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A Different Kind Of Power Whitewashes Jacinda Ardern's Right-wing, Pro-Imperialist Government
A Different Kind Of Power Whitewashes Jacinda Ardern's Right-wing, Pro-Imperialist Government

Scoop

time7 days ago

  • Politics
  • Scoop

A Different Kind Of Power Whitewashes Jacinda Ardern's Right-wing, Pro-Imperialist Government

Few books have received as much global publicity and fawning praise from the corporate media as A Different Kind of Power, the memoir by New Zealand's former Labour Party Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, published in June by Penguin Books. Ardern has been interviewed by major outlets in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and especially the United States. She has appeared on CNN, NPR, CBS, PBS, in the New York Times, on 'The Late Show' with Stephen Colbert, and in a mind-numbing 70-minute interview with Oprah Winfrey. The memoir's publication coincided with the release of an American-made documentary about Ardern, titled Prime Minister, produced by Magnolia Pictures, HBO and CNN. Significant resources, in other words, have been devoted to glorifying Ardern and her years as prime minister from 2017 to 2023. What is behind this phenomenon? Ardern is being elevated amid an historic crisis of the capitalist system, centred in the United States. The ruling class has brought the fascist Donald Trump back into power in order to escalate imperialist wars throughout the world while shredding democratic rights and eviscerating workers' living standards at home. The Democrats, and similar bourgeois parties internationally, are terrified that these developments are fuelling the leftward movement of workers and layers of the middle class, especially young people, who are increasingly opposed to capitalism and all of its political representatives. Advertisement - scroll to continue reading In this context, the embrace of Ardern is part of increasingly desperate efforts to reassure people that all is not lost, that the capitalist system can be saved if only it is given a kinder, more sympathetic face. As one of Ardern's interviewers, Katie Couric, said, 'In a time of extreme disillusionment, she reminds us that optimism isn't naïve, in fact it's necessary.' According to Penguin's publicity material, Ardern 'changed our assumptions about what a global leader can be' and her story provides 'a model for anyone who has ever doubted themselves or has aspired to lead with compassion, conviction, and courage.' A Different Kind of Power reads like a mediocre Young Adult novel sprinkled with 'self-help' platitudes, such as: 'The difference between what we are and what we could be is the greatest waste;' 'kindness has a power and strength that almost nothing else on this planet has;' 'if you are thin-skinned and sensitive, if criticism cuts you in two, that is not weakness; it's empathy;' and so on. It is structured as a story of feminist empowerment, designed to appeal to identity politics-obsessed upper-middle class layers. A clever, sensitive girl overcomes her self-doubt and enters politics; her earnestness and empathy result in her becoming prime minister and leading New Zealand through the trauma of the 2019 Christchurch terrorist attack and the first years of the COVID-19 pandemic, while striving to eliminate poverty. Ardern accomplished all this, readers are constantly reminded, while having a baby, becoming only the second world leader in history to give birth in office. This simplistic, feel-good narrative is based on numerous falsifications, distortions and glaring omissions. By any objective standard, Ardern led a pro-imperialist, right-wing government. In 2022 and 2023 the working class turned sharply against Labour amid collapsing living standards, attacks on immigrants, and a surge in COVID-19 hospitalisations and deaths after the government's switch to a policy of mass infection. Ardern's election promises in 2017 to end child poverty and homelessness, to build 100,000 'affordable' houses, and to bring back free tertiary education, were exposed as completely fraudulent. In October and November 2023, when Labour was still in power, it endorsed Israel's murderous bombardment of Gaza, and Chris Hipkins, Ardern's successor as prime minister, smeared opponents of the slaughter as antisemitic. Ardern resigned as prime minister at the start of 2023 to pursue a career in the United States, where she has become a celebrity in Democratic Party circles. She is a fellow at Harvard University and also heads the Field Fellowship, a political leadership training program that is part of the Center for American Progress, a major imperialist think tank in Washington DC. Ardern spoke during last year's Democratic National Convention in Chicago, in support of Kamala Harris's presidential campaign. She attempted to portray Harris as a symbol of 'hopefulness' and 'empathy.' Nothing exposes the cynical fraud of Ardern's 'compassionate' persona more than her embrace of the Biden-Harris administration as it carried out the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza, which is aimed at crushing opposition to imperialist control over the Middle East. There is no mention of this historic crime in her memoir. Ardern's early career Much of Ardern's book deals with her unremarkable, conservative upbringing, in a family with no connection whatsoever to the struggles of the working class. She was raised as a Mormon in the small rural towns of Murupara and Morrinsville. Her father, who she depicts as a role model, was a police officer. Despite leaving the Mormon Church in her twenties—which was necessary to advance her political career—Ardern praises this deeply reactionary institution as 'loving and kind, focused on service and charity.' The church has intimate connections to far-right politicians in the US, and was estimated in 2023 to have a net worth of $US265 billion, with huge investments in real estate and other business assets. Ardern began campaigning for the Labour Party in 1999 while still in high school and was quickly identified as a potential candidate. She worked in parliament during the early 2000s as an assistant to Labour government ministers including Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff and Prime Minister Helen Clark. Ardern states