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The Hindu
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Disney is in our DNA
If they cannot have good drainage, let them have Disneyland? The news that there might be a Disneyland spread over 500 acres of Manesar in Gurugram has set social media afire. It's an excuse for AI-generated images of Disney castles and Mickey Mouse wandering through the office parks of Gurugram. Many Gurugram residents reeling from recent floods and past dengue outbreaks have rolled their eyes at the idea. Sanjiv Kapoor, former CEO of Jet Airways, put up pictures of wandering cows in Gurugram and scoffed: 'And you want to build a Disneyland in Haryana? Ludicrous!' Columnist Rajyasree Sen pointed at 'Manesar Hill Site' or 4,000 MT of untreated waste lying at the Sector 6 dumping site and wondered if instead of Disney's famous Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride we would get the Big Trash Mountain ride. And given Gurugram's recent floods, it seems more suited for Water World rather than Disney World anyway. An AI reel went viral with the caption 'Disneyland in India? Chaos, paan stains, and Mickey throwing hands! Watch this wild ride!' In it, a security guard chases a man running away with Minnie Mouse tucked under his arm. Entire families with stainless steel dabbas sit down for banana leaf picnic lunches on a ride. A man in a lungi spits out a volley of red paan juice on a 'No Spitting' sign. Some would say these are unfair, just spoilsports who don't understand the spirit of Hakuna Matata because Gurugram just can't wait to be king. But in truth, it's a great idea. With the recent immigration crackdown, U.S. visas are getting harder to come by. How wonderful it would be if we could get our Disneyland selfies in India itself. This would be our version of 'If Muhammad cannot go to the mountain, the mountain will come to Muhammad'. Lending an Indian touch Each Disneyland, whether in Paris or Shanghai, comes with some unique rides tailored to local sensitivities though the brand is unmistakably always Disney. Shanghai's version of Sleeping Beauty's castle shows Chinese influences. The Paris Disneyland avoids American flags. Maybe the Indian Disneyland can have Mickey Mouse doing yoga. But it's a great lesson in the projection of soft power, something India is deeply interested in these days. Disney can offer a masterclass on how to export the idea of Americana but make it so feel-good, it does not feel like cultural imperialism. This is Americana you are happy to take a selfie with. Disney has not commented on whether this is really in the works and it's not clear whether this is Disneyland or just a Disney-like theme park. That's just a minor detail for those of us who grew up in India wearing 'Lavis' jeans because Levi's were not available. I live in Kolkata where a park has economy-version replicas of the wonders of the world from the Colosseum to Christ the Redeemer. The city is dotted with replicas of Big Ben. When the original Big Ben in London was closed for repairs, Kolkata's Little Bens tolled away merrily. Meanwhile in America No one can deny Disneyland's timeless appeal. I thought myself too cool for it in the years I lived in California. When my parents visited from India they had two requests — McDonald's burgers (that had not arrived in India yet) and Disneyland. I succumbed and took them to Disneyland and stopped for McDonald's on the way. They look so happy in the photographs, like children again, going on little boat rides for It's A Small World, and watching fireworks explode over the fairytale castle. Disney is in our DNA and there's no getting away from it. Its appeal spans generations. It is in many ways the American Dream supersized, super-sweet, candy-coloured and utterly unreal. Its motto 'Happiest place on earth' is sheer PR triumph. But in these troubled times, even Disneyland in Anaheim, California, has not been spared. U.S. vice president J.D. Vance visited recently with his family. California governor Gavin Newsom wrote on X: 'Hope you enjoy your family time, @JDVance. The families you're tearing apart certainly won't.' Newsom was referring to aggressive immigration raids conducted by federal agents, especially in Southern California. '35% of Anaheim's residents are immigrants. Disneyland doesn't run without them,' Newsom's account reminded Vance. Back to happy times Gurugram, with its housing complexes with names like Palm Springs and Malibu Heights, was always aspiring to project Americana in Haryana. Disneyland would feel right at home in it. It seems entirely fitting that in its Vishwaguru avatar, India too should claim Disneyland's tagline of being the happiest place on earth. America, torn apart by Donald Trump's culture wars and immigration raids, certainly doesn't feel like it anymore. Sandip Roy, the author of Don't Let Him Know, likes to let everyone know about his opinions, whether asked or not.
Chicago Tribune
11-07-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: Aaron Burr shoots Alexander Hamilton in duel
Today is Friday, July 11, the 192nd day of 2024. There are 173 days left in the year. Today in History: On July 11, 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton during a pistol duel in Weehawken, New Jersey. (Hamilton died the next day.) Also on this date: In 1798, the U.S. Marine Corps was formally re-established by a congressional act that also created the U.S. Marine Band. In 1859, Big Ben, the great bell inside the famous London clock tower, chimed for the first time. In 1864, Confederate forces led by Gen. Jubal Early began an abortive invasion of Washington, D.C., and his raid was turned back the next day. In 1914, Babe Ruth made his Major League baseball debut, pitching the Boston Red Sox to a 4-3 victory over Cleveland. In 1921, fighting in the Irish War of Independence ended with a truce. In 1960, Harper Lee's novel 'To Kill a Mockingbird' was published. In 1972, the World Chess Championship opened as grandmasters Bobby Fischer of the United States and defending champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union began play in Reykjavik, Iceland. (Fischer won after 21 games.) In 1979, the abandoned U.S. space station Skylab made a spectacular return to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere and showering debris over the Indian Ocean and Australia. In 1991, a Nigeria Airways DC-8 carrying Muslim pilgrims crashed at the Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, international airport, killing all 261 people on board. In 1995, the U.N.-designated 'safe haven' of Srebrenica in Bosnia-Herzegovina fell to Bosnian Serb forces, who subsequently carried out the killings of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys. In 2006, eight bombs hit a commuter rail network during evening rush hour in Mumbai, India, killing more than 200 people. In 2022, President Joe Biden revealed the first image from NASA's new space telescope, the farthest humanity had ever seen in both time and distance, closer to the dawn of the universe and the edge of the cosmos. Today's Birthdays: Fashion designer Giorgio Armani is 91. Actor Susan Seaforth Hayes is 82. Actor Bruce McGill is 75. Actor Stephen Lang is 73. Actor Mindy Sterling is 72. Actor Sela Ward is 69. Reggae singer Michael Rose (Black Uhuru) is 68. Singer Peter Murphy (Bauhaus) is 68. Actor Mark Lester is 67. Saxophonist Kirk Whalum is 67. Singer Suzanne Vega is 66. Rock guitarist Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi) is 66. Actor Lisa Rinna is 62. Author Jhumpa Lahiri is 58. Wildlife expert Jeff Corwin is 58. Actor Justin Chambers (TV: 'Grey's Anatomy') is 55. Actor Michael Rosenbaum (TV: 'Smallville') is 53. Rapper Lil' Kim is 51. Pro Football Hall of Famer Andre Johnson is 44. Pop-jazz singer-musician Peter Cincotti is 42. Actor Serinda Swan is 41. Actor David Henrie is 36. Actor Connor Paolo is 35. R&B/pop singer Alessia Cara is 29.
Top Gear
01-07-2025
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Spotted! Lando Norris's 1,000bhp Liberty Walk GT-R being towed through London
F1 ace's specially liveried Nissan is heading to Silverstone… via Big Ben Turn on Javascript to see all the available pictures. Sure, Big Ben is really quite big, but is it as big as a specially liveried Nissan GT-R with 1,000bhp heading to a really really quite big event this weekend? No. No it is not. Spotted here crawling across Westminster Bridge is McLaren F1 ace Lando Norris's very own GT-R. A Liberty Walk GT-R with many horsepowers and an eye-catching livery that matches his helmet design, strapped to the back of an army truck headed for Silverstone.
