Tuesday 31 January 2017

Arnie says...

"To go and ban people who have a green card? That means that the United States of America has given you permission to work here permanently in this country and you are on the way to permanent citizenship. I was in that position.
To get stuck at the airport and someone says to you you cannot come in, or students that have been studying at Yale or Harvard or different universities all over the country and they have gone to the Middle East home for a few days on vacation to visit their parents and then to come back again to continue the study ... and now they are told that they can't come in? I mean it's crazy. It's crazy and it makes us look stupid when the White House is ill prepared to put this kind of executive orders out there. (...) I learned very quickly that I have to be more inclusive."
Arnold Schwarzenegger



Last October, Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that for the first time since he had become a citizen in 1983, he would not vote for the Republican candidate for President" (via).

Update (2 February 2017)
Arnie's response to Trump who at the National Prayer Breakfast said he wanted to pray for Schwarzenegger: LINK

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Photograph ov Arnold Schwarzenegger by Annie Leibovitz via

Saturday 28 January 2017

Der Präsident

26th of January was the inauguration day of Austria's president Alexander van der Bellen. In his inauguration speech, which he clearly addressed to Austrians and foreigners living in Austria, he called for tolerance and a diverse nation free of racial hatred, talked about migration, antisemitism, fear, peace, confidence, about being born as a refugee child, called for equality no matter if a person was a man or a woman and loved a man or a woman... or their smartphone, no matter what age and for how many generations one's family had been living in Austria.



Meanwhile, his opponent Norbert Hofer contacted Moby as he seemed irritated to see himself in Moby's video "Erupt & Matter". Moby's reply:
Dear Norbert Hofer,
I'm sorry if my "erupt & matter" video has upset you or caused you grief.

But honestly what's upset me and caused me(and countless others)grief is the 21st century's slide into xenophobic right wing politics and populism. In the 20th century we saw both the rise and collapse of far-right ideologically driven political movements. By the end of the 20th century i had naively assumed that as a species we'd learned from the mistakes of the 20th century, and were ready to leave xenophobic populism and far right politics behind. Sadly, i was wrong, as the politics of fear and hate have come roaring back in the 21st century almost everywhere in the world(including the united states, as we now have a dangerously incompetent xenophobe, donald trump, as our 45th president).

I understand that the complex changes and challenges facing us in the 21st century can lead to fear and uncertainty. But cynically and disingenuously responding to the fear and uncertainty by blaming ethnic minorities and advancing economic populism is both dangerous and wrong. A look at the 20th century clearly shows that whenever a country has blamed it's ills on minorities and retreated into nativist, economic populism the results have been disastrous.

So, i will happily remove you from the video if you renounce the politics of racism, xenophobia, and right wing economic populism.
thanks,
moby
::: Erupt & Matter: WATCH/LISTEN



Excerpts of the speech (in German):

Sehr geehrte Frau Nationalratspräsidentin, sehr geehrte Frau Bundesratspräsidentin, Hohe Bundesversammlung, sehr verehrte Ehrengäste, hier im Raum, draußen von den Fernsehschirmen, vor dem Radio vielleicht. Liebe Österreicherinnen und Österreicher, liebe ausländische Mitbürgerinnen und Mitbürger dieses Landes.

Ich stehe hier mit bisschen einem Gefühl der Unwirklichkeit. Nicht wegen des langen Wahlkampfes, der war eigentlich großteils ganz vergnüglich, sondern ich stehe hier mit einer großen Freude und Zuversicht. Denn schlussendlich könnte man sagen, jetzt bis du endlich angekommen. Meine Eltern waren ja keine indigenen Österreicher, ich bin als Flüchtlingskind zur Welt gekommen. Von Wien nach Tirol ins Kaunertal transportiert – ich war ja ein Baby -, dort aufgewachsen, in Innsbruck in die Schule gegangen und so weiter und so fort.

Und jetzt darf ich als Ihr Bundespräsident vor Ihnen stehen. Das ist eine besondere Ehre für mich, eine Freude. Und es erfüllt mich, wie soll ich sagen, mit dem Gefühl, dass Österreich tatsächlich ein Land sehr großer Möglichkeiten ist, ein Land – um diese Metapher zu gebrauchen – der unbegrenzten Möglichkeiten. Daran sollten wir uns hin und wieder erinnern und uns nicht kleinmachen.

