Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
..
as possible, even if Women and children who fled the last Islamic State-held village, Baghuz, waiting to be screened by Kurdish and coalition forces in Deir al-Zour Province, Syria. who was responsible.
Washington has The Saudi government has denied
helped orchestrate much of what has that the young prince played any role in
occurred in recent weeks. Still, many in the killing, and President Trump has
Latin America and Europe believe that
no matter how lowkey Washington
keeps its presence, its motives are
questionable. If Mr. Trump is in, every
one else should be out, they say. The
Fleeing ISIS’ final village publicly shown little interest in trying to
get the facts about who was responsible.
Prince Mohammed, the next in line to
the Saudi throne behind his ailing father,
King Salman, has become the de facto
skepticism is understandable consider have to be carried to this open vista on New York — a little more than a square foreigners, especially Iraqis who lived ruler of Saudi Arabia and a close ally of
DEIR AL-ZOUR PROVINCE, SYRIA
ing the United States’ track record in mattresses to surrender to the Ameri mile. under the Islamic State, also known as the Trump White House — especially
Latin America from Guatemala in the canbacked coalition. To the west, they are hemmed in by ISIS, before fleeing to this corner of Jared Kushner, the president’s sonin
1950s to Honduras in the 2000s. By midmorning, United States Spe Syrian government forces. To the south southeastern Syria when Iraq’s cities law and senior adviser.
If Mr. Maduro leaves office, it will be Desperate and often hurt, cial Operations Forces arrive in a con is the Iraqi border, where Iraqi troops were liberated. But among the escapees The conversation appears to have
thanks to the hundreds of thousands of
Venezuelans who took to the streets
families and fighters are voy of armored vehicles. The men sus
pected of being Islamic State fighters
are holding the line. From the north and
east, they are being fought by an Ameri
who arrived in recent days are also Ger
mans, French, Britons, Swedes and Rus
been recently transcribed and analyzed
as part of an effort by intelligence agen
risking their lives, to the military offi surrendering in Syria are ordered to approach in single file, canbacked Kurdish and Arab militia sians, a testament to the group’s broad cies to find proof of who was responsible
cers who refused to fire on them, the their arms outstretched, as they are known as the Syrian Democratic appeal, which lured some 40,000 re for Mr. Khashoggi’s death. The National
Latin American governments who for BY RUKMINI CALLIMACHI
searched by troops and a sniffer dog. Forces. cruits from 100 countries to its nascent Security Agency and other American
the past year and a half have been push AND IVOR PRICKETT Then they are fingerprinted, pho As the noose has tightened, even state. spy agencies are now sifting through
ing for this, and to the countries in the tographed and interviewed. those who joined the caliphate in its ear Recently, American troops walked be years of the prince’s voice and text com
European Union that also want Mr. The men who emerge from the Islamic In the past two weeks, thousands of liest days are trying to save themselves. tween the new arrivals with a handheld munications that the National Security
Maduro gone. The United States is one State’s last sliver of land are ordered to people have been streaming out of the Most of those who have made it to this screen, asking questions. Those who Agency routinely intercepted and
factor, but not a decisive one. sit behind one of two orange lines spray Syrian village of Baghuz, the last speck spot in the desert in recent days are the had governmentissued IDs were told to stored, much as the agency has long
Some polls suggest that a majority of painted on the rocky desert floor: Syr of land under Islamic State control in families of the militants — their multiple hand them over. Their documents were done for other top foreign officials, in
Venezuelans would welcome an Ameri ians behind one and Iraqis behind the Iraq and Syria, an area where the group wives and numerous children — with placed in plastic pouches and hung with cluding close allies of the United States.
can military intervention to remove Mr. other. once ruled a dominion the size of Britain. only a small number of locals originally lanyards around the necks of the detain For the past several months, the Na
CASTAÑEDA, PAGE 11 The women, wearing facecovering That selfproclaimed state is all but from the area mixed in, Kurdish officials ees. tional Security Agency has circulated
veils and clutching toddlers, huddle in a gone. In the last few weeks, the group said. They were sorted by sex and national intelligence reports to other spy agen
The New York Times publishes opinion different spot, also separated by nation went from holding three villages to two Out of food, the families say they have ity, with foreign men presumed to be Is cies, the White House and close foreign
from a wide range of perspectives in ality. to just one. been reduced to boiling a weed that lamic State members. allies about the prince’s communica
hopes of promoting constructive debate Several of the escapees are so badly The militants are now trapped in an grows in highway medians. Some of the suspected fighters were tions. The reports were described by
about consequential questions. wounded by incoming fire that they area about the size of Central Park in Large numbers of the escapees are SYRIA, PAGE 4 SAUDI ARABIA, PAGE 4
Y(1J85IC*KKNPKP( +]!"!$!z!.
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2 | SATURDAY-SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9-10, 2019 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION
page two
World
Russia’s sparkling shrine to a reviled leader
much of Mr. Yeltsin’s legacy, particu
RUSSIA DISPATCH
YEKATERINBURG, RUSSIA larly in politics, he came to power
thanks to Mr. Yeltsin.
“Putin owes Yeltsin everything,” Mr.
Museum about Yeltsin Roizman said.
also serves as a subtle Mr. Putin, who has always placed a
premium on loyalty, never attacks Mr.
rebuke of his successor Yeltsin personally. But he has given
state news media outlets free rein to at
BY ANDREW HIGGINS tack his predecessor’s legacy with
gusto.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia Mr. Yeltsin, who was born near Yeka
has reviled the 1990s as a period of cha terinburg and governed the city as the
os, crime and “total poverty” that “no Communist Party boss in the 1970s, died
body wants to ever see return.” in 2007 at age 76.
Kremlincontrolled news media out But he still looms large in Russia,
lets regularly criticize what they call even if mostly as a punching bag for Mr.
“the wild ’90s” as a time of personal hu Putin’s cheerleaders on state television
miliation and shameful national weak and as a hate figure for many ordinary
ness. Russians, who blame him for the demise
All the abuse, however, has been an of the Soviet empire and for plunging
unexpected boon to the Boris Yeltsin the country into poverty and disorder.
Presidential Center, a shimmering Mr. Putin often plays on public nostal
shrine on the edge of Siberia to Mr. gia for the Soviet Union and regularly
Putin’s reviled predecessor and his tur boasts of ending the economic misery
bulent years in power, from the 1991 col and political chaos of the 1990s. The cen
lapse of the Soviet Union to the end of ter, though, offers a starkly different
1999. “I am glad they are constantly crit view of the past.
icizing the ’90s,” said Alexandr Drozdov, It greets visitors with an animated
the executive director of a private foun film celebrating Mr. Yeltsin as Russia’s
dation that oversees the Yeltsin center, a first leader in more than a millennium to
museum and archive complex dedi break a grim cycle of bloody tyranny
cated to Russia’s first elected president, punctuated by brief spurts of failed re
who, at least according to opinion polls, form.
remains widely loathed after his death. In addition to the permanent exhibi
“I tell them, ‘Keep criticizing. Please tion feting Mr. Yeltsin and the freedoms
don’t stop.’” he introduced, it also hosts seminars,
The torrents of scorn poured on Mr. debates and cultural events that stray
Yeltsin and his era by the Kremlin’s far from the monochrome, muscular pa
cheerleaders have given the complex an triotism promoted by the Culture Min
edgy appeal, helping it attract more istry in Moscow.
than 700,000 visitors since it opened As Mr. Putin’s rule, now already twice
three winters ago. as long as Mr. Yeltsin’s, drags on, grim
It has become perhaps Russia’s most memories of the 1990s are perhaps
popular and certainly its most lavishly PHOTOGRAPHS BY KSENIA IVANOVA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES brightening a bit as faith in Russia’s cur
equipped outpost of alternative history The main hall at the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center, an homage to the former Russian president in Yekaterinburg, Russia, the city where Mr. Yeltsin lived for much of his life. rent course dips.
and againstthegrain thinking. Nikita Shitov, a Yekaterinburg resi
On the surface, the complex — set dent who set up a small business in the
next to a lake in the center of Yekaterin “a museum of Yeltsin’s crimes.” (A Mus The silence about Russia’s oligarchs is Yeltsin years and then watched rapa
burg, the industrial city where Mr. Yel lim cleric close to the Kremlin has sug perhaps explained by a list of donors at cious officials destroy it after Mr. Putin
tsin lived for much of his life and where gested that it be simply blown up.) the entrance. came to power, said the 1990s were often
Czar Nicholas II and his family were “Putin’s P.R. team has reduced every It includes billionaire tycoons like chaotic “but the state did not crawl into
murdered by the Bolsheviks — is a thing to the contrast between images of Oleg Deripaska and Roman Abramo our lives like it does now.”
showcase for how Russia has changed a young, dynamic Putin and an old, alco vich, both of whom made their fortunes That the Russian public is not entirely
for the better under Mr. Putin. holic Yeltsin,” said Yevgeny V. Roizman, in the 1990s. convinced by the image on state televi
It is shiny and modern, efficiently run a Kremlin critic who resigned last sum Also named as a donor, curiously, is sion of Mr. Putin as the nation’s savior is
and brimming with hightech flourishes. mer as the elected mayor of Yekaterin Mr. Putin, who attended the opening of clear in the often empty halls at a rival
But at its core, the complex is a burg in protest at the abolition of may the museum, along with Mr. Yeltsin’s museum in Yekaterinburg, where an ex
mournful requiem for the many things oral elections in the city. widow, Naina. hibition on “Russia: My History” gives a
lost since Mr. Yeltsin stepped down on “Many people don’t really know what highly nationalistic recounting of the
Dec. 31, 1999, and handed power to his happened in the 1990s,” the former may past.
chosen successor, Mr. Putin, with the or said. “They simply don’t understand The torrents of scorn poured It presents the 1990s as a period of un
words: “Take care of Russia.” what Yeltsin did and why.” on Mr. Yeltsin by the Kremlin’s relieved misery and Mr. Putin’s time in
Mr. Yeltsin, said Mr. Drozdov, “would “They blame Yeltsin for destroying cheerleaders have given the office as an era of prosperity and na
be very disappointed” had he lived to the Soviet Union,” he continued, “but no tional rebirth.
see where Mr. Putin has taken the coun body destroyed it. The Soviet Union fell
complex an edgy appeal. Despite being heavily promoted by
try. “He would cry.” apart of its own accord because it could state media outlets, the museum was
One exhibit features puppets from a not support itself ideologically or eco In a stiff speech, Mr. Putin said the empty of visitors recently except for
satirical television show that, in the nomically. It simply collapsed.” museum told “the honest story of what schoolchildren on a field trip.
1990s, skewered Mr. Yeltsin and his offi The center’s goal, said Dina Sorokina, was done in a difficult time.” The denunciations of Mr. Yeltsin have
cials mercilessly. The show was can The museum has attracted more than 700,000 visitors since it opened. At its core, the the museum director who is a graduate Mr. Drozdov recalled that the presi only helped keep up public interest.
celed by Mr. Putin, who took umbrage at complex is a mournful requiem for the many things lost since Mr. Yeltsin stepped down. of New York University, is not to white dent strolled through exhibit halls cele Andrei Pirashkov, a 23yearold com
his representation by an ugly, dwarfish wash Mr. Yeltsin, though it does largely brating lost freedoms “without a hint of munist who was elected last year to the
puppet. ignore some of the more odious features emotion on his face.” City Council in Yekaterinburg, said he
The once private television station flawed, hero who rallied resistance to an remember him as at best a vodka of his rule, notably the emergence of so “He was like a mummy,” Mr. Drozdov was no fan of Mr. Yeltsin but often vis
that broadcast the weekly show, NTV, is August 1991 putsch by Communist Party soaked buffoon and at worst a traitor called oligarchs through corrupt privati said. ited the center for its lively seminars
now controlled by the state and serves hardliners, broke the back of the Soviet working for the West. zation deals. The Kremlin’s blessing for the project, and public debates.
as a bullhorn for Kremlin propaganda. Union, introduced capitalism and gave They want the complex shut down, or “The goal is not hagiography but an said Mr. Roizman, the former mayor, “I am against making a personality
Westernoriented liberals mostly birth to Russia as a free and democratic at least altered to create what Ilya Be attempt to understand that time and flowed from a contradiction at the heart cult around Yeltsin,” Mr. Pirashkov said,
view Mr. Yeltsin as a brave, if deeply nation. Nationalists and leftists, though, lous, a noisy local critic, thinks should be also where we are now,” she said. of Mr. Putin’s rule. While he has undone “But the real issue now is Putin.”
world
Fleeing ISIS’ final village the ouster of his predecessor, Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Nayef.
