#Mostly the dig is that its not delhi again she says she is from delhi and never mentions noida in s1

[maipareshaan]

Omg they mention Noida again, saying Monisha uses Noida brand phone, hgtyjj, ah i see...

[wherestoriescomefrom]

hey!! this is about anuja chauhan and i think you are spot on! i think she has very upper cast feminism tendencies and i once saw her post something terfy as well...and this shows in her books.

in the house the bj built there is a line where eshwari says that she wanted to take a working class man and bathe him and make love to him and it was SO GROSS...and i think that is the extent of her feminism.

those pricey thakur girls worked for me politically cos she didnt have to criticise people like herself and was criticising a vague Bid Bad.

i was extremely uncomfortable in battle for bittora especially with jini excusing her grandmothers bigotry and asking zain to simply get over everything the latter said....its also interesting that zain was as or even more elite than jini and is one of her two non-upper caste hindu heroes, same with dylan. i also side eye her for the whole 'zain running on the fake b*p ticket'

as for club you to death, i disliked everyone in that book except the cop. the hero was not great but i do think she caricaturised people like herself well.

i feel like she works if she stays in her lane but everytime she tries to do something seemingly radical it isnt great, but i havent come across any romcom authors like her in india so theres that...

you've basically hit the nail on the head, that when she's staying in her lane its not so bad - but every time she tries to do something radical, she messes up pretty strongly. i liked both those pricey thakur girls and the house that bj built because they were so funny, and of course, the politics was graspable and largely within her lane (i remember that line by eashwari. ew.). one thing i have noticed however, is that she is AWARE that the idiosyncracies she writes about are upper caste. when the five aunts are at the police station in the house that bj built, she says that the police didn't know how to deal with so many upper caste women. like yeah, there is a level of self awareness there. she tends to aestheticise the commentary she has on rich delhi, but she is AWARE of it.

in Club You to Death i think this is most obvious. that part where she talks about the school, TVVS? i s2g, that was a dig on TSRS, the shri ram moulsari school. GENUINELY, like the names of the girls being tia pia gia also??? ALSO SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK I GUESS but the way in which bambi todi did the murder???? yeah 100% i can see a girl from TSRS doing that. like the thoughtless way in which she kills the man, the number of murders she does to cover it up, failing her way upwards into accidentally almost getting away with it. hapless but cold murder. yeah checks out.

chauhan also mostly got the satirisation of the gymkhana club correctly. where she fails i think is thinking that these upper caste spaces provide any meaningful resistance to hindutva. i just DIDN'T buy that the members of her DTC club were called anti nationals in this universe?????? after being called anti national every single family gathering by vivek fufaji who is actual real life member of delhi gymkhana, i simply DO NOT BUY that these people are meant to provide a barrier to increasing saffronisation. especially because hindutva isn't always orange yogi adityanath's. its very often businessmen and vanguards of the old order wearing three piece suits.

but the biggest flaw of the book was how much it overstates the space taken up by upper caste people in the minds of those who are not as objects of envy. the victim of the case is supposed to be somewhat obsessed with the club members, extorting them but wanting to be part of them or whatever. he's framed as half a villain himself, and again - i just don't buy it. i DON'T think non upper caste people are that obsessed with being upper caste, i doubt they want to be a part of whatever we offer in a cultural sense, and its really disingenuous to make it out like that instead of pointing at the root of the problem, which is wealth inequality. someone WOULD murder if they had a single source of income and their boss cut their pay, they won't do it because they hate their boss for hosting garden parties and not inviting them. i think. i haven't been part of any murders as a victim or a perpetrator so thats the extent of my knowledge 😔😔😔

idk, maybe im completely off base. the police officer was wonderful tho, i really liked both him and his wife.

and like you said, there really isn't a romance writer like her in india. i think she generally means well, and for what its worth she comes for public demonstrations from time to time. she just gets things wrong pretty often, just the perils of being upper caste in some senses. god she's GOOD at writing romance, like she really is, she sells you on the couple.

anyway thank u for such a detailed ask!!!

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Canada unveils largest economic relief package since WW2 (BBC) Canada's federal government will spend C$100bn ($77bn, £58bn) to kick-start the country's post-pandemic economy. It is "the largest economic relief package for our country since the Second World War", Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Monday. The spending will bring the deficit to a historic C$381.6bn by March 2021. The wide-ranging plan includes targeted relief for hard-hit business sectors, investments in long-term care homes and distribution of a Covid-19 vaccine.

