LONDON: It started with Harvey Weinstein. Then came allegations against Oscar-winning actors Kevin Spacey and Dustin Hoffman of improper sexual behavior. And the names just keep coming: Musical maestro James Levine, Fox News presenter Bill O’Reilly, and now Ryan Seacrest, host of the hugely popular TV talent show, American Idol.
Then there are those who are not household names — US congressmen, captains of industry, heads of international aid organizations, and the thousands, even tens of thousands, who are significant only to their accusers.
“MeToo” has become a powerful phrase, the hashtag slogan for one of the most wide-reaching popular movements of modern times. Astonishingly it first appeared only four months ago on social media but rapidly went viral, with thousands, then millions, of women — and some men — sharing their own experiences of sexual harassment.
It spread far beyond the English-speaking world. MeToo movements have sprung up from Afghanistan to Vietnam, and spawned splinter movements such as #ChurchToo and #MeTooMilitary.
In the West, MeToo has the power to damage or even end careers: Witness Harvey Weinstein, a colossus of the film industry whose name is now mud not only in Hollywood but within his own family, after his wife left him and his brother all but disowned him.
Or Kevin Spacey, until recently regarded as one of the greatest actors of his generation, but now branded a sexual predator. He was removed from the film “All the Money in the World,” which he had already finished shooting, and his scenes were re-shot with another actor. In addition, he will not appear in the sixth and final season of the hit Netflix political drama “House of Cards,” with the focus of the show instead switching to his on-screen wife, played by Robin Wright.
British Defense Minister Michael Fallon denied allegations of inappropriate behavior but resigned anyway rather than wait to be pushed, saying he had fallen short of the “high standards” expected of the armed forces.
The French version of MeToo positively urges naming and shaming, with the additional hashtag balancetonporc (“denounce your pig”).
But not everyone was completely swept up by the tide. In France, actress Catherine Deneuve led a countercharge, supported by more than 100 women, denouncing the fallout from MeToo as excessive and placing “undeserving people in the same category as sex offenders without giving them a chance to defend themselves.”
Others who questioned the MeToo campaign include writers Margaret Atwood and Lionel Shriver. Atwood called it a symptom of a “broken legal system” in North America, and warned it was in danger of succumbing to the rule of the mob.
“If the legal system is bypassed because it is seen as ineffectual, what will take its place?” she asked.
“Understandable and temporary vigilante justice can morph into a culturally solidified lynch-mob habit, in which the available mode of justice is thrown out the window, and extralegal power structures are put into place and maintained.”
MeToo encouraged women to share their experiences, firstly to show solidarity with each other and also to demonstrate how vast and entrenched is the problem of male entitlement.
Deneuve and others argue that an unwanted hand on the knee is not a violation on a par with rape. It may be unpleasant, annoying and infuriating but surely not traumatic.
However MeToo was an irresistible bandwagon and a prime vehicle for virtue-signaling. At the recent Golden Globes and Bafta ceremonies, black outfits were the order of the day. In an Op-Ed in The New York Times, literary critic and novelist Daphne Merkin dared to suggest that while women were on board with MeToo in public, in private they were fed up with it. Some people — including random women she had spoken to while shopping in the supermarket — were even calling it a “witch-hunt.”
“Privately I suspect many of us, including many long-standing feminists, will be rolling our eyes, having had it with the reflexive and unnuanced sense of outrage that has accompanied this cause from its inception, turning a bona fide moment of moral accountability into a series of ad hoc and sometimes unproven accusations,” she wrote.
While the actions of some are indefensible, Merkin is troubled by the “trickle-down” effect on others tainted by vague, unspecific accusations, possibly relating to incidents from years ago and often made anonymously.
“I don’t believe that scattershot, life-destroying denunciations are the way to upend it,” she said. “In our current climate, to be accused is to be convicted. Due process is nowhere to be found.”
She is equally alarmed by what she perceives as the flight to victimhood — the portrayal of women as too frail and helpless to reject unwanted attention.
Like Atwood, Merkin has been castigated as a “bad feminist” but her words struck a chord. Lucy Hall, 28, from London, who described herself as “a recent survivor of rape” said Merkin’s essay came as “a relief” to her.
“I have felt infuriated and confused by the laziness in the language of the topic, all too often conflating the life-changing event of being raped with an unpleasant but largely forgettable event like being patted on the knee.”
Stella Schindler, a retired judge from New York, said: “I am one of those women on the ‘supermarket lines’ sick of the Salem witch-hunt. Having worked in the so-called man’s world for my entire career, I too experienced various degrees of inappropriate behavior. I just made sure that the best man for the job was a woman: This woman.”
