En Corée du Sud, les « no kids zones » fleurissent dans les cafés et les restaurants

LETTRE DE SÉOUL
LE MONDE : De plus en plus d’établissements refusent l’entrée aux enfants. Un phénomène qui s’inscrit dans un mouvement plus large de stigmatisation de différentes catégories de population.

Si la société sud-coréenne souffre d’une natalité en berne, ce n’est pas un hasard : la simple présence des enfants la fatigue. Pour preuve, les nombreuses enseignes qui refusent leur entrée aux plus jeunes. « Au début, nous avions des sièges pour bébé, mais il y a eu trop de problèmes. Les plus petits criaient, jetaient la nourriture, refusaient de la manger. Leur comportement pouvait gêner les autres. Or nos prix sont assez élevés et les clients attendent un service à la hauteur », explique Iyo Iyo (un nom d’emprunt), la représentante d’un restaurant de sushis plutôt chic du cœur de la capitale. Comme des centaines d’autres, l’établissement n’accepte pas les enfants. La mention « no kids zone » apparaît même sur son menu. » | Par Philippe Mesmer (Séoul, envoyé spécial) | lundi 19 février 2024 [€]

Kaffee ist jetzt ein Luxusgut für Reiche

ARGENTINIEN AM ABGRUND
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Der neue argentinische Präsident Javier Milei hat versprochen, die Inflation zu stoppen. Derzeit liegt sie bei mehr als 250 Prozent. Wie hält ein Land diese Geldentwertung aus? Eindrücke aus einer Stadt zwischen Hoffnung und Verzweiflung.

Für Träumereien ist sie zu alt, fürs Aufgeben zu jung. Also hält sie die Stellung in einem Kiosk am Bahnhof Once in Buenos Aires, sitzt stolz auf einem Hocker und wartet darauf, dass jemand stehenbleibt und eine Kleinigkeit kauft. Aber die Menschen hasten auf dem Weg zur Arbeit an ihr vorbei. Nur selten kramt jemand ein Bündel Geldscheine aus der Tasche wie ein Oligarch. Scheine, die lächerlich wenig wert sind.

Argentiniens Gesellschaft taumelt. Die jährliche Inflationsrate liegt bei 254 Prozent, und sie stieg zuletzt in einem Tempo wie bei der Hyperinflation Anfang der Neunzigerjahre. Allein im Januar betrug die Teuerungsrate zwanzig Prozent. Dieser Wert stürzt die Hüterin des Kiosks und zahllose Argentinier in die Verzweiflung. „Alles wird ständig teurer“, klagt Paula. Lebensmittel, Kleidung, Kosmetikartikel, Medikamente. Kaffee, der importiert werden muss, ist inzwischen ein Luxusgut. Die Preise für ein Busticket haben sich verdreifacht. Wenn Paula morgens aufwacht, ist sie wieder ärmer geworden.

Dabei arbeitet Paula, Ende vierzig, täglich zwölf Stunden, nur sonntags hat sie frei. Sie lebt in Moreno, eine gute Stunde mit dem Zug von Buenos Aires entfernt, wo alles günstiger ist als in der Hauptstadt – aber was bedeutet in diesen Zeiten schon günstig? Sie sei traurig, sagt sie, traurig aber auch sehr wütend. Paula geht nicht mehr zum Friseur, sie verzichtet auf Zumba, jede Tüte Milch ist eine Frage der Abwägung. » | Von Melanie Mühl, Buenos Aires | Montag, 19. Februar 2024

Ein Sieg der Ukraine wirkt so fern wie nie

Präsident Selenskyj Anfang Februar bei einem Truppenbesuch im Gebiet Saporischschja | Bild: AFP
SELENSKYJ UNTER DRUCK
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: In der Ukraine häufen sich die schlechten Nachrichten. Präsident Selenskyj hat den Armeechef ausgetauscht, an der Front gibt es Rückschläge und junge Männer wollen ihr Land verlassen.

