#that one picture is like. perfect. in the content of political propaganda | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

accio-victuuri · 4 years ago

Text

The GG & Li-Ning & Xianjiang Cotton Situation

I was asked to give my opinion. This is also for other bxgs who may have the same sentiment. You don’t have to agree with me but i hope you respect whatever it is I choose to share here. This is my blog and my space. I maintain this out of my pure enjoyment of the fandom and all the good it has given me. So let me address some of the points.

Li-Ning boasts their use of XinJiang Cotton

My simple answer here is, of course they will. This is not something new. Li-Ning is a celebrated olympic medal winning gymnast. A billionaire. You don’t get to that place in CHN w/out supporting the government’s agenda. In this case, that there is no injustice and persecution going on in Xinjiang. This brand, boasting about China made cotton, in their terms, shows patriotism and support for their country. This brand’s literal goal at first was to provide a local brand for Chinese athletes to wear in the Olympics. This is also not the first time that Li-Ning had been called out along w/ other international brands due to questionable ethical practices.

I find it very hard to believe that the timing of GG’s massive Li-Ning ad campaign, coinciding as it has with these Western brand boycotts, was a coincidence.

Let’s get this out of the way. Whether the boycott happened or not, Li-Ning is guaranteed an insane amount of sales because they hired Xiao Zhan. This is the same man who always sells out products in seconds. Who took KXZ to 200% growth and so on. I can talk about stats all day but this massive campaign for him is a no brainer. GG is expensive and a guaranteed success. Any brand who hires him will be stupid to not launch an all out campaign across all cities. Li-Ning knows what they are doing by hiring him. For years, they have been trying to appeal to Gen Z. Especially now that youth in CHN are more and more into the “guochao” (国潮) - National trend. Integrating traditional chinese culture and fashion w/ domestic brands. This ties in with the whole movement of erasing the connotation that made in china is of inferior quality. GG was a good choice. He appeals to the younger generation (19-25) and the working class ( 26 and up ) who buys goods. I would imagine even GG’s team did their research and knows this trend is going on too. This will not be the last you will see of this type of endorsement from him or Web. The rumors on this collaboration was going around as early as, March 15 I think? I was literally asking another bxg if GG’s ad will be pushed back a day or two because of what was happening. or what will this all implies. He was always gonna come out and endorse this brand boycott or not.

I am not removing the possibility that these local brands have a hand in the boycott. It’s a very valid concern. or that, it was a convenient perfect storm for them. A perfect storm of EU, US & CAN sanctioning CHN. The sudden attack on brands’ statements against Xinjiang cotton from a year ago. The whole agenda of controlling the people’s view on what is happening. All of these are connected. sure. There are many things behind the scenes that we will not know but we can make an educated guess of. Li-Ning is not the only domestic brand that had a positive push because of this.

On 3/25 Li-Ning’s stock closed with a high of 10.74% , plus an added 9% on the 26th when GG was announced as ambassador. The same thing happened with Anta and others.

I find it very hard to stomach seeing Li-Ning ads on my dash, regardless of GG’s presence in them. Without condemning him for taking this endorsement deal, and without judging what he is or is not personally aware

I will just be addressing GG’s alleged part in all this. I say that cause we don’t live in his brain and won’t know what he’s thinking. You can all try and project your values on him but he is a whole person of his own. I have hopefully given some view on why GG accepted to endorse this brand in the previous point. GG has spent most if not all, of his life in China. He has repeatedly said that he was brought up traditionally. Tho his father was very encouraging in him participating in the arts and widening his knowledge. He had Foreign professors at CBTU. He is part of the generation that knows what’s going on outside by using the internet. He’s smart. I would guess that he is aware of the country he is living in vs what it’s like outside of it. But at the end of the day, his loyalty will always be with his country. I hate to break it to you all but he will continue to live and thrive as an Actor even without international support. Tho it is great that he is a source of National Pride with how people outside of China love him.

Now, about his support for Xianjiang Cotton. I wanna start by showing this:

It’s a post from People’s Daily wb which boasts all the c-ent top stars that voiced their support of XJ cotton. The sense is, hey people look at your idols supporting the cause. Look at their Patriotism. What do you think will happen if GG was not on this list? Knowing that he is a top star in CHN. Knowing he was just in hot waters post 22*? Knowing that he is actively being endorsed in CCTV which is a National Channel. Are we still surprised that he posted that support? I was just honestly waiting for him to post if anything. I talked before about how C-ent celebrities are expected ( and actually it’s in their law ) to be more morally upright than the lay people. This is prime example of that.

Another one is this from CCTV Wb. I’m including this for you all to have an understanding of how this whole thing is being played out in CHN. This is the type of online narrative that is going around and I would think GG is seeing. The sentiment is,

“No matter what hardships, ups and downs and blows go through in our country, her people will always come from all directions and stand up to speak justice and do just things.”

It’s also showing all the hot searches that is related in support of XJ cotton and defending CHN’s innocence.

Also this video that was heavily circulated showing mechanized picking of cotton vs the allegations of manual.

This is the kind of narrative that is going around, as expected. I don’t really fault GG or condemn him for doing what is best for him. What is the best for an individual does not always mean it’s the best for all. In talks like this, I always try and put myself in their position. I mean, who the hell are these people trying to attack my country? the country that has provided for me. I wanna say I understand where they are coming from but understanding does not mean agreeing. I see these A LOT. ALOT ON WEIBO. The China vs. Everyone story. It’s the notion of, they are attacking us and we must protect the country. Also keep in mind that news is heavily regulated.

You know what type of news the CCP would love for them to get a hold of? The rising attacks on Asians in the US. Oh boy they would fuckin love that! Making America the big/bad asian-hating boogeyman in the eyes of their people yet again.

Okay, now we’re down to the final part of this. Why do I share the promo pics for Li-Ning. Where do i draw the line.

To me it’s simple. It had GG in it. I was waiting for this to come out, and tbh, would you all even know about this brand’s practices if the boycott didn’t happen? No. This is a bjyx blog where i share things about them. That includes ad, dramas, pictures and videos. I understand if people don’t feel comfortable w/ Li-Ning ads and others, so just don’t like those posts. Did I buy anything from the collection? No. Did I buy multiple copies Web’s single Youth in Times ( like i do with his other singles )? No. That’s where I draw the line in this. I know we’re all gonna be put on a tight spot again once Faith Makes Great comes out. Once I saw that leaked pic, Ooohhh! I just know. Also if BAH adds some propaganda about CHN’s war on drugs. I am just waiting. I am ready. I know what my values are. I will not allow other people to dictate who I am. I know what type of content I’m only gonna be sharing.

I see this very forceful air of asking bxgs to take a stand on this ( always bxg, never the other side. always us of course even if we are the minority) and it really puts me off. I read someone say that they will not say anything because they don’t owe strangers on the internet an explanation. Which is true. I have separate spaces that I share my views on world/local issues. Accounts that show my actual name and around people I know in real life. That’s what I choose to do for myself. I started this blog for myself and i still find it very bizarre that people follow this account. I am not some sort of KOL, let’s get that straight. This is just a blog where I talk about things if i want to and SCREAM about GG and Web too much. I will probably not answer any follow up questions on this cause i feel like I have addressed a good chunk of it.

Just know that whatever I post on here in support of GG and his projects does not equate to my entire political/moral stand regarding this event or any. It’s really good that we have conversations like this cause it’s an important one.

Whew! That was a long post! 😅

#ask response

85 notes · View notes

marvelslut16 · 5 years ago

Text

Closure

Pairing(s): Steve x reader, Steve x OC!Ana, Reader x OC!Mike

Synopsis: (Y/N) and Steve are paired up as partners for a year. The problem is she hates the golden boy. Quickly she learns that he isn’t as horrid as she once imagined and they become best friends. Will (Y/N) realize before it’s too late that she’s madly and deeply in love with one Steven Grant Rogers?

Word count: 5,100 whoops

Warnings: Some fluff, some angst. Swearing. Mentions of stitches, but now graphic descriptions of gore. A super clueless reader. Bucky is a bitch in this. Jealousy.

A/n: I should have been writing my Stan Uris request (which I’m more than have done with) or my next chapter of can’t fight this feeling (it’s getting there you guys!) but I wrote this bad boy instead. I hope you guys enjoy it and are staying safe and healthy during these crazy times.

Steve was never the man you planned to fall for. Hell, you hated the man for three years. You thought he was pretentious and full of himself when he snootily corrected you on a mistake only he noticed. Everyone praised him, said he was so fantastic; he could do no wrong, he’s America’s golden boy after all.

A few years had passed since the incident where he corrected you on an almost nonexistent mistake in the middle of a mission. You two were suddenly paired up by Fury to be partners on any future missions. Bucky was still recovering from all the pain Hydra caused so he couldn’t be Steve’s partner, but you had been hoping to get either Nat or Tony as yours. But life never works out how you want.

Being partners also meant you two had to train together too, help you bond and become a stronger pair on missions. Blah blah blah. You had a sprained wrist from a mission you had just been on, it was supposed to be a simple in and out until the shield agent helping you made a mistake. The worst part is that you happen to be dating that shield agent, Mike can’t go thirty minutes without apologizing. The more he does it the more it gets on your nerves, so you always try to take hold of the conversation and steer it away from that topic.

So as you're in the gym for your first training session, sitting on a bench board out of your mind watching America’s golden boy workout his already perfect body, you text Mike and complain about being stuck with the blonde soldier. Steve breaks the tense and awkward silence randomly, causing you to put your phone down for the first time since entering the gym.

“Do you know how to work this thing?” his thumb is pointing over his shoulder at one of the many treadmills, he’s giving you a sheepish smile.

“Oh, yeah, of course,” you smile softly, quickly getting up and pressing the buttons, setting it up for him. “There ya go.”

“Thanks,” he lets out a sigh, running a hand through his slightly sweaty blonde locks. “I’m still new to all of this technology stuff.” You don’t respond, not verbally at least. You give him a warm smile and small nod, his grin seems to grow at your first real interaction.

As your time with him in the gym becomes more frequent when you're healed, you notice that he doesn’t actually need your help setting up the machines. He even sets them up for you if he beats you to the gym that day. You realize that it was really just an icebreaker, this way it wouldn’t be as awkward and you would finally talk to him. It turns out he doesn’t even remember correcting you all those years ago, so maybe he isn’t as bad as you’ve always made him out to be.

To nobody's surprise, but your own, you and Steve become fast friends. You didn’t think much of it, he’s your partner and you two are supposed to get along. So the friendship was a good thing, right? Steve soon became your confidant, the one you would seek out if the mission was hard or if you and Mike were in yet another fight. Besides that, Steve was just a great person who was fun to be with.

He was surprisingly political for a man that was frozen in ice for seventy years, so he’ll talk your ear off about what’s going on in the world. It’s not too surprising, you suppose, he was political propaganda and has an unwavering moral compass, so it’s to be expected. He keeps you educated and up to date, something that amuses your teammates when they see you guys hang out. You and Steve will have animated conversations about World War II, comparing the political climate and leaders back then to now over lunch. What really amused everyone was how quickly those serious conversations could flip and turn into pop culture talk. If one of you says a reference from a show in your conversation, it immediately switches to that show or ones like it.

You had introduced Steve to friends, and he had come running to you as soon as Ross and Rachel had their we were on a break fight. He was so distraught over the show, he wanted Ross and Rachel to just talk out their problems. You thought his reaction was adorable, and so did Nat who was quietly laughing to herself in a corner.

There were days where you didn’t even have to talk, content with sitting in silence and filling out mission reports. Typically spent listening to songs from the forties, or you trying to get him into modern music. Everyone was shocked, especially Bucky who is now back from Wakanda good as new apparently, that you got Steve to get a cellphone. The super soldier frequently texts you with questions or to complain that he misses you if you’re too injured or sick to make it to training.

Very rarely was Steve moody, one reason you were glad when you got him and not Tony, but when he was it was unbearable. He had gotten in a fight with Bucky and ignored you in training. No setting up the machine for you, even though he was already running on his treadmill when you got to the gym. No offering you water after a tough set, or apologizing if he thought he pinned you to the mat too hard, which he always did.

“Stevie, what’s wrong?” you finally broke the silence.

“It’s nothing (Y/N)!” there’s a flash of anger towards you in his icy blue eyes. “I’m done training for the day.”

“But we still have another hour!” you holler at his toned back, white shirt clinging to the sweat, as he walks away from you.

“I don’t really care, I don’t want to talk,” Steve doesn’t turn to face you. His voice drops so low he thinks you won’t hear him, but you do, “I don’t want to be around you right now.”

Your heart squeezes at his words. Was Mike right when he called you too much the other night? Were you so annoying that both your boyfriend and your best friend didn’t want to be around you?

Steve’s blue eyes softened as he apologized for his actions the next morning. He didn’t know you heard his last bit, but you weren’t gonna tell him you did. So you just dealt with the little bit of your self esteem chip away, but that was nothing new.

You’re knocking on his door in the middle of the night, instantly regretting it when you see the dark bags under his sparkling blue eyes. His arm flexes as he rubs a hand over his face, gray sweatpants hang low on his waist, and his navy blue shirt is slightly twisted from tossing and turning.

“Sorry,” you sniffle and quickly apologize. You start to walk away but Steve’s thick fingers wrap around your wrist and pull you towards him.

“What's wrong?” the sleep gone from his eyes, replaced with worry at the sight of your tear stained cheeks.

“It’s nothing,” you sigh, running your hands through your hair. “It was stupid.”

“Is it nothing or is it stupid? ‘Cause it can’t be both Doll,” his voice is soft and inviting, it makes you start crying all over again.

“Mike and I got into such a bad fight,” you cry, he immediately pulls you into a hug and into his apartment. He ushers you over to a stool in the kitchen, grabbing you both a beer, claiming that you look like you could really use one. “He threatened to break up with me, he just kept saying that I have too much baggage from before. Telling me that I’m too annoying, too clingy, too much.”

The super soldier stayed up with you all night, letting you cry and vent about your relationship troubles. Again. He even took you out for breakfast when morning rolled around, you two laughing over what seemed like a gallon of coffee. While you had never woken him up before, you two had talked for hours if Mike had done something stupid or hurt you.

Steve and Mike had been sort of friends before this, having worked with each other on missions before your partnership. But the words that Mike had been spewing at you hours earlier made it so that Steve could never look at him the same way again. Who could be that cruel to you on purpose?

The Avengers were going to a local hospital to surprise the sick children in the cancer ward. You’re paired up with Bucky much to your disappointment, everyone wanted Captain America and Black Widow together, they were well known. You don’t dislike the ex assassin, but he’s practically Steve’s brother which makes you infinitely more nervous around him.