that the Clark government 'achieved a lot,' citing identity politics-related initiatives—including the legalisation of same-sex civil unions—and small increases to the minimum wage and welfare, which did nothing fundamental to address poverty and social inequality. The memoir falsely states that Labour 'opposed' the criminal US-led invasion of Iraq. In September 2003 the government sent 61 army personnel to join the imperialist occupation of Iraq. Ardern also doesn't tell readers that New Zealand troops participated in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. This had a dramatic impact on New Zealand politics, leading to the implosion of the pseudo-left Alliance party, Labour's coalition partner, after its MPs voted in favour of joining the war. As a minor imperialist power, New Zealand has consistently backed US wars throughout the world, in exchange for Washington's support for its own neo-colonial domination over parts of the Pacific region. For two decades, successive governments, including Ardern's, redeployed troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2006 Ardern moved to London. She writes casually that she 'got a job as a policy adviser in a unit of the Cabinet Office called the Better Regulation Executive,' that is, in the office of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. Ardern says next to nothing about this period, when she worked for one of the chief war criminals responsible for the destruction of Iraq. In 2008, in response to the global financial crisis, businesses in New Zealand began making mass layoffs. The Clark government protected the profits of the banks and implemented austerity measures, provoking significant strikes, including by doctors and truck drivers. Labour lost the election that year, but Ardern entered parliament, becoming the youngest sitting MP at the age of 27, after being given a high placement on the party list. She was being groomed for a prominent role. The 2017 election: Ardern's coalition with the far-right NZ First After nine years in opposition, Labour remained deeply discredited in the eyes of workers, as a party of big business and imperialist war, just like the National Party-led government. Labour was on-track for a fourth consecutive election defeat when Ardern was catapulted into the leadership in 2017 in a desperate attempt to avoid a complete electoral wipeout. Ardern was heavily promoted by the media, which coined the term 'Jacindamania' (echoing the 'Obamamania' of 2008). Her election campaign was backed by the pseudo-left International Socialist Organisation and Socialist Aotearoa, which made baseless claims that Labour was turning to the left and presented Ardern's election pledges as good coin. Only the Socialist Equality Group warned that Ardern's rhetoric could not be trusted and that a Labour-led government would accelerate the assault on the working class, including immigrants, and strengthen New Zealand's alliance with US imperialism. The manufactured enthusiasm for Ardern had a limited effect, with Labour getting just under 37 percent of the votes on September 23—less than the National Party. Neither of the major parties was in a position to govern alone. Both spent weeks in negotiations with the right-wing nationalist New Zealand First Party, which ultimately chose to form a coalition government with Labour and the Greens. Ardern writes affectionately about NZ First, calling it a 'populist, centrist party' whose leader Winston Peters 'was a huge political personality—charismatic and blunt, with a reputation for being a maverick.' She adds that her grandmother 'definitely had a soft spot for him.' NZ First was founded in 1993 on an explicitly anti-immigrant platform. Peters was well-known for racist demonisation of Muslims, as well as Asian and Pacific island immigrants. Ardern writes that 'New Zealand First had a reputation for being harsh on migrant communities, and this was not a message I wanted to see reinforced through any kind of concession.' The Labour Party, however, repeatedly joined NZ First in scapegoating migrants, especially Chinese people, for overstretched public services and the housing crisis. The Ardern government imposed increasingly brutal anti-immigrant measures, in line with NZ First's demands. It froze the processing of thousands of residency applications; prevented visa-holders from returning to NZ during the pandemic; imposed income-based restrictions on new migrants; kicked unemployed migrants off welfare; and oversaw brutal 'dawn raids' to detain and deport so-called 'overstayers.' In 2022, after migrants protested against such policies, the state forced the shutdown of the popular Migrants NZ Facebook group. The days leading up to the 2017 election were dominated by a vicious anti-China campaign, led by pro-Washington academic Anne-Marie Brady and backed by NZ First, as well as the Labour-aligned Daily Blog. Without any evidence, Brady accused National Party MP Jian Yang of being a Chinese spy, while the Daily Blog railed against National's encouragement of close business ties with China. In her retelling of events, Ardern mentions none of this. She claims to have had no foreknowledge that Peters would form a coalition with Labour until he publicly announced his choice on October 19. Peters announced his decision with the warning that capitalism was being discredited and that it 'must regain its human face.' Ardern is silent about the most important, perhaps decisive, episode during the coalition talks, when US ambassador Scott Brown publicly made clear that Washington preferred a Labour-NZ First coalition government. In extraordinary statements to the media, Brown criticised the incumbent National Party government for being too soft on China and for failing to back President Trump's threats to annihilate North Korea. The Ardern government aligned New Zealand more closely with US warmongering. It declared Russia and China the main 'threats' to global stability, and supported a stronger US military presence in the Pacific. In 2022, Labour sent New Zealand troops to the UK to train Ukrainian conscripts for the US-NATO war against Russia. Despite NZ First getting just 7.2 percent of the votes, its leader Peters was made deputy prime minister and foreign minister, while NZ First deputy leader Ron Mark became the defence