Tag: tradition

Chinese officials launch a matchmaking app

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For single people, dating fatigue is a universal phenomenon. Hours of swiping left can lead to despair at the potential matches in your area. One city in Jiangxi, a province in eastern China, reckons that it has come up with a solution for the lovelorn or love-weary: a state-sponsored matchmaking service…

The app is part of a province-wide initiative to boost the marriage rate, which has been falling nationwide for the past decade. In 2021 there were 5.4 marriages per 1,000 people, compared with six in the US…

One of the main pillars of the Jiangxi pilot is a campaign against high “bride prices”. In recent years the government has discouraged the traditional practice of a potential groom offering a bride’s family cash before marriage. The country’s civil code prohibits “the exaction of money or gifts in connection with marriage”. But in practice the tradition remains common, especially in rural areas. In 2022 Jiangxi topped an unofficial nationwide ranking of bride prices, with an average of 380,000 yuan (£45,000)…

Through a combination of public awareness campaigns and limits on extravagant wedding ceremonies and banquets, Shicheng county claims to have virtually eliminated “betrothal gifts”.

Tradition can be a royal pain-in-the-ass! Glad I dropped that from my list of personal priorities before I got into the 1960s.

Political violence ain’t new to the GOUSA. As American as apple pie…or racism

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This is the United States of America in 2022. A country where political violence — including the threat of political violence — has become a feature, not a bug.

Armed men wearing tactical gear and face coverings outside ballot drop boxes in Arizona. Members of Congress threatening to bring guns onto the House floor — or actually trying to do it. Prominent Republican members of Congress, and their supporters on Fox News, stoking violence against their political opponents by accusing them of being pedophiles, terrorists and groomers — of conspiring with “globalists” (read: Jews) to “replace” white people with immigrants.

And of course, January 6, and subsequent efforts by Republicans and conservative media personalities to whitewash or even celebrate it.

Pundits like to take refuge in the saccharine refrain, “this is not who we are,” but historically, this is exactly who we are. Political violence is an endemic feature of American political history. It was foundational to the overthrow of Reconstruction in the 1870s and the maintenance of Jim Crow for decades after.

Racism and other bigotries are as fundamental to American politics as most of the religions accepted as necessary to 19th Century character-building. An impediment to positive, progressive social growth.

Teacher in India allegedly kills Dalit student over spelling mistake

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Police in India are searching for a teacher accused of beating a Dalit student to death over a spelling mistake, officers said amid violent protests triggered by the incident.

Nikhil Dohre was struck with a rod and kicked until he fell unconscious by his high school teacher earlier this month after misspelling the word “social” in an exam, according to a police complaint by his father…

The Dalit community – formerly known as the “untouchables” – sits at the lowest rung of India’s caste system and has been subject to prejudice and discrimination for centuries…

“The family says the boy was beaten by his teacher a few weeks ago for making a spelling error. Now the family has called this a caste-based hate crime,” Al Jazeera’s Pavni Mittal said.

No matter how strong you believe you live in modern times in a modern nation, you usually can find someone ready and willing to prove you wrong. Yes, that includes murder at least as often as personal violence, bigotry as often as ignorance.

Republican dedication to tradition

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Thanks, gocomics.org

Cripes! I remember the transition. Democrats relied on the Solid South…racism, Jim Crow laws and all, to stay in power for decades. Then, as a result of pressure from the growing civil rights movement, they relented. They figured they better join the nation changing in a progressive direction.

As a result, the Republican Party took over state government in all the most racist states. That’s what “Republican tradition” means in most of the South. It goes back to the success of freedom fighters at the federal level…and your friendly neighborhood bigots simply changing parties.

Planting hope in the Navajo Nation

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Older generations on the Navajo Nation have passed down stories of scourges, resilience — and survival. New generations are bringing the tales to life.

Four miles down Farm Road, just off U.S. Route 491 in northern Navajo, a group of young Diné used what was left of daylight in early May to plant onions and potatoes on Yellow Wash Farm.

As the novel coronavirus stretched its way through Navajoland, leaving a trail of heartbreak and uncertainty, the four Navajo men, a mixture of family and friends from Shiprock, picked up their seeds and broke the earth with their shovels.

By month’s end, the Navajo Nation would have the highest per-capita infection rate in the country, surpassing even New York state. The outbreak cut a swath across the vast reservation, from outposts in Arizona to the mesas and high desert in northwest New Mexico, where Shiprock, or Naatʼáanii Nééz — the largest Navajo community — became a hotspot seemingly overnight.

I came to the Southwest, to the Navajo Nation, three decades ago plus or minus. If I’d’ve stayed, it was likely at the time I would have gone to work for the Indian Health Service. Using my geek skills.

But, my erratic personal life intervened and I ended up in northern New Mexico. That’s not important, now, to y’all. The story of these folks trying to keep their history and culture sorted…and improve the lives of folks around them…is truly important. So, click that link up above and RTFA.

Going, going, gone…

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Click to enlarge — DOD photo

❝ One striking image shows the Marine Corps generals who will have left the Trump administration, after the president praised their service…

The photo above, taken in 2013, marked the first time six four-star Marines Corps generals were actively serving in the Marines.

Knowing Marine tradition of dedication to defense of this nation and its Constitution – the eventual departure of these Marines is precisely what I expected.

Paper cutting tradition and spring blossoms

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Click to go to article and more examples — Photo/China News Service

A Chinese mom and her daughter drew several girls with graceful postures on paper and then cut out the dresses from their depictions. They held the papers in front of blossoms in a park in Beijing on April 3, turning the spring blossoms into pretty dresses.