Can a new bridge unite Sweden's divided society? | Focus on Europe

 A new bridge in Stockholm is set to connect a wealthy area with an underprivileged district. But some people are objecting to it, triggering a divisive debate in Swedish society.

Sri Lanka: ‘One Country, One Law’

 

Minorities criticise proposed legal reforms that Sri Lanka’s president says aim to heal divisions.

How exactly will a new plan to rule all Sri Lankan communities under one law effectively represent everyone, while also trying to help heal divisions within society?

The decision to appoint a Buddhist monk to oversee these sweeping reforms is stoking controversy.

Rent-a-sister: Coaxing Japan’s hikikomori men out of their bedrooms

At least half a million young men in Japan are thought to have withdrawn from society, and refuse to leave their bedrooms. They’re known as hikikomori. Their families often don’t know what to do, but one organisation is offering ‘sisters for hire’ to help coax these young men out of their isolation.

Bloomberg: Beijing To Start 'Rating' Every Citizen By 2020

The first season of The Orville an episode titled Majority Rules.  The Orville is sent to investigate the disappearance of two anthropologists. What they discover is a society where the rule of law is dependent on the wider public's opinion. Accomplished through electronic badges worn by the populace.  During the mission Lt. John Lamar is filmed dry humping or dancing with a statue which turns out to be the hero and founder of the planets society.  John is arrested and instead of being put on trial. He must conduct an apology tour.

While fictional, how far are we from such a society?  Thanks to Beijing that future will arrive in 2020.  Given the amount of control the Communist party asserts of the citizenry one has wonder whether the public will accept this type of repression?

China’s plan to judge each of its 1.3 billion people based on their social behavior is moving a step closer to reality, with Beijing set to adopt a lifelong points program by 2021 that assigns personalized ratings for each resident.

The capital city will pool data from several departments to reward and punish some 22 million citizens based on their actions and reputations by the end of 2020, according to a plan posted on the Beijing municipal government’s website on Monday. Those with better so-called social credit will get “green channel” benefits while those who violate laws will find life more difficult.

The Beijing project will improve blacklist systems so that those deemed untrustworthy will be “unable to move even a single step,” according to the government’s plan. Xinhua reported on the proposal Tuesday, while the report posted on the municipal government’s website is dated July 18.

     

The life, death and impact of Pakistan’s working-class icon Qandeel Baloch

The life, death and impact of Pakistan’s working-class icon Qandeel Baloch, killed in 2016 after becoming a social media celebrity. This film tells Qandeel’s story through her own videos and media appearances. A young, fearless woman who collided with Pakistan’s mainstream media, Qandeel exposed the religious right and challenged middle-class morality.

From her life before stardom in a rural village to her early days in entertainment as a model and actor, Qandeel gained attention by making provocative web videos. We get to know Qandeel through her family, admirers and those she interacted with and inspired. The film also analyses her life through the lens of class and power politics and connects it to women’s continuing struggle for self-expression in Pakistan.

Amateur filmmaker’s videos are a time capsule of Tokyo in the year 1990

Take a trip back to the metropolis at the peak of the Bubble Era with this fascinating series of candid video montages.

1990 Japan. After 17 years of continuous growth and rapid development, the country emerged from post-war ruin to attain the status of global economic behemoth.

26 years later, Japan’s economic status has diminished somewhat, and though the country remains a cultural and culinary juggernaut on the global stage, the time in which its growth and conquest of the business world appeared inevitable belongs several decades in the past.

Japan combats rise in hate speech

Japan isn't combating the rise in hate speech or any other form of racism because they refuse to acknowledge that it's even happening.   Go to any public school in Japan everyday for a month and you'll discover that it's not just students but teachers who are complicit in the scourge of racism which is pervasive within Japanese society. While schools are just a microcosm of the larger problem doesn' excuse the fact that these types of behaviours  can be witnessed across a much broader spectrum from the news media to entertainment and within the government itself.   Japan is doing what it does best pretend to confront a difficult social issue then sweep it all under the carpet after the spotlight has been removed and the intense scrutiny ends.

Japan is the only developed country without anti-discrimination laws, and ethnic Koreans are often targeted

  On a chilly February evening in 2013, Shinhae Lee, a journalist and ethnic Korean woman who has lived in Japan her whole life, was at home by herself in Osaka when her computer pinged with a message from a friend. It said the leader of the nationalist group Zaitokukai had just announced on the Internet that he was sending her a spike, known in Japanese lore for its ability to curse someone to death.Sensing she was up against thousands of faceless ultranationalists who wished her the worst, Lee went to the police, who said there was nothing they could do. She had been told the same thing two years earlier, when she reported that she felt threatened by a wave of hateful comments online and in public. A 44-year-old freelance writer who lives with her Japanese husband and teenage son, Lee got on Zaitokukai’s radar in 2011 after criticizing the group, which claims to have about 15,000 members, in a series of articles and TV appearances. Zaitokukai followers retaliated against Lee at rallies and on social media, calling her a “Korean hag” and other ethnically and sexually charged invectives. Once, after a Tokyo protest, a 28-year-old office worker wrote on Twitter, “Let’s expel Koreans, the good ones and bad ones, and let’s kill that woman,” referring to Lee. The police questioned him, and he apologized, but she was deeply shaken by how casually and gleefully strangers could champion her murder.