#34: CREDIT SUISSE'S GENDER-FLUID EXECUTIVE
Teaching kids to read early is racist + Austria wants a European "Trump wall" + court orders public broadcaster to pay vaccine critic + MORE!
CREDIT SUISSE’S GENDER-FLUID EXECUTIVE
Many have heard of Credit Suisse’s troubles, but did you know one its chief executives is a non-binary genderfluid man who sometimes pretends to be a woman?
“Pippa” or Philip Bunce is a senior director at Credit Suisse where he heads the bank’s Global Markets Core Engineering Strategic Programs.
He also leads the bank’s LGBT Ally Program.
The Brit also received a a spot on the Financial Times’ Top 100 Women in Business list.
According to Bunce, he only sometimes decides to dress as a woman and has chosen not to transition fully.
"For me, being gender fluid means I am non-binary, at no fixed point on the gender expression spectrum,” said Bunce.
“I personally have no desire to transition — it doesn’t affect my physical makeup, whereas for others that identify the same, they do wish to transition — there really are no hard and fast rules as these are only labels.”
Earlier this week, Credit Suisse saw 30% of its stock value drop, sending markets into disarray with many predicting a financial domino effect.
Credit Suisse has since looked to Switzerland’s central bank for a bailout, borrowing $54 billion to restore confidence.
TEACHING KIDS TO READ BEFORE PRIMARY SCHOOL IS RACIST
The head of France’s “Observatory of Inequalities” wrote in a column that teaching kids to read before they enter primary school was racist and furthered social inequalities between students.
In a column posted to the organization’s website, Louis Maurin, called the early teaching of reading “a crucible of inequalities.”
“Too early teaching of reading, by parents and at school, widens the inequalities from the first grade,” writes Maurin.
“The earlier one learns to read, the greater the inequalities in success because privileged backgrounds have a head start.”
The solution Maurin proposes is to hold back kids from so-called “privileged backgrounds” and push back the age of learning to read by one year.
“There are two ways to reduce inequalities in reading. The first is to try to develop the vocabulary of children from working-class backgrounds from the first years of their lives,” says Maurin.
“This requires considerable means, for uncertain effects … It would be both fairer and more effective to push back the age of learning to read in school by one year.”
AUSTRIA DEMANDS EUROPEAN TRUMP “BORDER WALL”
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, is taking a cue from the playbook of former US president Donald Trump.
Nehammer recently called on European Union countries to seriously consider building a border wall along their eastern borders, akin to Trump’s proposed US-Mexico boundary.
"We need effective barriers," said Nehammer. "They have to be very high, they have to go very deep into the ground and they have to be monitored consistently - technically and personally."
According to Nehammer, Austria’s federal police have been studying how the US has handled illegal immigration in the past to inform potential solutions to Europe’s mass migration problem.
"The chief of our federal police is currently right there," said Nehammer.
“He’s looking at the US-Mexico border to see what measures are working. Our aim is to then share this knowledge with other EU countries such as Bulgaria in order to improve our EU border protection.”
Austria has called for a border fence for some time now and the idea seems to be picking up steam among a portion of the EU.
Recently, the European Union announced a boost in funding for border surveillance, especially for Austria, which has seen a surge in arrivals.
COURT ORDERS STATE BROADCASTER TO PAY VACCINE CRITIC
A prominent European vaccine critic who was the subject of a clandestine interview meant to ridicule her by Swedish state broadcaster SVT has received a favourable ruling from a court.
SVT was ordered to pay Linda Karlstrom 100,000 Swedish Krona ($9,532 USD) over its filming of the series “The Vaccine Warrior.”
Using hidden cameras and false pretenses, journalists with the state outlet interviewed Karlstrom in her home.
The documentary then accused Karlstrom of having extreme views and being an “anti-Semite.”
After the government’s Review Board for Radio and Television turned down Karlstrom’s appeals regarding the program, she was forced to hire a lawyer who received the successful verdict.
"In the present case, Linda Karlström's right to her privacy has been violated. It is a matter of publication of material that was accessed through a hidden camera and through deception by Linda Karlström. The publication has been widely distributed and is still on SVT Play," ruled the Stockhold District Court.
2.5 TONNES OF URANIUM HAS GONE MISSING
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is raising the alarm after 2.5 tonnes of uranium stored in a Libyan site has disappeared.
Although not readily available to be employed in the production of warheads, with the right know-how the product can be enriched and used to create nuclear weapons.
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi warned member states that 10 barrels of the substance have gone unaccounted for following inspections.
“Safeguards inspectors found that 10 drums containing approximately 2.5 tons of natural uranium in the form of uranium ore concentrate were not present as previously declared at a location in the state of Libya,” said Grossi.
“Further activities will be conducted by the agency to clarify the circumstances of the removal of the nuclear material and its current location”.