The State of California Board of Education was recently looking into a new policy of recommending textbooks that include “fair, accurate, inclusive, and respectful representations” of LGBTQ people. And on Nov. 9, the state approved 10 LGBTQ-inclusive history textbooks for kindergarten through eighth-grade classrooms, becoming the first state in the U.S. to do so. The new legislation requires the curriculum include contributions made by members of the LGBTQ community and people with disabilities. The new curriculum will also mention the sexual orientations of historical figures who were LGBTQ, where previously it had been omitted.  The state rejected two books because they failed to abide by California’s 2011 FAIR Education Act. The books…

Turkish tank en route to Syrian borders in Kilis, Turkey, January 22, 2018, to take part in "Operation Olive Branch" in the Afrin region. Picture by Depo Photos/ABACA/ABACA/PA images. All rights reserved. The situation for the Kurds today is reminiscent of the times of the Sykes-Picot agreement and the Sever and Lausanne treaties at the beginning of the last century. As in all exceptional moments in the history of the region, there is much talk about the nature of the Kurds' belonging to the countries where they live, and whether they have separatist projects. In the Syrian case, for example, the question that strongly arises is whether the Kurds in…

There’s a moment on Bedouine’s self-titled debut album that tugs at the heartstrings in an unexpected way. The song “Louise” is the first of two bonus tracks on the album in which singer-songwriter Azniv Korkejian veers away from the English language that has dominated the album’s low-key, folksy sound. Instead, she offers lyrics in Armenian. That alone is unusual, perhaps even radical. There is said to be more than 5 million Armenian speakers globally — not much in the grand scheme of widely understood languages.  “It just occurred to me at one point that I do have this language that I could sing in,” says Korkejian by phone from Toronto, where she…

Screenshot: Steve Bannon, September, 2018. YouTube. “Movement.”  “Alliance.” “Platform.”  Add the term “Progressive” to these words, and you have the latest trend in politics. Anyone can be a “movement” today. We’ve witnessed the movement by alt-right Steve Bannon, across the center of politics all the way to so-called progressive movements by neo-Marxists such as Yanis Varoufakis, Sarah Wagenknecht or Jean-Luc Mélanchon. Why are voters – and especially the media – so attracted to the latest “movement of the month?”  Admittedly, political parties carry the odour of an outdated and worn-out entity no longer useful in our modern society. As opposed to this old school concept, a movement ostensibly carries the notion of a…

Last month, Brianna Brochu, a white student at the University of Hartford, was charged with breach of peace and criminal mischief for allegedly harassing her black roommate, Chennel “Jazzy” Rowe, by smearing bodily fluids on her backpack, adding toxic things to her lotion, and putting her toothbrush “where the sun don’t shine.” A recent survey found that white millennials are more aligned with white people than they are with other millennials in terms of how they feel about the country, Donald Trump, and race. Respondents of all races (and nearly all respondents of color) overwhelmingly indicated that they were embarrassed by the president and afraid of his actions. However, white millennials were evenly divided…

This image, featuring Yugolavian President Slobodan Milosevic, internal security chief Radomir Markovic, and military leaders Colonel General Dragolub Ojdanic, Lieutenant Colonel General Pavkovic, was shown at a Ministry of Defence press briefing in London, March 29, 1999. PA/Press Associaition. All rights reserved.The term itself is dubious. But it’s currently used by learned cyber-experts all over the world, who are usually getting at something fairly simple: the internet, supposed to be a unitary global platform bringing people together, is being split along very non-cyber and real national borders. The evidence is real enough: economic opportunism and aggressive spy agencies around the world are demanding that big tech store the internet’s preferred…

THE GOOD NEWS: Scientists may be able to bring the northern white rhinoceros back from extinction through in vitro fertilization.   March 19, 2018, was a sad day for conservationists. Sudan, the last living northern white rhinoceros, was put down after complications from multiple infections at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. He is survived by his daughter, Najin, and granddaughter, Fatu. The northern white rhino saw a decline in numbers due to poachers, habitat destruction, and war. A century ago, there were over 500,000 rhinos living across Africa; now all but two species are on the endangered list. In 1960, there were approximately 2,000 northern white rhinos, but the species…

On Monday, ESPN broadcast the second half of the NFL’s week one Monday night doubleheader, an AFC West rivalry matchup between the Denver Broncos and San Diego Los Angeles Chargers from Denver. While the Broncos’ last-second thwarting of the Chargers’ fourth-quarter comeback was exciting, the game will be most remembered as a landmark in diversity. In the broadcast booth at Sports Authority Field at Mile High was Beth Mowins, a veteran college football broadcaster who became the first woman to announce a Monday Night Football game. On the sidelines, it was also the Monday Night Football debut of Sergio Dipp, a Mexican-American reporter who spent the last four years of his career…

Surely, French cartoonist Cécile Dormeau knows that her illustrations will reach a smaller audience due to their earnest depiction of naked women’s bodies. But to compromise on that front would be to dilute the sole message she is working to convey.  A graphic designer by trade, Dormeau has taken to posting her illustrations and animations on her Instagram account to show that women aren’t alone in their struggles to maintain body positivity in cultures that often shoot down every attempt to do so. The key to her approach, according to the artist herself, is to offer up the good with the bad in crafting a message that will be received as…

Screenshot: Gay mime story performed at the California Men's Gatherings in Malibu in 2005. Youtube.It was about 50 years ago that the Women’s Liberation Movement began to speak out and protest against not only gender inequality and patriarchal social norms, but also forms of abuse against women. The classic name for men who sexually harassed women was ‘chauvinist pigs’. Back then, this term was widely and enthusiastically deployed in many different (and entirely appropriate) situations of sexual harassment. Having been a psychotherapist with female clients who were experiencing or had experienced abusive behaviour by males, I joined other men in severely criticizing that behaviour. But I am saddened that women still,…