(...)

Dieses Gerede von der Spaltung halte ich für maßlos übertrieben. Österreich, das sind einfach wir alle. Alle Bewohner und Bewohnerinnen dieses schönen Landes, ganz gleich, woher sie kommen – aus Wien, aus Graz, aus Salzburg, dem Kaunertal, aus Pinkafeld zum Beispiel und anderen Ecken unserer schönen Heimat. Es ist auch gleich, wen diese Bewohner und Bewohnerinnen lieben – hoffentlich sich selbst – aber, ob sie Mann oder Frau lieben, gleichgültig, ob sie nun Männer oder Frauen sind. Ob sie die Städte lieben oder das flache Land, oder ihr Smartphone oder alles zusammen.

Es ist auch gleich – im Prinzip – ob sie ihr Leben noch vor sich haben – und ich werde am Schluss noch einen Appell an die Jugend richten – oder schon hoffentlich auf ein erfülltes Leben zurückblicken können. Und es ist auch weitgehend gleich, ob die Familie schon seit Generationen hier ist oder eben noch nicht. Zumindest sind wir Österreicherinnen und Österreicher gleich an Rechten und Pflichten – bei aller Vielfalt, bei aller Diversität, die ich sehr liebe, aber gleich an Rechten und Pflichten. Wir gehören einander und wir bedingen einander. Wir sind so stark wie unser Zusammenhalt, besonders in diesen schwierigen Zeiten, denen wir entgegen gehen.

Es liegt in der Natur der Sache, wenn drei Menschen mehr oder weniger kurze Reden halten und sich nicht absprechen, dass sich diese Reden überschneiden. Ich bin jetzt auf der Suche nach etwas, was ich abkürze. Wir waren uns einig, glaube ich, die beiden Präsidentinnen und ich, dass wir in einer Zeit der Veränderung leben. In einer Zeit der Veränderung, in der die bewährten Gewissheiten, die bewährten Rezepte, nicht mehr wie in der Vergangenheit zu greifen scheinen und sich etwas Neues finden und bilden muss, aber es ist nicht klar was. Es ist gewissermaßen eine Zeit zwischen den Zeiten, in der wir uns befinden.

Ich zähle nicht alles auf, es wurde schon viel gesagt – die Automatisierung, die Vernetzung, die Flucht- und Migration, auch der wissenschaftliche Fortschritt, der uns teilweise vor ganz neue Fragen in ethischer Hinsicht und moralischer Hinsicht stellt. Und das alles in einem Europa, das angesichts von Nationalismen und kurzsichtiger Eigenbrötelei um seine Akzeptanz, vielleicht sogar um seine Existenz ringt. Erschüttert auch von verachtenswerten Aktionen des internationalen Terrors, die unseren Zusammenhalt gefährden. Last, not least der Klimawandel, die Veränderung des Klimas, des Wetters und mit den entsprechenden Folgen auf der ganzen Welt, auch bei uns in den Alpen.

Diese Veränderungen sind so eine Sache. Viele davon machen Angst. Veränderung ist notwendig, aber sie macht auch Angst. Wenn ich mich erinnere, wie ich in der Schule – ich glaube erste Klasse Gymnasium – zum ersten Mal auf dem Drei-Meter-Brett im Hallenbad stand: Es kostete mich doch eine gewisse Überwindung. Freude hat mir das keine gemacht. Sondern es war schon das Gefühl da, wenn ich mich weiterentwickeln will – also ich behaupte nicht, dass man mit elf Jahren so denkt, aber ich denke, intuitiv war das der Fall -, dann muss ich springen, aber ich weiß nicht, wie das ist. Ist das Hallenbad überhaupt groß genug, dass ich ins Wasser komme und wie tief wird das sein und wann und ob ich da wieder hochkomme.

(...)

