#kind of zoomed in on one example from the show and generalised from there

[whattraintracks]

I kinda feel we didn’t much of raph and splinter’s relationship in 03 thoughts?

Hmm, I suppose that's fair. I've heard it said that 03 isn't a very character-driven story, and I agree we don't see as many character dynamics or arcs explored as we could have.

Below the cut are the pieces of Raph and Splinter's relationship I've pieced together for myself.

Splinter's bio on Raph in Tales from the Sewer presents this interesting duality in Splinter's perception of him. He's a difficult child but just a kid. He trains the most but he's a difficult student. He makes poor decisions but Splinter has the utmost faith in his abilities. As both father and teacher, Splinter sometimes struggles to approach his sons and their needs in the appropriate role, especially when it comes to Raph.

For example, his hands-off approach to Raph's rage, or what I usually think of as emotional dysregulation (either as a product of neurodivergence or his young age). When Raph nearly maims Mikey during a rage attack/dissociative episode (see S1E4 "Meet Casey Jones") Splinter doesn't try to stop Raph or separate him and Mikey, although he very well could have. He doesn't step in until after Leo and Donny have broken up the fight. Despite addressing Raph parentally, he comes at the issue like a teacher offering those ninja master-esque nuggets of wisdom about rage being a monster and a true warrior is balanced in all things. I think he wants to come across sympathetically (gentle voice, physical contact, calling Raph "my son") but there is a sense of disappointment and unmet expectations in what he says.

In the aforementioned bio, Splinter notes that of all the turtles, Raph trains the longest and hardest. He likely equates length of training with dedication to ninjutsu and assumes that because Raph exhibits these things he should be something he isn't: more disciplined less angry. Perhaps he compares Raph to Leo who apparently trains less but fits Splinter's prototype of a good ninja. Speaking of Leo, later in the same episode we see Splinter chastise Mikey and Donny for interrupting Leo's practice and tell Leo to keep practicing his split kick without offering any advice on how to get it right.

We see this idea directed to Raph in Splinter's comment about a true warrior finding balance in all things. It's not particularly informative. This is his version of telling Raph to keep practicing but it's not what Raph needs at this moment, hot off such an overwhelming experience. So instead of reading this as the patient, parental advice I think Splinter intends it to be, Raph's body language screams chastised. He doesn't meet Splinter's eyes and he runs away. Raph (like all of the brothers) wants Splinter's approval and he's devastated to have fallen short in this instance. Then Splinter doesn't let Mikey follow after Raph. And yeah, Raph likely needed that space but it's this hands-off approach, again. Another example comes from the one of Raph's diary entries in the Raphael: Collector Book. He talks about Splinter assigning him more meditation exercises to help him control his emotions and temper. Perhaps training, space, meditation, and nuggets of wisdom are effective tools for Splinter to self-regulate his emotions, but Splinter is also an adult. Raph needs more guidance and practical advice at this point in his life that Splinter isn't providing. The tools aren't enough, he needs to be taught how to use them.

So. Raph responds in a couple ways to Splinter's hands-off, more-teacher-than-father approach. The first is to train harder, and longer, and learn everything he can about ninjutsu. If Master Splinter says becoming a true warrior will help him find emotional balance then he's going to try his hardest to become one. When he meets Casey, he shares with him verbatim the true warrior line but confesses to Casey he's not sure how hot-heads like them are supposed to do that. He still takes the advice to heart even if it's not helpful or he doesn't understand it because he wants to please and obey his father. The collector's book shows us that Raph has taken the time to learn aspects of ninjutsu that are confusing, uninteresting, and even inaccessible to him. This book contains a lot of technical information about ninjutsu techniques and teachings. It presents Raph as even more of ninja nerd than Leo! Some of this stuff appeals to his interests, for sure; the different punching techniques for instance. Some of it, he seems to have only learned to gain Splinter's approval. He has a detailed spread on hand signs that he explicitly finds too mystical and confusing, claims it took forever to learn, and he can't even use it as a three-fingered being, but he hopes Splinter will be impressed with him.

