With all the talk of Black Lives Mattering, it's topical that France 24 should point out something I hadn't heard of before - the appalling treatment by the Nazis of black soldiers fighting for France in World War 2:
“It started at the end of May 1940, in the Somme region,” Fargettas
explained. “There was no order from high up saying that colonial
prisoners of war should be killed or even ill-treated. It was impulsive,
but the German military hierarchy did nothing to even try to stop it.”
This hatred of black soldiers goes back to the First World War,
Fargettas continued: “The Germans used them to accuse the Allies of
savagery on the battlefield. The German army had itself been rightly
accused of atrocities against civilians, especially in Belgium.
Consequently, in response they used the image of the African
sharpshooter as a propaganda weapon.”
The peace settlement
adumbrated in the Treaty of Versailles meant that the Ruhr and
Rhineland, along Germany’s western border, were occupied by France. Many
troops from French colonies were stationed there. “In Germany there was
a very intensive, mendacious propaganda campaign accusing African
soldiers of mass rape and kidnapping. This is what the Germans called
the “black horror on the Rhine”; slander which the Nazis would reuse.”
When many Wehrmacht soldiers entered France in May 1940, they had
memories of this propaganda. African soldiers were abused by the
invaders throughout the country. “These troops often fought very well,
while of course the Germans sustained many losses despite their success
in the Battle of France, so that produced anger which added to all the
resentment already stored up,” said Fargettas.
On June 19, 1940,
the violence culminated in the Chasselay massacre. This was two days
after Marshal Philippe Pétain’s notorious announcement that he would
seek an armistice with the Nazis. The 25th regiment of
Senegalese riflemen was posted to the northwest of Lyon, to delay the
enemy’s entry into France’s third largest city.
“The Germans
expected to seize Lyon quite easily,” Fargettas recounted. “But on the
morning of June 19, they faced very strong resistance, in battles
lasting for several hours. After the Wehrmacht won the first battles in
the afternoon, they executed French as well as African prisoners. But on
the next day – after the last pockets of resistance were defeated –
they divided the prisoners into two: The French on one side, the
Africans on the other. They led the latter down an isolated road. They
were sent to a field and machine-gunned.” During these massacres, some
French soldiers were also executed or wounded for trying to intervene.
I hope this is true (the bit about him not wanting to go out on stage)...
...because I did watch some of the speech being live streamed, and I did think at the time that he seemed to be taking a long, long time to come out on stage, and wondered whether it was because he was backstage throwing a fit over the empty seats.
OK, maybe there is a bit too much gloating and laughing going on about how Trump's campaign didn't even half fill its stadium; but on the other hand, there seems to be people in denial at Catallaxy:
I wonder how the Steve Kates brain is processing the estimate of only 6,200 at the stadium; and the absolute lack of evidence of protesters causing any significant problem around it? Cult members watching the decline of their cult can take quite a while to process it...
A few weeks ago I noted how Bangladesh was upset at its portrayal in the Netflix action movie Extraction, which was meant to be set in an extremely grim looking Dhaka, although none of it was filmed there.
So, on the weekend I was looking at the back catalogue of Youtube videos by one of the travel vlogging couples I don't mind mind watching, Kara & Nate. They were in Dhaka a year or so ago, and put out several videos. As always, they try to find the most positive things to say (not sure whether there are sponsorship reasons for some of that). But gee, it would take a lot more than their "this is crazy!" amusement to make me want to go to Dhaka:
They seemed to be the only Westerners in the entire city, but I am not exactly surprised that it is low on people's "must see" list.
So then, seeing I seemed vaguely interested in Bangaldesh, Google threw at me the next day a 30 minute story by Al Jazeera news from 2017 called "Bangladesh's biggest brothel", about an appalling shanty town in the Bangladeshi countryside that has about 1,500 prostitutes, many of whom spoke openly about their lives and problems.
It was awful.
Whoever works in the Bangladesh Tourist Board (and they do have one) has their work cut out for them.
I was in the Queen Street Mall in Brisbane on Saturday, and it was a cool, showery day. I thought, seeing I had some left in the car, I would wear a mask, given that I usually associate such weather with catching a cold. I also wasn't sure how crowded it would be.
Turned out it was pretty busy, and that nearly no one was wearing a mask. I was paying close attention once I realised I seemed to be alone, and I spotted exactly two people wearing them - both Asian. There are always plenty of young Asian people in the city, and even most of them were not wearing them.
It's true, with days going by with no new cases in Queensland, let alone Brisbane, there should be little to fear. But I still would feel more comfortable if wearing them was treated as standard for a few months yet.
By the way, I presume that we ought to be seeing very little transmission of ordinary colds and flu this winter season due to the hygiene care that shops and other places are still taking. Is anyone trying to keep of that through our GPs, I wonder?
Rep.
