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Body language expert goes to TOWN on Harry and Meghan doc

<p dir="ltr">A body language expert has weighed in on Prince Harry and Meghan after part one of their Netflix documentary dropped.</p> <p dir="ltr">Louise Mahler, an Australian body language expert, told <em>The Morning Show</em> that it was obvious that Harry was “embarrassed” of Meghan during one of the interviews.</p> <p dir="ltr">She spoke of the scene where Meghan explained how she wasn’t aware that she would have to curtsy to Queen Elizabeth II when meeting her.</p> <p dir="ltr">“How do you explain that you bow to your grandmother and that you will need to curtsy - especially to an American, like that’s weird,” Harry said on the show.</p> <p dir="ltr">Meghan then began to rant to say how it was “mediaeval” to curtsy to someone, before mocking the Royal Family’s tradition.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty,” she said as she pretended to curtsy while sitting next to her husband.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It was so intense,” she said with a throwaway remark.</p> <p dir="ltr">However, social media has been full of close-ups of Prince Harry’s reaction as his wife mocked his grandmother, with Ms Mahler confirming the “uncomfortable” position he was in.</p> <p dir="ltr">“He looked incredibly, I don’t know, uncomfortable. There was something - see how he’s sort of watching her and he looks off to the side. I don’t know, there was something really awkward about the way he looked at her in this story - and then he looks down,” she said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I would adore him to do more of those looks.</p> <p dir="ltr">“He’s not a theatre person at all.... the whole story about the curtsy was disrespectful.</p> <p dir="ltr">“If you went to a different country with a different culture - say Japan - and they said you had to bow, you would not make fun of that bow. You would see it as a creative opportunity.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I think he was definitely embarrassed in that moment - and one of the few moments he was embarrassed and I think he should be embarrassed a lot more.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Twitter users exploded at Meghan’s mockery of the late Monarch and also pointed out Harry’s discomfort.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Whoa. Harry really didn’t like the curtsy mocking,” one person wrote.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Why is it ok for Meghan to mock our culture in this way? Or does racism only work one way?” British columnist Sarah Vine questioned.</p> <p dir="ltr">“This is the moment that Meghan describes meeting the late Queen Elizabeth for the first time and how she did not understand why she needed to curtsy to Harry‘s grandmother… He looks a little uncomfortable about the whole thing,” presenter Chris Ship wrote.</p> <p dir="ltr">“This is just nasty and unbecoming. Meghan looks like a school bully,” journalist and broadcaster Benjamin Butterworth wrote.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Netflix</em></p>

TV

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“A mockery of my tipuna”: Traditional tattoo camera filter sparks outcry

<p dir="ltr">The emergence of social media filters that allow users to project traditional Māori tattoos onto their faces has caused controversy, with concerns raised about the protection of Māori identity and intellectual property.</p> <p dir="ltr">The filters, given names like “Māori Mask” and “Māori Face Tattoo” and projecting mataora, moko kauae, tatua and other traditional tattoos, have appeared on social media platforms such as Snapchat, using open-source Lookery software to enable real-time modification of people’s faces in photos.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-8e092ecf-7fff-b23f-fcd0-44a1d24b92e6"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">Anyone can create filters, which are shared openly across the platform, with Instagram offering a similar feature.</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/09/maori-tattoos1.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Filters available on Snapchat that allow users to project traditional Māori tattoos onto their faces have sparked controversy. While two filters (left, centre) have been removed, one (right) is still available  Images: RNZ, Author</em></p> <p dir="ltr">While some see these filters as helping make Māori culture more accessible and revitalise mātauranga Māori (traditional Māori knowledge), others say it is damaging - particularly if they’re created from a non-Māori perspective.</p> <p dir="ltr">"When people wear a fake Prada or Gucci bag, people are quick to call it out. However, when tauiwi (non-Māori people) create Māori art for profit, everyone thinks it's great,” Māori activist Karu Martin said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"There are people who need to take responsibility when they are using Māori culture in an international space or platform to understand that they have consequences and ramifications."</p> <p dir="ltr">In Māori cultures, moko and tatua are unique expressions of a person’s whakapapa (genealogy) and identity, with traditional Māori tattoo artist Julie Paama Pengally adding that the tattoos represent more than what the creators of these filters could fathom.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Those elements are strongly connected to our whakapapa, our atua (ancestors), and our being,” Paama Pengally told the <em><a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018857427/growing-anger-over-use-of-moko-mataora-in-image-filters" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RNZ</a></em>.</p> <p dir="ltr">"As soon as you take something from a culture without permission and you misrepresent it, and you displace that culture from doing what they want to do with those things themselves, then you're appropriating.</p> <p dir="ltr">"That's a mockery of my tīpuna that you're wearing on your face, just so you can have your two seconds of fun.</p> <p dir="ltr">"For me, it's a long-lasting reminder that if I were to have that on my face, people would look at me sideways."</p> <p dir="ltr">But social media platforms are the only culprits when it comes to the commercialisation and appropriation of moko, with the sequel to Avatar and video games Borderlands 2077 and Grand Theft Auto drawing criticism for depictions of moko.</p> <p dir="ltr">Tūranga Morgan-Edmonds, a Māori musician for the metal band Alien Weaponry who got his mataora last year, said he is weary of the commercialisation of moko.</p> <p dir="ltr">"It's being made by some stranger on the other side of the world to be provided to the masses that don't belong to our culture,” he said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"These ones in the games are blatant rip-offs - they follow the same patterns and all of that.</p> <p dir="ltr">"Places that take inspiration have taken the concepts, and then designed something completely different."</p> <p dir="ltr">Since <em>RNZ</em> approached Snapchat for a comment, the platform has removed the filters.</p> <p dir="ltr">Meta, the company that owns Instagram and Facebook, didn’t respond to questions.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-a2b76514-7fff-ebc0-700e-4df9ebfe0d9a"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: RNZ</em></p>

