Literary allusion: The White House at Dunsinane Hill

Excellent example of literary allusion:

Birnam Wood arrived early. pic.twitter.com/i3rQok6G6D

— Shakespeare Magazine (@UKShakespeare) 28. November 2018

"Birnam Wood arrived early" in Shakespeare Magazine's tweet refers to the prophecy made by the three witches in Macbeth. 

In Shakespeare's play Macbeth, Macbeth is told that he will only be defeated when Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Hill (where his castle is). Later, his enemy's army comes through Birnam Wood and each soldier cuts a large branch to hide himself, so that when the army moves on it looks as if the wood is moving. Macbeth is defeated and killed. (1)

The picture in the tweet shows this year's Christmas decorations at the White House (2018), with the First Lady, Melania Trump, admiring it.

Of course, the parallel drawn (indirectly) between President Trump and Macbeth is wildly exaggerated and utterly inappropriate. But the tweet above is not to be taken literally and is obviously intended as a tongue-in-cheek comment on the style of the decorations. ______________
(1) short description taken from ldoceonline - thank you.

Brexit ... getting closer

Credits: pixabay.com

The Spectator of this week has a feature on the current status of the Brexit process, or rather on the state of discussions about how it can and should proceed. Have a look here:

Brexit is served

Please note the pun here: The headline is an allusion to the phrase "dinner is served", a German equivalent of something like „Es ist angerichtet“ - which would be a nicely ambiguous German expression as well in this context (in addition to the food context, it might be interpreted as „Der Schaden ist angerichtet“). In this light, have a good look at the caricature, too.

What the British government is ignoring, is rising support for the demand of a second referendum, this time on the conditions of Britain leaving the EU.

UK's top lawyers urge Theresa May to back second Brexit vote

On the other hand, many people think there will never be a second referendum:

Why a second Brexit referendum is unlikely

Nationalism - a thing of the past

In his article in The Guardian, Rana Dasgupta claims that nation states will not survive - and it would be best if we got over that rather quickly. However, there are a couple of developments that are going to take more or less the rest of this century, until humanity will have arrived at new concepts that fit the modern situation.

This is the beginning of Dasgupta's text:

What is happening to national politics? Every day in the US, events further exceed the imaginations of absurdist novelists and comedians; politics in the UK still shows few signs of recovery after the “national nervous breakdown” of Brexit. France “narrowly escaped a heart attack” in last year’s elections, but the country’s leading daily feels this has done little to alter the “accelerated decomposition” of the political system. In neighbouring Spain, El País goes so far as to say that “the rule of law, the democratic system and even the market economy are in doubt”; in Italy, “the collapse of the establishment” in the March elections has even brought talk of a “barbarian arrival”, as if Rome were falling once again. In Germany, meanwhile, neo-fascists are preparing to take up their role as official opposition, introducing anxious volatility into the bastion of European stability.
But the convulsions in national politics are not confined to the west. Exhaustion, hopelessness, the dwindling effectiveness of old ways: these are the themes of politics all across the world. This is why energetic authoritarian “solutions” are currently so popular: distraction by war (Russia, Turkey); ethno-religious “purification” (India, Hungary, Myanmar); the magnification of presidential powers and the corresponding abandonment of civil rights and the rule of law (China, Rwanda, Venezuela, Thailand, the Philippines and many more).
What is the relationship between these various upheavals?

Read on here:

Rana Dasgupta, "The demise of the nation state", The Guardian (5 Apr 2018)

What do you think? Is he right? Or will nation states still exist in the next century, too? What factors will matter most for how things will develop?
Share your opinion here or at the mebis forum.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone!

If you feel like doing some light reading today, here's a story vaguely connected to the occasion:

"Here's Why Easter Eggs Are a Thing: The Origins of Easter Day's Eggs" (TIME Magazine, 29 March 2018)

And it also comes with a video, too:

What girls are made of

Advertisements are an important part of "The Media", because in no other way could firms draw people's attention to their products and portray their products' qualities as attractively as possible.

Almost from the beginning of advertising, in the late 19th and early 20th century, advertisements have tried to convince the public that the product is not only useful, trustworthy and aesthetically pleasing, but that it enables the consumers to be different, to be stronger, more beautiful versions of themselves, if only they buy and use the company's product.

Here we have a very clever ad by the sportswear firm Nike. They want to sell sports shoes, clothes, and other equipment. But above all, they want to be perceived as ... what? Write about the intentions behind this video clip and comment on it. You can make use of the text which the advertising firm added to the video (see below) and comment on that, too.

NIKE - WHAT ARE GIRLS MADE OF? from Vasco Vicente on Vimeo.

"Russian girls have always been under societal pressure. They are often told what characteristics they should be made of. The girls are expected to like and be like certain things. Unfortunately, this is often supported in culture.

Many years ago, a children’s song called “What are boys and girls made of” was released in USSR. It has since become a cultural milestone, a composition that every Russian boy and girl learn when they are young. In the lyrics of that song boys are made of things like “fireworks and energy batteries”, while girls are made of “rings, flowers and marmalade”. Up until this day, this song is used as an educational piece and is included in many Russian kindergarten and school programs.

In 2017 we decided to break stereotypes about what being a girl means by changing that song. Because Russian girls are made of more than just “flowers and marmalade”. They are made of bravery, self-dedication and dignity. They are made of freedom, confidence and independence. They are made of skill, accomplishments and achievements.
With every training, every morning run, every game, every single loss and victory, Russian girls build themselves.
Because they know - they are made of what they do."

The World as 100 People

Although the concept is not really new - the details give us a fresh outlook on the state of our globe. One of the easy examples: Look at how many people speak what language. But there are lots of interesting (and disturbing) discoveries to be made (click on the graphic to enlarge it).

by JackHagley.

From Visually.

Mister Feis

Find out about the meaning and message of this cartoon and comment on it. (You can ignore the comment by Ben Howe who posted it on Twitter; but you don't have to.)

This broke me. pic.twitter.com/lAh677B6t9

— Ben (@BenHowe) 16. Februar 2018