Day: June 22, 2020

Saudi Arabia said Tuesday that because of the coronavirus only “very limited numbers” of people will be allowed to perform the annual hajj pilgrimage that traditionally draws around 2 million people from around the world.  The kingdom’s Ministry of Hajj said only people of various nationalities already residing in the country would be allowed to perform the large pilgrimage, which is set to begin this year at the end of July. The government did not specify how many people would be permitted to take part.  Saudi Arabia said its decision to drastically limit the number of pilgrims was made due to the lack of an available vaccine for the virus or a cure for those infected, as well as the risks associated with large gatherings of people. “This decision was taken to ensure hajj is performed in a safe manner from a public health perspective,” the government statement said.  The virus causes mild to moderate symptoms in most people, who recover within a few weeks. But it is highly contagious and can cause severe illness or death, particularly in older patients or those with underlying health problems. All able-bodied Muslims are required to perform the hajj pilgrimage once in their lifetime. The pilgrimage centers around five intense days of worship and rituals in Mecca, however pilgrims typically begin arriving to Saudi Arabia through its main gateway city of Jiddah weeks and even months in advance. The kingdom has one of the highest rates of coronavirus infections in the Middle East, with more than 161,000 total confirmed cases and 1,307 deaths. Saudi Arabia had already suspended the smaller year-round umrah pilgrimage earlier this year and closed the Grand Mosque in Mecca, home to Islam’s holiest site, to the public. The city of Mecca was also under a strict lockdown for around two months.  Although Saudi Arabia has lifted some restrictions in recent days around the country, the umrah continues to be suspended and its borders remain shut to visitors and tourists.  Indonesia and Malaysia, which combined send around a quarter-million Muslims to the hajj each year, had already announced they would not be sending their citizens to the pilgrimage this year.   
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When luxury fashion lined up social media posts to show solidarity with Black Lives Matters protests, brands got a whole lot of blowback.Transgender model and actress Munroe Bergdorf jumped on L’Oreal’s #BlackoutTuesday posts to accuse the beauty brand of hypocrisy for having fired her three years ago when she complained about racism in strong language. U.S. actor Tommy Dorfman, who appears in a recent campaign for Salvatore Ferragamo, called out the Italian luxury brand for what he called a “homophobic and racist work environment.”And ordinary Instagram followers piled on, challenging fashion houses to do more than post a black square on their virtual real estate, to instead make runways, magazine covers, boardrooms and creative studios living showcases of diversity.Global fashion brands have faced racial backlashes in the past, notably in the wake of scandals like the Gucci knitwear recalling blackface, Prada’s Little Black Sambo bag charm and Dolce&Gabbana’s anti-Asian comments.The U.S protests against systemic racism, which are spreading around the globe, are also putting the spotlight on the fashion world in its role as a cultural beacon, and emboldening insiders — some with lucrative deals that often assume their discretion — to speak up.”People have the fire under their bottoms,” said Tamu McPherson, an American content creator based in Milan who collaborates with top luxury brands. “Their stories are strong and their voices are being heard. If they industry ignores them, they can be kept accountable. Everyone is sharing, and corroborating, their stories.”McPherson has been working with luxury brands in Milan, Paris and New York since 2013, contributing to digital campaigns, story-telling and in-house diversity training.”In seven years, I am still one of the only black people invited into those spaces. That is unacceptable,” said McPherson, who urged greater racial inclusion in a letter posted June 6 on her “All the Pretty Birds” website, in which she described the fashion industry as “steeped in racism, anti-Blackness and white privilege.””For years, they did not want to listen. Now they are listening because of the pandemic and the shocking murders we could all pay attention to, because there were not any distractions. This is the moment,” she said.Ferragamo courted criticism when it responded to the protests with a post that said, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion.”Dorfman shot back that people at the fashion house “have said heinous, transphobic, body phobic and racist things directly to me. I called them out every time and they promised to change.”A person close to Ferragamo said that the brand is committed to inclusivity, noting that it features models of all colors in its runway shows. Nearly half of Ferragamo’s Fall 2020 runway models were of diverse races.The pushback against the industry has had some early results. Bergdorf, who was sacked as L’Oreal UK’s first openly transgender model in 2017 for decrying “the racial violence of white people,” has now accepted a role as consultant on the U.K. Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board to help “influence and inform the brand.” The offer came after she highlighted the hypocrisy of the beauty company’s June 1 statement that it “stands in solidarity with the Black community, and against injustice of any kind … Speaking out is worth it.”The Fashion Spot, which has been tracking diversity on runways and magazine covers, has reported progress since launching its surveys in 2015. The Spring 2020 season had the highest level of diversity on runways in the four main fashion cities of Paris, Milan, New York and London, at 41.5%, only to dip for the Fall 2020 shows, to 40.6%. That remains an improvement from 17% in the website’s inaugural survey for Spring 2015.New York and London have led in diversity, while Paris and Milan tend to lag, according to the Fashion Spot’s data.After her post, McPherson said she has gotten feedback from some brands that her appeal was being shared internally.”The focus truly is on getting representation of Black, Indigenous and people of color integrated and hired at all levels of an organization, especially in decision-making positions and senior roles where they can advocate, educate and inform decisions,” McPherson said. “Now is the opportunity to rebuild.”After coming under fire for designs deemed racist, both Gucci and Prada last year announced long-term strategies to both promote diverse voices that have not been properly represented in fashion, including with scholarships.This time, the reckoning has gone to the fashion world’s highest levels. Anna Wintour has apologized in an internal email for not doing enough to elevate Black voices and publishing images and stories that have been racially and culturally “hurtful and intolerant” during her 32-year tenure at Vogue. Her comments came as Samira Nasr was named the first editor in chief of color in the 153-year history of U.S. Harper’s Bazaar.Supermodel Naomi Campbell — the first Black woman to appear on the cover of French Vogue — is publicly calling for equal pay for models of color and more representation generally, while acknowledging that in the past she has chosen to deal privately with such issues.”It is not something I call out, because I am personally someone who wants to rise to the challenge,” she told CNN. But she said, “in my business, it has gone on for long enough.” 
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The Golden Globes on Monday postponed its 2021 ceremony for film and television, after a two-month delay to the Oscars, in Hollywood’s latest awards calendar shuffle caused by the coronavirus epidemic. The Golden Globes ceremony, which kicks off Hollywood’s awards season, will take place on Feb. 28 instead of its usual slot on the first Sunday in January, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), which hands out the trophies, said in a statement. Last week the Oscars, the highest honors in the film industry, were postponed to April 25 from Feb 28. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said the delay would allow filmmakers more time to finish their movies after production was shut down worldwide in mid-March and movie theaters were closed. The HFPA said it would give details on a new date for Golden Globe nominations and eligibility criteria in the coming weeks. The Golden Globes, handed out at a boozy dinner in Beverly Hills, will be hosted by comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Other award shows, including Britain’s BAFTA event, have also shifted their dates for 2021 to fall closer to the Oscars. Hollywood movies and TV shows were given the green light two weeks ago to resume production in the Los Angeles area with detailed guidelines on social distancing and frequent testing. The three main movie theater chains have said they plan to reopen in the United States from July 10 with strict social distancing rules and with movie-goers required to wear masks. 
 
