Whitewashing History

The Guardian has an article by Sunny Singh that asks why Christopher Nolan's film Dunkirk only shows white soldiers fighting and dying.  In fact, the article explains, there were many Indians as well as Asians and Africans recruited from the British empire who fought there too.  The French army also contained many North Africans.

How would knowing this change change modern day attitudes toward immigrants?  That's the basic question the article  asks.

This jumped out at me because I recently read (and posted about) Amitav Ghosh's novel The Glass Palace which also focuses on how Indian troops were vital to the British army in Asia, yet they never got credit (or blame.)  One Indian soldier to another after a Japanese surprise attack in Malaya, from that post:

"You know, yaar Arjun, over these last few days, in the trenches at Jitra - I had an eerie feeling.  It was strange to be sitting on one side of a battle line, knowing that you had to fight and knowing at the same time that it wasn't really your fight; knowing that whether you won or lost, neither the blame nor the credit would be yours.  Knowing that you're risking everything to defend a way of life that pushes you to the sidelines.  It's almost as if you're fighting against yourself.  It's strange to be sitting in a trench, holding a gun and asking yourself:  Who is this weapon really aimed at?  Am I being tricked into pointing it at myself?""I can't say I felt the same way, Hardy."

And Singh's criticism of the movie seems to echo this - that the Indian (and other forces from the empire) will be erased from the story.  

Here are some excerpts from the Guardian article:

"To do so [leave out the darker troops], it erases the Royal Indian Army Services Corp companies, which were not only on the beach, but tasked with transporting supplies over terrain that was inaccessible for the British Expeditionary Force’s motorised transport companies. It also ignores the fact that by 1938, lascars – mostly from South Asia and East Africa – counted for one of four crewmen on British merchant vessels, and thus participated in large numbers in the evacuation.
But Nolan’s erasures are not limited to the British. The French army deployed at Dunkirk included soldiers from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and other colonies, and in substantial numbers. Some non-white faces are visible in one crowd scene, but that’s it. The film forgets the racialised pecking order that determined life and death for both British and French colonial troops at Dunkirk and after it.
This is important, firstly, because it is a matter of factual accuracy in what purports to be an historical portrayal – and also because it was the colonial troops who were crucial in averting absolute catastrophe for the allies. It is also important because, more than history books and school lessons, popular culture shapes and informs our imagination not only of the past, but of our present and future."

It's interesting when you contrast this historical inaccuracy with film makers who say they can't put blacks or Asians into certain roles, because ti would be factually inaccurate.  But here they can put whites into the roles of the Indian and Asian troops, equally inaccurate.  

And Singh believes this whitewashing of history makes it easier to condemn immigrants today and vote for Brexit.

"Could we still see our neighbours as less than human if we also saw them fight shoulder-to-shoulder with “our boys” in the “good” war? Would we call those fleeing war “cockroaches” and demand gunboats to stop them from reaching our white cliffs if we knew they had died for the freedoms we hold so dear? More importantly, would anti-immigration sentiment be so easy to weaponise, even by the left – in the past and the present – if the decent, hardworking Britons knew and recognised how much of their lives, safety and prosperity are results of non-British sacrifices? In a deeply divided, fearful Britain, Nolan’s directorial choices succeed as a Brexiteer costume fantasy, but they fail to tell the story of Operation Dynamo, the war, and Britain. More importantly, they fail us all, as people and a nation."

Loussac Facelift Done, But Not All The Stitches Out Yet

The Loussac library renovations in Anchorage were supposed to be done last October.  They had the grad reopening July 19, but I couldn't go.  I did finally get by there today while running some errands.

In the image below, above is the architect's rendition and below is what it looks like today.  The black is unfinished, so those white panels may still show up.  The stairs have been gone a long time and William Seward is now down in this entrance way - lower left of lower picture.

When this is all complete, I'll do a series of pictures from before renovation to completion.

The new entrance is on the ground floor.   The lobby is approximately the old lobby for the Assembly (Anchorage's city council) on the left and the Marston Theater on the right.  [I made some changes to this paragraph and the next, because they needed it.  I think I must have switched something around it it didn't make sense anymore.]

