the times | Saturday December 18 2021 57
Wo r l d
The governor of Florida has stoked the
culture war in America’s classrooms by
proposing a Stop Woke Act that would
allow parents to sue schools for teach-
ing critical race theory.
Ron DeSantis, an ally of Donald
Trump, invoked the words of Martin
Luther King without irony while
unveiling his Stop the Wrongs to Our
Kids and Employees Act at a rally
this week.
“You think about what MLK stood
for,” DeSantis told a crowd. “He said he
didn’t want people judged on the colour
of their skin but on the content of
their character. You listen to some of
these people nowadays, they don’t talk
about that.”
DeSantis is widely touted as a future
presidential candidate or a 2024 run-
Florida parents urged to sue woke schools
United States
Hugh Tomlinson Washington
ning mate for Trump if the former
president seeks a return to the White
House. In recent months the Republi-
can governor has stepped up his attacks
on critical race theory, which claims to
examine the ways in which US laws and
policies perpetuate systemic racism.
Although the concept is decades old,
it has become a touchstone among
conservatives.
Republican politicians claim that the
history of American racism has been
distorted in classrooms to depict all
black people as victims, teaching white
students to feel guilty and hate their
country.
DeSantis banned the teaching of
critical race theory this year, despite no
evidence that it was being taught in
Florida schools.
The Stop Woke Act goes even fur-
ther, however, giving parents a “private
right of action” to sue if they believetheir children are being taught critical
race theory. The Florida legislation is
modelled on a new abortion law passed
in Texas that allows people to sue
women they accuse of terminating a
pregnancy, doctors who perform the
surgery or anyone who assists them.If the suit is successful, Texas has
offered a cash bounty of $10,000 to the
plaintiffs and will cover their legal costs.
Florida has also offered to cover
parents’ legal fees if they win a lawsuit
against a school or workplace.
The state declared this week that thelegislation would be “the strongest
legislation of its kind in the nation”.
Opponents argue that the legislation
aims to bully teachers and schools with
the goal of stamping out teaching about
the history of racism altogether.
Wajahat Ali, a columnist for the
Daily Beast website, denounced the
move as a political stunt, “a racist dog
whistle with a facially neutral cover”.
DeSantis was unmoved by the criti-
cism at his rally. “We have the responsi-
bility to stand for the truth, for what is
right,” he said, adding that he would not
allow taxpayers’ money to “be used to
teach our kids to hate our country or to
hate each other”.
The governor added: “We also have
to protect our people and our kids from
some very pernicious ideologies that
are trying to be forced upon them all
across the country.”
The teaching of racial equality andthe history of racism has come into
focus since nationwide protests after
the murder of George Floyd by a white
police officer in Minneapolis last year.
Critical race theory has become an
issue in local and national elections as
Republicans push back against claims
of systemic racism in the US.
In Virginia, where critical race
theory has been a particularly hot topic
and prompted rows in school board
meetings, the issue became central to
the elections for state governor last
month. Glenn Youngkin, the victorious
Republican candidate, called for a ban
on the teaching of Beloved, the award-
winning novel by Toni Morrison, a
Nobel laureate. The book depicts the
horror of slavery in the Civil War era.
The proposed Florida law will be
brought before the state legislature
next month and is expected to be
passed early next year.Ron DeSantis is a
Republican ally of
Donald TrumpTAKASHI KUBO/SOLENT NEWS & PHOTO AGENCYFor nearly four decades the US military
on overseas combat missions has
survived on Meals Ready to Eat
(MREs) ration packs.
Soldiers and Marines in the field tend
to describe them as meals rarely edible
and meals rejected by everyone, but
now the Pentagon research and devel-
opment agency, Darpa, has come up
with a new concept — microbes ready
to eat: food created on site that saves on
transport costs and packaging.
The new-style MREs would be pro-
duced by converting oxygen, carbon
dioxide, water and electricity into
microbes that would then create food
molecules, to include proteins, fats,
carbohydrates and “dietary fibre”.
Although it sounds like a feast of
unpalatable ingredients, Darpa is
promising that the molecules will have
different flavours and textures added to
make them tasty, even delicious.
