{"id":61720,"date":"2021-01-11T06:00:31","date_gmt":"2021-01-10T19:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=61720"},"modified":"2021-01-11T16:24:49","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T05:24:49","slug":"the-12th-madeleine-award-picturing-a-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-12th-madeleine-award-picturing-a-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"The 12th Madeleine Award: picturing a pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

In the Covid era of gloom, doom and Zoom, Australia\u2019s prime minister went to summit meetings while doing 14 days quarantine. And the lockdown PM fronted the cameras with board shorts and thongs just out of camera shot.<\/p>\n

What became normal in an abnormal year introduces the annual Madeleine Award for the use of symbol, stunt, prop, gesture or jest.<\/p>\n

The Madeleine is inspired by the former US secretary of state and ambassador to the UN, who sent diplomatic messages via her lapel brooches.<\/p>\n

Rather than \u2018read my lips\u2019, Madeleine Albright\u2019s messaging was\u00a0\u2018read my pins\u2019<\/a>. Her favourite mistake was wearing\u00a0a trio of monkey brooches<\/a>\u00a0to meet Vladimir Putin, causing the Russian to go ape.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Over its dozen years, the Madeleine Award has spawned several minor prizes. First up, the Diana<\/a> on \u2018the utility and force of photographs<\/a>\u2019, named for Diana, Princess of Wales, a princess who understood pics: \u2018As Diana used to say, the picture is what counts<\/a>\u2019, former UK prime minister Tony Blair wrote.<\/p>\n

The Diana goes to that image of Scott Morrison doing virtual business during virus. Up top, the business shirt and coat, but below the belt\u2014well, all bets are off, just like the belt. The prime minister clarified: \u2018Just FYI, they\u2019re boardies, not PJ shorts.\u2019 So dress code for the G20 or APEC is yes to board shorts but no to pyjama shorts.<\/p>\n

Strange times, indeed.<\/p>\n

Which leads to the OOPS! Award<\/a> for blooper and blunder<\/a>, also known as a \u2018Boris\u2019, saluting a British prime minister who proves blunders needn\u2019t define careers. When sacked from shadow cabinet, many moons ago, Boris Johnson commented: \u2018There are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters.\u2019 It seems so right that this year\u2019s Boris is for a runaway hair crash.<\/p>\n

The OOPS! goes to the melting moment<\/a> suffered by US President Donald Trump\u2019s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani<\/a>, as hair dye, or maybe mascara<\/a>, ran down his face during a press conference. Here was hair malfunction as metaphor for the melting of the Trump presidency. Ageing leaders around the world shuddered: \u2018There but for the grace of God, and my hairdresser, go I.\u2019<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

In politics, a lot of dyeing goes on. In his memoir<\/a>, Trump\u2019s predecessor Barack Obama notes the black-hair fixation in Beijing (\u2018as far as I could tell, few Chinese leaders turned gray as they aged\u2019) and on a 2009 meeting with Saudi Arabia\u2019s King Abdullah, \u2018an octogenarian with a jet-black moustache and beard (male vanity seemed to be a common trait among world leaders)\u2019.<\/p>\n

Now for the Orwell prize<\/a> for double-think and euphemism (North Korea is barred from this category, because it\u2019d win most years). China gets the gong for denying that it\u2019s sending Uyghurs to gulags, instead claiming Muslims are going to \u2018vocational education and training centres\u2019<\/a> for \u2018re-education\u2019<\/a>. See ASPI\u2019s Xinjiang Data Project<\/a>, which is Orwellian in the noblest sense (rigorous analysis, tightly written).<\/p>\n

As Trump leaves the White House, George Orwell\u2019s pronouncement in his 1946 essay \u2018Politics and the English language\u2019<\/a> resonates anew: \u2018Political language\u2014and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists\u2014is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Donald\u2019s presidency has lived out Private Eye<\/em>\u2019s<\/a> prediction on the president\u2019s inauguration in January 2017. The Eye<\/em>\u2019s cover picture of Trump taking the oath of office had these words coming from his mouth: \u2018I swear to tell the post-truth, the alternative truth and nothing like the truth.\u2019 Some jibes go straight to the truth. In the history of the Trump presidency, the manner of his leaving will be a dark scar serving as a final, dark exclamation point.<\/p>\n

The Madeleine Award\u2019s focus on symbol, stunt, prop, gesture or jest means political protests are often in the running. Singapore gets a mention for charging an activist with violating the public-order law by holding up a sign with a smiley face<\/a>. In Singapore, brandishing a smiley face<\/a> in front of a police station is no laughing matter.<\/p>\n

In Thailand\u2019s battle royal (the king versus his people) the three-finger salute<\/a> from The Hunger Games<\/em> has become a gesture of resistance and call for democracy (a potent makeover for the boy scout\/girl guide salute). Large inflatable yellow ducks<\/a> also serve as playful symbols\u2014and shields against water cannon. Thailand\u2019s democracy battle happens on both streets and screens: see ASPI\u2019s Quicktake<\/em><\/a> on how activism is shaped and amplified by social media and digital activism\u2014and the pushback, using the same tools, by the government and military.<\/p>\n

The 12th annual Madeleine, however, doesn\u2019t go to a smiley face, a salute or a duck.<\/p>\n

The emblem of a dire year must be\u2014drum roll, please\u2014the face mask.<\/p>\n

In the face of the global virus, masking has gone viral around the world.<\/p>\n

A response to pandemic, the mask has become personal and political; a health measure for protection and precaution now has social meaning and often legal weight. That\u2019s quite a load for two loops over the ears and a piece of material across the nose and mouth.<\/p>\n

Australian researchers writing a book on the face mask during Covid<\/a> say it\u2019s part of a culture of decoration,\u00a0fashion<\/a> and self-expression, with customised face masks<\/a>\u00a0available for bridal wear<\/a>, footy matches<\/a>,\u00a0birthdays<\/a>,\u00a0baptisms<\/a>,\u00a0bar and bat mitzvahs<\/a>,\u00a0first communions<\/a>\u00a0and even\u00a0funerals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 12th Madeleine Award goes to the face mask as a sign of our times, along with some typical wisdom<\/a> from Madeleine Albright: \u2018I am an optimist who worries a lot.\u2019<\/p>\n

As La Madeleine would say, embrace the job and the joy, not the jingoism<\/a>\u2014and wash your hands!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Covid era of gloom, doom and Zoom, Australia\u2019s prime minister went to summit meetings while doing 14 days quarantine. 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