In late 2017, Prince Mohammed or
dered hundreds of influential business
men and Saudi royals — some whom
prince caught in the intercepts, until re
cently was the general manager of the
Saudiowned Al Arabiya television net
work. He is an influential media figure in
the kingdom and a prominent adviser to
SYRIA, FROM PAGE 1 had been considered contenders to the the prince.
taken to prison. The majority, including throne — locked up at the RitzCarlton
all the women and children, were told hotel in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, where
they would be bused to one of several they were interrogated. Prince Mohammed said that
detention camps in northern Syria. Days before the conversation with Mr. Jamal Khashoggi’s articles and
After a lightning advance last month, Aldakhil, according to the same intelli Twitter posts were tarnishing the
the military operation to take Baghuz gence report, Prince Mohammed com
has stalled as commanders negotiate an plained to another aide — Saud alQah
prince’s image.
end to the siege with the Islamic State, tani — that Mr. Khashoggi had grown
according to three American officials too influential. Prince Mohammed said During the September 2017 conversa
and two militia commanders. that Mr. Khashoggi’s articles and Twit tion, according to intelligence reports,
Journalists taken earlier this month ter posts were tarnishing the prince’s Mr. Aldakhil spoke to Prince Moham
to the front, the socalled zero line, image as a forwardthinking reformer, med about luring Mr. Khashoggi back to
marked by a berm about 300 yards from and the criticism was more cutting be Saudi Arabia with the possibility of a job
the first Islamic State position, found cause it was coming from a journalist at Al Arabiya. The prince was skeptical
soldiers drinking tea and watching vid who had once been seen as supportive of that Mr. Khashoggi would accept the of
eos. Gun positions were unmanned, as if his agenda. fer. Last month, Mr. Aldakhil left his post
a ceasefire were in effect. When Mr. alQahtani said that any at the network. Saudi news sites have
At stake in the negotiations is the fate move against Mr. Khashoggi would be reported that he is expected to be
of several dozen of the militia’s troops risky and could create an international named the next Saudi ambassador to
who were captured by the Islamic State uproar, his boss scolded him: Saudi Ara the United Arab Emirates.
during a counteroffensive last fall. The bia should not care about international American officials said there was no
group released a video showing one of reaction to how it handles its own citi evidence that Mr. Aldakhil had knowl
the militiamen being beheaded. zens, the prince told Mr. alQahtani. edge of a specific plan to capture or kill
Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the Prince Mohammed also told Mr. al Mr. Khashoggi, and his name has never
Syrian Democratic Forces, said that Is Qahtani, according to an official who has been among the suspects in the killing.
lamic State representatives had asked read the report, that he “did not like half In the weeks after Mr. Khashoggi’s
for safe passage but that the request had measures — he never liked them and did death, classified evidence piled up that
been rejected. not believe in them.” senior Saudi royals approved the
“We will fight every last one,” he said. Days after this conversation and the Khashoggi operation, even as American
But American officials said that safe one about the bullet, Mr. Khashoggi officials insisted that there was no
passage to the Syrian province of Idlib wrote his first column for The Washing “smoking gun” directly tying the prince
was still on the table, and a militia com ton Post: “Saudi Arabia Wasn’t Always to it. The narrative from the Saudi royal
mander said the group was asking for a This Repressive. Now It’s Unbearable.” court changed repeatedly, and the Saudi
truck of food. A young girl, who has fled the last area of Islamic State control, at a screening area near Baghuz. It was a withering attack on Prince Mo government has been determined to in
The officials spoke on the condition of hammed’s crackdown inside the king sulate the powerful prince from blame.
anonymity to discuss sensitive details. dom. Most recently, Saudi officials have
Negotiating with the Islamic State is rived. Her family could do little beyond “I have left my home, my family and said that the operation was a kidnap
controversial, but it has happened at nu covering her with a blanket. my job, and I am raising my voice,” Mr. ping gone awry — that the team had
merous points throughout the now more A schoolgirl from Turkey, the daugh Khashoggi wrote. “To do otherwise been sent to Istanbul to forcibly bring
than fouryearold battle to dislodge ter of an Islamic State family, was sitting would betray those who languish in pris Mr. Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia but
them from the territory they once held wrapped in a blanket, unable to stand on. I can speak when so many cannot.” made the decision to kill him after he re
in Iraq and Syria. According to local se because of her injuries from a mortar Spokesmen for the National Security fused to cooperate. Saudi officials have
curity forces, the deals, including pris round. And a 6yearold boy was rushed Agency and the C.I.A. declined to com said that Prince Mohammed had no
oner exchanges, have saved civilians to a first aid station staffed by a group of ment. In a statement, Mr. Aldakhil said, knowledge of the operation.
and infrastructure from a destructive recently arrived American aid workers. “These allegations are categorically In the latest indication that the inter
bombing campaign. “He’s not going to make it. His pulse is false. They appear to be a continuation national uproar over Mr. Khashoggi’s
too low,” warned one of the paramedics, of various efforts by different parties to killing will continue, a United Nations
Jason Torlano of Yosemite, Calif., a connect His Royal Highness Crown investigator released a preliminary re
She said that she was from member of an aid group called the Free Prince Mohammed bin Salman to this port on Thursday that concluded that
Aleppo and that her husband Burma Rangers. The boy began trem horrific crime. These efforts will prove Mr. Khashoggi “was the victim of a bru
had been killed, but she denied bling and whimpering in pain, straining futile.” tal and premeditated killing, planned
from wounds to his head, arm and leg. On Thursday, a Saudi official issued a and perpetrated by officials of the State
being part of the Islamic State. The medics wrapped him in a heated statement saying: “We again deny any of Saudi Arabia.”
blanket and tried to find a vein to start involvement on the part of the crown
While Baghuz is the last vestige of the an IV drip, the bag of fluid taped to the prince in the heinous murder of Jamal Reporting was contributed by Ben Hub-
Islamic State’s caliphate in the region hood of a Toyota Land Cruiser. “Hey, Khashoggi. The Kingdom of Saudi Ara bard from Beirut, Lebanon; Julian E.
where it was born, the caliphate was al buddy,” the aid worker said, as the boy bia is moving forward with its investiga Barnes and Thomas Gibbons-Neff from
ways a global project, with 16 of its 35 began to lose consciousness. “Stay with tion and has already indicted a number Washington; and David D. Kirkpatrick
“provinces” outside Iraq and Syria. Sev me.” of officials linked to the crime. We are fo from London.
eral of those overseas affiliates are Above, men who were caught fleeing the village are detained, separated by nationality, His mother stood nearby, repeatedly
flourishing, including those in the Phil and questioned about links to the Islamic State. Below, a 6-year-old boy being treated lifting the black fabric covering her face
ippines and Nigeria. Three reports is for multiple injuries by an American aid group known as the Free Burma Rangers. to wipe her eyes with a piece of Kleenex.
sued last year estimated that the group She said that she was from Aleppo
still had between 20,000 and 30,000 and that her husband had been killed in
fighters just in Iraq and Syria, where an airstrike, but she denied being part of
they continue to mount attacks. the Islamic State.
One of the women who turned herself Security forces from the Kurdish mili
in was surrendering for the second time. tia said that they considered her and the
The woman, Amal Mohammed al majority of the others who have arrived
Soussi, 22, arrived in the desert clutch to be the wives and children of Islamic
ing the hands of her two toddlers. State members: Why else, they said,
She said that after her husband, an Is would a woman and a child who are not
lamic State sniper, was killed during the natives of the area make their way into
battle for Raqqa in 2017, she surren an active war zone?
dered to the militia and was held in a de Using a stethoscope, the aid worker
tention camp for eight months. listened to the little boy’s lungs. “He’s
Then one day, she and dozens of other drowning. We need to go,” Mr. Torlano
Islamic State wives were loaded into said, and bundled him into a car.
trucks and driven into the desert, where That afternoon, security forces dug a
they were handed back to the Islamic grave for the young woman at the edge
State. “They told us to get out and said, of the rocky ground where the arrivals
‘Now you are in your state,’” she said. were being processed. SERGIO MORAES/REUTERS
“We understood that a prisoner ex There was only one person there from Intercepted conversations revealed evidence that the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed
change had occurred.” her family, a cousin. He helped lower her bin Salman, considered killing Jamal Khashoggi long before his death in Istanbul.
She said that she had been a commit body into the grave, uncovering her face
ted citizen of the caliphate, but that just long enough to turn it toward
hunger had forced her to surrender. For Mecca. CORRECTIONS
weeks, she said, she and her daughters The increasing peril that the Islamic held up as she hopped to the spot where The men digging her grave lifted their
subsisted on animal feed. Another wom State’s own families were subjected to other women were waiting to be palms skyward in a fivesecond prayer. • A map with an article on Wednesday • An article on Feb. 1 about David and
an spoke of scavenging for a plant that was evident in the number of people screened. An older man collapsed on a Next to the freshly dug mound were about fluctuations in the location of Natalie Bauman, who own rarebook
grows in the crevices between houses who showed up every day with injuries. mattress, suffering from a back injury. A three more, one of them just three feet Earth’s north magnetic pole misspelled stores, misstated the name of a hotel ad
and in traffic circles, which she boiled One woman, her leg torn by shrapnel, woman in her 20s made it to the process long, the resting place of others who had the name of an island. It is Ellesmere Is joining the Grand Canal Shoppes in Las
and forced herself to eat. was lifted from an arriving truck and ing point, only to die soon after she ar not survived the caliphate. land, not Ellsmere. Vegas. It is the Palazzo, not the Palace.
..
THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION SATURDAY-SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9-10, 2019 | 5
world
DAVE ACREE/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCK ANDREW RANKIN/AAP IMAGE, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS DAN PELED/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCK
In one week, Townsville, Australia, received more rain than the city normally receives Taking residents through the floodwaters in Townsville. Two people died, 1,000 people Evacuees in a community center in Bluewater, Australia, near Townsville. The rainfall
in a year. At least $74 million in insurance claims have been filed. were evacuated, and 18,000 residents lost power in the disaster. brought crocodiles into the streets and sewage bubbling up out of toilets in Townsville.
world
Business
Blocked but bustling in China
SHENZHEN, CHINA
nesebased advertisers reached an esti In Shenzhen, the sales floor of Meet Social, a Facebook partner, works as a sort of corporate embassy for the American tech giant. The center is host to prospective clients who wish to reach Facebook users outside China.
mated $5 billion in 2018, or about 10 per
cent of its total sales, according to Piv
otal Research Group. That would be count on Facebook. To do so, it uses a across the Great Firewall can be tricky.
enough to rank Facebook somewhere service provided by a staterun telecom Ben Liu, 35, an entrepreneur and a
around the seventhlargest listed inter munications company to legally bypass former Alibaba employee, said the Face
net company in China. the internet filters. book page he had set up for his electric
The experience center is also a Meet Social’s clients include start skateboard company, Maxfind, was
strange testament to the borders that ups, game companies and big brands blocked in 2017 by the social network.
