“The quotes from this book are heartbreaking. Children being lied to by their parents under the influence of trans ideology, in ways that will cause lifelong harm.” – Helen Joyce
The response in the West to the Hamas terror attack and kidnapping of Israeli citizens is worth analyzing. Major Western institutions lent their support to the cause of “Free Palestine” and the like. It seems a bit off target to me, as better messaging would focus on Hamas freeing the hostages and surrendering the individuals responsible for committing gross acts of terror and barbarity against a civilian population.
In most of the protest coverage I’ve seen there has been little to no call for accountability upon the elected government of Gaza (Hamas). What I have seen and heard are slogans around the theme of “Palestine from the River to the Sea.”
FILE – Pro-Palestinian protesters take part in a rally to express solidarity with Palestinians, in front of the parliament, in Athens, Greece, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. The Jordan River is a winding, 200-plus-mile run to the east of Israel and the West Bank. The sea is the glittering Mediterranean to its west. But a phrase about the space in-between, “from the river to the sea,” has become a battle cry with new power to roil Jews and pro-Palestinian activists in the aftermath of Hamas’ murderous rampage across southern Israel Oct. 7 and Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis, File)
So, from “The River to the Sea” is the complete erasure of the state of Israel and the expulsion/decimation of the Jewish people that live there. You would think that people involved in protests that used this slogan would be horrified and not participate in protests calling for genocide. The sentiment was repeated by union leaders in Canada:
“Mr. Hahn, whose CUPE Ontario represents almost 300,000 workers and calls itself the “political wing of the Canadian Union of Public Employees,” said in one social-media post on Sunday, the day after the initial attacks, that he was thankful for “the power of resistance around the globe.”
He added that “resistance is fruitful and no matter what some might say, resistance brings progress.” He also shared an image on Instagram that contained the text, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – a phrase associated with calls for the destruction of Israel.
On Tuesday, Mr. Ford condemned Mr. Hahn’s posts. Mr. Ford said in a statement that he does not believe Mr. Hahn’s views reflect those of the tens of thousands of workers represented by the union.
“The comments by the president of CUPE Ontario glorifying and celebrating the rape, abduction and murder of innocent Israeli people are disturbing, and I denounce them wholeheartedly,” the statement said.”
Yeah. Canadian Universities were also getting in on celebrating or at least not speaking out against the rape, abduction, and murder of innocent people. (Some American Universities were also complicit.)
“A statement from McMaster began with the phrase, “Violence is never the answer and we hope that everyone would focus on the human costs when such attacks on civilians occur.” It added: “Our thoughts are with our students, faculty and staff, both Israeli and Palestinian, who have family and loved ones in the area.” An initial statement from the University of Toronto expressed concern for the safety of students and faculty in the Middle East, and those who have friends or family there.
Several social-media users reacted with outrage to the statements, which they characterized as inappropriately ambivalent. Andrew Morris, a professor at the University of Toronto’s faculty of medicine, was among them.”
One would think that it would be a fairly easy slam dunk to condemn actions that included the rape, torture and kidnapping of civilians. For the record –
“According to the Israeli prime minister’s office, more than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel, with 6,900 others injured. At least 32 of those killed are Americans. And Israeli officials say 239 people are being held hostage in Gaza. Ten Americans remain unaccounted for, “some significant number” of which are hostages, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Oct. 24. Israeli officials say 357 IDF soldiers have been killed since Oct. 7, including 39 since the ground campaign began.”
Canadian Unions and Universities dropped the ball on this one and at least three are being taken to court for their lack of action on antisemitism.
Hopefully the lawsuits will be a reminder to them of the Western values they should be defending.
The Concierto de Aranjuez was inspired by the gardens at the Royal Palace of Aranjuez, the spring resort palace and gardens built by Philip II in the last half of the 16th century and rebuilt in the middle of the 18th century by Ferdinand VI. The work attempts to transport the listener to another place and time through the evocation of the sounds of nature.
According to the composer, the first movement is “animated by a rhythmic spirit and vigour without either of the two themes… interrupting its relentless pace”; the second movement “represents a dialogue between classical guitar and solo instruments (cor anglais, bassoon, oboe, horn etc.)”; and the last movement “recalls a courtly dance in which the combination of double and triple time maintains a taut tempo right to the closing bar.” He described the concerto itself as capturing “the fragrance of magnolias, the singing of birds, and the gushing of fountains” in the gardens of Aranjuez.
Rodrigo and his wife Victoria stayed silent for many years about the inspiration for the second movement, and thus the popular belief grew that it was inspired by the bombing of Guernica in 1937. In her autobiography, Victoria eventually declared that it was both an evocation of the happy days of their honeymoon and a response to Rodrigo’s devastation at the miscarriage of their first pregnancy. It was composed in 1939 in Paris.
Rodrigo dedicated the Concierto de Aranjuez to Regino Sainz de la Maza.