Here's what it looks like inside.  There used to be a conference room straight ahead, and the elevator and indoor stairs to the second floor - which was the library entrance - are gone.  There's a cafe here to the right now.   Those doors (below the yellow panels) are the entrance from the lobby to the library

Some of this is for former Anchorage residents who are living Outside now.  To the left from this point is the entrance to the Assembly chambers.

And to the right is the Wilda Marston Theater.




















Besides the cafe, the lobby sports this huge metal sculpture hanging from the ceiling.  I'm guessing it might be a whale.  There's  boat way up near where the tail would be and another whale or large fish. I'm guessing there will be other interesting views of this from the second floor.  I didn't go up today.

It didn't dazzle me at first sight.  But looking up into the 'mouth' was interesting.

Aside from the colored lights, there's a mirror.

There was also a exhibit of photos of people who use the library.  Good pictures by Joshua Corbett.  Here are two.

Here's inside the library inner entrance.  So far, there isn't much inside those doors yet.  There's someone to check out books off to the right.  There are some unfinished stairs to the right.

There's this large Rube Goldberg like machine that the librarian said takes book back upstairs from the book drop.  I'm waiting to see it in action, though it does seem a bit excessive for this mundane task.







My only serious disappointment is the same I had after the downtown Museum was renovated - the entrance no longer takes you into the heart of the building - the books.  There are none in sight so far. Instead you now have to negotiate either an elevator or stairs to actually get to the books.  (At the museum, you don't see any art or exhibits until you walk quite a ways.)

When I walked out, the Alaska and Anchorage flags were waving in the breeze with the US flag.

The library now has is probably the world's fanciest book drop sign.  Though I haven't investigated this claim and who knows what other libraries have.   Let's hope they never have to move the book drop.

There are caribou etched (I guess) on a metal sign.  This is on the west side of the library where the entrance has been during the renovation.

More Summer Flowers

It's not exactly like having new house guests throughout the summer, because most of these flowers are perennials who live here all year, though the flowers only show up for a few weeks in the summer.  

So as the earlier ones fade, new ones provide an ever changing array of colors and shapes.

Appearing for the third time in the garden, and I don't remember their names.  That's a problem with a couple more this year.

Some more lilies popped open.

And a couple of annuals.  The nasturtiums popped out of the ground early, but took a long time to bloom.  Now there are lots and lots of flowers.

And this pansy.   Actually, the pansies have been blooming a while, but I just noticed this purple one.\

And finally this large hosta leaf.  The flower is starting to face, but the leaf is impressive too.

I hope to be back to normal blogging soon.

Anchorage Garden Tour Was Sunday - Fun and Inspiring As Always

The Anchorage Garden Club no longer has big tour articles in the ADN.  I assumed it was because
the crowds were getting too big, but I'm not sure.  Now you have to check the Garden Club website to find the details.  It always seems to be at the last weekend of July, so I checked with google.

There were only six gardens this year - two near each other in east Anchorage, two near by in Oceanview, and two Lutheran Church community gardens.

Some highlights:

Oceanview delphiniums and still blooming peonies.










Alaska railroad engine runs through this same garden.

Lutheran Church of Hope has a community garden that's growing food for the food banks.  There's lots of food growing here.  It's surrounded by a six or seven foot fence to keep the moose out.



And the water comes from a fire hydrant.  I asked about this arrangement and I was told the church was required to put it in when they expanded.  It's on their property, they paid to put it in, and they get the water bill.  And I know I have a few readers who find mechanical pictures far more interesting than the flowers and vegetables.

This was a beautiful and unexpected garden in east Anchorage.  Behind the trees in the back is a fork of the Chester Creek system.

I think this is a spirea.  If you click on the picture it will enlarge and focus better.

Central Lutheran Church started creating a rain garden on the edge of their parking lot, which drains down toward the garden.  The first section is being planted with iris and ferns.  Then there's a berm.  That first section is to filter out any toxic residues from the parking lot.  To the left of the picture they are starting to plant edibles.  They are testing the soil to be sure that the filter system works.  I think it's important that people begin recognizing how much nature acts as a natural infrastructure to clean water and air and move water around.  An older post on E.O. Wilson's The Future of Life, talks about the enormous economic value of the natural infrastructure.

And finally, a peony, still gorgeous in middle age.