China has drawn across the internet. like China Southern Airlines, Mr. Shen He suspects that his employees signed
With its “Great Firewall” of internet fil added. His company also runs the Face in and out of the company’s Facebook
ters that Beijing used to block Facebook book pages of some large Chinese account from personal accounts, and all
in 2009, the Chinese government has cut brands, helping to increase engagement of that activity caused the company’s
the digital abstractions of a global infor and to make ads that international audi page to be flagged as suspicious.
mation network along geographic lines. ences understand. Now Mr. Liu uses a Facebook agent
That has necessitated Facebook’s cre The choice of venue for the experi similar to Meet Social. Maxfind spends
ation of the center, where Chinese who ence center appears deliberate. It is part around $100 to $200 a day on Facebook
have hardly any experience with the so of a governmentrun technology exhibi and has considered shelling out more for
cial network can learn about it and fig tion, where several major tech firms an American ad agency to spiff up its
ure out how to advertise on it. show off accomplishments. Just next brand building, he said.
“The experience center is for inviting door, the man standing in the way of But so dominant are local internet
potential clients to see how Facebook Facebook’s entry into China — China’s companies that even when discussing
ads work,” Mr. Shen said in an interview, president, Xi Jinping — is given full ads placed on Facebook, Maxfind’s em
adding that Facebook provided much of homage. A portrait of Mr. Xi sits next to a Showing Facebook’s business platform at The center is part of a government-run technology exhibition where firms show off ployees find it easier to do so using We
the materials in the office, while his video celebrating China’s technological Meet Social’s so-called experience center. their accomplishments. To the right, a portrait of China’s president, Xi Jinping. Chat, the ubiquitous social media app
company staffed it. achievements, including its develop run by the Chinese internet giant Ten
Meet Social, an advertising agency, ment of nuclear weapons, as part of a cent. People are more comfortable using
worked with Facebook to open the cen display by the Chinese Academy of Sci provides videos on giant phoneshaped overseas sales through Alibaba, China’s page and to troubleshoot difficulties and WeChat to ask questions of the Face
ter last spring. While many Chinese ences. screens so people can get a better sense biggest ecommerce site. In the years keep up with ad trends. book ad reseller, Mr. Liu said.
have not used Facebook, that does not The Chinese authorities appear to of Facebook’s ad offerings. Examples of that followed, he attended training ses “We want to establish our brand, let Advertising on Facebook has also
prevent them from knowing about it, Mr. have made no effort to shut down the ex paid posts from Chinese brands are sions and talks by Facebook employees, more and more people know about us,” shown him how much of a cultural gap
Shen said. He said his company got perience center. The local government framed on the walls. Training in market including at the experience center, on an Mr. Hong said. “It’s pretty effective to can exist between China and the rest of
plenty of inbound interest from clients, did not respond to a request for com ing and advertising strategies on Face array of subjects including how to offer a put ads on Facebook; the site has a lot of the world. One of Maxfind’s Facebook
even though it does little advertising ment. book’s platforms is also offered. good user experience and how to make traffic. Many people in the West use ads fell afoul of copyright claims for mu
about itself. Facebook employees come to the cen Jeffery Hong, a sales director at a wig ads. Facebook.” sic it used in the ad, he said. And Mr. Liu
“Most of the time, it’s them who come ter to give talks, Mr. Shen said. Since company, which he declined to name, Now Facebook ads attract buyers to Meet Social is one of seven official said he was surprised when another of
to us,” Mr. Shen said. He said his com many Chinese cannot access facebook said he first thought of advertising on his company’s site that account for Facebook advertising resellers in China. his ads on the social network was
pany had set up a system so that Chi .com — even if they type it into their Facebook when he went to a salon run about 10 percent of sales. While the com Others serve much the same role. Often blocked by the company for being dis
nese clients didn’t have to leap the Great phones while in the experience center, by Meet Social in Shenzhen in 2015. pany manages its own Facebook site, it their presence is welcome because even criminatory. The ad had used the term
Firewall to register an advertising ac the site remains blocked — Meet Social Mr. Hong previously had mostly done also allows Meet Social to take over the for tech sophisticates, doing business “fat.”
business
will reduce economic growth. Even by gross domestic product “to be substan a cast of policymakers that Jeb Bush been on a steadily improving glide immigrants will lead to less innovation Screenshot from an A.S.M.R. video. The
Mr. Trump’s own preferred metric, the tially higher a decade from now.” Dar might have appointed had he been path since around 2010. Charting and growth. tingle industry is overwhelmingly female.
balance of trade, his policy has failed: rell Duffie, the lone dissenter, said it elected president. nearly any economic statistic shows Of course, I should admit a final
The trade deficit has risen to a 10year would improve growth, but he added But Mr. Trump has dragged down that today’s economic strength repre possibility: Perhaps Mr. Trump has got
high. that “whether the overall tax plan is his grade in this category by meddling sents a continuation of that trend. it right, and the economists have got But men often mistake women’s care
distributionally fair is another matter.” in ways that have needlessly compli Even if Mr. Trump doesn’t deserve ten it all wrong. As a cardcarrying and friendliness as sexual intent, said
FISCAL POLICY: D- The problem, according to Daron cated the Fed’s job. Most industrialized credit for this trajectory, he should get economist, I don’t believe this, but it Asia Eaton, a feminist social psycholo
The logic of fiscal policy is straightfor Acemoglu, a prominent macroecono countries, including the United States, some credit for not knocking the econ seems that, in equal measure, Mr. gist and assistant professor at Florida
ward: In good times, the government mist, is that while “simplification of the have generally insulated monetary omy off this path. Unless, of course, the Trump doesn’t believe what econo International University.
should spend less, so that in bad times tax code could be beneficial,” that policy from political pressure, believ real explanation is that the president mists say, either. Dr. Eaton, who said she could experi
it can afford to spend more and tax effect would most likely be “more than ing that such independence helps doesn’t have much effect on economic ence brain tingles, said people were also
less, helping to support an ailing econ offset by its highly regressive nature.” policymakers deliver low and stable outcomes. Justin Wolfers is a professor of econom- applying existing prejudices to new phe
omy. When privatesector demand Recent data support this pessimism, as inflation. Yet Mr. Trump has repeatedly The more frightening explanation is ics and public policy at the University of nomena. “Our stereotype about women
falls, government picks up the slack. the muchpromised investment boom criticized Mr. Powell for not setting that the downside of Mr. Trump’s poli Michigan. who are giving care and friendliness in a
gentle, intimate way,” she said, “is linked
with our image of women being sexual.”
The 21yearold woman behind ASMR
Opinion
The bad news about helicopter parenting: It works
New research Pamela Druckerman
shows that Contributing Writer
hyper-
involved
parenting is I recently met a Texan couple whose
son was still in diapers. They were
the route to angling to get him into a preschool that
kids’ success feeds into a private preparatory school
in today’s with a great record for college admis
sions.
unequal The couple were ambivalent about
world. doing this. They were from immigrant
and workingclass backgrounds, and
had thrived in public schools. In the
ory, they believed that all children
should have an equal chance to suc
ceed. But I suspected that if they got
their son a spot in the preschool, they’d
take it. These days, such chances are
hard to pass up.
It’s a familiar story. Psychologists,
sociologists and journalists have spent
more than a decade diagnosing and
critiquing the habits of “helicopter
parents” and their school obsessions.
They insist that hyperparenting back
fires — creating a generation of
stressedout kids who can’t function
alone. Parents themselves alternate
between feeling
It’s true that guilty, panicked and
ridiculous.
high-octane, But new research
hardworking shows that in our
child-rearing unequal era, this
has some kind of parenting
pointless brings lifechanging
excesses, and benefits. That’s the
it doesn’t message of the book
spark joy for “Love, Money and
Parenting: How
parents. But Economics Explains
done right, the Way We Raise
it works Our Kids,” by the
for kids. economists Matthias
Doepke of North
western University
and Fabrizio Zilibotti of Yale. It’s true
that highoctane, hardworking child
rearing has some pointless excesses,
and it doesn’t spark joy for parents.
But done right, it works for kids, not
just in the United States but in rich WREN MCDONALD
countries around the world.
The authors explain that when the 1970s. Dutch, Spanish, Italian, your kids, however. If you do it as an pared with those with authoritarian Those who can afford to helicopter
inequality hit a low in the 1970s, there Canadian and British parents ramped “authoritarian” parent — defined as parents. This was true even when they are probably making things even more
wasn’t that much of a gap between up their child care, too. (In Japan, someone who issues directives, ex controlled for the parents’ education unequal for the next generation. As
what someone earned with or without hyperinvolved mothers are known as pects children to obey and sometimes and income. with the Texan couple, this doesn’t
a college degree. Strict parenting gave “monster parents.”) hits those who don’t — you won’t get The benefits aren’t just academic. In always match their political beliefs. In
way to an era of “permissive parent Not all the changes were rational. the full benefits. a British study, kids raised by authori the “Hidden Tribes” survey published
ing” — giving children lots of freedom When some parents learned that talk The most effective parents, accord tative parents reported better health last year by the nonprofit group More
with little oversight. Why spend 18 ing to toddlers helps to develop their ing to the authors, are “authoritative.” and higher selfesteem. In the Ameri in Common, respondents who valued
years nagging kids to succeed if the young brains, they began monologuing They use reasoning to persuade kids to can study, they were less likely to use selfreliance and creativity in children
rewards weren’t worth it? at them constantly. do things that are good for them. In drugs, smoke or abuse alcohol; they — staples of both authoritative and
In the 1980s, however, inequality But for the most part, the new par stead of strict obedience, they empha started having sex at older ages, and permissive parents — were more likely
increased sharply in Western countries, enting efforts seemed effective. Dr. size adaptability, problemsolving and they were more likely to use condoms. to have voted for Hillary Clinton in
especially the United States, and the Doepke and Dr. Zilibotti can’t prove independence — skills that will help So why wouldn’t everyone just be 2016. Those with more authoritarian
gap between white and bluecollar pay causality (to do that, you’d have to their offspring in future workplaces come an authoritative parent? Reli views on parenting were more likely to
widened. Permissive parenting was randomly assign parenting styles to that we can’t even imagine yet. gious people, regardless of their in have voted for Donald Trump.
replaced by helicopter parenting. Mid different families). But when they And they seem most successful at come, are more likely to be authoritar Since there’s apparently no limit to
dle and upperclass parents who’d gone analyzed the 2012 PISA, an academic helping their kids achieve the holy ian parents who expect obedience and how much people will do for their kids,
to public schools and spent evenings test of 15yearolds around the world, grails of modern parenting: college and believe in corporal punishment, the the prognosis for parenting doesn’t
playing kickball in the neighborhood along with reports from the teenagers postgraduate degrees, which now have authors found. Workingclass and poor look good. Yet another reason to elect
began elbowing their toddlers into and their parents about how they inter a huge financial payoff. Using data parents might not have the leisure time people who’ll make America more
fasttrack preschools and spending act, they found that an “intensive par from a national study that followed to hover or the budget to pay for activi equal: We grownups can finally stop
evenings monitoring their homework enting style” correlated with higher thousands of American teenagers for ties and expensive schools. And they doing homework.
and chauffeuring them to activities. scores on the test. This was true even years, the authors found that the off may rightly feel that they need to pre
American parents eventually in among teenagers whose parents had spring of “authoritative” parents were pare their children for jobs in which PAMELA DRUCKERMAN is the author of
creased their handson caregiving by similar levels of education. more likely to graduate from college rulefollowing matters more than de “There Are No Grown-Ups: A Midlife
about 12 hours a week, compared with It’s not enough just to hover over and graduate school, especially com bating skills. Coming-of-Age Story.”
opinion
Printed in Athens, Denpasar, Beirut, Biratnagar, Doha, Dubai, Frankfurt, Gallargues, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Islamabad, Istanbul, Jakarta, Karachi, Kathmandu, Kuala Lumpur, Lahore, London, Luqa, Madrid, Manila, Milan, Nagoya, Nepalgunj, New York, Osaka, Paris, Rome, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei, Tel Aviv, Tokyo,Yangon.