Rodrigo, nearly blind since age three, was a pianist. He did not play the guitar, yet he still managed to capture and project the role of the guitar in Spanish music.
“Right, I’ve been doing some reading (and writing) about young women’s experiences in public space, and it’s made me so angry and upset that I have to share a digest with you all.
Globally, during adolescence, ‘girls’ worlds shrink, while boys’ expand’. One study finds that the map of 14-yo girls’ day-to-day movements is 2/5 the size of that of their 11-yo selves, and only 1/3 the size of 14-yo male peers’ movements.
The shrinking of teenage girls’ access to public space correlates to reduction in girls’ ability to exercise. In Texas, teenage girls do 65% less physical activity than boys. Girls drop out of sport clubs in adolescence at far higher rates than boys. This sets a trend for life.
Numerous factors influence girls’ shrinking access to public space. Some are to do with gender roles in families. A study in rural Australia found that boys tend to be given outdoor chores (mowing the lawn), whereas girls are given indoor ones (washing up etc).
Girls in larger families are less likely to visit parks – probably because parents are less able to chaperone them, and there is a stronger expectation that girls, rather than boys, require chaperoning around public space.
But the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR that deters teenage girls from public places is… the presence of men. Teenage girls in western Australia say openly that ‘they’d use [public] spaces more if boys weren’t around.’
Park features that attract boys and men – such as ‘organized sport settings’ like courts – are repeatedly shown to deter girls. Teenage girls are often seen to gravitate towards playgrounds – the only area of parks consistently populated more by adult women than men.
Girls themselves report 2 main reasons for avoiding spaces dominated by men. The 1st is self-conciousness. The majority of teenage girls interviewed have experience of being taunted by male peers (and male teachers) for their appearance and sporting competence.
But the principal reason is FEAR. Australian teenage girls describe parks as the LEAST safe public space, followed by streets, then public transport. 60% of 13yo girls in Stockholm say they are scared in their own neighbourhood.
In South Africa, girls label over 58% of public spaces ‘unsafe’/ ‘very unsafe’, & areas that boys find ‘extremely safe’ (including schools) girls describe as ‘very unsafe’. Sometimes girls fear is about injury, & girls care more about the maintenance of public spaces like parks.
But mostly girls fear violence and sexual crimes from boys and men. And, across all the studies I’ve read, the teenage girls who were interviewed had direct experience, or had been witnesses to, harassment, stalking, intimidation and assaults from boys and men.
Teenage girls have coping mechanisms for these constraints on their access to public space. Some report trying to behave assertively, to not show fear. In parks, girls are reluctant to engage in exercise & prefer to ‘walk, sit or lay down’ in innocuous places, such as under trees.
In public swimming pools, girls try to make themselves less visible – by swimming in t-shirts, covering themselves with towels until the last moment, or hiding themselves among friends. They try to not draw attention to themselves, by jumping in, messing around or ‘having fun’.
But many deal with these constraints by simply avoiding public space altogether.Many girls explicitly avoid parks & courts. Many retreat to their bedrooms, where girls spend much more time than boys. One girl refers to her room as ‘the only place in the world where she felt safe’
I find this heart-breaking & enraging. I knew from my own experience that women have different responses to public space than men, but I thought I’d become hardened. But reading these studies, in which adolescent girls experience their world & possibilities contracting, is 💔
There are interventions that can help teenage girls to feel more at home in public space, &, by being able to exercise, to be more at home in their bodies. @CCriadoPerez’s wonderful Invisible Women describes interventions made by park planners in Sweden to encourage girls’ access
Better lighting has been shown to attract teenage girls to parks (and, interestingly, to deter teenage boys 🤔), and this describes similar environmental changes to make public space more hospitable to womenSimilarly, there are efforts to improve teenage girls’ experience of school sport: more time to get changed & giving girls better choice of sports (girls report how boys are encouraged to ‘go outside’, while they are confined to ‘dancing studios’).
‘By secondary it’s too late’ – readers on promoting girls’ school sports
Teachers, parents and pupils have their say on what needs to be done to encourage more girls to enjoy physical educationBUT one of the MOST effective interventions is to give girls access to spaces without men. It’s sad that it’s necessary, but allowing girls to participate in single-sex sports is repeatedly shown to increase participation and enjoyment.
Women-only sessions in public spaces like swimming pools allows girls to participate without harassment. Martha Brady shows how facilitating girls’ sports in single-sex spaces can be a way of ‘bringing girls into the public sphere’.
I used to be a bit jokey about the question, ‘women, what would you do if there was a curfew for men?’ But reading this material has made me realise how women are ourselves operating under a curfew. I’m sure many of us feel similarly to teenage girls retreating to our bedrooms.
This material has made me realise how important it is to grasp the extent to which women’s access to PUBLIC space is curtailed – the impact this has on our lives & health & happiness – & to devise ways for girls & women to take up occupation of space they have a right to be in.”
Thank you to Eva Kurilova for finding this resolution. There is hope that we can have a return to sanity here in Alberta.
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