#I was still in pakistan trying to avoid spoilers | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bopinion · 3 years

Text

2021 / 33

Aperçu of the Week:

"You must not believe everything you think!"

(Heinz Erhardt, German humorist of the 1950s)

Bad News of the Week:

Joe Biden currently faces as much criticism for developments in Afghanistan as any other leader in the Western "alliance against terror." One could have assessed the strength of the Taliban just as well as the weakness of the Afghan government and its army trained and equipped by the West. The estimates of the intelligence services should have been questioned, diplomats should have been listened to better. The predicament of the so-called "local forces" could have been avoided. This is obviously confusing cause and effect.

It was the Republican George W. Bush (or rather the hawks around Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz) who started the so-called "war on terror", first in Afghanistan, and invented the carte blanche of pre-emptive strikes with the Bush Doctrine ("National Security Strategy"). For those interested in the background, Bob Woodward's book "Bush at War" is highly recommended. And it was Republican Donald J. Trump who signed the virtually unconditional troop withdrawal agreement with the Taliban last year, which is now being executed according to plan. To now blame the current administration for the development is ridiculous.

Equally ridiculous is the current pretense that the Afghanistan campaign was a success. After all, its objective was to dry up the retreats of Al-Qaeda and, above all, to kill Osama bin Laden. Fun facts on the side: none (!) of the 19 attackers of 9/11 came from Afghanistan, Iraq or the African Horn, but 15 (!) from Saudi Arabia, like bin Laden himself. But especially for the Bush family the Sunni fundamentalists from Saudi Arabia have always been untouchable. And where was bin Laden finally caught and killed? In Abbottabad. And that is not in Afghanistan, but in Pakistan.

According to Time the rise on Taliban would have been impossible "without Pakistan's shelter and support". Associated Press writes about the role of Islamabad that it "does permit the Taliban leadership on its territory and its wounded warriors receive treatment in Pakistani hospitals. Their children are in school in Pakistan and some among them own property. Some among Pakistan's politicians have rebranded the insurgents as 'the new, civilized Taliban.'" To understand the complex relationship between the two states, it helps to look at the history books. Spoiler alert: it's not the U.S. that's to blame, but the British.

The hereditary enmity - yes, you can call it that by now - is based on the so-called "Durand line." The British colonel who gave it its name drew a border line between the two states, which had strategic reasons but completely ignored ethnic regionality. Thus, the West's ignorance of the cultural distinctiveness of this region already has a long history. The Durand Line cut right through the tribal areas of the Pashtuns. After the Pashtuns proclaimed "their" state Afghanistan, this border was of course never officially recognized. And independence or affiliation efforts of the cut Pashtuns, often on the brink of civil war, were actively supported. In turn, Pakistan has been trying to destabilize the Afghan state with political and economic measures for almost 70 years.

What do we learn from this? It has never worked when a Western power has tried to impose its values on a colonial people, ignoring their culture and history. Not with the British in Central Asia, not with the French in Indochina, not with the Americans in Korea or Vietnam. Or before that the Spanish in South America or practically all Europeans in Africa. So have we learned that by now? I'm afraid not...

Good News of the Week:

During the lockdowns, there was a real boom in Germany to get pets. The cat was supposed to replace the missing social contacts, the dog to guarantee the possibility to leave the domestic quarantine. So not the best conditions to ensure the welfare of the creatures - pets are not toys!

The thematically responsible cabinet member, Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner, now wants to counteract with new animal welfare regulations. Thus for example the chain keeping of dogs is to be forbidden, they must get daily at least one hour free run and also the puppy raising is to become more kind-fair. And also in the zoo specialized trade more expert knowledge becomes obligatory, in order to prevent among other things that domestic animals are given into a care, which could not be animal appropriate.

In the wake of recent developments such as the ban on chick shredding, the requirement for more species-appropriate housing with more space for cows and "employment material" for pigs, and the ban on imports of wild birds, this gives me hope. Of course, these are all just (too) small steps, but at least they are going in the right direction.

Sidenote: Tonight my son gets a "vacation dog" for two weeks once again. So the requirement "at least one hour of exercise in the fresh air per day" will not only apply to the dog Tzela, but also to the prospective professional gamer... ;-)

Personal happy moment of the week:

I could listen to music all the time. And of course, in a family household, I can't ruthlessly "acoustically dominate" everyone all the time. And I like good sound quality - so 5.1 surround sound for Netflix, DAB in the car and HomePods in the living room are a must. In addition, the increasingly digitalized communication in the home office with web conferences and Teams meetings demands a good headset. The solution for everything is - of course - good headphones. So last year I did a test run for several weeks with a pair of cheap Bluetooth headphones to see if I could live well with a permanent Mickey Mouse on my head. It made sense before investing, because after all, there were more and more rumors last year that Apple would eventually merge its experiences with AirPods and Beats by Dr. Dre into its own high-end headphones.

And then they really came on the market: the AirPods Max. When I finally went to order them as a birthday present to myself, my ears were shaking: more than three months of delivery time? OMG... No wonder that in that time span (and at my age) I had at some point forgotten that yes, there was still something in the pipeline. Until I finally got them last Thursday. And they also fully met my expectations. Now I'm happy, my roommates have their peace and everyone else has something to laugh about when I'm out and about with "Apple's purse" (because that's exactly what they look like in their Smart case).

I couldn't care less...