Und im Grunde genommen ist das mit der Zuversicht eine einfache Sache: Man muss sich einfach dazu entscheiden, zuversichtlich zu sein. Diese Entscheidung haben wir in der Vergangenheit schon oft getroffen. Und wenn jeder einzelne von uns diese Entscheidung trifft, dann wird uns diese Zuversicht Dinge ermöglichen, die der Zweifel allein nie zugelassen hätte. Poetisch gesagt – erlauben sie, dass ich zwei Zeilen poetisiere: 'Wo der Zweifel nur den dunklen Nachthimmel sieht, sieht die Zuversicht den Sternenhimmel.'

Aber in diesem Zusammenhang ist es wichtig, auch den Blick auf das zu richten, was sich hoffentlich nicht ändert. Nämlich auf unsere Grundprinzipien. Das Fundament unserer zentralen Glaubenssätze unserer Republik, einer Art Credo. Nämlich, dass Freiheit und Würde des Menschen universell und unteilbar sind. Dass alle Menschen frei und gleich an Rechten geboren sind. Dass diese Menschenrechte uneingeschränkt gelten. Immer, wenn Sie über die Rampe ins Parlament kommen, sehen Sie die Erklärung der Menschenrechte auf dieser schönen Tafel. Dass der Privilegierte die Weisheit haben möge, dem Schwächeren zu helfen und seine Position der Stärke nicht zu missbrauchen, dass wir für unsere Mitmenschen auch mitverantwortlich sind. Dass zu einem gesunden Menschenverstand auch ein mitfühlendes Herz gehört. Dass es unserer Menschenpflicht ist, Menschen in Not zu helfen, unabhängig davon ob, sie In- oder Ausländer sind. Aber natürlich, wer bei uns Hilfe sucht, hat sich an unsere rechtsstaatliche Grundwerte zu halten, die nicht verhandelbar sind. -

Mit anderen Worten – ich zitiere ein bisschen 1789: Glauben wir an die Freiheit, die Gleichheit, die Solidarität, und vor allem an Österreichs Fähigkeiten und an das, was dieses Österreich und Europa in der Vergangenheit stark gemacht hat. Auf diesem Wertefundament kann man aufbauen.

(...)

Ich hoffe, dass Einigkeit darüber besteht, dass Österreich im Herzen Europas liegt – und das meine ich nicht geografisch, sondern politisch. Dass Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung Schlüssel sind für die zukünftige Entwicklung und dass wir hier die nötigen Ressourcen und Veränderungen vornehmen müssen. Ich hoffe, dass uns allen bewusst ist, dass Mann und Frau gleichberechtigt sind, aber dass wir noch nicht in der Praxis soweit sind, dass es stimmt, seit hundert Jahren nicht.

(...)

Meine sehr geehrte Damen und Herren! Morgen ist ein besonderer Tag, morgen ist der Internationale Holocaust Gedenktag. In Erinnerung an das größte Verbrechen der Menschheitsgeschichte. Der Holocaust ist auch Teil unserer Geschichte. Millionen Menschen wurden in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus ermordet. Österreicher gehörten zu den Opfern, aber auch zu den Tätern. Jenen Menschen, die gerade noch fliehen konnten, wurde ihre Heimat genommen. Wenige der Geflüchteten wurden eingeladen wieder zurückzukommen. Und viele wurden, wenn sie doch zurückkamen, in Österreich nicht willkommen geheißen. Das halte ich für die dunkelste Seite unserer Österreichischen Geschichte. Die dunkelste Seite, die wir niemals vergessen werden.

Meine Damen und Herren! Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg entschlossen sich Europas Politiker und Politikerinnen, waren meistens Männer damals noch, endlich zur Versöhnung und zur Gemeinsamkeit. Daraus erwuchs das Projekt der Europäischen Union. Dieses Projekt ist nicht abgeschlossen. Ich bin überzeugt, dass die Europäische Union ein Raum des Friedens, der Freiheit und des Wohlstands ist und weiterhin sein kann. Es ist ein historisches Ereignis, dass die Staaten und Völker der Europäischen Union die Gewalt aus ihren Beziehungen verbannt haben. Es gibt nicht viele Regionen auf der Welt, wo wir dasselbe sagen können, wenn überhaupt eine.

