The Kid Who Would Be King: Why King Arthur Films Are The Perfect Antidote To Epic Brexit Posturing

The Kid Who Would Be King  (20th Century Fox)

King Arthur probably never existed, but from a cinematic point of view, he may as well have done. Few figures, mythical or historical, have reappeared as frequently on the big screen. This winter, less than two years after Guy Ritchie’s 2017 King Arthur: The Legend of the Sword, comes a new take on the tales: The Kid Who Would Be King. But what is the appeal of this particular tale? And above all, why now?

The Kid Who Would Be King, like Ritchie’s film, is another take on a familiar trope. Like any legend, the Arthur myth is a cinematic template on which storytellers can impose their own ideas – and these variations can tell us a lot about the times and places that produced them. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), for instance, with its medieval plagues and Marxist peasants, reflects parodically on the construction of national mythologies. Notably, this was at a time when Britain’s imperial and economic influence had dwindled.

The contexts of Brexit, inevitably, provide a backdrop to the more recent films. The Legend of the Sword is a popular retelling in every sense. Ritchie transposes his familiar London “low-life” milieu to the world of the Round Table, with his muscular Arthur a brothel-raised orphan, backed up by a multicultural array of petty thieves and streetfighters. The war here, with his usurping uncle, Vortigern, is more a people’s rebellion. Yet the film still ends with the newly crowned king demanding fealty from the Vikings, while rejecting their demands for British slaves.

Ritchie’s film was greeted in some quarters as a film about Brexit, but it could just as easily be an allegory about the Corbynite “revolution”, if you wanted it to. Yet it does draw on some of the Arthurian fables’ more nationalistic elements. The more dewy aspects of the legends – the Sword and the Stone, the Lady of the lake, Avalon – were recounted by Thomas Malory in 1485 and form the basis of all the most popular Arthurian retellings. Yet these largely obscure the King’s earlier, more militaristic depictions.

The circa 1400 anonymous poem Morte Arthure, for instance, focuses on Arthur’s resistance to paying Roman taxes and his campaign to reassert British dominion in Europe. The poem commemorates national Empire-building, as much as it mocks and scorns “continental” manners and morality. Transposed to our populist era of “hard men” politicians, Ritchie’s brawny Arthur comes with interesting connotations, inadvertently or otherwise.

A very British epic

More to the point, Arthurian films tell us about the cinematic contexts that produced them. Monty Python’s muddy take on the story may take its cues from realist European films such as 1973’s Lancelot du lac – but its cut-price epic style is born of the group having no money to spend: a common issue with British films of the impoverished 1970s. The Holy Grail’s contrast to Hollywood’s widescreen spectacles, such as Knights of the Round Table (1953) or Camelot (1967), is part of its comic point.

Similarly, The Legend of the Sword’s debt is less to contemporary politics and more to the recent traditions of epic film. The film inherits much of its style and narrative tropes from Ridley’s Scott’s Gladiator (2000), the epic that revived the genre, and demonstrated the international appeal of ancient stories.

Made at huge expense by Warner Bros at its Leavesden studios – and with the creative input of Harry Potter producer Lionel Wigram – Ritchie’s movie was itself seen as another global franchise in the making – until it flopped at the box-office. Ironically, then, this fiercely British film is “British” only in a limited sense. Like the Harry Potter films, it exemplifies the globalised nature of cinema: a “local” story financed by multinational capital, shot in a Hollywood-owned British studio and made for worldwide distribution.

Rejuvenating Arthur

By contrast, The Kid Who Would Be King offers a twist to this model. Here, the global genre of the epic is localised and brought down to earth – in this case, by transferring the legend to a modern secondary school, with a cast barely into their teens.

Other recent films have trodden the same ground. Edgar Wright’s 2013 The World’s End (another Working Title production) was a jokey modern take on Arthurian myth, its 12-pint pub crawl – led by fallen leader Gary King – its own legendary Grail quest. It’s also familiar territory for Kid Who Would Be King director Joe Cornish, whose 2011 debut, Attack the Block, banded inner-city youths against an alien invasion, as well as the Metropolitan Police.