I might add that all the gardeners who opened their homes were as helpful as others have been in the past.  Two were even giving away some gotten plants and seeds.

Trying To Make Transit Work In Anchorage

Anchorage's People Mover busses don't run very often (a few come by every 30 minutes, but most every hour) and we have a pretty low density.  The low density is one of the attractions of Anchorage, but it makes running a bus system hard.

So after talking to the public last year about proposed changes then (I think, but it could have been earlier this year), the People Mover has proposed a new schedule which combined a couple of their alternatives.

Here's an announcement at their website:

New Bus System
Big changes are coming! The entire People Mover bus system is being restructured to reflect the priorities we heard from you during Anchorage Talks Transit.
Beginning October 23, 2017, you can look forward to...

• Less Waiting - Buses will arrive more frequently, some as often as every 15 minutes. Weekend bus frequencies are also increasing to every 30 minutes for most routes. 

• More Hours - Most routes will operate from about 6am to midnight on weekdays, about 8am to 8pm on Saturdays, and about 8am to 7pm on Sundays. 

• Better Service - More frequent buses means easier transfers to a wider range of destinations. This also means that fewer trips will require you to connect through the Downtown Transit Center, resulting in less out-of-direction travel. 

Click here to view a complete list of bus stops that will be serviced by the new system.
Click here to view individual route maps and a stops served by route.
Please click the links below for a detailed look at the new system map. Schedules listing exact departure times will be released as soon as they are finalized.

I went to the meeting held today at Spring Hill Elementary school.  I think there were four people from People mover and maybe 15 to 20 members of the public.

On the right is the table with maps proposed schedules for all the routes.  

The three benefits listed in the announcement above, apply to people who live in the more central areas.  For people who live further from downtown, the new system means busses are further away and less frequent.  

A woman from Oceanview was distraught.  She'd moved into her house many years ago because a bus went right down her street.  Now it will be gone and she'll have a mile walk to the bus stop.  She was over 50 and using crutches.  She didn't see herself walking a mile on icy or uncleared sidewalks in the winter and wasn't sure if a mile was feasible even in the summer.  

Bart Rudolph

But People Mover has to balance routes against ridership.  It might have been helpful if they had given us some data on cost per passenger for each route so people could see why they cut some routes.  

On right is Bart Rudolph, planner for the transit department.  Mostly the staff members mingled with the crowd to answer questions one-on-one or in small groups.  

I live in a bus rich area on the west side of the University and I'm losing my favorite route to downtown (Route #2), but route #3 will be replaced by route #10 and should be coming by every 20

Collin Hodges

minutes instead of every 30 minutes.  (Route 3 was one of the few routes that currently comes by more than once an hour.)

The hope is that more people will ride the bus if they come by more often.  But it's going to take a lot of persuading to get people onto the bus, even if it goes more often.  They need new riders and from what I can tell, most of the people at the meeting were current riders with concerns about losing their busses.  The lady from Oceanview said people like her have campaigned hard to fund transit over the years.  It was clear that losing her close bus stop is not going to keep her a strong supporter of the system.  

The People Mover needs to do all it can to attract new drivers to these more frequent buses.  Some thoughts I had:

• Make the intro period for the new schedule a time that welcomes new passengers (and old)
• Send out two week free passes with all the utility bills and make them printable on line for those who pay online
• Sell $1 two week bus passes, so that they have more value in people's eyes than a free pass.  
• Put up games and contests online and elsewhere that require people to look at the routes and scheduling to win prizes - like free bus passes
• Put together a contest or scavenger hunt that requires teams to ride all the routes the fastest.  People would have to read the schedules carefully to figure out the best connections.  But they would then know how to use the people mover well.  Pitching this to middle and high school students might get lots of them onto the buses, especially if contestants get a free bus pass and winners get prizes.  

But they also have to overcome emotional barriers to people using the bus.  

