Impromptus

4.4 million years, &c.

By
Uyghur demonstrators take part in a protest on China’s National Day near the Chinese consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, October 1, 2023. (Umit Bektas / Reuters)
On the fate of the Uyghurs; a case in Saudi Arabia; energy in Europe; presidential politics; ‘post-liberalism’; and more

Yale University has a grim but necessary department, or program: the Genocide Studies Program. A new study by the program says that the Chinese government has imposed a combined 4.4 million years of imprisonment on Uyghur people. This, moreover, is a conservative estimate. To read about the study, go here. I have linked to an article from Radio Free Asia.

The article quotes Rayhan Asat, principal author of the Yale study: “This is happening on a scale that the world has not seen. And if China is allowed to fulfill the 4.4 million years of a cumulative imprisonment it has sentenced the Uyghur people to, it will mean a total ethnic incapacitation for the Uyghur people.”

That is surely the point, as the government sees it.

• Nadia Murad is a human-rights activist, a Yazidi. (They are a minority within Kurdistan, to use a regional, and cultural, designation.) A month ago, she wrote this:


More in Uyghurs

In 2018, Ms. Murad shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Denis Mukwege, the Congolese doctor who treats rape victims. (I interviewed him in 2016 and wrote about him here.)

• The editorial page of the Washington Post has a long tradition of highlighting human-rights cases. A recent editorial bears the following heading: “In Saudi Arabia, a popular animator faces jail time — for being irreverent.” Here is the subheading: “No amount of investment can whitewash the kingdom’s draconian treatment of its own people.” That is true.

The popular animator in question is Abdulaziz al-Muzaini, born in Texas. He has both U.S. and Saudi citizenship. Will his dual nationality and his popularity spare him the worst? The dictatorship in Riyadh will answer that soon.

• Here was an eye-catching headline: “EU needs ‘more nuclear,’ European Commission president says.” The article, from the German Press Agency, begins,

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen called for the European Union to be more self-sufficient in energy production in a speech on Friday in Prague.

“When we speak about our energy, we have to produce our own energy, more renewables, more nuclear, more efficiency,” she told a security conference in the Czech capital.

The article goes on to explain,

Nuclear energy in the EU is hotly disputed, with France pushing for the technology to get more public investment, and be a bigger part of the bloc’s energy system, against stiff opposition from Germany.

One more slice of the article, keenly interesting:

Europe bought gas from Russia on the basis that “economic interdependence was the ultimate source of security,” von der Leyen said.

“This was supposed to be the guarantee that Moscow would never start a new war on the old continent. This was an illusion,” von der Leyen added.

The end of illusions can be a blessed thing. (The first piece I wrote after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was called “The End of Illusions” — here.)

• Surrounding Viktor Orbán and his government, there are many illusions, although plenty of people see them clear and admire them regardless. Of interest is a piece in Politico: “Former GOP officials sound the alarm over Trump’s Orbán embrace.” May they get louder, in those alarms.

• Donald Trump circulated the below “meme.” My question: Is such campaigning, is such a tactic, effective? I imagine it is.

• Elon Musk circulated the below. Does it have an influence? Well, the man has 200 million X followers. That’s a lot.

• What do you get when you mix vanilla ice cream and mud? Mud. What do you get when you mix religion and politics? Politics. I thought of that when seeing this:

• Question (another one): I know a lot of Trump true-believers. Do they believe that English professors say to him, “It’s the most brilliant thing I’ve ever seen”? I bet they do, yes.

• True or false? If Kamala Harris loses the election, she will concede, and she will attend the inauguration (as the outgoing vice president). If Trump loses, he will not concede, and he will not attend the inauguration (as former presidents do). (He refused to attend his successor’s inauguration, breaking with American tradition.)

My question, above, means nothing to many, many people (trust me). But it means something to some.

• By Ralph Vartabedian, for the New York Times, a very interesting article: “How a Real Estate Boom Drove Political Corruption in Los Angeles.” The subheading (interesting on its own): “Prosecutors say that corruption is rising in California cities as one-party rule, inattentive voters and weakened news media have reduced the traditional checks on power.”

• Another interesting article, by Dánica Coto of the Associated Press: “Trinidad and Tobago reckons with colonialism in a debate on statues, signs and monuments of its past.” In my view, these issues aren’t black and white — in either the literal sense or the metaphorical.

• For The Dispatch, James M. Patterson has written an essay called “What Is Postliberalism?” A paragraph:

Put simply, postliberalism is three things. First, it is an authoritarian ideology adapted from Catholic reactionary movements responding to the French Revolution and, later, World War I. Second, it is a loose international coalition of illiberal, right-wing parties and political actors. Third, it is a set of policy proposals for creating a welfare state for family formation, the government establishment of the Christian religion, and the movement from republican government to administrative despotism.

My question: Shouldn’t “postliberalism” be thought of as “pre-liberalism”?

• Baseball lore is rich — wonderfully rich. Here is a fine contribution to it. Have a listen, and a watch:

• Landon Y. Jones, otherwise “Lanny,” was the editor of People magazine, the man who made it a juggernaut, way back. He has died at 80. Jones was a graduate of Princeton University and made his home in Princeton. He was totally devoted to the Princeton Tigers and all things Princeton.

The obit in the New York Times concludes with the following anecdote:

Once, when he was having computer trouble, he asked People’s technology aide to take a look at his Mac. Mr. Jones was out of the office when the aide, Eric Mischel, came by. Mr. Jones had not told Mr. Mischel his computer password. Looking around Mr. Jones’s office, Mr. Mischel recalled in an email, he saw all the Princeton memorabilia and took a guess: TIGER.

“I guessed right!” he said.

On Twitter (X), I remarked that the obit ended with a first-class anecdote. The obituarist, Trip Gabriel (great name, by the way), responded with this:

Bonus anecdote that didn’t make it in: Jones was such an avid NYT reader that no one in his house was allowed to throw out sections of the paper until he signed his initials on the top of them.

• Let’s close with a little music. Rachmaninoff wrote a piece — a symphonic poem — called “Isle of the Dead.” A friend tells me the following:

An e-mail from a ticket service provider which I got last week highlighted a Rachmaninoff program in September which was to feature the “overture” titled “Aisle of the Dead.” Just before Frozen Foods?

Thanks for joining me today, y’all. See you soon.

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