Quotulatiousness

March 9, 2014

More on that “cultural appropriation” meme

Filed under: Media, Middle East, Politics — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 10:45

A couple of days back, I linked to a Salon article where an Arab woman was expressing her anguish and hurt that non-Arabs were appropriating belly dancing and how this was something she just couldn’t stand to see. Eugene Volokh responds in the Washington Post, asking “What would Salon think of an article called, ‘Why I can’t stand Asian musicians who play Beethoven’?”:

Appropriation — the horror! People treating artistic genres as if they were great ideas that are part of the common stock of humanity, available for all humanity to use, rather than the exclusive property of some particular race or ethnic group. What atrocity will the culturally insensitive appropriators think of next? East Asian cellists? Swedish chess players? The Japanese putting on Shakespeare? Jews playing Christians’ Christian music, such as Mozart’s masses? Arriviste Jewish physicists using work done for centuries by Christians? Russian Jews writing about Anglo-American law? Indians writing computer programs, using languages and concepts pioneered by Americans and Europeans? Japanese companies selling the most delicious custard cream puffs? Shame, shame, shame.

But, wait: Maybe — and I know this is a radical thought — artists, whether high or low, should be able to work in whatever artistic fields they want to work in. Maybe they should even be able to work in those fields regardless of their skin color or the place from which their ancestors came.

Maybe telling people that they can’t work in some field because they have the wrong color or ancestry would be … rats, I don’t know what to call it. If only there were an adjective that could be used to mean “telling people that they mustn’t do something, because of their race or ethnic origin.”

Prime Minister jets off to South Korea for trade deal photo-op

Filed under: Asia, Cancon, Economics — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 10:32

It’s not clear whether Prime Minister Stephen Harper is going to Seoul to actually sign a free trade agreement with South Korea or if it’s just another grip-and-grin photo-op to announce an as-yet-unfinalized deal:

Harper said on his 24 Seven webcast that this would be Canada’s first trade deal in the Asia-Pacific region.

“It adds, obviously, to the important deals we have in the Americas and in Europe now. And it’s really given the Canadian economy as good, if not better, free-trade access than virtually every major developed economy,” he said.

Harper added that South Korea is “a relatively open economy, a relatively, very progressive economy and advanced democracy, and it has trade linkages all through Asia itself.” He said it’s “probably the best gateway you can get into long-term trade agreement access into the Asia-Pacific region.”

NDP trade critic Don Davies said growing trade with South Korea and Asia in general is a good thing. But he was skeptical that the week’s coming ceremonies would amount to much more of a repeat of Brussels.

“Are they going to go just to shake hands, have a photo-op and sign an agreement-in-principle without the actual details or text to be released?”

Davies again assailed the government for a total lack of transparency, and questioned whether the deal would be able to protect jobs in Canada’s auto sector.

“In trade deals, it’s details that matter,” he said.

“The Conservatives have the least transparent trade policy probably in the developed world. They are closed, they are secretive and they don’t involve a lot of stakeholders; they don’t involve the opposition.”

The deal would mark progress toward expanding trade with Asia, a major economic priority of the Harper government. Coming on the heels of the Canada-EU pact, it would allow Prime Minister Stephen Harper to trumpet his first significant free-trade deal in Asia, and give impetus to other negotiations, particularly with Japan.

“Legal tampering period” kicks off, and more on the Matt Cassel signing

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 09:53

We’re in that odd block of time between Saturday and Tuesday, where NFL teams are allowed to negotiate with free agent players (or players’ agents), but no deals can be announced until Tuesday. This gives every beat writer in every football town free range to go wild with speculation and sharing rumours about which glamourous free agents are in negotiations with their local team or being stalked by some other team. Given how much of the normal NFL year is given over to passing along rumours, this must be one of the peaks of ungrounded speculation (the other being the draft itself).

The Vikings are said to be trying to sign former Bengal defensive end Michael Johnson and former Titan defensive back Alterraun Verner, but we won’t know who’s signing with any team until Tuesday.

On slightly more solid ground, Jim Souhan says that the Matt Cassel deal was the right move for both the Vikings and for Cassel himself:

Matt Cassel’s return to the Vikings sets up so many juicy possibilities.

The team is now one signing away from putting the band back together. If they can just re-sign Josh Freeman, they’ll have Cassel, Freeman and Ponder all under contract, negating the chance of any of their competitors stealing the magic formula of the 2013 Minnesota Vikings, or what Vikings receivers called, “Hunger Games: Catching Nothing.”

[…]

OK, that’s not fair. The Cassel signing is rational. He played pretty well last year, and handled himself like a pro even when forced to watch Ponder throw at the feet of receivers and Freeman throw at the feet of concessionaires.

What’s most important about the Cassel signing is that it allows the Vikings to maneuver. With Cassel capable of starting or relieving, the Vikings can cut Ponder if they want. They can spend a high draft pick on their latest quarterback of the future and know they won’t have to rush him into action.

And here’s a thought that might infuriate Vikings fans desperate to draft and develop their own Russell Wilson or Aaron Rodgers: The Vikings have done pretty well signing veteran quarterbacks. Their Plan Bs have worked out better than a lot of teams’ Plan As.

QotD: Puritan art

Filed under: Humour, Media, Quotations, USA — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 09:35

The saddest thing that I have ever heard in the concert hall is Herbert K. Hadley’s overture, “In Bohemia.” The title is a magnificent piece of profound, if unconscious irony. One looks, at least, for a leg flung in the air, a girl kissed, a cork popped, a flash of drawer-ruffles. What one encounters is a meeting of the Lake Mohonk Conference. Such prosy correctness and hollowness, in music, is almost inconceivable. It is as if the most voluptuous of the arts were suddenly converted into an abstract and austere science, like comparative grammar or astro-physics. Who’s Who in America says that Hadley was born in Somerville, Mass., and “studied violin and other branches in Vienna.” A prodigy thus unfolds itself: here is a man who lived in Vienna, and yet never heard a Strauss waltz! This, indeed, is an even greater feat than being born an artist in Somerville.

H.L. Mencken, “The Allied Arts: The Puritan as Artist”, Prejudices: Second Series, 1920.

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