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thehopefuljournalist · 10 months

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This article isn't solely about the environment, but some of the things there are, so I'll summarize them for you :)

Bhutan and India boosted tiger numbers

According to Bhutan's latest tiger census, tigers have increased their population from 103 to 131 since 2015 - which is a rise of 27 per-cent.

This follows the country's major interventions to help the wild tiger population, including community based tiger conservation programmes, habitat improvement and human-wildlife conflict management projects.

Tigers are, of course, still at risk, but Bhutan's dedication to help and preserve their population is inspiring.

India has also reported a six pre-cent rise in their wild tiger population since last year. The country is believed to be populated by 3,682 tigers now.

Germany’s €49 travel pass

A part of a green new policy in Germany, a €49 (£42)-a-month pass allowing unlimited travel on buses and trains in Germany.

This will result in about 25 per-cent rise (per year) in the numbers of people choosing public transport instead of cars - a low carbon way of transport (according to the national rail operator Deutsche Bahn (DB)).

The Deutschlandticket launched on 1 May as a plan to lower the cost of living and encourage people to take the train instead of driving.

It seems to already have some great results: The Association of German Transport Companies says that almost 10 million people had used the pass by the end of June. DB has also said that trains to holiday destinations were busier this summer.

UK crop yields rose despite a fall in fertiliser use

New data from the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) revealed that UK crop yields rose last year, despite a sharp decline in fossil fuel fertiliser use. Many believed that these fertilisers were necessary, but this data proves that belief wrong.

According to Defra, wheat, barley, oilseed rape and sugar beet yields rose by 2.4 per cent in 2022, while fertiliser use fell by a reported 27 per cent.

These artificial fertilisers are made using natural gas, and because the prices soared in 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, farmers had to either use much less of them, or embrace more natural alternatives.

England’s plastic bag charge was hailed a success

Since the government in England forced supermarkets to charge 5p a plastic bag, there's been a 98 per-cent reduction of single use plastic bags.

That’s according to figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which introduced the charge in 2015, then increased it to 10p in 2021.

Environmental campaigners welcomed the figures, but urged the UK government not to row back on other green policies, including a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles and rules to make plastic producers contribute to clean-up costs. Both policies have been delayed until 2025.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Let me know, what good news have yo read or heard about lately?

#climate change #climate #hope #good news #more to come #climate emergency #news #climate justice #hopeful #positive news

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suncaptor · 7 months

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I've been collecting different countries sources for emailing representatives about Palestine. I think this is integral and something people should really be doing especially if their government representatives are supporting Israel which in many western countries is the case.

Connection in Europe via European voices for peace:

(Has options for separate countries)

Jewish Voices for Peace has a good mechanism for the United States:

Legal resources for US activism

move on petition

Australia:

https://apan.org.au/israel_stop/

Canada:

Countries that the Israeli PM has named for support on his twitter: Austria, Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Cyprus, United States, Germany, Italy, Britain, Romania, Russia*, United Arab Emirates*

*publically condemns escalation, that I could find

(He mentions the United States the most, and thanks the congressman of the United States)

Urge you to look into your personal government and/or representatives policies and contact and/or protest (or support if you support them) their decisions regarding Palestine.

Boycott: HP, Siemens, AXA, Puma, Israeli Fruit and Vegetables, SodaStream, Ahava, Sabra (company)

Israel is using the support of world leaders and repeatedly using the language of civilisation vs barbarians etc. If you're from a place that's representing you and supporting Israel, making it clear you don't support it is important. I can't talk about the intricacies of the many government systems, but I know the left within the United States is gaining more and more fear around the lack of support of young voters and voters of colour they rely on. So contact them and make them aware of how the support of funding Israel's violence against Palestine is in fact making them lose political capital.

If I've made any errors in this post, I do apologise, let me know, and if you have additional resources, also would love to update with some.

Voted against UN ceasefire: Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Fiji, Guatamala, Hungary, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tonga, United States

Abstained from voting: Albania, Australia, Bulgaria, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Haiti, Iceland, India, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Kiribati, Latvia, Lithuania, Monaco, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Palau, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Korea, Moldova, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, South Sudan, Sweden, Tunisia, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Zambia

#incoherents #palestine #rec

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coverednstars · 2 months

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I like human geography so here’s what I think the major religions of each Nation coming from someone who is semi knowledgeable ab the major religion

Obsidian is basically a weird west euro combo but mainly it’s germany me thinks so their main religion is Catholicism most likely orthodox catholic. Very nice churches i bet their stained glass goes hard since most of the colors are monochromatic. I don’t think gilbert is too religious probably agnostic

Benitoite is italy and therefore catholic do i even need to explain why? it’s probably stronger faith the closer you get to the coast. Silvio carries a rosary I think, again i don’t think either of the benitoite bros are really into religion but I think it’s more of they pray to protect what they have.

HEAR ME OUT! so ik benitoite and obsidian and like…. kinda direct with what places they parallel and ik Jade also has a Switzerland it parallels (and if so itd be roman catholic) but… in my heart it’s india + Hinduism.

Again rhodolite is kinda hard for me to grasp but I lowkey think it’s france so Roman catholicism. HAVE YOU SEEN THE CHURCH??? I don’t think the country or at least the royal family as a whole is super religious anymore since they said in game no one really uses the church but for special events TT.

Ruby n shintoism But i also know nothing ab it or Red hair guy so far but just off vibes hes not worried ab religion or what comes after death he’s to busy whipping out cold sword moves

Matt and his country which i can’t care to remember orthodox christian

and Azel is his religion so he can have fun with that so that’s that

#ikemen prince #ikepri #juno in space #juno’s ikepri tag #wish i could go into detail about my hcs but i’m gonna deep dive into each religion so i don’t mess up

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zvaigzdelasas · 8 months

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[DW is German State Media]

Running an administration made up of three staunchly right-wing parties appears to be tedious but it hasn't changed her, says the leader of the post-fascist, radical right-wing Brothers of Italy party.[...]