Others question whether social media — little-regulated and rarely moderate in tone — is a suitable platform for debating such an important issue riven with legal implications and even danger.
In Afghanistan, where an estimated 90 percent of women experience sexual harassment in public, at school or at work, the MeToo hashtag was silenced by threats of violence to women who shared their stories. Journalist Maryam Mehtar received death threats and was publicly called a whore by another (male) writer for talking about her daily experiences of sexual harassment in public.
“Social media, and indeed all media, are contested terrain and women can experience empowerment as well as oppression through social media,” said Dr. Meenakshi Gigi Durham, professor of gender, women’s and media studies at the University of Iowa.
“From my perspective, #MeToo has been vital as a consciousness-raising space, a way to provide a forum and voice for the millions of women who have survived sexual assault and harassment, to change the game in terms of the silences and shame around these issues.”
In revealing how widespread sexual harassment is, MeToo has also exposed “the paucity of male power,” said Professor Bev Skeggs, director of the Atlantic Fellows program at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
“From the pathetic attempts to touch without consent to the brutal forms of violence used to damage women … What does it say about types of masculinity when some of the most powerful men in the world resort to such desperate measures?” she said. “The institutional structures that protect these men is where forensic attention should now be drawn.”
However, Durham acknowledged that as the movement grows it is becoming at once more inclusive and more divisive.
“No movement is perfect: There are people whose stories have not been told as much as others,” she said. “At the moment, I think the momentum is very positive in terms of drawing attention to the issues of rape culture that affect all of us, all over the world.
“At least we are having conversations about these things and women’s perspectives are in the foreground, and those are steps in the right direction.”
Is #MeToo starting to do more harm than good?
Is #MeToo starting to do more harm than good?
US citizen denied entry into Poland after security staff object to handwritten notes in passport
- The unidentified passenger arrived at Krakow’s Balice airport on a flight from London
- She will remain at the airport for a return flight to London on Thursday
WARSAW: A US citizen has been blocked from entering Poland because her passport was defaced with handwritten notes, border officials said Wednesday.
The unidentified passenger arrived at Krakow’s Balice airport on a flight from London shortly after midnight, according to Justyna Drozdz, a local border security spokeswoman.
The woman was stopped at passport control because her document contained handwritten notes of locations and airport names under visa stamps from the countries she had visited.
The woman told border security staff she was unaware it was not permitted to write on passports or ID documents, Drozdz told Polish news agency PAP.
She will remain at the airport for a return flight to London on Thursday.
As a general rule, it is not permissible for the holder to write in a passport other than to provide a required signature and emergency contacts. Airlines and immigration officials often deny boarding or entry if they feel a passport has been damaged or defaced.
It was not clear why border officials elsewhere had not questioned the woman about her passport.
Iraqi archaeologists piece together ancient treasures ravaged by Daesh
NIMRUD: A decade after jihadists ransacked Iraq’s famed Nimrud site, archaeologists have been painstakingly putting together its ancient treasures, shattered into tens of thousands of tiny fragments.
Once the crown jewel of the ancient Assyrian empire, the archaeological site was ravaged by Daesh fighters after they seized large areas of Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014.
The precious pre-Islamic artefacts destroyed by the jihadists are now in pieces, but the archaeologists working in Nimrud are undaunted by the colossal task they face.
“Every time we find a piece and bring it to its original place, it’s like a new discovery,” Abdel Ghani Ghadi, a 47-year-old expert working on the site, told AFP.
More than 500 artefacts were found shattered at the site, located about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Mosul, the city in northern Iraq where IS established the capital of their self-declared “caliphate.”
Meticulous excavation work by Iraqi archaeologists has already yielded more than 35,000 fragments.
The archaeologists have been carefully reassembling bas-reliefs, sculptures and decorated slabs depicting mythical creatures, which had all graced the palace of Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal II nearly 3,000 years ago.
Seen from above, the pieces of the puzzle gradually come together. Shards of what just several years ago was a single artefact are placed side by side, protected by sheets of green tarpaulin.
Bit by bit, the image of Ashurnasirpal II appears on one bas-relief alongside a winged, bearded figure with curly hair and a flower on its wrist, as the restoration brings back to life rich details carved in stone millennia ago.
Another artefact shows handcuffed prisoners from territories that rebelled against the mighty Assyrian army.