Otago Daily Times
24-06-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Feedback sought on proposed sale
Interested parties are having their say on the sale of a farmer-owned flour mill in South Canterbury's Washdyke which must get Commerce Commission clearance to go ahead. The commission has received an application from George Weston Foods, trading as Mauri New Zealand, to buy the wheat milling and storage assets, including land, used by Farmers Mill. It has gone out to interested parties after the release of a statement of preliminary issues to investigate if the buyout would reduce competition. Submissions close on July 3. A purchase price was undisclosed with the sale subject to conditions including regulatory approval from the commission. The mill was opened in Washdyke in 2013 as New Zealand's only independent grower-owned and operated flour producer. Farmers Mill supplies bulk and bagged flour to industrial food manufacturers, bakeries and some retailers. The mill is owned by Grainstor, the South Island's largest grain storage facility. Directors for both companies are listed as Ashley Biggs, Raymond Bowan, Antony Howey and Murray Turley. A Commerce Commission spokeswoman said in a statement the commission could only give clearance to a proposed merger if it was satisfied it was unlikely to have the effect of substantially lessening competition in a market. Mauri operates flour mills in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, supplying flour in bulk to large users of flour such as industrial food manufacturers and bagged flour to wholesalers, bakeries and supermarkets. Mauri flour is also used by George Weston Foods' bakery division to produce breads and bakery goods under brands including Tip Top bread and Big Ben pies. Australian-based George Weston Foods is owned by Associated British Foods Plc, a company listed on the London Stock Exchange. Both Mauri and Farmers Mill also supply a broll byproduct of the wheat-milling process most commonly used as an input for animal feed. Farmers Mill bought its wheat-milling plant from a company in Italy in 2012 for about $12 million. When the mill was launched the following year with former prime minister John Key cutting the ribbon, Mr Turley, as chairman, said South Canterbury arable farmers had teamed up to mill their own grain to gain more control of their grain production and create a homegrown product. "We have harnessed our own resources to secure the industry's future, investing more than $10 million to get Farmers Mill up and running," he said at the time. Initially 12 local farmers were involved in the ground-up building of the mill. The commission expects to make a decision by August 7, although this could be extended as the investigation progresses.
Telegraph
22-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Sadiq Khan is killing literary tradition. My great-aunt Virginia Woolf would be horrified
Walking through Westminster I always think of my great-aunt Virginia Woolf's words: 'One feels even in the midst of the traffic, or waking at night… a particular hush, or solemnity, an indescribable pause; a suspense before Big Ben strikes. There! Out it boomed.' While Big Ben is now booming out across the city, there isn't much else that my great-aunt would recognise. London has changed quite a bit over the past few years, especially under Sir Sadiq Khan. The first London Mayor to win a third term, Khan has repeatedly pledged to end rough sleeping in the capital, to tackle air pollution, to increase living standards for Londoners, and to end crime on the streets. And yet in Westminster and across central London one is these days confronted by spreading tent encampments, roadworks and rubbish-strewn streets. One-way traffic systems are everywhere, pedestrianised zones, bike lanes weaving in and out of buses, and baffling roundabouts. Certainly devoted readers of Mrs Dalloway – the most popular and most 'London' of her books – many of whom are making the pilgrimage to Bloomsbury this Sunday to mark the novel's centenary, might not recognise the London of its pages. Born in Kensington in 1882, Virginia Woolf was a Londoner to her core, from her earliest years in Hyde Park Gate, the childhood walks around Kensington Gardens and the Round Pond, and visits to the South Kensington museums. As a young woman, London was the epicentre of her social life and creative milieu, as part of the famous Bloomsbury Group. This included Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Maynard Keynes and Lytton Strachey, the adventurous and sometimes scandalous group of artists, writers and political thinkers who (according to Dorothy Parker) had 'lived in squares, painted in circles and loved in triangles'. London