11.03 | you know what's an actually dystopian disneyland?

It is easy to shout slogans, to sign manifestos, but it is quite a different matter to build, manage, command, spend days and night seeking solutions to problems
– Patrice Lumumba

✉️ letter #13

So the big news piece coming out of Shanghai this week was that Shanghai Disneyland locked everyone in and gave them all covid tests as soon as it got word that a visitor from the previous day had tested positive for covid once she had returned home.

A video showcasing the fireworks show (which Disney decided to let go on as normal) while people lined up to be tested has gone viral.

Disneyland managed to test the 30-40,000 people who had been in the park by the end of that night, sending them back home for a two-day self-quarantine and some other monitoring steps, to be determined by their neighborhood committees.

A RADII intern was amongst the crowd. She said it was pretty inconvenient (and got kinda cold, since they hadn't planned to stay standing around for 2 hours at night)... but ultimately, she finished the test, wasn't harmed, went into self quarantine, and Disney gave her a free visit in the future.

From some Twitter reactions though, you'd think that they'd arrested and then mass-murdered everyone. Most of the headlines I've seen have accused Disney of "locking in" visitors, or tsk-tsking about how the scene is "dystopian."

That rankled me enough to Twitter Rant about it.

Disneyland California and Disneyworld Florida (and the surrounding associated parks) are all open right now. I checked up how many cases of COVID have been found in their respective counties.

Definitely a lot more than 1 visitor who went back home to another city. It's like they don't even feel a couple hundred cases in the vicinity is a big deal.

There's a case to be made that, as safe as China wants to be, not only is stopping and testing a bunch of people that were there the day after overkill... it's also possibly not effective. Scientific consensus is that it can take almost a week after covid exposure for the virus to actually show up in our system.

Granted, the only other solution to pursue a Zero Covid strategy is the even more draconian measure of pushing everyone into a two-week-long actual quarantine monitored by door lock, which they're currently doing to people in Beijing who just happened to wander into the wrong place at the wrong time. Like this poor guy:

I honestly don't know if China's way is the right way.

While the "affront to personal liberties" angle of it remains eye-rolly (Curtis Chen compared the Disney scene to Squid Game, which... what?!), I do find the constant freaking out over a smattering of random cases very exhausting. There must be some middle ground between what we have right now and a covid-acceptance level that is not personally debilitating but also not dangerous.

Then again, I don't think people in the USA are in the position to comment. I don't believe there's a country out there - especially a "first world" country - that's failed harder than America to contain this virus. And if you're gonna talk about dystopian, let's talk about how everyone's acting like everything's all normal right now, when in actuality more people have died of covid near Disneyland California than in all of China.

Just sayin'...

🌱 the ethical ideas newsreel

• The UN Climate Summit Cop26 started this week and, to be totally honest, I have my doubts on how effective it will be. One of my favorite climate activists has a good breakdown of all of the (similar) reasons she's not feeling sold on Cop26, but also ways to move forward with it, beside it and around it.
• One thing that I'm adamant about and continually hopeful for is the role of China in possibly leading climate change actions. As Peggy Liu puts it here: "China can help the world go green. But we need to find a geopolitically palatable way for us to collaborate and for all citizens around the world to be stakeholders, shareholders, beneficiaries of this transition."
• People power! "In pollution hotspots like western Pennsylvania — where petrochemical facilities are proliferating — local residents, distrustful of companies and government, are taking advantage of low-cost technologies to do their own monitoring of air, water, and noise pollution."
• From Science Daily: "Most consumers want to make food purchases that are smart for their wallets, their health and the environment. And while switching to a vegetarian or vegan diet can lower one's impact on greenhouse gas emissions, it may not be realistic or healthful for everyone. Now, researchers in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology report three ways that Americans can reduce the carbon footprint of their food purchases, without requiring drastic dietary changes."
• Keeping with the "Americas" theme, South America's Atacama Desert might help us yield drought resistant crops - something we'll likely need if all these global climate change meetings continue to be all talk no action. That is... if we can save it from being completely destroyed by our electric battery needs.

🎵 song of my week

I came across this song last year sometime, and it's been in heavy rotation of favorite tracks to throw onto any playlist ever since. It manages to combine 70s-style vocals with 80s-electrosynth but filtered through 2020s sensibilities... and it's just fun! Catchy dance around your room in your underwear fun!

ZOMBIE-CHANG is the moniker of Tokyo-based musician Meirin Yung. You can find out more about her in the description of her newest album Petit Petit Petit on Toothpaste Records, the American indie label distributing her. If you liked this song (which is essentially singing about making lemonade), another fav on that album is DON'T BE SO MEAN.

✨enjoying: one final piece of pop culture fun

I suddenly became obsessed this week with aesthetic desk set ups.

I don't have an office that would allow me to heavily renovate, and I don't plan on working from home for at least the next couple of months...

But oh gawd, I saw one video where people were talking about all the beautiful DIY and all the latest coolest tech they're utilizing to make their workspaces work for them. And four hours later I've gone down a rabbit hole of desire.

Here's the three that I liked best:

Matthew Encina is a creative director based out of Los Angeles, and this was the video that started me off. That ultrawide monitor on the hydraulic arm! The general clean, good-at-adulting aesthetic! The loving way he talks about building his own custom shelving. This room is basically a pair of Tom Ford eyeglasses come to life.

This manga/anime-style artist combines that whole unabashedly being into internet nerd art stuff (I get the references to which insta artist he's into!) with a voice that's like heated butter. To be honest, the look of this desk set up is a little messier and more crowded in than I would like, but I could probably create a playlist of him talking about digital toolsets and derive much pleasure falling asleep to it every night.

And finally, Sara Dietschy is a tech vlogger lending a very different energy to the other work station tours. But her set up makes a lot of sense and actually helped me learn a couple of things about what to look for in mics, webcams, and other gadgets I should probably learn to work if I am ever to take Youtubing seriously.

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