This focus on the young in The Kid Who Would Be King is both cinematically welcome and topical in light of the generational schisms and social divisions highlighted and brought about by Brexit – a point highlighted by Cornish himself. By putting Excalibur in the hands of a gawky schoolkid, Cornish’s film offers a lighter-hearted alternative both to epic cinematic follies and delusions of national grandeur.

Joking it may partly be, yet with its allegiances to Britain’s future generation, the film becomes another politically charged return to this most potent national myth.

About Today's Contributor:

Neil Archer, Lecturer in Film Studies, Keele University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

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Autocracies That Look Like Democracies Are A Threat Across The Globe

A rally celebrating the second anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, March 18, 2016. (AP/Ivan Sekretarev)

They’re a special kind of autocratic regime that masquerades as a democracy. And what looks like benevolent conduct by these countries can quickly change into aggressive, politically charged behavior.Russia’s successful interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election may inspire other countries to do the same.

These other countries don’t look threatening. They look like democracies. But they’re not.
Autocracies, often known as “authoritarian regimes,” maintain power through centralized control over information and resources. Political opposition is either forbidden or strongly curtailed and individual freedom is limited by the state.

Autocracies that look like democracies are different because their leaders permit political opponents to run for election – even though they rarely win.

These countries’ capitalist systems have some of the trappings of liberal democracies in the West. But these regimes use capitalism to further their authoritarian rule.

These so-called “dominant party authoritarian regimes” have surged in number from around 13 percent of all countries before the end of the Cold War to around 33 percent today.

Most are located in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. They are also present in Eastern Europe and in the Americas. Russia is one of them; so are Turkey, Malaysia, Singapore and Venezuela.

These regimes often engage in the same kinds of bad behavior as other autocracies. But their behavior is critically different in both the motivations and methods used to further authoritarian ends, as detailed in my new book “Authoritarian Capitalism.”

The Russian military intelligence service building; 12 of its officers hacked into the Clinton presidential campaign. (AP/Pavel Golovkin)

Political control

Part of the danger with dominant party authoritarian regimes is that their veneer of democracy permits political opponents to run for election. But when incumbent rulers face a threat to their power, the autocrats often respond by targeting political dissidents and taking aggressive actions toward foreign enemies to bolster popular support.

For example, Russian leader Vladimir Putin faced an unprecedented challenge from citizen protests during the 2012 presidential election. The protests continued into 2013.

Putin punished the protesters. New York Times correspondent Ellen Barry reported in 2013 that “new laws prescribe draconian punishments for acts of dissent. … Mr. Putin … embraced a new, sharply conservative rhetoric, dismissing the urban protesters as traitors and blasphemers, enemies of Russia.”

Shortly afterward, Russia’s foreign activities became even more belligerent than during the Soviet period. This accomplished just what Putin wanted: Following his annexation of Crimea in 2014, his approval ratings skyrocketed.

Another recent example is Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s repression of domestic political dissidents following the failed July 2016 coup against him. According to The Guardian, the regime arrested or suspended “more than 110,000 officials, including judges, teachers, police and civil servants.”

Erdogan went after foreign-based dissidents too, allegedly orchestrating a plot to kidnap opposition leader Fetullah Gulen from Pennsylvania.

And while he won the presidential election in June 2018, Erdogan’s foreign-based critics remain concerned about his threats. Enes Kanter, a Turkish NBA star, declined to travel to London in January 2019 out of fear that Turkish spies might kill him.

Turkish NBA star Enes Kanter curtails foreign travel for fear of kidnapping by the Turkish government. (AP/Kathy Willens)

Information control

Another distinction that characterizes dominant party authoritarian regimes is how they exploit Western legal and financial systems against Western media outlets critical of the regime.

Normally, autocrats control information and resources to retain power. But rather than relying on the typical autocrat’s crude hostile attacks or outright censorship, dominant party authoritarian regimes use legal or financial methods regarded as legitimate by the West.
In other words, they sue the media or they buy them.

A slew of foreign news organizations – including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and The Economist – were sued by the Lee family, autocratic rulers of Singapore, for political and financial reporting after the 2008 global financial crisis.