As you're waiting for the all clear from one of the oncologists you get a text from Tony with an updated schedule, one child was able to go home a day early so they were no longer there so a new room with a new kid was added. You briefly smile down at your lock screen, a picture of you and Steve making stupid faces in your uniforms- he even let you hold his shield.

“Is that you and Steve?” Bucky’s long strands of hair hit the side of your face as he leans down to get a better look of the picture.

“Uh- yeah,” you turn to look at his face, a small frown of confusion graces your features. His gaze goes from curious to a large frown, confusing you to no end.

“Why did you guys take it?” he asks, crossing his thick arms across his chest, making sure to flex them.

“Uh, we had just gotten back from a long mission and we needed to decompress,” you smile fondly at the memory of the bleach blonde man making you laugh when you didn’t think you could even smile. He somehow managed to take your stress away, he always knew how to make it better; you’re convinced it was a power that came with the serum. “We were just goofing around and having fun, Steve suggested we take a picture to remember it.”

“You’re so annoying,” he rolls his eyes and shakes his head, brown locks creating a curtain around his face. Your jaw momentarily drops open in shock, but you quickly close it as the oncologist comes back to the two of you. You put on your well practiced mask, cheering up the kids was far more important than your measly little feelings.

For some unknown reason Bucky told Steve about the interaction. Steve immediately apologized the next day for Bucky’s actions, but it meant next to nothing coming from him and not the man with the vibranium arm. Steve just kept going on about how Bucky’s brain still wasn’t back to hundred percent yet, but you knew Bucky had meant what he said.

“Are you sleeping with him?” Mike storms into your apartment that Tony gave you in Avengers tower, perks of the job.

“What?” your eyebrows furrow, you aren’t a cheater. “Who?”

“Steve,” his name comes out of Mike’s mouth like it burned him, but you can see the sadness in his eyes.

“Of course not!” anger starts to fuel you, how dare he make these accusations about you and your friend!

“Sharon came up to me at work today and said she wouldn’t be surprised if you two were sleeping with each other behind my back!” he defends. Of course it was Sharon, you restrain yourself from aggressively rolling your eyes at the annoying woman's antics.

“Steve and I would never do that! And you know that. You also know that Sharon is obsessively in love with Steve and is most likely jealous of my friendship with him.”

The conversation ended there that night, but you knew it wasn’t over yet. Mike left shortly after to go to his apartment twenty minutes away from the tower, and you were left to wonder why the hell Sharon would ever suggest a thing. Steve was just a friend! Right?

The next day during training you were complaining to him about Sharon and Mike as you were punching one of the many bags filled with sand. Knuckles bruising and bleeding, but you don’t notice. Far too occupied with everyone sticking their noses where they don’t belong, just looking to start drama within the Avengers.

You and Mike had gotten into yet another fight about Steve a month later. This time you didn’t want to go to the man at the center of your problems, so you went to two of your friends Marie and Trisha. They’re both Shield agents that work with Mike, so they know the both of you enough to give you good advice.

“He just keeps getting so mad at me for being friends with Steve!” you complain to the two girls, who roll their eyes at the words they’ve heard come from your mouth a thousand times before.

“So break up with him,” Marie shrugs like it’s no big deal, checking her nails.

“But I love him,” you blanch.

“Do you though?” Trisha asks with a judgmental eyebrow raised.

“Of course I do! We’ve been together for two years, I see a future with him,” you furrow your brows at how rude they seem. “But do you think he’s right? Do you think Steve likes me?”

“Not even close!” Trisha laughs. “(Y/N), he would never go for someone like you, he could have any woman- or man- that he wants.”

“Dump Mike and forget Steve, they aren’t worth your time,” Marie looks up from her nails to give you an annoyed look.

So much for friends, huh. But Trisha was right about one thing, Steve would never go for someone like me. I’m not special, I’m not beautiful; I’m just annoying and I carry too much emotional baggage for anyone to deal with. You walked out of shield headquarters that day feeling worse than you did when you came, and no closer to solving this whole Steve Mike business.

Steve was reading the briefing for your next mission when you entered the common room in the tower. You plopped down right next to him, swinging your legs over his lap and resting your head on his shoulder to read it too. He threw the arm that you’re leaning on across your shoulders to make it more comfortable for the two of you. You and Steve would sit like this all the time; during movies, reading up on missions, while talking about anything and everything.

It made Mike uncomfortable, and maybe you were naive because you never understood why. Steve was your friend, and friends cuddle. Plus it was extremely comfortable and some days you just needed it. The first time you did it you did as a joke, trying to make Steve uncomfortable, it was a game you two play. But you both quickly found how much you both liked it and you do it without giving it a second thought now. Plus, it’s a nice added bonus when Sharon sees it and gets upset.

Before you and Steve knew it a whole year of partnership passed, and Fury decided to change partners around. Steve obviously got Bucky and you got Nat. While she was your original first choice, now all you wanted was for Steve to have your six. There wouldn’t be anymore inside jokes, long talks, or silly photos to take. You would miss the way his nose crinkled when he would laugh at one of your stupid jokes, or how his face would scrunch up and the tip of his tongue would peak out from between his lips when would sketch you during your free time.

If losing him as your partner weren’t enough, he was moving out of the tower. He found a cute little brownstone to move into, him and Bucky were going to be roommates. You believed Steve when he told you he would come visit you all the time, but it was just an empty promise. You felt like you were losing a piece of your heart and soul. Steve had become your best friend and you weren’t sure when you would be able to see him again. He left the tower one night, never telling you goodbye first.

If anything good came out of Steve’s move, it was that you and Mike weren’t as rocky as you once were. You were crushed that you didn’t have Steve by your side anymore, but you would never tell Mike that. He’d never understand how you missed the super soldier as a friend. He and I would still text occasionally, or talk briefly if we ran into each other in the halls, but it was never the same. And it never would be.

The next time you saw Sharon she was smug, as if she were gloating because you weren’t close to him anymore either. But that all changed when Steve entered the tower with a shorter woman with long black hair on his arm named Ana. She was a nurse for shield, apparently they had met when she insisted he get a cut stitched after a bad mission, even if he would be healed within a few hours. You used to make Steve get checked out after every mission, made sure he took care of himself, but you were useless now.

“She’s cheated on every guy she’s been with,” Sharon whispered to you as Ana swung her own legs over Steve’s lap and curled into his side. The smile on his face was so wide and loving, it was honestly revolting. Nat, Tony, and Sam all turned to watch your face at the interaction, you masked any possible emotion. But Tony saw the hurt in your eyes, you had officially lost Steve. But he was never yours to lose.

You pushed off Sharon’s words, why would she tell you the truth when she hated you so much. But when Trisha and Marie texted you out of nowhere freaking out about her being a cheater you knew it was the ugly truth. Steven Grant Rogers, the love of your life as you always jokingly called him, was going to get his pure heart broken by someone who would never love as much as he loved her.

Mike caught you one night, when he came over to surprise you with dinner, looking at the drawings of you that Steve had done while swiping through the pictures you had taken with the blonde. Mike, seeing that you were grieving the loss of such an important friendship didn’t say anything about it. Instead you guys ate your food and talked about your future together. He kept repeating that he wanted to marry you one day soon.

While the prospect of spending the rest of your life with Mike was exciting and inviting; it was a nice safe choice. You couldn’t help but wonder, would Steve go to your wedding? Would he be your man of honor like you two joked he would be? Or did he not care about you now that you weren’t partners anymore? Because your life would be gray without him in it.

Tony threw his yearly charity gala. You were dressed in an ombre blue dress that made you feel like Cinderella. Mike had surprised you and paid for you to go all out and get your hair and nails done. What you didn’t know was that Mike was trying to spoil you so you would be happy again and maybe fix your crumbling relationship. While your relationship was fine, better even, when Steve had moved, it was falling apart now as you wallowed in self pity over the fact that you lost your best friend.

You had begged Mike for hours to go dance with you, but he wouldn’t. He just told you he didn’t want to and sat at your table sipping his drink. Steve and Ana were spinning around the dance floor, they looked so happy it hurt. You couldn’t help but stare, that could have been you. What did you have to sell to get Mike to seem like he cared about you and to dance with you? A kidney? An arm or a leg? Your soul? Because you would do it.

Nat and Wanda saw how depressed you looked, so they pulled you onto the floor with them. And for a few minutes everything felt right in the world, you were finally happy. But that ended as soon as it began when Ana bumped into you while she was dancing, you would have fallen if it weren’t for Wanda and her powers. She giggled out a fake sorry before pulling Steve in the opposite direction.

When you sat back down next to Mike again you couldn’t tear your eyes off of Steve. Who had he become? He was so enraptured by Ana that he didn’t even try to talk to you like he always did at big events like this. What you didn’t know was that while you were holding back tears Mike was trying to talk himself into breaking up with you. He knew you weren’t happy anymore, that you would much rather be with Steve. Even if you didn’t know that yet.

After a long talk with Fury it was decided that it would be better for everyone if you went back to being a normal shield agent instead of a part of the Avengers. While it stung a little and felt like a downgrade, it was what you wanted as well. To make things even better, you were now paired up with Sharon. Your long hours together proved she wasn’t as horrible as you once thought, but she was definitely not your favorite person.

Mike started working in a new sector where he was partnered up with a new agent named Jana. He spent more time with her than with, you so you started hanging out with Trisha and Marie regularly again. The two girls tried to get you to shit talk Ana with them, but you wouldn’t. Steve was happy and that’s all that mattered to you.

Mike broke up with you. He sent you a text at three in the morning telling you it wasn’t working. You wholeheartedly agreed, nothing felt right anymore, but you would have preferred the break up in person. That was the decent thing to do.he started dating Jana, and you were happy for him too. Just like Steve, you wanted him happy.

Months passed after the break up and you were still friends with Mike. He was your partner and your friend before the relationship, so you were sure as hell going to be his friend after the end of your three year relationship. Your break up wasn’t a secret, it seemed like everyone at shield knew the details of it.

Mike, Jana, Maria Hill, and you were all eating lunch together when a familiar blonde haired blue eyed man walked through the cafeteria. Your heart started to pound, you hadn’t talked to Steve in almost a year and hadn’t seen him in even longer. Mike gave your arm a quick squeeze as Maria was getting ready to go talk to him. But Ana locked eyes with you as soon as Steve waved at you, and pulled him away from you. Mike pulled you into his side and Jana gently rubbed your hand that was sitting on the tabletop.

Maria runs away from you and Sharon and up to talk to Steve when she sees him in the hall later that day. You and Sharon share an unsure glance before following Fury's right hand woman. Steve has a long talk with Maria about an upcoming mission she is accompanying him and Bucky on. He even talks with Sharon about a new technique Nat taught her when the redhead visited a few weeks prior.

“Hey Rogers,” you give him a small smile when his eyes finally land on you.

He opens his mouth, ready to speak to you for the first time in ages. But before he could get any words out Ana let out an annoyed sound, sent Steve a look, and stormed off. Steve gave you an apologetic smile before running after his girlfriend.

Your mouth opens as you let out what would have a mix between a sob and a scoff if it hadn’t come out silent. It felt like something was wrapping around your heart, giving it a painful squeeze. That feeling snaked up and constricted your throat, momentarily causing you to forget to breathe. Maria is looking at you with soft confused eyes while Sharon is glaring at Steve’s back as he runs after Ana.

Ironically, you ran crying to Mike. It was a sick twist of fate, after a year of running to Steve when things went wrong with Mike, he was now the one helping you when it came to the hurt America’s golden boy caused. He took you out for dinner that night and spent hours comforting you. Because after all this time you finally realized it. You’re in love with Steve, you have been for years. But now you’ve lost him for good.

“Are Steve and Ana still together?” Wanda asks when you visit her and Nat at the tower.

“I think, why?” you glance between the two redheads confused why they would be asking you this and not Steve.

“Well her and this other shield agent came with us on a mission,” Nat admits. “And the entire quinjet ride she was hanging all over him.”

“We had to spend the night there,” Wanda says slowly, like the next words out of her mouth could change everything. And they do. “I caught her sneaking into his room.”

The world around you seems to slow and your fragile heart seems to crack even more. You knew it. You knew that bitch would hurt your Stevie.

After leaving the tower for the night you immediately message both Marie and Trisha because they were right. At the office the next day you join in on the shit talking for the first time. Nobody hurts your Stevie.

Tony invited you to the charity gala again, he kept whining that he missed your annoying ass. So you're put on a gorgeous deep red dress with a slightly bedazzled bodice. You're at the bar with Tony, Nat, and Wanda when Sharon comes running over; her dress, Trisha, and Marie trailing behind her.

“Is Steve still with Ana?” Sharon asks, slightly out of breath.

“Why do people keep asking me this?” not only are you confused, but you're angry that it keeps coming up. “How am I supposed to know? Steve and I don’t talk anymore.”

“Ana came with the guy who’s room she snuck into,” Marie eyes you nervously as she speaks.

“That's her ex,” Jana adds as her and Mike join the group forming at the bar.

“Check their socials!” Trisha hollers unhelpfully. But you do anyway, and what you see breaks your heart.

You check Ana first, but after typing her name into the search bar nothing comes up. Mike quickly looks her up and shows that she still pops up on his phone, she obviously blocked you. Ana and Steve were still her profile picture, but you weren’t satisfied with that.

Your fingers fly as you type in Steve’s name. He pops up, but you suddenly aren’t friends with him anymore and the option to send a friend request isn’t there. Your cracked heart shatters. Everyone around you seems to fade and all you hear is white noise, you never meant anything to him. You don’t realize you're crying until your tears hit the picture of him and Ana laughing which is his new profile picture.

Tony makes you another rum and coke, which you chug. Screw Ana. Screw Steve Rogers. And fuck feelings. You spend the night dancing with Nat and Wanda when they aren’t with Clint and Vision. Mike, who refused to dance with you a year ago, even took you for a spin around the dance floor.

You eventually cut Trisha and Marie out of your life, they were nothing but trouble. They were bad influences, trying to get you to be a meaner person than you were. And it worked for a while, you had let them manipulate your hurt into anger since that was an easier emotion to process. Shortly after the gala you got transferred to a shield base in Sokovia, Wanda and Pietro excitedly showed you around their home. Sharon texted you a year after you left that Steve had apparently broken up with Ana.

It has been almost three years since the day of that gala and about two since Steve and Ana had broken up. Mike is still your best friend, he’s planning on proposing to Jana soon. He’ll occasionally see Steve and tell you how he is. Recently you decided to look him up on Facebook again to see how he was doing; he looks good, happy. You had the option to send him a friend request again, so you did. And within ten minutes he said yes.