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THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION + SATURDAY-SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9-10, 2019 | 11
opinion
science lab
B I O LO G I C A L C LO C KS
Morning people and night owls, and what makes them that way
Early to bed and early to rise is a maxim that’s easy to fol- dreds of thousands of volunteers in Britain, many of whom
low for some people, and devilishly hard for others. wear activity monitors that record their movements.
In a study in Nature Communications, researchers curi- Using the activity monitors, the team was able to con-
ous about the genetic underpinnings of chronotype — firm that self-reported morning people did go to sleep earli-
whether you are a morning person, a night owl or some- er — and people with the most morning-linked gene vari-
thing in between — looked at about 700,000 people’s ge- ants went to bed 25 minutes earlier than people with the
nomes. They identified 351 variations that may be con- fewest.
nected to people’s bedtimes. The study also suggests tanta- The genes flagged in the study play a variety of roles in
lizing links between chronotype and mental health. the body. Many of them seem to play a role in brain tis-
The researchers drew on data from 23andMe, the genet- sues, and others are already known to be central to the
ic testing company, and the UK Biobank, which tracks hun- body’s circadian rhythm. VERONIQUE GREENWOOD
R O D E N T LU M I N A R I E S circumstances, it has a warm brown Northland College, to look into it.
Flying squirrels glow color. But in the beam of the flashlight, After studying more than 100 speci
it sported a gaudy DayGlo hue closer mens from museums and spotting five
pink in the dark to something you might see in a night more squirrels under UV light in the
One spring night in Wisconsin, John club or a Jazzercise class, circa 1988. wild, the researchers reported surpris
Martin, a biologist, was in his backyard “He told his colleagues at Northland ing results: The pink is real.
with an ultraviolet flashlight. Suddenly, College, but of course, everyone was Three different species of flying
a hotpink squirrel flew by. pretty skeptical,” said Allison Kohler, a squirrel were found to turn that
It was a southern flying squirrel, a graduate student at Texas A&M. color under ultraviolet illumin
small, furry creature. Under most Dr. Martin asked Ms. Kohler, then at ation. VERONIQUE GREENWOOD
RMIT UNIVERSITY
U LT I M AT E R E CYC L I N G
Fashion
Comfort
food,
of a sort
BY VANESSA FRIEDMAN
Sports
Long clueless, Nets build a new culture
bruising. Even in the East, the less
On Pro Basketball forbidding of the two conferences,
remaining in playoff position for the
Nets will require a collective stamina
they may not yet have.
B Y H A R V E Y A R AT O N If they do qualify, Marks could be a
candidate for executive of the year for
stocking his roster with hope, against
If ever there has been an N.B.A. team the odds. Is there a more difficult
that was entitled to “tank,” to deliber projection in team sports drafting than
ately lose for the mathematical calcula being outside N.B.A. lottery position?
tion of draft lottery luck, it was this “It’s very different than the other
season’s Brooklyn Nets as they were sports,” Buford said. “Even in the top
on the night of Dec. 5. MARY ALTAFFER/ASSOCIATED PRESS 10 picks, only about 80 percent will find
The latest in a series of harrowing Lacking lottery picks, General Manager their way into a rotation.”
defeats had left them with an 818 Sean Marks has built a roster of lower The Spurs’ foundation and selfless
record, their bestperforming player draft choices and reclamation projects. identity were built with David Rob
(Caris LeVert) down with a dislocated inson and Tim Duncan, both No. 1
foot and little reason to believe there overall picks and special people. But
was much to strive for until the annual But the blank slate in Brooklyn — winning five championships requires
springtime game show known as the where ownership is a largely absentee much more than a hub. Most famously
draft lottery. and ambiguously directed partnership with Manu Ginobili (late second
For a franchise that had disgorged between the billionaires Mikhail Pro round) and Tony Parker (late first),
its most recent lottery picks like T khorov and Joseph Tsai — presented a the Spurs set a standard for locating
shirts shot into a crowd, tanking for a cleanslate challenge that was more unheralded gems, particularly from
high draft pick in an allout pursuit of intriguing than daunting. abroad.
Zion Williamson, the supposed one “We knew there were going to be In the other talentacquisition game
anddone savior from Duke, seemed some dark days,” Marks said. “But we of bigticket free agency, the Knicks
like the classic contemporary N.B.A. all gave up good jobs because we now figure to have two max salary
percentage play. thought we had a chance to build slots next summer after the stunning
But the Nets, long a franchise nearly something special.” Jan. 31 trade of Kristaps Porzingis to
impossible to figure, instead won 20 of Before a culture, first came a core. Dallas.
their next 26 games to become a prime With a flurry of moves deftly manipu As always, they will be selling the
contender for the Adam Silver Integri lating salary cap space, Marks dealt sizzle of Manhattan, but if there is a
ty Award, if the league’s commissioner, SARAH STIER/GETTY IMAGES his way into the lower echelons of the more discerning superstar out there
an avowed tsktsker on tanking, ever The Brooklyn Nets, behind unheralded players such as Spencer Dinwiddie, center, have become one of the season’s biggest surprises. draft and emerged with LeVert, a who wants to look deeper, he could
inaugurates it. versatile guard, and Jarrett Allen, a begin at the 8minute 42second mark
On my way to Boston recently for an mobile, defensiveminded center. of the fourth quarter of the Nets game
overnight road trip with my son to “The neverending odyssey in this played for two seasons and appren “Because of his time with the Spurs, Through a trade with the Los Ange in Boston on Jan. 28.
watch the Nets play the Celtics, I business,” Marks said, “is doing your ticed as an assistant coach and front Sean knows what a good locker room les Lakers, he reeled in point guard Atkinson’s team was trailing by only
reached Sean Marks, the Nets’ general homework and betting on people, their office executive. is like.” D’Angelo Russell, the No. 2 pick in the 7 points when he yanked Russell, who
manager, by phone — on a scouting will and their drive.” “In every role he’s had, he’s been a For contrast, take the Knicks. Their 2015 draft who was recently named an had already scored 25, for the remain
trip in Slovenia. First question: How Marks is a 43yearold New Zealand culture builder,” new management team also talks up Eastern Conference AllStar. Spencer der of the night.
the heck did you convince your team, er, drafted in 1998 by the New York “We never Buford said. culture creation, but their stylistic Dinwiddie, a mercurial guard, parlayed Deploying one rookie (Theo Pinson)
at 818, that the remainder of the sea Knicks out of the University of Califor Around the N.B.A., approach in Coach David Fizdale’s first a lifeline from the N.B.A.’s develop with a handful of N.B.A. games on his
son would not be a countdown to a 14 nia, Berkeley, and traded the next day
had to sit that word — culture season has been archetypal Y.M.C.A. mental league in December 2016 into a résumé and another (Mitch Creek)
percent lottery prayer for the No. 1 with good company, Charles Oakley, to down and — has become like a chooseup. The Knicks’ front office $34 million extension two years later. signed to a 10day contract, the Nets
pick? Toronto for Marcus Camby. A 6foot10 say, Hey, convenient catch claims operational independence from These Nets had climbed to four fought hard in defeat. Russell later
“I will tell you that we never had to frontcourt reserve, he survived with guys, we’re phrase, an opening the team owner, James L. Dolan, but games over .500 before hitting a recent admitted that Atkinson had benched
sit down and say, Hey, guys, we’re modest N.B.A. skills for roughly a going to keep statement for best can’t even call an informal news con rut in which they lost four of five. A him for dubious oncourt decisions. At
going to keep playing hard,” Marks decade, which explains much of what playing hard.” intentions. ference without tailoring the guest list hand injury to Dinwiddie hurt a roster the same time the coach was sending
said — “we” meaning he and Coach has happened since his retirement as a “People use it all to his petty grievances. already thinned by the loss of LeVert, his point guard a message, he was also
Kenny Atkinson. “That was playerled, player in 2011. the time — they’re In San Antonio, where the Holt who could return soon, and Allen saving him for a more winnable game
strictly characterdriven.” “There probably are very few people going to work hard, family has without question left the Crabbe. Going into Friday’s home the next night at home against Chi
It has been a wishful return on as who had careers as long as Sean had play defense, play for the team — but basketball people alone, Marks was game against the Chicago Bulls, the cago.
sembling a roster of lower draft picks while getting as few minutes, and how many actually do?” said P. J. told in no uncertain terms that he Nets were 2927, in sixth place in the The Nets prevailed over the Bulls as
and reclamation projects, players with there’s a good reason for that,” said Carlesimo, whose N.B.A. stops in could well be a bridge to a future with Eastern Conference. Russell dropped 30. From the notso
“chips on their shoulders,” in the gen R. C. Buford, the San Antonio Spurs’ coaching and broadcasting have in out Gregg Popovich, the 70yearold Without marquee talent, the season cheap seats, they looked to have a core
eral absence of lottery blue chips. general manager, for whom Marks cluded San Antonio and Brooklyn. head coach and team president. can be interminably long, winding and and a culture — and a clue.
WIZARD of ID DILBERT
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Weekend
ART X LAGOS
Cars snaked out from the hideous traffic
and deposited the city’s elite, dressed to
impress, at the Civic Center, a concrete
andsteel edifice fronting Lagos Lagoon.
Women exuding Vogue beauty and
power paused on the patio to give televi
sion interviews.
Art X Lagos was living up to its repu
tation as a happening. Not just col
lectors, but the hip, the curious, the In
stagram crowd, thronged West Africa’s
principal fair in November. They packed
the venue to hear the keynote talk by the
distinguished BritishNigerian artist
Yinka Shonibare, back for the occasion.
The Ooni of Ife, a Yoruba king, showed
up, escorted by praisesingers. Conver
sations carried over from gallery open
ings around town and from the Art Sum
mit, a twoday convening, where the cel AYOBOLA KEKERE-EKUN
ebrated painter Kehinde Wiley, flown in
by the United States Consulate, was a trieve this culture,” he said. Top, touching a
special guest. At the booth for Artyrama, a Lagos work by Samson
This enormous city — with no official gallery, Ayobola KekereEkun showed Akinnire. Left,
census, population estimates range paper and textile portraits of Yoruba Gerald Chukwuma
from 13 million to 21 million — is dynam goddesses as googlyeyed realityTV in his studio.
ic by disposition. Yes, the roads are TOM SAATER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES stars. Oba, wife of Sango, was per Above, a painting
clogged, political corruption is rampant, suaded by her conniving cowife, Osun, by Ayobola
and the power cuts trigger armies of stay of this cultural season that has the Yoruba modernism of the Osogbo they can actually survive as artists,” to cut off an ear as a show of devotion. Kekere-Ekun.
generators spewing noxious fumes. But sprung up without any coordination. school, to say nothing of sculpture, tex said Victor Ehikhamenor, a painter and “So much drama,” Ms. KekereEkun
Lagosians — who are proud of their This fall it will overlap with the Lagos tile and performance traditions. sculptor who returned here from the said. “I found it interesting how Oba was
“hustle,” a mix of effort, imagination and Biennial, a scrappy grassroots affair Recently, Nigerian contemporary art United States in 2008, somewhat ahead willing to mutilate herself to hold onto
brash optimism — will turn any chal that began in 2017. ists have found success abroad. Works of the curve. her man.”
lenge into enterprise. Commerce, music “The city still has that negative repu by the painter Njideka AkunyiliCrosby, Gerald Chukwuma, a Nigerian sculp Art X is of comparable scale to the Af
and fashion have long thrived amid the tation,” admitted Tokini Peterside, the based in Los Angeles, have sold for up tor in his 40s, showed new work at the ricafocused contemporary art fairs 154
chaos. And now, with its solid collector founder of Art X and one of the energetic ward of $3 million. The Berlinbased fair with the Ghanabased Gallery 1957, (held in London, New York and Mar
base and thickening web of galleries and arts entrepreneurs — predominantly sound and installation artist Emeka Og which has a PanAfrican roster. His rakesh) and AKAA, in Paris. But where
alternative spaces, the art “ecosystem” women — powering the scene. “We hope boh was a finalist for the Guggenheim theme was Igbo Landing — the story of as those fairs address international col
— the word everyone uses — is achiev to redeem some of that image by provid Museum of New York’s 2018 Hugo Boss enslaved people from what is now Ni lectors, Ms. Peterside, who holds an
ing critical mass. ing a good reason for people to come to Prize. geria, who, upon disembarking from the M.B.A. and is the daughter of a promi
Beginning in October, a succession of Lagos. It may have challenges, but it’s a The Lagos scene, however, joins Middle Passage in the Sea Islands of nent banker, began the Lagos event as a
festivals — devoted to literature, poetry, pretty exciting place.” homegrown artists with those who lived Georgia in 1803, walked back into the cultural investment in the city and a
photography, theater and fashion — cas Nigeria has had art movements be or studied abroad but moved back, in ocean in their chains rather than sub business bet on Nigeria’s burgeoning
cade into the partyfilled holidays. Art X, fore — the Zaria Rebels, who unleashed spired to create amid the energy of the mit. Mr. Chukwuma said few Igbo in Ni collector class.
just three years old, is already a main Nigerian modern art in the late 1950s, or city. “You have more people who know geria know the story. “We have to re LAGOS, PAGE 21
..