The family maintained the coverage defamed them. As the Wall Street Journal’s editors wrote in 2008, “We know of no foreign publication that has ever won in a Singapore court of law. Virtually every Western publication that circulates in the city-state has faced a lawsuit, or the threat of one.”

Malaysian political authorities deployed similar tactics when their rulers felt threatened.
Following the Asian financial crisis of 1997, and in the months leading up to the November 1999 general election, wealthy ruling party supporters in Malaysia filed a flurry of defamation lawsuits against foreign journalists and media organizations, such as the Asian Wall Street 
Journal and Dow Jones.

Russia’s means of pressuring foreign media are slightly different, but they also involve taking advantage of Western legal-financial systems.

Russia has engaged in disinformation campaigns that exploit weaknesses in the West’s freedom of speech protections, as documented by experts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and at the Center for the Study of Democracy.

And Russian companies have acquired sufficiently large ownership stakes in foreign media companies to influence their operations.

This has involved both the manipulation of their coverage and a reduction in media freedoms of the country in which they are located.

For example, Delyan Peevski is a controversial member of the Bulgarian Parliament who advocated for pro-Russian policies. Peevski built and sustained a media empire that controls around 40 percent of Bulgaria’s print sector and 80 percent of the newspaper distribution with loans from a partially Russian-owned bank.

Delyan Peevski, right, the Russian-backed Bulgarian media mogul and politician. (REUTERS/Petko Nalbantov/BGNES)

Resource control

In contrast to firms located in other types of autocracies, state-controlled businesses in dominant party authoritarian regimes often comply with international financial regulations. This helps them gain access to Western countries’ corporate and financial systems.

Under cover of legitimate business operations, their autocratic leaders can pursue political objectives with less scrutiny.

Malaysia’s state-owned investment fund, 1MDB, engaged in aggressive investment tactics with corrupt practices – including “abnormally high payback” for investment bankers – that extended across the globe.

The U.S. accuses former Prime Minister Najib Razak’s family friend of masterminding the theft of US$2 billion from the fund. And its capital was also channeled to politicians and projects to help the ruling party win the 2013 elections.

Russia has also used state-linked companies to gain influence over Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria’s crucial energy sectors via purchases of ownership stakes in listed companies.

This granted the Russian state access to other key sectors of these economies, such as finance and telecommunications. Russia then was able to influence government policies.

In one case, the Serbian government chose not to enforce the European Union’s sanctions against Russia. That was a risk for Serbia, because it has wanted to qualify for European Union membership by 2025.

Even bolder actions occurred with Russia’s interference in the U.S. 2016 presidential election.

Michael McFaul, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia, told the Senate in September 2018 that never before had the Kremlin violated American sovereignty so “illegally, aggressively and audaciously” – even during the high-stakes rivalry of the Cold War.

It is now common knowledge that Russian-controlled agencies and businesses played a strategically vital role in the election interference.

Resisting influence

Can democracies defend themselves against such aggressive regimes?

The “Kremlin Playbook,” written by Heather A. Conley, James Mina, Ruslan Stefanov and Martin Vladimirov, is an extensive study of Russian influence in Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Latvia and Serbia. It provides a detailed list of policy recommendations to resist Russian influence that can be applied to other dominant party authoritarian regimes.

They include strengthening intelligence gathering and cooperation between the U.S. and its allies; increasing U.S. and allied governments’ assistance to vulnerable countries; and stronger protections for and enforcement of transparency measures.

But I believe an important addition to this list is the need to monitor the strength of the ruling party’s hold on power. That’s because aggressive, politically charged activities are most likely to occur when incumbent rulers face an elevated threat.

With its attack on the U.S. 2016 election, Russia showed that it’s possible to interfere destructively in the most powerful Western democracy. I expect that other autocracies that look like democracies will follow suit – across the globe.

About Today's Contributor:

Richard Carney, Professor, China Europe International Business School

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

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EC Comics and Hivemind Bring "Weird Fantasy" to Life with New Film/TV Partnership

WEIRD FANTASY Cover Art by Al Williamson & Frank Frazetta (Courtesy: EC Comics)

Hivemind today announced a new partnership with William M. Gaines Agent, Inc., the proprietors of EC Comics, for a number of film and television projects based on the hugely influential – and often controversial – comic book publisher's groundbreaking legacy and library. One of the first endeavors of the partnership will be WEIRD FANTASY – a new television show inspired by the shocking and subversive sci-fi/fantasy series that collided visionary genre storytelling with socially conscious themes of racial and gender equality, anti-war advocacy, nuclear disarmament and ecological preservation to create some of the most impactful and hotly debated comic book stories ever produced.

