bugis from now till the end of the year.  Food Truck Nation, the team behind Gourmet Park Resorts World Sentosa last July, has also planned an “exciting calendar of renowned chef collaborations, grill-outs and experiential happenings”, according to a press release on Monday (May 6). “(This) pop-up will take the ‘Gourmet Park’ label as a multi-concept experience beyond the confines of food trucks and containers,” it added. And here’s a plus: It’s pet-friendly. This is what you can expect at the Gourmet Park Kampong Bugis Pop-up. 1. BREAKFAST BY CARNABY  Carnaby is a new British concept by renowned chef Adam Penney, the burger maestro and executive head chef of Potato Head Folk and Three Buns.  Ahead of its official launch at Robertson Quay in the third quarter of this year, it will make a teaser appearance at the Gourmet Park Kampong Bugis Pop-up. Visitors can look forward to …