minister. The Greens also played a significant role, working closely with NZ First to produce a document justifying a significant increase in military spending. The 2019 Christchurch terror attack On March 15, 2019 the fascist Brenton Tarrant massacred 51 people and injured dozens more at two Christchurch mosques. It was the worst mass shooting in New Zealand's history and horrified the entire world. Many questions remain about how Tarrant was able to carry out the attack and why state agencies failed to act on numerous warnings about his activities and the dangers to the Muslim community. Ardern gives a superficial account focusing on her own response on March 15 and her meetings with the victims' families, which was celebrated by the corporate media internationally as evidence of her kindness and empathy. At one point she wonders whether Tarrant could have been stopped, but concludes that this was impossible: 'It had all happened so fast, everyone responding exactly as they should, and it still hadn't been enough.' In fact, Tarrant had been reported to police in Australia for making death threats on social media. In New Zealand, a member of the public warned police about anti-Muslim comments he overheard at the gun club where Tarrant was a member. Tarrant published numerous comments online about his intentions, more than a year before the attack. He had links with Australian fascists who were monitored by police and intelligence agencies, as well as far-right networks internationally. Despite all this, a royal commission of inquiry concluded that there was no way Tarrant's attack could have been prevented. The inquiry was a whitewash of the state agencies. It was held in secret and most of its evidence, including statements from police, security agencies and Tarrant himself, has not been made public. Emphasizing Tarrant's Australian nationality, Ardern writes: 'he'd moved to New Zealand—he chose us—because he knew that New Zealand openly welcomed people of all faiths. He wanted to destroy that. He wanted us to turn against one another. So, he came here, and he attacked our Muslim community.' This depiction of New Zealand as a society free from discrimination and prejudice is a fantasy. For decades, successive governments stoked anti-Muslim sentiment to justify New Zealand's participation in the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. NZ First leader Winston Peters—Ardern's deputy PM—infamously declared in a 2005 speech entitled 'The End of Tolerance' that the Muslim community had a 'militant underbelly… like the mythical Hydra, a serpent underbelly with multiple heads, capable of striking at any time and in any direction.' NZ First ramped up its anti-immigrant demagogy following the Christchurch attack, echoing some of Tarrant's statements. All of this was ignored in the media's adulation of Ardern. Ardern recounts how, in a phone call with President Trump after the March 15 attack, she absurdly asked him to 'show sympathy and love for all Muslim communities.' She does not mention that Trump was a major inspiration for Tarrant, whose manifesto hailed him as a 'symbol of white renewal.' Ardern's book does not contain a single reference to Trump's mass deportations and other fascist policies. The state censor made it illegal to possess or distribute Tarrant's manifesto, thereby suppressing public discussion of his fascist views and their similarity to those of Trump and far-right parties like NZ First. Ardern urged the media not to report on Tarrant's views and declared that she would never say his name. The Ardern government's main response to the Christchurch attack was to ban the military-style rifles used by Tarrant and to push for greater internet censorship. Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron established the Christchurch Call to Action, an initiative supported by numerous governments and tech and social media companies, she says, 'to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online.' Its real aim was to provide additional tools to clamp down on political opposition and dissent, as governments throughout the world lurched towards dictatorship and imperialist war. It is not the far-right, but left-wing, socialist and anti-war publications, including the World Socialist Web Site, which are facing censorship by Google, X and Meta—all signatories to the Christchurch Call. Ardern and the COVID-19 pandemic In a 337-page book, Ardern devotes fewer than 30 pages to her government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a deeply dishonest account. Describing how the government decided to implement a lockdown of schools and workplaces in late March 2020, Ardern says she was guided by experts including her chief science advisor Juliet Gerrard and Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield. 'Every decision was hard,' she says. 'We moved as quickly and decisively as we could, knowing if we got it wrong, the virus could get away on us.' In fact, the decisive factor that triggered the lockdown was the ruling elite's fear of an uncontrollable movement in the working class. In parts of the United States and Europe thousands of workers had walked off the job to protest the state's refusal to stop the spread of COVID. They did so in defiance of the pro-capitalist unions. In New Zealand, tens of thousands of healthcare workers and others signed a petition demanding an immediate lockdown. This was organised independently of the union bureaucracy, which opposed school closures and downplayed the risks of COVID. The nationwide lockdown was successful: within a few weeks transmission of COVID-19 dropped to zero in New Zealand and daily life largely returned to normal, with the border closed and quarantine measures in place for returning residents. Because of this, Labour was re-elected in 2020 with 50 percent of the vote. Near the end of that year, while hundreds of thousands of people had died around the world, there were only 25 COVID deaths in New Zealand, 'and I knew the stories and circumstances of almost all of them,' Ardern says. The policies adopted in New Zealand, China, and to some extent Australia and other countries in South-East Asia, proved that COVID could be completely eliminated. Had the same strategy been implemented on a global scale, the pandemic would have ended in a few