Laura Bush famously said “The role of First Lady is whatever the First Lady wants it to be”. However, that is simply not the case.
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Tabloid headlines in the last six months have painted a broad picture of malicious intent by China to spread a deadly disease globally. Examples include a headline by The Sun: “DEADLY SECRET: China ‘found coronavirus strain SEVEN YEARS ago and sent it to Wuhan lab to study but said nothing after pandemic’
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I have been called on to exclusively handle President Trump’s PR in the run up to the election. It’s a long story, but it involves a wrong number, a dynamic lie, and a bribe.
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Throughout her career Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an established campaigner and advocate of women’s rights and gender equality rights until the end. Before she died, she commented that her, ‘most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.’ She was so close to getting that wish.
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The United States election is on the 3rd of November, and at time of writing that is 45 days away. For Conservatives, it is 45 days to shore up a Conservative majority on the Supreme Court. For liberals, 45 days to secure the legacies left behind by Ruth Bader Ginsberg. The stakes could not be higher.
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These lockdowns have one rule: no guests in your home. Otherwise, go off sis. Do literally whatever you want. Go to a bar and ‘socially distance’. Go for a cheeky Nandos with your Gran - but don’t you DARE go to her house for a cuppa, for fuck’s sake, what’s wrong with you? Do you want your precious Gran to die? For shame! For SHAME!
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The media workforce is 94% white and many publications have no black journalists in high-level positions. There have been efforts to diversify, with schemes, training and pledges, but we need to look at whether this is enough. It seems that more needs to be done collaboratively and with intention and awareness.
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I will be honest, my expectations for how Boris would handle an unprecedented emergency were low. Very low. But he managed to impress me with his complete ineptitude.
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I re-stumbled upon ‘Real Girls Fart’ an acronym for: Fearless, Authentic, Rescuer, Trailblazer (perhaps the best page name ever?!) Founded by Achea Redd: Author of ‘Be Free, Be You’, Blogger, Activist and Mental Health Advocate, “Real Girls Fart exists to empower and equip women with the necessary tools to use their voices and become their best, most authentic selves”
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Like most things, creating change ‘from the bottom’ is difficult and it definitely does not occur overnight; it is even more difficult to spark political and social change. Social and political change will take us to unify as one voice, educate ourselves daily, and question the world around us - the same world that has been fed to us as a delusion: a utopia. So, what can we really continue to do outside of protests?
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Masks have become, in this strange world of 2020, a flashpoint of conflicting ideologies, and much more than a thin flannel for your face.
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While the virus is still very much an ongoing crisis, and it will likely take years to understand the success of different countries’ responses truly, this correlation between female leaders and effective virus responses is hard to ignore.
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We must continue to use politics to ensure change, as much as we must encourage discussion. Anger at polarising opinions is normal, but we need to become better at discussing things. If the news and current affairs fills you with rage, you definitely are not alone. But instead of ignoring it, turn your anger into knowledge. Without sounding like a massive cliche, young people really are the future of politics and we really have a lot of things to sort out. So, we best start somewhere.
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The coronavirus crisis has led to the most significant economic recession since The Great Depression. Worldwide unemployment is likely to climb to a level unseen in almost a hundred years. The less wealthy, young people and women are all likely to be disproportionately affected by the economic impacts. How bad are we really talking though?
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There’s this problem in being blissfully unaware, as I imagine so many white people are. It raises the issue that after a while, it’s not enough to sit around saying ‘I’m not actively racist, and against racist people, therefore I don’t need to get involved’. This legitimises systemic racism and also panders to the idea that racism is the victims’ issue to resolve which, sadly, is kind of the status quo. It’s embedded in us; even in chess - white goes first.
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Cummings-gate feels like the typical case of disparity between those living in a high-rise block versus those with privilege which can freely travel to a spare house in the countryside.
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It seems that NHS is planning a longterm future for its own application. Will we be ready for the ‘new normal’? Lots are the worries coming from academics and privacy experts. An app of this kind is a powerful tool that could give authorities additional surveillance powers. Something difficult to renounce. In an open letter to Google, 300 academics from around the globe expressed their worries about the jeopardisation of our privacy due to “mission creep”. This will result with “systems which would allow unprecedented surveillance of society at large” the letter said. Reflecting upon this point, Snowden described it as the creation of “the architecture of oppression”.
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Now, about me… My name is Rita. I am white and Polish. I come from a country that is racist, sexist, homo- bi- and transphobic and ableist and I, despite efforts, am all of these things, too.
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We are experiencing unprecedented circumstances and the main priority of governments should be to prevent the virus from spreading. But what rights are we ready to give up in order to do that? What kind of planned actions would make us feel safe enough? What degree of trust and compliance can governments expect, and which decisions should be enforceable?
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There is plenty of anger here; plenty of intelligence; and enough understanding of our need for systemic change. Yet it seems to me that we’re whimpering, rather than shouting. We’re spitting on the glass and wiping it clean, rather than smashing it straight in. So I ask you: is revolution still possible here, and how would it look in 2020?
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