Journal articles on the topic 'Freedom Theatre (West Bank)'

Three prominent Palestinian theatres use performance as a form of and forum for resistance to occupation. In the words of Juliano Mer Khamis, the murdered artistic director The Freedom Theatre, “We believe that the third intifada, the coming intifada, should be cultural, with poetry, music, theatre, cameras, and magazines.”

Beginning in December 2011, The Freedom Theatre began using Playback Theatre in villages, refugee camps, and Bedouin communities throughout the West Bank of Occupied Palestine. In the South Hebron Hills, various ethical imperatives came to the fore—including the need to honor the integrity of the narrator’s subjective experience and avoid the replication of oppressive power dynamics—as the group simultaneously attended to the realities of staging stories.

What is known of the physical size and shape of the Elizabethan theatres for which William Shakespeare wrote his plays? And how is our knowledge changed by the discoveries in spring 1989 at the site of the Rose theatre, Southwark, on the south bank of the Thames in London? John Orrell and Andrew Gurr, theatre historians who are themselves involved in the plans to rebuild the more famous Globe theatre (Gurr & Orrell 1989), on the bank of the Thames just a few yards west of the Rose site, near to the original Globe site which is due for excavation in the next few months.An earlier version of this paper appeared in the Times Literary Supplement (9–15 June 1989, pages 636, 649); it is reprinted by kind permission of the TLS.

The thirty-year Eritrean struggle for independence – during which a small and poorly-armed guerrilla force eventually triumphed over a highly-equipped enemy, supported by foreign powers – is also the story of a social revolution in which the theatre played its part. The Eritrean People's Liberation Front not only employed theatre as a propaganda weapon, but also recognized its value as an agent for educating its people – concerning education and women's rights, and on the benefits of modern medicine and farming methods – and with victory came measures to stimulate the growth and development of theatre as part of Eritrean culture. Following Jane Plastow's contextual history of Eritrean theatre in our previous issue, Paul Warwick here makes the first attempt to reconstruct its undocumented role in the independence struggle, and the efforts of the rebels to create theatre for the first time in a rural context. A graduate of the Workshop Theatre, University of Leeds, Paul Warwick made this the subject of his research when he visited Eritrea in the summer of 1995 as part of the Eritrea Community Based Theatre Project. Since his return he has collaborated on a translation of The Other War by Alemseged Tesfai, written during the independence struggle, and given a reading at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in December 1996: this is due for publication later this year in an anthology of African drama from Methuen. Paul Warwick is currently Artistic Director of the Unlimited Theatre Company based in Leeds.

This article examines the applicability of Israel's Basic Law: Human Dignity and Freedom in the West Bank in light of international law, in theory and practice. The first part of the article concerns the need for such applicability in light of alternative domestic and international legal regimes. The article then explores three bases for the extraterritorial application of the law, and examines relevant practice. Finally, the article addresses the consequences of the extraterritorial applicability of the Basic Law for Israel's compliance with its obligations under the law of occupation. It argues that the application of the Basic Law extraterritorially in the West Bank may result in violation of Israel's obligations under the law of occupation.

This article focuses onArna's Children, a 2004 documentary about the children's activities and theatre group founded in 1989 by Israeli activist Arna Mer Khamis in the Jenin Refugee Camp of the occupied West Bank. While the documentary provides an in-depth look at how theatrical practices can prove restorative in the face of destruction, my discussion suggests that its portrayal of the aesthetic medium also interrogates the limits of the relationship between theatrical practice and emancipatory ideals.

Even at its most political, contemporary Israeli theatre tends to be self-referential – nowhere more so, suggests Shimon Levy, than in the theatre festivals held at Acre, where year by year over the past decade the plays selected seem to have reflected, more than coincidentally, the preoccupations of the nation, with its haunted past, its militaristic present, and a future full of uncertain or resented accommodations with neighbours for so long perceived as enemies. But Shimon Levy, who teaches in the Theatre Department at Tel Aviv University, also notes two exceptions in a generally gloomy theatrical scene: the exuberant entertainment Yanti Parazi – ‘a metaphor for the yearning for this screwed-up Holy Land’ – and a long-unperformed play on the ‘difficult’ subject of the West Bank occupation, Ephraim Returns to the Army, with its schitzoid title-character ‘deconstructing’ the conflicting elements of Israeli hopes and beliefs, for audiences not presumed to share the play's own progressive but unsentimentalized sympathies.

In this article, I investigate three public transit-centered Palestinian political actions in the West Bank and argue that the activists’ framing choices facilitate particular forms of global solidarity. The bus-centered political actions I examine are the Palestinian Freedom Rides of 2011, the Freedom Bus of 2014, and the bus sabotage of 2013. I demonstrate that the activists and participants in each of these cases dexterously move among a collection of terminological frames, invoking racial segregation, racism, and apartheid alongside occupation and colonialism. This rhetorical movement parallels the physical movement that the bus enables and represents. In turn, both forms of movement carry Palestinian political messages beyond the Israeli enclosures in order to connect with diverse solidarity audiences and educate them about Palestinian experiences of im/mobilization.

Musical theatre can take root anywhere. The future of the musical may very well lie beyond Broadway and the West End. In recent years, successful musicals have been developed in Canada, Australia and the German speaking countries. Some, like Elisabeth, have travelled internationally without ever playing in English. Companies in Korea, Japan and China are investing in new works, both domestically and internationally. These different countries can learn from each other. In South Africa, people do literally burst into song on the streets. During the apartheid era, some of the freedom fighters were known to have gone to the gallows singing. Both there and in Argentina, musical theatre played an active role in the struggle against oppression. Shows like Sarafina weren’t just about the struggle against apartheid, they were part of it. This is nothing new – the cabarets of Weimar Berlin were also struggling against oppression. In fact, the birth of the musical coincided with the birth of democracy. On the other hand, during World War II, the all-female Takarazuka Revue was co-opted by the Japanese government for propaganda purposes. The real point of my book A Million Miles from Broadway is not just to tell a history of the musical. It’s what you do with that history after you’ve learned it that is important. Firstly to learn about our own musical theatre heritage, but also to learn about each other’s. We may find that people in other countries have found solutions to problems that we are struggling with.

This paper seeks to evaluate how successful national policy interventions have been at addressing land barriers to self-build and custom housebuilding when applied by Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) across the South West of England. A longitudinal triangulated mixed method approach was undertaken to comprehensively interrogate the research objective. This comprised submitting a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to each LPA within the study area; an assessment of the most recently produced Strategic Housing Market Assessments (SHMAs); deriving alternative demand estimates using national data as a proxy; and alternate estimates of supply calculated using BuildStore and The Land Bank Partnership plot search websites. The findings of the study revealed that LPA Registers can only be viewed as a minimum assessment of demand for self-build and custom housebuilding and the effectiveness of LPAs in classifying suitable development permissions for self-build and custom housebuilding was highly dependent on the mechanisms used to identify permissions.

Tom Stoppard’s drama has been one of the eminent and internationally known phenomena of contemporary theatre for several decades. Nevertheless, the polemics are still relevant whether Stoppard’s plays belong to postmodern or postdramatic or any other current trend. The article regards Stoppard’s theatrical experiment as a postmodern one. Moreover, the use and even development of postmodern techniques are noted not only as far as his early plays of the 1960s and 70s are concerned, but as a characteristic of the later dramas by Stoppard. Recently the playwright has created three major epic plays characterized by a deep understanding of historical context: “The Coast of Utopia”, “Rock’n’Roll”, and “Leopoldstadt”. The author of the article considers two later plays as original pieces, having in common some autobiographical details. “Rock’n’Roll” presents the years from 1968 to 1990 in Czechoslovakia and compares the interpretation of “freedom” in the West and that under the Communist regime. “Leopoldstadt” is a play about Austrian Jews and the Holocaust. The article analyzes the artistic devices of representation of the cultural and historical background in each of the plays.

The article presents a cultural and political analysis of the activities of the Belgrade International Theater Festival (BITEF) - a significant theatrical, general cultural and social phenomenon in Serbia, the Balkans / South-Eastern Europe, and throughout Europe as a whole. Before the collapse of the SFRY (1991-1992), being the official showcase of self-government socialism, the festival was at the same time one of the most representative shows of new theatrical trends in Europe. It was attended by troupes from the countries of the East and West - Western and Eastern Europe, the USSR, the USA, Latin America, China, Japan. Not being by definition a festival of political theater, thanks to the moral and civic position of its founders and leaders M. Trailovich and Y. Chirilov, BITEF has become a space of aesthetic and social free-thinking in the SFRY and in neighbouring socialist countries. The organizers of BITEF found an opportunity to provide a platform for theatrical «dissidents» with their performances dedicated to rethinking modernity and the recent past in any genre. During the existence of the FRY (1992-2003), BITEF became an annual cultural manifestation in opposition to the regimes in power in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, with their ideology of chauvinism and isolation from the outside world. At this time, the compilers of the festival programs began to attach special importance to performances of a political and social orientation. Many theaters from Serbia, as well as from the former neighbours of the Yugoslavian federation, and now the newly independent states, in their productions offered not so much a political, as a moral and ideological alternative to ethnic nationalism, militarism and political intolerance. Since 2006, in the independent Republic of Serbia, BITEF has strived not only to revive the traditions of Serbian theater, but also to preserve the best traditions of the theatrical art of the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, placing them in the context of the common European and global development of theater and culture, ideology and philosophy, literature, aesthetics, ethics. In principle opposing nationalism and militarism from the standpoint of humanism, BITEF plays an outstanding role in shaping public attitudes in Serbia, in weakening and overcoming conflicts, in normalizing relations between the peoples of the disintegrated Yugoslavia, in creating an atmosphere of freedom and tolerance.

Race is a Western political project. Religious freedom is a Christian political project. The linkages between the two enabled European nations and their settlers across the globe to condemn natives, slaves, and non-European immigrants to inferior status, and in turn legalize control of their lands and bodies.1 The consequent race-religion systems of power and privilege, which inform Rabiat Akande's thesis, offer valuable insights into the racialized boundaries of contemporary Palestine-Israel discourse in the United States.2 Specifically, the racialization of Muslims and Arabs as terrorism supporters and presumptively anti-Semitic subjects them to censorship, harassment, and discrimination when they advocate for the human rights of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This essay argues that infringements on Muslims and Arabs’ dissenting speech and political activism is another way in which the racialization of religion produces a mutually constitutive form of discrimination.

