The controversy over Toronto's Dundas Street raises questions about who decides whose lives and ancestries are valued in naming streets and erecting monuments. While some mayoral candidates have threatened to rescind or review a council decision to rename the road, which was named for the slave-trade-supporting Henry Dundas, supporters argue that the high cost of the change has to be balanced against the insult caused to those left out of commemoration and decision-making processes in the past. Andrew Lochhead, the man who started a petition to change the street's name, said forgetting the origins of place names is a way that power reproduces itself. Muhammad Lachemi, president of Toronto Metropolitan University, whose name was also changed recently to distance the school from the Indian Residential School system, said renaming the institution had given many people a sense of redress and restored confidence in the university's responsiveness to its community.
The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is launching an awareness campaign to improve diagnosis rates for dementia among Black and Asian people. Over 25,000 people from ethnic minority backgrounds have dementia in England and Wales, including many who remain undiagnosed, with this number projected to grow seven-fold by 2060. The campaign’s launch coincides with Dementia Action Week in 2023. The move follows a report critical of the NHS for its lack of support for dementia patients from ethnic minorities, and revelations that hospitals have failed to identify dementia in 30% of patients.
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly will call for South American countries to have a larger say at multilateral organisations like the UN during a visit to the region. Delivering a keynote speech in Santiago celebrating 200 years of UK-South American relations, Cleverly will tell audiences that the “tectonic plates of world politics are shifting once again” and argue that South America should have a permanent seat on the UN’s Security Council. Cleverly will visit Chile, Colombia and Brazil as part of his diplomatic mission.
A US appeals court has overturned a decision in Nevada that labelled longstanding legislation as racist and unconstitutional. Section 1326 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which outlaws returning to the US after being deported, was deemed discriminatory against Latinos by a federal judge in the state in 2019. The ruling was a blow to campaigners who had hoped for changes to immigration law, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has now reversed that judgment, ruling the law "is facially neutral as to race".
New York's Genesis House has opened a Korean tea pavilion, where six guests can receive tea ceremonies and learn etiquette of 'darye'. The serene, South Korean-inspired extravaganza includes green, black, white, red, herbal and blue teas, available for purchasing and sampling. The pavilion, open every weekend, is located in the flagship building of the country's namesake auto manufacturer, which also houses a Korean restaurant. Additional culinary offerings include a lavender mille crepe cake from Lady M, an Upper West Side salad, sandwich and soup market by Rick Mast, and a dark and brackish Dashi RDX umami syrup from Noma Projects.