It has been about a month since that happened, you haven’t messaged him and he hasn’t messaged you. You’ll react to some of the old photos from the forties that he’ll post, or the memes he posts about Stranger Things, another show you had gotten him into. Facebook friends doesn’t seem like too much, but for you when it comes to Steve it means the world.

While you don’t have that connection you had with Steve once, him accepting is like he’s accepting your apology for how poorly you acted when it came to Ana. You finally got your closure.

And with that you put down your pen and close your composition notebook. The one you're shield appointed therapist, you had to talk to her for your yearly eval, had suggested. She thought it might make you feel better to have all of the words written down, all of the truths and emotions out in the open. You realized far too late how you really felt, and the notebook was the only way to fully process everything that had happened these past four years.

Forever tags: @crimson-knuckled-queen @rexorangecouny

133 notes · View notes

kyndaris · 4 years ago

Text

The Great Internet Debate

Since the tail end of 2020, many Australians were informed by Google of a political stoush between big news corporations and the tech company behind our favourite search engine. The open letter to end users read like a doomsday spiel – spelling out the encroaching disaster if a mandatory news code came into effect. The proposed legislation – the News Media Bargaining Code – was explained as a means of paying for news content when all that Google did was provide the necessary links for people to ‘choose’ what content they actively consumed. Google also advised that the News Media Bargaining Code would make it unfair for small businesses as larger media companies would be informed of algorithm changes ahead of time and be given data on users to maximise coverage.

A grim picture was painted. Why should big news media companies receive data and information about everyday users of a search engine? Why should their links be propped up higher than other smaller outlets?

At the start of 2021, after a Senate hearing, Google also warned that the proposed legislation might lead to the removal of Google Search in its entirety in Australia. Why? Because why should it pay to just provide a multitude of links based off whatever a person is searching for?

I know that as a writer, most of my searches aren’t news related. In fact, they’re mostly about things people wore in the 18th to 19th century. I ask the internet when doorknobs were invented or the nature of horse care. There was even one enquiry that might have put me on alert lists across the world: how long does it take for a body disposed in water to rise to the surface?

But that was important for a very singular scene in my story, all right! Murder happens in my stories! I just want to make sure that I’ve got all the facts right as well as the science!

What Google, and by extension Facebook, failed to address was the uneven distribution of ad revenue when it comes to large news media. With the advent of the internet, it’s become much harder for traditional newspapers and television stations to accrue the wealth they had.

The news media Bargaining Code however would force huge tech giants to negotiate with each individual news corporation and find a way to ensure a ‘fair’ means of distributing ad revenue by entering into commercial agreements or be subjected to arbitration. In this way, jobs could be kept and journalism could be regarded, once again, as the respected profession that it should be. So, to be honest, it does sound like a noble thing to do in order to support struggling companies.

As for my personal opinion? Well, I’ll be honest with you. I’m not entirely swayed by any one side. There are pros and cons to each.

My own experience with the search engine is indicative of this. The only time I’ve used Google to search for the news is when I’ve been too lazy to memorise the actual link for ABC News. Otherwise, it’s very easy to simply type into your browser: news.com.au or smh.com.au

Often, I feel that the one great problem with these news websites is their inability to modernise and to accommodate a generation that prefers immediacy. A lot of news websites, based off the newspapers that are still being published, have arbitrary gatekeeping with regards to the number of ‘free’ articles that can be viewed each month and an exorbitant subscription fee.

Let’s, for the sake of argument, use the Sydney Morning Herald as an example. Most of their articles on their main website have intriguing headlines and a small excerpt for what the article is about. One can easily get the gist of the content readily available simply by skimming over the content. There’s no mystery or anything too attention grabbing.

If one were curious and wished to learn more, they’d simply click open the article.

But this is where the Sydney Morning Herald falters a little.

Ad revenue, as most people know, is driven by clicks. The more clicks an end-user makes, the more money a company can make. Perhaps, it’s true, that news corporations could make a few more dollars by partnering with search engines to ensure that ads on their website are linked to whatever other websites that the end-user was previously poring over. After all, I’m not as interested in say a NAB home loan than a new game that’s come out.

Yet the crux of the matter comes from the very fact that the Sydney Morning Herald only allows five ‘free’ articles per month. In order to get around that, one needs to ‘subscribe.’ And the subscriptions aren’t very cheap. Particularly for the younger generation. $3.50 a week sounds nice, but if you add it all up, it can be quite significant. Annually, the Starter Digital is $160 per year.

Not a choice most people are willing to dip their toes in when they also have to pay for Netflix, Stan, Disney+ and a whole host of other things that catch their eye.

So, how does something like the Sydney Morning Herald make money when paper is all but dead? One thing they could implement is additional ads on their website and perhaps at the top and bottom of their articles. They could also stop hiding their articles behind paywalls. No student has the money to pay for it, particularly when they’re only using the website for a school project.

Lower your subscriptions and give more back to the consumer. Make it more appealing.

News.com.au might not have the cleanest reputation, but their headlines catch the eye. It might be click-baity as all hell, but in this day and age, it’s what helps it to survive.

It’s not a perfect solution, true, but it might give them a little bit more of a boost.

And instead of only relying on the written word, it might be prudent now to create more videos to elucidate the topics they want to explore. Particularly when it comes to news that most consumers want on a more instantaneous basis. These days, video streaming is the way to go. Three-minute or five-minute videos are pretty easily digestible. And a lot of it can be monetised. It might not be a huge amount of money, but every little thing counts.

Investigative journalism, on the other hand, would need to be well researched and thought out. You can have a written article and transcript or you could have a well-plotted fifteen-minute video. The dialogue needs to be snappy yet informative. News needs to learn how to target their audiences instead of catering only to the older generation.

As for recaps of movies or television shows? You can’t go wrong with James Weir and his commentary. I might not watch Married at First Sight or the Bachelor, but I’d almost definitely read his recap of the episodes because of his biting comments and snide observations.

APPEAL TO THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR!

Make your websites lively. Make them relevant. Grab the attention of millennials and Generation Z instead of pandering to baby boomers.

Beyond that, find ways to adapt in the current marketplace. So many YouTube creators have to constantly find ways to get around changes to the YouTube algorithm. They complain, sure, but in order to be fair, no one content creator should be told what the changes will be beforehand.

Above all else, negotiate in good faith. And stand your ground. Google and Facebook should not just threaten to remove their services from the good people of Australia just for few million dollars in ad revenue. But, there’s also no need to demand algorithms or have your links unfairly pushed to the top of Google Search and quashing smaller independent voices.

Even if Facebook were to take away the ability to share links, though, I’m sure people will still be able to make do. I know that I, for one, could very easily summarise an article that I’ve read. And if someone wanted links...well...I’m sure I could devise a method to provide an alternate solution to do so.

In any case, depending on how Google reacts, this humble blogger might have to think about investing in a VPN. Which, unfortunately, might see local Australian businesses suffer because the massive search engine I’m using would be defaulted to another country somewhere in the vast piece of rock we call home. Of course, in saying that, we do still have Bing. So, you know what? Everyone, it’s time to put Bing on the map and make it a serious contender against Google.

So, despite my limited understanding of the entire kerfuffle that’s been kicked up between Google and traditional news media, that is my two cents on the situation. Greed is not good. And don’t use a good honest people as hostages to the regulation of the wild west internet.

Edit: By the time this post goes up, Google has come to several agreements with major news corporations in Australia whilst Facebook has removed all news content for Australians. Which means no sharing of links to news websites for all of us down under.

Unfortunately, news wasn’t properly defined and so many other pages had their posts wiped, such as emergency services and a member of parliament. Here’s hoping that Facebook will also put a stop on conspiracy pages and anti-vaxxer propaganda.

Further edit: After a week of removing news content, Facebook has reversed its decision.

#personal blog #google vs news corps #time to get a VPN

1 note · View note

thinking-through-some-things · 5 years ago

Text

sure is interesting how many people will talk about propaganda and being a careful consumer and then just. turn around and act like disney is somehow above political and economical problems.

it's astounding how many people say "disney should just own everything! then we wouldn't have to worry about who owns the characters! think of the crossovers!" and honestly don't see a problem with that. even people who understand, to some degree, 1) corporations aren't your friend, and/or 2) monopolies are bad.

so many of us just look at Disney through the rose-colored glasses of childhood nostalgia, and because of that, we can't conceive of disney as being yet another corporation that values profit over art and people. except it is.

we're so blinded by the endless franchises disney pumps out, and the innocence we associate the company with because of the content that it produces/has produced, that time and time again we'll ignore shady business practices, poorly done films/shows, complaints and strikes of disney employees, etc., all because we cannot picture disney as yet another company that prioritizes profit above all else.

but it is.

i don't blame you if you like disney movies — so do i! but disney is not perfect, and it is not infallible.

disney's animation is not inherently better than other companies. on a technical level they may be able to achieve more, but 1) they have significantly more money than any other animation company so this should be expected, and 2) all this has resulted in a homogenous style that doesn't take artistic risks — because it's safer, profit-wise, to stick with a reliable art style that has proven to sell well.

disney movies are not intently better written than other films. sometimes it's just that disney has a solid corner of the market in popular but niche genres. sometimes it's that they can afford to hire better (or just. more) writers, or out-bid other studios for strong scripts.

disney movies are not better movies simply because they are disney. sometimes it's just that you've forgotten their bad films and only remember the ones you like. and sometimes you like bad films because they're disney and you expect them to be good.

it's time we started looking much more critically at disney. it's time we started expecting more from them.

"they can't include gay characters because they have to worry about conservatives/international markets." bullshit. disney can afford to include gay characters. they can afford to have a film that underperforms. they just care more about money than representation.

"the animation is so advanced! it just looks the same because that's what's in style." disney could be producing some really unique and unusual stuff. they can afford experimental styles and plot choices. they just won't try that because they won't risk losing money.

i can't tell you how many times i've seen people say "i don't like that disney does xyz, but i'm still going to see this film because it's disney." i get it. i've been there. but when are we going to stop letting disney dictate our entire media experience?

honestly, disney is killing so many creative industries and genres.

remember how disney decided to scrap their 2d department because it wasn't making as much as 3d animation? and nearly the entire animation industry followed their lead? and now we have an endless supply of subpar 3d animation, because few studios have the resources disney has? most us animation studios just poorly imitate disney's style, which is why the most interesting and innovative animated films today come from outside the us.

why does competition matter? look at animated tv shows vs films. since disney dominates the animated film industry, other studios have struggled to break free of their control. but in television, cartoon network and nickelodeon have maintained just enough of a share of the market to encourage a variety of animated styles — and netflix's growing list of animated shows, including many international options, have resulted in a boom of really good animated shows in the past few years.

i'm not saying these other companies are better than disney, only pointing out that, by forcing disney to share the stage with a serious competitor, these companies are forcing disney to take more chances and be more creative.

and. touching on marvel and star wars. part of the reason disney has been successful with these films is yes, they knew how to cater to the right audience at the start. but now they're just relying on brand/franchise/star power, flashy effects they can afford, predictably successful plot points, and pure nostalgia to get people's attention (and money).

marvel movies don't even have to be good anymore. regardless of what you think of the movies, you're going to go see the next one. because as long as you liked one character, as long as you're invested in one story, you have to see every. other. marvel. film. to have any idea what's happening in the next film with that one character. it's gotten to the point that there's really no point in watching new films if you haven't already watched previous ones because they don't explain basic information if it was mentioned in another marvel movie.

also. because disney's marvel films are the most popular and recognizable superhero films, most viewers expect all superhero films to look and feel like marvel films — especially since there are so many that it feels like that's just. how superhero movies look. so instead of seeing a wide variety of superhero films trying different storytelling tactics, visual effects, narrative justifications, etc., we see, again, poor imitations that lack disney's budget and really different films that get rejected because they don't match our expectations.

the live action remakes really are the epitome of this problem (and before anyone says anything, no, the live action films are not about copyright law. that's not how copyright works).

first of all, disney could be taking daring risks and really challenging these films. they could have, for example, given middle eastern or indian directors, costume/set designers, writers, etc. crew members the chance to take a film that, while loved by many, has been criticized by others for being orientalist, and turn the film into something that reflected and appreciated their culture(s) from a personal perspective; and disney, in turn, could have helped those people move up in a competitive and hard-to-break-into field.

but they didn't do that.

or beauty and the beast. disney could have gone in a completely different direction, telling a brand new story and challenging ideas of social convention and love. or really pushed the aesthetics of the film.

but they didn't.

except for a few minor changes and an overblown "first gay disney character!!!" campaign (that amounted to almost worse than nothing), the live action was practically a carbon copy of the animated one. they played it safe and used the same predictably popular elements, and the few "feminist" jabs they added in were so uncontroversial that no one in 2017 would complain about them except laughably misogynistic people who hated how preachy those moments felt. in other words, even the "politics" they added in were safe.

ironically enough, my favorite disney live action film has been cinderella. i though it was visually interesting and different, and the changes to the script/plot focused on personal freedom and survival and retaining your sense of empathy despite abuse. but it didn't do as well monetarily for disney, it is, categorically, a failure. so we're likely to see disney rely more on close retellings than changed stories.

i don't think all disney films are bad, nor do i think you're a bad person for liking disney/pixar/marvel/star wars films. but if you think disney is the only company that does x well, or that they really should just own y company, or who cares if they do z, then you need to take a step back and re-evaluate.

we need to stop excusing disney. we need to stop thinking the company is cute. as a corporation, their goal is not to coddle you or make the world safer and nicer. their goal is to make money. full stop.

if you want to see a disney movie, fine. go see it. but don't watch it just because it's disney. make them earn your business by. actually. making good movies.

(sorry this is really disorganized and definitely missing points. it should probably be like. five separate essays. oops.)

#disney #capitalism #media #propaganda #spider man

30 notes · View notes

yuvilee · 5 years ago

Text

22nd October 2019 Student-led seminar 1

Text: Lefèvre, P. 2008, The Congo drawn in Belgium. The Representation of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi in French-language Belgian Comics, in McKinney, M. (ed.) History and Politics in French-Language Comics and Graphic Novels, Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, pp.166-185.

Table of content:

Introduction: A Short Biography of the Author Main part: Tintin - An unexpected Ambassador Belgium's ninth form of art - Lefèvre's antagonistic examples A Better Representation in Contemporary Narration My personal conclusion Notes: Books and articles Picture(s)

About the author: Pascal Lefèvre, born April 15, 1963 in Belgium is a renowned Belgian comics historian and theorist. His doctorate in 2003 was about 'Willy Vandersteens Suske en Wiske in de krant' (1945-1971) which made him the first to receive a doctor's degree in comics in Flandern. Not only does he publish analytical historical essays and books but he also creates comics himself. He was a researcher with the Belgian Comics Center in Brussels and thus contributed to diverse exhibitions and documentaries.

