Section:GDN 12 PaGe:3 Edition Date:190821 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 20/8/2019 17:27 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
- The Guardian
Wednesday 21 August 2019 33
better choices, given their infl uence
and professed concern about the
climate crisis. And where is the
comparable fuss about the use of
chartered planes by Prince Charles,
who recently said global leaders
must act within the next 18 months
to avert climate catastrophe? In
the past year, the royal family’s
emissions from “business travel”
have doubled.
All of us need to rethink our
consumption of fl ights, not
simply try to buy our way out with
off setting. Off setting, says Tyers, is
better than it was about a decade ago
“when you had lots of stories about
the money getting lost in the world
of carbon fi nance. It’s much tighter
now and money generally does go to
[things like] reforestation projects.”
However, he says, “it is questionable
whether it will deliver what we need
within the timescale necessary. And
the cultural signal that it gives off –
that you can have your cake and eat
it – is problematic.”
Emine SanerWhy people
are celebrating
Palestinian
grandmothers
A
mericans are disgusting. Actually, let me rephrase
that: 45% of Americans are disgusting. According
to a study, 45% of them have worn the same pair of
underpants for two days or longer. The survey also
found that men are almost 2.5 times more likely than
women to wear their underwear for more than a week.
Before you get too grossed out, let me stress that this study should
be taken with several pinches of salt. This was not a rigorous scientifi c
investigation published in the Journal of Hygiene; it was a survey
conducted by an underwear company to generate free coverage and
encourage you to buy new underwear every six months. The company
does not reveal how its questions were phrased and is vague about
methodology; it does not specify, for example, whether the 2,000
Americans polled were a representative sample or were just college
students. In brief, the results stink to high heaven. Nevertheless, the
survey went viral and was reported by outlets such as Newsweek , the
Independent and the New York Post.
Running a study to come up with a headline-worthy statistic to fl og
your product is PR 101. I call these types of stats “advertistics”. With
enough patience, you can get a survey to prove anything, no matter
how ludicrous. A genetics company , for example, can “prove” that
genes determine whether you love or hate Marmite; the US National
Dairy Council can claim that 7% of American adults think chocolate
milk comes from brown cows.
Advertistics are largely harmless fun, intended simply to insert a
brand name into a cultural conversation. It’s when you do not see a
brand attached to a dubious-sounding statistic that alarm bells should
start ringing. You may remember headlines earlier this year claiming
that half of Americans admit they use swimming pools to wash
instead of the shower. The survey turned out to have been by a PR
fi rm working for the chlorine industry – something a number of news
outlets did not initially notice or report.
In general, brand-sponsored studies generate a few headlines and
are swiftly forgotten. Sometimes, however, they become received
wisdom. Take, for example, the idea that breakfast is the most
important meal of the day. You can largely thank Edward Bernays,
who is considered the “father of public relations” , for drumming
this idea into our psyche. In the 1920s, Bernays (who was Sigmund
Freud’s nephew) was hired by the bacon industry to increase sales.
He did so by surveying 5,000 doctors and asking
them if “a hearty breakfast was better than a light
breakfast to replace the energy lost by the body at
night”. A majority of doctors agreed and the survey
results became the cornerstone of an ad campaign
encouraging you to start your day with a hearty
breakfast of bacon and eggs.
This, by the way, is not to say that all statistics
are complete bunk. A study conducted by Arwa
Mahdawi LLC has found that the people who
read until the very end of an article are extremely
intelligent, very attractive and defi nitely change
their underwear every day. Well done, you.There is a Netfl ix game show called Flinch in which
contestants give each other electric shocks for viewers’
entertainment. I thought this was proof we had
reached peak stupid TV; however, a new contender has
come along. A streaming service called Quibi has just
commissioned “a high-octane cooking competition”
called Dishmantled. Cannons blast a meal into the
faces of blindfolded chefs. They have to fi gure out what
the dish is and recreate it as fast as possible. The winner
gets a cash prize : the loser is left with egg on their face.There are not many good news
stories about Palestine so I
was thrilled when, over the
weekend, #MyPalestineSitty
trended on Twitter. A tribute by
congresswoman Rashida Tlaib to
the “sitty” (Arabic for grandmother)
she was not able to visit inspired
thousands of people to post emotive
memories of their own Palestinian
grandmothers. The western media
often portray Arab women as
powerless; #MyPalestineSitty told
badass stories of fi erce matriarchs.
Palestinians are often depicted as
terrorists, victims or statistics; the
#MyPalestineSitty stories were
a reminder that they are human
beings, just like everyone else. “I am
overcome with emotions reali sing
how we are fi nally humani sing one
of the world’s most dehumani sed
peoples,” Ilhan Omar tweeted as the
hashtag went viral.
While it was incredible to see
Palestine trending, it also made me
sad that I have so few memories of
my own Palestinian sitty. I met her
only once, when I was fi ve, during a
family trip to my dad’s village in the
West Bank. She was virtually blind ,
her sight eroded by diabetes and
complications from being tear gassed
by Israeli soldiers during a protest in
the village. Her sight may have been
weak but she was not – my sitty was
a formidable woman who raised nine
kids while working as a midwife and
seamstress. She was famous in the
village for her love of high-heeled
shoes and, like many a grandmother,
she was a brilliant cook.
I hesitated about writing this
column. Talking about Palestine
is always fraught; you can be
accused of hating Israel simply for
mentioning the P-word. Sometimes,
it’s easier to say nothing. But nobody
should be afraid to remember their
grandmother. Mine lived through
decades of confl ict; I hope she is
fi nally resting in peace.Do 45% of Americans
really not change their
underwear every day?
Think TV has
reached peak
stupid? Think
again ...
Arwa
Mahdawi
COVER: NBCPHOTOGRAPHS: LOVE PRODUCTIONS/BBC/CHANNEL 4
jokes in the past, for promoting
often harmful stereotypes about
what the disorder is like. In 2012,
David Cameron mocked Ed Balls,
the shadow chancellor at the time,
by saying facing him in parliament
was “like having someone with
Tourette’s sitting opposite you ”.
Cameron apologised , but he had
already made clear his blatant
disrespect of Tourette’s as a
serious disability.
By contrast, I don’t believe
Falafel’s punchline made people
with Tourette’s the butt of the joke.
Alt hough it did oversimplify the
diffi culties of living with it, as a play
on words and vegetables, it was
immediately better than most.
Far more upsetting than the
joke was the public intolerance it
revealed. People with Tourette’s deal
with a lot of extra hurdles : tics can
lead to injury, unwanted attention
in public and even awkward or
aggressive confrontations. The calls
on social media for people with
Tourette’s to “get a grip” over their
criticism of Falafel’s joke suggests
an inability or a refusal to be
compassionate of this.
Thom has published a guide
for comedians looking to include
Tourette’s in their routine, including
instructions to avoid tired, swearing-
related punchlines and to chat to
someone with Tourette’s if there is
any uncertainty. So it is possible to
make jokes about Tourette’s that
people with Tourette’s fi nd funny- but the public needs to be better
educated to get them, too.
Serena Bhandari
A Florida
woman has
pleaded guilty
to illegally
possessing
animals after
being found
with a foot-long
alligator down
her yoga pants.
Ariel Machan-
Le Quire, 25,
was pulled over
for running a
stop sign before
being found
with more than
40 turtles in
a backpack
and the young
alligator. She
was sentenced
to six months
of probation
and 200 hours
of community
service.Say
what?RELEASED BY "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws