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Satyajit Ray had an inedible mark on the Indian cinema. His films are admired by cinephiles all over the world.

May 2 marks 100 years since Satyajit Ray was born, and to celebrate his 100th birth anniversary, an artist paid the legendary filmmaker a poignant and relevant tribute. A Mumbai-based artist named Aniket Mitra celebrated the historic day by reimagining Satyajit Ray's iconic film posters amid the Covid times.

Aniket Mitra used ten films by Satyajit Ray to depict the Covid-19 crisis going on in India. Posters of films like Pather Panchali, Devi, Nayak, Seemabaddha, Jana Aranya, Mahanagar, Ashani Sanket and more, were used to show the citizens' struggle during the second wave of the deadly virus.

The poster of Pather Panchali shows a healthcare worker driving an ambulance while wearing a PPE suit. The poster of Devi shows a healthcare worker helping a newborn baby, both dressed in protective equipment.

The poster of Seemabaddha shows police officials, who have been working on the frontline during the pandemic, wearing face masks and a face shield. Jana Aranya shows pyres burning in a cemetery, showcasing the deaths due to Covid-19.

The poster of Mahanagar showed the oxygen supply crisis in India that has become the cause for many losing their lives during the second wave. The poster of Abhijan showed the migrant crisis.

Take a look at the poignant creations by Aniket Mitra:

Sharing the post on Facebook, Aniket Mitra said that given the current situation in the country, he was paying homage to the renowned filmmaker by highlighting the plight of the common man.

The posters created a storm on social media and earned praise from netizens. At the time of writing this article, the post had 4,000 likes and 3,200 shares.

India saw a slight dip in the daily Covid-19 cases on Monday as it registered over 3.68 lakh fresh cases and 3,417 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to the Union health ministry.

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Artist recreates Satyajit Ray's film posters on 100th birth anniversary to depict Covid crisis - India Today

In the city of Brianon in eastern France, a group of people is searching for the heroes lost on their adventures. The migrants attempt to cross the Alps in below zero temperatures, without warm clothes and often without enough food.

Fana is only 18 but he feels he became a man at the age of 12 when he decided to go on an adventure and leave his home in Guinea, seeking a better life in Europe. Unlike our previous hero Mamadou, he made it to France. In this episode, we explore what happens to the tounkan namo, or the adventurers, who succeed. And the price of their success.

Cry Like a Boy is an original Euronews series and podcast that explores how the pressure to be a man can harm families and entire societies. Stay with us as we travel across the African continent to meet men who are defying centuries-old gender stereotypes and redefining their roles as men.

The podcast is available in French under the name Dans la tte des Hommes.

Listen to us on Castbox, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and dont hesitate to rate us or to leave a comment.

Danielle Olavario: Welcome to Cry Like a Boy, a podcast in which we travel to five African countries to tell extraordinary stories of ordinary men defying centuries-old stereotypes. Im Danielle Olavario.

In the previous episode, we told you the story of Mamadou Alpha, a young Guinean man who went on a dangerous migration journey called tounkan, or the adventure to find success in Europe.

In Guinea, this adventure is a rite of passage for some young men, who see the hardships and experiences they have on this journey as essential to becoming real men. Those who survive and make it, are treated as heroes, and those who fail, are shamed by their communities.

In Europe, the term adventure is often associated with great explorers, pioneers, and travelers hiking up mountains and sailing the great wide ocean to seek fortune.

Our story this week starts in the French Alps, where young men like Mamadou are crossing mountains. It is a different kind of adventure.

Its a quiet winter night and the snow is bright and crisp.

We are at the Italian border near the city of Brianon. This region has recently become a crossroad for illegal migrants from the Balkans, Middle East or Africa, seeking a better life in Western Europe.

The temperature has dropped below zero. The tall mountains seem dark and threatening, but Juliette, a 22-year-old photography student, knows these trails very well. Together with other locals, shes looking for people who might have gotten lost or injured.

Juliette:Some nights we get down with about 20 people, some nights no one.

Danielle Olavario: Juliette is part of the association Tous Migrants. An initiative that helps find the people who have been on the road for many days, sometimes months. Many of them have frostbite, some are seriously injured, most are exhausted.

In her backpack, there is always a first aid kit, hot beverages and candy bars.

Juliette:These people are not necessarily equipped for the cold, they dont always have hot drinks or food. We find people who are really cold. They haven't eaten much and have nothing to drink.

Danielle Olavario: Tous Migrants was founded in 2014 after the beginning of what politicians call the European migrant crisis when hundreds of thousands of people started arriving in Europe, gathering in huge migration camps in Greece or other parts of the continent.

Many try to escape these conditions, hoping to cross into Western Europe on foot. And Brianon, France, a city nestled in the Alps, has become one of the hubs for those who were injured or lost their way during their adventure, and cant quite continue the trip.

Juliette:It's not acceptable for us to let people die in the mountains, we don't want our mountains to become cemeteries. It's just not possible.

Danielle Olavario: Since 2017 more than 12 000 people have gone through Refuge Solidaire, another NGO inBrianon, helping migrants with medical care, shelter and papers.

But settling down isnt that simple. We met with one of these migrant travelers in Gap, France, the largest city in the Hautes Alpes, a French region that borders Italy and famous for its sports culture and beautiful nature.

Fana:My name is Syla Fana. I come from Guinea Conakry and I am 18-years-old.

Danielle Olavario: Fana left at a young age because he thought hed find better opportunities in Europe.

Fana:Apart from the family situation, when you see the political, socio-economic situation of your country, even if you're a kid, you can still have some thoughts. You think to yourself: why this? Why us?

You see that there are all these resources, but you are struggling, you don't live well, you live in misery.

Danielle Olavario: He decided to go on the adventure, by travelling from Guinea to France.

Fana:I left on my own at the age of 12. Can you imagine? It's crazy. I went to Mali from Guinea.

I met smugglers who actually take people from Mali to Algeria. In fact, I negotiated with them. I did all the necessary things with them. I left like that, country by country, country by country until I got to France.

Danielle Olavario: Fana is from Conakry, Guinea. And like Mamadou, he went on the migration route to Europe. With one crucial difference: he made it to the other side and now lives in France.

Fana:My family considers me a hero. The others? Maybe, who knows but I don't know.

There are many who are proud of you. There are also some who hate you because you have succeeded in your life.

Its calm here.

I've been living here for a few months and I think, yeah.

Danielle Olavario: Fana is wearing sunglasses, comfortable gray pants and a bright yellow hoodie. He seems confident and relaxed as we walk towards his apartment block. Hes been living in Gap for two years, but he has only recently moved to this residential area.

Fana is in an internat, a kind of public boarding school where he is learning to be a caretaker for the elderly. Most of the time he sleeps at school, but during breaks, he lives with a friend.

Their small studio is in slight disarray. A double bed takes most of the room and there are travel pictures of several people on the walls, but none are of Fana. You can tell that he doesnt spend much time in the apartment.

But he doesnt mind. He hasnt had a steady home for a really long time. The adventure wasnt so easy for him. He says his family considers him a hero, except that he prefers to hide from them, for now.

Fana:They haven't heard from me for a long time and that's normal. I would prefer it that way.

I prefer to hide well. When I have a better life I'll see my brothers, I'll do what I can for the others. For now, I have to concentrate on what I am doing.

Danielle Olavario: According to UNHCR, despite the coronavirus pandemic, over 41, 000 people arrived in Europe irregularly through Spain in 2020, undertaking the Mediterranean route. And Guineans were the second most numerous group of migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa after Malians.

Anthropologist Julie Kleinman, author of the book Adventure Capital about illegal migrants in Paris says, the desire to leave home in some West African cultures is a coming of age rite, and succeeding means you are a man.

Julie Kleinman:In the 19th century there are many documented cases of leaving one's village to become a man. In most of West Africa, leaving and migrating is a kind of initiation rite through which one becomes a man.

Danielle Olavario: Fana says that already at the age of 12, boys in Guinea feel like grown-ups.

Fana:He feels helpless if he sees his mother struggle. Trying to get something to eat when he knows that he is a boy, he is the one who has to help his parents.

I know families in Africa, even in Guinea, where a 13-14-year-old child feeds the whole family. It's from the age of 12 that he starts to work.

Danielle Olavario: According to studies, poverty is generally one of the main drivers of migration from Guinea. The second is moving up the social ladder.

Heres Guinean sociologist Dr Abdoulaye Wotm Sompar.

Dr Abdoulaye Wotm Sompar:The economic factor is there. But as it is not the poorest country, the most unstable country, the country where there is war, we must look for the answer elsewhere too.

Do people not want to migrate because they want to get a promotion? A social promotion?

After getting a job there, they send money, build houses. We have even noticed that in villages where there is a lot of immigration, such as the sub-prefecture of Kolaboui in Bok, the most beautiful houses belong to migrants living abroad, who are now positively called Diaspo.

Danielle Olavario: Many migrants say that getting the papers is the most difficult part. But for most, the hardships on the road to success have to do with finding a place in their host countrys society.

Heres Julie Kleinman again.

Julie Kleinman:The first and most serious way that the host country creates difficulties is through this economic marginalisation. That, of course, comes along with politics in terms of having or not having papers on immigration rights. So they both take away the rights of people by not allowing them to work legally. And even when they can work legally, they are very much sort of kept in a particular role of the unskilled, the quote-unquote unskilled migrant. And I do not agree with the word unskilled because most of these migrants will, in fact, gain a lot of skills while they're abroad.

Danielle Olavario: Fana finds that the adventure taught him a lot of things. And now that hes settled, he can pursue his passion: taking care of others.

Fana:I'm a bit versatile, I can do a lot of jobs, several jobs. But I like this school.

Danielle Olavario: Julie Kleinman says that back home, working-class jobs like the one Fana is pursuing, are often not considered manly enough, but migrants dont mind. Because theyre living the adventure. And someday, they will reach success.

Julie Kleinman:There's this famous saying in the Malian language Tunga te danbe don, meaning that exile has no dignity. So when you go abroad somewhere, you can do any kind of job. It's not going to be an assault on your family's lineage or on your own dignity, as it might be if you stayed in West Africa because you can do any sort of job.

They use these resources to remind themselves that they can do these jobs, which may be considered less dignified where they're from, but they can do them because they're on this migratory adventure. And they use it as a resource to overcome some of the attacks on their dignity that they experience to remind themselves that this is not necessarily the context that counts the most.

The context that counts the most is still where they're from and their communities, where their lineage and their dignity as a man and as a person matter.

Danielle Olavario: There is no African market in Gap. To get the food hes used to, Fana has to go all the way to Marseille, a big port city in the Mediterranean. Often, he and his friends would take a car and load it with Guinean spices, vegetables, and peanut butter.

When we ask Fana about Guinea, he lights up.

Fana:I miss everything about Guinea. My family, the life there, even if it's hard, but I like the life there, actually. It's hard, but I was born there.

The temperatures, the climate there. Even the air.

Danielle Olavario: Despite homesickness, Fana doesnt want to go back. As were walking towards the city centre after the interview, he says that the adventure was the best school of life he had.

Fana:The adventure has really matured me and grown me, in fact. You have to know that great men are often not born great, they grow up. This is my case.

Danielle Olavario: In the next episode of Cry Like a Boy, as always, my co-host Khopotso Bodibe, will meet two guests and explore the world of the adventure globally.

Cry Like a Boy is published every second Thursday. If youre new to our podcast, check out our previous episodes on the illegal miners of Lesotho. These men risk their lives every day and experience trauma from living months underground. In our documentary on the Banna Mamanaera, you can hear how these men are coping with the trauma of life in the mines. Have a listen, its a gripping story.

I, Danielle Olavario, will see you next time.

In this episode, we used music by Ba Cissoko.

With original reporting and editing by Makeme Bamba in Conakry, Guinea, and Naira Davlashyan in Gap, France. Marta Rodriguez Martinez, Lillo Montalto Monella & Arwa Barkallah in Lyon, Mame Peya Diaw in Nairobi, Lory Martinez in Paris, France and Clitzia Sala in London, UK.

Production Design by Studio Ochenta. Theme by Gabriel Dalmasso.

A special thanks to our producer Natalia Oelsner for collecting the music for this episode. Our editor-in-chief is Yasir Khan.

For more information on Cry Like a Boy, a Euronews original series and podcast go to our website to find opinion pieces, videos, and articles on the topic. Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram.

Our podcast is available on Castbox, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you liked this episode, please give us five stars and leave a comment. We love reading those.

Share with us your own stories of how you changed and challenged your view on what it means to be a man. Use #crylikeaboy. If youre a French speaker, this podcast is also available in French: Dans la Tte des Hommes.

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The cost of success: What happens to West African migrants in Europe - Euronews

AUSTIN, Texas Democrats hoping for some encouraging signs in Texas did not find any on Saturday in a special election to fill a vacant congressional seat. Instead, they found themselves locked out of a runoff that will now see two Republicans battle for the seat in northern Texas.

The two Republicans Susan Wright, who was endorsed by President Donald J. Trump, and State Representative Jake Ellzey emerged as the top vote-getters in a 23-candidate, all-party special election to replace Mrs. Wrights husband, U.S. Representative Ron Wright, who this year became the first congressman to die of Covid-19.

Jana Lynne Sanchez, a Democrat who made a surprisingly strong showing for the seat in 2018 and was considered by many as a likely cinch for the runoff, came in a close third, leaving the two Republicans to fight for the seat that their party has controlled for nearly four decades.

Democrats who needed a strong turnout to be competitive did not get one. They were hoping for signs of weakness in the Republican brand because of the states disastrous response to the brutal winter storm in February or any signs of weariness with Mr. Trump, but they did not see that, either.

Michael Wood, a small-business man and Marine veteran who gained national attention as the only openly anti-Trump Republican in the field, picked up only 3 percent of the vote.

Democrats have not won a statewide race in Texas since 1994. When the seat is filled, Texas house delegation will be 23 Republicans and 13 Democrats.

The Republicans turned out and the Democrats didnt, said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Thats a critical takeaway. The party has to think very systematically about whats wrong and what they need to change in order to be successful.

Since 1983, Republicans have held seat, in Texas Sixth Congressional District, which includes mostly rural areas in three northern Texas counties and a sliver of the nations fourth-largest metropolitan region around Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington.

But growing numbers of Hispanics and African-Americans fueled Democrats hopes that they had a strong shot of at least getting into a runoff. Mr. Trump won the district by only 3 points in November. Ms. Sanchez, who grew up in the district and built a strong political organization, was widely portrayed as the lead contender in the field of 10 Democrats.

But in the end, she came up 354 votes short after the Democrats splintered the partys vote, and Mr. Ellzey nudged her aside for the runoff. Mrs. Wright won 19.2 percent of the vote to Mr. Ellzeys 13.8 percent. Ms. Sanchez got 13.4 percent of the vote.

The large field may have cost Ms. Sanchez a runoff spot, but in the end Republicans won 62 percent of the vote and Democrats 37 percent, not auspicious numbers for her hopes of winning if she did get in the runoff.

Democrats have come a long way toward competing in Texas but we still have a way to go, Ms. Sanchez said in a concession statement on Sunday morning.

She said: Well keep fighting for a healthier, equitable and prosperous Texas and to elect leaders who care about meeting the needs of Texans, although it wont happen in this district immediately.

The Republican runoff was already showing signs of being fought along familiar right-of-center turf.

Ms. Wrights general consultant, Matt Langston, assailed Mr. Ellzey, a former Navy pilot who was endorsed by former Gov. Rick Perry, as an opportunistic RINO a Republican in Name Only.

And one of her prominent supporters, David McIntosh, president of the conservative Club for Growth, which has spent more than $350,000 on mail, social media and texts against Mr. Ellzeys bid, on Sunday called on the second-place candidate to pull out of the race. He said it was more important for Republicans to unite behind Mrs. Wrights candidacy in advance of the critical midterm congressional races next year.

If he wants to unite, stop attacking, said Craig Murphy, Mr. Ellzeys spokesman, firmly rebuffing Mr. McIntoshs proposal. Mr. Murphy also denounced Mr. Langstons statement against his candidate as silly and insulting and described Mr. Ellzey as a guy who has been under enemy fire eight times.

The defeat in the special election in some respects evoked the 2020 elections in Texas, when Democrats believed that demographic changes put them in reach of a potential blue wave to possibly take over the Republican-controlled state House of Representatives and flip several congressional seats. Instead, the blue wave never washed ashore, and the House remains in Republicans hands by the same margin as before.

The Sixth District was once a Democratic stronghold, until Phil Gramm, formerly a conservative Democrat, switched party affiliations in 1983. The district has been a reliable Republican bastion ever since.

The seat came open in February after Mr. Wright, who had lung cancer, died after he contracted the coronavirus. His wife was an early front-runner to replace him, but her chances of outright victory narrowed after the field grew to 23 candidates: 11 Republicans, 10 Democrats, a Libertarian and an independent.

See the original post here:
For Democrats, Another Bad Election Night in Texas - The New York Times

Groups like the Farm Bureau, National Association of Manufacturers, National Multifamily Housing Council, National Federation of Independent Business and other powerful stakeholders are opposing the change. NFIB is already putting small businesses out there to try to sway lawmakers, like Steve Ferree, a Portland, Ore.,plumbing business owner and constituent of Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden.

You have all these ups and downs as a business owner, and the payoff at the end, your exit strategy basically, is when you go to finally retire andpass it on, or sell it to somebody else, Ferree said at a recent NFIB panel discussion. And by having additional death taxes or capital gains you take away all that, where that payback finally comes, from all those years of reinvesting in your business.

NFIB has traditionally been a GOP-leaning group. Silicon Valley, which contributes plenty to Democratic campaigns, is concerned as well.

Under Bidens plan, startup founders who put in years of sweat equity before the big payoff would be rewarded with the same tax rates as those who didnt take such risks. Venture capitalists argue thats a recipe for less risk-taking, and therefore less innovation of the kind that led to lifesaving drugs like Modernas COVID-19 vaccine.