Tintin - An unexpected Ambassador

Sindika Dokolo(1), a collector of contemporary African art, recently held the exhibition 'InCarNations - African Art as Philosophy' in Brussels, Belgium until the beginning of October this year, with classical and modern pieces chosen from his personal collection. In doing so he is raising a number of questions that do not fade in relevance, such as who gets to portray African art and culture? On this basis for discussion, Belgium is working on its colonial past, of which there is a lot in Belgium and its former colonies, as Pascal Lefèvre delineates in his tract.

Even in the so-called 9th form of art, a similar discourse, tailored to the medium and the narrative, is continuously present.

A more recent example than the one from Great Britain cited by Lefèvre is the controversy that was rekindled in Sweden in 2012. For a long time it dominated (social) media and even spread to media abroad, like The Guardian(2). Its emerged from Hergé's comic ‘Tintin in the Congo’ that was to be removed from a YA (young adult) section in a library due to its naïve and openly racially portrayal of the indigenous people of Congo as they appear cliché and thus suggest an anti-African stance(3).

Hamelberg describes In an interview with The Guardian the problem as

‘(...) there are several layers that are problematic, (...) there are the early books that are blatantly and openly racist, like ‘Tintin in the Congo’. (...) there were things that would have been considered racist today but that were quite normal in Hergé's time.’(4)

In my opinion, Hamelberg has certainly addressed an important point with this statement since the first comic publication of Tintin was in a different time and era. Nonetheless, it is important to process and learn from the past just like France tried semi-successfully with a law in 1949.

Should young readers be denied this critical argument in order to protect them, to present them with a perfect world and shielding them from reality? In my opinion, this discourse should rather be actively encouraged and supported by guardians.

Belgium's ninth form of art - Lefèvre's antagonistic examples

In my point of view, Belgium has produced a large number of fantastic comic artists and boasts openly with its long-established comic culture - yes, they call it culture. Some other more conservative nations, in my opinion, are still having a hard time accepting this, even in the 21st century. That's why I was very pleased to see The New York Times revive their bi-monthly best-seller list for graphic novels due to high demand by readers after taking a 2-year break(5).

The reason why a discourse seems to me more important than ever becomes clearer when Lefèvre compares Hergé's ‘Tintin in the Congo’ with, for example, ‘Blondin et Cirage’ created by Jijé. Here we have a boy and his adoptive brother as equal protagonists - but Cirage is depicted with clown lips that are strongly cliché-oriented and for me, at first glance, appear as a shockingly racist illustration.

There is a striking dissonance between the representation and the narrative, which portrays heroes that are needed nowadays.

But why is the imagery still so caricatural?

A possible aesthetic and representational solution, in my opinion, can be to replace humans with animal shapes, which can be used as an indirect depiction of the problems of racism without resorting to real stereotypes and clichés.

To this point I would like to mention ‘Blacksad’(6) which is similar to ‘Maus’ by Art Spiegelman(7). This graphic novel takes place in an alternative universe similar to an exaggerated post-war period in the USA where Nazi-like propaganda and racial discrimination is omnipresent. The main character, a detective in the guise of a black cat, is confronted with the very same problems of our reality but avoids most of the stereotypes associated with the depiction of human characters.

Above: Blacksad: Arctic Nation, Page 5

A Better Representation in Contemporary Narration

As an illustrator, I am often faced with the question of how to create cliché-free and ethnically correct representation in my stories. Is there ‘the’ right way? I believe not. But there are approaches to different comics, graphic novels, children’s books, and other media such as movies that can be analysed for its reason for success.

Looking at more recent depictions of Afro-ethnic protagonists and their approaches, I would like to talk about Marvel's ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’(8) from 2018.

The young protagonist Miles Morales is not the first black Marvel character but the first Spider-Man with an ethnic background, as you might imagine it to be a familiar representation of the typical New Yorker.

But has this raised negative headlines? On the contrary I believe. Many reviews of large-scaled and well-established newspapers spoke of this at most in a side note(9). The focus in media reviews was on the narrative, the humour, the ingenious and particularly refreshing animation, and especially the fact how effortlessly the very message comes across that everyone can be a Spider-Man(10).

In my opinion, all those awards(12) such as a Golden Globe were justified for this comic book adaptation. The humorous and encouraging portrayal of an (almost) everyday hero depicts effectively a positive role model, which just happens to be black-skinned, without that fact ever becoming a central topic.

As an artist of narrative stories it is important to always keep this message and task in mind. I always need to think about this as an illustrator while creating my stories, be it a graphic novel, a comic book, or a children’s book. At the same time, I need to be able to talk to my publisher about the best approach and their ethical stance.

What emerged in France after 1949 to be negative self-censorship, I now have to see in reverse as a task to actively counter, to examine my art for equality, gender equality, diversity, and ethnic correctness.

But what are those rules exactly? Are they written down somewhere like the French law mentioned above? Unfortunately, I will never get ‘the’ ultimate correct answer to this question, while my art is at the mercy of many viewers and views.

My personal conclusion

I need to keep the above considerations in mind when creating a narrative to address children and young adults as my target audience. For myself, I see three options:

I do not have to get involved in the discourse and could avoid it altogether. As a responsible artist and adult, I could provide material for educational purposes along with my own work.

The clear opposite would be to create work that decidedly enters the discourse and actively participates in it, which requires a strong voice and a broad-based argumentative basis.

Or I could try the middle ground to go alternative routes such as animal representations to express an opinion but simultaneously avoid direct, confrontational depictions.

All of these options could work or backfire. Due to new media and especially social media, the audience is potentially larger and opinions (whether qualified or not) spread faster than in Hergé's time. See #TintinGate(13).

Although Hergé is put in a bad light here, I will remain a fan of his comics, because even this type of art must exist as part of our culture in order to encourage a discourse, like the one right here, and to serve as a cautionary tale and exemplification.

Notes:

Books and articles

Bozar, 2019, InCarNation - African Art as Philosophy, Bozar, viewed 19 October 2019, <https://www.bozar.be/en/activities/154489-incarnations>

Palme, J. 2012, Tintin racism row puts spotlight on children's literature, The Guardian, viewed 19 October 2019, <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/15/tintin-racism-sweden-row>

Chukri, R., 2012, Vad handlar Tintin-gate om?, Sydsvenskan, viewed 19 October 2019, <https://web.archive.org/web/20121010041224/http://www.sydsvenskan.se/kultur--nojen/vad-handlar-tintin-gate-om/>

cf. Palme, J., 2012, Tintin racism row puts spotlight on children's literature, The Guardian, viewed 19 October 2019, <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/15/tintin-racism-sweden-row>

The New York Times updates and expands its best-sellers lists 2019, The New York Times, viewed on 19 October 2019 <https://www.nytco.com/press/the-new-york-times-updates-and-expands-its-best-sellers-lists/>

Guarnido, J., Canales, J. D., 2004, Blacksad 2: Arctic Nation, Dargaud: Paris. Also available online in english: https://viewcomiconline.com/blacksad-vol-2-arctic-nation/

Spiegelman, A., 2003, Maus : a survivor’s tale. London: Penguin.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2018, Blue-Ray, Sony Pictures, Hollywood, Los Angeles, directed by Ramsey, P., Persichetti, B., Rothman, R.

cf: Scott, A. O., 2018, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verseʼ Review: A Fresh Take on a Venerable Hero, The New York Times, viewed on 19 October 2019 <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/movies/spider-man-into-the-spider-verse-review.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Fa.o.-scott&action=click&contentCollection=undefined&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=94&pgtype=collection> Here the only reference to his ethnicity is: ‘But we haven’t seen a Spider-Man like Miles onscreen, which is to say a Spider-Man who isn’t white.”

cf: Loughrey, C., 2018, Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse review: It makes the case animation beats live-action for comic book movies, The Independent, viewed on 19 October 2019, <https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/spider-man-spider-verse-review-live-action-marvel-comic-book-movies-soundtrack-a8679761.html>

Bramesco, C., 2018, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse review – a dazzling animated caper, The Guardian, viewed on 19 October 2019 <https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/nov/28/spider-man-into-the-spider-verse-review-a-dazzling-animated-caper>

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was awarded with (samples): Best Animated Feature at the 91st Academy Awards, 2019, Best Animation at the 76st Golden Globe Awards, 2019, Best animated Film at the Critics’ Choice Movie Award, 2019, Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form), Hugo Award, 2019, 46th Annie Awards, won in 6 categories, BAFTA Award for Best animated Movie, 2019, Best animated movie, at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, 2019, Best animation Movie at the Producers Guild of America Awards, 2019,

#TintinGate: cf. Palme, J.

Picture(s):

Guarnido, J., Canales, J. D., 2004, Blacksad 2: Arctic Nation, p. 5, Dargaud: Paris.

1 note · View note

notimetoanalysee · 6 years ago

Text

Real li(e/fe)

This is sick. Truly, inexplicably sick. Shifting attention from one stimulus to another. From messaging your loved ones to replying customers. Checking Instagram, while deciding to book a flight and then in a moment of recall in mind that you wanted to see that deep movie.

Oh.

What a pity.

You don’t have enough time for everything.

I spilled my coffee on the table while typing this. My hands are slightly shaking — although I’ve taken 3 pills of tranquilizers today.

Wait, and we (me and a friend of mine) wanted to make a podcast.

This is too much.

All of these.

Too. Fucking. Much.

We should stop.

We should stop posting so many “content-in-order-to-create-even-more-content”. We should talk less. We should do our jobs without switching to small talks every ten minutes.

We ought to stay sane.

We need to stay focused in order to stay alive.

In the morning, I was looking out of my window and staring at the schoolyard nearby. And there was something that drew my attention. The gateman was withdrawing mobile phones from kids. I stared at this scene and a thought rushed in my head: “I wish I went to this school.”

Afterward, I did my usual morning routine — ten minutes of yoga, coffee and — opening my Mac in order to start checking emails and dive in the online world of my usual job tasks.

I woke up at 8 pm — no, I didn’t sleep during the day, but my mind went automatic — I was replying to my work emails, cooking, washing my clothes, I even talked to my loved ones — and yet I felt like I slept for the whole day. My brain was in a stupor. My hands were shaking.

I was confused.

Multitasking, they say.

Gosh.

I felt I needed even more tranquilizers.

I don’t like an exaggeration. I don’t want to lie — not every day is like today. Sometimes I manage to work until late at night and stay fully awake while having a lot of things on the go. I manage not to have enough sleep and yet perform well in my daily life.

And yet — today’s condition is rather normal, than rare.

And I ask myself — what should I do? I turned off almost all notifications.

Trust me, I’m not a newbie in psychology — I am quite familiar with a concept of deep work and I read “Flow” by Csikszentmihalyi (although, I had to google his surname again).

But still — how much discipline does it take to stay awake and be present?

How do you separate your work from your relationships, when both are 80% in your iPhone?

Should we delete messengers when we work?

I do a lot of stuff to clear my weekends — I don’t check Facebook, I turn off all notifications from Outlook, I try to read more (although, I still use my iPhone for this).

Regardless, I quite often find myself lost in thoughts and misfocused from a current task, whatever it is.

There is a place for great insight — “Eureka! I have found a solution!”

But I haven’t.

I try to implement enough discipline in my life — yoga, reading every day at least 20 minutes, long walks, almost no notifications from messengers (unless I push the button and check it deliberately), regular uninstalling of time-consuming apps (Instagram mostly), never installed Facebook app on my phone and I even found a widget for unfollowing everyone there (including groups and pages).

It’s better now.

But the battle is still going.

And what happens nowadays?

We use social media as platforms for selling. We use it for propaganda. We use it for sharing our views on eating, sport, exercise, a way of living, our political views and, moreover, we post too much. The first second you are bored — the next second you’re posting some memes/selfies/quotes on your Instagram page.

That’s still okay (!).

We can use social media for self-soothing. For raising awareness. We communicate through social media. We influence. We shape thoughts. We create ideas. We can post whatever we want.

But the more followers you have — the bigger is your power of influence. If you follow someone — you are ultimately vulnerable. You can read some post at the wrong time. You can perceive a wrong idea of someone’s life. When sad or lonely, you can beat yourself mentally even more by looking at polished and perfect pictures of your friends/bloggers/anyone you follow. When in a creative crisis, you can shut down your authentic voice just by contemplating too much information from other artists.

The list is never-ending.

If we have accounts, if we follow — we should stay vigilant. We should be aware.

Information is the power — and it’s a time bomb too.

When you wake up in the morning and grab your phone — stop for a moment. Are you truly ready to perceive tons of opinions, thoughts, advice, states, ideas, comments, pictures, etc.?

Did you check how you feel? Did you complete your own morning routine before entering a world of information — which is determined to shift your attention from important things — just because it’s supposed to function that way?

Just because every application is made with a purpose to hold your attention longer.

To make you feel comfortable and stay for a while. Checking your friends’ photos. Then following this inspiring influencer. Then learning some skills through social media (languages or even psychology).

I recently understood — I learned very little from years of following micro-influencers or yoga-accounts.

Real studying happens in real life.

I do not in any way discredit online-studying. Trust me, I prefer a good informative webinar to courses where I have to wake up early and go the opposite end of the city in order to understand that, in fact, this lecture is a total waste of time.

We’re not talking about these cases.

This is about social media.

That is simply not designed in the way that your brain is able to focus. You see a huge long-read from someone wise and yet you have this “heart” and “add a photo” buttons on the bottom. And your brain simply can’t focus fully — so you’re wasting your energy by trying to focus so hard (oh, and someone-you-never-met just started a live video! what great news!)

You got the point.

If you want a long read — go on Medium, The New Yorker, buy a Bookmate subscription, check your favorite news websites.

But don’t expect anything truly profound from social media platforms. Use it as a tool or as a place to communicate with your friends. But don’t expect that following “Easy-English/Spanish/whatever” accounts will make you more proficient.

It won’t.

Social media are not designed for any kind of deep and concentrated work — and this is a relief.

We can post cat pics.

We can stare at nice outfits.

But let’s not replace learning anything from social media. Real skills require real efforts.

So, if your hands are shaking like mine today. If you feel lost and confused and yet find yourself in scrolling an Instagram feed in a search of answers or your daily-dose-of-philosophy.

Better read a book or some article. Watch a good movie. Go for a long walk in the park. Talk to your loved ones — or go meet them in real life.

If you want to learn a language — start with books, not with accounts on Instagram that will be lost in a news feed among photos of cute cats and your classmates that you haven’t met for years.

This is a very trivial truth, and yet it takes a lot of courage to stop pinning your hopes on the small orange icon on the screen of your smartphone.