On the morning before The Confessions of Punch and Judy (Bobgan, Kowalchuk and Wells) opened at the Theatre Centre in Toronto’s trendy Queen Street West district, director Raymond Bobgan met me for breakfast. We set out at 9:30 on a Saturday morning, too early for the hipper cafes to have begun serving brunch but reached the Swan diner at 10 a.m., just in time to see the doors unlocked and the sign in the window flipped to “Open.” Sliding into the tall wooden booths, we spoke about our shared desire to relocate to Ontario. We debated the merits of my wish to apply for skilled-worker status versus Raymond’s current freedom, under the provisions of NAFTA, to teach and direct in both the United States and Canada. My motivations for wanting to immigrate are mostly ideological, while Raymond’s are primarily artistic. Having taught intensive modules at Toronto’s Humber School of Creative and Performing Arts for the past three years, he’s encountered a number of gifted student artists interested in his approaches to vocal and physical training and the creation of devised performance. It’s a surfeit of riches he lacks in his current home of Cleveland, Ohio, where Wishhounds Theatre, the company he founded with partner Holly Holsinger, currently includes only one member in addition to themselves, apprentice Chris Seibert. Other gifted collaborators have come and gone over the decade since Bobgan established his first ensemble company in Cleveland, most eventually moving on because of the difficulty of earning a living wage for their artistic labour and the scant availability of non-service-sector jobs in the troubled rust belt city.

This article examines the extent of Palestinian public support for democracy through the time period from 1997 to 2016. The analysis is based on data collected from five public surveys launched in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. Our findings show that evidently the Palestinians support almost all elements of democracy, measured in these surveys, and support moderately few others, especially freedom of establishing parties and not using violent means to overthrow a ‘bad’ government. Our findings also reveal that this support is nearly constant and has not changed significantly since the early years of the Oslo accords era until recently. Based on these findings, and a few others revealed by using multiple regression analysis, we argue that Palestinian public opinion is not fully democratic, but rather is semi (or nearly) democratic. We also argue that the cultural hypothesis, claiming that Muslim Arab culture is incompatible with democracy, has no support according to the empirical evidence of this study.

The current study aimed to identify the autonomy of personality and its relationship to the choice of university and specialization among university students in Palestine, The researchers used the descriptive correlative approach. The study was applied to a random sample of (550) male and female students from the universities of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The results showed that the satisfaction of their need for independence came to a medium degree, and there were no statistically significant differences in the satisfaction of that need according to the variables of gender, high school course, and school year. The results indicated that the most influential and predictive factors for students’ choice of university were: the quality of educational services, lower university fees, and the geographical location of the university. Additionally, the most influential and predictive factors for students’ choice of university major were: the social status of the major, exposure to academic advising services, and the freedom to choose a major that allows self-running. The study recommended the need to provide effective counseling spcaes in secondary schools and academic counseling in universities and colleges based on well-studied and systematic scientific priciples, with the results being implemented by universities

The article explores the evolution of the UK‟s approach to China through the lens of UK-US relations. A deeper UK-China economic partnership amid growing competition between Washington and Beijing has given rise to U.S.-UK divergences. They resulted in mounting pressure on the UK, which exacerbated under the Trump administration. The US wants to form a coalition of countries belonging to the political West (e.g., G7 and Five Eyes) to diversify supplies, decrease its dependence on Chinese goods and prevent Beijing from acquiring cutting-edge technologies. The following cases are described to explore U.S. attempts to influence Sino-British relations: the UK government‟s decision to allow Chinese investors to participate in building Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, the UK‟s accession to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, clearing Huawei technologies for use in the UK‟s 5G networks and US-UK military cooperation to exercise freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. This pressure is especially evident when U.S. national interests are directly affected, as the Huawei case shows. Moreover, the Conservative party is split when it comes to dealing with China. The UK has been trying to make the US position on China more constructive. Unlike the US, the UK‟s approach to China has been changing gradually.

Family unification received public and political attention following recent global immigration crises, though less within health research. In Israel, under the Family Reunification Order, about 20,000 Palestinian women from the Occupied Palestinian Territories are denied residency and the right to universal health care services (HSC) after marrying Palestinian citizens and moving to Israel. To better understand the relationship between lacking residency and barriers to accessing HCS, we conducted in-depth interviews with 21 Palestinian women (ages 22–59) denied family unification. Our findings revealed that in addition to hindering access to HCS, lacking residency intersects with other political, social, and economic determinants of these women’s health and disrupts normal family life. Lacking residency intensifies poverty (via private health insurance and legal fees, permit extensions) and leads to family separations and risky crossings at military checkpoints into the West Bank for medical treatment. Restrictions on freedom of movement engender fear of deportation and precarity. Denial of residency also exacerbates gender inequality (increased dependence on husbands) and can endanger child custody when mothers’ lack of residency passes to children, violating children’s basic rights. Allowing family unification to Palestinian women would remove barriers to HCS access, allow normal family life, and permit social integration.

Liberal democracy perspective dominates the perception of actors and partners in the foreign relations of European Union. This stems from the declared fundamental values of the Union: respect for human dignity and human rights, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law. This also influences the judgment of Israel, who connected to the EU with cooperation but also criticised for its attitude towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Liberal democracies not only allow their citizens to exercise their right to vote but also guarantee a degree of protection from the state to all political life participants, maintain plurality, respect religious, ethnic and other minorities. Israel presents itself as a liberal democracy, therefore it seems important to verify if this view is shared by the European Union. The Union, member states and politicians in their documents or during the debates judge such aspects of Israeli politics as the occupation of West Bank, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, settlements in the occupied territories, policies towards minorities, non-government organizations, oftentimes taking a critical stance towards Israeli actions. This may indicate that, despite Israel being a close political and economical partner, it still does not comply with the fundamental values and leaves something to be desired.

Abstract Purpose Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a considerable impact on physical health as well as on emotional and social wellbeing. This study aimed to investigate the quality of life and its associated factors among Palestinians with T2DM. Methods A cross-sectional study including 517 patients (68% female) was conducted in eleven primary health care clinics located in Ramallah and al-Bireh governorate of the West Bank. To assess socio-demographic data, risk factors and diabetes control, interviews, physical examinations, anthropometric measurements, and blood and urine tests were performed. The validated Arabic version of the Audit of Diabetes-Dependent Quality of Life (ADDQoL) questionnaire was carried out on all patients to measure Quality of Life (QoL). A multivariable regression analysis was performed. Results The average weighted impact (AWI) score was −3.38 (95% CI: −3.55 to −3.21, range: −9.00 to 0.12). This indicates that diabetes was perceived as having a considerable negative impact on the quality of life. The life domains ‘freedom to eat’, ‘physical activities’, and ‘work-life’ were the most negatively impacted. Males and individuals living with diabetes for a prolonged time were associated with a more significant negative impact on quality of life. Conclusion The study showed that diabetes generally had a negative impact on QoL and identified the demand for diabetes management programs tailored to patient needs and different patient groups, as well as health policies that put patients in the center of diabetes care.

The article reviews two exhibitions presented at the Israeli and German pavilions at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale,where the 16th International Architecture Exhibition was themed and titled as FREESPACE.The Manifesto,written by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, the chief curators of the Biennale, proclaimed, among other things, that FREESPACE provides its participants with «…freedom to imagine the free space of time and memory, binding past, present and future together, building on inherited cultural layers, weaving the archaic with the contemporary…» In accordance with the Manifesto, the curators of the Israeli exhibition named In Statu Quo: Structures of Negotiation attempted to deconstruct, in the historical and architectural perspective,the stages of interfaith struggle for holy sites in Israel and on the West Bank of the Jordan River. The German exhibition Unbuilding Walls was dedicated to the twenty-eighth anniversary of the destruction of the Berlin Wall. One of its key exhibits was the visual installation Wall of Opinions, composed of video interviews with residents of various countries, including Israel, where demarcation lines (all kinds of walls, fences, barriers) still exist today, turning «free spaces» into exclusion zones. Both exhibitions convincingly showed the political and social problems that the modern society faces when attempting to create «free spaces» for informal interaction between diverse ethnic and social groups in different countries. Moreover, the exhibition of the Israeli pavilion clearly points at the hidden dangers of new demarcation barriers when the sides of interethnic and interconfessional conflicts fail to reach an agreement about the status of one or another place, while the curators from Germany, symbolically dismantling the global walls of misunderstanding, give us hope to overcome such problems.

The objective of this study aims mainly to know the relationship between the traditional media and social networking sites from the viewpoint of Active Palestinian journalists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and to news to which extent the study sample relied on these sites as a source of news, to achieve the objectives of the study, the reliance on the analytical descriptive approach, a questionnaire was designed and distributed to a random sample of Tow Hundred journalists. The researchers used the SPSS software to verify the validity of the study hypotheses. The study reached a set of results, hence, The study reached a set of results, the most important of which are: -Journalists rely on social media in different degrees, some of whom are always dependent (25%), mostly (40.5%), sometimes (27%), and rarely (5.5%), and some of them do not depend on it at all (2%), while most of them depend on it (98%(. -Political, social and cultural news types are widely obtained from social networking sites. -The most important factors behind the accreditation of journalists to social media sites, as a source of news, are: increasing knowledge and access to the latest local and international developments, accessing materials that are not available in other means, Journalist spend time watching listening and browsing SNS, in addition to entertainment and leisure time. -Social networking sites have spread and expanded at the expense of traditional media, in a transformational relationship. In the light of the findings, the study recommended the need to investigate the credibility of news published on social networking sites from other sources before publishing, legislation, and laws related to freedom of expression are needed; to set standards for publishing news on these sites and to awareness of journalists regarding the risks of distortion and publishing Rumors as news, as well as increased attention to traditional media and work to develop and update it to keep pace with social networking sites.

As this issue goes to press, the Muslim world is reeling from a number ofevents: President Bush has reversed decades of American foreign policy tocome out in favor of Israel’s annexation of huge swaths of the West Bank;Israel continues to murder top Hamas leaders in Palestine; in Afghanistan,Karzai is having trouble administering a country that is slipping back to thepre-Taliban war-lord era, and violence continues to escalate in an increasinglydestabilized Iraq. Bush’s insistence that the so-called “war on terror”is for the sake of freedom rings increasingly hollow, and the United States,under his administration, appears to be a major catalyst for instability ratherthan stability in the world. When I think of Bush and his team, I cannot helpbut recall the Qur’anic verse that says: “When it is said to them: ‘Make notmischief on the earth,’ they say: ‘We are only ones that put things right.’ Ofa surety, they are the ones who make mischief, but they realize (it) not”(2:11-12).The Bush administration’s responses to the tragic carnage of 9/11 hasunleashed mayhem in the Muslim world that is reminiscent not of thetwentieth century, but of the nineteenth, in which the European powersattempted to colonize the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Thus, Salem’sarticle, in a finely nuanced analysis of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani’s andRashid Rida’s responses to European colonialism, has reverberations intoday’s climate. Salem’s main argument is that al-Afghani and Ridaadvanced similar political programs on three different levels: fightingcolonialism, establishing modern Islamic states, and calling for itjihad inthe interpretation and implementation of Islamic law. It is hard not to seethe Muslim world’s present condition reflected in their struggles nearly acentury ago, and thus to feel a special relevance in studying the lives andworks of these two influential nineteenth-century figures. What were theissues they reflected upon? What were their conclusions, observations, andsuggestions? What worked and did not work for them? Salem’s article isvery instructive in this regard.One of the thorniest issues alal-Afghani and Rida attempted to addresswas the relationship and compatibility between a modern nation-state andan Islamic state. To what extent were these complementary or ...