Study: Students falling behind in math during pandemic (AP) A disproportionately large number of poor and minority students were not in schools for assessments this fall, complicating efforts to measure the pandemic’s effects on some of the most vulnerable students, a not-for-profit company that administers standardized testing said Tuesday. Overall, NWEA’s fall assessments showed elementary and middle school students have fallen measurably behind in math, while most appear to be progressing at a normal pace in reading since schools were forced to abruptly close in March and pick up online. The analysis of data from nearly 4.4 million U.S. students in grades 3-8 represents one of the first significant measures of the pandemic’s impacts on learning. But researchers at NWEA, whose MAP Growth assessments are meant to measure student proficiency, caution they may be underestimating the effects on minority and economically disadvantaged groups. Those students made up a significant portion of the roughly 1 in 4 students who tested in 2019 but were missing from 2020 testing. NWEA said they may have opted out of the assessments, which were given in-person and remotely, because they lacked reliable technology or stopped going to school. The NWEA findings show that, compared to last year, students scored an average of 5 to 10 percentile points lower in math, with students in grades three, four and five experiencing the largest drops.

Coronavirus emerged earlier than thought (WSJ) The new coronavirus infected people in the U.S. in mid-December 2019, a few weeks before it was officially identified in China and about a month earlier than public health authorities found the first U.S. case, according to a government study published Monday. The findings significantly strengthen evidence suggesting the virus was spreading around the world well before public health authorities and researchers became aware, upending initial thinking about how early and quickly it emerged. Scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found evidence of infection in 106 of 7,389 blood donations collected by the American Red Cross from residents in nine states across the U.S., according to the study published online in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Brazen gun battle in Brazil bank heist leaves cash scattered on road (Reuters) Bank robbers in southern Brazil blasted explosives and fired high-caliber weapons at police late on Monday, in an audacious heist that injured two people and left reams of cash in the streets to be pocketed by locals. The robbery began just before midnight on Monday in the southern city of Criciúma and lasted nearly two hours, according to a statement from military police in Santa Catarina state. Terrifying images shared on social media showed armed men firing automatic weapons on the city streets, taking hostages and then making their getaway in a fleet of cars. In their wake, the robbers left cash strewn across the streets. Residents soon spread out to snatch up the notes, television footage showed. Authorities have located 810,000 reais ($152,660), police said. Local media reported that there were 30 robbers involved in the heist. Brazil has a long history of bank heists, and major lenders have struggled with a wave of violent robberies in recent years as criminals have mastered the use of explosives to access cash.

Scottish independence (Foreign Policy) Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has called for an independence referendum “in the early part of the new parliament,” ahead of Scottish parliamentary elections in May. Sturgeon made the remarks in an address at a Scottish National Party (SNP) conference. Although Scottish voters rejected independence by a 55-45 percent margin in 2014, recent polls show a majority in favor of secession, likely due to the strong support for the European Union among Scots. Westminster would have to give Edinburgh permission to hold another referendum, and Sturgeon has said she will take the British government to court if they block a vote.

NATO Searches For Meaning (Foreign Policy) Foreign ministers of NATO member nations meet today for a two-day conference to discuss the future of the alliance as the organization searches for relevance ahead of the impending Joe Biden presidency. The alliance has spent the last two decades finding purpose in its Afghanistan mission, but with U.S. interest waning, and troops departing, it’s in search of a new raison d’être. The group appears to have found its motivation in a challenger thousands of miles from its borders. A new report due to be reviewed at today’s meeting calls for fresh thinking on dealing with a rising China, including deepening ties with Asian allies and increasing technological capabilities.

Animal attacks taking their toll in Kashmir (AP) Amid the long-raging deadly strife in Indian-controlled Kashmir, another conflict is silently taking its toll on the Himalayan region’s residents: the conflict between man and wild animals. According to official data, at least 67 people have been killed and 940 others injured in the past five years in attacks by wild animals in the famed Kashmir Valley, a vast collection of alpine forests, connected wetlands and waterways known as much for its idyllic vistas as for its decades-long armed conflict between Indian troops and rebels. The Himalayan black bear is at the heart of this trouble. Experts say over 80% of the deaths and maulings are due to attacks by black bears. Nestled between mountain peaks and plateaus, Kashmir has witnessed a rapid change in how people are using the land. Vast paddy fields have been converted into mostly apple orchards. New neighborhoods have popped up around wetlands and forest areas. In turn, experts say, animals are approaching human settlements in search of food and shelter, leading to a sharp increase in attacks.