Aber diese Europa ist unvollständig und verletzlich. Und es ist kompliziert. Das ist auch kein Wunder, wenn 28 hoch entwickelte Demokratien sich zusammentun und ein Drehbuch für ihr Zusammenleben schreiben, dann kann es nicht einfach sein und im Einzelnen nicht unbestritten sein. Aber die größte Gefahr sehe ich darin, sich von vermeintlich einfachen Antworten verführen zu lassen und dabei in Richtung Nationalismus und Kleinstaaterei zu kippen. Das kann schon gar nicht im österreichischen Interesse als im Weltmaßstab doch sehr kleiner Staat sein. Lassen wir uns nicht verführen. Lassen wir uns von der Arbeit an einem gemeinsamen Europa nicht abbringen. Die Erhaltung dieses Friedensprojektes ist aller Mühen wert.

Vielleicht ein paar Worte zu meinem Amtsverständnis. Es ist an und für sich – wie soll ich sagen – auf gut Österreichisch 'eh klar': Nämlich, dass ich nach bestem Wissen und Gewissen versuchen werde, nicht nur versuchen, sondern ich werde es sein, ein überparteilicher Bundespräsident, einer, der für alle Menschen in Österreich da ist. (...)

Ich hoffe, die gute Tradition der Zusammenarbeit mit allen politischen Institutionen und Verfassungsorganen sehr gut fortsetzen zu können, auch die Zusammenarbeit mit den Sozialpartnern, auch den Akteuren der Zivilgesellschaft mit ihren vielen Freiwilligen und den Religionsgemeinschaften, um gemeinsam immer wieder für die Erneuerung des gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalts in Österreich das Meinige dazu beizutragen.

Und selbstverständlich ist der Bundespräsident dazu berufen, Österreich nach außen würdig zu vertreten, zu versuchen Brücken zu bauen. Und ich glaube, eines der Fundamente dieses Brückenbauens ist auch die Neutralität. Diese außenpolitische Tradition in Europa und der ganzen Welt sollten wir beibehalten.

(...)

Also, Schlusswort: Mutig in die neuen Zeiten. Es lebe unsere friedliche europäische Zukunft und es lebe unsere Republik Österreich. Ich danke ihnen!

(via)

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photographs via and via

Friday 27 January 2017

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

"With humanity still scarred by genocide, ethnic cleansing, racism, antisemitism and xenophobia, the international community shares a solemn responsibility to fight those evils. Together we must uphold the terrible truth of the Holocaust against those who deny it. We must strengthen the moral commitment of our peoples, and the political commitment of our governments, to ensure that future generations can understand the causes of the Holocaust and reflect upon its consequences."
IHRA



The United Nations designated 27 January as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On 27 January 1945, the Soviet Army liberated Auschwitz, "the infamous Nazi German death camp that has come to symbolize the demonic depths to which the Third Reich descended in the 'industrialization' of genocide." (via)

::: More: International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

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photograph of four Holocaust survivors by Frederic Brenner via

Thursday 26 January 2017

Madeleine, the Muslim

"I was raised Catholic, became Episcopalian & found out later my family was Jewish. I stand ready to register as Muslim in #solidarity."
Madeleine Albright, Tweet from 25 January 2017

"If you force Muslims to register, we will all register as Muslims."
Madeleine Albright



Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright, the first woman to become the United States Secretary of State, was born in the district of Prague in 1937. Her parents had converted from Judaism to Catholicism, never talked about their Jewish background and raised their daughter in Roman Catholicism. In fact, she only learned in her adulthood that her parents had originally been Jewish and that many of her Jewish relatives had been victims of the Holocaust.
As her father was a strong supporter of Edvard Beneš, the family was forced into exile and Madeleine spent the war years in Britain. There, she appeared as a refugee child in a film that was produced to promote sympathy for war refugees in London. After the collapse of Nazi Germany, Madeleine moved back to Prague with her family, then Belgrade. In 1948, the family emigrated to the United States where Madeleine's father applied for political asylum. At the time of her marriage in 1959, she converted to Episcopalianism (via).
Recently, she declared she was ready to register as Muslim as the introduction of a Muslim registry and the "total and complete shut down of Muslims" have been announced (via).
"I’m very proud of my Czechoslovak background, but my identity the way I describe it now: I am an American, I am a mother, I am a grandmother, I am a Democrat, I came from Jewish heritage, I was a Roman Catholic, I am a practicing Episcopalian, I am somebody who is devoted to human rights, I am somebody who believes in an international community and I can’t separate those things. ... I can trace these various parts as having a profound influence on me in one form or another." Madeleine Albright
"This year, Passover and Easter were around the same time, so I went to a Passover seder with one of my friends, Rabbi David Saperstein ... and on Easter Sunday, I went to Harper’s Ferry for Easter sunrise service, which was an ecumenical service. Putting all the stories together, what it makes me think is the extent to which people have a need to believe ... the idea that while we may be divided according to various religions, what is interesting is the similarities of the stories, of people yearning for something and being saved and having the hope of having a better life. Also, the whole aspect of charity and forgiveness and generosity — these are common in all religions as far as I can tell. It’s interesting, I was always the most most religious member of my family. ... Even as a little girl, I played priest. I really find there is a comfort in religion and it doesn’t matter which of the various traditions, it’s a similar aspect. ... The thing that makes me the saddest is the divisions created by religion when it should be the opposite. ... I look for the common threads rather than the divisive ones." Madeleine Albright
"During the Kosovo War, one of the things I did was to hold daily conference calls with the other foreign ministers of NATO. We had the British, the French, the Germans, the Italians and me on the phone. The Italian foreign minister said ‘Why don’t we pause the bombing because it’s Easter?’ And the German official said, ‘Why would we pause to honor one religion while we kill the people of another religion?’ I thought it was one of the most amazing statements in terms of the commonness of identity and the importance of making the right moral decisions." Madeleine Albright
In 1937, Adolf Eichmann's department decided to "concentrate entirely on the total registration of Jews in the Jewish Registry" (Aly & Roth, 2004):
"The registry is of value because it can determine, in addition to purely personal information, the biological, the state-political, (and) the criminal circumstances in view of ethnic German (völkischer), economic, and moral considerations. It is crucial for the non-Germanic registry that each examinee be registered based on his race and family relations." 

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- Aly, G. & Roth, K. H. (2004). The Nazi Census. Identification and Control in the Third Reich. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
- photograph by Stephen Voss via and via

Friday 20 January 2017

Adenoid Hynkel says...

I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone, if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness — not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another.



In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.



The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood, for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world — millions of despairing men, women and little children — victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say — do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed — the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people and so long as men die, liberty will never perish.



Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to brutes — men who despise you — enslave you — who regiment your lives — tell you what to do — what to think or what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men — machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate! Only the unloved hate — the unloved and the unnatural!

Soldiers! Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the 17th Chapter of St. Luke it is written: "the Kingdom of God is within man" — not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people have the power — the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.

Then, in the name of democracy, let us use that power! Let us all unite! Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth the future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie! They do not fulfill their promise; they never will. Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people! Now, let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness. Soldiers! In the name of democracy, let us all unite!

Hannah, can you hear me? Wherever you are, look up, Hannah. The clouds are lifting. The sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world, a kindlier world, where men will rise above their hate, their greed and brutality. Look up, Hannah. The soul of man has been given wings, and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow — into the light of hope, into the future, the glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up, Hannah. Look up.

(via)



images via and via and via

Thursday 19 January 2017

Hallelujah Money

Gorillaz return and release "Hallelujah Money" on the eve of the inauguration of the 45th president of the United States.



Here is our tree
That primitively grows
And when you go to bed
Scarecrows from the far east
Come to eat
Its tender fruits
And I thought the best way to perfect our tree
Is by building walls
Walls like unicorns
In full glory
And galore
And even stronger
Than the walls of Jericho
But glad then my friend
Out in the field we shall reap a better day
What we have always dreamt of having
Are now for the starving
It is love, that is the root of all evil
But not our tree
And thank you my friend
For trusting me

Hallelujah
(Hallelujah)
Hallelujah money
(Past the chemtrails)
Hallelujah money
(Hallelujah money)
Hallelujah money
(Hallelujah money)
Hmmm
Hallelujah money
(Hallelujah)
Hallelujah money (Oooh)

How will we know?
When the morning comes
We are still human
How will we know?
How will we dream?
How will we love?
How will we know?

