RUTHFULLY YOURS

On April 9th, after a 24-year delay, the Ukrainian parliament (Rada) passed legislation banning communist propaganda [1] along with its symbols, from street names and flags, to monuments and plaques [2].

The new legislation, passed by 56% of parliamentarians, declares the communist government that ruled Ukraine during the Soviet era a criminal regime that conducted policies of state terror. The ban similarly extends to Nazi propaganda and symbols, though unlike communism, Nazism hardly has a following in a country that was hit hard during WWII and the Nazi occupation.

With urgent and serious problems facing Ukraine’s economy, finances, and government reform, and while fighting a war with Russia-backed separatists, what caused the rush to condemn Nazism and communism simultaneously?

On the surface, bundling together these two anti-human, totalitarian ideologies may seem like a symbolic gesture, but in reality each was banned for a very different practical reason, both of them of an existential nature.

Communism 2.0: Russians of the world, unite!

Since the beginning of Ukrainian independence, local communists have remained loyal to Moscow, doing the bidding of the political forces in Russia that sought the restoration of the totalitarian Soviet empire. Protected by the constitution, communist demagoguery has worked as a busy conduit for the Kremlin’s anti-Ukrainian and anti-Western imperial agenda.

Geo-engineering has become a buzzword again, thanks to a recent two-volume report of the US National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council [NAS-NRC 2015; http://bit.ly/EOSNRC]. Driven by exaggerated concerns about greenhouse (GH) warming catastrophes, the reports pursued mainly two project ideas:

Reducing atmospheric levels of the GH-gas CO2, starting with fairly innocuous schemes like planting tree farms to fertilizing the Southern Oceans by adding missing micro-nutrients (an idea much favored by the late oceanographer Roger Revelle) – all the way to full-scale engineering proposals that involve the direct removal of ambient CO2, with subsequent underground sequestration – a vastly more expensive undertaking of dubious technical feasibility.
The other favored approach would try to increase Earth’s albedo to reduce the amounts of solar energy reaching the surface. In analogy with volcanic eruptions, reflective aerosols would be injected into the stratosphere – a costly and unproven scheme, likely to constitute an environmental hazard to stratospheric ozone.

It is doubtful that either project will gain approval – beyond further studies and some feasibility tests. Costs and risks are too high, and they may not even be needed.

Last night my 14 year old grand daughter who loves reading Shakespeare went to see an “all woman version of “Othello”- Oh Puleez!!!! rsk

http://www.buzzfeed.com/shannonkeating/is-othello-with-an-all-female-cast-a-feminist-play#.qlMpNv2ky “A production of “An Evening With Desdemona and Emilia” starring Cynthia Nixon, Uzo Aduba, and Heather Lind sparked conversations about the contemporary epidemic of violence against women.”
Ms. Cohen is an English professor and dean of Pennoni Honors College at Drexel University. Her novel “Beatrice Bunson’s Guide to Romeo and Juliet” will be published by Paul Dry Books next January.

Of all the courses I have taught over my 30 years as an English professor, the one that I enjoy teaching most and that students seem to enjoy taking most is “Shakespeare.”

That’s the title. Not “Shakespeare and the Elizabethan World” or “Shakespeare and Stagecraft”; not “Shakespeare and Imperialism,” “Shakespeare and Gender,” or “Shakespeare and Postmodern Theory.”

I don’t even title the course, as I once did, “Introduction to Shakespeare,” though it is open to all students and has no prerequisites. Appending “introduction to” would admittedly emphasize the fact that Shakespeare is a vast and deep terrain, but it would also suggest that the course leads to “Advanced Shakespeare.”

And then he came back.

23-year-old Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud left his home in Columbus, Ohio in April 2014 and traveled to Syria with intentions of joining an Islamic terrorist group. He was following in the footsteps of his brother, who had arrived in Syria the year before and fought alongside the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front before being killed in battle in June 2014.

It’s unclear whether Mohamud intended to link up with ISIS or with Al-Nusra. What is clear, according to the federal indictment against him, is that he hooked up with terrorists in Syria who provided him with training and then, a mission: to return to the United States and carry out terror attacks on American soil.

The order to return home was reportedly given by a jihadist cleric in Syria. And Mohamud did what any loyal, fanatical jihadist would do–he followed orders.

Mr. Mattis, a retired four-star U.S. Marine Corps general and former commander of U.S. Central Command, is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution.

A retired four-star Marine Corps general on the clarifying effect of combat experience, the poison of cynicism and how veterans can help revive American optimism.

Our country gives hope to millions around the world, and you—who knew that at one time your job was to fight well—kept that hope alive. By your service you made clear your choice about what kind of world we want for our children: The world of violent jihadist terrorists, or one defined by Abraham Lincoln when he advised us to listen to our better angels?

I searched for words to pay my respects to all of you here tonight and had to turn to others more articulate than I to convey what our service meant. Someone once said that America is like a bank: If you want to take something out, then you must be willing to put something in.