ملخص البحث إن تعبير أو مصطلح الكيان، لم يظهر من قبل في قاموس السياسة الدولية؛ وإنما هو بدعة فلسطينية، اقتضى وجوده - الحاجة الماسة - لإبراز معلم سياسي يقود الفلسطينيين نحو الانعتاق من ربقة الاستعمار، الذي هيمن على شتّى مناحي حياتهم السياسية والاجتماعية. فمنذ أن احتلت بريطانيا فلسطين عام 1917، مروراً بفقدان هويتهم الوطنية بالكامل، بعد إنشاء الكيان الإسرائيلي عام 1948؛ اضطر الفلسطينيون للبحث عن قارب نجاة، يوجههم نحو إقامة كيان سياسي يضم ما تبقى من فلسطين التاريخية، فكان إنشاء منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية عام 1964، لتحفظ للفلسطينيين شيئا من هويتهم الوطنية. ولكن بعد احتلال إسرائيل ما تبقى من فلسطين التاريخية عام 1967، حاول بعض وجهاء وزعامات الضفة الغربية بطريقٍ أو بآخر - مستغلين غياب أي سلطة فلسطينية أو أردنية في مناطقهم - إقامة كيان فلسطيني مصطنع في الضفة الغربية بمباركة إسرائيلية – إن ارتضت ذلك – وإن حاولوا أن يغلّفوه بمسمى ";;;;دولة فلسطينية";;;;، وذلك من خلال تجاوز صلاحيات منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية؛ والتي من المفروض أن تكون صاحبة الرأي الأول والأخير، في اتخاذ خطوات على طريق التسوية السلمية، وذلك بعد موافقة كافة فئات الشعب الفلسطيني سواء في الأراضي المحتلة أو في الشتات؛ لكن تلك المحاولات باءت بالفشل الذريع؛ بعد أن حوربت وتمَّت تصفية بعض دعاتها والمنظّرين لها جسدياً. الكلمات الرئيسة: الكيان الفلسطيني، الهوية الوطنية، وجهاء الضفة الغربية، المقاومة الفلسطينية، أحداث أيلول. Abstract The term of entity was not seen before in the lexicon of international politics. It is a Palestinian innovation. There was an urgent Palestinian need for its presence because in order to get their freedom, people of Palestine suffered too much from the occupation and colonialism, which controlled all aspects of their political and social life since Britain has occupied Palestine in 1917. Then after creation of Israel in 1948, Palestinian people lost their identity. Therefore, Palestinians have been forced to search for a lifeboat to guide them towards the establishment of a political entity comprising the remainder of the historic Palestine. Hence, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was established in 1964 to preserve the rest of the Palestinian national identity. But after Israel has occupied the rest of historic Palestine in 1967, some of the leaders of the West Bank tried -some how- to establish a Palestinian entity with blessing of ";;;;Israel";;;; -if it agrees- taking advantage of the absence of any Palestinian or Jordanian authority in their areas, to call it as a ";;;;Palestinian State,";;;; by skipping the decisions of (PLO), which is the one who is supposed to decide and take steps in the peace process, of course after all the Palestinian people inside and outside Palestine accept this issue, but all these attempts have miserably failed and have been fought and some of its advocates and theorists were assassinated. Key Words: Palestinian Entity, National Identity, Notables of West Bank, Palestinian Resistance, September Events. Abstrak Istilah entiti sebelum ini tidak terlihat dalam leksikon politik antarabangsa , dan ia merupakan sesuatu yang amat diperlukan oleh rakyat Palestin. Kewujudan entiti kenegaraan ini tetap penting bagi rakyat Palestin yang telah terlalu banyak menderita dari pendudukan untuk mendapatkan semula kebebasan mereka daripada kolonialisme yang telah berperanan memutuskan semua aspek-aspek kehidupan sosial dan politik mereka, semenjak daripada penjajahan Britain di Palestin pada 1917. Selepasnya, sejarah telah menyaksikan kehilangan identiti nasional Palestin, selepas penciptaan Israel dalam 1948, dan menjadikan rakyat Palestin terpaksa mencari sebuah bahtera penyelamat yang dapat mengemudikan mereka ke arah penubuhan satu entiti politik iaitu Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) yang tertubuh pada 1964 demi untuk berjuang mengekalkan saki-baki identiti nasional mereka yang masih tersisa. Tetapi selepas Israel berjaya menduduki wilayah-wilayah Palestin yang lain pada 1967, beberapa pemimpin Tebing Barat telah mencuba –dalam beberapa cara- untuk mewujudkan satu entiti Palestin dibawah belas dan restu Israel –jika dipersetujui –dengan mengambil peluang ketiadaan mana-mana kuasa politik Palestin atau Jordan di kawasan mereka untuk mewujudkan Negara Palestin dengan membelakangi keputusan(PLO) yang sepatutnya turut berperanan dalam langkah-langkah proses damai tersebut yang sepatutnya diputuskan berdasarkan pendapat semua penduduk Palestin di dalam dan di luar wilayah tersebut untuk menerima atau menolak isu ini. Walaubagaimanpun semua percubaan tersebut menemui kegagalan dengan terbunuhnya beberapa tokoh pelopor idea penubuhan negara mengikut acuan Israel yang berkenaan. Kata Kunci: Entiti Palestin, Identiti Kenegaraan, Tebing Barat, Penentangan Palestin, Peristiwa September.

Continuing the series of papers on the history of personalized Ukrainian linguistics, we should mention that V.M. Hantsov made a considerable contribution into native linguistic research development. Due to his unfortunate fate, he created few works, nevertheless they are of great scientific importance. The scientist’s studies became an important stage in the development of Ukrainian dialectology, historic phonetics, lexicography as well as standard language normalization including its orthography. A great scientist’s sense of nationhood and his significant professional authority were acknowledged and properly appreciated by the world scientific community. V.Hantsov had tirelessly worked in the field of standard Ukrainian language normalization, in particular, he took an active part in Kharkiv orthographic committee’s activities. It was him, who wrote a chapter on invariable words orthography (1926) and the Academic Russian-Ukrainian dictionary. In the article, the authors presented an analysis of selected scientific works by V.M. Hantsov’s, a well-known Ukrainian scholar, dialectologist, language historian and lexicographer, who made great contribution into Ukrainian language normalization concerning its orthography, lexicological and word-formative processes. The authors analyzed this scientist’s study on the special features of Kozelets dialects in Chernihiv Region, which created an overall picture of North Ukrainian dialects and presented their division into three groups: the East one (Left Bank), the Central one and the West one. When working on the orthoepic peculiarities of North Ukrainian dialects, V.Hantsov paid special attention to diphthongs correcting his predecessors’ scientific research. The scholar made a theoretic description of diphthongs, ascertained their role in the system of North Ukrainian dialects as well as in the historic development in general. When the scientist made a research on the phonetic features of diphthongs, he proved the historical unity of Ukrainian dialects. The history of Ukrainian vocalism development was repeatedly chosen as the object of V.Hantsov’s scientific interests. Referring to consonantism, the scholar justly states that Proto-Slavonic reflex *dj underwent different transformations in Ukrainian and other languages. We should admit that during his short periods of freedom, V.M. Hantsov managed to present to the Ukrainian and world community an example of civil courage, dignity and decency as well as a scientific interpretation of certain general linguistic ideas, dialectological explanations, historic phonetic descriptions, lexicographic works. All of this is a great impulse to develop modern linguistic studies.