months. Such a strategy, however, was incompatible with the demands of the profit system. Ardern provides no explanation for her government's decision, in late 2021, to suddenly abandon its 'zero COVID' policy. She merely states that by October, amid an outbreak in Auckland, 'I increasingly believed that this time we would not stamp out Covid.' This belief was not backed by science. Against the advice of some of its own public health advisors, the government repeatedly relaxed the temporary lockdown in the largest city, allowing the highly infectious Delta variant to get out of control. The government was acting on the demands of the corporate media for an end to lockdowns and for New Zealand to follow the US and Europe in allowing COVID to spread. This plan—which placed profit ahead of the lives and health of workers—was implemented with the crucial support of the trade unions, which prevented any organised opposition to the dismantling of public health measures. From the beginning, in response to the economic crisis triggered by the pandemic, the Ardern government prioritised the interests of the corporate and financial elite. Like governments in the US and internationally, it transferred tens of billions of dollars to the rich. Property values and corporate and bank profits soared as businesses received bailouts, subsidies and tax concessions, and the Reserve Bank distributed billions more through quantitative easing measures. Ardern repeats the lies that the Omicron variant, which became dominant in 2022, was 'less lethal' than Delta and that, with vaccination, the population could 'adjust to our new normal: living with Covid.' Vaccines, while essential to minimise the effects of the coronavirus, do not prevent transmission and significant levels of severe illness. Commenting on the far-right, anti-vaccination protesters who camped on parliament's lawn in Wellington for three weeks in February 2022, Ardern states: 'It was a challenge the world over—people now couldn't agree on what was fact and what was fiction.' The truth is that her government had emboldened the extreme right by bowing to the demands to replace the elimination policy with a policy of mass infection. Ardern does not explain what 'living with COVID' actually meant. The catastrophic spread of COVID-19 in 2022 overwhelmed the country's grossly under-resourced public health system. By the end of July, New Zealand's total deaths from COVID had risen to 2,000, with more deaths per million on a weekly basis than any other country. To date, there have been more than 4,600 total COVID deaths, and thousands more people are suffering from debilitating Long COVID. Ardern's resignation A Different Kind of Power provides no real explanation for Ardern's resignation as prime minister on January 19, 2023, at the start of an election year. She refers lamely to 'sleepless nights' and feeling 'always stressed' and worn out. She claims her decision was unrelated to Labour's declining support, that 'polling at the time had just a few points between us and our opposition' and she believed Labour could still win. This is disingenuous. Of the 42 polls taken during 2022, listed on Wikipedia, three-quarters had the Labour Party behind the opposition National Party. Labour was presiding over soaring living costs, a worsening housing crisis, and the public health disaster fuelled by the out-of-control spread of COVID-19. Ardern's promises of a 'kinder' government had been discredited. To cite one further example: Ardern writes that in 2018 she launched a 'child poverty reduction law, which set targets to halve child poverty over the next ten years… to ensure that every New Zealand child could live in a home where they were safe and loved and had what they needed to thrive.' Ardern made herself the Minister for Child Poverty Reduction. Ardern neglects to inform her readers that from 2017 to 2023, the number of children living in material hardship—in families without access to basic necessities—increased by 6.4 percent from 135,000 to 143,700 (about 1 in 8 children). In the absence of a socialist alternative, disillusionment and anger with the Labour government's right-wing policies paved the way for the electoral victory of the conservative National Party and its extreme right-wing allies, the libertarian ACT Party and NZ First. The latter had failed to return to parliament in the 2020 election, but scraped back in in 2023 with just over 6 percent of the votes and was welcomed into the National-led coalition. ACT and NZ First, both extremely unpopular parties, are setting the agenda for the government, which is slashing taxes for the rich and presiding over soaring unemployment. About half a million people, one in 10, are relying on food banks to survive, and more than 100,000 people are severely housing deprived. With the Labour Party's support, the government intends to double spending on the military, to bolster New Zealand's alliance with US imperialism and join the insane preparations for world war. This will be funded with even deeper cuts to public healthcare and other vital services. Political lessons must be drawn from these experiences. The record of the Ardern government exposes the utterly right-wing character of the Labour Party and the political bankruptcy of all those who present Labour as a 'lesser evil,' including the Greens, the union apparatus, and pseudo-left organisations. This embrace of Ardern by the 'liberal' establishment in the US and internationally is a warning to the working class. As the capitalist crisis drives the imperialist powers towards war and fascism, Ardern's Field Fellowship program is training politicians in the US and Europe to use the rhetoric of 'kindness' and 'pragmatic idealism' to disguise their anti-working class, pro-imperialist agendas. Workers and young people cannot allow themselves to be duped by such phrase mongering. The only way to stop the descent into barbarism is for the working class to establish its complete political independence from all capitalist parties and to take up the fight for international socialism. This means joining the International Committee of the Fourth International and, in New Zealand, the Socialist Equality Group, which is fighting to build a section of the Trotskyist movement. By Tom Peters, Socialist Equality Group 22 June 2025