Over the past year, Meloni, 46, hasn't repeated any of the more radical slogans she was so fond of while campaigning. At home in Italy, she is trying to shape domestic policy according to strict conservative family ideals while on the economic front she has more or less carried on with the relatively successful policies of her predecessor, Mario Draghi. Meanwhile at the European level, she has been almost moderate. One doesn't hear acerbic criticism of the EU from her these days and around the world, she seeks out friends and allies. In fact, she leaves the radical statements to her coalition partners: Matteo Salvini of the right-wing League (in Italian, Lega) party and Antonio Tajani, the country's foreign minister and head of Forza Italia, which was previously led by the late Silvio Berlusconi.[...]

The one thing that doesn't seem to weigh on her daily duties as Italy's leader is the fact that her own party's logo features the eternal flame that sits on the tomb of former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Her partners in Europe also seem to be looking past that. One hears EU administrators in Brussels confess surprise at how "mild-mannered" and "soft-spoken" the Italian leader has become.[...]

At a Rome press conference with Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz, head of the centrist Social Democrats, Meloni told reporters that both were in agreement on all of the most important policy areas and that they were looking for pragmatic cooperation. Scholz didn't object. Meloni also seems to have built a rapport with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. [...]

During a recent visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa, von der Leyen and Meloni also seemed to be on the same page when it came to migration policy. That means monitoring borders, reducing arrivals and collaborating more closely with transit countries. Meloni's suggestion that the navy should blockade the coasts of North Africa was the only one that didn't win support from von der Leyen. The two women have already traveled to Tunisia twice to try and wring an agreement out of the autocratic Tunisian president on holding back migrants. Meloni sees that as part of her strategy to focus more on North Africa than previous heads of state have done, in her bid to stem migration.[...]

The heads of the EU and G7 states were actually relieved when Meloni expressed unconditional support for Ukraine in the war with Russia. US President Joe Biden praised Meloni's stance about how defending Ukraine also defends Europe's freedom.

"I hope you'll be nice to me," Biden joked when Meloni visited him at the White House in Washington this summer. Meloni responded with a telling laugh. Only a year ago Biden had branded her election victory a danger to democracy. Meloni let it be known that the pair were on friendly terms again after the one-on-one meeting in Washington. Meloni, who was completely inexperienced in foreign policy, has also been making friends at international summits, such as the recent G20 meeting in New Delhi. The public affection demonstrated by India's nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi prompted excited comments on social media in that country. The names, Meloni and Modi, were melded to create the new label "Melodi."

A win for moderation! /s

24 Sep 23

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xx-alice-in-wonderland-xx · 4 months

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TURNING RED MEIS FRIENDS FAMILY LIFE HCS

Hcs about meis friends home and family life because I really want to know xx

Miriam:

She comes from a Dutch-Canadian family, both of her parents are Jewish meaning she is too. Her great-great grandparents moved from Germany to Canada, meaning most of her living family has lived in Canada their whole life

she only speaks English

Her parents divorced when she was young, and she lives with her dad (I’m pretty sure this was canon cuz I read that in a deleted scene she said her parents were divorced and since Mei says ‘Miriam’s dad is ordering us pizza’, she probably lives with her dad and I just liked this idea)

Shes the youngest of 5 kids, and the only daughter, meaning she has 4 older brothers, which is why she’s a bit tomboyish and she’s very caring to the others because she’s the eldest and she’s never had anyone to care for before. She’s the closest with the brother who is closest in age to her. Their ages are 20, 18, 17 and 15. Her brothers are called Caleb, Noah, Daniel and James

She sees her mum once a week, but doesn’t really have anything to do with her

she only had her grandparents on her dads side and a great grandmother on her mums side

she has a lot of cousins. Like loads, and they’re all either the same age as her or older than her

she also has lots of uncles and aunts (I like to think she has a large family which is why she’s so kind ig 🤷‍♀️)

She has a pet lizard called ‘T’. Her dad tried to convince her not to call it after Aaron t but all her friends thought it would be hilarious if she did. Like Mei with Robaire jr

her brothers taught her how to skateboard

her brothers baby her and she HATES it. Like if they baby her, if she can she’ll tell them to shut up and talk to them like she talked to Tyler when he bullied mei

priya:

Lives with both of her parents, who are from India

her parents were born in India, but moved to Canada when they were young with her grandparents, meaning they speak English and Hindi, but priya was just born in canada

priya speaks Hindi

she’s the eldest of 3 children, she has 2 little sisters who are 8 and 3. Her sisters are called Meena and Aarya

she visits India in the holidays (like when you end a school year and have the huge break and go into a year above)

her and her dad both LOVE rock music, which is why she’s a goth. Her sisters who’s 8 also loves it. Her mum isn’t that keen on it but she lets them make their living room sound like a mosh pit because she likes how they bond over it. She loves nirvana, Metallica, smash into pieces, evanescence (who are her person fav), babymetal (she tried getting Abby into them because they’re Japanese but Abby hated it lol), bring me the horizon, slipknot, halestorm, korn, I Prevail, etc (these are all my fav rock bands don’t judge me 😭)

she’s very protective of her sisters, despite not doing much with them. Because she’s quiet and loves reading, she spends most of her time in her room or in the mosh pit of a living room, but she cares for them deeply and would do anything for them, like with Miriam Mei and abby

she has a small family unlike Miriam, she only has 2 uncles and 1 aunt, and only has a few cousins

abby:

Comes from a Korean family

was actually born in Korea, and lived there until she was 3, then moved to Canada with her parents and her siblings

she speaks both Korean and English, but when she’s mad by default she yells and speaks in Korean

she has 1 older sister and 1 younger brother, her sisters 16 and her brothers 6. Her sisters called Jasmine and her brother is called Felix

Her and her siblings have Korean names which their family calls them. Their legal names are their English names (so Abby’s legal name is Abby), and if their parents mention them to people who aren’t family, they’ll say their English name (so they’ll say abby), but when it’s their family or they’re speaking to them, they’ll call them their Korean name. Jasmines is Hwayoung, Abby’s is Chaeyoung, and Felix’s Jiyoung

her mum runs one of those Asian hair salons (do u get what I mean cuz she said ‘my mum cuts his hair at the salon’ when she was talking abt Devon)

her dad runs a Korean restaurant

Because it’s just her, her parents and siblings she doesn’t really see the rest of her family

She only really visits korea for a family celebration, like a wedding or funeral or a Christening or somet

She ALWAYS plays twister or just dance with her siblings, and her dad thinks it’s hilarious, but her mum wishes she had a quiet household for once

the reason she’s so energetic and loud is because she came from that type of household

you think she’s bad, her brother is even worse. Hes WAY more energetic than her, and her sister is loud but kind of calm

loves to take the mick out of her brother

#Turning red #miriam mendelsohn #priya mangal #abby park #meilin lee #Mei lee #4*town #turning red miriam #turning red priya #turning red abby

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homomenhommes · 5 months

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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … January 21

1870 – Kurt Martens was a novelist and short fiction writer, born in Leipzig, Germany.

While German writer Kurt Martens wrote numerous novels and novella-length works during his career, he remains best known for his literary friendship with novelist Thomas Mann. In the early part of Martens's career, he and Mann shared thoughts about writing and shared admiration for each other; Mann even dedicated his well-known novella Tonio Kröger to Martens as a token of their camaraderie. Gradually, however, as Mann's star rose and Martens's fell, the friendship faded.

Martens was born in the city of Leipzig. His parents were wealthy; Martens came from "a patrician and conservative home." He was educated thoroughly at boarding school, though he later described his schooldays in harrowing terms.

In the first volume of his autobiography he writes of the harmful effect his upbringing in boarding schools had had upon him. Some of the teachers had been excellent; but the headmaster was unaware of what went on outside the classroom, and Martens had early been introduced to homosexual practices. These involvements, however much Martens claims to regret them, are recounted with a great deal more ardor in his autobiography than are his later heterosexual adventures and the vague and hasty story of his engagement and marriage.

In 1895, Martens moved to Dresden to begin a legal career, but a year later he decided to focus wholly on his writing. In 1896, he began to compose his first and best novel, Roman aus der Décadence, a semi-autobiographical story about Just, a young trainee in the Leipzig court system.

After his first success, the remainder of the author's career proved to be anticlimactic. Though as a young editor Thomas Mann had accepted a story of Martens's for his magazine, Simplicissimus, Mann became increasingly critical of Martens's work.

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Martens continued to write about the same subject that had initially interested him: the conflict between wealth and birth.

After Dresden was bombed during World War II, two of Martens's manuscripts, along with his household, perished in flames, and he committed suicide in the ruins of his home shortly after.

1885 – Duncan Grant (d.1978) was one of the major British artists of the twentieth century, as well as the sexual catalyst of that remarkable group of friends, the Bloomsbury Circle, which included, among others, writer Lytton Strachey and economist John Maynard Keynes, who were to be among Grant's lovers.

Born Duncan James Corrow Grant in Scotland into an artistically cultivated Scottish family prominent in governing the British empire, Grant as a child recognized his attraction to other boys and actively sought out sexual encounters with them.

Grant spent his childhood in India but returned to Britain in 1893. He travelled to Paris in 1906, where he studied with Jacques-Emile Blanche and became acquainted with Picasso and other influential artists of the time. In 1910, he returned to England to exhibit as a post-impressionist and then experimented with abstraction.

Famous for his use of color, he was called "the Matisse of Britain." His career flourished and his work was widely commissioned and collected by patrons, including Queen Elizabeth (the late Queen Mother), as well as by museums throughout the world.

Soon after World War II, the abstract school triumphed. Nevertheless, Grant had begun painting in a representational style, where his unabashed depictions of the male figure declared his sexual preference.

Bathers by the Pond

Throughout his life, Grant produced homoerotic sketches and paintings. When he was commissioned to decorate the Russell Chantry in Lincoln Cathedral in the late 1950s, he used his lover, the youthful, blond, physically beautiful Paul Roche, as the model for the face and body of Christ.

Despite the oppressiveness of British law and social attitudes condemning homosexuality, Grant lived openly as a gay man. "Never be ashamed," he liked to say. He remarked that his moral sensibility came from the Regency period, the pre-Victorian era noted for its relaxed sexual mores.

Although unabashedly homosexual in orientation, Grant was the object of desire of men and women alike. The painter Vanessa Bell, for example, with whom Grant and her husband art critic Clive Bell, shared a Sussex farmhouse for many years, fell in love with him.

Grant reluctantly yielded when she climbed into bed with him. She became pregnant and, in 1918, gave birth to a daughter she named Angelica. Grant neither acknowledged nor denied his paternity. However, when Angelica was a teenager, Vanessa told her that Grant was her father.

The young woman was traumatized with outrage and bitterness. After her mother's revelation, Angelica initiated an affair with and later married writer David Garnett, whom she knew to have been Grant's lover at the time of her conception.

Grant died peacefully on May 9, 1978, at the age of 92, in the arms of his companion, the poet Paul Roche. Grant's will divided his estate, including the copyrights to his work, between Roche and Angelica Garnett.

Unfortunately, Garnett has used this power to restrict and generally deny permission to reproduce Grant's work. As a result, the artist remains something of a ghostly figure, despite the resurgent interest in representational art and the perennial fascination with Bloomsbury.

*****

In 2020, an extraordinary stash of more than 400 erotic drawings by Duncan Grant that was long thought to have been destroyed came to light, secretly passed down over decades from friend to friend and lover to lover.

In the 1940s and 50s Grant made hundreds of drawings, many of them explicit and often influenced by Greco-Roman traditions as well as contemporary physique magazines.

One of the sketches

In May 1959, Grant gave his friend Edward le Bas a folder marked “these drawings are very private”. The mythology in Bloomsbury circles is that the drawings were later destroyed, probably by Le Bas’s sister. That was that, until Nathaniel Hepburn, the director of Charleston, the beautiful Sussex farmhouse Grant and Vanessa Bell called home, was contacted with an offer of the drawings.

The offer came from the retired theatre designer Norman Coates, who for years stored the drawings in plastic folders under his bed.

Coates said the drawings were “extraordinary, so in your face. You can’t avoid them. When I’ve occasionally brought them out to show selected friends after dinner, after the initial ‘My God’ exclamation at these very explicit drawings, they mellow … the sexual element really doesn’t dominate.

“It is the painting and the skill of his drawing and the aesthetic of it which negates the sexiness of them. It becomes irrelevant that the subject is what it is … it is a very odd feeling. It just becomes a beautiful collection of pictures.”

Coates was left the drawings by his partner, Mattei Radev, who died in 2009. Radev, a Bloomsbury mainstay who as a younger man had had a secret and tortured affair with E.M. Forster, was left them by Eardley Knollys, who died in 1991.

Knollys, who ran the influential Storran gallery in London and had an affair with Jean Cocteau, was given them by Le Bas, a painter. Le Bas was given them by Grant, a man who the economist John Maynard Keynes briefly thought might be the love of his life.

Hepburn said the drawings were often explicit fantasies but, as a whole, they were something more. “They are, I think, a body of work that talks of love. Of course at a time they were made, that is a love that was illegal,” he said. “He was never able to share the works. How we see them now will be very different.”

1895 – The best known Spanish fashion designer, Cristóbal Balenciaga was born (d.1972). Regarded as the master of fashion, his classic designs inspired the fashion industry throughout most of the twentieth century and continue to exert influence.

Born in Guetaria, near San Sebastian, Spain, Cristóbal Balenciaga Eisaguirre was the son of a fisherman. He studied needlework and dressmaking with his mother until 1910. In 1915, he established his own tailoring business under the sponsorship of Marquesa de Casa Torres. By the early 1930s he had established a reputation as Spain's leading couturier. Following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Balenciaga closed his three couture houses and left Spain. After a brief stay in London, Balenciaga settled in Paris and in 1937 opened The House of Balenciaga on Avenue George V.

Balenciaga never married. This fact, coupled with his career in fashion, has led to speculation and rumors about his sexuality. A deeply private man, he never discussed his personal life publicly. One particular incident reported by writer Jacqueline Demornex may, however, throw a little light on his sexuality. After an argument between the couturier Coco Chanel and Balenciaga, Chanel allegedly made the following observation to a mutual friend: "It is obvious that he dislikes them (women); look at the way he conceals blouses under suits, just to expose the wrinkles in their necks." Inasmuch as such charges are frequently made against gay male designers, Demornex ponders why Chanel attacked Balenciaga in such a way: was it his age, his way of dressing women, or his private life?

So flattering were Balenciaga's creations that women often ordered more than one of each design so that they could wear one while the other was being cleaned or so they could keep one at each of their houses. Remembered as a master of black, Balenciaga often favored a muted palette of colors, especially a combination of black and brown, inspired by the traditional dress of his native Spain. Spain was also the source and inspiration for his use of lace, his heavy embroidery with jet-encrusted trimmings, as well as the brilliant whites and the drama and dignity of stiff formal fabrics reminiscent of those painted by Goya and Velásquez.

In 1968 Balenciaga closed his business rather than see it compromised in a fashion era he did not respect. He retired to Spain and died in 1972.

1905 – Fashion designer and icon Christian Dior was born on this date (d.1957). He was born in Granville, Manche, Normandy, France, the younger son of Maurice Dior, a manufacturer of fertilizer and chemicals, and his wife, the former Madeleine Martin. Dior had an elder brother, Raymond, whose daughter was the Nazi sympathizer Françoise Dior. Acceding to his parents' wishes, Dior attended the Ecole des Sciences Politiques from 1920 to 1925. The family, whose fortune was derived from the manufacture of fertilizer, had hopes he would become a diplomat, but Dior only wished to be involved in the arts. After leaving school he received money from his father so that in 1928 he could open a small art gallery, where he sold art by the likes of Pablo Picasso and Max Jacob. After a family financial disaster that resulted in his father losing his business, Dior was forced to shut down the gallery.

In the 1930s Dior made a living by doing sketches for haute couture houses. In 1938 he worked with Robert Piguet and later joined the fashion house of Lucien Lelong, where he and Pierre Balmain were the primary designers. In 1945 he went into business for himself, backed by Marcel Boussac, the cotton-fabric magnate. Dior's fashion house opened in December 1946, and the following February, he presented his first collection, known as Corolle. It was more famously known as the New Look. The actual phrase the "New Look" was coined by Carmel Snow, the powerful editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar. Dior's designs were more voluptuous than the boxy, fabric-conserving shapes of the recent World War II styles, influenced by the rations on fabric. He was a master at creating shapes and silhouettes; Dior is quoted as saying "I have designed flower women." His look employed fabrics lined predominantly with percale, boned, bustier-style bodices, hip padding, wasp-waisted corsets and petticoats that made his dresses flare out from the waist, giving his models a very curvaceous form. The hem of the skirt was very flattering on the calves and ankles, creating a beautiful silhouette. Initially, women protested because his designs covered up their legs, which they had been unused to because of the previous limitations on fabric. There was also some backlash to Dior's designs form due to the amount of fabrics used in a single dress or suit--during one photo shoot in a Paris market, the models were attacked by female vendors over the profligacy of their dresses--but opposition ceased as the wartime shortages ended. The New Look revolutionized women's dress and reestablished Paris as the center of the fashion world after World War II.

Dior died at the health spa town Montecatini. Some reports say that he died of a heart attack after choking on a fish bone. Time magazine's obituary stated that he died of a heart attack after playing a game of cards. However, the Paris socialite and Dior acquaintance Alexis von Rosenberg, Baron de Rédé stated in his memoirs that contemporary rumor had it that the fashion designer succumbed to a heart attack after a strenuous sexual encounter with two young men. His companion, at the time of his death, was an Algerian-born singer, Jacques Benita.

1959 – Antonio D'Amico is an Italian model and fashion designer.

D'Amico was born in Mesagne, in the Italian province of Brindisi, and later lived in Milan. He was hired as a part-time office administrator for his first job. He met Gianni Versace in 1982, and the couple eventually embarked on a long-term relationship that lasted 15 years, until Versace's murder in 1997. During that time, he worked as designer for the Versace Sport line. D'Amico now runs his own fashion design company.Versace's will left D'Amico with a pension of 50 million lira a month for life, and the right to live in any of Versace's homes in Italy and the United States. However, since the properties that were left to D'Amico in Gianni's will actually belonged to the company, the homes belonged to Versace's sister Donatella, brother Santo, and his niece, Allegra after his death. After working out agreements with lawyers, D'Amico obtained a fraction of the pension and a restricted right to live in Gianni's properties. D'Amico's relations with the rest of the Versace family have not always been easy; Donatella said in March 1999,

"My relationship with Antonio is exactly as it was when Gianni was alive. I respected him as the boyfriend of my brother, but I never liked him as a person. So the relationship stayed the same."

1966 – Time Magazine publishes an unsigned two-page article, "The Homosexual in America." The article includes statements such as "[Homosexuality] is a pathetic little second-rate substitute for reality, a pitiable flight from life. . . . it deserves no encouragement . . . no pretense that it is anything but a pernicious sickness."

2013 – President Obama made the first mention of gay rights in a U.S. inaugural address. The text of President Obama’s Inauguration speech reads: "It is now our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began. [. . .] Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law — for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well."

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rockislandadultreads · 8 months

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Read-Alike Friday: African Europeans by Olivette Otele

African Europeans by Olivette Otélé

Africans or African Europeans are widely believed to be only a recent presence in Europe, a feature of our ‘modern’ society. But as early as the third century, St Maurice—an Egyptian— became the leader of a legendary Roman legion. Ever since, there have been richly varied encounters between those defined as ‘Africans’ and those called ‘Europeans’, right up to the stories of present-day migrants to European cities. Though at times a privileged group that facilitated exchanges between continents, African Europeans have also had to navigate the hardships of slavery, colonialism and their legacies.

Olivette Otele uncovers the long history of Europeans of African descent, tracing an old and diverse African heritage in Europe through the lives of individuals both ordinary and extraordinary. This hidden history explores a number of questions very much alive today. How much have Afro-European identities been shaped by life in Europe, or in Africa? How are African Europeans’ stories marked by the economics, politics and culture of the societies they live in? And how have race and gender affected those born in Europe, but always seen as Africans?

Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.

Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people—including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others—she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.

On Savage Shores by Caroline Dodds Pennock

We have long been taught to presume that modern global history began when the "Old World" encountered the "New", when Christopher Columbus “discovered” America in 1492. But, as Caroline Dodds Pennock conclusively shows in this groundbreaking book, for tens of thousands of Aztecs, Maya, Totonacs, Inuit and others —enslaved people, diplomats, explorers, servants, traders—the reverse was true: they discovered Europe.

For them, Europe comprised savage shores, a land of riches and marvels, yet perplexing for its brutal disparities of wealth and quality of life, and its baffling beliefs. The story of these Indigenous Americans abroad is a story of abduction, loss, cultural appropriation, and, as they saw it, of apocalypse—a story that has largely been absent from our collective imagination of the times.

From the Brazilian king who met Henry VIII to the Aztecs who mocked up human sacrifice at the court of Charles V; from the Inuk baby who was put on show in a London pub to the mestizo children of Spaniards who returned “home” with their fathers; from the Inuit who harpooned ducks on the Avon river to the many servants employed by Europeans of every rank: here are a people who were rendered exotic, demeaned, and marginalized, but whose worldviews and cultures had a profound impact on European civilization.

The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber

For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike—either free and equal innocents, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a conservative reaction to powerful critiques of European society posed by Indigenous observers and intellectuals. Revisiting this encounter has startling implications for how we make sense of human history today, including the origins of farming, property, cities, democracy, slavery, and civilization itself.

Drawing on pathbreaking research in archaeology and anthropology, the authors show how history becomes a far more interesting place once we learn to throw off our conceptual shackles and perceive what’s really there. If humans did not spend 95 percent of their evolutionary past in tiny bands of hunter-gatherers, what were they doing all that time? If agriculture, and cities, did not mean a plunge into hierarchy and domination, then what kinds of social and economic organization did they lead to? The answers are often unexpected, and suggest that the course of human history may be less set in stone, and more full of playful, hopeful possibilities, than we tend to assume.

#history #sociology #nonfiction #nonfiction books #reading recommendations #reading recs #book recommendations #book recs #library books #tbr pile #tbr #to read #book blog #library blog #booklr #book tumblr #readers advisory

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 1 year

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By: Nickolaus Hines

Published: Oct 18, 2021

In 2016, the famous nun Mother Teresa was declared a saint by Pope Francis — but many people say she doesn't deserve it.

Ever since the Vatican made Mother Teresa a saint in 2016, the response has been controversial and polarizing.

In order for Mother Teresa to achieve sainthood, the Vatican had to recognize two miracles that the famous nun performed after her death. Pope John Paul II recognized the first miracle in 2003, just six years after she died in 1997. And Pope Francis recognized the second miracle in 2015.

The popes claimed that Mother Teresa performed miracles when she cured one woman and then one man of their respective tumors. However, these “miracles” have been disputed by some — especially since a doctor who worked on the woman’s case said that she had been treated with drugs.

But debates over Mother Teresa’s miracles didn’t dissuade the Vatican from moving forward with its plans. Pope Francis officially proclaimed Mother Teresa a saint on September 4, 2016. But the decision remains controversial, and the dispute over her miracles is just one small part of it.

Of course, Mother Teresa’s sainthood may seem well-deserved to some. After all, she cultivated a mostly sparkling reputation as a selfless humanitarian while she was alive. But in recent years, her image has lost its luster. And when you take a closer look at her story, it’s not hard to see why.

Inside Mother Teresa’s “Selfless” Intentions

Mother Teresa was intent on converting as many people to Catholicism as possible, even at the expense of the poor and sick.

No one builds a church purely for the love of God — especially in places like India where critical services, like hospitals, are lacking. Religious groups that erect churches in these areas do so not just out of the kindness of their hearts, but to increase the number of people who believe in their faith.

Like those missionaries, conversion — the Church’s key to survival — was Mother Teresa’s primary goal. And in the context of the Catholic Church, charity can be viewed as a self-interested act.

“It’s good to work for a cause with selfless intentions,” said Mohan Bhagwat, the head of a Hindu nationalist group. “But Mother Teresa’s work had ulterior motive, which was to convert the person who was being served to Christianity. In the name of service, religious conversions were made.”

And when The New York Times reviewed the British documentary Hell’s Angel, a film that highlighted some of Mother Teresa’s flaws, the paper concluded that she was “less interested in helping the poor than in using them as an indefatigable source of wretchedness on which to fuel the expansion of her fundamentalist Roman Catholic beliefs.”

Still, some argue that even if Mother Teresa had ulterior motives, at least the people she cared for were better off for it. But others who have actually visited and worked in her medical centers wholeheartedly disagree.

The Horrific Conditions At Mother Teresa’s Medical Centers And Missions

Though Mother Teresa’s medical centers were meant to heal people, her patients were often subjected to conditions that made them even sicker. In the same documentary, an Indian journalist compared Mother Teresa’s flagship location for “Missionaries of Charity” to photographs that he had seen of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Nazi Germany.

“Workers washed needles under tap water and then reused them. Medicine and other vital items were stored for months on end, expiring and still applied sporadically to patients,” said Hemley Gonzalez, a noted humanitarian who briefly volunteered at Missionaries of Charity.

Gonzalez continued, “Volunteers with little or no training carried out dangerous work on patients with highly contagious cases of tuberculosis and other life-threatening illnesses. The individuals who operated the charity refused to accept and implement medical equipment and machinery that would have safely automated processes and saved lives.”

It wasn’t just volunteers who criticized Mother Teresa’s treatment of patients, either. In her hospice care centers, Mother Teresa practiced her belief that patients only needed to feel wanted and die at peace with God — not receive proper medical care — and medical experts went after her for it.

In 1994, the British medical journal The Lancet reported that medicine was scarce in her centers and that patients received nothing close to the treatment that they needed to relieve their pain.

Meanwhile, some doctors took to calling her missions “homes for the dying” since her Calcutta home for the sick had a mortality rate of more than 40 percent. But in her view, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

In response to all the criticism, Mother Teresa allegedly said, “There is something beautiful in seeing the poor accept their lot, to suffer it like Christ’s Passion. The world gains much from their suffering.”

However, when it came to her own suffering, Mother Teresa apparently took a different stance. When she began experiencing severe heart problems, she received care in a modern American hospital.

The Questionable Company That Mother Teresa Kept Throughout Her Life

While neglecting the needs of the sick, Mother Teresa was also called out for rubbing elbows with several wealthy — and corrupt — world leaders.

This included Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, who was eventually charged with crimes against humanity for his abuse of his fellow Haitians.

At one point, 60 Minutes released footage that showed Mother Teresa praising Duvalier’s wife Michele. In the footage, Mother Teresa said that she had “never seen the poor people being so familiar with their head of state as they were with her. It was a beautiful lesson for me.”

That wasn’t the only friendship that raised eyebrows. Mother Teresa also received $1.25 million from her friend Charles Keating.

Keating was one of the key figures behind the 1980s savings and loan crisis, brought about by housing market and loan speculation, which cost American taxpayers $124 billion. And while he was on trial, Mother Teresa wrote to the judge presiding over his case — seeking clemency for him.

“I do not know anything about Mr. Charles Keating’s work or his business or the matters you are dealing with,” she said. “I only know that he has always been kind and generous to God’s poor and always ready to help whenever there was a need. It is for this reason that I do not want to forget him now while he and his family are suffering.”

Though a co-prosecutor of Keating actually responded to Mother Teresa after his conviction — and pointed out that one of the people Keating stole from was a poor carpenter — he never got a response from her.

And that wasn’t the only issue related to Mother Teresa’s finances.

The Enduring Mystery Of Where Mother Teresa’s Money Went

Countless well-meaning Catholics gave money to Mother Teresa’s charitable organizations throughout the years, but many of them would never see their generous donations go toward good works.

Keating’s $1.25 million donation alone would seem large enough to lift all of those in her care out of poverty, but one volunteer said that “even when bread was over at the soup kitchens, none was bought unless donated.”

Once, after running up an $800 tab at a grocery store to feed people at her charity, Mother Teresa refused to get out of line until someone else paid.

A 1991 report in the German magazine Stern also estimated that only seven percent of the millions of dollars she received were used for charity.

But seven percent of what total figure, exactly? The world will never know. Nirmala Joshi, the leader of Missionaries of Charity who succeeded Mother Teresa, said the donations were “countless,” and there was only one person with the actual numbers. “God knows,” Joshi said. “He is our banker.”

One is left to wonder where all of that money was actually going — and what happened to it after Mother Teresa’s death.

Mother Teresa’s Views On Reproductive Rights

Though it’s not surprising that a Catholic nun would be against abortion, Mother Teresa still raised eyebrows when she discussed her stance while she was accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

In reference to Bosnian women who had been raped by Serbs and who were seeking abortions for their unwanted pregnancies, Mother Teresa said, “I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing — direct murder by the mother herself.”

She also rallied against birth control, claiming that “natural family planning” would solve the woes of women who were not ready for a child.

What Mother Teresa did promote in the realm of family planning — like abstinence — didn’t help anyone, either. And despite abstinence-only education being proven ineffective, she still stuck by her claims.

But even though she gained some critics for views like these, Mother Teresa was mostly successful at avoiding controversy while she was alive. However, a glimpse of her “dark side” would slip through the cracks every so often — especially when it came to her infamous homes for the sick.

In hindsight, these issues are hard to ignore today. And it’s also difficult to understand why the Catholic Church decided to make Mother Teresa a saint. She may have been revered for helping the poor and the sick, but her practices ensured that they were mired in pain until their final moments.

Reminder: Mother Teresa was a sadistic fundamentalist.