Partially reconstructed lamassus — depictions of an Assyrian deity with a human head, the body of a bull or a lion and the wings of a bird — lay on their side, not far from tablets bearing ancient cuneiform text.
“These sculptures are the treasures of Mesopotamia,” said Ghadi.
“Nimrud is the heritage of all of humanity, a history that goes back 3,000 years.”
Founded in the 13th century BC as Kalhu, Nimrud reached its peak in the ninth century BC and was the second capital of the Assyrian empire.
Propaganda videos released by IS in 2015 showed jihadists destroying monuments with bulldozers, hacking away at them with pickaxes or exploding them.
One of those monuments was the 2,800-year-old temple of Nabu, the Mesopotamian god of wisdom and writing.
IS fighters wreaked havoc at other sites too, like the once-celebrated Mosul Museum and ancient Palmyra in neighboring Syria.
The jihadist group was defeated in Iraq in 2017, and the restoration project in Nimrud began a year later, only to be interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic and restart in 2023.
Mohamed Kassim of the Academic Research Institute in Iraq told AFP that “until now, it has been a process of collection, classification and identification.”
About 70 percent of the collection work has been completed at the Assyrian palace site, with about a year’s worth of fieldwork left before restoration can begin in full force, said Kassim, noting it was a “complex operation.”
His organization has been working closely with Iraqi archaeologists, supporting their drive to “save” Nimrud and preserve its cultural riches, through training sessions provided by the Smithsonian Institution with financial support from the United States.
Kassim said that the delicate restoration process will require expertise not found in Iraq and “international support” due to the extent of the “barbaric” destruction in Nimrud.
“One of the most important ancient sites of the Mesopotamian civilization,” according to Kassim, Nimrud is a testament to a golden age of “the art and architecture of the Assyrian civilization.”
The site was first excavated by archaeologists in the 19th century and received international recognition for the immense lamassu figures that were taken to Europe to be exhibited in London’s British Museum and the Louvre in Paris.
Other artefacts from Nimrud have been on display in Mosul and Iraq’s capital Baghdad.
The site has also attracted figures like British author Agatha Christie, who visited there with her archaeologist husband.
On a recent tour of Nimrud, Iraq’s Culture Minister Ahmed Fakak Al-Badrani hailed the “difficult” work carried out by archaeologists there, collecting broken pieces and comparing them to drawings and photographs of the artefacts they attempt to reconstruct.
The vast destruction has made it impossible, at least for now, to ascertain which antiquities were stolen by Daesh, the minister said.
And the process will take time.
Badrani said he expects that it will take 10 years of hard work before the marvels of King Ashurnasirpal II’s palace can be seen again, complete.
Man charged in Tupac Shakur killing files motion to dismiss the case
LAS VEGAS: An ex-gang leader is seeking to have all the charges against him dismissed in the 1990s killing of rap music icon Tupac Shakur.
Attorney Carl Arnold filed the motion on Monday in the District Court of Nevada to dismiss charges against Duane Davis in the 1996 shooting of Shakur. The motion alleges “egregious” constitutional violations because of a 27-year delay in prosecution. The motion also asserts a lack of corroborating evidence and failure to honor immunity agreements granted to Davis by federal and local authorities.
“The prosecution has failed to justify a decades-long delay that has irreversibly prejudiced my client,” Arnold said in a news release. “Moreover, the failure to honor immunity agreements undermines the criminal justice system’s integrity and seriously questions this prosecution.”
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the filing. He has said evidence against Davis is strong and it will be up to a jury to decide the credibility of Davis’ accounts of the shooting including those in a 2019 memoir.
Davis is originally from Compton, California. He was arrested in the case in September 2023 near Las Vegas. He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and has sought to be released since shortly after his arrest.
Davis is accused of orchestrating and enabling the shooting that killed Shakur and wounded rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight after a brawl at a Las Vegas Strip casino involving Shakur and Davis’ nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson.
Authorities have said that the gunfire stemmed from competition between East Coast members of a Bloods gang sect and West Coast groups of a Crips sect, including Davis, for dominance in a genre known at the time as “gangsta rap.”
In interviews and a 2019 tell-all memoir that described his life as a leader of a Crips gang sect in Compton, Davis said he obtained a .40-caliber handgun and handed it to Anderson in the back seat of a car from which he and authorities say shots were fired at Shakur and Knight in another car at an intersection near the Las Vegas Strip. Davis didn’t identify Anderson as the shooter.
Shakur died a week later in a nearby hospital. He was 25. Knight survived and is serving a 28-year prison sentence in connection with the killing of a Compton man in 2015.