Wondering where to start with Dostoevsky? Try his Ukrainian contemporaries instead
Wondering where to start with Dostoevsky? Try his Ukrainian contemporaries instead

Yahoo

time07-06-2025

  • Politics
  • Yahoo

Wondering where to start with Dostoevsky? Try his Ukrainian contemporaries instead

Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a growing debate has emerged over the cultural and political legacy of Russian literature — particularly the global reverence for classic Russian authors, which critics argue has long served to promote the imperial narratives embedded in their work. As Ukrainian author Oksana Zabuzhko wrote in the Times Literary Supplement in 2022, their works of literature are 'the camouflage net' for Russian tanks in Ukraine. Among the most famous classic Russian authors is 19th-century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–1881). More than a century after his death, Dostoevsky remains a dominant figure in the world literary canon, his name recognized even by those who have never read his work. This April, Penguin Books reissued an English-language edition of his short story 'The Dream of a Ridiculous Man,' while his novella 'White Nights' continues to enjoy popularity among online literary communities. Defenders of Dostoevsky maintain that his writing transcends politics, focusing on existential and psychological themes. They argue that interpreting his work through a nationalist or imperialist lens oversimplifies the complexity of his ideas. But many scholars and commentators point to Dostoevsky's spiritual vision of Russia's destiny — a vision that portrays the country as a moral, unifying force against a 'decaying' West that was, at the time, heading toward the Gilded Age. They draw parallels between this worldview and that of contemporary Russian ideologues like Alexander Dugin, who frame Russian aggression in near-religious terms. As the war continues, it remains to be seen whether Russia's literary past can be disentangled from its politics. Rather than calling for a boycott of Russian authors, the Kyiv Independent wants to raise a more illuminating question: Why do so few English-language readers know the Ukrainian authors who were the contemporaries of Dostoevsky? The lack of global recognition for Ukraine's classic writers is not coincidental. It reflects a legacy of imperial domination, during which the Russian Empire frequently suppressed the Ukrainian language and culture, the same empire that Dostoevsky often praised in his writings. Some of the most influential voices in the history of Ukrainian literature were active during the same period as Dostoevsky. Others who came just before him, like Mykola Gogol, are known worldwide but have long been misclassified as 'Russian.' Literary figures such as Lesia Ukrainka and Ivan Franko, who came to the literary scene just after Dostoevsky's time, are now reemerging in English translation — their essential works poised to resonate with a global audience, just as they once did across the European intellectual landscape. Although there is no evidence that Dostoevsky knew his Ukrainian contemporaries, they did interact with some other famous Russian authors. Below is a brief overview of three Ukrainian authors of the 19th century and the themes that shaped their work. The purpose of this list is not to outright dismiss Russian literature, but rather to remind people of the selective nature of the global literary canon, and to draw attention to the Ukrainian voices that have long been overlooked or marginalized. Born a serf, Ukrainian national icon Taras Shevchenko gained his freedom thanks to his artistic talent. But liberation did not end his struggle — instead, it sharpened his focus on the plight of his people under Russian imperial rule. A pioneer of ethnographic art and literature, Shevchenko used both pen and brush to document the everyday lives of Ukrainians, casting a critical eye on their subjugation and the erasure of their culture. Published in 1840, 'Kobzar' is widely regarded as Taras Shevchenko's defining work. The collection takes its name from traditional Ukrainian musicians who sang of Cossack heroism while playing the kobza, a stringed instrument. The poems reflect on the cultural and political struggles of Ukraine under Russian rule. In 'To Kvitka-Osnovianenko,' Shevchenko pays tribute to the writer Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko, an early advocate of Ukrainian as a literary language, and mourns the destruction of the Zaporizhzhian Sich, the Cossacks' last stronghold, in the 18th century. Another poem, 'Kateryna,' tells the story of