16 | SATURDAY-SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9-10, 2019 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION
weekend dance
A collection
that rocks
Pavlova’s shoes and Nijinsky’s diary are some
of the great items in a New York library’s dance
division, which is turning 75
BY ALASTAIR MACAULAY performing “Antic Meet” in 1964.
Curious how Balanchine’s “Sere
Those who claim New York to be the nade” looked when it was danced in
world’s dance capital have few grounds skirts ending at the knee? Here are MARY WIGMAN’S AMERICAN DIARY
better than the dance division of the clips of the Ballet Russe de Monte Car The American dance critic Edwin Denby wrote in 1944 that modernism had reached
New York Public Library for the Per lo’s 1940 and ’44 performances. Want to its most radical extreme in the work of Nijinsky and his German contemporary, the
forming Arts: the largest, most eclectic know how Margot Fonteyn looked in dancerchoreographer Mary Wigman (18861973). Martha Graham, only a few
and most enterprising collection of “Sleeping Beauty” when the Sadler’s years younger, was inspired in the 1920s by what she heard of Wigman. When Wig
dance materials anywhere. It regularly Wells Ballet toured North America in man finally toured the United States in 1930, Graham burst into tears of relief when
films dance productions in the city, pre the 1950s? Here she is, in all three acts. she found that her own work had not been a mere reproduction of Wigman’s after all.
serving the present for the future; it Today the dance division contains the Wigman left a pictorial diary of her visit, seen here. In its pages, she seems jollier
aims to have a copy of every dance book collections of Mikhail Baryshnikov, than her dance reputation suggests, but with a talent for mordant satire.
ever published; it possesses treasures Merce Cunningham and Jerome Rob
going back centuries. And its doors are bins, among many more. Its full name is
open to the public as well as to specialist the Jerome Robbins Dance Division,
researchers. and with good reason: The choreo
For many dance devotees who live grapher donated a share of all the royal
elsewhere, a visit to New York has to in ties of his “Fiddler on the Roof” to it.
clude time on the third floor of that li This year, the dance division celebrates
brary, located at Lincoln Center, to view its 75th anniversary.
its dance films. Visiting from Britain in I’ve been visiting it for 40 years. I
the 1970s and ’80s, I learned much about made many discoveries recently, when
British dance that was unknown back Linda Murray, the collection’s curator,
home. Find a screen, enter the online gave me a tour of some of its rarer treas
catalog, click a link and, within a minute ures, demonstrating its breadth and
or two, you can find yourself watching depth. Here we show just a few selec
Merce Cunningham and his company tions.
“TOM”
George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein opened the School of American Ballet in
1934, and soon afterward, a professional company, the American Ballet (a precursor
of New York City Ballet). Kirstein worked to devise ballets that would be American
and labored for many months with Balanchine on an adaptation of Harriet Beecher
Stowe’s novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Here is “Tom,” the pictorial libretto he commis
sioned from the American poetdramatist E.E. Cummings, with illustrations by Ben
Shahn.
The score was to have been by Virgil Thomson, the composer of the avantgarde
opera “Four Saints in Three Acts” (1934, performed by an AfricanAmerican cast).
Kirstein’s handwritten diaries — also kept by the dance division and often consulted
by scholars — record many discussions and plans for “Tom” with Balanchine, Cum
mings and Thomson, though separately. Nonetheless, no “Tom” ballet ever material
ized; it remains one of history’s intriguing mighthavebeens.
NIJINSKY’S DIARY
In 1919, at 30, the already legendary dancerchoreographer Vaslav Nijin
sky (18891950) was found to have schizophrenia; he remained in one insti
tution or another for the rest of his life. During the early days of his illness,
he wrote a remarkable diary that became celebrated when his wife, Ro
mola, published a bowdlerized version of it in English in 1936. (In 1999, an
unexpurgated version, edited by the critic Joan Acocella, was published.)
The original is now in the library. BALINESE DANCE FILM
Nijinsky’s mind wanders in many directions, but a recurring theme is From the first, the library’s dance collection included nonWestern dance forms.
God, with whom Nijinsky at times identifies. Nijinsky’s drawings show Though there are few films of Southeast Asian dance before the 1960s, here is a 1933
striking firmness of contour and force of color; several suggest, as his wife one of a Balinese dancer, barebreasted, not performing a formal dance but demon
said he intended, eyes. In the context of his writings, it is easy to imagine strating the exercise technique for the idiom. The film goes on to record various
them as the eye of God. ceremonial dances from Bali and Borneo.
You can find films of Bedhaya, the Javanese court dance genre; a 1966 festival of
dances from 13 West African countries in Senegal; Cambodian dance performed at
Angkor Wat; boys training in Kathakali, the Indian classical form whose multilay
ered makeup alone takes hours to apply; and multiple examples of whirling der
vishes and Egyptian belly dancing. As I type this in the library, I’m watching a 40
minute color documentary about Mongolian dance, filmed in the open air with
mountains on every horizon. One man’s rhythmic isolations of alternate shoulders
are fabulously huge — and cause his colleagues to grin from ear to ear.
music weekend
“Private Dancer” and Cyndi Lauper’s
to watch Recording Academy voters have
been reliably stodgy and balladloving,
at best befuddled and at worst wrong
headed. It often seems that the Tin Pan
Alley holdouts whose Grammy votes
Global Headquarters: 49 Charles Street Mayfair London W1J 5EN +44 (0)20 7290 9585
WORLDWIDE
w w w. g r a y a n d f a r r a r. c o m
..
18 | SATURDAY-SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9-10, 2019 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION
weekend books
well have wandered down the bleak
site) likes how children’s books speak “a 5 Part of a some New Year’s suspension
22 23 24 25
wedding bridge
language of absolute sincerity, so deli- Who is your favorite fictional hero or 9-Across
resolutions
98 “Atonement”
56 Deli order 26 27 28 29
ciously countercultural in our age of heroine? Your favorite antihero or 9 See 5-Across author Ian
57 Reddish
cynicism.” villain? 13 Trophy winner 100 Old barracks 30 31 32 33 34
59 When repeated,
Orlando. It is hard not to fall in love 18 He planned for a emergency cry
decorations
35 36 37 38 39 40
What books are on your nightstand? with a beautiful, brilliant creature who rainy day to a fighter pilot
101 Catches up to
19 Sled dog with a 102 Bollywood 41 42 43 44 45
I don’t have a nightstand per se — my changes genders while galloping statue in Central
60 Wise-looking instruments
bedroom is rather ascetic, with only a across three centuries on a pair of “the Park 63 Pub orders 105 Man Ray’s genre 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53
bed nestled between the constellation shapeliest legs” in the land. It is hard 20 Jewish month 64 On base, say 106 Ham it up
67 Part of a 109 Wine orders 54 55 56 57 58
painted walls. I do tend to keep a rotat not to fall in love with Virginia Woolf’s before Nisan
department
21 Corolla part 112 Good servers
ing selection of longtime favorites near love for Vita SackvilleWest, on whom 22 Result of a store where 114 Timekeeper on
59 60 61 62 63
or in it, to dip into before sleep — “The JILLIAN TAMAKI Orlando is modeled and to whom the foul on a long people sit the Emerald Isle 64 65 66 67 68 69 70
Little Prince” (which I reread at least book is dedicated. Vita’s son later basketball shot 70 Legally confer, 117 “Free ____”
71 72 73 74 75
once a year every year, and somehow poet Nan Shepherd — part memoir, described the novel as “the longest 25 Bandleader as a power 118 Text message
Shaw 71 Opulent status
find new wisdom and pertinence to part field notebook, part lyrical medita and most charming love letter in liter 119 Assists in a way
76 77 78 79 80 81 82
26 Start of 73 Kind of joke
whatever I am going through at the tion on nature and our relationship ature.” Euripides’ 74 Lilac color one shouldn’t 83 84 85 86 87 88
moment), “The Lives of the Heart,” by with it, evocative of Rachel Carson and In a sense, Orlando is also an anti signature 76 High regard 120 One getting
Jane Hirshfield, “Hope in the Dark,” by Henry Beston and John Muir. Shep hero in the drama of Woolf’s oppres 27 Bargain- 78 Certain the red-carpet 89 90 91 92
basement treatment
Rebecca Solnit, Thoreau’s diaries, herd composed it sometime around sive heteronormative society — a intersection 93 94 95 96 97 98 99
29 See 92-Across 121 Diary passage
“How the Universe Got Its Spots,” by World War II, but kept it in a drawer subversion, a counterpoint to conven 30 Took off the
79 Andrew Jackson’s
122 Avant-garde 100 101 102 103 104
Janna Levin. Of the piles that inevita for nearly four decades, until the final tion, a sentinel of the resistance. A Tennessee home,
board 123 Father
with “the”
bly accumulate in every room of my years of her life month after the book’s publication, the 32 Popular jeans 83 Family reunion
124 Scottish caps 105 106 107 108 109 110 111
house, friends’ books I have recently novelist Radclyffe Hall was tried for 33 Does, as an attendee, 112 113 114 115 116
animated
read and loved tower nearest the bed Do your blog posts grow out of what- obscenity — the same halfcoded character
informally Down
1 Hill and tunnel 117 118 119 120
— part synonym and part antonym to ever you happen to be reading at the charge of homosexuality for which 35 A, B or C, in
84 One taking
builder
the lovely Japanese concept of tsun time? Or do you pick books specifi- Oscar Wilde had been imprisoned a Washington inventory?
