“[Since] the Communist government fell more than two decades ago thousands of Poles have discovered they have Jewish roots … Writers, playwrights, filmmakers and visual artists are tackling everything from anti-Semitism and the Holocaust to coming to terms with their families’ Communist pasts and issues of identity.”
Category: issues
Waiting (And Waiting) For Australia’s New Cultural Policy
“Kevin Rudd’s Labor government proposed a new cultural policy in 2007 … Five years, two major reports and almost two federal electoral cycles later and the arts sector is still waiting.”
The Intrepid Ones: Muxes, The Third Gender Of Oaxaca
“The indigenous Zapotec culture of Oaxaca is not divided by the usual dichotomies: gay or straight, male or female. There’s a commonly accepted third category of mixed gender – people called muxes (said to derive from mujer – Spanish for ‘woman’). Some are men who live as women, or who identify beyond a single gender.”
France’s New Youthful Culture Minister
“Aurélie Filippetti’s appointment is in line with the socialist president’s commitment to “justice and youth”. She turns 39 in June, and is one of 17 female members in prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault’s government.”
What Will France’s Political Left Turn Mean For Culture?
“While everyone generally agrees about the importance of culture, a combination of budgetary constraints and the cost of maintaining grants to existing institutions, which are almost impossible to reduce substantially, do not leave many options for development in the coming two or three years.”
Europe’s “Screwed” Generation (The Young Are Leaving Or Homeless)
“Increasingly, young Europeans are deciding not to start families–the key to future growth–in reaction to the recession. The stories about divorced Spanish or Italian young fathers sleeping on the streets or in their cars are not exactly a strong advertising for parenthood.”
If Someone Pirates Content, Should You Wreck The Road They Took To Do It?
That’s the argument that Big Content seems to be making to the technology community.
The Lessons Of Enduring Culture (Or Not)
“Culture is a precious inheritance, immeasurably more difficult to achieve than to destroy, and, once destroyed, almost irretrievable. It’s not at all clear that we have learned the lesson, though wise men from before the time of Pericles have sought to bring us that sobering news.”
Americans Over-Estimate How Many Of Their Neighbors Are Gay
“In surveys conducted in 2002 and 2011, pollsters at Gallup found that members of the American public massively overestimated how many people are gay or lesbian. In 2002, a quarter of those surveyed guessed upwards of a quarter of Americans were gay or lesbian (or “homosexual,” the third option given). By 2011, that misperception had only grown, with more than a third of those surveyed now guessing that more than 25 percent of Americans are gay or lesbian.”
Why Americans Will Pay More To Live Where They Can Walk
“Looking at the Washington, D.C., region, they’ve calculated that moving from a Level 1 to a Level 2 walkable neighborhood (from a non-walkable place to a slightly less non-walkable one), you will wind up paying $301.76 a month more in rent for a similar home. If you’re really moving up in the world – from, say, that car-dependent exurb to a Georgetown flat – that means the premium to live in a walkable urban community may run you as much as $1,200 a month.”