• Buses are for the poor
• Some people equate riding the bus with being poor, with not being able to buy a car
• Others think there are strange people on the bus and don't want to be exposed to them.  There are some strange people now and then, but they are everywhere else too.  But there are far more very normal, friendly people too.
• Buses are inconvenient and take much more time


• The new schedule will make the buses more convenient for people in the core area
• Making stops and getting back on has meant long delays in the past, it should be better now, but still nothing like bigger, denser cities where buses come by every ten minutes.
• Shopping is harder when you go by bus and need to carry things.  Maybe People Mover can sell collapsable wheeled carts that folks can use when the shop and use the bus.  
• The bus is easiest for people who use it every day for the same route. 
• New apps make it easier to check on routes and when the next bus is due.  Google maps* has real time bus information, and texting your bus stop apparently does too.  But the call up just tells you the next stop based on the schedule, not real time.  *It doesn't work on my old Safari browser, but it does on Firefox.  

David Levy was camera shy

I think about the woman in Oceanview.  The internet makes connections much easier.  Nextdoor.com is a website that allows neighbors to talk to neighbors.  I suspect that people might be able to work out rides to bus stops that way.  Or find other people int he same predicament.  If there are enough who go at the same time, maybe a Lyft driver could pick them all up and get them to the bus, even to their destination without the bus.  Collin suggested Ride Share as an option.

A little lot of brainstorming is needed to figure out how to get people from their homes to the bus stops where the bus stops have become much farther away.  

I'd encourage people who do live near a new, more frequent route, to learn how to use the bus system, even if they only use the bus once a week to a location that's a direct shot from their house.  It's an adventure.  

Why I Live Here: Close Encounters With Moose

This is another quick entry while I'm distracted by another project.  As I mentioned before, you can go to the Favorite Posts tab above and look at one of the old ones.

But biking to my meeting yesterday, I suddenly realized there was a moose just off the bike trail.  And then I saw there were two more little ones.  I had to make a quick decision, but it was easy to make.  If I tried to stop, I'd probably end up right next to the moose, so I just carried on and rode by, less that five feet from the mom, who didn't seem distressed at all.

The moose are pretty much used to people passing by on the trail.  As long as you keep your speed and stay on the trail, they're generally not going to be upset.  It's erratic behavior that seems to get their attention.

So for less than 30 seconds I had the never diminishing thrill of living in the woods with a mother moose and two new mooslings.

Is The Alaska Dispatch News For Sale?

Looks like it.  Oliver Optic, an occasional commenter here, sent me a link to this Craig Medred piece that says Alice Rogow is trying to sell the newspaper.  Interesting piece, though not in a good way.

This may be my shortest post ever.  Still occupied with other stuff.

Donald Cried Coming To Netflix August 15

"Donald Cried" was one of the features in competition at the Anchorage International Film Festival last December.  There was a strong group of features, and as I wrote back then, I could have argued for any of them getting one of the three prizes.  But Donald didn't.  But it made a very powerful impression on me.

Here's what I wrote in after seeing the movie:

"Donald Cried starts with Peter coming back to the small town where he grew up to sell his grandmother's house and settle things after she's died.  You don't know all this as the film starts - you pick up more and more details as things progress.  He's lost his wallet on the bus and so he has no money and goes across the street to a neighbor's, who greets him like a long lost pal and practically kidnaps him taking him around town.  The neighbor, Donald, seems like he's got Asbergers or something as he constantly crosses normal conversational boundaries in politeness and topics.  But the history of Peter, Donald, the grandmother, and others slowly is revealed.  But there were still so many questions I had.  And reading the credits - Kris Avedisian was listed as the writer, the producer, the director, and actor - I knew exactly who I wanted to talk to.  My wife asked, which one was he?  I assumed he played Donald, but then I had this thought, whoa, what if he played Peter?  That would have been so weird.  But as the cast scrolled by, he did play Donald.  So I was ready to go home and start looking for an email address for Kris."

I found that email address, sent a bunch of questions, and got a quick response back with a link to a video interview of Kris at a different film festival talking about the film.  (None of his team made it to Anchorage.)  I posted about that and the video here.

This is a quirky film festival type film with powerful characters and an interesting reveal of these two characters' past relationship which you wouldn't have guessed from the beginning, but ultimately makes sense.  And the interview at the link above answered a lot of my questions.

So yes, I'm making a recommendation to watch this film.  The schedule of August movies was on Lifehacker.  