1 note · View note

shirlleycoyle · 5 years ago

Text

Netflix’s ‘The Great Hack’ Misses The Big Picture

“Who has seen an ad that has convinced you that your microphone is listening to your conversations?” David Carroll asks his students at the beginning of The Great Hack, Netflix’s new documentary about data privacy and online disinformation. Carroll chuckles nervously as almost every hand in the classroom shoots up.

The response is unsettling, but maybe not so surprising—a fitting introduction to a story about Cambridge Analytica, the now-infamous firm that provided the Trump campaign with ad-targeting data during the 2016 election. The company, as we now know, scraped Facebook quiz data to construct millions of psychographic profiles, which it then used to hyper-target voters with custom-made campaign ads. As whistleblower Christopher Wylie succinctly puts it later in the film, Cambridge Analytica isn’t a data science firm, but a “full-service propaganda machine.”

But while The Great Hack’s narrative about privacy and information warfare will be eye-opening to many, it largely fails to illustrate the bigger picture. The real “great hack” isn’t Cambridge’s ill-gotten data or Facebook’s failure to protect it. It’s the entire business model of Silicon Valley, which has incentivized the use of personal data to manipulate human behavior on a massive scale.

A few years before anyone had heard the name Cambridge Analytica, former Harvard Business School professor Shoshana Zuboff coined a term for this phenomenon: Surveillance Capitalism. As she defines it, Surveillance Capitalism is an economic “logic of accumulation” that involves extracting personal data in often-unrecognizable ways, creating “new markets for behavioral prediction, modification, and control” that exploit this data as its primary resource.

In other words, it’s the entire M.O. of companies like Facebook and Google, which depend on users providing a constant stream of photos, likes, and other useful data that can be used to map relationships, measure emotional responses, and yes, serve ads. And when it comes to ads, the holy grail of advertising is having the ability to predict peoples’ behavior—and thus, manipulate it.

Consider this quote from Zuboff’s 2015 paper, which is attributed to an anonymous data scientist at an unnamed Silicon Valley company:

“The goal of everything we do is to change people’s actual behavior at scale. When people use our app, we can capture their behaviors, identify good and bad behaviors, and develop ways to reward the good and punish the bad. We can test how actionable our cues are for them and how profitable for us.”

As a writer and educator who has covered privacy for over a decade, I consider this quote the perfect summation of the Silicon Valley mindset. It’s my go-to reference when someone tells me that they’re creeped out by government surveillance, but totally fine with corporations like Amazon and Facebook collecting their data. Nefarious government programs like face recognition and predictive policing don’t just come out of the ether. They are an inevitable consequence of a system that incentivizes the endless accumulation of data for profit, which in turn fuels the machinery of government surveillance that is frequently wielded against immigrants, activists, and other marginalized groups.

When Cambridge Analytica came under the media spotlight, I hoped that maybe it would start a conversation about the surveillance industrial complex and the underlying capitalist structures that drive it. But The Great Hack focuses most of its running time on dissecting the symptoms: Specifically, how a company came to possess the terrifying power to sway elections, and how Facebook failed to stop it.

In one sequence, Brittany Kaiser, a dubiously-motivated former Cambridge executive and one of the film’s main subjects, explains how the company’s propaganda machine worked. It would first target “persuadables,” people whose psychographic profiles suggested they were open to suggestion. Once their specific triggers were identified, content was tailor-made to target their deepest fears and insecurities. “We bombarded them with ads,” Kaiser says in a voice-over, “until they saw the world the way we wanted them to. Until they voted for our candidate.”

The Great Hack / Netflix

Naturally, the film’s main antagonist is Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix. He’s an undeniably sketchy dude, and the film shows him giving statements that are later contradicted by Kaiser and others, dodging media questions, and caught on hidden camera bragging about his conquests—including offering to use sex workers to entrap and discredit political opponents. We watch him squirm in hearings before the UK Parliament, where he is grilled about how his company’s manipulations scored victories for both the Trump campaign and the far-right Brexiteers, who first set in motion the U.K.’s tortuous departure from the European Union.

We then see brief clips of members of Congress tsk-tsk’ing Mark Zuckerberg about Facebook’s failure to prevent the whole debacle—to which Zuckerberg offers his standard, now-meaningless lines about being “very sorry” and promising to “do better.” But unlike Nix, the film seems to assume some amount of good faith in Zuckerberg, and in the tech industry as a whole.

In one scene toward the end of the film, Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr, who reported heavily on the Cambridge Analytica story, takes to the TED stage to confront Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and other tech leaders. Addressing “the gods of Silicon Valley,” she pleads with them to consider the harm they’ve done, and change their ways for the sake of democracy.

“This technology that you have invented has been amazing, but now it’s a crime scene, and you have the evidence,” says Cadwalladr. “And it’s not enough to say that you will do better in the future.”

The clip is intended as an empowering moment. We see a journalist speak truth to power and demand accountability from the tech platforms that mediate our world. But Cadwalladr doesn’t seem to consider that Silicon Valley titans like Zuckerberg—now a veteran of countless privacy scandals and subsequent apology tours—simply don’t care.

Earlier this month, the Federal Trade Commission hit Facebook with a $5 billion fine for a long history of privacy violations dating back to 2010. While unprecedented, the “punishment” was actually a great deal for the company, which made roughly four times that amount in revenue last quarter. When the judgement was announced, Facebook’s stock price didn’t even take a dent—it actually went up.

Even better for Facebook, the fine effectively absolved the company and its executives for nearly a decade’s worth of privacy debacles and deceptive practices—including allowing Cambridge Analytica to harvest data from 87 million people.

Surveillance Capitalism is the business model of Silicon Valley. If endless accumulation of data is the central logic of the industry, can we really expect anything to meaningfully change? Instead of asking how Facebook should be punished, shouldn’t be asking whether Facebook should exist at all?

At the conclusion of The Great Hack, it’s ironically Julian Wheatland, Cambridge Analytica’s former CEO, who touches on what should be the film’s central tragedy: that this whole disaster was hard-coded into the very system that gave birth to modern day Silicon Valley in the first place.

“There was always going to be a Cambridge Analytica,” he confesses to the camera. “It just sucks for me it was Cambridge Analytica.”

Netflix’s ‘The Great Hack’ Misses The Big Picture syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

0 notes

auskultu · 7 years ago

Text

The Presidency: A Failure of Communication

uncredited writer, Time, 18 August 1967

Filled with misgivings about the war in Viet Nam and the violence in U.S. cities, confused by simultaneous demands for retrenchment and vast new spending programs, threatened with higher taxes and still higher deficits, the American public is in a restive, unpredictable mood. Its distemper infects an already cantankerous Congress, heightening the impression of drift and disarray in the nation's capital. In times past, the one unifying force in such a period of malaise has been the presidency. Yet Lyndon Johnson seems strangely insulated from his countrymen's doubts and fears.

One of his favorite rooms in the White House is a small private study a few steps down the hall from his ova! office. Heavy green curtains keep the sunlight out; the phone is muted to reduce noise. Here, under a pair of frontier paintings and a wooden eagle with "E pluribus unum" on a riband streaming from its beak, Johnson studies reports, chats with reporters and staff members. In this womb with no view, he is at ease, cheerful, convinced that the country and the world are in tolerably good condition. His judgment is reinforced by the cables and memos that reach his desk. From a sheaf of papers, he will recite encouraging tidings from his military advisers, a favorable report from Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker on the South Vietnamese election campaign, a note from Jack Valenti assuring him of his popularity. Mrs. Johnson dropped in during one such discourse recently. "That's not what I read in the papers!" she exclaimed.

Nose-Nuzzling. The President, of course, commands far more information about Viet Nam than any of his critics, and he has considerable justification for cautious optimism. His field commanders report that the military effort is going on schedule. The enemy is now being so badly hurt in the South that it is Hanoi that should be beset by gloom. But this is beside the point. Johnson is still unable to communicate to the American people a sense of what the U.S. is doing in Viet Nam, how U.S. interests are at stake as well as South Viet Nam's, the reasons for sticking out a long, enervating conflict.

Similarly, the President has appeared unwilling or unable to convey any sense of urgency about the urban crisis. At one time Johnson would seize the opportunity of a flood to chopper in and show the beleaguered citizens that their President was with them. Instead of being seen on the ghetto battlegrounds this summer, he has repeatedly posed for pictures chin-chucking and nose-nuzzling his infant grandson.

An ever-widening spectrum of public opinion is at odds with his leadership: farmers threaten to withhold commodities unless prices rise; liberals urge a massive new assault on ghetto ills; conservatives demand tough antiriot legislation; critics of the war demand withdrawal or an all-out effort to smash the enemy. Republican support for Viet Nam is eroding. Last week Martin Luther King advocated "mass civil disobedience" to "cripple the operations of an oppressive society." Massachusetts Senator Edward Brooke warned of "civil war" unless the President fights for his urban programs.

Eternal Search. Johnson's main response to the rioting so far has been to name a study commission that is not scheduled to make a final report until next summer. Connecticut's Senator

Abraham Ribicoff pooh-poohed the study, saying that the reasons for racial violence were already well-known. "We must end the eternal search for consensus," said Democrat Ribicoff, "and exercise real leadership."

After a period of unusually low visibility, Johnson surfaced last week with a speech, an open letter to Congress, and his first full-dress, televised press conference since March. Despite all the words, he did little to give his leadership image a lift; during most of the press conference he was of solemn mien, his head canted downward.

He did, however, indignantly dismiss press reports that the war is in stalemate as "nothing more than propaganda." To his critics on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is holding hearings to prove its contention that congressional authority in foreign affairs is being trampled upon, Johnson insisted he was within his constitutional rights to conduct undeclared war in Viet Nam. He reminded them of the broad Tonkin Gulf resolution, passed three years ago, in which Congress approved "all necessary steps, including the use of armed force" in Southeast Asia. If Congress has changed its mind, he said, it could always rescind that resolution.

Laundry List. Johnson also made some logical points to rebut the natter-ings of those who have prejudged the South Vietnamese elections as fraudulent. "We ought not to be astonished," he observed in a White House talk, "that the nation, racked by a war of insurgency and beset by its neighbors to the north, has not already emerged, full-blown, as a perfect model of two-party democracy." But even this statement was probably too late to dispel the public's skepticism about the elections, however ill-founded.

To proposals for a major new offensive on the slums, Johnson replied with a typical laundry list of measures already proposed. Not until these were all enacted and funded would the Administration consider new ideas. Two days after telling Congress that "we can no longer be satisfied with business as usual" when urban problems "are so urgent," he said to reporters that "several billions" would have to be squeezed out of the nonmilitary side of the budget to control the deficit in the current fiscal year. Thus, despite his admonition to Congress, it is clearly still very much business as usual for Johnson.

The Truman Analogy. In the confines of the White House, he works as energetically as ever for his policies. He pours out his arguments to a procession of newsmen and Congressmen, plans long-run sessions with leaders of business, labor and farm groups. He has been meeting incessantly with aides, assuring one of them recently. "This Administration hasn't lost its ass yet!"

His subordinates tend not to argue or to bring up the unpleasant business of the public opinion polls. Indeed one of Johnson's problems is a worsening dearth of idea men and "no" men willing to discuss bad news with him. He favors loyalty, submission and long tenure above all other virtues, and has eliminated gadflies from the White House staff and the higher echelons of Government. The phrase Great Society is rarely heard from official lips now, and there are no new coinages.

Johnson is most comfortable with men of long memory who buttress his own recollection of past Presidents' woes. He consoles himself with anecdotes of New Deal and World War II crises and of Truman's troubled days. "I remember in 1948," he says, "there wasn't a single person I could find who would say a good word about Harry Truman. There were 23 members of the Texas delegation, and only two of us would get on the train and ride with him." Perhaps the analogy explains the currently high influence in the White House of Lawyer Clark Clifford, who helped plan Truman's uphill campaign in 1948. In 1968, for all his sanguine murmurings today, Johnson may find himself in a similar position.

The President likes to think he has avoided some of the errors of his predecessors. And, indeed, he may have. However, the big difference between Johnson and the four Presidents he knew—Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy—is that for all his vitality, his political acumen and his impressive record of legislative achievement, he fails to communicate effectively and consistently with his constituency. Unless he can re-establish rapport with Americans in the coming months, his fortunes and those of the nation are not likely to improve.

#lyndon johnson #lbj #credibility gap #vietnam war #civil unrest #1967 #1960s #sixties #60s

3 notes · View notes

iamflypped01-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Kalank Motion Picture Review: Works Despite Flaws

Imagine a movie, which has the potential to strike a chord with the audiences after movies based on partition like Gadar, Train to Pakistan, Pinjar, to name a few, mesmerized the audiences with the same. You have some of the most influential stars to play the important roles. You have the backing of Dharma Productions. Nothing can go wrong here, right? That’s where the audience gets duped by Abhishek Varman’s ‘Kalank’, which like ‘Zero’, truly justifies the movie title – it is indeed a ‘Kalank’ [blot] on the face of Indian cinema.

Plot

Satya Chaudhary [Sonakshi Sinha] is informed that she would succumb soon to the cancer that she got diagnosed with. In order to give her loving husband Dev [Aaditya Roy Kapur] another shot at a better life, she surprisingly arranges his marriage with an acquaintance’s rebellious daughter Roop [Alia Bhatt].

Unable to adjust to the rigors of the Chaudhary household, Roop finds solace in learning music from an ex-courtesan Baahar Begum [Madhuri Dixit], who resides in the notorious Heera Mandi of Husnabad, a majestic city near Lahore, British India. How her adulterous relationship with the local womanizer Zafar [Varun Dhawan] affects the Chaudhary household, as well as her own life, especially in the wake of the partition, forms the crux of the story.

The Bad –

Usually, some movies become case studies for aspiring filmmakers as to how to create such compelling masterpieces. However, in the case of Kalank, it is the complete opposite. If this movie were a case study, it would’ve been a perfect case study on how not to make a period drama.

Zero originality, plagiarizing from various sources, including lifting a plot line from Munshi Premchand’s ‘Saut’ (observe the angle between Satya, Roop and Dev), and mediocre storytelling makes Kalank an unforgettable drag. The movie copied blatantly from Bahubali, Gadar, Padmaavat, DDLJ etc, failing to infuse the magic of either.

The editor of this movie needs some serious lessons in basic film editing. For a movie like Kalank, it was almost hilarious to see English subtitles being inserted and faded at whim. For the VFX of the movie, the lesser said, the better.

The movie is so bad, that even films like ‘Thugs of Hindostan’ and ‘Zero’ would look handsome in front of this. If the producers are brave enough to pump in 80 crores for this period drama, could they not spend some money for a decent script? Despite having a plotline with some potential, the characters of Sanjay Dutt and Madhuri Dixit were extremely underutilized.

Is there anything even Good?