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This interview was conducted at the famous Lotus Clinic at Mumbai. Interview of Dr DD Tanna (DDT) was personally conducted by our Editor Dr Ashok Shyam (AK). It was an interesting two hours talk in late evening and we are presenting here the salient features of the interview. AK: First let me thank you for this interview. Let’s begin by asking about your family and where you grew up? DDT: I grew up in Kalbadevi area in Bombay in a typical Gujrati locality. I had four brothers so we were five of us together with my father and mother. At that time education was not something very popular in our family and when I graduated I was among the handful in 2 mile radius and when I completed post-graduation there were none in the entire area. The trend was that people used to go to college just for the stamp of collage and then join the father business. But I was a good student and so I did complete my studies AK: Tell us something more about your childhood? DDT: I had a very eventful childhood, we used to play many sports. I was very good at cricket and even at medical college I was captain of the cricket team. But along with cricket I played many local sports kho-kho, langadi, hoo-to-too, football, volleyball, swimming etc. Didn’t get chance to play hockey but I did play everything I came across. AK: I understand you have seen Mahatma Gandhi and heard him speak. Please share your remembrance of that? DDT: Once Gandhiji was holding a meeting in Bombay and my father said to me ”let’s go see Gandhiji”. I went with him and there was a huge crowd and I felt quite uncomfortable. I wanted to leave when my father said to me ‘why are you afraid of the crowd, these are all your fellow human beings, not cattle herd”. That statement touched me very much and till today, I am not afraid of any crowd. Understanding that all are my fellow human beings, took away my stage fright forever. I can speak my thoughts clearly and without fear and I can dance with the crowd with equal ease. I have seen Mahatma Gandhi at close distance and he appeared to be a very frail man. At first I wasn’t impressed, but then I realised that this frail man can have the huge crowd following him just because of his thought process. That understanding has helped me a lot in my life. AK: So why did you become a doctor, what was your inspiration? DDT: I was good in studies and in those days there were only two choices either to be an engineer or to be a doctor. I had decided that I would be an engineer with no doubt in my mind. One day one of my uncles, who happened to be an engineer, visited us. When asked I told him my intention to become an engineer, to which he replied ”In that case you have to take up a government job all your life”. In those days the only scope for an engineer was to be in government job, but the idea of being a enslaved for life by an organisation was something I couldn’t accept. My freedom was very dear to me and overnight I changed my decision and pledged to become a doctor. AK: How was your MBBS term? Why did you choose orthopaedic surgery? DDT: I was quite casual in MBBS and was more involved in sports. I got serious in last year to get good grades. Frankly speaking there were none who influenced me in the undergraduate college. After joining medicine developed a natural liking to surgery and always wanted to become a surgeon. Doing general surgery and then super specialisation for another two years seemed to be a long time. Orthopaedic surgery was a new branch at that time and offered direct super specialisation. And so I joined orthopaedic surgery. AK: What were your early influences in medical college? DDT: I wasn’t a very serious student in medical college. Possibly I became a bit serious in my last year of MBBS to score marks to get the branch of my choice. After MBBS and before joining post-graduation I had some spare time at hand which I utilise in reading. That period was a period of change I my life. I read authors like Bertrand Russel who had a major influence in my life. I read ‘Altas shrugged’, ‘We the Living’, and ‘Fountainhead’ and these three books had deep impact on me. I also read The Manusmrti’s specifically for their philosophical treatise and not the religious aspect. I still like to ponder on these philosophical aspects from time to time. By the time I joined as an orthopaedic registrar, I was a pretty serious person. In first 6 months of my orthopaedic residence I was fascinated with basics specially the histopathological aspect of orthopaedics. I read all about the histiocytes, the fibroblasts etc and even today I still think in these terms when I think about orthopaedics. AK: You joined the B Y L Nair Hospital, Mumbai in 1965. Tell us something about your life at Nair Hospital? DDT: Well in fact I passed my MS in 1965. I joined possibly in 1954 as a medical student. I was a student, house surgeon, lecturer, honorary surgeon all at Nair hospital. I was one of the youngest consultant as I became consultant at Nair hospital at age of 28, merely 8 months after passing MS exams. Possibly God was kind to me. Nair hospital was a decent place, but it became a force once Dr KV Chaubal joined Nair. Earlier KEM hospital had big name because of Dr Talwalkar and Dr Dholakia. I was lecturer when Dr Chaubal joined. He changed Nair hospital with his modern and dynamic approach. He gave me an individual unit within 3 years. Our rounds would be more than 4 hours in Nair hospital and had great academic discussions. AK: We have heard about a very famous incident when you operated Dr Chaubal? Do tell us something about that DDT: Well Dr Chaubal was suffering from a prolapsed disc and he had taken conservative management for some time with recurrent episodes. At one point we went ahead and got a myelogram done (no MRI in those days), and a huge disc was diagnosed. He called me the next day and asked to operate on him. I was 10 years his junior and moreover he was my boss and there were many more senior surgeons who were available. It came as a shock to me that he would chose me to operate on him [and of course it was an honor to be chosen]. Dr Laud and Dr Pradhan assisted me in operating him and it was big news at that time AK: You were pioneer in bringing C-arm to India? Tell us something about the C-arm Story? DDT: We used to do all surgeries under X ray guidance in those days, at the most we had 2 x-rays set together by Dr Talwalkar to get orthogonal views. I used to go to USA and they would do all surgeries under C-arm. I came back and contacted Mr Kantilal Gada who used to manufacture X ray machines. He agreed to try to make a C arm if I pay him one lakh rupees [in those days]. The condition was if he succeeded, he would give the c arm to me at no profit rate and if he failed my money would be lost. He did succeed and we had India’s first C-arm at my place. It helped me at many times in clinical practice. One specific incidence about an Arab patient who had a failed implant removal surgery previously and Icould remove the implant within 30 mins because I could clearly see the distal end of the nail entrapped. This patient was a friend of The Consulate General of UAE and since then I started getting lot of patients from there. So that was a wise investment I think. AK: You were specifically instrumental in developing trauma surgery in India. Why focus of Trauma Surgery? DDT: Dr Chaubal the first person to start trends in everything. At first we were spine surgeons as Dr Chaubal was very interested in spine surgery. Dr Bhojraj and Dr VT Ingalhalikar were our students. I was one of the first people to do total hip and total knee surgeries very soon after Dr Dholakia did it for the first time in India. But somehow I felt these surgeries did not hold much challenge. Trauma surgeries were challenging and each case was unique and different. So I decided to stick to trauma surgery for the sake of sheer joy of intellectual and technical challenges it offers. AK: A lot has happened in the field of Orthopaedic Trauma in and you are witness to these growth and development. What according to you are the important landmarks in History of trauma Surgery? DDT: Interlocking is the major change. I used to go to AAOS meeting every year where people were talking about interlocking when we were doing only plates. I decided to make an interlock nail by drilling holes in standard K nail. There was no C-arm in those days and surgeries were done on X rays. We got a compound fracture tibia and I made a set of drilled K nails for this patient as per his measurements. We successfully did the static locking using K nail in this patient. We slowly developed the instrumentation and jigs for it and developed commercially available instrument nail. Interlocking spread like wild fire and I was called as the Father of Interlocking Nail in India. AK: Your specific focus was on Intramedullary nailing and you have also designed the ‘Tanna Nail’ How did you think of designing the nail? Tell us about the process of designing the nail, the story behind it? DDT: Like said above, I developed the nail and instrument set with one Mr Daftari in Bombay. This was sold as ‘Tanna nail’ in Bombay. Slowly implant companies from other states also copied the design and started selling it as ‘Tanna NAIL’. I had no objections to it and I didn’t have a copyright anyway. Slowly I phased away the name as the design progressed and asked them to call it simply interlocking nails. AK: You are known for Innovation. Tell us something more about it? DDT: I specifically remember C-arm guided biopsy which I used successfully for tumor lesions. The same principle I used for drilling osteoid osteoma under CT guidance, which avoided an open surgery. There are many more technical tips and surgical techniques that I have been doing and some of them are listed in my book named ‘Orthopaedic Tit Bits’ AK: The last two decades have seen a tremendous increase in the choices of implants available in the market. Many of these implants were sold as the next “new thing”. Do you feel these new implants offer justifiable and definite advantage over the older ones? How should a trauma surgeon go about this maze of implants and choose the best for his patients? DDT: There is no easy way to do that, because most implants comes with a huge propaganda and body of relevant research. Many senior faculties will start talking about it and using it. For example, distal femur plates have now reported to have 30% non-union rate. Earlier I had myself been a strong supporter of distal femur plate but through my own experience I saw the complications. Now I feel the intramedullary nail is better than the distal femur plat in indicated fractures. Same with trochanteric plates or helical screws in proximal femur fracture. So we learn the hard facts over a period of time and by burning our own hands. But then you have to be progressive and balance your scepticism and enthusiasm. In my case the enthusiasm wins most of the time. AK: Share your views on role of Industry in dictating terms to trauma surgeons? DDT: I feel it’s very difficult to bypass the industry. Also because the industry is supported by orthopods. But again like I said we learn from our own errors and something that does not have substance will not last for long. For example clavicle plating, I supported clavicle plating for some time [and it felt correct at that time], but now I do not find wisdom in plating clavicle and so I have stopped. So I believe it’s a process of constant learning and also realising and accepting mistakes. Once I was a great proponent of posterolateral interbody fusion (PLIF) in spine but after few years of using it I realised the fallacy and I presented a paper in WIROC (Western India regional orthopaedic conference) titled ‘I am retracting PLIF’ and it was highly appreciated by the audience. AK: Tell us about your move toward joint replacement surgeries? DDT: I was one of the first one after Dr Dholakia to start joint replacement surgeries in India and I continue to do many joint surgeries. And of course ‘cream’ comes from joint replacement surgeries (laughs heartily) AK: You have been active in teaching and training for over 4 decades, how has the scene changes in terms of teaching methods and quality of surgeons undergoing training? DDT: Teaching is now become more and more spoon feeding and I think it is not real teaching. Even in meetings I enjoy the format where there is small number of faculty and case based discussion on practical tips and surgical technique. The 8 minute talk pattern is something I think is not very effective. Real teaching of orthopaedics cannot be done in classroom or in clinics. In clinics we can teach students to pass exams but not orthopaedics. Dr Chaubal always used to say that real orthopaedics is taught in practical patient management and in operation theatres. I tell my fellows that I wont teach much, but they have to observe and learn. In medical colleges there is no teaching at all, its almost died off. AK: What you feel is the ‘Way of Working’ of Dr Tanna that makes him a successful Orthopaedic Surgeon? Your Mantra? DDT: Always do academically correct things. Like I have been practicing 3 doses of antibiotics since last 20 years. I read a lot and then distil the academic points and follow them in practice. I get up at 4 am and read everyday. AK: What technical tips would you give for someone who has just embarked on his career as an Orthopaedic surgeon? DDT : I have given one oration which is also on you tube, you should listen to that. Anybody who becomes an orthopaedic surgeon is actually cream of humanity and are capable of doing anything. The only thing required is a strong will to excel and passion to succeed AK: I understand that you are a very positive person, but do you have any regrets, specifically related to orthopaedics. Something that you wished to do but couldn’t? DDT: Honestly nothing. Today when people ask me ‘How are you’ I say ‘can’t be better’. I couldn’t have asked for a better life AK: Any message you will like to share? DDT: I think passion to be best is essential. Even if one patient does not do well or if we do a mistake in a surgery, it causes huge distress and misery to us. We as doctor should be truthful to your patients. Between you and your patient there can’t be any malpractice. You should treat every patient as if you are doing it on your son or daughter. Always keep patient first AK: What degree or accolades would you like me to mention in your introduction? DDT: Nothing just plain MS Orth, I have no other degrees. In fact after my MS I attempted to give D orth exam. My boss at that time Dr Sant, said ‘are you crazy, after passing MS you want to give KG exam?’ He actually did not allow me to appear (laughs). Never felt like having any more degrees, degrees won’t take me ahead, its only my orthopaedic skill that will be take me ahead in life.