...that possible coalition partners of the German government after the elections at the end of September are already bickering about the typical German topic "speed limit on highways". As a driver of an electric car, I hardly ever drive faster than 100 km/h anyway. I prefer to stay in the right lane "attached to" a bus with cruise control and distance radar and ride towards my exit in a relaxed manner. And the famous, equally typical German driving pleasure? I get it from the barely comparable acceleration power - with which I can overtake practically everywhere and also make most of the big gasoline-powered cars look stupid at the traffic lights. Nice!

As I write this...

...I run every ten minutes first to the basement and then upstairs to the office. In the former, the freezer is defrosting and I have to constantly wipe up the new puddle of ice water from the floor. And in the second, the system update is running on the Mac and I have to keep clicking "Okay" - or read for what feels like the seventeenth time that the next step will take "about five more minutes". Every third time I go over to the neighbors, whose cat I'm taking care of for the weekend, to see if the madam has deigned to show her face, so that I can let her into the garden. Presumably the activity rings on the Apple Watch tonight will let me know I've had an athletic day.... ;-)

1 note · View note

n1ghtcrwler · 4 years

Text

Writeblr Life Week 6: Characters

I forgot I haven’t been including it, but I am participating in an event hosted by @owl-writes which you can find here. The sixth post of the series is about our characters.

Usually, I focus on the four blog authors and villains of Tall Tales for this sort of thing (as here), and occasionally switch gears to talk about the main cast of Glory Days (as here). Sometimes, when a question calls for it, I might mention a secondary character or two. But not today! Today, I am going to take this opportunity to shine a spotlight on some Tall Tales characters that I highlight rarely, if ever. Some of these will be people I haven’t introduced in the story yet, so I’ll put those ones under a cut for those who wish to avoid spoilers. Characters who have appeared may contain information that has not been revealed yet, but I’ll try not to make it anything you wouldn’t see coming.

Let’s do this!

Tadzio García

Tadzio is a human cursed with immortality. The wording of his curse, however, was pretty specific: he could not die so long as the demon who cursed him walked the Earth. It didn’t take Tadzio long to realize that this provided an out for him, as long as he could find a way to kill the demon. Already a skilled swordsman, Tadzio developed his craft for centuries and repeatedly faced off against his enemy and those who follow the demon. Sometime in the last century, however, the demon has vanished from active supernatural life. The fact that Tadzio is still alive tells him that the demon is still out there, somewhere, probably under an assumed name; and the fear that they may never cross paths again has finally driven the swordsman to seek allies. The most promising of these is Father Benedict de Monte, who might just be the one person Tadzio has met who would have the will and ability to finally end Tadzio’s long quest.

Henry Matteson

The grandson of a river spirit and a wealthy woman, son of one of the main villains of Tall Tales, and father to one of the blog authors, Henry does not appear to have inherited any magical powers himself. He is primarily a student of the supernatural, working from an extensive occult library which his grandmother had begun collecting. What he does with this information is somewhat unclear: readers will note that he has been shown to do fieldwork at times, and to have a certain interest in the activities of his father, but what he actually does on his adventures has not been seen.

Alethea Bilson

Born in 1943 (the same year as Benedict), Alethea had a short and difficult life until she was murdered during pregnancy by her sexually and physically abusive father in 1961. Due to some combination of her cultural and family environment, the conditions of her death, and her own personality, she treated her pregnancy as unfinished business and became a ghost. Obsessed with the idea of John Matteson, who she saw in a vision, helping her bring that unborn child to life, she waited 40 years to find him. Now that she has, she has no intention on letting him slip away from the work she intends for him.

Rick Fielding and Charles Whitman

Friends of Matteson, who have accepted to some degree that he really can see spirits and ghosts. They have been part of his attempts to investigate mysterious circumstances and ‘haunted’ sites since their teens. Rick has historically been enthusiastic about the idea, and views the whole thing as an adventure; Charles is a reluctant accomplice, and always takes comfort in the times Matteson insists there really is nothing there.

Sergei and Nancy Petrov

A married couple in Chicago who run a witchy shop frequented by Jackie Veracruz. They occasionally step in as advisers to her as she navigates the world of magic.

If you are on mobile and Read Mores aren’t working, I’m placing it here. Spoilers possible beyond this point.

Akshainie

Akshainie is a 200-year-old naga and one of the guards of the metaphysical city of Iravati. Having witnessed the last couple centuries of human activity in Pakistan, she is deeply suspicious of Europeans and Christians; but on being convinced that the cult she’s been fighting off is the same as the one Benedict is hunting, she agrees to work with him in their shared cause.

Alice Templeton

The author of the fifth Tall Tales blog scheduled to make her first post in October 2020. A friend of Rick’s who reaches out to Matteson for help with what appears to be a haunting and ends up far deeper into supernatural affairs than she bargained for.

Melissa Nash

A young woman who Matteson meets in the course of his work as a private investigator, who suddenly finds herself part of a supernatural world that she didn’t know existed. With Matteson’s help, she learns to use the new power she has and navigate the complex world of spirits who seek to draw her away from the life she’s trying to rebuild.

Daniel Matteson

As an empath, Daniel has an intuitive sense of the metaphysical realm and some ability to manipulate it. His connection to John Matteson gives him a chance to learn how the Realm works, what his powers can really do, and how to use them to help others.

Natasha Fox

Matteson’s secretary who will serve as a skeptical counterbalance to him while keeping the business afloat.

#writeblrlifeweek #writeblr #writblr #tall tales #original characters

0 notes