However, even in the dark clouds, there is a ray of sunshine. The few bright spots in this movie were the music, the sets, and actors Aditya Roy Kapur and Alia Bhatt. For a person, who has been way too much underutilized in other movies kalank, Aditya Roy Kapur surprises one and all as the no nonsense manager of Daily Times, Dev Chaudhary.

A true-blue progressive, who doesn’t like being bullied by political compulsions, a better focus on Dev’s personality would’ve removed the scourge of watching a movie laden with Kalank. Though Alia Bhatt’s Roop makes us frown with her constant confusion and her dumb approach to human relationships, in terms of acting, she essays her role quite well.

Had the character of Varun Dhawan not been exploited for the propaganda of the makers, he did nail the role effortlessly. Even Kunal Khemmu, as the vicious fanatic Abdul, surprises us with the conviction to his role. We wish he gets better opportunities.

All in all, Kalank was a golden opportunity to depict the complexities of relationships in the wake of the partition that got subdued by propaganda. Grand sets and foot tapping music aren’t enough to make a movie a success, if the content is mediocre. We’d rate Kalank with 1/5 stars.

#Aaditya Roy Kapur #Alia Bhatt #best movies in bollywood #Kalank Motion Picture Review #Madhuri Dixit #Varun Dhawan #Sonakshi Sinha

0 notes

bephen-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Propaganda v. Persuasion

Propaganda and persuasion both have the same intent: to convince persons of society that a certain belief, idea, movement, or item is of merit to them; or in some cases, to persuade them otherwise. Persons who consume various forms of media each day are approached by a variety of persuasive articles including advertisements for products, political factions, and even deceptively subliminal content that serves to model what is considered desirable in our society. Whether people realize it or not, through a saturation of media content, their beliefs are influenced by the types of information they choose to use and interact with.

The term propaganda typically conjures up an image like figure one, which is a single frame from Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will (1934), a film that helped propel Adolf Hitler into the spotlight for German citizens at the time. The frame selected shows Hitler “heiling” with a restrained facial expression, looking out towards a crowd of his subjects. Not to mention, the image is taken at a low angle, depicting Hitler to be above the viewer’s eye level. While there were plenty of people who bought into Nazi ideology, the film essentially stretched the truth of how many followers Hitler really had by featuring the crowds in certain ways to make it seem that there were millions upon millions of people in the street, calling his name. In many ways, the film can be described as propaganda because of its use of filmic trickery, allowing Hitler to appear as powerful as a superhero to viewers.

On the other hand, take figure two, which is an advertisement for Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign titled “The Choice.” It begins with President Obama addressing the voters and framing the 2012 election as a chance to choose between one ideology over another, eventually urging his own over that of Romney’s. Following this is a montage of Obama partaking in a variety of tasks such as working at his desk, speaking at schools, and even talking to a family around a dinner table. Now, it may be extreme to compare two different pieces of media representing President Obama and Adolf Hitler, but under some thoughts of reasoning, one could argue that Barack’s advertisement is a piece of propaganda. Take these two ideas into consideration: first, one could argue that all of what the audience sees President Obama doing in the advertisement is a fabrication, suggesting that the speech he read was written ahead of time and that all of the montage clips were staged. It may sound absurd to suggest this, but all of the picture perfect moments shown in the ad are the types of clips that videographers strive for - beautiful bits of light. Conversely, one could argue that the use of filmic montage is a form of propaganda itself, since the practice of cutting several separate images together to form one message is a process of recontextualizing existing texts. This argument of course comes from a pretty strict interpretation of “deception,” as the medium documentary film format works quite deceptively because if an audience believes that what they are seeing is authentic, raw, and real, then they will be more likely to take in what they see without questioning it.

Moving on from these examples, most would say that propaganda is a piece of persuasive media that beckons for the viewer to think in a certain way by either exaggerating the truth or straight up lying about the enticing information presented, but its original meaning refers to an “effort to manipulate other people’s beliefs, attitudes, or actions by means of symbols.” (Lannes Smith). It is important to notice that this definition does not denote a negative or positive connotation but clearly states propaganda as a subjective approach, and it is my subjective view that propaganda is anything that begs the targeted audience to think their way.

In another example, figure three, a simple Coca Cola ad, positions the soft drink with the sentence, “things go better with Coke,” joined by a red and off-white color palate and a Coke bottle. Essentially, there is no legitimate proof that Coke truly is the better way to go. Instead, the ad positions the soft drink as so, sensationalizing the drink and attempting to create the idea that Coke is pristine, simple, and the best. Looking at the ad might make one feel like there are no other options for soft drinks, just Coke.

In a similar example, figure four, an advertisement for Campbell’s soup, frames Campbell’s product next to Progresso’s, their competitor, using this comparison as way to show that their product does not have MSG while Progresso’s does. In a sense, this could be true. Campbell’s may sell a line of products without MSG in them, but by framing their product against another entity in this manner, it technically is propaganda as the advertising is urging to the audience to buy one ideology over another and is running a slander campaign against the other.

Propaganda does not have to be explicitly aggressive or wrongful to be propaganda but rather it should be classified as any piece of persuasive information being used to sway the masses one way or another.

Figure One:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2pl3mj

Figure Two:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBorRZnqtMo

Figure Three:

https://propagandafoodcomms9.weebly.com/glittering-generality.html

Figure Four:

0 notes

justastormie · 8 years ago

Text

I’m doing two, because I can.

Ancient Historical meme from my drafts;

First things first: What’s their name and when and where did they live? If there are any/ you have one, add your favourite picture of them.

Erwin Johannes Eugene Rommel (1891-1944), Germany, lived around Württemberg for most of his life, the occasional world war aside. Of historical note for being a masterful tactician, writing an important book of military theory about wwi and commanding the german forces in the north african campaign of wwii.

Napoleon (1769-1821), France technically but had a great deal of fun on camping trips all over Europe. Of historical note for one-uping Alexander the Great. Created landmark legal, military and social organizations. List of fuckups is longer than most people’s list of accomplishments. One of the most enduring military and political legends of the modern era. Bees.

1. How and when did you first hear about them?

Rommel- I honestly can’t remember. My father is a wwii nut so i was raised on the stuff. I got serious in my interest of him about 12/13 when I first read the collection of his papers translated into English.

Napoleon- fourth grade (about ten years old). We had a section of world history, dismal though it was. In one of the little “fun facts” thing they had a tiny little box describing Nap’s return from Elba with an itty-bitty reproduction of Steben’s Returned From Elba. I thought that sounded like the most badass thing I had ever heard, and was also a little in disbelief because surely someone can’t just walk back and reclaim their kingdom. Like, that shit didn’t happen in real life. So I bought my first biography to find out the real story.

2. What do you like most about them?

Rommel

he tempered his ambition and leadership with compassion and a fierce sense of honor

genuinely seems to have been a nice dude

he and his wife are cute as fuck

was later cute as fuck about his son Manfred

was incredibly clever

was a peach eating lunatic adventurer masquerading as a srs prussian soldier

he was a romantic both in the age of chivalry sense and the modern sense

Napoleon

SUCH A BADASS, oh my god

was an over-invested mono-maniac at all times, which I can related to

incredibly capable in many fields

i have been napoleon and josephine trash since day one

crowning himself. i just love that moment.

was really smart. on a ‘holy shit’ level. (even if he did some massively stupid shit sometimes)

meritocratic promotion structures

hamilton WISHES he were this non-stop.

never gave up, never gave in. even on st. helena he started dedicated his energies to preserving his legend and legacy, to great effect.

3. Is there anything about them that makes you angry or that you don’t like at all?

Rommel

literally worked for nazis

pretty sexist

there’s a lot i disagree with him about, but very few things that make me truly pissed off. ie he was of the period opinion that military men shouldn’t be involved in politics, as he thought that would mean the military as an organization would start defining germany’s political future which would turn into military rule and he was catagorically against that. which i think is both wrong and allowed him, and others in the german army, to disclaim responsibility for political shit they didn’t agree with that was being done by their government. but i can absolutely see where he was coming from, and i think his concerns were reasonable and legitimate.

so yeah. a lot of disagreements, but very few things that just piss me off.

Napoleon

w h e r e d o I b e g i n

allowed his obsession with legend and conquest overwhelm his moral values

sold his honor and his moral principles in order to maintain power

frequently only took into account the human cost of warfare way too fucking late

rampant misogyny

really fucked over Junot

really fucked over tons and tons of people who were loyal to him, from close friends to the soldiers who followed him

got a truly staggering number of people killed on account of his own short-sighted obsessions

to paraphrase the old tv show Wiseguy, You don’t get to shove people around just because your fire burns brighter, no matter how brilliant that fire is.

never gave up, never gave in. even when he fucking should have, looking at you reasonable peace terms of 1813.

4. If you had one day with them in our present time - what would you do together?

Rommel - Aviation museum, he’d absolutely love it. I’d get him to pick some German place to eat and interrogate him ruthlessly about what inter-war rural Germany was like.

Napoleon- Smack him repeatedly in the face for invading Spain Walk and talk. Have him show me around Paris and have a debate over legal systems. Nerd out over Ossain. Show him a modern bookstore. Let him see how much of his work has survived into the present day. Shove him into at least one shrubbery.

5. What would you like to talk about with them?

Rommel - Engineering, aviation, dogs and funny army stories

Napoleon- All of the things. I can only imagine the conversation would be a pinball game of madness as to topics covered. And okay. I’d have to ask about Waterloo. I’d be that person. I don’t think he’d do it, but I’d love to hear him talk about Corsica.

6. In which way do you identify most with them or a figure they created?

Rommel - He was an intensely practical man who tried very hard to do the right thing and frequently failed. I hope that one day I’ll have the strength of character to try to rectify my mistakes as he did his.

Napoleon - I too am an over-invested, bossy weirdo.

7. Thoughts about their death? E.g.:Was it too early, was it deserved, woud you have tried to prevent it and how?

Rommel- oh god TOO EARLY, UNDESERVED, that poor brave bastard. I mean the fact that he was murdered because of his role in a plot to overthrow hitler and make peace with the allies is reason enough. would have definitely tried to prevent it, but would need like. the a-team to stop it. because you’d have to rescue not only rommel but his family that was being used as leverage against him. unless you’re allowed to go really far back and then i’d just start slapping the shit out of everyone at the versailles peace conference.

Napoleon - hoooo boy. uuuuuuuh. i mean. do i like it how he died? no. does that dislike come from a rational place? ...nooo. best case scenario for me would be he gets shot before the last charge of waterloo. hell if i had my way i’d go back and convince him what REALLY needed done was him personally leading the imperial guard up the hill. heroic, dramatic death and historians get to fight over wellsley actually beat napoleon for the rest of forever. europe also gets a break from napoleonic insanity. which doesn’t happen if napoleon gets to live. once more if you’re allowed further back, i slap the shit out of him before he invades Spain and point out that Ireland is lovely this time of year (it’d still be a clusterfuck, but less of one).

8. Is there a book or movie etc. you would recommend to someone who’s new to the person and would like to learn more about them?

Rommel - The Rommel Papers is a good place to start, there are frequent letters to his wife but the content is primarily military.

Napoleon - Shannon Selin’s website and book. The book is fiction but she is the lord our god in this fandom for her mad research skills. She provides sources for everything, which makes her the perfect jumping off point. (Now if I can just convince her that what she REALLY needs to do is write another book starring josephine)

9. What can we learn from them?

Rommel - when in doubt, bluff like a motherfucker right action is not a mystical, obvious thing at all times, we must do what we believe is right to the best of our abilities while being willing to let compassion guide us onto different paths.

Napoleon -

human beings are capable of astonishing intellectual and physical feats, and the best of our stories can still be written, they are not confined to antiquity.

find friends who will support your goals and then listen to their good advice even when it challenges your ego.

if loud, bossy weirdos can find devoted friends and romantic partners than we’ve got a pretty good shot too.

don’t invade spain

propaganda is half the battle

love, in all its forms, is a resilient motherfucker

don’t interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake

strive to be so badass that hundreds of years later, the historical fiction that is all about fighting you has their characters become complete fanboys any time you actually show up (ft. Richard Sharpe in Down With The Tyrant But OMG Harper Look It’s Napoleon *SWOON*, hon. mention also goes to William “Why Aren’t I French” Laurence).

a willingness to take charge is half the battle for power

bees are a cute fashion accessory and go with anything

10. Would you want to be friends with them if they were still alive?

Rommel - I think he’d be a good Dad Friend to have. Someone to ask for advice and go to reenactments with. A good person for moral/personal advice even if their political/social views are outdated. Definite bonding over dogs.

Napoleon - Would entirely depend on how we met. I feel like we’re similar enough on a personal level that it’d be very easy for our personalities to clash, and we’d have to declare ourselves mortal enemies and neither of us would back down from that because what is admitting you might have been hasty. Or, if fate were kind, we’d get on splendidly with constant low levels of dry sarcasm and prank wars. There would also be lots of emotions everywhere, at all times. People would hide. I have to admit I’d still stab somebody if it meant I got to be a Marshal.

11. The most powerful quote by or about them?

Rommel - have short one and a long one

"We have a very daring and skillful opponent against us, and, may I say across the havoc of war, a great general."

- Winston Churchill during 1942. During the fucking war. I mean damn, it doesn’t get better. Though since this is easily the most famous quote about him, have a personal favorite;

“Living legends, they project, each in his way, the classic image of a the warrior: brave, vigorous, sharp of eye and mind, rapid in decision, alert in danger, faster and bolder in the fight than his enemies. of this extraordinary brotherhood is Rommel-the brotherhood of Hector, of Rupert of the Rhine, of those who can only be described as heroes; and it is curious that so determinedly practical a modernist as Rommel-the least fanciful of men- should have joined a company so bonded by myth.”

-David Fraser from Knight’s Cross: A Live of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel

Napoleon -

All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others

i mean;

History is a set of lies agreed upon.

- Napoleon at some point, i’m not sure. But i’ve always loved it and found it apt.

#stormie cares about dead people #and blathers on #i'm cleaning out my drafts

1 note · View note

creativitytoexplore · 4 years ago

Photo

[SF][HM] You Can Choose Your Friends, But You Can't Choose Your Post-Apocalyptic Overlord https://ift.tt/34Kya2C

Of all the aspects of life after the apocalypse, it’s the lack of social etiquette which irks George the most.

“The neighbours are at it again.” He says from his position, peering between the boarded windows of their ramshackle dwelling. Said in a tone so deliberate as to be the conversational equivalent of a worm on a hook.

A deep, obvious sigh exhales behind him. The sigh a person emits after having had such a conversational worm dangled in front of them for the hundredth time that hour, when they hate worms, but the worm is dangled, anyway.

