The Daily Moth 2-11-2020
Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Tuesday, February 11. Ready for news?
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“Parasite” sparks discussions on subtitles
“Parasite,” a South Korean film that won four Oscars on Sunday night made history as the first non-English language movie to win the Best Picture award. Actors in the movie speak Korean and there are English subtitles that are just the same as open captions.
The movie has sparked a discussion on foreign films in general and on subtitles itself, so naturally the Deaf community is talking about the subtitles aspect.
Before going into subtitles, I want to emphasize that “Parasite” is first and foremost a South Korean film with an all-Asian cast — and that this film is a huge victory for the South Korean film industry and for Asian representation in the entertainment industry.
Now, let’s go back to January 5. During the Golden Globe Awards. “Parasite” director Bong Joon-ho, after winning the best foreign-language film, said “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.”
Nyle DiMarco quickly tweeted in support of Bong’s statement on that same night.
Tweet: @NyleDiMarco: “‘Once you overcome the one inch tall barrier of subtitles you will be introduced to the world of so many amazing films.’ — Boon Joon-ho”
So, “Parasite,” perhaps unintentionally, became an inspiration and a part of deaf people’s call for better accessibility in movie theaters.
An open captions activist tweeted before the Oscars that “Parasite” is already a winner because it helped so many people to accept subtitles.
Tweet: @CaptionAction3: “Tonight is the Academy Awards. Parasite, a subtitled film, is a contender for Best Picture. Even if it loses (partly because some Academy members refuse to watch subtitles) it is already a winner because it helped so many to overcome their fear of that "one-inch tall" barrier!”
Now that “Parasite” has won, many are talking about subtitles. Some people spoke up that they did not like subtitles.
Kevin Drum, wrote in MotherJones.com, that “Subtitles Really Do Suck” and that “spoken dialogue is a key part of the theatrical experience.” Drum said dubbing (replacing the spoken foreign dialogue with English audio) was a better alternative than captions.
Here is Nyle’s reaction.
[Tweet of a meme of Billie Eilish giving a puzzled reaction to the MotherJones article]
Many people on Twitter pointed out that in Malaysia, some films have subtitles in two languages at the same time and that it’s common for years.
Others said around the world people are used to subtitles but it’s a big problem in the USA.
A Deaf author, Adam Pottle, tweeted that subtitles should come with every movie because “ACCESS IS A HUMAN RIGHT.”
Tweet: @AddyPottle: “Lastly, and most importantly, ACCESS IS A HUMAN RIGHT. Access is the law in many countries. Films should therefore have subtitles regardless of whether they're made in countries that don't speak the language of the majority.”
Tweet: @AddyPottle: “If you think that subtitles are a major inconvenience, try reading people's lips every day for a year. THAT is a major inconvenience.”
There are many other discussions on social media about subtitles. Deaf activists who advocate for open captions can always use “Parasite” as an example that subtitles can add to, rather than take away, from the experience of watching a movie.
https://twitter.com/NyleDiMarco/status/1227003624623992833
https://twitter.com/AddyPottle/status/1227097752217116672
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2020/02/subtitles-really-do-suck-you-know/
https://twitter.com/onphileek/status/1226904892050198528
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Coronavirus updates
Here are several updates with coronavirus but before I go into the news, I want to add a clarification from last week’s interview on the virus with a Deaf PhD student studying zoonotic diseases, Lorne Farovitch.
He said last week that there is a 2% chance of dying from coronavirus and that the figure was smaller than the 10% death rate for the flu. I got some questions about that statistic, and checked in with Lorne, and he clarified that the 10% figure is based on a rough estimate of overall flu cases since the 1918 Spanish flu, which had a 20% case-fatality rates.
The CDC estimated that the 2019-2020 season’s flu had 0.1% fatality rate with up to 30,000 deaths out of about 30 million cases.
So, the novel coronavirus is deadlier than the “common” flu this year, but is not as dangerous as other diseases in history with higher fatality rates — so far.
Now, the updates.
The New York Times reported that the World Health Organization (WHO) announced a name for the coronavirus — COVID-19. The name has no reference to places, animals, or people to avoid stigma. COVID-19 is an acronym for “coronavirus disease 2019.”
Over 1,000 people have died from COVID-19. Most of the deaths are in the area surrounding Wuhan, China. Over 40,000 people are infected.
There are 13 cases of infected people in the U.S. There are over 500 Americans who are now under quarantine in air bases in California, Nebraska, and Texas after they were evacuated from China during the past two weeks. They will have to be quarantined for 14 days to check if they have developed symptoms.
The Chinese government is urging local governments to help businesses reopen, for factories to restart, and for farmers to start spring planting. News reports say many areas of China is “empty” as people struggle to respond to the outbreak.
