Category: issues

“Why have these recent demands to censor been so successful? It’s worth reflecting on who is protesting, because this is also different from the earlier, top-down attempts to censor.”

“[Recently] there have been calls to reclaim the symbol from its Nazi links and restore its origin as an ancient symbol signalling good luck. So can these two views ever be reconciled? Mukti Jain Campion examines the symbol’s long and surprising pre-Nazi history and discovers how the Nazi adoption of it is based on a mistaken interpretation of ancient Indian texts.” (audio)

Many people know that the now-notorious symbol has been (and is) used in India as a good luck sign for centuries. But the swastika has appeared in numerous other times and places, from ancient Greek pottery to Japanese Buddhist temples to – believe it or not – the U.S. and British militaries during World War One.

There are always protests on opening night: demonstrators see it as an ideal occasion to get their causes in front of TV cameras. This year, Milan was worried enough about violence to bring in 1,000 riot police. And, as it happened, current events had some bearing on what was happening inside the opera house, on the stage.

“I’ve now learned what it really means to be a black woman working in the arts. It means I carry the burden with none of the gains. It means that black lives in this country will never be more newsworthy to my peers than art world scandal.”

“Over the past year, Mr. Elmes and his wife, Philippa Kaye, have bought nine buildings totaling about 600,000 square feet in that city’s Corktown neighborhood and in neighboring Highland Park, paying what he described as the price of ‘a small apartment in New York City’ for the properties.”

“It is the fear that Europe is not reacting forcefully enough to the crisis in Ukraine, the fear that Putin will advance not only to the Donets River, but soon also to the banks of the Vistula. And it is the fear of Putin himself, who just a few days ago made reference to the ‘centuries old common history’ that connects Poles and Russians.”

“The British argument held until recently – that the Parthenon Marbles cannot be moved – is no longer valid, just as the existence of the new Acropolis Museum invalidated the other British argument that there was no appropriate space for exhibiting the sculptures.”