Wisconsin State Journal Gives Preview Of Upcoming Supreme Court Gerrymandering Case

A large part of the Republican control of the US House is due to the last redistricting based on the 2010 Census.  From Five Thirty Eight:

"Republicans’ astounding state legislative gains in the 2010 midterms — the year before the decennial redistricting cycle — allowed them to redraw four times as many congressional districts as Democrats in 2011 and 2012, stretching their geographical edge even further. As a result, in 2012, Democrats won 51 percent of all major-party votes cast for House candidates but just 47 percent of all seats. In 2014, Democrats won 47 percent of all major-party votes but just 43 percent of the seats. Amazingly, just 16 of 247 House Republicans won their races by fewer than 10 percentage points."

There's currently a redistricting challenge that has been accepted by the Supreme Court.   From the Wisconsin State Journal:

"The three-judge panel that heard the Whitford case last year weighed the evidence and ordered the maps redrawn. The state has appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing the process was lawful. The Supreme Court stayed the lower court order and agreed to hear oral arguments as early as this fall."

The Court hasn't ruled on political gerrymandering saying it was hard to get an objective sense of it.  But the Wisconsin legal team has come up with a way to measure

"the Whitford plaintiffs devised a three-pronged standard for partisan gerrymandering: Proving discriminatory intent, demonstrating a discriminatory effect, and finding no other justification for how the maps were drawn.
To prove the discriminatory effect, the plaintiffs measured the election results based on what is known as the "efficiency gap," which seeks to calculate how many votes for a given party are "wasted" because its voters are "packed" into certain safe districts or "cracked," that is, placed into districts where they still can't muster enough support for their candidate to win.
The Whitford plaintiffs argued the Wisconsin legislative districts were the most gerrymandered in the past 40 years, with 13 percent of votes wasted in 2012 and 10 percent wasted in 2014. Based on an analysis of 786 legislative elections across the country, they argued a gap of more than 7 percent should be deemed unconstitutional."

This will be a huge case either way it is decided.  If the Court goes with the plaintiffs, it should slow down partisan gerrymandering.  If not, it probably signals the issue is probably dead until there is a significantly new Supreme Court.

I wrote about this case back in February.

The Rule of Law Is Protecting Trump

For the time being anyway.

The Rule of Law is a foundation of our democracy.  It means that we follow the rules, the laws, that are created by our elected officials which are based on the legal foundation of the constitution.  We aren't supposed to take short cuts, but rather follow through the process of administering justice.

The rules for removing a president are laid out in the constitution.  There's impeachment.  From the University of Chicago:

Impeachment Clauses

Article 1, Section 2, Clause 5
The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.
Article 1, Section 3, Clauses 6 and 7
The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried the Chief Justice shall preside; And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.
Judgement in Cases of Impreachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgement and Punishment, according to Law.
Article 2, Section 4
The President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Article 3, Section 1
. . . The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour. . . .  (emphasis added)

I started this a week ago, and planned to go into each of the grounds for impeachment.  I thought I'd have to abandon this post, because I just don't have the time to complete this properly.

However, today I ran across a Tweet that cites a short 1974 book by Charles L. Black, The Impeachable Offense, which does all the work for me.   And Lawfare blog has excerpted key parts.  Critical  reading for anyone who wants to talk about impeaching the president.

There's also a commentary by Jane Chong that speculates on how this might be applicable today.  (For example, Black dismisses treason as not relevant in Nixon's case, but because the word is being used today, Chong discusses it, though only to show that it is still not relevant, despite the use of the term by some.

For the time being, though, the rule of law protects Trump.  From my perspective, Trump is actively doing damage to our laws and institutions that protect people's safety, health, and even lives.  Just as many people are supportive of taking legal shortcuts during a crisis, I have that instinct now with Trump. But I know we have to take it step by step and do it right.  We'll have to clean up the damage later.  Chong too makes that point, of taking it slowly.

"Last month I made a pragmatic argument against pushing too early for Trump’s impeachment. But as Black makes clear, hasty action on this front is more fundamentally a failure of principle. “Everyone must shrink from this most drastic of measures,” he declares on page one. Acknowledging his own status as a longtime political opponent of then-President Richard Nixon, Black nonetheless expresses 'a very strong sense of the dreadfulness of the step of removal.” Impeachment must be treated like high-risk surgery, he insists, “to be resorted to only when the rightness of diagnosis and treatment is sure.'”