Taishū engeki—Entertainment for the Masses? What do a highway robber, a samurai, and a geisha have in common? They are all played by the same actor, often at the same time, in an incredible flurry of costume change, in a contemporary form of Japanese theatre called taishū engeki. Taishū engeki, translated as vaudeville, literally, “theatre for the masses”, would be better described as a parallel world of fantasy, glitter, and manga-esque beautiful men wearing elaborate wigs and even more elaborate kimonos, who dance and gracefully sway their hips to portray women, and simultaneously do their best to seduce the overwhelmingly female audience. Taishū engeki represents an escape into a world of romances enacted through dance, of tragic love stories that somehow end well when the main character reappears in the second act as a brilliant dragon-slaying god, and of literal dances with dragons. One performance by dance troupe Gekidan Kokoro included onna-gata buyō (traditional Japanese dance performed by a man playing the part of a woman), a play about brotherly love and devotion where the glamorous actor from the first part was a not too bright young boy (depicted with snot running down his nose), more crossdressing and dancing, a few shamisen songs, a totally unexpected breakdancing piece, and a collaboration with Iwami Kagura—a famous group from Shimane who performs sacred dances in association with various Shinto rituals. Despite being able to combine theatrical skills with dance and acrobatic feats, taishū engeki is seen as a minor theatrical genre, often included in the category of folk arts (Kurata 42), or “low art” intended merely for fun and entertainment” (Endo 151). Although the name would indicate that is addresses a wider audience (which may have been the case decades ago, when cheap entertainment was not so readily available as it is today), taishū engeki caters to a specific category of people. The performers are organised in small itinerant troupes who spend about one month in a specific location, putting on two shows daily—one starting at noon, and one in the evening. In most cases, the show has two parts: one is a play, followed by a free program of dancing, acrobatic features, and even playing instruments such as drums or shamisen. The audience itself consists of two categories: the local people, living in the vicinity of the small theatres where performances are held, and who might attend each new show two or three times, and the fans, who follow their favourite actor from place to place to the limit of their time and financial resources. When it comes to performing arts, Japan’s most famous form of theatre is definitely kabuki: a performative genre highly appreciated by the Japanese and whose extravagant costumes and make-up, as well as exaggerated gestures eliminate some of the language barriers and make it (at least to a certain degree) comprehensible to non-Japanese speakers. Besides kabuki, noh (a highly ritualised form of theatre characterised by its use of masks) and bunraku (puppet theatre) are most often mentioned together, popular both within and outside the borders of Japan as entertainment and objects of scholarly research. As a scholar of Japanese studies, I had learned about these three categories in my first year as an undergraduate student, but it took me over ten years in Japan to discover taishū engeki, something that Robert Schneider and Nathan Schneider (256) ironically call “a weed in Japan’s exquisite garden of classical theatre and a living fossil in the detritus of Asian modernity”. Is taishū engeki really a fossil or a weed accidentally left on the stage of classical theatre? Its faithful fans would beg to differ, and so would the accomplishments of some troupes, who are entirely self-sufficient, renting the venues where they perform and travelling with their own light and sound systems, as well as hundreds of exquisite costumes and wigs. To give just an example, Aotsuki Shinya, the leader of Gekidan Kokoro, told me that he possesses more than two hundred wigs, and mid-September this year will attempt to perform 120 different dances, with different costumes, during the three days that will celebrate his birthday. In contrast with noh or kabuki, where each gesture is highly stylised and must be performed in a pre-defined order, in a set context, taishū engeki is flexible: plays are based on known stories, but the plot is overly simplified, so that the audience can focus on the main characters and the way they perform more than on the storyline, and the second act is actually the main attraction of the show, when the actors can showcase their special skills to the delight of the audience. Kabuki developed in the seventeenth century, and it was aimed at the “common people”, while “the true professionals, the performers of the [noh] and the kyōgen [comedy], began to retreat behind the curtain of refinement” (Tsubaki 4). In the twenty-first century, noh has become more of a mixture of performance and ritual, appreciated by a small number of specialists, and often staged to accompany religious manifestations. Kabuki, on the other hand, has taken its place as the most valued theatrical art, with fans and aficionados vying for the best seats (whose prices can go up to 30,000 Japanese yen, and yet are hard to procure), but taishū engeki shows no signs that it might ever reach that level of popularity. In 1995 Marilyn Ivy saw it as a “discourse of the vanishing”, an art that might disappear as, while “it appears to carry on an unarguably Japanese knowledge” (239), it has failed to create a “boom” or a vast audience. While novelty is part of the performance, it seems to somehow be not new enough, not entrancing enough. The actors are talented, creative, and versatile, but they do not attain the fame level of their kabuki counterparts. Despite all these, as an anthropologist, I could not help but wonder why taishū engeki has not attracted more scholarly interest. The studies on this topic, both in Japanese and English, are far less numerous than those on butoh, for example, “a post-modern dance genre” which has been the focus of both practical and theoretical interest on the part of Japanese studies specialists. To give just an example, in his book on Japanese theatre, Benito Ortolani has a subchapter on butoh, but does not even mention taishū engeki. Prince(ss) Charming My first encounters with taishū engeki were due to a class project—I had started teaching a class on theatre as ritual performance, and wanted my students to have a first-hand experience. The project was a success: students who had shown no enthusiasm at all when reading the syllabus were mesmerised once the performance had begun, to the level that they had attended shows by themselves, and even started following the actors on various social networks. Taishū engeki surpasses all expectations of a first-time viewer. It follows a canon, just like kabuki, but that canon is audience-oriented, so without having ever been part of that audience, it is difficult to imagine what will happen on stage. As mentioned above, each performance has two parts: the first one is a play, whose content changes during the one-month performance, usually based on historical events familiar to the audience, but not restricted to that, an intermission during which the leader of the troupe greets the audience, talks about the schedule for the remainder of the month, and promotes the merchandise available for sale (T-shirts, fans, boxes of sweets), followed by a free-style show where the performers are free to display their best skills. Photography is not allowed during the first part—and this may be due to the fact that most troupe leaders create their own plays using the vast available materials, and are reluctant to share that with other troupes—but is encouraged during the second part. Video taking is forbidden at all times. Crossdressing is a significant part of the performance, with men playing the part of women who are attractive to other women, and women playing the part of men who also attract women. The actresses, however, never become the star of the troupe. Just like in the case of Takarazuka Theatre, where the otoko yaku (women playing the male roles) receive significantly more appreciation than the female counterparts, the heavily made-up male actors of taishū engeki represent the dreamy ideal of their dedicated fans. Each performing group is centered around one male actor who is representative of the troupe—usually the leader or the leader’s son, and who gathers a dedicated fan base composed of women (most of whom are middle-aged or older). These women try to attend as many shows as they can, literally showering their favourite actor with money. The few available studies on taishū engeki tended to focus on two major aspects: crossdressing (mostly of the onnagata—men playing women—type) and on the money the actors receive while on stage. Fig. 1: An actor on the Gofukuza Stage (Osaka) displaying money gifts, 13 June 2018. Schneider and Schneider, for example, looked into how gender is performed, and what rules are applied when performing gender. Their conclusion? There are no clear rules, as “taishū engeki plays with gender, but it also quite simply plays gender” (262). My own interest was not in the actual gender performed, but in the most pervasive and permanent element of all taishū engeki performances: seduction. Those who go to see these shows may do so for mere amusement—and their expectations are never disappointed, as the costumes are complex and flamboyant, and the performers are skilled dancers, but those who go faithfully do so due to their admiration for a certain actor. The first act (the historical play) is a convention where the star appears slightly more human—less make-up, sometimes performing the role of a man—always strong and masculine, which is quite an artistic feat seeing that even in the role of a man, the actors will wear specific make-up and false eyelashes. The Takarazuka Revue, an all-female group founded in 1914, has a large and consistent fan base made-up almost entirely of women who fall in love with the actress playing the main male roles—a phenomenon explained by the desire to temporarily live in a fantasy world. The difference between the Takarazuka actresses and the taishū engeki actors is that the former do not aim to seduce, but to invite the audience into a dream world, while the latter’s goal is to fully entrance. Regardless of the gender they play, the taishū engeki stars create erotic characters, just like their kabuki precursors, where, as Samuel L. Leiter (212) puts it, “eros remained primary”. Dressed in kimonos of intricate patterns that go far outside the lines of tradition, and are representative of the creative spirit of the performer, using make-up which completely transforms their physiognomies through the heavy use of eyeliner, glitter, false eyelashes, and wearing exquisite wigs, the actors invite the audience into a dream world where the Fairy Godmother gave the best dress to the prince, not the princess. For hundreds if not thousands of years, the folktales focussed around the image of a beautiful prince, the kalos kagathos hero (beautiful and virtuous, the ancient Greek ideal) who takes the maiden from distress and into a happily ever after. Taishū engeki heroes switch perspectives: it is not Prince Charming, but Princess Charming, an utterly beautiful creature who enchants the female audience by being the impossible. Princess Charming represents an embodiment of the best possible features—beauty, glamour, grace, sex appeal, elegance—and none of the negative ones—lack of manners, roughness, insensitivity. Moreover, Princess Charming is accessible. For a mere 2,000 yen, anybody can spend three hours in her company, and shaking her hand starts at a similarly low price—2,000 or 3,000 yen for a trinket bought during the intermission, to hand over as a gift during the performance. Fig. 2: Aotsuki Shinya as a romantic lady in a flowing kimono, Gofukuza, 9 July 2022. Dressed as females, the actors move their bodies with the grace of a geisha, bat their eyelashes, smile coquettishly, and even wink at the audience. As males, they are either abandoned lovers who drown their sorrows in drink, or fierce warriors dancing with masks and swords. In all circumstances, they present exaggerated feminine or masculine ideals, with the difference that femininity is emphasised through the overuse of garments and accessories, while masculinity will almost always involve a certain degree of nakedness: chest, arms, legs. The reasons are both practical (showing various naked body parts would destroy the dreamy feminine beauty wrapped up in layers of cloth and glitter), and symbolic: femininity is mysterious and fragile, and thus cannot easily be revealed, while masculinity must re-assert its strength and vitality. The body presented on stage is more of an artistic act than the performance itself, because it is there that most of the actor’s talent is poured. Creating a persona means borrowing from the “traditional” Japanese culture which includes geisha, courtesans, heavy wigs, and heavily embroidered kimonos, as well as the contemporary manga and cosplay culture. With exaggerated eyes and hairstyles as the central features of the head, the characters moving in front of the audience seem to have directly descended from (or drawn the viewers into, “Take On Me” style) the pages of a fantasy manga. An interview with Aotsuki Shinya (stage name), leader and star of the Kokoro (“Heart”) troupe conducted on 15 June 2022, did not offer any insightful glimpses into the metamorphosis process. While acknowledging that he cannot present his true self on stage, thus using make-up to become Aotsuki Shinya, the actor did not admit to any conscious attempt of becoming attractive. In his own words, all their efforts are for the benefit of the audience, directed towards helping them have fun. “Tanoshii”, “fun” seemed to be a key concept when staging a new performance, and the reasoning behind that is easy to follow. Unlike the more elevated kabuki, a taishū engeki theatre is a small cosy place where the audience can interact quite freely with the performers, who do not shy away from showing momentarily glimpses of the face behind the mask: forgetting a line and admitting to it, laughing at a joke said by another actor, kneeling prettily to receive gifts from their fans. Rather than gender fluid, the bodies in taishū engeki are genderless because they are not, nor do they claim to be, real. An actor on the traditional stage is a photography, or, if the setting includes fantastic elements, a painting of an imaginable universe. An actor on the taishū engeki stage turns their body into a manga drawing: something that does not exist in real life, but it is highly desirable. Kabuki actors staged eroticism by impersonating women; taishū engeki actors play with desire becoming in turns both Cinderella and the Prince. Figs. 3 & 4: Aotsuki Shinya as a fantastic character (fig. 3) and as the god Susano-wo slaying the dragon (fig. 4). “Fantasy, Sweet Fantasy” Analysing the loyalty that Takarazuka actresses inspire into their fans, Makiko Yamanashi interprets it as something that goes beyond (dreams of) physical love or mere escapism, and sees it as the desire to belong to an ideal community of women—friends, sisters, mothers. While not wrong, this approach seems to gloss over the real erotic feelings and the longing for something not of this world which are most definitely present among performative arts (be they kabuki, revue, vaudeville, butoh, modern theatre) aficionados. The men performed by the Takarazuka actresses do not exist in real life, and just as in the case of taishū engeki actors, make-up plays a crucial role. Lorie Brau even mentions an incident where an American director hired to stage a production of “West Side Story” required the actresses playing male roles to give up their false eyelashes—a change that did not last after the director left (86). The taishū engeki actors are warriors who bring back to life the god Izanagi, the creator of Japan, who fought an army of underworld monsters, while wearing eyeliner, eyelashes, and sparkling make-up. They are completely unrecognisable without make-up, and yet changing their appearance takes approximately ten minutes, much less than it would take a drag queen to turn from ordinary man into glamorous woman (at least forty minutes). I am not mentioning here the drag queens by chance—the two types of performances are similar enough that they lead to collaborations. On 10 June 2022, the troupe Kokoro performed at the Gofukuza Theatre in Umeda in the company of five drag queens well known on the Osaka stage: Feminina, Rulu Daisy, Madame Cocco, Ozu, and Il Rosa. One characteristic of drag performances is that they are actor-centred: they are not about the storyline, but about the performer’s creation—“channeling your inner femininity, fusing it with the male, and creating something otherworldly” (Hastings). The noticeable difference between drag and taishū engeki is that drag is actor-oriented, while taishū engeki is audience-oriented. Drag queens interact with the audiences and entertain, but the focus is internal, towards freeing something that had been developing within. Taishū engeki actors do choose their characters, of course, and have individual preferences, but this is secondary to their goal of captivating the audiences. Both categories of performers learn to re-invent their bodies, to re-create them on stage; however, in one case we witness an individual metamorphosis from real life to theatrical persona, and in the other we have one individual who can shapeshift into whatever character might work better magic on the people in front of him. Drag is about freedom while taishū engeki is about seduction. Fig. 5: Il Rosa and two actors of the Shin troupe, Gofukuza, 10 June 2022 Taishū engeki may not be kabuki: it is not celebrated by the media or the researchers, and many people in contemporary Japanese society see it as an inferior form of entertainment. Considering the low price of the tickets and the fact that shows are seldom sold out, one might worry about its future. Nevertheless, a visit to the backstage of Gofukuza during the month when Shin was performing revealed a large room full of costumes, and another one full of wig boxes—more than two hundred, according to Aotsuki Shinya. The Shin troupe was founded five years ago, so everything was still new and shiny—a sign that the genre will not disappear any time in the near future. The same visit, when I could interact with the actors in their day-to-day attires, using their regular voices, and standing near the costumes and wigs like exhibits in a museum, made one more thing acutely clear: the fact that their performances are a fantasy world. More of a fantasy world than a kabuki performance (to remain consistent with the comparison), where the setting is clearly a setting, separate from the audience. The blurred lines between stage and audience, between performance and flirting of the taishū engeki create a tangible fantasy, where one can not only fall in love with the Prince(ss) Charming, but maybe even take them to a ball. References Brau, Lorie. “The Women’s Theater of Takarazuka”. TDR 34.4 (Winter 1990): 79-95. Endo, Yukihide. “Reconsidering the Traveling Theater of Today’s Japan: An Interdisciplinary Approach to a Stigmatized Form of Japanese Theater.” Athens Journal of Humanities and Arts 2.3. Hastings, Magnus. Why Drag? Hong Kong: Chronicle Books, 2016. Ivy, Marilyn. Discourses of the Vanishing. Modernity Phantasm Japan. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1995. Kurata, Ryosuke. “Taishū Engeki as a Show Business: Exploring the Segmentation of Customers.” Mathesis Universalis 17.2. Leiter, Samuel L. “From Gay to Gei: The Onnagata and the Creation of Kabuki’s Female Characters.” In A Kabuki Reader: History and Performance, ed. Samuel L. Leitner. New York: M. E. Sharpe, 2002. 211-229. Ortolani, Benito. The Japanese Theatre. From Shamanistic Ritual to Contemporary Pluralism. New Jersey: Princeton UP, 1995. Schneider, Robert, and Nathan Schneider. “A Dive and a Dance with Kabuki Vaudeville: Taishū Engeki Comes Back!” New Theater Quarterly 36.3 (2020). 29 July 2020 <https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/new-theatre-quarterly/article/abs/dive-and-a-dance-with-kabuki-vaudeville-taishu-engeki-comes-back/BB72486E86C79B70730B6F2DB5EC0FF8>. Yamanashi, Makiko. A History of the Takarazuka Revue Since 1914: Modernity, Girls’ Culture, Japan Pop. Leiden: Global Oriental, 2012.