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Ratcheting up fresh pressure, Greece has blasted the British Museum for exhibiting the Parthenon marbles, calling the collection “stolen” treasures and demanding the masterpieces be returned to Athens. The call comes as Greece celebrates the 11th anniversary of the New Acropolis Museum, a four-story, state of the art edifice built to house the ancient treasures and weaken Britain’s claim that it is best able to look after the 2,500-year-old masterpieces. 
 
“Since September 2003 when construction work for the Acropolis Museum began, Greece has systematically demanded the return of the sculptures on display in the British Museum because they are the product of theft,” the country’s culture minister Lina Mendoni said. “The current Greek government – like any Greek government – is not going to stop claiming the stolen sculptures which the British Museum, contrary to any moral principle, continues to hold illegally,” she told the Athens daily Ta Nea. 
 
Depicting figures of ancient Greek mythology, the 75-meter frieze and its 17 statues were sawed off the Parthenon temple and shipped to London by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century, during his tenure as Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. 
 
Bankrupted by the venture, the British aristocrat sold them to the British Museum in 1816, where they became a major attraction and began one of the world’s longest running cultural disputes. 
 
Mendoni said “It is sad that one of the world’s largest and most important museums is still governed by outdated, colonialist views.” While successive governments in Britain have opposed calls for the return of the sculptures to Greece, pressure has mounted in recent years with a bandwagon of celebrities and politicians joining the repatriation campaign. 
 
Greece’s center-right government is also stepping up efforts to win back the treasures as the country gears up for its bicentennial independence anniversary next year.A municipal worker wearing a protective suit sprays disinfectant outside Acropolis museum as the Parthenon temple is seen in the background in Athens on March 24, 2020.While 50 meters of the 115-block Parthenon frieze is displayed in Athens, eight other museums scattered across Europe house fragments of it, including the Louvre and the British Museum. 
 
Last year, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis secured a key agreement from French President Macron to allow the Louvre to lend a small fragment of the Parthenon in light of those celebrations. 
 
Macron has become the first Western leader to initiate a comprehensive review of colonial looting, repatriating significant collections to Africa – a move traditionally resisted by leading museums in the West, including the British Museum. 
 
A similar loan request was made to the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson but it was quickly knocked down by the British Museum, saying any swap would require Athens to relinquish ownership claims to the prized treasures — a request Greece has emphatically refused. 
 
“Without the supreme symbol of culture, the Parthenon, Western Civilization cannot exist, and this symbol deserves to be reunited with its expatriate sculptures,” Mendoni told a local broadcaster in May. 
 
Government officials have refused to clarify whether Athens has followed up with any alternative proposal to the British Museum. Nor have they said whether Greece would resort to legal action against Britain in a bid to win back the marbles. 
 
“In law, a thief is not allowed to keep his or her ill-gotten gains, no matter how long ago they were taken, or how much he or she may have improved them,” said Geoffrey Robertson, a leading human rights attorney whom the government in Athens recruited in 2014 to consider legal action. 
 
“In the past, a lot of cultural property was wrongfully extracted from places that are now independent states. They want the loot sent back to where it was created and to the people for whom it has most meaning.” 
 
In its pamphlets, the British Museum argues that its free-of-charge entrance attracts millions of visitors every year from around the work, making the ancient Greek masterpieces available to the public within the context of a wide swath of human civilization — a claim Greece insists is now defunct with its $200 million mammoth museum. 
 
An austere building wedged within the chaotic sprawl of a crowded old neighborhood, the new Acropolis museum was initially scheduled to open in time for the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics. 
 
But legal fights over the expropriation of some 25 buildings, as well as archaeological findings unearthed at the site, derailed the project by more than 5 years. 
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The popular U.S. race car series NASCAR is investigating what it called Sunday a “heinous act” after a noose was found in the team garage of Bubba Wallace, its only top-level Black driver. Wallace said he was “incredibly saddened” and added that the act is “a painful reminder of how much further we have to go as a society and how persistent we must be in the fight against racism.” He stressed the need to advocate for a community that is welcoming to everyone, and said those involved in the sport “will not be deterred by the reprehensible actions of those who seek to spread hate.” Wallace drew widespread support from other drivers for his push two weeks ago to get NASCAR to ban the presence of the confederate flag at its races. NASCAR said in a statement it will do everything it can to identify who was responsible for the noose “and eliminate them from our sport.” The incident happened at Talladega Superspeedway in the southern state of Alabama, which was scheduled to host a race Sunday before it was interrupted by rain. Protesters on Saturday and Sunday drove cars and trucks flying the confederate flag on roads near the track. 
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