But in the pandemic era, the sweat equity argument may bewearing thin with otherwise sympathetic lawmakersasthe income gap widens betweenfront-line workers and wealthy investors cashing in stock market gains from the comforts of home.

Read the original here:
Democrats' constituents would bear the brunt of Biden's taxes - Roll Call

Matt Grodsky, opinion contributor Published 6:00 a.m. MT May 3, 2021

Opinion: Momentum may be on Democrats' side, but Arizona Republicans still hold a voter registration edge. And that matters for 2022, especially down ballot.

Arizona delegate Martin Quezada and Cinthia Estela pose with a "Ridin' with Biden" poster during an Arizona Democratic Party drive-in night to watch the acceptance speech of their party's nominee, Joe Biden, in Mesa, Ariz. on August 20, 2020.(Photo: Patrick Breen/The Republic)

Arizona Democrats have a profound opportunity to extend their multicycle winning streak and defy history in the 2022 midterm elections. But one elusive problem looms and it threatens to dash the partys ambitions: A voter registration gap that favors Republicans.

Despite registration gains over the last several years, Democrats are some 140,000 voters behind Republicans. Therefore, Democrats remain reliant on independent and moderate Republican voters.

In 2020, Joe Biden and Mark Kellys broad appeal resulted in wins at the top of the ticket. But voters retreated to their respective parties down ballot, and thats where Republicans voter registration advantage came into play.

Unless 2022 Democratic down ballot races are as appealing as top of the ticket candidates (Im thinking the gubernatorial race), ballot-splitting and voters nescience pose a significant challenge, just as they did in 2020.

While midterms have traditionally resulted inbacklashes towardthe incumbent party, theres beenrare instances when national crisis and sound campaign tactics have helpedthe party in power prevail.

This happened in 1998 amidthe divisive impeachment trial of President Clinton;2002 saw this as well under President Bush in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

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COVID-19 is the current national crisis, and a narrative is building of our emergence from the tragedy thanks to Bidens leadership. Now, coupled locally with the sound tactics Arizona Democrats have already leveraged for the past few election cycles, they can certainly achieve a history thwarting parry.

The down ballot losses in 2020? Remember, Arizona Democrats didnt sustain the kinds of losses as in other states, which speaks to their early organizing and a disciplined messaging strategy.

So, the tools are there for success, but winning the voter registration race is the key for three reasons.

1. It could combat apathy.Incumbent party enthusiasm suffers in midterms. And unlike 2018 or 2020, Donald Trump wont be in the White House or on the ballot. In 2022 he wont be in the same position to motivate turnout, and that could mean Arizona Democrats and their coalition dont turn out in droves.

Republicans, with their higher number of registered voters and their desire for 2020 vengeance, could drive a red wave. Democrats can blunt a Republican offensive if they flip the voter registration deficit.

2. It could help more progressive candidates.Center-left messaging treats the symptoms of a voter registration deficit. Math can cure it. Arizonas Democratic base wants to see progressive wins and leaders that prioritize their most fervent policies. But those arent the candidates who win statewide offices here.

As someone who volunteered for David Garcias gubernatorial campaign in 2018, I know that progressive candidates can win primaries and may hold onto already blue seats, but substantial statewide pickups in a previously red state like ours come from strategically positioned center-left Democrats who can construct coalitions with independents and Republicans.

If thats upsetting to some who would prefer to see a progressive surge, then I encourage you to overtake the voter registration gap.Democrats should always build alliances by drawing in ideologically diverse voters, but by overtaking the gap, courting friendly independents and McCain Republicans wont serve as the be-all-end-all.

3. It helps in a battleground state.Arizona is poised to be a significant swing state for the next decade with control of the Senate playing a key factor in 2022, 2024and 2028. That means media, moneyand resources will be plentiful Democrats must use every available resource to win this voter registration struggle.

It can be done. Look no further than Stacey Abrams and her amazing organizing and registration efforts in Georgia, which turned a reliably red state blue.

There are Democrats to be found across Arizona who only lack official registration, and there are unaffiliated voters who just need to be persuaded to join the ranks.

The good news is, Democrats have the state party leadership and the team in place to win this fight. But the 2022 train is leaving the station and Republicans have the registration advantage.

Mind the gap.

Matt Grodsky is vice president anddirector of public affairs at Matters of State Strategies.He is a precinct committeeman in Legislative District 28 and an Arizona Democratic Party state committee member. OnTwitter: @mattgrodsky.

Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2021/05/03/arizona-democrats-must-close-voter-registration-gap-win-2022/7373843002/

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Democrats could win more of Arizona in 2022. But they'll need to do this first - The Arizona Republic