Abstract This article examines ʿAtaba thaqīlat al-rūḥ (“Threshold of heavy spirit,” 2011), a novel by the new generation West Bank writer Māyā Abū l-Ḥayāt, who is considered one of the prominent new generation Palestinian West Bank writers, in which diverse and unique use of a dance motif is found. The article reviews the history of dance in Arab society and the meanings that it had in the past and currently has in Arab society and culture. It illustrates how Abū l-Ḥayāt uses each of these meanings throughout her novel in order to reveal the female soul and the status of women in Arab society. The article shows how Abū l-Ḥayāt incorporates this motif into her novel in a unique and original way, thus exposing woman’s yearning for freedom, creating a new feminine language and undermining accepted norms.

This article investigates how practitioners in the West African Health Organization (WAHO) obtain and exercise autonomous political agency in the development of regional health policy. While many process-driven accounts of African agency focus on the freedom and ability of African governments and regional organisations to act and not be acted upon, the article finds that it is necessary look within these agents to examine how they are constituted and the processes in which they acquire the capacity to be agents in their external interactions. This article shows that practitioners in WAHO rely on three institutional strategies that constitute them as agents within the organisation: networking with extra-regional partners; the inclusion of civil society in regional social policy; and the development of intra-organisational linkages to create insulation from political control. Through these strategic interactions, WAHO practitioners constitute themselves as agents within the organisation as well as autonomous agents in the broader global health theatre.

This article retrieves the life and cultural contributions to Britain of Trinidadian Pearl Prescod, singer, campaigner and the first Black female actor at the National Theatre. She is one of a generation of artists, performers, singers and intellectuals whose contribution to the creation of a Black and anti-colonial strand in British culture in the 1950s and ‘60s has been neglected. By tracking her life from her colonial origins through her migration to Britain and struggles to find work in the 1950s, to her brief break-out professional success in the 1960s and early death in 1966, she is pulled from the historical margins. Her life story, which touches on movements of so many hues – Negritude, Pan-Africanism, Black Power, Communism, campaigns for colonial freedom, the March on Washington, the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination − reveals the strong community connections and internationalism of the time. Pearl, the piece argues, was typical of a whole overlooked ‘West Indian generation’ (of educated and politically militant artists, writers, dramatists and actors) whose anti-colonial consciousness and creative activities challenge the popular accepted narrative of an undifferentiated ‘Windrush generation’. The piece contains an account of witnessing Pearl and her fellow actors perform at the National Theatre.

This research is based on the phenomenon of problems in MSMEs including poor administration, low product competitiveness, low human resources, lack of mastery of science, quality of service and use of quality goods (Halal & Thayyib). The purpose of this study was to measure the level of implementation of Islamic Business Ethics for MSME players in the PUSPA Bank Indonesia program in West Java in Bandung in 2017. The research method used was descriptive quantitative with data analysis techniques using descriptive statistics. The number of research samples is 50 consumers from 4 MSMEs which are engaged in the service, food and craft sectors and. The results of the study show that the level of implementation of Islamic Business Ethics in micro business actors guided by the PUSPA program in Bank Indonesia in West Java in 2017 is in very good criteria, dimensions that need to be improved are the orderly administrative dimensions and the dimensions of freedom with good criteria. While the dimensions of responsibility, justice and truth are included in the criteria very well. The impact of this research shows the need for improvement of several indicators because it has implications for business progress and increased competitiveness of MSMEs themselves.

Abstract This paper explores the legality of the land closure imposed upon the Gaza Strip by Israel. After having considered the area under occupation, the paper argues that the legality of the closure must be determined under international humanitarian law, international human rights law, the principle of self-determination of peoples, and the Israeli-Palestinian agreements. In the light of these rules, the arbitrary closure of the Gaza Strip should be considered illegal because it breaches the unity between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and because it violates the freedom of movement of the local population. Moreover, the closure breaches the relevant rules pertaining to the transit of goods in occupied territory. The paper concludes that most of the violations caused by the closure affect peremptory rules which produce obligations erga omnes, so that any state in the international community is entitled to react under the law of state responsibility.

This qualitative study explores lived experiences of Palestinians in the West Bank during the COVID-19 pandemic intersecting with life under Israeli military occupation, structural violence, and racism. Insight is provided into the pandemic's effect on daily life and health and into coping and support mechanisms employed under apartheid conditions. Forty-three semi-structured interviews were conducted among a stratified sample of Palestinian adults. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. During the pandemic, Palestinian social lives were interrupted, jobs were lost, and incomes declined. Families fell into social and financial crises, with strife, insecurity, uncertainty, and fear negatively affecting physical and mental health. Pandemic effects were compounded by the Palestinian Authority's shortcomings and policies not taking into account citizens’ rights and social protection and by Israel's continued colonization of Palestinian land and violation of Palestinian human rights. Social solidarity was instrumental for coping during the pandemic just as it was during intensified political violence. One key feature that helped Palestinians survive promoting their cause for freedom, sovereignty, and self-determination is their social solidarity in times of strife. This has proven to be a crucial component in overcoming threats to the survival of a people during the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century.