Seit fast zwei Jahren ist das ukrainische Wort für Sieg, Peremoha, im Land allgegenwärtig. Auch heute hört man es in patriotischen Songs im Radio, liest es in den Mitteilungen des Generalstabs oder sieht es auf einem der vielen Plakate, die an den Straßen für den Kriegsdienst werben. Wie aber das Land zu diesem Sieg gelangen soll, scheint derzeit so unklar wie nie zuvor in diesem Krieg. Für das Jahr 2024 gibt die politische Führung eine bescheidene Maßgabe aus: die Linie halten, dem Feind Verluste beibringen und die eigene Rüstungsproduktion ausbauen. » | Von Robert Putzbach, Kiev | Quelle: F.A.S. | Montag, 19. Februar 2024

Ne-Yo : One In A Million | Official Music Video | Reupload

Sep 3, 2010 | Official Music Video for One In A Million performed by Ne-Yo. | Remastered in HD | Views on YouTube: 338,082,059

I make no excuses for uploading this fabulous song yet again. In my opinion, this man’s rhythm is second to none! Wonderful! That this is so, in my opinion, is reflected in the number of views this song has already garnered on YouTube: more than 338m! – Mark

Imraan Vagar: Coming-Out | Part 7 | The Sum Of All Parts

Oct 6, 2023 | Welcome to the 7th and final instalment in this video series. In this finale episode I hope to offer gay and bisexual men with helpful and constructive advice on how to prepare for and approach coming-out to the people in their lives. Please be advised that I’m not a trained therapist or counsellor. The following thoughts and views are informed by my own life experiences and observations of the human condition.

The afore-mentioned warnings apply to this, Imraan’s last video, too. Enjoy it! The video is the last in the series on coming out. – © Mark Alexander

To watch all the other videos in the series, please click here.

Imraan Vagar: Coming-Out | Part 6 | This Might Sting a Little!

Sep 22, 2023 | Many young and even adult children, particularly those of domineering or authoritative parents, have a tendency to pedestal and mythologise their mothers and fathers. Often forgetting that, behind all that posturing, these towering figureheads are merely human beings too - and are therefore prone to the same social and cultural insecurities, competitiveness and fears of inadequacy as everyone else.

It is my firm belief that the stigma and perceived societal shame and exposure to ridicule around having a kid that’s LGBTQ+ is what panics and propels so many insecure and hyper-conforming parents, like my dad in Part 5 of this series, to try and suppress, muzzle, or deny their children’s right to be their true, authentic selves. Because it’s bad for family “PR”. So parents and family members who reject, exile or ostracise their kin purely for being LGBTQ+ may claim that it’s really only about religion or upholding “traditional values”, but if the ones who signal embarrassment or fret about what others will think or say were capable of self-awareness and of being truly, intellectually honest with themselves, they’d have to confess that it’s really all about their own social anxieties and reputational damage control. As in, “What will people say?”

That cloaking themselves in false virtue or invoking cherry-picked, equivocal scriptures and strict ‘moral codes’ are just convenient rationalisations to justify and excuse their abject failure and refusal as parents to stand up for their kids when they need their love and support the most. The need these parents have for in-group tribal belonging and their almost childlike longing for a rubber-stamp of approval from society at large can trigger a blinding hysteria of self-interest that overrides their parental obligations to their own children. And although that self-protective impulse is very human and understandable, it’s also pretty pathetic to me.

That you should subordinate yourself or be so servile and gutless as to bow, scrape and grovel to your community or yield to society’s judgement by trying to break your beautiful child’s spirit or throw him or her under the bus in an effort to save your face - makes you a moral coward and a doormat in my opinion.

In this penultimate episode in this video series, I call out the fecklessness and pusillanimity of such parents. Come after me in the comments section. I dare you!


As interesting and as thought-provoking as Imraan Vagar’s video series is, many of them are full of expletives and F-bombs, which many people might find offensive. Furthermore, Imraan doesn’t hold back on desciptions either. I therefore post this video and others in the series with a caution: They are not suitable for the super-sensitive, religious, narrow-minded or the easily-shocked. Additionally, they are not suitable for children. If you have still fallen through the sieve, I hope you enjoy this video and all the others, too. One has to hand it to Imraan Vagar, his no-holds-barred video series is extremely interesting. Enjoy! – © Mark Alexander

Parts 1 – 5 can be found here.

Fareed to Tucker Carlson: You Need to Get Out More

Feb 19, 2024 | CNN's Fareed Zakaria weighs in on Tucker Carlson's visit to Russia, and how impressed he was with the city of Moscow.

Cenk Uygur of ‘The Young Turks’ (TYT): Trump Ordered to Pay $355 Million! What Happens Next?

Feb 16, 2024 | Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Donald Trump and his organization to pay $355 million in damages and banned him from running businesses in New York for three years. Cenk Uygur discusses LIVE for The Young Turks.

As Putin Threatens, Despair and Hedging in Europe

THE NEW YORK TIMES: There is a dawning recognition that the continent urgently needs to step up its own defense, especially as the U.S. wavers, but the commitments still are not coming.