a young Ukrainian woman seduced and abandoned by a Russian imperial soldier, highlighting the personal toll of imperial domination. Shevchenko was deeply influenced by ideas of national identity, language, and self-determination — views that drew the ire of the tsarist authorities. He was arrested in 1847 and exiled to military service in a remote part of Kazakhstan. According to historical accounts, Tsar Nicholas I reportedly ordered that Shevchenko be restricted from writing or painting. However, Shevchenko still managed to create art and later returned briefly to Ukraine before his death. Read also: Looking to read Ukraine-related books? We picked the best of 2024 Kulish's politics were somewhat complex, perhaps even contradictory to some. In his early years, he was affiliated with the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, a short-lived secret political society that existed between 1845 and 1847. The group championed the federalization of the Russian Empire, a Ukrainian language and culture revival, and the abolition of serfdom, among other initiatives. Over time, however, Kulish's stance diverged from mainstream Ukrainian thought, particularly as he advocated for the preservation of a distinct Ukrainian culture while simultaneously supporting a political union with Russia. This position ultimately led to his marginalization in many Ukrainian intellectual circles, both in Russian-controlled Ukraine and the parts of Ukraine under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Despite this, Kulish continues to be respected and read by many Ukrainians today for his literary achievements. His novel 'The Black Council' (1857) is considered the first historical novel in Ukrainian literature. Set against the backdrop of the Ruin — the tumultuous period following the death of Cossack Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi in 1657 — it delves into the power struggles that ensued. The novel draws inspiration from the Black Council of 1663, a pivotal gathering in Nizhyn in modern-day Chernihiv Oblast, where nobles and commoners alike converged to elect a new hetman for left-bank Ukraine. The novel not only captures the fierce internal conflicts among Cossack leaders but also explores the deep social rifts that defined one of Ukraine's most fractured and tragic eras. Excerpts of the novel have been translated online. However, a full publication of the book in English translation has yet to materialize. Among Ukraine's most talented female writers was Marko Vovchok, whose 'Folk Stories' was published in 1857, shortly after the ascension of Tsar Alexander II, initially seen as a reform-minded ruler compared to his father, Nicholas I. However, while the serfs were liberated under his rule in 1861, it could be argued that the liberal period of his rule, at least for Ukrainians, was short-lived: a decree in 1863 banned Ukrainian-language publications, followed by the stricter Ems Ukaz of 1876. Vovchok's collection gained even greater significance in this repressive climate. Focused on the suffering of Ukrainian peasants — especially women — under serfdom, the stories were informed by her early work assisting her husband's ethnographic research. She gathered material directly from villagers, preserving oral traditions. Russian writer Ivan Turgenev translated the stories into Russian, sparking additional debate in literary circles over the realities of serfdom. Shevchenko is said to have recommended her work to Turgenev, declaring her 'the most powerful in our language.' In the short story 'The Cossack Girl' from the collection, Olesia, a free woman, falls in love with a serf and chooses to marry him, ultimately sacrificing her freedom. Her family warns her that marrying a serf will disgrace their village and its Cossack heritage, even suggesting that she might as well 'drown herself.' Olesia insists that love is more important than social status. The marriage, however, proves disastrous, with Olesia, her husband, and their children enduring significant hardship. Under empire, happy endings are a rarity — if they exist at all. Hi, this is Kate Tsurkan, thank you for reading this article. Here at the Kyiv Independent, we don't put stories behind a paywall, because we believe the world needs to know the truth of Russia's war. To fund our reporting, we rely on our community of over 18,000 members from around the world, most of whom give just $5 a month. We're aiming to reach 20,000 soon — join our community and help us reach this goal. Read also: 10 authors shaping contemporary Ukrainian literature We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.

