Russia’s Ruthless Reciprocity. Educating by Protesting.

SEASONED NUTS: QUOTABLE
 

“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” ― Albert Camus

“The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.” ― Albert Camus

 
 
 
IN A NUTSHELL: MUST READ
 

Prime Minister May Takes a Hard Line: Russian exiles living in the UK and worried about being done in by some Kremlin-sponsored assassin will be glad to know Prime Minister Theresa May has their back. She took immediate action in response to the near-fatal poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter about a week and a half ago. She plans to expel 23 Russian diplomats, consider new laws to combat spying, and mull over sanctions. Oh, and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s invitation to visit the UK is revoked, and no British dignitaries will be sitting in Luzhniki Stadium watching the World Cup this summer. Keep a Stiff Upper Lip exiles. You’re welcome.

President Putin wasn’t impressed. He had nothing to do with it, don’t you know. Russia’s ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko just said, “There will be answers from the Russian side. In diplomacy, there is always reciprocity.” Guess British diplomats will be packing their bags and heading home from Moscow. No football for you.

May is undaunted. She told parliament what Russia did was an “unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom.” Adding insult to injury, Russia treated her demand (for an explanation of how the military-grade nerve agent Novichok was used in Skripals’ attack) with “sarcasm, contempt and defiance,” and offered no credible explanation. “Their response has demonstrated complete disdain for the gravity of these events,” May said.

Then she got REALLY serious: “We will not tolerate the threat to life of British people and others on British soil from the Russian government. Nor will we tolerate such a flagrant breach of Russia’s international obligations. We will freeze Russian state assets wherever we have evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents.” Putin, can you hear her now?

 
 
 
MIXED NUTS: QUICK TAKES ON WORLD NEWS
 

– A male Ugandan lawmaker went on local TV March 10, and urged men to beat their wives to discipline them, adding, “You know, to really streamline her.” Ladies, interested? He’s single and registered on NeanderthalsOnly.com. (Reuters)

– Abortion is criminal in Argentina, whether performing or undergoing one. Violence against women claims the life of a woman every 30 hours. Now both pro-choice and anti-violence groups have joined forces to shift public opinion. (The Guardian)

– A senior New Zealand diplomat based in Washington, DC, got carried away tweeting to US Democrats about their plans for the 2020 election. Note to diplomat: If you can’t say that word on TV, you can’t put it in a tweet.  #GeorgeCarlin. ( The Guardian)

– Western Pennsylvania Democrat Conor Lamb, running for the US House, has won a stunning upset victory over his GOP rival in Tuesday’s special election. Last Saturday, President Trump flew to the reliably Republican, blue-collar district he won by 20 points in 2016 to stump for Rick Saccone, but it wasn’t enough to save the seat. (Vox)

– As unimaginable as it seems, life is about to get much worse for the almost 600,000 Rohingya Muslims living in the world’s largest refugee camp near the southern tip of Bangladesh. April’s monsoon season will bring landslides, flash floods, inundation, possibly cyclones. It is “the most urgent example of the new calamities that come with the global refugee crisis: A huge influx of desperate people fleeing war or persecution, only to face natural disaster in an ecologically fragile area potentially made more precarious by climate change.” (NYT)

– Facebook has banned the page of the far-right group Britain First, as well as those of its two leaders, for repeatedly posting “content designed to incite animosity and hatred against minority groups.” Britain First achieved international notoriety in November 2017 when President Trump retweetedinflammatory anti-Muslim videos posted on Twitter by one of the leaders. (The Guardian)

 
 
 
NUTS AND BOLTS: SHOULD READ
 

Solidarity Amidst the Next Generation: Wednesday was National School Walkout day, the date chosen to coincide with the one month anniversary of the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, when another 17 people, students and teachers, lost their lives from gun violence. It has happened many times before in this country; it is always tragic, and always a time after which there is much hand-wringing and many promises to change the way the gun business is done in America.  Nothing really changed, not after the Columbine High School shooting, or the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. This time, what changed was that the students have taken over the conversation. They want adults to really hear their message, that they are tired of being murdered in their classrooms.

Children today have crowd-organizing tools that older generations did not – social media. Students used Twitter to advertise, Snap Map (Snapchat) to locate, and Instagram to record the happenings all over this country, and in solidarity elsewhere in the world. At 10 a.m. Wednesday, students from New York to Atlanta, Chicago to Santa Monica, Newtown to Littleton walked out of their classrooms, sometimes with permission and sometimes in defiance of school authorities. It was the first major coordinated action of the student-led movement for gun control. The walkouts generally lasted 17 minutes, one for each of the Parkland victims. Two more nationwide protests are set to take place on March 24 and on April 20, the anniversary of the Columbine shooting. These students clearly didn’t let their schooling interfere with their education.

Eloquent, determined, not yet cynical or jaded youngsters are demanding lawmakers lessen gun violence in this country – not to ban guns, but to enact sensible gun-owning regulations. Currently it is much harder to obtain a driver’s license than it is to purchase an assault rifle, a weapon not of personal defense, but of war, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Students who rallied in Florida’s capital after the Parkland shooting, chanting “Enough Is Enough” and carrying signs that read “Am I Next,” saw Governor Rick Scott sign a bill last week that raised the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21 and extended the waiting period to three days. The NRA immediately filed a lawsuit against the legislation, but it is extremely doubtful such push back will deter these students.

Elsewhere in the world, teachers and students were showing their support. At the International School of Tanganyika in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, students and teachers used the walkout as an opportunity to talk about gun violence and US politics. “We are lucky to live in a country that is relatively (civilian) gun-free, so it’s not something our students have to think about,” said a teacher and librarian. “But they are aware of the school shootings in the USA, and some understand the greater contexts of the NRA and its influence in politics.”

 
 
 
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VIOLENT NUTS
 

– The International Criminal Court is investigating allegations that Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte committed mass murder and crimes against humanity in his campaign to kill drug dealers and addicts. President Duterte’s response? Withdraw the Philippines from the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court. (NYT)

– Previously hotbeds for spring breakers, Cancún and other holiday beach destinations in Mexico’s Mayan Riviera have become prime territory for the country’s criminal groups. Perhaps those resorts should rebrand themselves with Murder Mystery Dinner themes – dine at your own risk. (Guardian)

– While everyone is racing towards the future, the Indonesian province of Aceh is considering taking a page out of the history books. As the only province to practice sharia law, Aceh is researching and thinking about reintroducing beheadings as a form of punishment. (Guardian)

 
 
 
HEALTH NUTS
 

– It’s never too late to teach an old dog new tricks. For those in midlife, beginning to exercise now can help restore your aging heart. (NPR)

– An interview with Haider Warraich, fellow in cardiovascular medicine at Duke University Medical Center, about America’s number one killer: The heart disease. (The Atlantic)

– Do’s and Don’ts of healthy eating. What you thought was healthy, may just be making you fat. (NY Post)

– Your epidermis is showing. The rise of the new skin care regime is intertwined with self-care. (Vox)

 
 
 
LAST MORSELS
 

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.

“And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.” ― Albert Camus

Yes, I want to sound marginally more intelligent: