I wish everybody a Happy New Year 🎆. 2020 was a year like no other. The pandemic put normal life on pause. 🇲🇻tourism collapsed, thousands lost jobs and incomes, children missed schooling, some of us lost loved ones. Few of us will miss 2020. Thread (1/9)

The new year brings hope: of the speedy roll-out of the vaccine, and the eventual end to this horrible virus. I urge all Maldivians to take the coronavirus vaccine as soon as it becomes available. 💉👊🏾🦠(2/9)
@mvpeoplesmajlis worked well this year -- passing many important bills. No longer a corrupt, rubber stamp, Majlis now holds Government to account, upholds Constitution, debates important issues and passes legislation crucial to our country’s success. 🇲🇻🇲🇻🇲🇻 (3/9)
I'm very pleased @mvpeoplesmajlis helped ensure the international border reopened in July. Re-opening quickly was a good decision, and led to mini-boom in tourism we see today. We would have been in a much worse position if we kept the border closed. 🛬=💰 (4/9)
I hope 2021 sees 🇲🇻unite behind a peaceful and more tolerant vision for the future, without the bigotry and hatred we have sometimes seen in past months. We must learn to listen to the other side, and forge compromise where possible. (5/9)
I look forward to 2021 as year of peace and stability in 🇲🇻 & Indian Ocean region. We must work constructively with all international partners, especially our neighbours and traditional friends and allies. (6/9)
I'm excited about plans for 🇲🇻energy sector. Let's phase out expensive, imported fossil fuels such as oil🛢️and gas. Maldives has☀️in abundance - we should use solar to get to net zero. @mvpeoplesmajlis will ensure transparency & public consultation in energy plans. (7/9)
Not everything in 2021 will be smooth ⛵. Even if resorts are full and we sell lots of 🐟, Gov finances will be in a mess. Previous gov. took on🏔️ of debt. Let us hope 🇨🇳 will be kind & give certainty to verbal expressions of debt relief. (8/9)
Despite our challenges, I remain optimistic. Maldivians have always persevered and prospered, in spite of the odds. I have every confidence in the character & ingenuity of our people. Our best times are yet to come. 🇲🇻💪🏿(9/9)

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Patriotism is an interesting concept in that it’s excepted to mean something positive to all of us and certainly seen as a morally marketable trait that can fit into any definition you want for it.+


Tolstoy, found it both stupid and immoral. It is stupid because every patriot holds his own country to be the best, which obviously negates all other countries.+

It is immoral because it enjoins us to promote our country’s interests at the expense of all other countries, employing any means, including war. It is thus at odds with the most basic rule of morality, which tells us not to do to others what we would not want them to do to us+

My sincere belief is that patriotism of a personal nature, which does not impede on personal and physical liberties of any other, is not only welcome but perhaps somewhat needed.

But isn’t adherence to a more humane code of life much better than nationalistic patriotism?+

Göring said, “people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”+

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I just finished Eric Adler's The Battle of the Classics, and wanted to say something about Joel Christiansen's review linked below. I am not sure what motivates the review (I speculate a bit below), but it gives a very misleading impression of the book. 1/x


The meat of the criticism is that the history Adler gives is insufficiently critical. Adler describes a few figures who had a great influence on how the modern US university was formed. It's certainly critical: it focuses on the social Darwinism of these figures. 2/x

Other insinuations and suggestions in the review seem wildly off the mark, distorted, or inappropriate-- for example, that the book is clickbaity (it is scholarly) or conservative (hardly) or connected to the events at the Capitol (give me a break). 3/x

The core question: in what sense is classics inherently racist? Classics is old. On Adler's account, it begins in ancient Rome and is revived in the Renaissance. Slavery (Christiansen's primary concern) is also very old. Let's say classics is an education for slaveowners. 4/x

It's worth remembering that literacy itself is elite throughout most of this history. Literacy is, then, also the education of slaveowners. We can honor oral and musical traditions without denying that literacy is, generally, good. 5/x