“I hadn’t noticed.” Dinkler says in such a nonchalant manner as to be the conversational equivalent of taking the worm and stamping on it. Of all the aspects of life after the apocalypse, he finds most bearable. Food may be scarce, but messing with George gives him some form of nourishment.

“Not noticed! The gang of crazy bastards we hide from every day is at this very moment hunting some poor saps down. And they aren’t doing it quietly. It’s like a Tory Party Conference out there.”

“Calling them crazy bastards isn’t very neighbourly. But, how’s dinner coming along?”

“They’re the ones that go about calling themselves ‘Crazy Dave and the Swinging Dicks’! If you don’t want to be called crazy, then don’t give call yourself it and go about eating people. It’s not rocket science.”

“True.” Dinkler says, losing impetus on his George-baiting. His hunger pangs taking precedence. “Have you started dinner?”

“It’s shocking behaviour,” George responds, oblivious to Dinkler’s questioning. “Needs someone to shake things up. Get the world back on track.”

Another sigh seeps from Dinkler and fills the room like a disgruntled miasma. “Oh,” he says monotone, remembering the correct response to get the conversation moving and have any chance of consuming food within the next 5 hours. “If only there was someone we could turn to?”

“Well,” George says, turning away from the window to join Dinkler by the fire. “Funny you should say that.”

“We’re not having dinner, are we?”

“But, I’ve always felt that there’s some unfinished business between politics and myself.”

Dinkler scours his vicinity for anything to eat to ease the boredom of the impending monologue, but finds only a twig. He chews said twig.

“The war coming when it did put the kibosh on my political career.”

“Well, that and the fact that everyone hated you.”

“I was misunderstood. That’s why I put that election video together, to help get some good PR. Although that ended up backfiring.”

“Yeah. When the person you hire’s only previous experience is doing propaganda videos for I.S. it rarely goes down well.”

“He was cheap and had his own equipment. How was I supposed to know?”

“The fact he got you to do it in an orange jumpsuit was a bit of a red flag. That and the hate speech.”

“In retrospect you are correct, but creative types are strange. I thought he was being ironic.”

“I bet you still provided catering.” Dinkler says, nodding towards the empty cooking pot next to the fire.

“I could have been Prime Minister by now,” George says, looking into the distance. “Or World President. Something good like that. Something big enough where people drop everything when they know I’m coming because they want to impress me. Red carpets are rolled out. Everyone bows and curtsies. They want to shake my hand, but are cautious. They know I’m a mega great guy, but know I don’t take any shit and come down hard on bad guys.”

George takes a breath. “That’s great,” Dinkler interjects. “How’s about you whip us something up and we discuss it more over dinner?”

“Dinner? Well, I’m sorry to be the one to piss on your chips Dinkler,”

“Don’t mention chips. I’d kill for chips.”

“But what you see is what we’ve got,” he says, gesturing to the distinct lack of anything consumable in their abode. “And that amounts to fuck all. I’ve been waiting for the crazy gang to go to sleep so that we can sneak out.”

“Those bastards. They ruin everything.”

“Who isn’t being neighbourly now?” George says, settling back in his chair.

From outside, a chorus of screams pierces the air. Scrambling to the slats, they press themselves against any accessible gap to glimpse what’s happening.

“Looks like it’s all kicking off over there now.” George says. “Where did they get that string of sausages from?”

“They’re not sausages.”

Confused, George ponders this. Realisation dawns like a creeping glacier.

“Oh, that’s horrendous,” he says, shaking off the disgust. “Still, they’re giving it a good go.”

“Indeed. Cannibals get called a lot of things, but the one thing you can say is that they’re not fussy eaters.”

Transfixed, they watch the events unfold.

“All done! They made light work of that.” George says, stepping across the room and pulling two hessian sacks from under their meagre possessions.

“Say what you want about cannibals, but they know how to work as a team.”

“By my reckoning we should have about 15 minutes until the meat sweats kick in and they fall asleep.”

“Either that or the inevitable seizure stemming from a diet based almost solely upon the consumption of human flesh kicks in.”

“You ready?”

“Shopping time!” they say in unison before high-fiving and scampering outside.

“I’m not saying that what you did was wrong,” Dinkler says as he and George squeeze back into the shack, shopping bags in tow. “It’s just I wish you’d been more careful with it. It was food after all.”

“I hear what you’re saying,” George responds, letting his bags drop to floor and slumping in his chair, before stoking the fire to encourage the flames to stand up once more. “But, when I’m being chased by a pack of crazed, mutated dogs because they want the rat I’ve got. I’m going to drop it every time.”

“You didn’t drop it though.” Dinkler says, joining George by the fire. “You screamed and flung it as far as you could.”

“It was a calculated risk. Only a fool would concern themselves with silver,” he says with a knowing wink, patting his shopping bag. “When they’re sitting on gold.”

“Ooooo, now you’re talking! Come on, put me out of my misery. What you got?”

“Well,” George says, delving deep into the bag. “If there’s one thing I know you’ve been desperate for...” A moment hangs as he gropes for the item. It’s only momentary, but lasts an age. Dinkler on the edge of his seat. “… it’s pot pouri.”

George pulls out a handful of what appear to be wood chippings and passes them to Dinkler, who regards them, aghast.

“Pot pouri?”

“You’re welcome.”

“But, they’re just wood chippings,” Dinkler says, before giving them a sniff and recoiling. “Correction. Wood chippings covered in rat urine. That can’t be all you’ve got?”

Reeling, Dinkler ponders the chippings, only to notice a mischievous grin arching from the corner of George’s mouth.

“Ha! Very good. You got me there.”

“You know me, always keeping you guessing.”

“Top one. Excellent. So, what have you got?”

“I know you’re crazy about this stuff.” George turns his bag upside down and empties a bag’s worth of chippings onto the floor.

“What the…? You collected an entire bags worth of piss-soaked wood chippings and threw away the only food. Why would you do this?”

“You’re always complaining about the smell. I thought it would help.” George says, trying not to appear hurt.

“I think I’ve mentioned the smell once in the last 5 years. I’ve moaned about being hungry every day. Yet, I don’t see you trying to start a chicken farm.”

“If what I’ve got is so rubbish, what have you got that’s so great.”

“Stand by,” Dinkler says, reaching into his bag. “I’ve got this.” He says, brandishing a severed hand.

“Why on earth have you got someone’s hand?”

“I thought it may come in useful if we ever come across some super-secret military bunker. They always have those scanners that need a hand print to let you in. If we ever find one, we pop this hand in and Hey, Presto! We’re in.”

“Other than they build those machines to recognise the hand prints of the people that worked there, that’s a perfect plan! Although did you not think that if it would work on some random severed hand, the functioning live ones you have at the end of your wrists would do?”

“Everything’s obvious when it’s pointed out to you, Einstein.”

“What else you got in there? A head to do the talking? A leg to help us run faster?”

“No. But, I’ve got this.” Dinkler says and pulls out a cigarette lighter. “You know, to help us with the fire and stuff.”

Impressed, George leans over to take it. He turns it over in his hands, inspecting it before striking the spark wheel. Nothing happens.

“It’s empty?”

“Yeah. But if we ever find any lighter fuel, then we can just fill it up.”

Rubbing his hands down his face, George sighs. “Anything else?”

“Just these,” Dinkler takes a stack of old, crumpled magazines and hands them to George.

“Well. Isn’t this just great! Another washout! How are we supposed to eat any of these?”

Dinkler shrugs. “Why don’t you ask that rat you threw away?”

“Well, I’m going to the privy. And when I come back, I want to know what you’re doing about the food.” George says, stepping away from the fire. Only to step back, grab a magazine and stride outside.

Squatting over a hole in the ground in the darkness, muttering to himself, George leafs through a battered copy of ‘The Stage’ magazine. Turning the crumpled pages, he skims the content. Until something catches his eye.

“Dinkler!” he shouts. “Come here!”

“You can wipe yourself tonight.” George hears through the thin wall.

Pulling his trousers up, he hurries inside. “Not that, you buffoon. You need to see this.”

Dropping the magazine in Dinkler’s lap, he points to an article. “There, look at that.”

“It’s a review of ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’? 3 out of 5 stars. Seems a tad under rated given the quality of the material, but if you’re that concerned about it then just write over it. Everyone involved is most likely dead.”

“No, you moron. Look at the picture. The guy playing Frank-N-Furter.” He says, jabbing his finger at the picture.

Dinkler absorbs the image. Although disguised by the garish make-up, he recognises the individual.

“Crazy Dave! It can’t be.”

“That’s what I thought. But, read the article.”

Skimming the text, Dinkler searches for correct passage. “Here it is,” he says. “‘Newcomer David Rudkin leads the stellar cast.’” Leaning back in his chair, he laughs. “Just goes to show you never know!”

“You know what this means, though?” George says, snatching the magazine back.

“You want him to help set up some amateur dramatics?”

“No. This,” he says, brandishing the magazine. “Is dynamite. It’s political gold dust.”

Regarding George’s face, Dinkler tries to establish if his gut instinct is correct. “You’re not suggesting…”

“… Yes! We blackmail the bastard! Look in political circles there’s a strategy that if you want to get someone, you attack them on their strengths, not their weaknesses. Thus removing whatever potential power they may have had.”

“I’m sure that worked well with the privately educated offspring of hedge fund managers and diplomats. But, we’re talking about actual cannibalistic killers. Even if we got close enough to blackmail him, what would we even ask for?”

“Whatever we wanted! We’d say we’d keep his secret safe as long as we could go about our business and survive!”

“It’s crazy. There’s no point even trying. They’d kill us as soon as we get within 10 feet.”

“Think about it though.” George says, pulling closer. “Think about the freedom. Think about being able to walk out during the day with only the fear of being attacked by mutated, crazed wolves. Rather than mutated, crazed wolves AND homicidal cannibals. And think about the food we may get.”

Dinkler stops. His interest piqued. “Go on.”

“Well. If we can ask for anything, we could just ask for food. Or for them to not kill us whilst we’re looking for food.”

“We could get food?”

“Of course. Even scraps off their table are better than what we have now. But, if we pitch this right then we could get way more.”

“And you think we could do this?”

“Politics I know,” George says, patting his friend on the shoulder. “And I know this is going to work.”

The campsite is quiet. Eerily so.

“Where is everyone? And everything?” Dinkler whispers as they tip toe over the threshold.

Despite being home to a rampaging hoard, there are few signs of life. A few fading campfires. Bare, hardened patches of ground from where people have slept. But little else.

“I don’t know. Perhaps whilst being murderous they also espouse a cleanliness ethos. I guess it’s admirable.”

“I guess.”

They push on. Tip-toeing the whole way.

“I wonder if he’s going to be the kind of weirdo that only refers to themselves in the 3rd person. The kind that’s all: ‘Crazy Dave does not like this’, and ‘Crazy Dave approves of this’. Or, if he’s going to be the kind that’s camp and give eloquent, but violent speeches whilst twirling his moustache.”

“The fact this guy was in musical theatre, I would stump for the latter.”

They continue on. Clinging to one another as they step through the darkness. But the place is deserted.

“What do we do then?” Dinkler asks. “Leave a note?”

George shrugs. “I guess. But, who do we address it to? Dave? David? Mr Crazy?”

From within the darkness, there’s a chuckle. A chuckle that turns into a cackle. Then the night erupts with the sound of manic laughter.

Terrified, they try to flee, but a figure emerges from the gloom, cutting off their escape. Wearing a necklace of human teeth, his eyes wild, big hair and mouth crimson with blood, Crazy Dave resembles a cannibal from a Hanna-Barbera cartoon passed through a Spandau Ballet filter.

“Whom dares to enter to set foot on the private land of Crazy Dave?” he booms, enunciating every syllable. You can take the man out of the theatre.

Turning, George see’s the Swinging Dicks forming a perimeter around them. Each has a mouth dripping with blood, and an absence of any clothing on their bottom half. Despite the crippling fear, he can’t help but admire the boldness and clarity of their branding.

“Mr Dave that would be me.”

“What brings you to trespass here? What wish do you have other than to die?”

“Urm,” George stutters, terrified and struggling to think. Having Dinkler behind him making such comments as ‘You’ll have someone’s eye out with that thing, son’ and ‘I can see why you’re so angry’ does not help. “Well, I wondered if I could speak with you in private?”

Crazy Dave laughs a loud, diaphragm powered laugh. “You wish private council with me? For what reason would I grant you such an honour?”

“It’s to do with this?” George says, holding up the magazine.

He tries to hide the reaction, but George spots the look of panic in Dave’s face. Recognition of the item and its implications flashes across his face, only to be quelled. But, in that instance, no matter how minute, George knows he’s in.

“Walk with me.” He says, beckoning George to follow him. “Swinging Dicks? Be sure to attend to my friend’s colleague here.” He says, gesturing to Dinkler. A hush falls across the semi-nude cannibals as their leader and George stroll off.

“My plan was to blackmail you.” George says, strolling side-by-side with Dave. “But, being here, seeing you operate. I believe we can come to something more, mutually beneficial.”

“How so?”

“You’re born to lead. True leaders are hard to find. Yet here you are and I see everything you have created. Yet, I can’t help wonder if you could not have done more?”

Dave bristles. “You think I’m lazy?”

“Not at all. Just,” he pauses, choosing his words. “Under advised.”

“Under advised?”

“Let me tell you a bit about myself. Before the war I was someone with considerable influence. I advised the wealthy and the powerful. I enabled them to become more wealthy and powerful. Then the world changed. Now I see you and I wonder if, with a little additional guidance, this is someone whom could achieve more?”

“And what more is it I could achieve?”

“You have control over a sizeable area of land. But, what if you could have more? What if you could rule with impunity for as far as the eye can see?”

“And you’d be willing to do this for free?”

“Well, that’s where I would have some conditions. My friend and I. We’d need food and water. And assurances that your ‘employees’ would not harm us.”

“Of course.”

“For that simple price you gain not only an advisor, but a guarantee that this little secret.” George says, showing the magazine. “Stays well and truly hidden.” George stops and extends his hand. “So, what do you say?”

There’s commotion as they return to camp. The Swinging Dicks are a blur of frenzied excitement. They dance and cavort in a circle, arms flapping, legs flailing, and appendages bouncing like banana trees in a thunderstorm. In the middle of this whirlwind stands Dinkler. Bewildered. Scared. Using his best British stoicism to not look at the jiggling members.

“What is all this noise?” Dave barks, striding forward.

“Dinkler! What have you done?”

“A little help would be fantastic.” Dinkler shouts.

A Swinging Dick peels away from the melee and hurls himself at Dave’s feet. “It’s happened Master. The prophecy you spoke of. The chosen one has arrived.”

“Prophecy?” George says, confused.