This major human rights report examines the two-tier system of laws, rules, and services that Israel operates for the two populations—Israeli settler and Palestinian—in the areas of the West Bank under its exclusive control, notably Area C and East Jerusalem. Praised by UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur Richard Falk as “exhaustively document[ing] the forms of discrimination against Palestinians” in these areas, the 166-page report uses regional case studies to show how zoning, construction permits, demolitions, land confiscations, restrictions on freedom of movement, access to natural resources, jurisprudence, and inconsistent enforcement of the law expand and deepen Israel's (permanent) hold on these areas. Much remarked upon was the report's recommendation that the U.S. government consider suspending aid to Israel in an amount equivalent to Israel's spending on settlements and examine the legality of tax exemptions to U.S. organizations that funnel support to them. The report's summary section is largely reproduced below, with the subsection on freedom of movement omitted on the grounds that the regime of permits, barriers, settler-only roads, and seam zones are more familiar to JPS readers. Also omitted, for space considerations, are the endnotes. The full text is available online at www.hrw.org.

The aim of this research is to know the extent of the impact of social background variables on the freedom of women within the Palestinian family from the viewpoint of all members of Palestinian society. The researcher used the descriptive analytical method and the questionnaire tool, and the research community is a resident of one of the Palestinian cities, which is the city of Qalqilya in the northern West Bank, A sample was taken of them amounting to (548) individuals from different groups, and it was found with regard to the private living areas that there is freedom for Palestinian women in them, as the total score for all of these areas came between the high and medium percentage, which reached a combined value of (73.7%) Distributed over The entire various fields in its existence ranged between (83.8%) for the existence of women's freedom in the social field, followed by a value (5. 78%) for the existence of that freedom within the psychological field and (70.7%) came to the freedom of women within the democratic field The three domains represented the highest existence of women's freedom in them, followed by the noticeable decrease in the existence of this freedom, which came with a value (9.67%) for the freedom of women in the practical behavioral field, followed by a percentage (4. 66%) of the existence of women's freedom in the material field, and this means The practical, real presence of women's freedom came in an average way compared to the theoretical existence, and it was found at the end of this research There is a strong relationship between the various variables of the social background and between the existence of women's freedom within the Palestinian society, such as the existence of a relationship between gender, age, economic status, number of family members, the nature of work and the educational level and the existence of women's freedom, and this means that there is a strong and significant impact of the changes in the social environment as a driver of existence Freedom of women in its apparent form between high and medium as it came in the areas mentioned in this research, and at the end of this research the researcher made a number of recommendations at the public and private levels, one of the most important of which was the need to give guidance courses for those coming to marriage to improve from a For the relations between the spouses and the creation of a kind of freedom in the beginning of the formation of any new family considering that this contributes to a decrease in some other social problems, in addition to the need to improve the treatment of women within every Palestinian family.

According to President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “affirmed that men equal under God are also equal when they seek a job, when they go to get a meal in a restaurant, or when they seek lodging for the night in any State in the Union.” Neither Congress nor President Johnson, however, mentioned bank accounts, overdraft fees, or access to bank branches. On March 16, 2022—nearly six decades later—the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau attempted to fill this gap. It revised its examination manual to identify discrimination in consumer financial products as an “unfair, deceptive, or abusive act or practice.” When Congress established the CFPB in 2010, it expressly empowered it to eliminate such practices, adopting a standard which it has featured in federal law since 1938. Various agencies have previously considered using the standard to address discrimination, but until March 2022 none ever had. So why now? The CFPB’s newly appointed director, Rohit Chopra, announced the change to the examination manual and said, “When a person is denied access to a bank account because of their religion or race, this is unambiguously unfair.” Less than five months after the announcement, however, the Supreme Court threw the agency’s decision into doubt by offering a new framework for evaluating agency statutory interpretation in West Virginia v. EPA. The West Virginia case announces a new “major questions doctrine” in which agency action requires clear congressional authorization depending on the “history and breadth of the authority that [the agency] has asserted” and its “economic and political significance.” On September 28, 2022, industry groups led by the Chamber of Commerce filed suit against the CFPB, citing West Virginia v. EPA in claiming the CFPB overstepped its statutory authority. On September 8, 2023, a federal judge sitting in the Eastern District of Texas decided against the CFPB, enjoining the agency from implementing its anti-discrimination policy. The judge cited the major questions doctrine and West Virginia v. EPA in striking down the agency’s revision as beyond its statutory authority. This Note considers the effects of West Virginia v. EPA and the ‘major questions doctrine’ on anti-discrimination efforts by the CFPB and other federal agencies, specifically analyzing discrimination as a “major question,” and determining the lengths to which the UDAAP standard “clearly authorizes” anti-discrimination action. Given the political significance of anti-discrimination laws, the potential ramifications of allowing the CFPB freedom to interpret the UDAAP standard, and the long history of a narrower interpretation of the law, this Note argues that whether the CFPB can prohibit banks from denying access to accounts on the basis of religion or race could be a major question. However, the UDAAP standard, which is an express delegation by Congress to the CFPB to liquidate the content and nature of fair practices over time, is best read as a clear statement authorizing the CPFB to eliminate discrimination in consumer financial products.

AbstractGuinea‐Bissau, an important regional biodiversity hotspot in West Africa, faces the challenge of raising awareness among the general public about the significance of natural resources for rural communities' survival and the need for biodiversity conservation. This knowledge gap hinders conservation efforts as initiatives are deemed irrelevant or unnecessary. A climate of political vulnerability, financial uncertainty and threats to media freedom are further obstacles to conservation biology. Researchers lack established communication platforms for academic dissemination. In this paper, we introduce the initiative News for Nature/PRIMACTION (2020–2022), which aimed to establish a communication channel between researchers and media agents. The project had two primary objectives: firstly, to raise awareness among the Guinea‐Bissau society about the importance of national biodiversity and conservation challenges; and secondly, to enhance the capacity of specific communicators and opinion makers. The project had several important outputs, including: i) a bi‐monthly newspaper section focused on “biodiversity conservation in Guinea‐Bissau”, ii) three radio‐theatre episodes performed by a well‐known group and broadcasted nationally, iii) one song composed and sung by famous musicians, with an introduction by Jane Goodall, and iv) a website providing technical resources for journalists covering biodiversity and conservation news. Collaborators mentioned the lack of logistical conditions for traveling in the country as a major impediment in reporting conservation‐related news. We emphasize the significance of establishing direct contact and articulation between researchers and local media to promote conservation research in West African countries. In countries where science communication and environmental education outreach are not well‐established, it is crucial to bridge the challenges faced by the communities in different regions of the same country. This is especially urgent in cases where such challenges are significant.

Teesid: 1960. aastate lõpus toimusid eesti teatris suured muutused. Ilmus nähtus, mida hakati nimetama nooreks režissuuriks. Eeskätt on see seotud Evald Hermaküla, Jaan Toominga, Kalju Komissarovi, Kaarin Raidi jt nimedega. Noor režissuur tõstis mässu ahtaks muutunud realismi raamide vastu, mis ei vastanud noore põlvkonna teatriootustele. Olles mõjutatud ideeliselt radikaalsest eksperimentaalteatrist USAs, aga ka Jerzy Grotowski katsetustest ning teistest avangardsetest liikumistest, muutis see füüsilist teatrikeelt. Tõusis improvisatsiooni osakaal. Teater lakkas olemast dramaturgiliste tekstide esituskoht, vaid hakkas otsima etendustes vahetut kohalolu. Tajuprotsessi hakkas juhtima mängu põhimõte. Suured müüdid dekonstrueeriti, autoritaarsusele vastanduti. Seksuaalsus ilmutas end uuel jõul, toetatud alateadvuse impulssidest. Uue laine radikaalsus kestis 1970. aastate lõpuni, mil see sulandus peavoolu. Murrang teatriesteetikas mõjutas kogu järgnenud teatriperioodi, seda on kutsutud ka eesti teatri kuldajaks.SU M M A R YYoung directors emerged in Estonian theatre at the end of the 1960s. More specifically, during the years 1969–1974 many new directors’ names appeared on theatre posters, and the fundamental changes in the language and content of the theatre at the end of the 1960s and the 1970s began to be associated with these names. Most important among these are Evald Hermaküla, Jaan Tooming, Kalju Komissarov, and Karin Raid. Within a short time these young directors changed prevailing assumptions about the purpose, means, and content of the theatre in Estonia. This phenomenon came to be referred to as the breakthrough, or the new wave; later on, in sum, as the renewal of theatre.A generational change was taking place in the theatre, and in this framework a different language of theatre emerged, which began carrying innovative emotional and aesthetic paradigms. As in the Anglo-American cultural space, this new theatre was not referred to by a single name: in the USA, it was referred to as experimental, neo-avant-garde, off-off-Broadway, also as alternative. In England, experimental andfringe were among the concepts used. The designation of theatre renewal of the 1960s and 1970s as „postmodern“ could only was a retrospective manoeuvre by American and English theorists.The young directors began to use deconstruction to overturn the grand narratives; binaries and myths were shattered; power and its structures are examined closely; sexuality was used in a shocking manner; the principle of play became foregrounded. All of these directions and intentions connect the new wave with postmodernism.This article uses the above principles to examine some of the most important works of young directors from the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s: a program of the poetry of Gustav Suits, This one song I want to sing (1969); Cinderella-game (1969); Letting Their Hand Be Kissed (1969); Epp Pillapart’s Punjaba Pot Factory (1974); Oliver and Jennifer (1972).Changes in social and aesthetic consciousness also had an effect, as they had in other artistic media. „This was a generation that was not bothered by stalinist norms,“ said Karin Kask. Without a doubt, the emergence of this phenomenon were also affected by moods of renewal in Czechoslovakia and Poland, as well as by the invasion of Czechoslovakia.The period was characterized by the „virus of protest and freedom“ as well as „euphoria on the eve of suppression“. While trying to reform theatre, new concepts emerged, such as imagistic system, impulse, non-conceptual base, complete freedom in the choice of means, a new style, irrationality at the base of humanity, the psychophysical dramatic equivalent, etc. The stage is set free from the circumstantial conjuncture, turning instead toward an existential black-box; alternatively, standard images are tentatively represented on a meta-level. The activities on stage were also transferred to the audience. All of these tendencies indicate a new approach to the theatre.Overthrowing, deconstruction, and the Zeitgeist of rebellion, a new spirit of play, homo ludens are reflected in many writings from the end of the 1960s. When describing the atmosphere of that time, Mati Unt uses Derrida’s term onto-theo-teleo-phallo-phonocentrism. This period is also characterized by the phrase „rebellion against old stereotypes“, with the goal of deconstructing them.According to the theory of Brian McHale, the most important marker of postmodernism is the ontological dominant. And yet such designations as placing objectivity totally in suspension, metatheatrical devices, resistance, physicality, rejection, class and power as mystifications, confessionality – these key words also provide a multi-layered characterization of the postmodernist theatre of the 1960s–1970s both in the USA and Estonia.So far Estonian researchers of postmodernism have not produced a unified account of postmodernism in culture and literature. As the playwright Robert Patrick observes in retrospect, postmodernism set itself in opposition to the schemata of modernism, viewing them as irrelevant: „there was no manifesto, credo, or criteria. It just happened“. It was a rebellion against society as a structure.The abovementioned criteria correspond to a great extent with the traits postmodernism listed by Ihab Hassan: antiauthoritarianism, distantiation from myths, Ego, the disintegration of the I, new sexuality, counterculture, improvisational and aleatory structures, the mixture of forms, play, parody, apocalyptic expectations, elements of communal life and the hippie movement, in addition to frequent attraction toZen, Buddhism, and the occult; applications of intermediality.It is this anti-authoritarianism that is one of the main themes in the Suits poetry evening, the performance Letting their hand be kissed, You, who get your ears boxed, as well as the performance, Good bye, baby!; the different levels of breaking down myth in Cinderella-game, Letting their hand be kissed, Midsummer 1941, as well as The Trial. The performance Letting their hand be kissed destroys illusory stereotypes of ethnic oppression. Most of these leading performances apply the principles of play, along with irony and self-irony: the circumstantial chains of events are cracked open and twisted, amplified by physical movement through which body language becomes tremendously more important than the verbal text. The use of the empty stage in scenography is not so much an aesthetic device as it is a fundamental attitude toward society. „We tried to clear the playing field!“ as Hermaküla expressed it. The effort was made to eliminate the noise and circumstantiality from the signified which had lost its meaning, striving to be authentically present.In print, empty space as a playing field became a manifesto through Peter Brook’s Empty Space (published in Estonian in 1972); Brook’s quest was linked to postmodernism. Certainly some of the choices made were influenced by Jerzy Grotowski’s apologia for a „poor theatre“, which at the time was also linked to postmodernism. Antonin Artaud’s theories, such as the „theatre of cruelty“, were also applied.The new wave’s link with philosophical deconstruction is accompanied by a fundamental anti-authoritarian stance, which in the Soviet Union of the 1970s could not be expressed verbally: in the theatre, it was transformed into systems of images.The rebellion against traditional theatre and a frozen society is naturally connected with theatre through the principle of play. The discovery and expression of authenticity and truth is only possible through play. In a theatre founded on the principle of play, there was a quantum leap in the relative importance of improvisational devices in methods of staging. With the breakthrough of representations of the unconscious, influenced in part by the rebellious youth movement, protests, and sexual revolution in the West in the 1960s, the new wave of the Estonian theatre also saw a clear change via views on human sexuality. In many of the top performances, verbal logic is replaced by associative one and the force of the unconscious. The examination of the new wave of directing in the Estonian theatre by considering postmodernist connections allows its contextualization among theatrical trends throughout the world.

