Every Monday on Global Comment, we share the slow, thoughtful, considerate words that our brains – and souls – need but that it’s easy to miss in our busy world. We distil the best of the web and recommend just three links every week that you absolutely must see. No fluff, no fuss, just three exceptional reads. Here are this week’s recommendations:
How anti-trans activists forced Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre into lockdown (Adam Ramsay / Open Democracy)
Edinburgh’s Rape Crisis Centre had always kept its front door open so survivors could walk in whenever they needed help. But last autumn, after staff at the centre took advice from the police, the door was shut and locked. And after they consulted with security experts, a new, stronger inner door was added. When openDemocracy went to interview them, access was through a buzzer system. “It’s only recently that I’ve really stopped looking over my shoulder or not thinking actively that I could be harmed,” Mridul Wadhwa, the centre’s director, told us. “But that doesn’t mean that I don’t think I will be harmed. Even now, I do believe that I will be harmed. I believe it is almost inevitable.” Read more.
‘How Many Women Were Abused to Make That Tesla?’ (Stephen Rodrick / Rolling Stone)
Blickman’s first supervisor wouldn’t help because, she alleges, he was one of the worst offenders. Each day, she claims, he approached Blickman from behind and gave her an unwanted massage on her lower back. Blickman just gritted her teeth under her Covid mask and waited for it to be over. (In another one of the women’s lawsuits, Tesla filed a sworn statement from a female worker who allegedly worked close to Blickman and Brooks, saying she didn’t hear or see any sexual harassment at the factory, and multiple other Tesla employees submitted declarations along the same lines, insisting that if they had, they would have reported it.) Read more.
Emma Thompson’s moving tribute to Alan Rickman (Waterstones)
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Image: Arthur Chauvineau