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Trump names David Sacks as White House AI and crypto czarThousands of people took to the streets of the Slovakia capital Thursday to protest against Culture Minister Martina Simkovicova who has dismissed several heads of major cultural institutions and halted projects steered by LGBT+ associations under the pretext of promoting "Slovak culture". Simkovicova, a 53-year-old former television anchor, has been a controversial figure since taking office in October 2023. "I am frustrated and very angry about the way culture is being destroyed and organizations are falling apart," Svetlana Fialova, a 39-year-old visual artist and lecturer, told AFP. "What is happening in Slovakia is ... what is happening in Georgia, Hungary and other countries, where people who collaborate and play to Russian tunes are coming to power and trying to suppress democracy and culture," she said. "The culture of the Slovaks should be Slovak -- Slovak and none else," Simkovicova said in one early speech. Nominated by the nationalist Slovak National Party (SNS), she has also slammed "LGBT+ ideology" for causing Europe to "die out". Her views have appealed to Prime Minister Robert Fico from the centrist Smer party, whose objections to liberal values echo Viktor Orban, the prime minister of neighbouring Hungary. Simkovicova had worked notably for the Slovan TV channel, known for spreading conspiracy theories, xenophobia and pro-Russian views. Slovak National Gallery director Alexandra Kusa lost her job in August in what opponents said was part of Simkovicova's purge. "Culture ministry staff accompanied by a lawyer showed up in my office one day with a bunch of flowers and a notice," she told AFP. Kusa, who has been reduced to the post of exhibition curator, said the ministry had launched a derogatory campaign against her. She says she was punished for backing Matej Drlicka, the National Theatre director, who was sacked a day earlier. The head of the country's heritage institute was dismissed this week. "We are not compatible with the ministry. Their idea of culture is completely different from ours," Kusa said. She accuses the ministry of launching "an era of bullying and intimidation". "It's pure destruction and demonstration of power. It's terrible." The ministry did not respond to AFP's request to comment. Simkovicova also targets public media. In June, she pushed through a law reforming the state-run RTVS broadcaster into a new company, STVR, which is under her control. Analyst Pavol Hardos told AFP that wielding political influence over cultural institutions had a precedent in Slovakia. "This is something we experienced in the 1990s during the illiberal regime of Vladimir Meciar, when there were ideological tests and tests ... of who is a good nationalist, a good Slovak, and who isn't," he said. What is new is the government's "commitment to purge cultural institutions from anyone who is in any way perceived as potentially a political enemy", Hardos said. Open-minded and liberal people are "being targeted as a potential troublemaker, and people who are often enough real experts in their areas are being sidelined or thrown out," he added. Hardos said that while it was premature to talk about "an illiberal regime", Fico is walking in Orban's footsteps. The government is also targeting LGBT+ rights organisations. Early this year, Simkovicova said they would not get "a cent" from her ministry. She has recently curbed public subsidies for LGBT+ groups. "This concerns any project with links to LGBT+," said Martin Macko, head of the Iniciativa Inakost NGO. He said attacks on the minority were growing, as were the number of people being treated by the NGO's therapists. The situation has incited protests among artists, cultural institution staff and the public, who turn their backs on directors named by Simkovicova or read protest statements on theatre stages. Large rallies were held this year, mobilising tens of thousands of people. Two petitions written by artists have solicited 400,000 signatures in the EU member country of 5.4 million people. In the Slovak parliament, the opposition initiated a vote to dismiss Simkovicova, but the attempt fell through. "No culture ministry employee prevents anyone from being creative or expressing themselves," Simkovicova told the press. sc-anb-frj-kym/tw

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From , by Bachchoo This year I’ve received numerous Christmas greetings, cards through the post, texts on my phone and emails on the computer. I won’t say how many as a large number would seem like boasting and a meagre one will seem pathetic in comparison to the numbers my gentle readers may have received. The point is not to raise relative measures of popularity as with contemporary boasts of the numbers of “followers” one has on Twitter or the existence of hordes of Facebook or Linked-in “friends”. It’s to note the religious diversity of the greetings I’ve received: from Christians of course, but then in great numbers from Zoroastrians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, atheists and the undeclared. Why do all these send out best wishes for the festival celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ? It’s certainly not because they have all been recently baptised. It’s almost certainly because of European colonialism which took Christmas -- trees, stockings, lights, reindeer and all to very many parts of the globe. Which observation poses the question. Is there any part of our world which completely ignores Christmas? Is it forbidden to celebrate it in any jurisdiction, say that of the strict Ayatollah or Islamicist? Or is there a region of the world, some remote island in a forgotten ocean, where news of the Virgin Birth, 2024 years ago, hasn’t reached? Two incidents in this Christmas advent week drew my attention as at least one of them is connected to such antagonism. In Syria, a group of masked men set fire to a Christmas tree which had been installed in the public square by the majority Christian population of that town. There followed mass demonstrations all over Syria by Christians and their supporters protesting against the purportedly blasphemous, but certainly aggressive and offensive, arson. The “government” of Syria which, after the recent expulsion of President Bashar al-Assad, seems to be in the hands of the dominant insurgent group which brought about his expulsion, has pronounced the presumably-Islamicist arsonists as criminals. There’s hope there as it indicates that this “government” takes seriously its pronouncement that all religions and sects in multi-faith Syria will be equally respected. Acts of aggression by one sect against another will not be tolerated. True secularism? A lesson and model for the Middle East? Hope springs eternal? Then there was the very strange video, circulated universally, of a Muslim cleric in full Arab garb standing on Tower Bridge in London, facing the Thames and loudly pronouncing verses from the Quran. He was filmed by the media and protected as he prayed by the Metropolitan Police. Again, an act of secular tolerance. Shame on the Brit and right-Tory antagonism towards the minorities. God save our gracious Tolerance... etc. Fire has been the weapon of lethal and sometimes symbolic antagonism throughout history. It’s not certain whether Nero didn’t like Rome, but it’s true that the SOB Alexander-the-damned set fire to the Persian capital Persepolis through a demented, inebriate desire to leave no stone of Persian imperial greatness unburnt. Then there were the poor women burnt at the stake for being accused of witchcraft. Even so, this was in my short and happy life the first time I’ve heard of setting a Christmas tree on fire to demonstrate a disapproval of Christmas. Yes, books have been burnt through the ages by people who disagreed with their content. In our times the outstanding case was that of Salman Rushdie’s being ritualistically burnt by Islamist activists all over the world. They weren’t arrested, though the burning of books accompanied by incendiary speeches appeals to me as a “hate crime” and even a provocation to worse. I am, gentle reader, in every way against such book burning. Except of course if say 20,000 or a million people object to something in one of my books and each buys a copy to burn. It would of course increase carbon pollution, but it would also probably help to propel my book into the best-seller list. No such luck, even though my first published book, way back in 1976, faced some opposition and even public demonstrations. It was (is?) called -- a collection of short stories published by Macmillan. One of the stories called “Pushy’s Pimples” is about the contemplation of sex by a young teenage British-Indian girl. Another story contains a quoted line from a very popular and widely circulated Rolling Stones’ song with the word “Starf---r” repeated a few times. A few days after its publication the Macmillan editor rang me to say that there was a demonstration outside a South London school demanding that the book be withdrawn from the curriculum. The next day the published an editorial denouncing my book. I got an invitation from ITV, the national commercial station, to debate the Torygraph’s editor. I went and pointed out to him that the demonstration at the school gates was led by the National Front, Britain’s avowedly fascist party. So did the demo, editorial and TV debate help sell copies? Are lions non-vegetarian?

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