Participation is central to the success of political consumption movements. To date, consumer research has explored participation from the lens of the individual consumer activist. In this article we argue that such actor-centric approaches that equate individual motivation and willingness of potential consumer activists with likely participation are limited because they imply consumer freedom and agency irrespective of context. By exploring political consumption amid conflict, we illustrate how a particular setting frames the behaviours and decision-making of political consumers. Drawing on findings from a study of consumer boycott as part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign in the West Bank (occupied Palestinian territory), we outline a set of market and societal barriers that frame the participation of potential boycotters. We show how these political, economic and sociocultural factors influence the range of possible actions for consumers and make participation more problematic, if not impossible. The findings of this study call for a need to re-evaluate how political consumption can be an oppositional or transformational practice, and support recent calls for a consideration of the roles of agency and power in consumption. To this effect, we propose the concept of ‘situated agency’ to analyse participation in political consumption that moves beyond actor-centric explanations. We hope such reconsiderations will contribute to a more nuanced understanding of participation in political consumption across different consumption contexts.

Teesid: 20. sajandil on esile kerkinud mitmeid teatrisuundi, mis on kritiseerinud ja püüdnud ületada Lääne traditsioonilise teatri väidetavat sõnakesksust ning samuti selle võimetust täita n-ö püha kunsti funktsioone. Kuigi seda pühadusedefitsiiti on püütud leevendada ennekõike orientaalsetest teatrivormidest inspiratsiooni ammutades, aitab selle võimalikku tekkelugu mõista ka katoliikliku kultuuri mõjuväljas võrsunud teatrikunsti ning teatrivaenulikuma ortodoksi teoloogia kontekstis välja töötatud ikooniteoloogia võrdlus. Kõrvutades nende kahe konfessiooni teoloogilis-esteetilisi arusaamu, saame analüüsida ka performatiivsuse esteetika seisukohast olulisi kunstiteose loome- ja tajutingimuste vormilisi ja meelelisi aspekte ning nende toimet sakraalse kunsti sihtide seisukohast.SU M M A R YIn the 21st century Western society has seen an increasing interest in topics related to religion. In this context, the connection between the concept of sacrality in Western culture and freedom of verbal and artistic expression has been reconsidered; the very possibility of so-called sacred art within Western culture has been called into question.Already in the 20th century several theatrical movements in the West have expressed the need to strive for religious (or at least quasi-religious) goals by means of the stage. This can already be seen in the work of the symbolists, but such experiments accelerated and became more forceful under the influence of Antonin Artaud’s visions and under the aegis of intercultural theatre. In all of these different quests one can find common elements: discontent with the discursivity of the theatrical canon, a need for a metaphysical dimension in the theatre, and the belief that channels of perception can be opened through contact with exotic ritual cultures.In his book Sacred Theatre Ralph Yarrow has attempted to define the criteria of sacrality in the theatre, drawing upon William S. Haney’s prior determinations, which emphasizes first, that sacred theatre induces a change of consciousness in which the subject and the object merge; second, the liminality of the intersubjective environment surrounding the experience of the sacred, in which the verbal and the transcendental unite. When describing the influence of the logocentrism of Christian culture on the experience of sacredness, Yarrow draws on the views of Mark C. Taylor, Rudolf Otto, Mircea Eliade and Georges Bataille. All of these thinkers critique the rationalism attributed to monotheistic religion, which gives an important place to Christ as the mediator of God’s transcendental truth, the logos, and sacred scripture, all of which differ from the numinous experience of the mystic. The art of so-called sacred theatre, where, at least according to tradition, the performative mission, dramaturgy, stage design, and public reception are all part of a unified contemplative whole seems to be missing in Western culture. Indeed, this is what several Western stage experimenters have been looking for, and in their search they have looked eastward.New viewpoints with respect to the perception of a work of art were gained in the „performative turn“ of the end of the 20th century; besides the text, proponents of this new direction became interested in the sensory and bodily processes of creativity and reception. Erika Fischer-Lichte and others have conceptualized these processes on a more general level and reflected upon the aesthetics of performativity; insodoing they have pointed to a dualism in the Western aesthetics of performativity, recognizing that there is a contradiction between the referential, semiotic pole of art and its performative dimension. Although the reasons for this split can be sought in the very origins of Western art as well as that of medieval Christian art, relations between theatre and the church differ according to confession; Yarrow’s definitions do not apply to Christianity as a whole. As distinct from the Catholic church, which, occasional polemics notwithstanding, has been a good neighbour to theatre from the medieval period onward, Orthodox theology has been more wary of theatre, or at least regarded the media and goals of theatre as incompatible with the goals of sacred art.Despite this difference of context, the iconographer of Eastern art and the theatre avant-gardist who longs for sacrality in Western logocentric theatre focus on similar mechanisms and processes. With respect to the origin and development of medieval religious art one might generalize that while the centre of Orthodox liturgy is the fellowship of holy communion, in the Western Church a drive toward analysis and interpretation arose alongside the experience of communion. This analytic drive facilitated the development of interpretive scholastics which translated theology by means of formal logic. Also, a dramaturgic aspect began increasingly to differentiate itself from the Mass and holy communion, finding more commonality with theatre as an independent art form. In the Eastern Church, which preserved the theological heritage of the Church Fathers was preserved, the theology of the icon was developed. According to this, sacred art could not be regarded apart from its liturgical context, nor could an independent aesthetic value be attached to it. The platonic roots of Orthodox theology led to the perpetuation of the attitude of the Church Fathers: theatre could endanger the health of the soul or prevent the pursuit of spiritual goals, that is theosis, because the fictional world of theatre blurs truth and human identity, drawing both the performer and the viewer toward affectivity and escapism. However, despite its conservative theology of the icon, which deplored realism and emotionality, the Orthodox church had its own aesthetic of performativity, which in addition to content draws attention to the creative, functional and perceptual prerequisites for sacred art.The theological and aesthetic differences between Catholicism and the Orthodox church are also reflected today in the theologically-inclined reception of works with religious content. For example, based on the lively theological feedback to Mel Gibson’s 2004 film, The Sufferings of Christ one might claim that the judgments of Catholics mostly concern the m e s s a g e of the work, the appropriateness of its content, that is the referential pole; Orthodox theologians rather place more emphasis on the appropriateness of the m e d i u m to theological goals, that is, the performative effect of the work of art. Besides differences in pure artistic representation, it is also worth examining such questions as Catholic and Orthodox interpretations of the Trinity or the teaching of Gregorius Palamas (1296–1359) on divine energies, which were later declared to be heretical. Thus Orthodox liturgical practice seems to contradict many of the stereotypes that eastward-turning seekers of sacred theatre have attributed to Western sacral culture as a whole, overlooking aspects of dynamism that can be found in the Eastern Christian church. This topic has been discussed in several recent accounts of iconography, which examine the performativity of the icon, distinguishing its processes of creation and perception from the Western representation-oriented concept of the picture (eg Bissera V. Pencheva, Adrian Gorea).Granted, one should be careful when drawing parallels between the strictly rule-bound theology of the icon and aesthetics of performativity focused on the sensory aspect of art. However, this article takes the position that what should be emphasized are the differences between Orthodox and Catholic views of art, by means of which one can elucidate the points of departure of the Western quest for sacred theatre and the performative level to which it aspires.