was also the inspiration for Virginia's writing and her solace in low moods, as she struggled throughout her adult life with the depression which would eventually overwhelm her. She found escape from her thoughts through walking, or as she called it 'street-haunting'. She walked alone through Westminster, Regent's Park, Bloomsbury, unseen, collecting and absorbing the sights around her, always trying to capture some essence of the city and its people: 'I stop in London sometimes and hear feet shuffling. That's the language, I think; that's the phrase I should like to catch.' Clarissa Dalloway, just like her author, felt that walking in London was 'better than walking in the country', allowing her to escape and lose herself in 'that vast republican army of anonymous trampers'. The novel takes place on a single day, Wednesday 13 June 1923 (and this so-called 'DallowDay' is celebrated every year in the heart of Bloomsbury by wonderfully eccentric Virginia devotees from America and around the world). It follows the heroine from early morning through to the evening of the day on which she is giving a large formal party. Hence those evocative opening lines: 'Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.' Virginia adored W1 and the surrounding area, sending Clarissa Dalloway off to buy gloves on Bond Street. In her diary from the early 1920s, Virginia recalls 'a fine spring day. I walked along Oxford St. The buses are strung on a chain. People fight and struggle. Knocking each other off the pavement. Old bareheaded men; a motor car accident etc. To walk alone in London is the greatest rest.' So why isn't Sadiq Khan celebrating London's rich literary legacy? Our city streets are steeped in fictional characters, in the sights and sounds of our most famous literary scenes, the haunts and the houses of authors beloved the world over. It's not only Virginia's Bloomsbury and Clarissa Dalloway strolling through Westminster, it's Charles Dickens's Camden Town, Anthony Trollope's Mayfair, Wordsworth 's Westminster Bridge, Robert Louis Stevenson's Hampstead, Arnold Bennett 's Clerkenwell, Arthur Conan Doyle's Baker Street, to say nothing of George Orwell and Henry James – the list is endless. We should be shouting from the rooftops about London: not in a contrived 'city of culture' way, but to preserve our unique literary heritage and capitalise on it. Instead of the relentless virtue-signalling, the rainbow-painted crossings and the Windrush line, what about an Orlando line, a Pickwick line or a Sherlock Holmes line? Instead of which, taxi drivers taking tourists into these parts of central London are increasingly trapped and gridlocked – as a Bloomsbury cabbie said to me yesterday: 'It's a bloody nightmare.' There are a few blue plaques, but every one of the famous squares could display public information, art and writings from that iconic bohemian set. Children at London schools should be reading and visiting our best London authors, their houses and local streets, getting excited about growing up here. Instead of waging war on drivers with his low traffic neighbourhoods and Ulez schemes, the Mayor could focus on what's already here, he could welcome curious literary pilgrims from around the world and show off everything London has to offer. Instead of the rainbow flags, why not emblazon the images of our greatest London writers on the side of buses? Why not display their writings across the TfL network to inspire commuters and tourists as they travel across our capital city? At London airports too, we could welcome and inspire visitors with a reminder of our truly unique literary heritage. The irony is that Virginia Woolf would be a fabulous woke icon for the Mayor if only he knew it, the most rainbow of all writers, with her rumoured lesbian leanings and her passionate love affair with Vita Sackville-West. Just look at Virginia's gender-bending Orlando (1928) in which the main character transitions sex from male to female, a ground-breaking novel which she admitted to Vita 'is all about you and the lusts of your flesh and the lure of your mind.' Instead of slapping a trigger warning QR code on her statue in Tavistock Square, why not celebrate her as a feminist and gay icon, and an experimental literary genius? One hundred years ago Virginia mused on London: 'For heaven only knows why one loves it so, how one sees it so, making it up, building it round one, tumbling it, creating it every moment afresh… In people's eyes, in the swing, tramp, and trudge, in the bellow and the uproar, the carriages, motor cars, omnibuses, vans, sandwich men, in the triumph and the jingle and the strange high singing of some aeroplane overhead was what she loved; life; London; this moment in June.'
