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A civil war in the ranks of student activists, a memorial to Nicholas Winton’s Kinderstransport and a review of the latest happenings in the EU referendum are the three topics for this week.
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Tsai Ing-wen’s victory in the Taiwanese elections, the all-white shortlist for this year’s Oscars and the events of New Year’s Eve in Cologne in Germany dominate the discussion this week for the Right Dishonourable.
Firstly Jazza uses his extensive knowledge of Taiwanese politics to break down what Tsai and the Democratic Progressive Party will do with the country, particularly in relation to China.
Next we turn to why the #OscarsSoWhite, and why Jimmy isn’t too fussed about it.
Last we cover the attacks in Cologne perpetrated by migrant men against young women, which has thrown up a few problems for liberals and progressives making the case that Europe should keep its doors open in the wake of the migration crisis.
Image Credit – Tsai Ing-wen, March 2009 by David Reid; Somewhere Inside the Machine, January 2014 by Robert Couse-Baker; Cologne, Germany, July 2011 by Michael Rastetter
Some of you may still remember Tony Abbott, the Australian prime minister who was turfed out by his old buddy Malcolm Turnbull in a brutal political coup back in September.
At the end of October, and presumably with a lighter schedule, Abbott spoke at the Second Annual Margaret Thatcher Lecture at the Guildhall in the City of London, the seat of the shady body that runs the capital’s financial borough.
American presidential candidate Donald Trump is continuing to spout populist policies as he tells Syrian refugees that if he takes the White House “they are going back” to the Middle East.
Speaking at a rally in New Hampshire the Trumpster claimed that the United States had “totally wiped out Iraq” and “totally destabilised the Middle East”, but went on the say that he would send back any people fleeing Syria as the country’s civil war rages on.
Censorship fans lined up to condemn French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for a set of cartoons mocking the West’s response to the ongoing migration crisis.
Peter Herbert, chair of the Society of Black Lawyers, threatened to take the magazine to the International Criminal Court over two cartoons featuring Aylan Kurdi, a Syrian toddler whose corpse was photographed after it washed onto the shores of Turkey.
Charlie Hebdo is a purely racist, xenophobic and ideologically bankrupt publication that represents the moral decay of France.
— D Peter Herbert OBE (@herbert_donald) September 14, 2015
The Society of Black Lawyers will consider reporting this as incitement to hate crime & persecution before the International Criminal Court — D Peter Herbert OBE (@herbert_donald) September 14, 2015
Whilst Herbert has an OBE it clearly is unrelated to services in understanding the meaning of cartoons, since both of the Charlie Hebdo pieces in question attack the West rather than the migrants.
Source: Charlie Hebdo via Blazing Cat Fur
The image on the left roughly reads: “The proof that Europe is Christian. Christians walk on water. Muslim children sink.”
This references several Eastern European leaders who have opposed refugees because they are Muslim, the east of the continent being more homogenous than the likes of France, Germany or Britain.
The image on the right roughly reads: “So near the goal.” And the billboard reads: “Promotion! Two children’s meals for the price of one.”
Far from attacking Kurdi or the Syrian refugees, this is intended to attack Western consumerism in the face of refugees’ suffering, Charlie Hebdo being staffed by a number of committed socialists.
Maajid Nawaz, founding chair of anti-extremist group the Quilliam Foundation, wrote on Facebook:
“Fellow Muslims, please, if you don’t get satire just ask someone before assuming an intelligent left-wing satirical magazine isn’t satire. Taste is always in the eye of the beholder. But these cartoons are a damning indictment on our anti-refugee sentiment.”
This didn’t stop a number of ignoramuses misinterpreting the cartoon, in turn vindicating the work of Charlie Hebdo, which has attacked everything from Catholicism to sexism to the West to Islam, the latter of which resulted in a gun attack on the magazine’s Paris office in January, killing many of the most prominent cartoonists.
In the guise of “Freedom of Expression”, Charlie Hebdo mocks the death of #Aylan. pic.twitter.com/apWK9BUIml
— Majid Agha (@Majid_Agha) September 14, 2015
Ladies and gentleman, Charlie Hebdo. That’s why i was not and will never be Charlie. How can you mock that poor kid?? pic.twitter.com/q56oNrZgnY — Zariyab Mhd (@iZariyab) September 13, 2015
Image Credit – Je Suis Charlie, January 2015 by Thierry Ehrmann