Enjoy a fusion of flavours in these dishes with a classically South African twist
Enjoy a fusion of flavours in these dishes with a classically South African twist

News24

time26-05-2025

  • News24

Enjoy a fusion of flavours in these dishes with a classically South African twist

TV personality Warren Mendes takes us on a trip through South Africa as he whips up delicious dishes inspired by chefs from across the country. Peri-peri seafood curry Opt for local seafood but if not, frozen works just as well. Spinach tart with yoghurt and cheddar crust Spinach, it has a deep, earthy flavour and is plentiful around the country. Lamb samoosa pie Turn this South African snack into the main event as a pie? Cheesy mielie bread with tomato and chilli butter This loaf makes for a great snack or side to a meal. The perfect balance between sweet, sour and salty. Melt in your mouth nutty goodness. This is an edited extract from food trail South Africa by Warren Mendes. Published by Penguin books. Pictures: Toby Murphy.

Black author committed to damning the black experience
Black author committed to damning the black experience

Budapest Times

time24-05-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Budapest Times

Black author committed to damning the black experience

Readers of this Books section should be well acquainted with Chester Bomar Himes, the black American writer (1909-1984) best known for his hard-boiled but wry Harlem Detectives series, all eight of which, and a couple of his others, we have featured as they were republished in the past four years. Now here are eight of his short stories, perhaps some of them written from prison, in a slim volume that is one of a whopping 90 new books selected from the Penguin Random House archive. The 90 are to celebrate the 90th anniversary of what is now the largest book publisher in the United Kingdom. It was in 1935 that Allen Lane (1902-1970) together with his brothers Richard and John founded Penguin Books to bring high-quality paperback fiction and non-fiction to the mass market. The simple idea was that quality literature shouldn't cost more than a packet of cigarettes. Publishers and booksellers were sceptical at first but within a year Penguin had caused a revolution in the industry, with three million sold. The Himes book is typical of the 90, it being a short 142-page selection and thus selling at a reduced UK price of £5.99 compared with a normal paperback for £9.99-16.99. The eight stories come from 'The Collected Stories of Chester Himes' that was originally published in 1990 and contained a fulsome 60 tales spanning some four decades of his writing. Like the other 89 archive titles, 'All God's Chillun Got Pride' has a simple but striking cover, which draws on Penguin's design heritage. The new series uses only one colour, and that colour is red foil, otherwise known as the colour of passion, the idea being that this is intended as a love letter from the publisher for the birthday. The red foil lettering is stamped onto naked white covers, showing the story, author and the year when the author was first published as a Penguin. In Himes' case, he has been 'A Penguin since 1974'. Otherwise, no further details are given about the contents, which is a pity. It would have been nice to know when Himes wrote his eight stories and where they were first published, because he, of course, started writing at the Ohio State Penitentiary after committing armed robbery and being arrested while attempting to pawn the stolen jewellery in Chicago. It was 1929 and he was 19 years old. The court gave him the maximum 25 years in prison but he was released on parole in 1936. Biographers say that while incarcerated he bought a Remington typewriter and began tapping out stories. These were sent to magazines and the like, and his work was published in the Pittsburgh Courier, Bronzeman, Atlanta Daily World, Abbott's Monthly and Esquire. A victim of racism himself, Himes used his writing career to concern himself with black protagonists doomed by white racism and self-hate. This set of eight tales opens with 'Headwaiter', which we think was first published in Opportunity, Journal of Negro Life in 1937. The story explores the necessarily repressed feelings of a black headwaiter, Dick Small, who has held the postion at the Park Manor Hotel for 20 years and must defer to an exclusively white clientele while overseeing an equally exclusively black waiting staff. These waiters have a Negroid langour that bespeaks liberal tips. Small is reminded of the negro of Mark Twain legend who said he didn't want to make a dime 'cause he had a dime. One diner observes that 'all a nigger needs is something to eat and someplace to sleep'. The diner knows because he's got a plantation of them. A busboy, shouted at by a lady diner, 'jumped a full yard backward, his nostrils flaring like a winded horse's and his eyes white-rimmed in his black face'. 'Lunching at the Rtizmore' is a satirical story about a student bet that will supposedly disprove the existence of racism in Los Angeles. Consternation ensues as the city's down-and-outs tag along to see whether a negro will be allowed to eat in restaurants, ultimately at the Ritzmore, the swankiest of West Coast hotels. How is the bet resolved? It doesn't matter really. It's all rather tongue-in-cheek from Himes. What racism? The titular short story, 'All God's Chillun Got Pride', is a brilliantly powerful and relentless summation of the daily fear and humiliation that a 'black beast', a nigger, goes through in white America. The man, Keith Richards, known as 'Dick', keeps up a bold front but he's afraid that one day he will crack, and that will be his doom. 'So each day, of a necessity, in order to live and breathe, he did as many of these things of which he was scared to do as he could do short of self-destruction. He did them to prove he wasn't scared so the next day he would be able to get up and live and breathe and go down to the library and work as a research assistant with a group of white people.' 'Pork Chop Paradise' has writing almost as strong, in which an illiterate black man, a convicted rapist, comes to be called God by black and white men and women, duped into fake faith by his messianic messaging and because, for a while, he is able to assuage their hunger. Pavements turned into pork chops? Here is a denunciation of phoney religious cults. Finally, 'God' is brought to grief by falling to his own suppressed human desires, especially sex, losing his head with a blinding lust for Cleo, 'a high-yellah gal… from down Harlem way, and she sent him to the dogs. Sent him to the dogs'. The opening pages of 'Friends' are a bit difficult to follow – the alligators – until we reach a murder that is difficult to read, because the bloody and horrific account is so chillingly recounted. It is harrowing. The rapist accidentally cuts off his penis to free it from the corpse with a butcher knife. Phew. In 'His Last Day', cop killer 'Spats' Wilson is on Death Row and hours away from the big chair. He's determined not to give way to fear, to go to his destiny with a smile on his face, though mainly for the benefit of his fellow inmates and the newspaper coverage. Deep down he is desperate for a reprieve, which never comes, and he is scared. He rejects the preacher who wants him to make peace with God. He just about manages to carry off his final minutes with bravado, but take at look at his eyes and see his true feelings. (Written in prison and Himes' first published short story, in Abbott's Monthly in 1933.) In 'The Snake', the search for a rattlesnake that has invaded a woman's home leads to the discovery of her missing husband in a grave under the floorboards. (Esquire published this on October 1, 1959.) Black America needed, and probably still does – Black Lives Matter – the perspective of a person such as Himes. As he mentions here, didn't (Founding Father, United States President and slave owner) Thomas Jefferson write that 'All men are created equal'? Not in Himes' telling of the black experience. 'They don't hang Negoes in the north; they have other and more subtle ways of killing them,' he writes. But when you shear away the falseness of tradition and ideology, who can tell the black from the white? Let's hope that 'All God's Chillun Got Pride', which is in effect a sampler, generates enough interest to allow 'The Collected Stories of Chester Himes' to see the light again.