For the veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars—poorly explained and inconclusive wars, the first major wars since our Revolution fought without a draft forcing some men into the ranks—the question of what our service meant may loom large in your minds. You without doubt have put something into the nation’s moral bank.

Rest assured that by your service, you sent a necessary message to the world and especially to those maniacs who thought by hurting us that they could scare us.

Attention parents of college students across America. Apparently, your children may not be safe.

This isn’t a warning about real physical dangers on campus, from sexual assault to random shootings. Rather, some advocacy groups say college students are at risk – maybe you’d better sit down for this – of being exposed to ideas and opinions they may not like.

It’s getting so bad that this week, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) New York chapter demanded that Brooklyn College “take measures to ensure the safety of Muslim and Arab-American students” because of an upcoming speech by a harsh critic of Islam.

Pamela Geller, who has posted bus ads comparing Islamic terrorists to savages, is a polarizing figure. But her speech will be just that – a speech at a college campus. Not too long ago, such places encouraged students to “think the unthinkable, discuss the unmentionable, and challenge the unchallengeable.”

We live in a country where we embrace liberal democracy, gender equality, freedom of speech and individual freedoms, so we naïvely think that everyone who comes here has the same values. Wrong. Those are the very values that the terrorists abhor.

We must be aware that there are organizations and individuals right here in the United States and Canada who have exactly the same ideology as Boko Haram, the Taliban and ISIS. The only difference is these North American organizations are required to follow the law of the land.

In many instances, these subversive organizations have succeeded in suppressing free speech by aggressively intimidating academic institutions.

This threatening, silencing and censoring is the other face of terrorism.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The Israeli government’s decision to apply to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), despite Washington’s displeasure, is an expression of Israel’s strong interest in increasing its economic engagement in Asia.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his capacity as minister of finance, signed a letter of application to join the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) on March 31, despite Washington’s displeasure. Fully aware of Washington’s failed attempt to convince its allies not to join the AIIB, the decision to apply demonstrates Israel’s understanding of the rising importance of Asia, especially China, to Israel’s economy.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: China’s “New Silk Road” is Beijing’s latest project aimed at creating a belt of railroads, highways, pipelines and broadband communications stretching through China to the West, and a “maritime Silk Road” combining sea routes with port infrastructure from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean. This project comes at a point where the role of the US in the Middle East is declining, and it is likely that China will aspire to adopt a larger role in the region. Israel’s geographical position and technological advances makes it possible for Israel to play a bridgehead role in the project, and the opportunity to shape Chinese thinking and strategy in the region for decades to come.

China’s “New Silk Road” might become history’s most ambitious investment in infrastructure. Some Chinese strategists predict an Israeli role in the project on par with, or possibly even more important, than that of Turkey. China calls the project “One Belt and One Road,” referring to a belt of railroads, highways, pipelines and broadband communications stretching through China to the West, and a “maritime Silk Road” combining sea routes with port infrastructure from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean.

SIGNAL, Sino-Israel Global Network & Academic Leadership, (中 以 学术 交流促进协会) is an action-oriented institute enhancing China’s and Israel’s strategic, diplomatic, cultural and economic relationship through high level interchange. SIGNAL has established significant, long-term alliances between China and Israel that serve as the foundation for mutually beneficial and broad-based cooperation between the two nations.

Aims and Objectives

SIGNAL, Sino-Israel Global Network & Academic Leadership, was founded with the aim of focusing on the realm of academia to enhance China’s and Israel’s strategic, diplomatic, cultural and economic relations. Significant, long-term academic alliances between China and Israel will surely cement and promote mutually beneficial and broad-based cooperation between the two nations.

China’s importance on the global scene cannot be overemphasized. Israel excels in innovation and creative solutions. Thus far, the absence of an established platform for leading professors and academic analysts in Israel and China to exchange views and knowledge on the intellectual plane has undoubtedly limited the kind of concentrated, innovative thought and cooperation that can advance local and global stability. A well-conceived program that opens an ongoing academic dialogue between these two nations, which share so many historical, cultural and contemporary parallels, is therefore bound to engender tectonic, positive changes.

Both China and Israel realize they have much to gain by enhancing their academic relations. Scholars, leaders of academic institutions and experts from both nations have expressed great interest in developing closer academic ties through SIGNAL’s various programs, such as:

The Virtual Resource Center – the first Chinese-language source of both introductory and scholarly materials on Israel and its people.
The historic establishment of the first Israel Studies Program (ISP) at a Chinese university – Sichuan International Studies University in Chongqing.
A series of China-Israel strategic studies seminars, conferences and workshops.
Scholar and student exchanges, promoting the pursuit of academic degrees in Israel by Chinese and in China by Israelis, facilitating relationships between Israeli and Chinese authors and publishers, and many more programs.