Matt Gaetz created a social media frenzy Thursday when he revealed he
had a teenage son named Nestor and later introduced the young man during
an appearance on Fox News.
Gaetz
(R-Fla.) shared that he has a Cuban-born son to explain why he became
so irate when Rep. Cedric L. Richmond (D-La.), who is black, said the
white lawmakers in the room couldn’t understand what it was like to
father a black child.
Many
raised doubts about Gaetz’s claim of a secret son. He never mentioned
his son in his biographical data or elsewhere. An old photo surfaced
online of Gaetz with Nestor in which the congressman refers to him as a
“local student.”
He also appeared as an intern in one photo. Which explains this tweet:
The appalling Tucker Carlson had Gaetz and his "son" on his show, yet never asked the obvious question: how did a (then) 31 year old single man manage to adopt a 12 year old Cuban "son".
The answer appears to be as simple as this:
Gaetz told People Magazine
in an interview that he never formally adopted 19-year-old Nestor but
that Nestor has lived with him since immigrating from Cuba at age 12.
So he's not a son, biologically (of course) or legally. I saw someone sympathetic to Gaetz said that Nester was mainly raised by Gaetz's parents, which would make more sense.
So, for a Republican, "son" means just whatever they want it to mean: a young dude he's "raised", probably more like "been in the same family house with", but that's close enough for fake outrage when arguing with a black man.
Gaetz is also single, leading many to speculate on whether this is a gay relationship. I expect not, as this would be the weirdest way ever to come out.
And here he is trying to suck up to the police unions, again, as authoritarians are want to do; as well as making inappropriate pre-trial comments on what will be a high profile case with the potential to cause further rioting:
Is it just me, or is my sense correct that most of the public find branch stacking scandals to be pretty uninteresting and less important than most journalists find them?
Sinclair, Sinclair: if you are (and I assume you are) the one who deleted the original comment - why not make a clear statement on the blog that it was unacceptable and such blatant racism is not to be repeated??
Set some standards and be clear about it, for God's sake.
Update 3: the reposting of the comment is now deleted. Again, no comment from Sinclair on the blog as to why, though.
I like those visual effects videos which have long showed how much green screens have taken over TV and movie production; but this video showing the next level - virtual sets using massive LED screens - is even more fascinating:
This paper (or article) at arXiv is written at a relatively non-technical level. I have only skimmed it at the moment, but will come back to read it later:
Jackson Hospital pulmonologist William
Saliski cleared his throat as he started describing the dire situation
created by the coronavirus pandemic in Montgomery to its City Council
before they voted on a mandatory mask ordinance. "It's been a long day, I
apologize," he said.
"The units are
full with critically-ill COVID patients," Saliski said. About 90% of
them are Black. He said hospitals are able to manage for now, but it's
not sustainable. "This mask slows that down, 95% protection from
something as easy as cloth. ... If this continues the way it's going, we
will be overrun."
More doctors followed him to the
microphone, describing the dead being carried out within 30 minutes of
each other, and doctors being disturbed when people on the street ask
them if the media is lying about the pandemic as part of a political
ploy.
After they spoke, and before the council
voted on a proposal by Councilman C.C. Calhoun to mandate mask-wearing
in public in Montgomery, Councilman Brantley Lyons questioned whether
masks and six-foot distancing really helps. They do, the doctors
replied. Lyons was unmoved. "At the end of the day, if an illness or a
pandemic comes through we do not throw our constitutional rights out the
window," Lyons said.
From the crowd, doctors called for him to visit the hospital sometime.
Instead,
the council killed the ordinance after it failed to pass in a 4-4 tie,
mostly along racial lines, with Councilman Tracy Larkin absent.
Councilman Clay McInnis voted with three Black council members
— Calhoun, Oronde Mitchell and Audrey Graham — in favor of the
ordinance. Lyons, Charles Jinright, Richard Bollinger and Glen Pruitt
voted against it.
In the study of people aged over 55, published in Alzheimer's & Dementia,
researchers found 'repetitive negative thinking' (RNT) is linked to
subsequent cognitive decline as well as the deposition of harmful brain
proteins linked to Alzheimer's.
The researchers say RNT should now be further investigated as a
potential risk factor for dementia, and psychological tools, such as
mindfulness or meditation, should be studied to see if these could
reduce dementia risk.
Lead author Dr Natalie Marchant (UCL Psychiatry) said: "Depression
and anxiety in mid-life and old age are already known to be risk factors
for dementia. Here, we found that certain thinking patterns implicated
in depression and anxiety could be an underlying reason why people with
those disorders are more likely to develop dementia.
"Taken alongside other studies, which link depression and anxiety
with dementia risk, we expect that chronic negative thinking patterns
over a long period of time could increase the risk of dementia. We do
not think the evidence suggests that short-term setbacks would increase
one's risk of dementia.