Don't worry, my friend
If this be the end, then so shall it be
Until we say so, nothing will move
Ah, don't worry
It's not against our morals
It's legal tender
Touch, my friend
While the whole world
And whole beasts of nations desire
Power

When the morning comes
We are still human
How will we know?
How will we dream?
How will we love?
How will we know?

(Hallelujah money)
Hallelujah money
(Past the chemtrails)
Hallelujah money
(Hallelujah money)
Hmmm
Hallelujah money
(Hallelujah money)
Hallelujah money
(Oooh)
Hallelujah money
Hallelujah money
Hallelujah
Hallelujah money!

Lyrics via

Wednesday 18 January 2017

The Mini-Me Syndrome

The mini-me syndrome refers to the phenomenon that - for instance - human resources managers and executives often tend to choose employees and successors who are perceived as similar to themselves. (The mini-me syndrome is also discussed in parent-child relationships.) This similarity can be defined in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, career path or life style. The resulting discrimination is based on a bias people making HR decisions are often not aware of (via). There is no professional recruitment process without bias awareness.



Photograph of Buster Keaton (1895-1966) via

Tuesday 17 January 2017

Park like a girl

“The more I was treated as a woman, the more woman I became. If I was assumed to be incompetent at reversing cars, oddly incompetent I found myself becoming.” (via)



The stereotype is that women are bad at parking - a stereotype that women partly seem to have internalised. According to a survey, only 18% of women think that they are better parkers than men and 28% believe they are better parkers than their partners (Wilson, 2014). New studies also show that while men are faster when it comes to parking, women, in fact, are more accurate. And no, it is not because they are more likely to use cars with park assist systems (Kortus-Schultes). In the U.K., researchers observed 2.500 drivers across 700 parking lots and found that a) women were better at finding spaces (because men drove too quickly) and that b) women were in more accurate positions before starting maneuvers, hence c) more likely to reverse into the spaces. "Based on scores for seven components, women averaged 13.4 points out of 20, compared to the men's score of 12.3." (via). The stereotype, however, will surely continue to exist.

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- Wilson, F. M. (2014) Organizational Behaviour & Work. A Critical Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press
- photograph taken in San Francisco by Fred Lyon via

Monday 16 January 2017

Quoting Virginia Woolf

"For most of history, Anonymous was a woman."
Virginia Woolf

"If we help an educated man's daughter to go to Cambridge are we not forcing her to think not about education but about war? - not how she can learn, but how she can fight in order that she might win the same advantages as her brothers?"
Virginia Woolf



"The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself."
Virginia Woolf

"These are the soul's changes. I don't believe in ageing. I believe in forever altering one's aspect to the sun. Hence my optimism."
Virginia Woolf

"One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them."
Virginia Woolf

"I was in a queer mood, thinking myself very old: but now I am a woman again - as I always am when I write." 
Virginia Woolf

"Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size."
Virginia Woolf

"As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world."
Virginia Woolf

"It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple: one must be a woman manly, or a man womanly." 
Virginia Woolf

"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
Virginia Woolf



Photographs of Adeline Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) by Man Ray via and via

Sunday 15 January 2017

Gordon W. Allport: The Nature of Prejudice (1954)

"Gordon Allport's landmark book, The nature of prejudice, defined the field of intergroup relations for social psychologists as the study of prejudice and its effects on group interactions. He organized existing knowledge about societal, group and personality determinants of prejudice acquisition and persistence in a way that suggested new directions for research. Moreover, he brought the subject of ethnic stereotyping into the mainstream of behavioral science by treating this phenomenon as a special case of ordinary cognitive functioning. (...) Allport was impressed by the apparent nonreversability of ethnic stereotypes; his pessimism about the prospects for immediate prejudice reduction in the United States remains a prevalent point of view among investigators."
Irwin Katz, 1991



Excerpts:

The proverb familiarity breeds contempt contains considerably less than a half-truth. While we sometimes do become bored with our daily routine of living and with some of our customary companions, yet the very values that sustain our lives depend for their force upon their familiarity. What is more, what is familiar tends to become a value. We come to like the style of cooking, the customs, the people, we have grown up with.
Psychologically, the crux of the matter is that the familiar provides the indispensable basis of our existence. Since existence is good, its accompanying groundwork seems good and desirable. A child's parents, neighborhood, region, nation are given to him - so too his religion, race, and social traditions. To him all these affiliations are taken for granted. Since he is part of them, and they are part of him, they are good.

