Serious PAP HDB Has Redrawn The Map! Come See Whether You Stay In Standard, Plus or Prime District! I Stay In Prime District!!

[Hypocrite-The]

Prime district is bestest. Too bad me not have property anywhere

 

[myfoot123]

Prime district is bestest. Too bad me not have property anywhere

Not even a Plus district? Then you must be staying in Yishun or Jurong or Sengkang or Tampines.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Not even a Plus district? Then you must be staying in Yishun or Jurong or Sengkang or Tampines.

I stay in Tenpenis

 

[birdie69]

Th

At the end of all these….it is still public housing with no strata title for the property that you lease but paying property tax on it.

The idea comes from our Secondary School system:

Express = Prime
Normal (A) = Plus
Normal (Tech) = Standard

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Th
The idea comes from our Secondary School system:

Express = Prime
Normal (A) = Plus
Normal (Tech) = Standard

Anyway prime is prime n the bestest

 

[birdie69]

Ma

Yislum = standard category? You got to be kidding me.

There should be finer segregation

Yislum = / category

View attachment 187649

Maybe should categorise our HDB like our
PSLE grading system

 

[laksaboy]

Sinkie men, are you Standard, Plus or Prime?

 

[bobby]

Public housing is not public housing when the public cannot afford it.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Sinkie men, are you Standard, Plus or Prime?

So Jews the biggest?

Bradley Cooper has been accused of 'Jewface' over his new movie — here's what that means
Posted Sun 20 Aug 2023 at 3:26am
Sunday 20 Aug 2023 at 3:26am
, updated Sun 20 Aug 2023 at 6:12am
Sunday 20 Aug 2023 at 6:12am
A composite of two men looking away from the camera
Bradley Cooper is seen wearing a prosthetic nose to emulate that of Leonard Bernstein in his biopic.(Source: AP/Netflix)
Bradley Cooper has faced an onslaught of criticism for wearing a prosthetic nose to play the late conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, in his latest film Maestro.

The backlash came after Netflix released the first trailer to the romantic biographical drama, which was also directed and co-written by Cooper.

Critics are calling it a classic case of "Jewface" and it's not the first of its kind Hollywood has seen.

Let's unpack why this has blown up all over the Internet.

What's wrong with wearing a fake nose on screen?
While there's nothing wrong with actors using prosthetics in order to look more like the person they are portraying, the act of enlarging one's nose to resemble a Jewish person has deep historical ties to antisemitism.

The offence cuts deeper than aesthetic mockery.

It reinforces a negative connotation towards the community that dates all the way back to the 12th century.

Chair of the Anti-Defamation Commission, Australia's leading civil rights organisation fighting antisemitism, Dr Dvir Abramovich expands on this.

Dr Dvir Abramovich
Dr Dvir Abramovich is the head of Jewish Studies at the University of Melbourne and chair of the Anti-Defamation Commission.(Supplied: Dvir Abramovich)
"When it comes to this firestorm, I don't think that Bradley Cooper is antisemite — let's get this [straight]," says Dr Abramovich.

"[But] the idea of wearing a prosthetic nose to say this is what Jews look like, has always been problematic.

Nazi propaganda referenced a large, hooked nose as an identifying feature of a Jewish person, which Dr Abramovich says was used to "fan the flames of hatred and distrust towards the Jewish communities".

The matter lies in distinguishing the difference between intent and effect.

Dr Abramovich, who is also the Head of Jewish Studies at the University of Melbourne, says the harm comes from the message it perpetuates and the effect it brings to community.

Believing Cooper's decision to be an oversight, he says, "You could argue that it was an artistic judgement, but I think there also needs to be sensitivity to the fact of what a Jewish nose means."

"This fake nose is reinforcing and compounding the Jewish, antisemitic stereotype."

Missed opportunity for better casting
Media and pop culture expert Lauren Rosewarne from the University of Melbourne breaks down the layers to the issue.

The first relates to casting, she says.

Bernstein was of Jewish background, born to Ukrainian parents who migrated to the United States.

While the film is premised on the romantic relationship Bernstein had with his lifelong wife Felicia, critics took offence to Cooper for not having any religious or ethnic relations to Judaism.

Woman and man smiling away from camera
Bradley Cooper plays Leonard Bernstein alongside Carrey Mulligan as his wife in the movie Maestro.(Source: Netflix)
"This was the perfect opportunity to have a Jewish actor in the role that it makes no sense to use a gentile actor," says Dr Rosewarne.

Dr Rosewarne says that Cooper's "distinctively troublesome" use of prosthetics compounds the issue at hand.