Anderson denied involvement in Shakur’s death and died in 1998 at age 23 in a shooting in Compton. The other two men in the car are also dead.
A Las Vegas police detective testified to a grand jury that police do not have the gun that was used to shoot at Shakur and Knight, nor did they find the vehicle from which shots were fired.
Algerians campaign to save treasured songbird from hunters
- Goldfinches are native to Western Europe and North Africa, and raising them is a cherished hobby in Algeria, where they are known locally as “maknin”
- Caging the wild birds cause them to suffer from serious health problems due to abrupt changes in their diet and environment, say advocates
SETIF, Algeria: With its vivid plumage and sweet trill, the goldfinch has long been revered in Algeria, but the national obsession has also driven illegal hunting, prompting calls to protect the songbird.
Amid a persistent demand for the bird that many choose to keep in their homes, conservation groups in the North African country are now calling for the species to be safeguarded from illegal hunting and trading.
“The moment these wild birds are caged, they often suffer from serious health problems, such as intestinal swelling, due to abrupt changes in their diet and environment,” said Zinelabidine Chibout, a volunteer with the Wild Songbird Protection Association in Setif, about 290 kilometers (180 miles) east of the capital, Algiers.
Goldfinches are native to Western Europe and North Africa, and raising them is a cherished hobby in Algeria, where they are known locally as “maknin.”
The bird is considered a symbol of freedom, and was favored by poets and artists around the time of Algeria’s war for independence in the 1950s and 60s. The country even dedicates an annual day in March to the goldfinch.
Laws enacted in 2012 classified the bird as a protected species and made its capture and sale illegal.
But the practices remain common, as protections are lacking and the bird is frequently sold in pet shops and markets.
A 2021 study by Guelma University estimated that at least six million goldfinches are kept in captivity by enthusiasts and traders.
Researchers visiting markets documented the sale of hundreds of goldfinches in a single day.
At one market in Annaba, in eastern Algeria, they counted around 300 birds offered for sale.
Back to the wild
Chibout’s association has been working to reverse the trend by purchasing injured and neglected goldfinches and treating them.
“We treat them in large cages, and once they recover and can fly again, we release them back into the wild,” he said.
Others have also called on enthusiasts to breed the species in order to offset demand.
Madjid Ben Daoud, a goldfinch aficionado and member of an environmental association in Algiers, said the approach could safeguard the bird’s wild population and reduce demand for it on the market.
“Our goal is to encourage the breeding of goldfinches already in captivity, so people no longer feel the need to capture them from the wild,” he said.
Souhila Larkam, who raises goldfinches at home, said people should only keep a goldfinch “if they ensure its reproduction.”
The Wild Songbird Protection Association also targets the next generation with education campaigns.
Abderrahmane Abed, vice president of the association, recently led a group of children on a trip to the forest to teach them about the bird’s role in the ecosystem.
“We want to instill in them the idea that these are wild birds that deserve our respect,” he said. “They shouldn’t be hunted or harmed.”
World’s oldest person dies at 116 in Japan
- Tomiko Itooka was born on May 23, 1908 in the commercial hub of Osaka, near Ashiya
- As of September, Japan counted more than 95,000 people who were 100 or older
TOKYO: The world’s oldest person, Japanese woman Tomiko Itooka, has died aged 116, the city where she lived, Ashiya, announced on Saturday.
Itooka, who had four children and five grandchildren, died on December 29 at a nursing home where she resided since 2019, the southern city’s mayor said in a statement.
She was born on May 23, 1908 in the commercial hub of Osaka, near Ashiya – four months before the Ford Model T was launched in the United States.
Itooka was recognized as the oldest person in the world after the August 2024 death of Spain’s Maria Branyas Morera at age 117.
“Ms Itooka gave us courage and hope through her long life,” Ashiya’s 27-year-old mayor Ryosuke Takashima said in the statement.
“We thank her for it.”
Itooka, who was one of three siblings, lived through world wars and pandemics as well as technological breakthroughs.
As a student, she played volleyball.
In her older age, Itooka enjoyed bananas and Calpis, a milky soft drink popular in Japan, according to the mayor’s statement.
Women typically enjoy longevity in Japan, but the country is facing a worsening demographic crisis as its expanding elderly population leads to soaring medical and welfare costs, with a shrinking labor force to pay for it.
As of September, Japan counted more than 95,000 people who were 100 or older – 88 percent of whom were women.
Of the country’s 124 million people, nearly a third are 65 or older.