“Nonsense.” Dave scolds. “It can’t be true.”

The Swinging Dick can’t contain his excitement. Hopping from foot to foot like a toddler reluctant to admit they need the toilet. “It is Master. He’s here.” And points at Dinkler, who notices and waves back.

Turning to Dave, hoping for confirmation of this obvious mistake, George is met with a timid, guilty expression.

“Master said that the chosen one will come to lead us to fortune and glory.” The Swinging Dick asserts.

“This is ludicrous! Dinkler can’t be the chos…” he’s interrupted by the Swinging Dick slapping a piece of paper into his hands. Turning it round, and straightening it out reveals it to be an aging police E-Fit. The resemblance to Dinkler is uncanny. “This can’t be right. Says this person is wanted for assaulting two officers. Dinkler’s barely beaten an egg.”

“How’s it going over there?” Dinkler enquires. “Even if you can’t get them to stop dancing, I’d very much appreciate it if they didn’t have to do it around me.”

“This has to be some sort of…” George turns to Dave, who is already almost 100 meters away, fleeing into the night.

“Sorry,” he shouts back, ripping the trinkets of the clan from his person with glee, skipping and kicking his heels together. “But, they need feeding several times a day and get very cranky if they don’t nap. But, I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

George watches as Dave’s laughter and image fade into the darkness until only the sound of chanting remains. The dawning realisation solidifies through his body.

“Dinkler?” He asks, and the group falls still and silent. One of the Swinging Dicks walks over and shoves George.

“That’s Master Dinkler.” He growls. “Now kneel.”

“They’re making a lot of noise again.” George says, from his position peering between the boarded windows of their shack.

“They’ll tire out soon enough.” Dinkler remarks. “But, better they make a lot of noise doing aerobics, than that other stuff. Now how’s dinner coming along?”

“I guess. But would be good if they could do it with some trousers on.”

“Some habits are just too ingrained.”

“They don’t need to wear much. Just…”

“… George.” Dinkler interrupts. “There’s no point even trying. The changes we’ve made thus far have been tolerated. This will be a step too far. They like to let it all hang out! If the price of peace and harmony is an excess of visible dong, then you’re just going to have to get used to some extra sausage in your diet. So, settle down and let them get on with it. Now, how’s dinner coming along?”

Turning away from the window and back to the pot suspended over the fire, George slips an apron over his head. Across the middle should read ‘Head Cook’, but the word ‘Cook’ has been scribbled out and replaced with ‘Cock’.

“They do know that I’m your advisor, right? It’s just that I could do with them treating me with a bit more respect.” Reaching up to hand Dinkler a steaming bowl who is sitting upon an extravagant throne made from found items. This throne fills their shack.

“Yeah, they know. What can I say? Boys will be boys.”

“When do you think you’ll look at those suggestions I made?”

“I’ll look soon,” Dinkler says, reclining back and spooning food into his mouth. “All in good time.”

THE END

submitted by /u/Mattwotwrites [link] [comments]

#June 04 #2021 at 12:46AM

0 notes

outfittrends · 6 years ago

Text

What to Wear in Egypt? 23 Egypt Outfit Ideas – Travel Style Outfit Trends - Ideas How to Wear & What to Wear

New Post has been published on https://www.outfittrends.com/what-to-wear-in-egypt/

What to Wear in Egypt? 23 Egypt Outfit Ideas – Travel Style

What to wear in Egypt. Sometimes you may be concerned about what to wear when you are visiting a foreign country. Especially when your intentions are to experience different ways of living and have fun there without disrespecting the land or offending anyone.

Have you ever wondered what are the essential things to include in your luggage when you are traveling to Egypt? Worried about what to wear there? Is it safe? If Egypt is on your bucket list, here’s your guide on what to wear in Egypt depending on the Egyptian culture, various places, and the climate, and where to spend your time there.

What Outfits To Pack For Egypt

↓ 23 – What To Wear To The Pyramids?

Your decision of traveling to a foreign country that has diverse culture and history than yours is always competitive and making you uncertain. It’s worthwhile when you are visiting the world’s wonder there, The Great Pyramids of Giza, one of the oldest wonders built on earth which constructed between 2580-2560 BC. You can wear a soft turtleneck mix-stripe fluid ribbed-knit sweater and wide leg beige trousers for a subtle look. In order to prevent your hair from intertwining with the grains of sand in a windy day, make it into a bun. You can add to your outfit these flimsy hoop gold earrings, and this fancy belt. I guarantee you will take the most aesthetic pictures of yourself with your ancient fellow. If you’re a travel enthusiast, you might enjoy our earlier post on 27 Best Winter Travel Outfits for Women That Are Trending these Days.

Via

↓ 22 – Can You Wear Crop Tops In Egypt?

Many people are curious about whether Egypt is safe after the Arab spring events and political propaganda. It’s completely normal to be concerned since the publicity of the issue given by the media convinced numerous people that the middle east is a dangerous place for decades. Egypt is safe, don’t let anything discourage you from visiting such a majestic place, but you better come with a tourist group. You can wear wide leg baggy print pants with a tank crop top. Yes, you can wear a crop top and it’s more acceptable to wear it in Hurghada and Sharm El-Shiekh.

Via

↓ 21 – What To Wear In Egypt In December

One of the false beliefs some people hold is that Egypt is a large desert that has dust storms and intolerable temperature. The same view goes for the Arabian Gulf which is untrue, too. Egypt has many places to visit, not just the Pyramids. There are cities and civilized places for leisure activities. You can book a five-stars hotel room, shop in large chic malls or walk in downtown and Korba to witness the western architectures built back in the time of colonization. You can wear leather boots and a yellow top tucked into a high-waisted light wash jeans. A big yes to this brown cotton coat and delicate bronze watch, necklace and silver bracelet.

Via

↓ 20 – For the Yacht Ride

Are you planning for a yacht ride in Sharm El-Sheikh or Hurghada? You can chill out having a ride on the red sea, enjoying the strong smell of salty water and tidal surges. For lightweight and soft garments on your body, try on a slim-fit wide boat neck black cotton crop top that adds a hint of retro appeal. A high-waisted flared stripe paper bag pants with slippers would provide you an elegant look. Keep your hair loose to let the fresh air play with it. Here are Women’s Outfits for Airport & 15 Ways to Travel Like a Celebrity.

Via

↓ 19 – You Will Look Cute On The Beach.

Try wide waistband black pants with a tight crop white top and silver slippers. This exquisite outfit would fit on the beach when you head to the beach bar to drink juices and have your meal after changing your swimming suit.

Via

↓ 18 – Elegant Outfit For Luxor Trip

You will miss out the most charming places in Egypt if you don’t have a tour in Luxor and Aswan where the major majestic archaeological sites of ancient Egypt exist. You have to moisturize your skin often with a suncream, wear your sunglass, and hat because Luxor turns like a furnace in summer. The old classic color of this wide-leg bold red jumpsuit would harmonize with the golden sunlight and sand, and the baby blue sky. This will provide you perfect bright lightning to your pictures with high quality. You can opt for the one made of lightweight cotton to make you less sweaty. Any sneakers are highly recommended instead of heels or sandals.

Via

↓ 17 – Stick To The Casual Look.

When you are in Egypt you get to wear casuals more often. If you are wishing for spending your time to explore malls and stores to shop new stuff and gifts, you have to dress in casual. There are prevalent western branches of famous brands like Zara, H&M, Victoria Secrets etc. You can also find fashionable local stores with lower prices stuck on their clothing tags. A colorful turtleneck medium strip pullover folded into dark wash denim jeans is my favorite to suggest you since Egypt can be cold in December and January. You can substitute the ankle high-heel boots for sneakers to play the trampoline or walk for hours comfortably.

Via

↓ 16 – What To Pack For Nile Cruise

You ain’t going nowhere out of Cairo or Aswan until you witness the magical beauty of the Nile river. You can have dinner by the river or you can take a felucca ride on the Nile while watching the sunset. Yellow is the color of this season, thus I am suggesting it frequently in my articles. You can wear such a simple outfit like these pairs of jeans with a Ceylon yellow sweater and sneakers. In case of a windy day, you have to loop around your neck a plaid black and white scarf. If your ride on the Nile is sailing from Luxor to Aswan, remember to immerse your hands into it to drink directly from its pure water.

Via

↓ 15 – For An Evening Stroll

If you are partying with your mate at nightfall or you are having a leisurely walk, shove on this wide-leg flowers printed overall with high heels or flat gladiators sandals. You can wear them also on the beach in the summer.

Via

↓ 14 – You Can Wear A Floral Dress.

You will look enchanting wearing this floral summer dress when you are visiting the most enormous temples and tombs.

Via

↓ 13 – Wearing Shorts & Skirts In Egypt

Egyptians aren’t extremists and it has nothing to do with Islam, but they stick to their beliefs and traditions. If you are walking alone in shorts or skirt, expect to confront verbal sexual molestation, maybe physical harassment from some men there. Especially if you are walking in chaotic public streets where you can find all different classes, ideologies, and thoughts. I can never minimize the existence of discrimination ― I think it’s a global issue. Also generalizing everything is an action for spreading deception and misinformation. Not all Egyptian men will harm you, but some of them will also protect you. We shall throw blame on the lack of morals and education, not religions. It’s fine to wear them in malls, tourist regions, and restaurants. You will be safer if you have them on when you are touring with your group accompanied by a tour guide. The valley of the Kings is a very hot place, therefore you can wear a burgundy lightweight blouse tucked in a short or a denim jean skirt with a striped cardigan.

Via

↓ 12 – Your Skin Will Be Happy Wearing This

I will always insist that skirts make us free and comfy. It allows all the air to flow in, unlike trousers. Achieve your bucket list contently wearing a maxi tiered white skirt and emerald green shirt with lace-up sandals.

Via

↓ 11 – The BestDresss For The Nubian Village

The Nubian Village is the most magical and cherished site you would ever travel to. You won’t see anywhere such a colorful aesthetic place in Egypt. Moreover, the unconditional kindness of the Nubian people will leave you flabbergasted. You can wear a sleeves black top folded in a below knee yoke-waist skirt with a scarf and flat strappy sandals. You will look gorgeous.

Via

↓ 10 – T-shirts Are The Most Common.

You will find vast the majority of Muslims and Christians Egyptians are conservative and likely dressed modestly and smartly. T-shirts and Trousers are the most common dress, however, you will see abundantly both Muslim and Christian women veiled through wearing abayas. You may enjoy your free time reading Egyptian English magazines like Horse Time, Ancient Egypt Magazine during sipping your favorite coffee. You can have on a crew neck grey T-shirt tucked into high-waisted white pants. Be cautious about leaving your hotel not wearing white in a windy day filled with dusty air. Any color is preferable than white, especially for your footwear because it won’t last clean longer at some muddy places in Cairo. This cowboy hat will protect you from the burning sun and heat. Here are 20 Cute Summer Travelling Outfits for Women.

Via

↓ 9 – Try On An Abaya When You Are Visiting A Mosque.

You need to visit barefoot a mosque once in your life to witness the great calmness and the majesty it has, and its incredible prominent Islamic architecture. Mosques in Egypt will give you goosebumps, chiefly, the old ones built back in the golden age of Islam like Mosque of Amr Ibn Al-As and Mosque of Muhammad Ali. They will mind you get in there unless you are dressed modestly and you aren’t showing much skin. What about trying something new? You can find this cheap cotton abaya and other styles in souvenir shops. Show respect through covering your hair with a scarf like how Princess Diana did when she visited Al-Azhar.

Via

↓ 8 – Wear What An Egyptian Teenager Would

Female Egyptian Teenagers wear casuals, mostly jeans. Try a light brown T-shirt and black skinny pants with a jean jacket.

Via

↓ 7 – What To Wear for Safari In Egypt

You can have an expeditious trip in Egypt driving a beach buggy and going wild through doing safari. Try on this black ripped pants, black shirt, and an olive quilted jacket. These colors wouldn’t make the dust on the garments observable. The fixed rule is to don’t wear anything other than sneakers, otherwise, you will stumble wearing heels or have the sand stuck to your toes through sandals.

Via

↓ 6 – A Silk Dress

Feel free to knock around wearing a yellowish silk dress and wedge heel sandals with your partner to explore the crowded famous market.

Via

↓ 5 – Dress Code In Egypt Hotels

There are many western cafes and restaurants in Egypt like Starbucks, Durkin’ Donuts, Paul, Panda express and Cinnabon etc. You will find also local cafes established on the Egyptian style. You can try some Egyptian courses like Koshary, stuffed squash, and Falafel. There are Asian restaurants where you can order Ramen, Sushi or Biriyani and more. T-shirts and blouses are very common to wear in summer. Try to respect the places and people through being sweet, polite and wearing modest clothes like a jean jacket or a cardigan over your cut top. In winter, you can wear a crew neck black pullover with these ripped jeans and a medium size crossbody bag. Don’t miss out these 15 Best Walking Shoes for Europe Trip & Travel Style shoes.

Via

↓ 4 – A Nice And Appropriate Outfit for Riding A Camel

If you are planning for riding a camel or a horse, note that their back is stiff so wearing a skirt will be hella uncomfortable. Wear a white shirt with wide-leg cotton trousers.

Via

↓ 3 – A Lovely Outfit To Wear When You Are Visiting Khan Al-Khalili

You have to wear simple clothes as much as possible and don’t exaggerate your look. You can wear a white T-shirt and flared pants with a cardigan.

Via

↓ 2 – Best Time To Travel to Egypt & Best Outfit To Wear

If you can’t bear the heat, you better book your flying ticket from November-March when the temperature is cooler. It doesn’t rain frequently in Egypt, but the rain falls heavily when it’s the right time for the clouds to break their water. Cairo is more fun and joyous in winter while Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh in summer. I am assured you aren’t the only foreigner, but the majority visit Egypt to spend Christmas there. By that time you can wear this striped red and white shirt and dark wash denim jeans. Most of us forget or skip belts for their outfits, although wearing one adds an extra smart look. Bring your jacket because it gets cold more at night and a pastel pink satchel bag.

Via

Take the experience of crossing the desert to witness the temple that got buried under the water but survived, Abu Simbel. You get to wear a high-low dotted dress with wedge sandals.

Via

↓ 1 – What Shoes To Wear In Egypt

Now coming towards the shoes, you obviously need to pack at least one pair of sneakers for days when you’ll be walking a lot. We recommend some light and breathable sneakers like the Vivobarefoot Women’s Ultra 3 Watersports Walking Shoes that you can get here for as low as $ 60. Other than that, you should have some sandals (you could go with gold colored gladiator sandals if you want some Egyptian vibes) and lightweight flip flops for the beach.

#travel outfits #Traveling Style

0 notes