Foreign Dispatches

No Minarets in Switzerland

As you might have heard, the citizens of Switzerland have just passed a constitutional amendment banning the construction of minarets in their country. In light of the lopsided margin by which the amendment passed (57% voted in favor it), there can be little doubt that it represents the opinion of the majority of Swiss adults in a clearly "democratic" manner; furthermore, it is clear that out of all the world's major religions, Islam presents unique difficulties for any state which wishes to retain the values of enlightenment liberalism and openness: as such, the decision of the Swiss public cannot simply be dismissed out of hand as an act of knee-jerk reaction.  And yet, just having said all of the preceding, I cannot allow any doubt to remain on one point, which is that I consider this Swiss resolution to be a colossal act of foolishness.

Indians Really are Color-Struck

That's the only thing I can gather from watching this travesty of an advertisement. This is obviously a spot with high production values, shot for use with a mainstream audience, so the fact that its message is thought acceptable says a great deal about how Indians see the world. Reminds me of the (far from) good ol' days in America: "if you're white, you're all right, if you're brown, stick around, if you're dark, stay back!" Except Indians would seem to be even more restrictive than that, going by this advert: Michael Jackson would probably have been seen as a hero for his (allegedly) vitiligo-inspired transformation ...

Sarah Palin Supporters are Uninformed

And that is putting it mildly.

Seeing as this video was put out by an outfit calling itself "New Left Media", it is natural to harbor suspicions about the objectivity of what one is seeing: for all one knows, these guys could have thrown out all of the material showing Palin backers in a more favorable light, leaving only the clips portraying "Sarah Barracuda" fans as ignorant, paranoid, xenophobic dopes parroting ridiculous right-wing propaganda.

Still, given what we know of Sarah Palin's intellectual abilities (marginal) and ideological coherence (non-existent), there is every reason to believe that this video isn't far off the mark. If anything, the video seems to suggest that Sarah Palin has a lot more female support than she actually does, as if her primary support consisted of women engaging in the shallowest form of identity politics; most of the former governor's support actually comes from conservative males, and when one takes this odd gender skew into consideration, I think its pretty clear that neither policy considerations nor a perception of fitness for office have much to do with Palin's appeal. Let's just say Palin wouldn't have any "base" to speak of were there not so many sexually frustrated men out there ...

The Ultimate Site for (Straight) Men

What do you get when you combine two of the things straight guys love to look at most? A site like this.  Doesn't Michael Bay have a patent on this already?

PS: While we're at it, let me take this opportunity to say that I love Michael Bay's movies, and I do mean that in an entirely un-ironic way. Sometimes one wants to take a break from thinking about Malliavin calculus, the narrative structure of "The Guermantes Way", mereological essentialism or some other such bit of intellectual heavy lifting, and on such occasions there are few things quite as diverting as watching mammarily well-endowed women running in slow motion from huge explosions. Pseudo-intellectual film critics and  pretentious wannabe "auteurs" may not like Michael Bay's stuff, but they're precisely the sorts of people for whom the likes of Lars "von" [sic] Trier make unwatchable tripe; car chases, fireballs and scantily-clad women do a fine job for the remaining 99.9% of humanity (or its straight male portion, at any rate). Michael Bay is no hack!

The Glorious United Nations in Action

I don't have much patience or respect for the United Nations as an organization, nor am I able to take seriously those who insist on giving it primacy in international affairs. The shameful episode below gives one illustration of why I think the way I do.

Where the Beautiful People (Are)n't

If you keep your ear out for weird news, you may have heard a thing or two about a dating site meant exclusively for the "beautiful people", and called, naturally enough, BeautifulPeople. Well, the site does indeed seem to take its exclusivity seriously, at least if judged by the number of rejections handed out to date: 1.8 million of them, as opposed to 360,000 new approvals, and this in an already self-selected pool of applicants. 

Prudish Brazilians?

I know it sounds oxymoronic to associate the land of the samba and the Brazilian wax with prudery, but that's exactly what this strange story suggests.

A Brazilian university has publicly expelled a woman who was heckled by hundreds of fellow students for wearing a short, pink skirt to class, taking out newspaper ads today to publicly accuse her of immorality.

The private Bandeirante University in São Bernardo do Campo, outside of São Paulo, said 20-year-old Geisy Arruda disrespected "ethical principles and academic dignity and morality".

Arruda made headlines last month when she had to be escorted away by police after she tried to go to class wearing the mini-dress. She put on a professor's white coat and left amid a hail of insults and curses.

Video footage of the incident, which occurred last month, was posted on YouTube and picked up by Brazilian networks.

Something isn't right here: one would have thought most young Brazilian adults incapable of batting an eye to something as mundane as a miniskirt, so ordinary a sight it would be for them. There must be another angle to this story that has yet to be told, e.g. is this university some sort of religiously motivated establishment, a Catholic Bob Jones University or something along those lines?

When in Germany, Speak German

I've just discovered on Der Spiegel's English-language pages that there's currently some sort of controversy taking place due to the insistence of Guido Westerwelle, Germany's new Foreign Minister, on answering a press conference question in German. Below is the video of said incident.

Supposedly the events shown above have unleashed a wave of sarcasm and derision at Mr. Westerwelle's expense, but I really can't see what is problematic about his statements: on the contrary, I think the opposite is true, and it is the British journalist who ought to be ashamed for arrogantly expecting Germany's Foreign Minister, speaking in Germany, to cater to the journalist's linguistic ignorance, as if Westerwelle were a local tribal chief reporting to a colonial overlord. Furthermore, there are genuine reasons of statecraft which justify Westerwelle's position; international politics is a field in which even small misunderstandings can lead to severe consequences, and however skilled in English a German politicians or diplomats may be, they will almost always be more fluent in their own language. As such, to conduct any dealings of state in a foreign language is usually a mistake, unless one happens to be an ambassador or a statesman uttering a few words just for rhetorical effect (e.g. "Ich bin ein Berliner").

I can understand to a certain extent why so many Germans should think there's something odd about what Westerwelle said: part of it has to do with the pride many Germans take in their English-language abilities, and another aspect is that semi-instinctive opposition to any form of national self-assertion stemming from Germany's 20th century history. Still, historical issues notwithstanding, I imagine that most Germans would like their Foreign Minister to conduct his duties to Germany's benefit in as far as possible, and that is best done by speaking the language he knows best, not by pandering to a dumb foreign journalist (and on the journalistic side, one has to wonder who was dumb enough to send to such an important country a representative without the linguistic skills or basic modicum of sensitivity to do his job in the native language). Deutsche! Dr. Westerwelle war völlig korrekt!

Going by the evidence of the following clip, Westerwelle's English seems perfectly fine. He does pause quite a bit to think, but then again, he's no worse in this respect than a certain recent former US President, and unlike said (supposedly native English-speaking) President, Westerwelle's response actually makes complete sense.

Women Should be Heard, Not Seen

That seem to be the position of certain broadcasters in Saudi Arabia, at any rate.

JEDDAH: A new TV show that discusses issues concerning teenage girls and female university students was recently broadcast with Saudi presenters dressed in black from head to toe. The show — named Asrar Al-Banat (The Secrets of Girls) — is broadcast on Awtan TV, a Saudi religious channel that was first aired in August 2008 and has women broadcasters who are covered in the all-enveloping abaya and niqab

No doubt the sight of figures shrouded in amorphous black outfits makes for compelling television ... 

Audiophile Madness

How far are you willing to go in the search for the perfect listening experience? Not anywhere near as far as these folks, I'll bet.