Category: issues

“For about a decade, the United States has implanted ‘beacons,’ which can map a computer network, along with surveillance software and occasionally even destructive malware in the computer systems of foreign adversaries.”

“The nominations of the director this time around, and a British actor, David Oyelowo, playing a heroic black figure in the American narrative — not the victim of white oppression, but a corrective to it — would have had particular resonance at this moment. This year is the 50th anniversary of both the Selma marches and the Voting Rights Act. And after months full of tragic news from Ferguson, Mo., Staten Island and all over America, race remains a persistent and complex issue that still has the capacity to divide.”

“At the time of its release, Mr. Leconte’s documentary did not make much noise. But after terrorist attacks that resulted in the deaths of 17 people in Paris last week, directors at several movie theaters decided to pay tribute to Charlie Hebdo by reprogramming Mr. Leconte’s documentary.”

“There are those who expect that whatever alternative cultures they encounter through social media must comply with their own aesthetic or moral framework. They feel entitled, not just to enter spaces and places where they do not necessarily belong, but also to demand censure and closure if they don’t like what they find there.”

Not really. “As for displacement — the most objectionable feature of gentrification — there’s actually very little evidence it happens. In fact, so-called gentrifying neighborhoods appear to experience less displacement than nongentrifying neighborhoods. It’s time to retire the term gentrification altogether.”

“In some of the discussion surrounding the case, there has been an implication that Muslims (and other non-Westerners, for that matter) don’t have the rich satirical tradition found in places like France. That’s not quite true. Satirical traditions may not be the same in France as they are in Iraq or Venezuela. But the mocking of rulers, politicians and pretensions has long had a place in every culture.”

“Cartoons depicting Muhammad are unthinkable in Muslim countries. But there are plenty of homegrown satirists poking fun at reactionaries, autocrats and jihadis. Our writers in Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon and Iraq explain where the line is drawn.”

“Having scored a $38 million Robert W. Woodruff Foundation grant in December, the Woodruff Arts Center announced Tuesday that it has a received a $6.6 million grant … [to fund] a new three-year program designed to better connect families and students with the arts center’s art and arts education offerings.”