"The EC library is a timeless literary achievement that deserves to stand alongside the works of Stephen King, Philip K. Dick, and H.P. Lovecraft," said producer and Hivemind Co-President Dinesh Shamdasani. "WEIRD FANTASY is a truly historic property that shattered many barriers, and our goal is to make the television series just as fearless and forward-thinking as the stories that inspired it."

Changing the industry seemingly overnight in the early 1950s under the stewardship of publisher and writer William M. Gaines, EC Comics quickly became the dominant force of the era's booming comic book industry, selling tens of millions of copies annually and generating intense, nationwide controversies with taboo-smashing, confrontational stories in series like TALES FROM THE CRYPT and MAD MAGAZINE. EC's unique formula eschewed superheroes in favor of science fiction, fantasy, war, horror, and humor – redefining comics storytelling with a newly sophisticated and artist-driven approach that would pave the way for the ascendancy of both Marvel Comics and the counterculture underground in the decades to come.

A lynchpin of the EC line during the publisher's creative watershed, WEIRD FANTASY produced dozens of seminal stories that intersected razor-sharp social commentary with epic science fiction, high adventure and dark fantasy by some of the most celebrated comics creators to ever work in the medium, including Frank Frazetta, Wally Wood, and Harvey Kurtzman. WEIRD FANTASY's defiantly rebellious sensibility is perhaps best exemplified by "Judgment Day" – a history-making story by William M. Gaines, Al Feldstein & Joe Orlando that championed the then-burgeoning Civil Rights movement and provoked a showdown with the Comics Code Authority, the pro-censorship organization that policed and sanitized the comic book industry for more than 50 years.

JUDGMENT DAY & OTHER STORIES Cover Art (Courtesy: EC Comics)

Following in the footsteps of TALES FROM THE CRYPT's smash-hit, seven-season run at HBO (and subsequent three feature films), the newly established partnership represents the first time that WMG Agent Inc. has made WEIRD FANTASY available for adaptation in more than two decades. WEIRD FANTASY's jump to television will mark the beginning of a new era for EC Comics – cited as "one of the great explosions of vox-pop literature" by TIME Magazine and frequently noted as a central influence on the work of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Quentin Tarantino, John Carpenter, and many others.

The new partnership is also slated to include a feature film based on the life of William M. Gaines, the former EC Comics publisher and self-styled comics provocateur who challenged the rigid moral code of 1950s America with shockingly innovative and deeply subversive tales of fantasy, horror and humor that sold in the millions...only to find his company investigated by Congress and his books burned in the streets in the wake of EC's staggering success. Chronicling one of the greatest untold chapters in American history, the film will follow Gaines' transformation from a staid, New York publishing impresario into a counterculture hero, guardian of artistic freedom, and champion of the First Amendment as his darkly humorous journey through the troubled birth of the comic book industry reveals the Red Scare-era witch hunt that nearly doomed an American art form, through the subsequent founding of MAD MAGAZINE and eventual rise of Marvel Comics in EC's wake.

Both projects will be produced by Gaines' daughter and grandson, Cathy Mifsud and Corey Mifsud, for EC, alongside Dinesh Shamdasani, Sean Daniel, Jason F. Brown, and Hunter Gorinson for Hivemind. The projects will mark Gorinson's first for Hivemind, where he also has joined as VP Brand & Content Strategy. Prior to joining Hivemind in mid-2018, Gorinson previously led marketing and communications as an executive at Valiant Entertainment, the acclaimed comic book publisher whose much-publicized relaunch will culminate with the release of Sony Pictures' BLOODSHOT feature film, starring Vin Diesel and adapted from the Valiant comic series by director Dave Wilson and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Eric Heisserer, in early 2020.

"The story of William Gaines is the secret history of American pop culture," said Gorinson. "The ideas he presented in the pages of MAD, TALES FROM THE CRYPT, WEIRD FANTASY, and so many more would inspire and incite revolutionary countercultures – from comics to comedy to film and music – around the globe for decades to come. As a veteran of the comics industry myself and a lifelong fan of EC, it's a tremendous honor to be working alongside the Gaines family to help bring his story – which has an immense amount to tell us about our own modern moment – to a new generation on the big screen." 

"It's very important to us to be able to find a partner that truly understands the significance and influence of Dad and the world-class creators that made EC Comics legendary," said Cathy Mifsud, Gaines' daughter. "We're incredibly excited to have found just such a partner in Hivemind and to embark on the first of several projects that will embrace the company's legacy in ways never before attempted."

WEIRD FANTASY and the untitled Gaines biopic mark two major new additions to Hivemind's rapidly expanding roster of film and television projects, which currently includes THE EXPANSE for Amazon Studios (where it also holds a first-look deal for event television), the highly anticipated adaptation of THE WITCHER starring Henry Cavill for Netflix, and CBS Films' upcoming SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK feature film from producer/co-writer Guillermo del Toroand director André Øvredal. Most recently, the company announced that it had won an intense, multi-party bidding war to bring the hit Image Comics series GIDEON FALLS, by Eisner Award-winning writer Jeff Lemire and artist Andrea Sorrentino, to television as an hour-long horror-drama.

SOURCE: Hivemind

New Film Explores Recent Sightings of Chicago's "Mothman"

Terror in the Skies official poster

Illinois is known for its miles of prairie, and for being a state rich in history… but what if that rich history isn't quite what you've been told? 

In this new film, from award-winning production company, Small Town Monsters, and director, Seth Breedlove, explore hundreds of years of terrifying reports of encounters with massive, winged creatures around the "land of Lincoln". From Alton's man-eating Piasa Bird legends, to recent sightings in Chicago of a creature said to resemble Point Pleasant, West Virginia's infamous "Mothman", Terror in the Skies unlocks a centuries-old mystery.

Journey to the heartland of the midwest in this new documentary which offers a startling, in-depth look at an ongoing phenomenon. The feature-length film was shot around the state of Illinois in September and acts as much as a guide to the constantly changing terrain of the land as it does an introduction to a reality-altering subject. Breedlove contacted numerous witnesses and investigators who claim to have seen massive beings in the sky as recently as last year. One of the most recent, and popular stories to hit major media in recent years has been an ongoing wave of sightings of a red-eyed, shapeless creature dubbed, the "Chicago Mothman"; an event which is also covered in great detail in this film.

Production still from the film

The first trailer for Terror in the Skies gives a brief look at moody footage captured in September, along with glimpses of the winged beings themselves. The film promises to open viewers minds to the possibility that such a thing could exist by way of believable witnesses and fascinating photographic, video and audio evidence. Small Town Monsters made waves in 2017 with their documentary titled The Mothman of Point Pleasant; a film that Terror in the Skies acts as a "spiritual sequel" to and one that will be followed up in 2020 with by the final film in their "Mothman trilogy" titled The Mothman Legacy.

Small Town Monsters is funding Terror in the Skies, as well as a second film (MOMO: The Missouri Monster) through a Kickstarter campaign launching Thursday, February 7th and running through March 9th. The campaign offers backers the opportunity to have their names added to the credits of the films, or have the chance to appear on-camera, alongside posters, apparel, DVD copies of the films and more.

Terror in the Skies is narrated by author, musician and television personality, Lyle Blackburn. It is co-written by Seth Breedlove and Mark Matzke, with cinematography by Zac Palmisano, an original score by Brandon Dalo, and sound design by Jason Utes. SRV Films and Santino Vitale are handling VFX and the film contains original illustrations by Matt Harris and Brian Serway. The film is produced by Seth and Adrienne Breedlove. Authors, Loren Coleman and Troy Taylor are featured alongside numerous others.

The Trailer:

SOURCE: Small Town Monsters

What 'Into The Spider-Verse' Can Teach Us About Resilience

Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), Peter Parker (Jake Johnson), and Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage) in ‘Spider Man: Into the Spider-Verse.’ (Sony Pictures Animation)

What can the movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse teach us about child development?

All stories and fairy tales contain symbols and archetypes. These are what make stories universal and relatable to everyone. Such symbols and archetypes can represent human conflicts, struggles or experiences we have or may encounter — such as trauma and loss.
Stories provide us with options for how to deal with the adversity we face. They provide a way of experiencing how things could be resolved and show us that we are not alone in how we feel or experience events.

The film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse helps us to learn the importance of relying on people and fighting through life’s adversity to save ourselves and the world.

Miles Morales played by Shameik Moore in ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.’ (Sony Pictures Animation)

Resilience is the process of adapting to adversity, the ability to bounce back after difficult experiences throughout life. It helps children manage stress and feelings of anxiety and uncertainty — think of it as a balancing scale, with protective or positive experiences and coping skills on one side and adversity or negative experiences on the other.

Resilience is evident when the scale tips to the positive experiences even when there is a heavy load on adversity.

Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse shares this message of resilience, frequently encouraging the main character, Miles Morales, to get up and keep fighting. In one scene, Peter Parker tells Miles:

“No matter how many hits I take, I always find a way to come back.”

The theme of bouncing back and continuing the fight is consistent throughout the film.
As viewers watching the film, we find ourselves rooting for a teenage boy who has newly developed superhero abilities and is struggling to become a hero: Spiderman.

Strong together

The story is about the Spider-heroes throughout the multiverse who come together to help Miles Morales learn how to be a hero, to be himself, to fight through the pain, loss and tragedy.

It’s a reminder that we are not on our own and that we need each other; we are stronger together. It reminds us of the importance of connection, relationships and asking for help.
Relationships help children develop the ability to monitor, plan and regulate behaviour as well as adapt to changes which help children respond to adversity.

Miles Morales searches for the support of loved ones. His mom supports him, while reminding him:

“Our family doesn’t run from things.”

Research indicates the most common factor for children who do well after experiencing a trauma or stressful time is to have the support of at least one loving and committed relationship, such as with a parent.

Such relationships are the most important factor in building resilience. They protect children from negative outcomes by providing a loving, personalized response while helping the child understand and manage their feelings.

Important relationships help Miles cope and discover who he is and his capabilities. Peter’s friend Gwen Stacy tells Miles:

“I know how hard it is to have to figure this stuff out on your own. It’s kind of nice not being the only Spider person around.” 

“We are probably the only ones who… understand.”

And Uncle Aaron says:

“You are the best of all of us, Miles.”

Relationships help children develop the ability to monitor, plan and regulate behaviour as well as adapt to changes.

This process is a critical aspect of learning to cope with manageable threats. The movie tells us we cannot do that all on our own.

Peter Parker serves as Miles Morales’s reluctant mentor. (Sony Pictures Animation)

Miles’s dad speaks to him through a closed door and says:

“I see this…this spark in you. It’s amazing, it’s why I push you.”

But Miles’s father also tells Miles the spark is his and whatever he chooses to do with it, he’ll be great. Then he tells him:

“I love you… You don’t have to say it back though.”

These are important lessons for children and parents.

When adversity or stress feels overwhelming to the child and the parent is not available, the stress can feel toxic and create an opportunity for more negative outcomes.

This movie is a great reminder that not all stress or adversity is harmful.

Takeaway tips

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse provides important tips for helping children develop resilience:

1. Make connections: Create a strong family network and teach your child how to be a friend and make friends. This will help deal with stress.
2. Help your child remember they are not alone and others may feel as they do at times. This is important for trusting others and developing empathy.
3. Teach children how to move towards goals: focus on accomplishments rather than failures. Break down the desired outcome into smaller achievable goals and support your child in seeing them through.
4. Nurture a positive self-view and keep things in perspective: in this way, a child learns to trust their ideas, solve problems and make appropriate decisions, to understand past challenges, to build strength to handle future challenges.
5. Look for opportunities for self-discovery: tough times are often when children learn the most about themselves. Help your child look at what they can learn from whatever they are facing.

The movie ends with a quote from Stan Lee:

“That person who helps others simply because it should or must be done, and because it is the right thing to do, is indeed, without a doubt, a real superhero.”

It’s a beautiful message reminding us the importance of resilience and connection with others. These are two key factors in childhood development that will help our future generations become healthy and productive citizens — and save the world.

About Today's Contributor:

Nikki Martyn, Program Head of Early Childhood Studies, University of Guelph-Humber

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

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Marvel Studios' First Female-Lead Super Hero Captain Marvel Takes To The Skies With Alaska Airlines

Ahead of the highly-anticipated release of Marvel Studios' Captain Marvel on March 8, International Women's Day, Alaska Airlines unveiled a special-edition plane today, featuring Marvel Studios' first female Super Hero lead. The Captain Marvel-themed plane was debuted today at Sea-Tac International Airport at a gate celebration for guests flying to Orange County, California.

"This new plane featuring Captain Marvel will delight guests of all ages," said Natalie Bowman, Alaska Airlines' managing director of marketing and advertising. "We're excited to showcase a pilot who's risen to Super Hero status––an image that embodies strength and confidence and inspires future aviators across our expansive network to go further."

Decked out in a stunning red and navy suit, Captain Marvel is taking flight and commands the attention she deserves as a female pilot who acquired special powers to fight for the greater good. Guests boarding the Captain Marvel-themed plane will see a film logo when they board. An image of a cat named Goose from the film, will surprise guests seated over the wings.

"Our collaboration with Alaska Airlines is taking our fans 'Higher, Further, Faster' with this amazing opportunity to fly with our fearless Super Hero and pilot, Captain Marvel," said Mindy Hamilton, SVP of Global Partnerships for Marvel. "We are so excited that our fans will be accompanied by Carol Danvers on their next adventure."

The Captain Marvel-themed 737-800, tail number N531AS, begins flying throughout Alaska's route network today. With a cruising speed of 530 mph and sporting a larger-than-life image of the movie's namesake Captain Marvel, the plane will visit fans throughout the country via cross-country routes and flights to Hawaii.

⏩ Marvel Studios fans can follow Alaska Airlines on Twitter and on Facebook to learn about the promotions related to the new film. From Feb. 6-9, Alaska Airlines social fans and followers can enter for a chance to win one pair of tickets to the premiere of Marvel Studios' Captain Marvel, including roundtrip airfare and hotel accommodations for two in Los Angeles. Terms and conditions are available online.

About Marvel Studios' Captain Marvel:

Set in the 1990s, Marvel Studios' "Captain Marvel" is an all-new adventure from a previously unseen period in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that follows the journey of Carol Danvers as she becomes one of the universe's most powerful heroes. While a galactic war between two alien races reaches Earth, Danvers finds herself and a small cadre of allies at the center of the maelstrom.

The film stars Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan, Rune Temte, Algenis Perez Soto, Mckenna Grace, with Annette Bening, with Clark Gregg, and Jude Law.

Marvel Studios' "Captain Marvel" is produced by Kevin Feige and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Jonathan Schwartz, Patricia Whitcher and Stan Lee are the executive producers. 

The story is by Nicole Perlman & Meg LeFauve and Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck & Geneva Robertson-Dworet, and the screenplay is by Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck & Geneva Robertson-Dworet. 

Captain Marvel - Poster

⏩ "Captain Marvel" opens on March 8, 2019 in U.S. theaters.

SOURCE: Alaska Airlines

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Disasters And Disagreements: Climate Change Collides With Trump's Border Wall

U.S. President Donald Trump is seen visiting the California town of Paradise that was devastated by forest fires. Trump has threatened to use funds allocated for disaster relief to pay for his border wall. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Recent news surrounding climate change and its consequences has been grim lately.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body tasked with providing governments with the most accurate and up-to-date scientific information upon which they can frame their policy-making, released a special report in October 2018. It called for a rapid net reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2030.

This means there are fewer than 12 years remaining for these changes to be accomplished globally.

Compounding these dire warnings are the potential consequences for severe catastrophic events as they unfold in a turbulent global environment, both physically and politically.

The Trump administration’s recent release of the Fourth National Climate Assessment demonstrates just how costly climate change and catastrophic events will be for the United States in the future.

Yet the administration and even President Donald Trump himself deny the existence and effects of climate change, including during increasingly severe events.

In the beautiful Midwest, windchill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded. In coming days, expected to get even colder. People can’t last outside even for minutes. What the hell is going on with Global Waming? Please come back fast, we need you!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2019

But others are taking the consequences of climate change seriously, including the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), which has been actively increasing its resilience. The DoD views climate change as a “threat multiplier” and has been working to integrate adaptation measures into its plans, operations and training both internally and in conjunction with external partners.

Within this context, Trump’s recent government shutdown and the intractable disagreement over the border wall is misguided in the most charitable of terms.

Funding the wall with disaster relief money

While the crisis over the shutdown appears to be over, at least for now, Trump has threatened to fund his border wall by taking money allocated for disaster relief and reconstruction. This includes $2.4 billion for California in the aftermath of its devastating wildfires and $2.5 billion to assist Puerto Rico’s recovery from Hurricane Maria.

Trump’s rhetoric around the allocation of disaster relief funds, along with other disaster-related subjects, including death tolls, reveals just how easily disasters are politicized. They’re used for political gain almost always at the expense of those most vulnerable.

⏩ Read more: Politics and paper towels: Disputing disaster death tolls

That’s because politicians make politically expedient choices — in this case over funding a border wall — ahead of those that actually protect the security and safety of citizens in ongoing and future disasters.

Most importantly, Trump’s threats illustrate why our discourse surrounding climate change and catastrophic events matters, and why it needs to change in order to reduce the impact of future disasters.

Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forest fires that, with proper Forest Management, would never happen. Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered FEMA to send no more money. It is a disgraceful situation in lives & money!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2019

Mainstream narratives of disasters present them as isolated events in both space and time, distinct from our everyday relationship with nature, and possessing a definite beginning, middle and end. These narratives generally focus on the physical hazard itself as opposed to the preconditions that actually result in disaster.

‘Just a temporary crisis’

When the flood or hurricane or forest fire is over, the thinking goes, our normal relationship with nature resumes until the next crisis occurs.

This framing of disasters, and the policy prescriptions that follow from it, was first identified by Kenneth Hewitt in his 1983 work Interpretations of Calamity from the Viewpoint of Human Ecology.

Hewitt’s observations about this mainstream framing — he called it the “dominant view” of disasters — was pivotal in the field of disaster studies.

Scholars in the field, including Hewitt himself, started to argue for an expansive understanding of disasters that recognized the underlying aspects that determine the vulnerability of a community to specific hazards and risks, whether they’re natural or technological.

Disasters are deeply connected to the economic, political and social factors that make people particularly vulnerable to them. While it’s convenient, for the purposes of media coverage or politicians, to understand them as having definitive beginnings, middles,, and ends, scholars have pointed out that viewing them this way is extremely problematic.

In this August 2017 photo, Demetres Fair holds a towel over his daughter, Damouri Fair, as they are rescued following Hurricane Harvey. The impact of disasters are economic, political and social. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

Trump’s threat to raid funds allocated in the aftermath of 2018’s devastating disasters is part of these narratives. It must be understood as an explicitly political choice that negatively impedes the recovery of those communities for whom the funds were originally allocated. Making this choice would ultimately increase the vulnerability of those communities to future disasters.

Understanding the consequences of Trump’s threats to reallocate funding to his border wall makes the political aspects of disasters more visible, especially when framed by the effects of climate change and its consequences.

Disasters are not isolated and distinct events but rather ongoing processes. A better understanding of the relationship between disasters and their underlying causes encourages politicians to take steps to reduce vulnerability, both through the better allocation of funds for disaster mitigation, as well as by supporting social and economic development programs for vulnerable populations.

In my own work, I have called for an explicit understanding of disasters as a form of violence, and recent events have helped exemplify the necessity to reframe our understanding of disasters in an intentionally political way.

Trump’s threats to the citizens of California and Puerto Rico over his wall make the plight of the vulnerable visible and the political nature of disasters explicit. By challenging how we perceive and understand disasters, we can change the discussions surrounding them and pressure politicians to move away from making politically expedient choices at the expense of the vulnerable.

About Today's Contributor:

Korey Pasch, PhD Candidate in Political Science and International Relations, Queen's University, Ontario

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.