Angry Farmers Choke India’s Capital in Giant Demonstrations (NYT) Mewa Singh said he wasn’t going anywhere. On Monday afternoon, Mr. Singh, who farms a small plot of land in northern India, sat in the back of a mud-splattered farm trailer, heaps of rice, lentils, fresh garlic and other spices piled around him, blocking one of the main arteries into India’s capital. Part of an army of thousands of angry farmers who have encircled New Delhi, Mr. Singh vowed to keep protesting for however long it takes for India’s government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to reverse recently passed agricultural policies. “Our land is our mother,” said Mr. Singh, growing emotional as he talked about the new policies, which he saw as part of an effort to hand farmers’ land over to big business. “It was passed on to us from our parents, who got it from their parents, and now Modi wants to acquire it and give it away to his rich friends.” Even though Mr. Modi’s political party firmly controls the government, the growing farmers’ rebellion seems to have rattled his administration. In India, more than 60 percent of the population depends on agriculture to make a living. Farmers are a huge political constituency.

In Asia, Pro-Democracy Forces Worry About Biden (NYT) Pro-democracy campaigners from Hong Kong are championing President Trump’s claims of an electoral victory. Human rights activists and religious leaders in Vietnam and Myanmar are expressing reservations about President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s ability to keep authoritarians in check. It might seem counterintuitive that Asian defenders of democracy are among the most ardent supporters of Mr. Trump, who has declared his friendship with Xi Jinping of China and Kim Jong-un of North Korea. But it is precisely Mr. Trump’s willingness to flout diplomatic protocol, abandon international accords and keep his opponents off-balance that have earned him plaudits as a leader strong enough to stand up to dictators and defend democratic ideals overseas, even if he has been criticized as diminishing them at home. As President-elect Biden assembles his foreign-policy team, prominent human rights activists across Asia are worried about his desire for the United States to hew again to international norms. They believe that Mr. Biden, like former President Barack Obama, will pursue accommodation rather than confrontation in the face of China’s assertive moves.

China lands a spacecraft on moon for third time (Washington Post) China landed a spacecraft on the moon Tuesday on a mission to mine rocks and soil and return them to Earth, the latest in a series of lunar missions demonstrating the country’s emergence as a force in space exploration. The landing, without a crew aboard, was China’s third on the lunar surface since 2013 and came almost two years after China pulled off a historic first—landing a spacecraft on the far side of the moon. If China’s Chang’e-5 mission succeeds, it would mark the first time a nation has retrieved samples from the moon since the United States and Soviet Union did it several decades ago. The mission, which includes a lander, an ascent vehicle, a service capsule and a return capsule, was launched Nov. 23 on China’s powerful Long March-5 rocket. On the lunar surface, the probe is expected to dig about seven feet deep, collecting as much as 4.5 pounds of rocks and lunar soil into the ascent vehicle, which would then meet up with the service capsule in lunar orbit and return to Earth.

Nike ad showing racial discrimination faced by Japanese girls provokes backlash (Washington Post) A Nike advertisement highlighting racial discrimination faced by schoolgirls in Japan, and suggesting they can overcome it through sports, has provoked a fierce debate and backlash in a nation unaccustomed to openly discussing such issues. The video showing three young soccer players is based on the “real life experience of athletes,” Nike Japan said, conveying how they “overcome their daily struggles and conflicts to move their future through sports.” The ad has been viewed about 25 million times across Twitter and YouTube. It has been shared or liked nearly 80,000 times on Twitter, but negative reactions accelerated this week, with likes only outnumbering dislikes on YouTube by a few thousand. Japan’s national identity is based partly on a myth of itself as a monoethnic country. This has fueled the marginalization of the indigenous Ainu people in the past, and discrimination against ethnic Koreans and Chinese, biracial Japanese people and immigrants.

Radioactive water (Hakai Magazine) Radioactive water is accumulating at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant as workers have pumped water into the destroyed buildings to keep the site cool for the past ten years. After coming into contact with the reactors, the water has to be stored, and while operator Tokyo Electric Power Company has built tanks for this exact purpose, there are over one million tonnes of water in those tanks as of this year. By 2022, they believe they’ll run out of room for new tanks. There are potentially 62 radioactive elements in that wastewater, and as of 2018, some particularly gnarly isotopes were still exceeding safe levels, even after cleaning. The Japanese government will eventually have to decide what to do with this waste, which could include slowly dumping it into the ocean. That’s banned by the London Protocol, and the United Nations International Maritime Organization will likely have some very strong feelings about any such plan.