Sir Bob Jones' death 'huge loss for New Zealand', Prime Minister says
Sir Bob Jones' death 'huge loss for New Zealand', Prime Minister says

RNZ News

time02-05-2025

  • Politics
  • RNZ News

Sir Bob Jones' death 'huge loss for New Zealand', Prime Minister says

Sir Bob Jones has died aged 85. Photo: Penguin Books New Zealand Sir Bob Jones is being remembered for his intellect, humour and as a complex character in tributes following his death. The businessman and politician died in his home at the age of 85, the general manager of Robert Jones Holdings confirmed on Friday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said Sir Bob was "a living legend of New Zealand". "To think, a guy who started off in a state house became one of our most successful business leaders, had an interlude and had a massive impact on a 1984 election with the New Zealand Party. "He had just an acerbic wit and just a very, very quick and clever and highly intelligent man, so he's a huge loss for New Zealand and I really just wish him and his family nothing but the very, very best from all of us in New Zealand. "He was just someone I admired hugely, because I came through a period in time where he was really at the forefront of New Zealand business in the late '80s and as a young kid learning economics and accounting, he was one of our sort of great business leaders, going off and doing quite bold things." He said he had read some of Sir Bob's books, and recommended people read Wowser Whacking and Letters . ️ Sir Bob Jones has died. A provocateur for liberty, a generous supporter of the Taxpayers' Union, and the man behind some of Wellington's finest quirks — from the 'Save the krill, kill the whales' billboard to the 'Toilet in 100m' signs pointing dutifully toward Parliament. He… On social media the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union posted "Rest in mischief, Sir Bob" saying New Zealand was duller without him. Sir Bob "championed free speech, smaller government, and good humour in public life", as well as being "a generous supporter of the Taxpayers' Union", it said. ACT Party leader David Seymour posted "RIP Sir Bob. The world is a duller place without you". Blogger, pollster and political commentator David Farrar told RNZ's Afternoons he began reading Sir Bob's books when he was at school and thought they were hilarious. "His book on travel in India, his books of letters where he would have a 18 month letter exchange with the secretary of transport over various parking or speeding tickets etc. He didn't dislike anyone in life except possibly traffic officers." Sir Bob was known as an author, a businessman and as one of former prime minister Sir Robert Muldoon's greatest supporters. Farrar said he met Sir Bob in person in 2005 when fighting the Electoral Finance Bill in an attempt to get him to reform the New Zealand Party on a one issue policy to get rid of the proposed law. Sir Bob's stamina was incredible, Farrar said, and he would still be happily telling stories late into the night when those around him were flagging. Farrar said after that he got to know Sir Bob quite well and set up a blog for him about eight years ago which allowed him to publish his thoughts himself as he said Sir Bob often got annoyed that the media were trying to censor his columns. Sir Bob gave money to causes and helped fund about 150 refugee girls to go to university, Farrar said. Some of the letters that were in books that he wrote in the 1980s were about people who were asking him for money, he said. Usually he would say no to with humour. "But sometimes you know, he had had these nuns write to him and he would tease the nuns for weeks and months mercilessly about their belief in God etc. But he'd then also say 'well yup send me the bill, I'll cover it'." Sir Bob was a complex character who really liked to push people, Farrar said. But Farrar said he did not believe it was done with cruelty. "He had this huge irreverence for everything and he actually liked to offend people." His support for Sir Robert Muldoon did not last. "He was great mates with Muldoon and then he turned on him on policy reasons and he helped get Muldoon out of office, [Sir Bob's] New Zealand Party didn't get in to Parliament but won 12 percent of the vote, and Muldoon and Bob Jones pretty much hated each other after that." By the time Sir Robert left Parliament no one wanted to organise anything for him as he was seen as a relic of the past, Farrar said. But Farrar said despite the acrimony between the two men it was Sir Bob who "organised a surprise party for Muldoon with a who's who of New Zealand there" because Sir Bob did not think it was right that someone who had given their life to politics should fail to be recognised. Despite never being in Parliament Sir Bob Jones had an impact on the political landscape, Farrar said. He said the New Zealand Party was "unashamedly free market liberal democracy", but Sir Bob was also a pacifist and saw defence spending as a waste of time. The one thing that could sum up Sir Bob Jones was his sense of humour, Farrar said. One of the first books Sir Bob published was in 1973, a book called The First 12 Months, A Study of the Achievements of the Third Labour Government. "It was 100 blank pages, beautifully bound though," Farrar said. Broadcaster Anna Thomas posted one of her memories regarding Sir Bob Jones on Facebook. Photo: Supplied / Screenshot Broadcaster Anna Thomas posted one of her memories regarding Sir Bob Jones on Facebook. Broadcaster Anna Thomas also remembers Sir Bob's sense of humour. In a social media post Thomas said she was probably the only journalist to punch Sir Bob in the face - making reference to the infamous incident where Sir Bob punched journalist Rod Vaughan . Thomas said she was asked to film Sir Bob giving Vaughan a message for his 50th birthday saying the pair had not spoken since the infamous event. Sir Bob came up "with the bright idea that I should punch him, as payback on Rod's behalf", she said. So armed with fake blood, she knocked at his door and did just that. "He was a natural actor, got fake blood down his face and shirt, and apparently the message went down a treat at Rod's birthday party. They became friends after that," Thomas said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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