In Hong Kong, there is a report that two people who lived 10 floors apart in the same apartment building were infected, so there is a concern that the virus can spread perhaps through pipes. The apartment and its 30 units were placed under quarantine.
A Holland America cruise ship that left Hong Kong on February 1 with over 2,200 people on it was denied entry in ports in Thailand, the Philippines, the U.S. territory of Guam, and Japan over fears that there are infected people on it. The cruise said they have no reason to believe that there are any infected people onboard. It is not known where the ship will go next and it could be forced to stay away from ports for 14 days.
There is another cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, that is docked for more than a week in Japan. It is under quarantine because there are at least 135 cases of infected people on board.
People who live in Wuhan were ordered to remain in their homes. Only one member of a household is allowed to make one shopping trip every three days.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/11/world/asia/coronavirus-china.html
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Top News Briefs: T-Mobile and Sprint; Snow in Baghdad; Roger Stone
Here are three top news briefs.
The first — a federal judge in New York has approved a merger between T-Mobile and Sprint. There were 14 state attorneys general who sued to try and block the merger, but the judge sided with T-Mobile. T-Mobile wants to buy Sprint for $26 billion. Opponents of the merger, mostly from Democratic-majority states like New York and California, said the merger will hurt consumers because of higher prices and less innovation. Republican supporters of the merger from the Trump administration and the FCC said the merger would strengthen the companies and speed up the rollout of 5G technology.
The second news — there was snow in Baghdad, Iraq this morning, which is the first time in over 10 years its happened. The AP reported that residents took selfies and children threw snowballs in parks. The snow melted by noon.
The third news — yesterday federal prosecutors recommended Roger Stone to be sentenced 7 to 9 years in prison for his convictions of obstruction of justice, lying to Congress, and witness tampering. He was indicted as a result of the Mueller investigation after Stone was tied with communicating with Wikileaks before they published Hillary Clinton emails.
President Trump tweeted this morning that the sentencing recommendation was excessive and that he cannot allow this “miscarriage of justice.”
Later today, the Justice Department, headed by Attorney General Bill Barr, announced that they will override the prosecutor’s recommendation because it was “extreme and excessive.” Axios reported that the prosecutor who made the recommendation has resigned as of today along with two other prosecutors. A total of three prosecutors resigned. This is now a new political controversy with the question on if President Trump is engaging in political interference. Stone is scheduled to be sentenced on February 20.
T-Mobile: https://abcnews.go.com/Business/judge-approves-controversial-merger-mobile-sprint/story?id=68907780
Iraq: https://time.com/5781941/baghdad-iraq-snowing/
Roger Stone: https://www.axios.com/justice-department-roger-stone-sentencing-change-71e4253f-624a-465e-95b9-ea270faadfc6.html
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Deaf woman gives speech at Bernie rally
A deaf woman, Sarah Wilson, gave a 2-minute speech during a Bernie Sanders rally in Rochester, New Hampshire on Saturday.
There is a video of it on a YouTube account “American Spring.” The link is in the transcript. I will show you a brief clip.
[Video of Sarah Wilson with captions: “I decided to roll up my sleeves and help his campaign I started the Facebook page deaf people for Bernie currently we have over 20,000 followers.” The gallery behind Sarah applauded.]
Wilson said she founded the Facebook page “Deaf People For Bernie Sanders” and that it has over 20,000 followers. She said that all deaf people, regardless of their hearing loss spectrum, experience barriers in accessibility and discrimination.
Wilson said she got the Bernie campaign’s attention to caption their videos and to arrange ASL interpreters for rallies.
Wilson said she volunteered for a Bernie rally in 2016 and that Bernie’s staff listened to her request for moving an interpreter for better visuals.
She said she feels that Bernie understands prioritizing “basic needs over profit” and that it is one of the many reasons why she supports him to be our next president.
There was a small audience seated behind Wilson who applauded several times, but often with a bit of a delay because of the interpreter and the time for the translation.
I reported in October that a Des Moines Register analysis found that Bernie spent more than $23,000 for interpreters from July 1 to September 30, 2019, according to FEC filings. That amount was the highest of Democratic candidates at that time.
A Bernie campaign spokesperson for Iowa said they arrange interpreters at the same time they seek event spaces.
https://youtu.be/Z2takzjzBrg
https://www.facebook.com/deafpeopleforberniesanders/
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1tFx8W9_FsJZ0LQe-ne1A5n7RuJM&ll=33.44713275081931%2C-115.37400165000003&z=2
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2019/10/28/presidential-candidates-using-more-sign-language-interpreters-in-2019/4066278002/
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That is all for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!