Second, he goes behind Splinter's back. If there's something he wants or needs and he thinks Splinter won't approve of it, he'll take it for himself. Such as going to the surface when he needs space or bringing his brothers to the surface when he thinks there's something important they need to do. This feels, to me, like access thievery, which is the concept (typically applied to disabled/neurodivergent folks) of taking what one needs (time, space, resources) without asking for permission or waiting to be offered it (because you likely won't be). Again in the collector's book, Raph exhibits an awareness of his faults and a self-compassionate recognition that he's just a teen. Splinter know this too but has shown that he can't always offer what Raph needs or won't give him it in some cases (forbids them from going to the surface). So Raph has developed a willingness to take what he needs for himself and sneak around Splinter to avoid the disapproval he fears.

All that aside, I think they're very similar in their fierce love and devotion to family and the ways it can drive them to anger, fear, hatred, and vengeance. There are traits Raph inherited from Splinter they bond over, too. They're both competitive. The Battle Nexus Tournament isn't their thing but we see them playing pokey in "Dragons Rising." I love the idea that they play a lot of games together! They have a similar sense of humility. They know they're skilled but they're more likely hang back and play support while their other family members take the spotlight than boast. Unless it's really personal, then they'll take over, like how Splinter's quest for vengeance guides them in Exodus and Raph's desire to help Casey leads the brothers to sneak out with him in "Meet Casey Jones." I think, they have a similar sense of humor, too. Raph has this silly line in the collector's book about Splinter being proud he used his head, that is, like a battering ram, and you cannot tell me Splinter wouldn't chuckle at that.

[coopdigitalnewsletter]

1 Apr 2020: Supermarkets are critical national infrastructure: delivering a worry-free wipe. Virus tracking and tradeoffs.

Content alert: this newsletter does not contain any April Fool’s jokes. Now really is not the time for April Fool’s jokes. Nor is it ever the time tbh.

Hello, this is the Co-op Digital newsletter - it looks at what's happening in the internet/digital world and how it's relevant to the Co-op, to retail businesses, and most importantly to people, communities and society. Thank you for reading - send ideas and feedback to @rod on Twitter. Please tell a friend about it!

[Image: Stay Home Now, by these clever creators.]

Supermarkets are critical national infrastructure: delivering a worry-free wipe

Supermarkets have become critical national infrastructure, like the NHS and social care, pharmacies, emergency services, post and delivery services, and, it turns out, so many other organisations. 

Tales from the front line in retail: Delivering a worry free wipe for the NHS is a good first-person account on what March has been like for food retail in some stores (also the follow-up piece as the chaos becomes more controlled). 

In some retail categories you’d expect to see high street activity smoothly transition over to online. Amazon is hiring 100,000 staff. Instacart is hiring 300,000. But it isn’t as simple as “online scales up and wins big” because online needs warehousing, logistics, delivery and all of those need people. So ecommerce varies. Coronavirus is throwing light on working conditions in online shopping: Amazon warehouse workers are walking out over COVID-19 fears. And Instacart shoppers are planning a nationwide strike to demand better safety protections and pay.

Related:

Recent Kantar grocery sales data, illustrated with Jose Mourinho gifs - this is funny, and it comes with bonus branding advice for the CoOp!

Out of work? These companies need workers right now: The firms hiring thousands of new staff. Remote-friendly jobs with a tech industry bias: job.garden and remote.io.

Secondary effects

Some of the secondary effects of coronaworld are unusual, and some show that industries are struggling:

Zoom effect: Walmart says it's seeing increased sales of tops - but not bottoms.

Delivery trucks are moving faster as traffic congestion drops and health experts ask for speed limits to be reduced to ease pressure on emergency services.

Restaurants and eating out have declined by roughly 100%.