As the leaders of the West gathered in Munich over the past three days, President Vladimir V. Putin had a message for them: Nothing they’ve done so far — sanctions, condemnation, attempted containment — would alter his intentions to disrupt the current world order.

Russia made its first major gain in Ukraine in nearly a year, taking the ruined city of Avdiivka, at huge human cost to both sides, the bodies littered along the roads a warning, perhaps, of a new course in the two-year-old war. Aleksei Navalny’s suspicious death in a remote Arctic prison made ever clearer that Mr. Putin will tolerate no dissent as elections approach.

And the American discovery, disclosed in recent days, that Mr. Putin may be planning to place a nuclear weapon in space — a bomb designed to wipe out the connective tissue of global communications if Mr. Putin is pushed too far — was a potent reminder of his capacity to strike back at his adversaries with the asymmetric weapons that remain a key source of his power.

In Munich, the mood was both anxious and unmoored, as leaders faced confrontations they had not anticipated. Warnings about Mr. Putin’s possible next moves were mixed with Europe’s growing worries that it could soon be abandoned by the United States, the one power that has been at the core of its defense strategy for 75 years. » | David E. Sanger and Steven Erlanger, Reporting from Munich | Sunday, February 18, 2024

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is absolutely right, Europe must be able to defend itself. It needs its own military as soon as possible. Visitors and followers of my blog will be aware that I have stated the same many times over the years. Europe needs to unite; and it needs to be able to defend itself – properly. This is not rocket science; rather, it is common sense. Unity brings strength; division brings weakness. To use an Arabic expression, Europe needs to work as one hand! That means to say, in harmony and in co-operation.

Britain should be part of this, too. That is why we should never have left the EU. In doing that, we Brits played right into Putin’s hands. Our exit from the EU was exactly what Putin wanted: he wanted to sow chaos and disunity in Europe. Our British politicians were too blinkered to be able to see it, too blinkered to see that they were being manipulated. This is why this stupid move needs to be reversed as soon as possible. By now, even the most blinkered and dense of our politicians should be able to see how important it is for Europe to have a full-scale military to be able to defend itself. Especially with people like Trump hovering on the horizon, ready to inflict full-scale damage on his own country and the world with his ridiculous policies and stated lack of willingness to defend "delinquent" NATO countries, and quite possibly, nay probably, dragging the US out of NATO altogether! – © Mark Alexander

What Next for Putin? After Navalny’s Death, Many Fear What Leader Will Move On to

THE GUARDIAN: With Ukraine retreating and western sanctions having little impact, the Russian president is growing bolder and may embark on more reckless moves

Vladimir Putin smiled and looked unusually festive on Friday as he praised factory workers and joked with state reporters at an industrial plant in the Ural city of Chelyabinsk.

Putin’s confidence was unmistakable – a sign of his full belief that he would get away with the death that day of his biggest critic in jail while outlasting Ukraine on the battlefield. The world might never know what specifically happened on the day of Alexei Navalny’s death at a remote prison above the Arctic Circle. As of Sunday, his family has not yet even been allowed to see his body. » | Pjotr Sauer | Sunday, February 18, 2024

Offensichtlich, drückt dieser Kuß viel Liebe aus

Évidemment, ce baiser exprime beaucoup d’amour / Obviously, this kiss expresses lots of love
Let us for heaven’s sake bring a little love into this angry world!
Für dieses schöne Bild möchte ich mich bei Pinterest bestens bedanken

Imraan Vagar: Coming-Out | Part 5 | Oh, Father!

Aug 18, 2023 | This brings me to my coming-out to my old man. He gets his own video because I think a lot of gay (and straight) men, in particular, really struggle to get out from under their father’s disapproval and shadow - and perhaps my story will strike a chord with you. Now, I genuinely believe that my father did his level best to be a good parent to me, but he was definitely a product of a very conservative, conforming and hyper-patriarchal time and generation. So, perhaps unsurprisingly, he recoiled in horror when he discovered that I was gay. Yet, his extreme and hyperbolic reaction to my coming out revealed his own social and cultural insecurities and anxieties that I think many parents and families of LGBTQ+ children share. This chapter of my coming-out journey chronicles our relationship and the events that went down as a result of an incendiary showdown between my dad and I [sic]. The expression, “It’s hard raising parents” frequently came to mind when composing this video essay.

BEWARE! STRONG LANGUAGE ALERT!

Parts 1, 2, 3 & 4 here.