2 Architect Mies 121 122 123 124
doku, the guiltpile of books acquired cally with Brain Pickings in mind? generation earlier — and all printed 38 Albino orca, e.g. 87 ____ Pueblo
van der ____ PUZZLE BY LEE TAYLOR / EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ THE NEW YORK TIMES
41 “You’re on!” and (World Heritage
with the intention of reading but left I don’t see my website as a separate copies of her lesbian novel “The Well Site)
3 Complain
8 Source of a 36 Hobbes’s favorite 62 Having a frog in 90 “The Garden of
others 4 What a
unread. Currently among my anti entity or any sort of media outlet — it of Loneliness” were destroyed by 42 Skedaddles 88 Polite deferment in the food in “Calvin one’s throat Earthly Delights”
dairymaid does
tsundoku: “Time Travel,” by James is the record and reflection of my inner court order. In response to the trial, 45 Country singer 89 Expensive outing all day long 1960s draft and Hobbes” 64 Building painter
Gleick, “Searching for Stars on an life, my discourse with ideas and ques Woolf and E. M. Forster wrote in a Chesney 90 Philadelphia art 5 Poi plants 9 Syndicate 37 Text message direction, briefly 91 Cleverness
museum, with 10 Big fan status 93 App release
Island in Maine,” by Alan Lightman, tions through literature, my extended joint letter of protest: “Writers 46 “It was all ____” 6 Chaiken who
11 Yamaha 39 Leading
65 What “btw”
94 One of the
48 Chops down “the” co-created “The means
“Little Panic,” by Amanda Stern, “In marginalia. It is a “blog” in the proper produce literature, and they cannot 92 With 29-Across, competitor characters in 66 Mess (with) B vitamins
49 Places for L Word”
heritance,” by Dani Shapiro, and an sense — a “web log,” part common produce great literature until they toasters and source of a 7 Printemps
12 Formerly, once “Mad Max” 68 Spanish
95 Underwater
exhibition catalog — which, in her place book and part ledger of a life. have free minds. The free mind has roasters famous smile follower 13 Figurehead? 40 Matter in court direction
96 Electrician’s
14 Tim ____, 43 Pretentious concern
case, is part poetry and part philoso Nothing on it is composed for an audi access to all knowledge and specula Solution to puzzle of February 2-3 frequent 69 Book before 97 Like the smell of
44 1984 Olympic
phy — by Ann Hamilton. ence. I write about what I read, and I tion of its age, and nothing cramps it S T E L M O C L I C K S B U S T S
collaborator with gymnastics
Deut. some bread
read to process what I dwell in, men like a taboo.” Adam Sandler 72 Extend a hand to 99 Where
S H E B E A R A I R O U T I N T R O sensation
after a fall, say
What’s the last great book you read? tally and emotionally. The wondrous B E A N B A L L F L A G R A N T F O U L
15 Ancient Greek 47 ____ Boston something
state with Athens 75 London’s Old annoying might
I read multiple books each week and thing about being human — the beauty You’re organizing a literary dinner R E P O S C O M F Y N O T E R I C E
16 “The Marvelous
(noted hotel)
____ be stuck
A M E N M O N A E B A S I C I C E S 49 ____ de leche
have no qualms about abandoning and banality of it — is that we all tend party. Which three writers, dead or I L L E G A L S L I D E T A C K L E Mrs. ____”
50 Somewhat
77 Beyond that 103 Less welcoming
what fails to captivate me, so I tend to to dwell in the same handful of elemen alive, do you invite? N Y Y A I M I N A F E W O N E L (award-winning
51 Put an edge on 79 Listens 104 Sample
Amazon series) 107 What a
love just about everything I finish. At tal struggles, joys and sorrows, which Rachel Carson, Susan Sontag, Mar L Y N X E N O A B R I D G E
17 “I beg of you” 52 Loopholes
attentively
headache might
80 Declare
this particular moment, I am com is why a book one person writes may garet Fuller. It could go one of two
O N E A L S O F T G E A R G T E
19 A sharps 53 “Hey you!” feel like
C E N S E M A R I E H E L M E T H I T 81 “Jane the
pletely smitten with Jill Lepore’s his help another process her own life a ways: intoxicating intellectual repar T W A S C A L Y X F U R L S R U T H 23 Aer Lingus 55 Wanna-____
Virgin” actress 108 Start of a classic
tory of America — what a rare master century later, and why a “blog” by a tee — the fiercely opinionated Sontag A H C O M P L E X C I L I A B O N G O destination 56 Writer Stieg Christmas poem
Larsson, e.g. Rodriguez
24 Performances 110 James of jazz
work of rigorous scholarship with a solitary stranger may speak to many and Fuller would either love or loathe L I T
R E C U S A L
O A T C A
O B
J
I
U N
G E N T
A U T O S
for Hawaii 58 Hard way to say 82 Pizazz
111 Ponzi scheme,
poetic sensibility — but I am barely a other solitary dwellers across time and one another, and Carson would sit in E D I T O H W A I T A R T A R M tourists the answers to 85 Wine: Prefix e.g.
quarter through, so I’d be cheating if I space. unassuming quietude, speaking only T H E T W I L L S E T Y O U F R E E 28 Plane, e.g. the italicized 86 Was on the 113 Wilbur’s home
clues in this verge of collapse
counted it as read. rarely and with the perfect, perfectly R O S Y D A R N S L E A P S A C T S 31 Column in
87 What “light”
in “Charlotte’s
O T O H A L I T F A N T A A T H O S soccer standings puzzle (good Web”
I only recently discovered, and What moves you most in a work of formulated sentiment — or literary P O F A D M I S S I O N A R M C H I L I 34 Confesses luck!) cigarettes are 115 Box score inits.
absolutely loved, “The Living Moun literature? speed dating for queer women. I, for E M I L E S E A R E D R E A R E N D 35 Picket line 60 Willow twig lower in 116 Time sheet
tain,” by the Scottish mountaineer and Rhythm, texture, splendor of senti one, am halfinfatuated with all three. D I A L S A S T E R S S E B E R G crosser 61 San ____, Calif. 89 Not so hip units: Abbr.
..
THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION SATURDAY-SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9-10, 2019 | 19
theater weekend
two recent plays performed as part of a
weekend theater
‘Twilight Zone’
and now the
Trump zone
divides among critics in the last decade.
LONDON
Still, this postapocalyptic comedy — in
which the Cape Feare episode of “The
Simpsons” transforms over generations
Anne Washburn’s latest, into the nurturing stuff of myth — won
opening in London, is a ardent fans among young audiences,
playwrights and bloggers.
U.S.-centric comic drama “Almost all the critics hated [‘Mr.
Burns’], which in the States would have
BY HOLLY WILLIAMS
destroyed it, in a way that it didn’t seem
to here,” Ms. Washburn observed. (The
When Anne Washburn started her play’s American supporters include crit
Trump play, she didn’t think it would ics for The New York Times, who named
ever see the light. After a frustrating it one of the best 25 American plays of
day spent reading the news online, she the last 25 years.) “Here people were
would begin to write. “It was enjoyable quite invested in hating it, or champion
to feel I had some measure of control ing it — it kept going in a way, which is
over the situation,” she said. “It’s the ideal from a playwright’s point of view.
helplessness that makes people crazy.” In the States, people wouldn’t even have MARC BRENNER
The result was “Shipwreck,” subtitled bothered to hate it.”
“A History Play About 2017.” It begins That ferment — as well as the Almei From top, the Ms. Washburn was surprised at his in
performances on Monday at the da’s continued belief in her writing — playwright Anne terest, but then, she initially didn’t think
Almeida Theater in London before a has made Ms. Washburn a significant Washburn at the anyone would want her Trump play. “I
likely, but as yet unannounced, run in figure on the British theatrical land Almeida Theater in thought no one would ever want to
the United States. scape. Add to that the boxoffice appeal London; the cast spend any more time talking about it
“Shipwreck” is set in the immediate of a title like “The Twilight Zone” and during rehearsals than we already do,” she said. “But I did
aftermath of the former F.B.I. director Ms. Washburn can sail into the West for her “Ship- want to get into the intricate, really
James B. Comey’s congressional testi End; by contrast, she hasn’t had work wreck”; and Lizzy overheated language we were all par
mony, when a group of white liberal on Broadway. Connolly and taking in. What is it like to put this time
friends gather in an old farmhouse in up Still, she never expected “Shipwreck” Matthew Needham on paper?”
state New York; as snow falls and sup to open here. “It’s a very American in “The Twilight Inevitably, then, “Shipwreck” is a
plies run short, their conversations end play,” she conceded, and she’s had to Zone” at the talky, thinky piece, but Ms. Washburn’s
lessly circle and jab at the Trump admin tweak the script a little for British audi Almeida in 2017. skewering of the chattering classes is as
istration, and eventually one another. ences. But she’s found it resonates in a sparkling as it is spiky. (Tara Fitzgerald,
But the house is also haunted, theatri country going through its own political Selyse Baratheon on “Game of
cally, by the people who lived there be upheaval. Thrones,” is best known in the cast of
fore — a farmer, his adopted black son — “It’s not like it’s a covert Brexit play, British theater regulars.) She’s always
lending a longview perspective that obviously, but it touches on things,” she shown forensic interest in the way we
acts as a counterpoint to the chatter of said. A few lines about inaction in the speak and the stories we tell, from mak
the New Yorkers. Oh, and Donald J. face of looming disaster, although writ ing up her own language for 2006’s “The
Trump himself even puts in an appear ten about the United States, were added Internationalist” to tracing the mutation
ance. in London after Ms. Washburn’s “end of culture in “Mr. Burns.”
“He kind of appears,” Ms. Washburn less discussions with agonized British There’s also a through line with “The
said with a degree of mischief when we people.” Twilight Zone.” The British theater and
met at the Almeida. “He appears in a She began “Shipwreck” on a silent MARC BRENNER opera director Richard Jones had
way. It would be so lonely without him.” writing retreat in June 2017. “I wanted to brought her onto that project, having
She was keen not to reveal too much. see what it would be like to write about duction of “Julius Caesar” is a proxy for showed the script only to a few friends, been impressed by the “audacity” of
Ms. Washburn was in town for re the current time, because that was all I “I wanted to Ms. Washburn’s own wrestling with the Mr. Goold had got wind and asked if he “Mr. Burns.” He described Ms. Wash
hearsals with Rupert Goold, the show’s was thinking or talking about,” she said. see what it dilemma. could read it. burn as “a brainiac” — but a hilarious
director, who also runs the Almeida. It’s And it was important to her to try to un would be like “Whether art has a responsibility to His first reaction was simply how one, who is “very joyful to work with.”
a busy time for the American playwright derstand Trump supporters, too. “Writ be contemporaneous, whether it can be funny the play was. “She doesn’t write a Ms. Washburn was working on it dur
in London: Her adaptation of “The Twi ing the play came from having a very lib
to write about contemporaneous, is a huge question,” dull line,” Mr. Goold said over the phone. ing the 2016 presidential campaign, and
light Zone,” seen at the Almeida last eral experience, but it also came from the current Ms. Washburn said. “I feel like the idea And although he was surprised at its found herself wondering: “What is
year, is about to transfer to the West going online and seeking other view time, because of an immediate political theater is very overtly political nature — not typical of America doing? Where did this thing
End, beginning March 4. points, visiting websites that I don’t nor that was all I enticing and yet often disappointing. It’s Ms. Washburn’s writing — addressing come from?”
Critical reactions to her work here mally hang out at.” was thinking a hard nut to crack, and yet we still want how theater can respond to politics was “The Twilight Zone,” she added, “felt
have always been rather mixed: “The Whether art can, or should, tackle to go at it.” certainly appealing. like the subconscious of America laid
Twilight Zone” was met with varying de contemporary politics is among the is or talking By the time “Shipwreck” was finished Mr. Goold had some concern it would bare.”
grees of warmth, while Robert Icke’s sues chewed over by the “Shipwreck” about.” last April, she said, it was too late for be too American. “But the inability for She has now done the same thing in
2014 Almeida production of “Mr. Burns, characters. Their discussion of the con 2019 programming in the United States. metropolitans to come to terms with the “Shipwreck,” once again reflecting
a PostElectric Play,” Ms. Washburn’s troversial depiction of President Trump British theaters, however, are a little shamanistic power of populism is as rel America back at itself — even if it is Lon
breakout, produced one of the sharpest in the 2017 Shakespeare in the Park pro more nimble. And although she had evant here as it is over there,” he added. don audiences who will get the first look.
..
THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION SATURDAY-SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9-10, 2019 | 21
arts weekend
In Nigeria,
the key city’s
swarming
with culture
LAGOS, FROM PAGE 15
In a glamour move, the fair displayed
“Tutu,” a 1974 painting by Ben Enwonwu
of an Ife princess that disappeared for
decades before turning up in a London
apartment. It set an auction record for a
Nigerian modern work at auction last
year, selling for $1.67 million. (The buy
er, said to be a collector from Nigeria, re
mains anonymous.)
“Mad Horse City,” a project by the
Brooklyn artist Olalekan Jeyifous and
the Lagos writer Wale Lawal, invited Left, a view of Ayo
visitors into a speculative vision of Akínwándé’s
22ndcentury Lagos with a video projec exhibition at the
tion, a graphic novella and a virtual re Revolving Art
ality experience. “The first thing was to Incubator in
develop the culture of looking,” Ms. Pe Lagos. Below
terside said. “And go a step further to left, Victor
say that you can play.” Ehikhamenor
Generational Renewal and artworld inspecting his
globalization are shaking up habits in work.
AYO AKINWANDE
Above, Tokini
Peterside, founder
of Art X. Left, the
artist Ayobola
Kekere-Ekun.
Below left, Ben
Enwonwu’s
“Tutu.”
weekend living
Why love
can always
retain its
strength
A younger suitor’s attention prompts
an octogenarian to reflect on desire
Modern Love
BY SOPHY BURNHAM
It has been many decades since I went
through menopause. At the time, I
regretted the concurrent invisibility,
when men stopped noticing me on the
street. The funniest moment happened
in Italy, where, as a young student, I
had grown accustomed to walking
down the street in a mist of commen BRIAN REA
tary: “Bellina, bella.”
Later, visiting Florence in midlife, I The other day, however, I was felt, with wrinkles on my face and liver concept of age, which says I’m ugly childbirth but with sensuality aflame.
heard two boys on a motor scooter cry brought up short. A younger man I I like men. I spots on my hands, so ashamed by my now, a hag. I’m a product of my culture For women of my generation, who
out behind me, “Bellina! Bellissima!” know came knocking on the door. We like to look at visible signs of aging that I no longer and of the advertising that swirls grew up without birth control pills or
And then, as they passed: “Ah, scusa, sat on the deck behind my house to men. I like like to look in the mirror. Or how my around us, presenting beauty as a 19 much sex education, a lot about sex
signora.” talk about what I expected would be heart lifted with pleasure at his compli or even 16yearold, perhaps, in Vic was fraught.
I broke out laughing. the death of his father, or the girlfriend
their company. ment, at the same time that somewhere toria’s Secret lace or a Calvin Klein And later, sex in longterm relation
Over time, I grew to appreciate not he had broken up with recently. I’m in the back of my mind I became a string thong, with her beestung lips ships can become routine. But life
having to wear stilettos, attract anyone accustomed to being a kind of mother scolded child again, curling like a and sulky face. And look, she is beauti brings unexpected changes. Marriages
or struggle for the exquisite body I figure, the wise older woman who cooked oyster before my mother’s ful. She is breathtaking. But why is it end. And I have found that love later in
once had. I moved into what is now provides empathy and advice. Instead, disdain: “Shame on you! Who do you that a man can be desirable his whole life has been every bit as enthralling as
termed the aging process. And I won this man 30 years younger than I think you are?” life long and a woman can’t? when I was young.
dered: What does it mean to age? screwed up his courage to blurt that he I no longer remember what she was And then there’s the study about As we age, we can gain a comfort
As a teenager, I read a book by H. felt attracted to me. scolding me for, but I know that voice online dating from last summer that level with ourselves that lets us pursue
Rider Haggard called “She.” In my I was stunned. Embarrassed. well, that of my inner judge thundering claimed men’s sexual desirability whatever we wish, without shame.
memory of the story, a white adven Yes, Emmanuel Macron, president of up the basement steps to flog me for peaks at age 50 while women’s is high Even my mother’s reproving voice died
turer in Africa comes across the most France, is married to a woman 25 my hubris. est at 18 (and falls from there). So down long ago (mostly), and I have felt
beautiful woman he has ever met, and years older than he, and I have friends After my admirer left that day, it took what can it possibly mean for a woman myself free to choose whom I wanted
they fall in love. who have had affairs with men 18 or 20 me a good hour to quiet my inner judge like me, in her early 80s, to be told I — or not — and to act from my core.
It turns out she is immortal, having years younger, but that was when they and send him hulking back down the am still feminine and attractive? Or to I like men. I like to look at men. I like
walked through the flames of eternity, were 40! cellar steps of my consciousness to admit that I still find men attractive? their company. And just as I find a
which are found deep in underground Yes, the writer Fanny Van de Grift prowl grumbling and mumbling. (I That I like to flirt, to play? youthful girl’s body lovely to look at, I
caverns. She wants him to become Osbourne, who married the novelist might add that one of the pleasures of What does it mean to be a woman? find my eyes also tracking a fit male
immortal as well and to live with her, Robert Louis Stevenson, took up after getting older is knowing how to deal What is it that attracts? jogger on the street, shirtless, his body
but he is too fearful of the fire to enter. his death with a young writer, Ned with the inner judge before he becomes When I was 20, flooded by hormones glistening.
She tells him she’ll show him the Field, nearly 40 years younger and the torturer, to pet and calm him like a and unable to keep my eyes and quiv So what is it to be a woman at 82?
way and steps into the flames, only wild about her when she was in her 70s good animal trainer, a horse whisperer. ering senses from every boy, I thought What does femininity mean at this
this time she turns into a withered hag (which 100 years ago was the equiva When I was young, these harsh judg it was about physical beauty, or sensu age? Beauty? Sensuality?
and burns up. He staggers back, sur lent of today’s 80 or 90). She was, he ments could send me spiraling into ality, and I thought it proper to I should say that I have never been
rendering to aging and mortality. wrote, the only woman in the world depression for days.) heighten the interest of others by happier than in these later years,
It’s the sort of story that makes an worth dying for. My admirer, if I can call him that, is wearing miniskirts and floating fab never more filled with wonder and
impression. I’m an old woman now, After her death, he married her not the only younger (or older) man to rics. It was all about sex, nature’s way delight. I think sometimes I’m back to
although blessed with the accident of daughter, only 20 years older than he, express affection for me, but I assume of propagating the species. being a 9yearold (only with a creaki
health. I feel youthful for my age — and who knows how she felt about not those men have meant it the way some Later, men took second place in the er body), filled with joy at being alive
active, playful, energetic, lighthearted. being the only woman worth dying one may say, “I love tomatoes.” They currents of my life to interests and and with none of the damage that the
I’m told I’m attractive, but I don’t for? appreciate my openness, my playful family and career, but they’ve always raging rivers of hormones later inflict.
believe it, of course, because how could On the morning of our conversation, ness, my sense of wonder and joy. held a high place in my consciousness. So what do I want to tell women of
I be? I’m old. I was swept by a confusion of emo But this man left me shaken. I have Sex and power were linked for me, and tomorrow about the brilliant decades
And if I occasionally forget, the high tions, including the embarrassment of no desire to take him up on his sweet the freedom of my sensuality was an that lie ahead? I want to tell them
numerals of my years rush back into not having thought of the younger man confession, but he has made me stop expression of my own confidence and about how good they can be. I want to
my brainpan, as big as Burning Man, in that way. I thanked him for the and think — about myself, about age, love of life. tell them about joy.
to remind me that I should be practic compliment. I probably blushed. “You about life. I think I never felt more sexually
ing a shuffling stoop, hunching my made my day,” I said. O.K., I admit it. I suffer from ageism. alive than in my 50s and 60s, and yes, Sophy Burnham lives in Washington.
back, sitting heavily, taking naps. I didn’t tell him how embarrassed I I find myself buying into our cultural even 70s, free from the dangers of Her latest novel is “Love, Alba.”
about your friend’s whether she’s ill and, if so, to help her
Can a doctor refuse to treat
EVERYTHING YOU SAY
situation is, if true, known to her. What deal with it. Maybe that has already
you want her to do is to draw what you happened.
think is the obvious conclusion: that You don’t have very good reason, in
a patient who takes cannabis? she needs to break up with her partner,
find a new one and settle down to
motherhood. Perhaps you think that
short, to involve yourself here. And
bear in mind that one feature of eating
disorders is a preoccupation with how
legally required to treat patients in forcing her to face reality will get her you look to others; being addressed by
The Ethicist medical emergencies. Otherwise, to snap out of it and take some new a stranger in a gym who is worried by
though, doctors can mostly refuse course of action. your appearance is likely to exacerbate
service — as long as it’s consistent If you had reason to be confident that problem. Shame is part of the
with whatever agreements they’ve that your promptings would guide her psychic burden of many eating dis
B Y K WA M E A N T H O N Y A P P I A H made with their health care organiza to a life as a happily married mother, it orders (she may be struggling to re
tions or provider networks and isn’t in would certainly be ethical to proceed. cover from it), but so is a profound
violation of antidiscrimination laws. You’d be offering a gift of friendship. body dysmorphia. Hearing that she’s
A friend was recently diagnosed with There are shortages of doctors in many But I suspect you don’t have reason to too thin may have the opposite effect
multiple myeloma, a cancer of a type of places, so clinicians — especially the be confident about this. And you’ve than what you intend, by making her
white blood cell called plasma cells. ones with the best reputations — often identified the downsides: adding to her feel pleased that her behavior has
There is often significant pain associ- truthfully say they simply won’t take anxiety, sparking her resentment. It is succeeded in making her look the way
ated with this condition, and my friend new patients on board. an important maxim, widely ignored, she wants to look. As I cautioned in my
has been treated with high doses of While doctors don’t have a general that intervention is a good idea only if previous answer, we should intervene
different opioid combinations, in addi- obligation to take patients, they do it is likely to make things better. Many only when we’re likely to make things
tion to chemotherapy. My friend lives in have obligations to patients they have TOMI UM people think that a mediocre partner is better.
Colorado, where he has easy access to taken. Yes, doctors sometimes “fire” better than no partner at all. And
medical marijuana, and he asked his patients they find unpleasant, overly consider filing a complaint against the depending on their character and I recently started a new job. During the
oncologist if he could add this to his demanding or abusive. But the Ameri oncologist for making this threat. temperament, they may be right. application process, I was asked if I
regimen in hopes of decreasing his can Medical Association rightly calls As a medical matter, though, it’s not would be applying to graduate school in
dependence on opioids. The oncologist for physicians to ensure “continuity of a great idea to have a doctor who At the gym, I often see a woman who the near future, as their intention was
told him that he would refuse to treat care” in these cases — which involves doesn’t know what drugs you’re taking. appears to be severely underweight; I to have the new hire stay on for two to
my friend if he took any form of making sure that the patient can se Ideally, your friend would enlist the can’t help thinking that she may have three years. At the time, I was not
cannabis. Given his insurance coverage, cure another physician. You say that services of a specialist in pain manage an eating disorder. I’m not a medical intending on applying to graduate
my friend does not have the option of your friend has access to only this one ment or palliative care who could work professional, I don’t know her, I don’t school, but this has since changed. Must
changing physicians. oncologist. That’s disturbing, if true. In with his oncologist. Treating pain work at the gym, and I don’t have any I inform my new employers of my
The National Cancer Institute states a decent medical system, the ability to involves subjective considerations that information that isn’t plainly visible. I change in plans? There is a chance I
that cannabis may benefit patients switch doctors is a central element in make it very different from giving don’t want to intrude on her privacy may not be accepted into a program or
suffering from cancer-related side respecting patient autonomy. A situa chemotherapy, which is why people (for all I know, this woman may have receive enough funding to attend. I also
effects. Cannabis is routinely recom- tion in which a doctor can fire a patient skilled at the second sometimes falter some other underlying medical condi- took on personal risk by moving to the
mended for cancer patients to improve but not the other way around strikes at the first. And if your friend can’t tion and already be receiving medical other side of the country when accept-
appetite, decrease nausea and alleviate me as insupportable. come to terms with this oncologist, the care for it), but at the same time, it’s ing the offer. Name Withheld
pain. The medical literature is fairly As a general rule, what’s more, oncologist is ethically required to find difficult for me to see someone looking
consistent on the efficacy and minimal noncompliance is a poor justification him another. so painfully thin. For what it’s worth, UNLESS YOU PROMISED your new employ
side effects of cannabis, which has for terminating care. If this oncologist I’ve seen this woman at the gym for a ers not to apply to graduate school, the
specifically been shown to help patients has medical reasons for objecting to I have a friend in a long-term relation- year or more, which suggests that her truthful answer you offered in the
decrease opioid dependence. There are your friend’s use of cannabis — if he ship who has always wanted kids but weight is relatively stable, albeit very interview was what you owed them.