Under a programme codenamed
Cornucopia, Darpa has asked compa-
nies and research organisations to
come up with ideas to enable food pro-
duction on demand and on site.
“Cornucopia seeks to produce fromI saved Merry
Christmas,
claims Trump
Charlie Mitchell Ottawa
People wishing each other the compli-
ments of the season have Donald
Trump to thank, or so he says.
In an interview with Mike Huckabee,
a former Arkansas governor, Trump
said that he had saved “Merry Christ-
mas” from a “woke” brigade intent on
destroying the phrase.
Trump, 75, said that bringing “Merry
Christmas” back instead of the non-de-
nominational “Happy Holidays” was
part of his original campaign platform.
“The country had started with this
woke a little bit before that, and it was
embarrassing for stores to say Merry
Christmas,” Trump said on Newsmax.
“When I started campaigning, I said,
‘You’re going to say Merry Christmas
again’, and now people are saying it...
Of course, they’re not saying a lot of
other things, like George Washington,
Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson.
You know those names are being oblit-
erated because of craziness.”
US army to march on microbial diet
air, water and electricity a range of
microbial-origin nutritious foodstuffs
that taste good and offer nutrition for
military applications ranging from
troops in austere locations to civilians
and troops during humanitarian assist-
ance and disaster relief operations,”
said Molly Jahn, programme manager
in Darpa’s defence sciences office.
She admitted that it was a “bold leap”
but recent advances including in micro-
biology and genetic sequencing had
made the concept realistic.
Eating microbes is nothing new. Dar-
pa said humans eat trillions of microbes
every day. For thousands of years man-
kind has used yeasts, moulds and bacte-
ria to make food products such as bread,
yoghurt and cheese. Several companies
have recently begun developing food
made by microbes to try to reduce reli-
ance on the land for food production
and to cut greenhouse gas emissions
arising from livestock farming.
However, the Pentagon’s require-
ment for reliable meal supplies for
troops overseas is so huge that Darpa
wants to devise a transportable food-
creation system that will meet the
needs of potentially tens of thousands
of servicemen and women.Darpa said military deployments
around the world involved lengthy,
costly and complex logistics, including
tons of food to sustain troops over
weeks and months.
Current-day MREs which come in
thick pouches are made for US military
personnel who are serving on opera-
tions too far from field kitchens where
troops can enjoy a full range of cooked
food in air-conditioned tented dining
halls. They have also been sent in huge
quantities to victims of humanitarian
disasters to help sustain them with in-
stant food.
During Operation Desert Storm in
1991 when a US-commanded coalition
force defeated Saddam Hussein’s troops
who had seized control of Kuwait,
American soldiers and Marines had to
eat cold MREs for up to 60 days.
After many complaints, the Penta-
gon produced ration heaters to make
sure the troops could eat hot MREs.
While the food variations developed
significantly over the years, to include
pepperoni pizza, boneless pork chops
with noodles and burgers, American
troops in war zones often tried to swap
their MREs for the British equivalents
which they decided were more edible.Michael EvansGiant transport
plane becomes
budget bomber
The US Air Force has hit a target with
a cruise missile dropped from a Hercu-
les transport aircraft for the first time.
The missile left the MC-130J Super
Hercules on a pallet with a parachute
before being released and diving
towards a vessel in the Gulf of Mexico.
The air force said the missile, official-
ly known as a palletised munition code-
named Rapid Dragon, “deployed its
wings and tail, achieved aerodynamic
control, ignited its engine... and pro-
ceeded towards its assigned target”.
The statement added that the target
was “successfully destroyed”. The
missile was not identified.
The use of a transport aircraft as a
second-string bomber has become a
key part of the Pentagon’s war-
planning. Turning cargo planes into
makeshift “aerial bomb trucks” would
add firepower at relatively low cost.
The Rapid Dragon programme
began two years ago.Michael EvansTally hole! After carefully listening, an Ezo Red fox dives into a mouse hole on Hokkaido, the northernmost prefecture of Japan, where the average temperature in December is minus 8C. Lunch eluded the fox