Imraan Vagar: Coming-Out | Part 4 | A Mother Knows

Aug 8, 2023 | Welcome to Part 4 in this video anthology. This instalment briefly chronicles my coming-out to my sister, brother and mother. My sister, Saira, proved to be a stalwart advocate and ally, but it was my mum who perhaps amazed me the most. As a Muslim immigrant who hails from a socially-conservative, deeply religious family and community, I fully expected her to be a cliché. But instead, she demonstrated such compassion and courage, which is testimony to the fact that people are full of surprises and shouldn’t be treated as foregone conclusions. My mum passed away last year and even though our relationship was deeply problematic in the end, I’ll always be grateful to her for that act of unconditional love.

Parts 1, 2 & 3 here.

Imraan Vagar: Coming-Out | Part 3 | Boarding School, BFF’s & Boy Love

Jul 22, 2023 | Welcome to Part 3 of my journey. Do you believe in happenstance or are some things fated to happen, as if by some grand cosmic design? This instalment is as much a story of ‘coincidences’ and coming-of-age as it is of coming-out - and is intended as a tribute to my BFF of 36 years, Glenda Thomas, who was the first living soul I came out to. Our lives crossed paths quite fatefully, courtesy of Woodmead, a progressive, non-racial, private boarding school in Johannesburg. And it’s against this backdrop that I grew into my own, culminating in a watershed moment that was precipitated by yet another “chance” meeting with a certain Merchant Ivory film adaptation of an E.M. Forster novel. A novel that was, coincidentally, published the same year I was born.

Links to Parts 1 & 2 are here.

Should Donald Trump Be in Jail? | The Warning

Feb 18, 2024 | Steve Schmidt explains how Donald Trump's criminal trials will be part of his campaign. He is already campaigning from the courtroom.

Ukraine War: Volodymyr Zelenskyy Warns West of Russian Threat to Rest of the World

Feb 18, 2024 | Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged allies to plug an "artificial" shortage of weapons which is giving Russian forces the upper hand. The Ukrainian president told representatives from the West at a security conference in Munich that Russia won't stop at Ukraine.

Navalny death: World Leaders React to News, Condemn Putin

Feb 16, 2024

Die Suche nach seiner Leiche: Viele Russen trauern um den Oppositionspolitiker. Dessen Leichnam wird nicht herausgegeben. Verräterische Spuren könnten durch den Zeitverlust verloren gehen. »

Alexeï Navalny : ce que l’on sait deux jours après la mort en prison de l’opposant russe : Les enquêteurs ont affirmé à un avocat de l’opposant russe que la cause de sa mort n’a toujours pas été établie. Ses proches accusent les autorités de « mentir » pour conserver sa dépouille, toujours introuvable. »

Imraan Vagar: Coming-Out | Part 1 | An Introduction

Jun 30, 2023 | Hello and welcome to the debut video on this channel that I never thought I’d be uploading any content to. For those of you who know who I am, thank you for searching for and/or clicking on this video. For those of you who don’t, allow me to introduce myself…

My name is Imraan Vagar. I am a South African television producer, director and once upon a time host, perhaps best known for my work on Eastern Mosaic, one of the longest-running magazine shows on South African television. ...

…

Soundtrack Credits:

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (by Mozart) - Mozart
Tropic Fuse - French Fuse
Rains of Meghalaya - Hanu Dixit
Clouds - Huma-Huma
Cancun - Topher Mohr and Alex Elena
Beyond - Patrick Patrikios
Habanera (by Bizet) - Bizet
The Plan's Working - Cooper Cannell
Sprightly Pursuit - Cooper Cannell
Bach Cello Suite No. 1, G Major, Prelude - Cooper Cannell


Be aware that there is more than a little strong language used in this extremely unusual and very interesting video. I have embedded this first video, but if you wish to watch Part 2, please watch it on YouTube here. I feel that it is too explicit for this blog; it could be offensie to many of my visitors and followers. The videos are extremely interesting, however. It is my intention to inform, not to offend anyone. If the other parts are suitable for embedding, once I have watched them, I will embed them. – © Mark Alexander

Steve Schmidt: „Tucker Calson Said Leadership Means Killing People” | #shorts

This is sick, says Steve Schmidt, and this sickness is loose in America. It is rotting US society. America is "decaying".

'Putin Trolling the Entire World' with Navalny's Death: Bill Browder | DW News

Feb 18, 2024 | Bill Browder, the American-born British co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management and an adamant critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, spoke to DW at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) regarding the death of Alexei Navalny.

The death of the Russian opposition leader has been confirmed by Navalny's allies, but they say the Russian government is refusing to hand over his body. Browder noted that Russian officials are no longer welcome at the MSC and said that Navalny's death is a "way for Putin to effectively troll the entire world."