even some reports that cannabis may has specific concerns about drug inter has been putting off getting married to low. You might consider sticking around for
be a valuable adjunct to chemotherapy actions, say — he should explain them. her boyfriend and starting a family. I What is the most ethical course of a year, though, so that you could give
in cancer patients. (I’m assuming your friend isn’t en think it’s because she’s ambivalent action? And how would it be most them a good chunk of what they’d been
Is it ethical for the physician to deny rolled in an experimental protocol.) If about him. I’m worried that she is going helpful to engage with this woman if hoping for. That you’re not obliged to
treatment based on my friend’s taking it’s just that he disapproves of legal to lose her fertility window if she does- ethics demand that I can’t simply be a do so doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t be
cannabis? Is it ethical for my friend not marijuana use, that’s an abuse of the n’t leave him soon and find a better bystander? Name Withheld a decent thing to do.
to inform his oncologist if he chooses to doctorpatient relationship. Patients match. I don’t want to say anything
use cannabis? D.A. Kinderlehrer, M.D. aren’t obliged to help their doctors because I don’t want to add to her YOU KNOW ALMOST nothing about this Kwame Anthony Appiah teaches philos-
enforce a tyrannical demand, so there anxiety, but I don’t want to see her miss woman and have no relationship with ophy at N.Y.U. His books include “Cos-
LET ME START with your question about would be no moral reason your friend her chance and later regret it. Is it more her. Unless she’s completely friendless, mopolitanism,” “The Honor Code” and
the right of doctors to refuse service. should inform him of his cannabis use. ethical to share my concern or to stay there’s almost certainly someone who “The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Iden-
Doctors in the United States can be Indeed, your friend might want to quiet? Name Withheld is better placed than you to judge tity.”
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THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION SATURDAY-SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9-10, 2019 | 23
travel weekend
A recovering city
that’s ready to party
Puerto Rico’s capital is open for business, Saturday
welcoming visitors with its lovely beaches, Local beans 8 a.m.
energetic night life and gregarious charm Puerto Rican coffee farmers, who had
been doing a brisk business, lost about
80 percent of their crops in the after
36 Hours math of Hurricane Maria. But thanks to
in San Juan, P.R. a group of agricultural entrepreneurs
and activists, the industry is poised to
BY PAOLA SINGER get back on its feet. Head to upandcom
ing Loiza Street to sample a blend from
Nearly a year and a half after Hurricane local farms at Café con Cé, a tiny cafe
Maria hit, stories of hope and progress with interiors featuring deliberately tat
are emerging in Puerto Rico, just as the tered walls and Scandinavian furniture.
island’s tropical vegetation is flourish Hacienda San Pedro Coffee Shop, on
ing once again. While there is still much nearby Avenida de Diego, sells espres
work to be done, and some rural areas sos and lattes made with beans from the
might not fully recover for years, the mountains of central Puerto Rico.
capital, San Juan, has been humming
along for months. With a few exceptions, On the beach 10 a.m.
shops, hotels and restaurants are oper San Juan has miles of lovely beaches
ating as usual, and there are some note washed by turquoise waves. Isla Verde’s
worthy additions to the city’s lively din wide, uninterrupted swath of sand
ing scene. The cultural landscape is en fringed by palm trees is a favorite of
ergetic as well: LinManuel Miranda both locals and visitors. If swimming
made headlines with his reprisal of the and strolling isn’t enough, you can book
lead role in the musical “Hamilton,” a surf lesson or rent a Jet Ski from Wow
which played at San Juan’s main per Surfing School & Jet Ski, a water sports PHOTOGRAPHS BY DENNIS M. RIVERA PICHARDO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
forming arts center last month, and gal outfit with a permanent kiosk right be
leries in Santurce and Old San Juan are hind the El San Juan Hotel ($70 for a 30 roasted red and golden beets, shaved roster of both local and international with the manos santas massage, which The view from the
showcasing thoughtprovoking works minute Jet Ski rental). carrots marinated in turmeric and bands that play everything from bomba uses local botanical oils inspired by folk Castillo San Felipe
by local artists. As always, you’ll find shaved radishes, is arranged into a col and plena to indie rock and pop punk. loric healing practices (60minute treat del Morro, a 16th-
picturesque beaches, heady cocktails, Local produce noon orful tableau over a horseradish sauce. ments from $185). century fortress
contagious music and gregarious locals, Wander into the ample courtyard of the And the short rib encebollado, a take on perched on a
more eager than ever to welcome vis former Museo de San Juan, a 19thcen Puerto Rico’s traditional bistec encebol Sunday El brunch noon seaside bluff in
itors to their sunny corner of the Carib tury building that houses the Mercado lado (steak and onions marinated in a Sabrina Brunch and Bistro Bar doles out San Juan, P.R.
bean. Agrícola Natural Viejo San Juan. This mix of oil, vinegar and garlic), arrives Spa splurge 10 a.m. brunch classics with a Caribbean twist,
volunteerrun green market, held every with crispy onion rings and pickled shal Grab a quick café con leche and drive 30 including poached eggs atop mashed
Saturday, is where Puerto Rican farm lots ($29). minutes west to the RitzCarlton Re plantains with sliced avocado on the
Friday ers sell their produce: avocados, man serve at Dorado Beach — arguably the side. This cheerful restaurant on Loiza
gos, papayas and much more. There are Nocturnal rhythms 10 p.m. most beautiful resort in Puerto Rico — Street takes its name from the classic
Sweet sandwich 2 p.m. readytoeat snacks and drinks too, in La Placita de Santurce, a quiet market for an indulgent massage. Because of Audrey Hepburn movie, but the interi
Start your visit with a taste of the city. cluding empanadas, soups and freshly by day, is now the heart and soul of San extensive hurricanerelated damages, ors call to mind Carmen Miranda’s “Co
Bakeries throughout San Juan sell a be squeezed fruit juices. Juan’s night life. After dark, when the the sprawling waterfront property re pacabana,” with tropical flowers painted
loved pastry called mallorca, a doughy scores of bars that surround this plaza mained closed for nearly 18 months. It on the walls, neon pink signs and potted
sweet bun shaped like a spiral. It derives Old San Juan 2 p.m. open for business, the area becomes a finally reopened in October, with redone palms (brunch runs about $25). Or, if
from a Spanish specialty called en Old San Juan is one of the most charm veritable street party. Salsa tunes blast rooms and public areas and a refreshed, you prefer your last meal here to be out
saimada, originally from the Balearic Is ing and culturally significant colonial from various speakers, people break mostly al fresco Spa Botánico, en side, head to Lote 23, a food park with
lands. The Puerto Rican version is a tes districts in the New World, filled with into impromptu dance routines and the sconced in fruit trees (more than hipster vibes and young chefs offering
tament to Spain’s strong influence on colorful old houses and cobblestone rum flows. Nearby La Respuesta is the 300,000 plants were added to the re everything from slowroasted Puerto
the local cuisine (Puerto Rico was a streets. After taking in the views from place to go for live music. This small, sort’s gardens as part of the renova Rican pork to Asian noodles and Peruvi
Spanish colony from the early 1500s un the Castillo San Felipe del Morro, a 16th rougharoundtheedges venue books a tions). End your trip on a luxurious note an anticuchos.
til the late 1800s), but mostly it’s an ode century fortress perched on a seaside
to indulgence. At Kasalta, a popular cafe bluff ($7 for adults), take the short walk
and restaurant in the residential Ocean to the frequently overlooked Museo de
Park neighborhood, regulars order their las Américas, a small museum on the
mallorcas stuffed with ham and cheese. second floor of a military barracks from
The line cook slices the bread, assem 1854. It offers an overview of the region’s
bles the sandwich, presses it on a grid history, as well as temporary exhibi
dle until the cheese is melted and then tions by noteworthy Puerto Rican art
showers the whole thing with copious ists such as José R. Alicea, a printmaker
amounts of confectioners’ sugar. It’s a and painter ($6 for adults). Just steps
snack to end all snacks ($7.95). away is the Liga de Arte, an art school
with shows by emerging and estab
Sunset sail 5 p.m. lished artists. Its interior garden,
Bask in the soft evening sun and warm
Caribbean breeze while getting a visual
shaded by various tropical trees, is a
lovely spot to take a break (free).
We’re having an
and historical overview of San Juan Bay
aboard a classic sailboat. The bay’s mas Beyond piña coladas 6 p.m.
open house.
sive, centuriesold stone fortifications
convey the zeal of the conquistadors,
At some point during your visit, you’ll
probably have a piña colada, which was And you’re invited.
From urban condos to mountain castles and island
getaways, discover the new International Homes
section in the Weekend edition and enjoy a fresh
perspective on the global property market.
Starts Saturday, February 23.
La Placita de who leveraged Puerto Rico’s strategic invented in San Juan in the 1950s. But
Santurce, a quiet location to protect their vast interests in don’t miss out on the city’s contempo
market by day, is the New World (British and Dutch ar rary mixology scene. An unmarked door
the heart and soul madas, as well as a miscellany of pi in the Miramar neighborhood leads to
of San Juan’s night rates, were frequent threats). Led by Bar la Unidad, a dimly lit lounge deco
life. East Island Excursions, the 90minute rated with dark wood and tufted leather.
maritime jaunt includes informative Ask the talented bar staff to create a
talks, snacks and cocktails ($79). cocktail just for you, or try a signature
drink like the cortadito, a take on the old
Vegetarians’ soiree 7:30 p.m. fashioned, flavored with espresso and
Every Friday, the Dreamcatcher, a cozy chocolate bitters ($12). Jungle Bird, in
bedandbreakfast in Ocean Park, hosts nearby Santurce, a colorful and cen
vegetarian dinners prepared by a rotat trally located dining district, offers
ing group of local chefs. These events, Asian small plates and creative drinks
which are open to the public, have a re like a banana cocktail, made with gin,
laxing, convivial atmosphere, with pa ginger beer, bitters and dried banana
trons seated at candlelit communal ta slices ($13). Take your drink to the casu
bles under a leafy canopy. During a re al, tikistyle outdoor patio.
cent meal, the chef Verónica Quiles paid
tribute to the Taínos, the indigenous Pretty plates 8 p.m.
people of the Caribbean, with a tasting Francis Guzmán and Amelia Dill, a hus
menu that included dishes like tobacco bandandwife team who worked at the
smoked pumpkin with creamed taro James Beard awardwinning Blue Hill
root. Every ingredient was locally in New York City, moved to Puerto Rico subscribe.inyt.com
sourced with the help of the sustainable with plans to open their own restaurant
agriculture advocate Tara Rodríguez soon before Maria hit. The project was
Besosa, who researched the types of delayed but not abandoned. Vianda,
crops that existed in preColumbian which opened last March, offers an
times (from $45 for four courses, reser eclectic seasonal menu. An appetizer
vations required). called raices locales ($12), consisting of
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24 | SATURDAY-SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9-10, 2019 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION