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Tantrika said:

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The Ecstatic said:
The most amazing part of this story (if it’s even true, it probably isn’t) is that there are nations out there who teach their children about recent events in school.

The last chapter of my middle school history book was about the formation of NATO (this would’ve been 2003).

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Damn, crazy

Grade 9 social studies we had our first introduction to Europeans killing off the First Nations
but we also discussed things like NAFTA (this would've been 2001)
and, of course, a lot of talk about 9/11 because it was history that happened that we could see on the tv on the library the day it happened
(also because I was the the one who went and tuned the library tv in to it, because I read about it on a forum before leaving for school and none of the teachers that were there that morning had heard the news)
the Gulf War came up after 9/11 hit -- kind of doubt that it was originally in the curriculum tho

in grade 10 we discussed how the US almost invaded Saskatchewan (where my high school was)
because the province was labeled as a hotbed for socialism

link to original translation
https://twitter.com/ardibouwers/status/1255166122946637824
claims to link to a Chinese news story about the issue, but the article appears to have been eliminated
screenshot of article on Chinese news site:


apparently the article was critical of the poem
comments on the tweet mentions that Chinese citizens were critical of the poem as well
possibly why the article about the poem got scrubbed off the net

do fully recognize that China does not teach students about the Tiananmen Square Massacre tho
too much risk in talking about how citizens got pissed at the government and fought back in recentish history

my previous assumption may have been incorrect tho -- apparently it was a government newspaper distributed to middle schools as part implementing back to school policies this week
not something that a middle school published

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Update: Following this report, Nike announced it would start an investigation into Cain’s allegations. On Dec. 9, hundreds of Nike employees protested the company’s backing of Alberto Salazar and treatment described by Cain and other Nike-sponsored female athletes. On Jan. 31, the United States Center for SafeSport placed Salazar on its temporarily banned list, a disciplinary action that could result in a lifetime ban.

At 17, Mary Cain was already a record-breaking phenom: the fastest girl in a generation, and the youngest American track and field athlete to make a World Championships team. In 2013, she was signed by the best track team in the world, Nike’s Oregon Project, run by its star coach Alberto Salazar.

Then everything collapsed. Her fall was just as spectacular as her rise, and she shares that story for the first time in the Video Op-Ed above.

Instead of becoming a symbol of girls’ unlimited potential in sports, Cain became yet another standout young athlete who got beaten down by a win-at-all-costs culture. Girls like Cain become damaged goods and fade away. We rarely hear what happened to them. We move on.

The problem is so common it affected the only other female athlete featured in the last Nike video ad Cain appeared in, the figure skater Gracie Gold. When the ad came out in 2014, Gold, like Cain, was a prodigy considered talented enough to win a gold medal at the next Olympics. And, like Cain, Gold got caught in a system where she was compelled to become thinner and thinner. Gold developed disordered eating to the point of imagining taking her life.

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A big part of this problem is that women and girls are being forced to meet athletic standards that are based on how men and boys develop. If you try to make a girl fit a boy’s development timeline, her body is at risk of breaking down. That is what happened to Cain.

After months of dieting and frustration, Cain found herself choosing between training with the best team in the world, or potentially developing osteoporosis or even infertility. She lost her period for three years and broke five bones. She went from being a once-in-a-generation Olympic hopeful to having suicidal thoughts.

“America loves a good child prodigy story, and business is ready and waiting to exploit that story, especially when it comes to girls,” said Lauren Fleshman, who ran for Nike until 2012. “When you have these kinds of good girls, girls who are good at following directions to the point of excelling, you’ll find a system that’s happy to take them. And it’s rife with abuse.”

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Semenya, who has been legally identified as female her whole life, appealed the CAS verdict to Switzerland's supreme court on human rights grounds. She won an interim ruling to temporarily suspend the hormone regulations.

The dispute between the 28-year-old Semenya, who is also a three-time world champion, and the IAAF is viewed as the most complex and controversial that sport has faced in years.

The IAAF says Semenya is one of a number of female athletes born with a "differences of sex disorder" and the typical male XY chromosome pattern, giving them male levels of the hormone testosterone after puberty and therefore an unfair athletic advantage over other female athletes.

To be allowed to compete under the rules, Semenya and other affected athletes must medically reduce their testosterone to below a specific threshold set by the IAAF. The rules only apply to races from 400 meters to one mile.

Semenya has refused to take medication to alter what she calls her natural form.

Tuesday's documents shone a light on some of the runner's experiences in a bitter 10-year battle with track and field authorities, experiences which she hasn't spoken about publicly.

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She described her first major championships and speculation over her gender as "the most profound and humiliating experience of my life." She said her treatment was "atrocious and humiliating."

Semenya also described a five-year period from 2010-15 where she reluctantly agreed take testosterone suppressants under a previous version of the IAAF's rules because her career depended on it.

But Semenya said the medication caused her to experience significant weight gain and constantly feel sick, led to regular fevers, and caused internal abdominal pain.

She said the IAAF, which didn't introduce its first set of testosterone regulations until 2011, used her as a "lab rat" as it experimented with hormone-reducing medication.

After another winning run last week, a defiant Semenya urged track's governing body to drop its pursuit of female runners with high testosterone levels and instead focus on catching dope cheats.

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