The in-group of sex makes an interesting case study. A child of two normally makes no distinction in his companionships: a little girl or a little boy is all the same to him. Even in the first grade the awareness of sex-groups is relatively slight. Asked whom they would choose to play with, first-grade children on the average choose opposite-sexed children at least a quarter of the time. By the time the fourth grade is reached these cross-sexed choices virtually disappear: only two percent of the children want to play with someone of the opposite sex. (...)
For some people - misogynists among them - the sex-grouping remains important throughout their lives. Women are viewed as a wholly different species from men, usually an inferior species.

If a person is capable of rectifying his erroneous judgments in the light of new evidence he is not prejudiced. Prejudgments become prejudices only if they are reversible when exposed to new knowledge. A prejudice, unlike a simple misconception, is actively resistant to all evidence that would unseat it. We tend to grow emotional when a prejudice is threatened with contradiction. Thus the difference between ordinary prejudgments and prejudice is that one can discuss and rectify a prejudgment without emotional resistance.



"We ar e now in a position to understand and appreciate a major theory of prejudice. It holds that all groups develop a way of living with characteristic codes and beliefs, standards and "enemies" to suit their own adaptive needs."
Gordon W. Allport

"Dogmatism makes for scientific anemia."
Gordon W. Allport

"Many studies have discovered a close link between prejudice and "patriotism" ... Extreme bigots are almost always super-patriots."
Gordon W. Allport

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- Allport, G. W. (1954) The Nature of Prejudice. Unabridged. 25th anniversary edition. Reading et al.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company
- Katz, I. (1991) Gordon Allport's The Nature of Prejudice. Political Psychology, 12(1), 125-157
- photographs of Gordon Willard Allport (1897-1967) via and via

Wednesday 11 January 2017

No one should have no one

Christmas is over and almost a million of people in the UK aged over 60 felt lonelier at Christmas time (via). Feeling lonely continues: About half a million people over the age of 60 usually spend every day alone.



"Most of us have felt very lonely and alone at some point in our lives. It’s a profoundly personal and painful experience and people can feel completely hopeless. Luckily for many, life moves on and these feelings pass.

But for some of us loneliness can become chronic, making us miserable and often causing us to lose self-confidence. It can become increasingly difficult to build new and meaningful relationships that could restore our sense of self and self-worth. The fact that loneliness carries a stigma can make it hard to admit to it and seek help. And often people don’t know where to go for support.

Chronic loneliness is affecting a growing number of older people, in line with the increase in the older population. Age UK estimates that over a million older people are lonely. (...)

Being miserable is bad enough, but there is evidence that chronic loneliness increases the risk of serious health conditions, such as diabetes, heart conditions and strokes, depression and dementia, as well as making it much harder for an individual to help themselves and manage their conditions through exercise and good diet. (...)

A survey of 1,000 GP practices found that nearly 90 per cent felt that some patients were coming because they were lonely, and 14 per cent estimated they were seeing six or more patients a day for this reason."

::: Download: Age UK ( December 2016) No one should have no one. Working to end loneliness amongst older people. 16 pages

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photograph of Margaret Morse Nice (1883-1974) via

Saturday 7 January 2017

Narrative images: At Bishop's Restaurant

"The group has voted to stay here and sing and pray until they are allowed to eat.
The manager will not allow the children to use the bathroom."



"Children holding up handwritten note telling reporters of their group's intent to continue a sit-in at Bishop's Restaurant despite the manager's refusal to serve them or allow them to use the bathroom."
Unknown photographer, Oklahoma City, OK, 1963

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- Speltz, M. (2016). North of Dixie. Civil Rights Photography Beyond The South. Los Angeles: Getty Publications
- photograph via