"They could have cast an actor who actually looked more like the character being portrayed," she says.

"Instead, they've used prosthetics to make Cooper look more stereotypically Jewish with an oversized nose synonymous with the Jewish caricature."

How has Bernstein's family responded?
Bernstein's three children, Jamie, Alexander and Nina, have taken to social platform X to stand in solidarity with Cooper, saying they have been consulted throughout the making of the project.

In a statement posted on Bernstein's official account, they wrote:

"Bradley Cooper included the three of us along every step of his amazing journey as he made his film about our father.

"We were touched to the core to witness the depth of his commitment, his loving embrace of our father's music, and the sheer open-hearted joy he brought to his exploration.

"It breaks our hearts to see any misrepresentations or misunderstandings of his efforts."

They were also fully aware and supportive of Cooper's editorial decision for his character to wear a prosthetic nose and said Bernstein would not have had an issue with it either.

"It happens to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice, big nose.

"Bradley chose to use make-up to amplify his resemblance, and we're perfectly fine with that.

"We're also certain that our dad would have been fine with it as well."

Drawing on parallels from Bernstein's life experiences, they see the criticism as an attempt to make a dent on Cooper's career.

The statement ended on a strong note, highlighting the success of the film in showcasing the romance between their parents and how they were happy to be involved.

Why is this a Hollywood issue?
The film industry has had a long-standing battle with representation and inclusion for decades.

Cooper's stunt is one of many other cases of "Jewface" on screen.

In 1948, actor Alec Guinness portrayal of Fagin in Oliver Twist involved him wearing a prosthetic nose and it was deemed "incredibly insensitive" and incited a lot of anger from Holocaust survivors.

The film release was withdrawn after the New York Board of rabbis labelled it "a vehicle of blatant antisemitism", said Dr Abramovich.

Associate Professor Ted Nannicelli from UQ's School of Communication and Arts outlines the reasons behind the struggle.

"For a long time in Hollywood, there was an under representation of people of particular races and ethnicities," says the screen studies and ethics expert.

"Then there's the history of under representation of actors of those races and those ethnicities."

Mr Nannicelli says the two are not to be confused with one another where the former happens when non-flattering or substantive roles were given to certain groups of people.

So has Hollywood progressed at all?
It's easy to think that underrepresentation is due to the lack of talent in the pool but that's not quite the case.

Mr Nannicelli says, "It's a complex mix of local laws, consideration of who the market is and what the perceived moral norms of the target audience are" among other things.

This resulted in people of minority groups — whether that be racial, ethnic, or religious — to be excluded from job opportunities based on those characteristics.

He says, "That was undeniably the case in Hollywood cinema."

"But that problem has been addressed to some extent over the past decades and there has been more progress more recently, within the last decade or so.

Then there's the issue of ethnic cosplay — when actors outside of a particular ethnic group dresses-up as a person from another ethnicity using props or costuming.

Mr Nannicelli says, "Intuitively, it seems like it's much worse to have someone who is white performing "blackface" than it is to have a non-Catholic play a Catholic because there [have] different histories [relating to oppression]."

Not to forget, it's also easy to dismiss the latter when it can't be clearly seen or have not been made known in the role.

But according to Mr Nannicelli, studios do show a clear interest in aligning themselves with the current norms and values of society.

"Or at least if not aligning themselves, most certainly not alienating," he adds.

YouTube Maestro is a towering and fearless love story chronicling the lifelong relationship between cultural icon Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein.
But why does it matter that Hollywood gets it right?
Dr Abramovich argues this is when true authenticity comes in.

"There's quite a lot of angst about this idea of casting non-Jews in roles that are deeply and profoundly Jewish," he says, bringing it back to Cooper's casting decision.

"When you talk about the Jewish lived experience, which is often fundamental and critical to the actual role, you should cast Jewish actors.

"It's not just about representation, it's also about inclusion."

It also helps to dispel stereotypes which can be damaging.

Media and pop culture expert Dr Rosewarne says, "Stereotypes work to frame certain groups of people as different, as less human".

"Through such normalised dehumanisation, certain people come to feel justified in not only harbouring bigoted views but acting on them.

"In recent years, spikes in attacks on certain communities have been documented including antisemitic violence."

Dr Abramovich too observes this in Australia and wants Hollywood to do better.

"Anti-Jewish bigotry is becoming part of our daily lives and is creeping into every facet of our society.

"Anything that is inflaming or is promoting Jewish and antisemitic stereotypes needs to be rejected because words are bullets, images are bullets."

Posted 20 Aug 2023
20 Aug 2023
, updated 20 Aug 2023
20 Aug 2023