“In tourism-heavy cities… the rental market is exploding, as AirBnB owners are suddenly forced to [take their houses off the platform and] put their houses on the market” (US data). Though because of the additional supply, rental prices are dropping: London landlords dump holiday lets on residential market, pushing down rents.

CityMapper is tracking how movement in cities has declined as self-isolation has grown - London and Manchester going from 80-something % of normal traffic two weeks ago to about 10% today.

Scootershare co Bird lays off 30% of workforce.

Virus tracking and tradeoffs

A new mobile app, COVID Symptom Tracker will let individuals “self-report symptoms daily to identify those at risk sooner”. About 2m people in the UK are using it as of 30 March. (More detail here.) We need to minimise harms from the coronavirus so this is just one of many efforts to rapidly build new services to trace contacts, minimise infections, and support the NHS.

NHS has announced a new data platform to support the response to the coronavirus. Partners are companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google. And Palantir, whose involvement will surprise some readers.

Important work, but are tradeoffs being made? Are accessibility, privacy etc being ignored in favour of speed and effectiveness? The Information Commissioner’s Office is comfortable that if generalised location data trend data “is properly anonymised and aggregated [...] privacy laws are not breached as long as the appropriate safeguards are in place”.

Perhaps the privacy and ethical considerations are wider than the individual. Here are three excellent reads on tradeoffs and ethical ways forward:

Contact Tracking and NHSX: an open letter from a long-gone era (21 March), which calls for new technologies used in the suppression of Coronavirus to follow ethical best practice. 

To use data for public good we need a new approach to consent by Andrew Eland at Projects by IF: “when data collected with individual consent is reused for the public good, it challenges that model of consent”.

Society-Centered Design by Projects by IF, again: a manifesto that calls for a new approach to designing systems that puts society first, rather than the individual.

Projects

Project N95 and Mask match are two US services that try get medical equipment to healthcare teams that need them. If you have seen a service like this in the UK, let the newsletter know by hitting reply to the email or @rod on the Twitter.

Pay It Forward - “a promise between the people of Manchester and its hospitality and nightlife industry. It’s simple, you buy a voucher that is redeemable after COVID-19 has run its course”.

Responding to uncertainty

“Acknowledge the ambiguity. These are not normal times. Everyone is at least a little scared. We will be less scared if we acknowledge this and work together. As a leader you will set an example.” How to play chess on a rollercoaster by Richard Sullivan, who’s both a Co-oper and a resilience expert.

It would be called “working from home” if the only thing happening was that the office is closed for redecorating. But society is going through something very different. When this is over, some things will return to normal, but many things will never be the same again. So this is “Trying to live in a new world of accelerated change and uncertain risk, while being at home and looking after family and trying to do some work”. Be kind to yourselves.

Other news

Glimpse inside US chatco Slack as it went remote only.

Live traffic and searches on citizensadvice.org.uk - via “the search terms speak for themselves”.

The Prime Minister tweeted a picture of the cabinet using Zoom video conferencing which included the meeting ID. (This is bad because having 10 digit room IDs plus = “zoom bombing”, third parties trying out meeting numbers until they get one.)

“What I love [on Zoom calls] is looking at people’s book cases - the amount of John Grisham… they have on there. And these are educated people!”. Question: instead of blurring your background, does Zoom let you blur yourself? You could present your background in high definition, because complimenting people on their domestic stuff is one nice thing amidst all of this. (A virtue signalling bookshelf service is a thing Waterstones should get on to immediately.)

Co-op Digital news

It’s OK to do what you need to do - this may be the most important blog post Co-op Digital has ever written.

Thank you for reading

Thank you, beloved readers and contributors. Please continue to send ideas, questions, corrections, improvements, etc to the newsletter’s typing chicken @rod on Twitter. If you have enjoyed reading, please tell a friend!

If you want to find out more about Co-op Digital, follow us @CoopDigital on Twitter and read the Co-op Digital Blog. Previous newsletters.