Body

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Greta Thunberg responds to Donald Trump’s mockery

<p>Climate activist Greta Thunberg has responded to Donald Trump’s mockery of her speech at the United Nations by quoting the US president in her Twitter bio.</p> <p>Hours after Thunberg delivered her speech at the climate summit in New York on Monday, in which she told world leaders that “the eyes of all future generations are upon you”, Trump posted a perceived jab at the 16-year-old on Twitter.</p> <p><span>“She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future,” the president wrote. “So nice to see!”</span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr">She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see! <a href="https://t.co/1tQG6QcVKO">https://t.co/1tQG6QcVKO</a></p> — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1176339522113679360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 24, 2019</a></blockquote> <p>On Tuesday, Thunberg responded by changing her bio on Twitter to “A very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future.”</p> <p>Her profile had previously read: “16 year old climate activist with Asperger’s”.</p> <p>Thunberg’s address to the UN made headlines around the globe as she condemned the inaction on climate change.</p> <p>“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean, yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you,” she said.</p> <p>“We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth.</p> <p>“The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us I say we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line.”</p> <p>Australian prime minister Scott Morrison responded to Thunberg’s speech by saying that he doesn’t want to subject children to “needless anxiety”.</p> <p>“I want children growing up in Australia to feel positive about their future, and I think it is important we give them that confidence that they will not only have a wonderful country and pristine environment to live in, that they will also have an economy to live in as well,” he told reporters.</p> <p>“I don’t want our children to have anxieties about these issues.”</p> <p>In July, German chancellor Angela Merkel said young activists like Thunberg have pushed her government to <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20190719-merkel-says-greta-thunberg-drove-us-move-climate-change">act faster on climate issues</a>.</p> <p>“The seriousness with which Greta, but also many, many other young people, are telling us that this is about their lives, and that their life spans extend further, has led us to approach the matter more resolutely,” she said.</p>

News

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Mockery or bad timing? Cruise staff member waves giant fake hand as passengers miss the boat

<p>Whether it was intentional or not, a cruise ship staff member picked an unfortunate moment to pull out a giant fake hand and wave goodbye to spectators watching the ship disembark from the shore.</p> <p>Just as two unfortunate passengers realised their cruise ship was sailing away without them, a crew member decided to wave a fake hand as the pair looked completely helpless on a dock at St Maarten, Netherlands.</p> <p>But nothing could be done, as the only option the tourists had was to figure out a way to get to the next port on their own.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fcrucerospuertorico%2Fvideos%2F688479485001630%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=266" width="266" height="476" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></p> <p>Footage of the unfortunate incident was posted on Facebook, as it shows the Royal Caribbean cruise ship setting sail from the pier in Philipsburg, St. Maarten. Looking at the video, it seems that the couple had missed boarding by just a few minutes.</p> <p>As the phone camera focuses on the distressed duo, it soon shows a crew member on the ship waving around a giant fake hand that has the word “BYE” written on it.</p> <p>It’s possible the action was a result of bad timing, as the intention still remains unclear. </p> <p>Footage also shows other passengers on the cruise noticing the couple, shouting, “They missed it!” to help spread the word.</p>

Cruising