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AFROSURF: New Book Highlights Surf Culture in Africa
Picture a surfer. You probably imagine someone blonde and blue eyed—a classic Southern California type, The Beach Boys playing in the background. Maybe you think of Elvis and one of his many surf movies. Heck, you’re more apt to see Scooby Doo on a board than a person of color. Like many sports in the US, surfing has been actively non-inclusive—a stark reality that Selema Masekela came to understand as a teenager surfing in Southern California in the 1980s. “There were no other [Black] kids doing it,” Masekela says. “And the kids in my school were very much informative in making sure I knew that. Everything from ‘You people don’t swim,…
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China’s zero-Covid policy: An infected 4-year-old separated from his parents highlights its human cost
The video serves as a poignant reminder of the human cost of China’s prized zero-Covid policy, which has helped the country quell multiple resurgences of the virus. The elimination playbook consists of placing entire neighborhoods under lockdown, testing millions of residents in a matter of days, and swiftly isolating infected people and their close contacts in designated facilities. This time, the strict measures were applied to schoolchildren — among whom the outbreak was first detected and spread quickly. In Putian, 57 of its recently reported 129 cases are under the age of 12, according to the government. To prevent further transmission, infected children as young as kindergarten age are separated…