#Nickolaus Hines #mother teresa #catholic church #catholic #religious fanatic #sadistic bitch #roman catholic #catholicism #fuck you mother teresa #fraud

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movetogermanywithease · 10 months

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If you want to move to Germany from India, this ebook can help you get started. It'll tell you all about the various options for moving and working in Germany, why it's a great place to work, and how to get the right visa and work permit. Enroll now!

#moving to Germany from India #moving to Germany #India to Germany move

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beardedmrbean · 3 months

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Hey zoomer Huey, oh my god ac red is going to be HELL when they finally revealed Yasuke is going to be the second playable character

https://x.com/oliverjia1014/status/1768104847071719880?s=46

My thing with Yasuke for the upcoming game that they acknowledge he a OUTSIDER. Hell I did some dna research in Southeast Asia and it stated many communities are East African descent so they can say post main story Yasuke settled down and retired to one of those places

Also I saw people said Japan achieved more than those 54 countries….sigh….

People forget that modern Japan is HEAVILY westernized due to American military there (mainly because we don’t want more batshit crazy soldiers like imperial Japanese ones)

And we took care of most of military might because we all know how fucked Japan would be after China got it shit together right?

So Japan was able to rebuilt faster than most countries

We just didn’t pull a British Raj and let Japan keep most of their culture. Okay okay it more complicated

Not to mention our knowledge of japan is due to american occupation there thus the culture exchange for 80 years.

Like my Yoruba thing, yes I want to show more Africans stories. But I swallow the hard pill that I can set the foundation for more better and accurate African stories. But will die before seeing African warriors be treated the same way as Samurai warriors

Also the inferiority complex, look yes African cultures are still shit on

But just grow the fuck up and stop acting like Twitter discourse is everything

I mean I recently bought the Ramayana after finding a mutual who like a naughty character Twitter see as the devil.

Just saying there are good African AND African Americans stories we can tell.

Actually have fleshing out the chimera republic in mind. I think I started to realize an issues with the knights and samurai shit. Wanna read in an another anon?

Did a reverse search on the image here, nice to see most everyone is on the same page, which is Yasuke was real and the only black samurai that's known

Fellow from Japan suggested checking this site if you're looking for dark skinned people, not sure if he means African or not, Spain and Portugal did lots of trading might have had some African slaves or something like that with them. I dunno.

I can believe the East African bit, these are the "bad guys" from 300 from India to Ethiopia and they were big on moving people from one place to another in order to keep them from creating a large enough community to pose a threat.

They've become pretty westernized over there in Japan ya, not all the way the commercial with the company apologizing for raising the price of a ice cream after like 25 years is not a western thing at all, we'd say fuck you and then increase it again.

Arizona Ice Tea is a outlier there.

And we took care of most of military might because we all know how fucked Japan would be after China got it shit together right?

We took care of military for the same reason we did with Germany, don't want to have to deal with that shit again so you can have a very limited military that's geared for self defense, someone attacks we'll come running and cover you.

See if you can find the Shaka Zulu series they made, man literally changed warfare in that part of Africa.

Big issue with sub Saharan Africa is I don't think there was any groups that could field a 10,000 man army, not many at least, not till after islam showed up and gave a unifying identity to different groups. This is just from what I know I may be wrong though.

Just saying there are good African AND African Americans stories we can tell. Actually have fleshing out the chimera republic in mind. I think I started to realize an issues with the knights and samurai shit. Wanna read in an another anon?

True dat, and ya that could be a fun read feel free.

#zoomer huey anon

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thatdebaterguy · 3 months

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'Colonisers'

So along with saying the west is some genocidal oppressive system, another big argument is saying that the west is solely responsible for the idea of colonisation and settler colonisation. This is when people need to do their history. The UK, arguably the most successful empire in history, has been subject to being colonised so many times in history it's unreal. Viking invaders establishing settler colonies in the North-East of England are mostly responsible for why people in that region have blonde hair. I personally have about 12% of my heritage tracing back to Scandinavia. The Saxons moved over to England and intermixed with the native Anglos and Gaelic speaking peoples to create Anglo-Saxons. Then the Normans invaded in 1066 and created the modern English culture over hundreds of years.

Eastern Germany around Berlin used to be controlled by tribal Slavic groups like the Polabian people, before the Germanic people under the Holy Roman Empire conquered it and integrated the land. Spain was full of Catholic Europeans until the Umayyad conquests where Southern Spain was occupied and integrated into the Caliphate. The West has some of the most documented cases of colonising each other, invading each other, assimilating each other. African and Native American tribes had been waring each other for centuries long before the Western civilisations showed up. And this is my hot take; if you yourself believe that the colonisation of America or Africa by white Europeans were worse than the Africans and Natives slaughtering themselves and enslaving each other, then you yourself are racist. The West did exactly what any other country throughout history has ever done, but on a larger scale due to technological superiority over the rest of the globe. When the Islamic golden age was taking place, the Muslim Caliphates of Arabia conquered the Turkic lands, the Steppes, North Africa, parts of Europe, even the Ottomans who were around until only 100 years ago, subjected millions of Christians in the Balkans and enslaved them, long after places like Britain abolished slavery. In fact, the gap between 2024 and 1918 (when the Ottomans existed) is a larger gap than 1918 and 1807, which is when the UK abolished slavery.

The thing is, you don't see Saudi Arabia paying Spain reparations for conquering half of their entire country and selling their women across the Mediterranean, and you don't see Turkey giving reparations to America for raiding American ships and capturing their women too, even in recent history, Turkey has killed Americans in Syria despite being allies, and the US recently sent a variety of aircraft to Turkey to bolster their military. Meanwhile in the US, you've got affirmative action and diversity quotas, and Microsoft proudly displaying how minorities are paid more than white people, which is literally pay discrimination based off skin colour. If you asked a South African what they'd think about introducing quotas where the minority and discriminated white population get benefits, they'd tell you to leave before they drove a knife through your skull.

The point is, colonialism, oppression, slavery, it's a stain on human history, not just Western history, but at least the West has had the decency to acknowledge its dark past, teach it, learn from it, pay reparations from it, even the UK is sending aid to India, while the UK has a cost of living crisis and India has a stronger economy. The west has the freedoms and liberty to let you scream in the streets about how oppressed you are and how bad it is, something you can't do in half the world. You call the government, which is a royal family, terrible in Saudi Arabia and you get hanged for treason or beheaded, same if you're openly gay. Yes we've done some bad things, but no one is innocent throughout history. What matters is what we do now.

#israel #politics #palestine #gaza #current events #hamas

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puella-peanut · 1 year

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Daniel sprains his ankle badly after a new karate move goes wrong, and is advised to keep off his foot for two months. Which, of course, is devastating for our spunky boy, but John?

Well, John doesn’t say a word (big surprise), but just picks him up bridal style every time he sees Daniel even attempt to move. Something which takes Daniel less than two days to be over.

“I can walk—okay, John, maybe I can’t walk, but I can definitely limp around so you don’t have to—“

“No.”

“I have a crutch. Actually, waitaminute, I have two crutches, so I can, like. You know. Hobble around, and stop collecting dust, like—“

“Doctor’s orders.”

“Doctor’s orders don’t say anything about John Kreese carrying me around like I’m dying or something, not even in the small print which, yeah, okay, I didn’t read, but I know for a fact that even if I did, I wouldn’t see your name there. And by the way, I’m not dying, my muscles just decided to revolt, so you can just—“

“You’re scrawny. Easy to carry.”

“…That’s so not the point, and besides, this is embarrassing!”

“Why.”

“Why? Whyyyy?? Why, because I’m a full grown adult—and totally not scrawny just fun sized—and I can take care of myself, and I don’t need you fussing over me like a mother hen—“

“You’re the one fussing, kid.”

Daniel sputters, but he can’t come up with anything to say to his bullheaded boyfriend, so he just fumes in John’s (admittedly very nice) arms after punching him a couple times right on the chest (which does absolutely nothing, except hurt his own hands since John’s practically made of concrete).

Meanwhile, John won’t ever admit, but seeing Daniel with his little foot all bandaged up, and wearing John’s old sports t-shirts (all dangerously oversized on him), and with his pouty, bratty expression perpetually on—John can’t get enough. He’s going to savor this as long as he can. Gonna milk these next two months for all their worth. Heh.

(Meanwhile Terry probably inquires a thousand times if Daniel would like him to fly in a world-renowned specialist from Boston, Manhattan, West Germany, Czechoslovakia, India, Japan…oh, and would he like Terry’s personal chef to whip him up something good, or he can get Daniel’s mother to fly in from Jersey on his personal plane if he’d like some authentic home-cooked meals, and would you like some flowers, Danny-boy, to brighten this place up? Red roses perhaps, you look so ravishing in red after all sweeth—)

John just slams the door in his face. And disconnects the phone for good measure. And tells him to not contact Daniel for the next two months, or better yet, ever again. Sorry, Terry.

Meanwhile, Daniel just groans and wonders where he went wrong in life.

#john kreese #daniel larusso #lakreese #and a tiny bit of #silverusso #terry silver #in which i chase paper cuts #sweep the leg

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oh2e · 22 days

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I just watched Suffragette (2015) which was a alright film about an ordinary woman’s deepening involvement with the suffragettes in 1912.

At the end of the film there was a little list of when some countries gave women the vote. Women acquired the right to vote in 1918 in the UK and Ireland, provided they were over 30 and owned land. 1928 for all women. New Zealand, 1893. Australia, 1902. Norway, 1913. Russia, 1917. Austria, Germany and Poland, 1918. USA, 1920. Brazil, 1932. Turkey, 1934. France, 1944. Italy, 1945. China and India, 1949. Mexico, 1953. Switzerland, 1971. Jordan, 1974. Nigeria, 1976. Qatar, 2003. Saudi Arabia, 2015.

It got me thinking. When did Irish women get the right to vote? 1918 obviously, same as the UK. But all Irish women got to vote from 1922 - six years before the UK. The Saorstát Éireann was remarkably progressive for its time. The Easter Rising was full of women fighting for their country - Cumann na mBan were an integral part of the plans. Ireland was one of the first countries to directly address women in the constitution. Things took a major dip after that thanks to the increased hold the Catholic Church had on the country, and Éamon de Valera’s anti-feminism stance but we’re moving forward now. Women can hold jobs after marriage and get divorced and use birth control and marry other women and get abortions. Religion is good and kind, but corrupt religious institutions with too much power are not. How many other countries are currently going through their oppressive power structure phase? Why is equality for women still something people are fighting about, over a century later? We’ve come so far but yet still have so far to go.

#my own post #suffragette 2015 #late night thoughts apologies if I lose the thread there at the end I tried to tidy it up but I think it got more lost

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kendrixtermina · 6 months

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Our Governments are not representative of us, nor of our cultures.

The Nation-State was probably the single worst idea in all of humanity, and both the current conflict & the discourse around it really shows why

Before they came up with that in the 19th century, people may have identified themselves with their language, religion, culture or attachment to the region, but not by a "nation" of people thought to have shared traits. At the time of the French revolution, most people in France didn't speak French, and in 1900 some ppl in sicily had no idea what "Italy" is.

A while ago ppl were surprised about a farmer on TV who said he doesn't particularly care if his town is in "Russia" or "Ukraine" he just wants to live there in peace. But until 200 years ago or so, that is how most people thought of home.

Certainly basic xenophobia, tribalism & fear of the other existed before, there were, after all, persecutions in the middle ages. But the construct of nation has nonetheless made conflicts massively worse & more deadly.

It's based on an Illusion

There is this idea that peoples have always existed as some unchanging, unmingling "pure" group on one piece of land that is tainted or adulterated by contact with others.

Even on the left some ppl just uncritically accept this notion (see much of the discourse about 'cultural appropriation')

That was just never true - people have always been copying each other, migrating, trading, interacting etc. often new cultures arose or peoples changed where they lived; Borders shifted over time. And of course, culture evolved over time.

When people think that a state that is an illusion is what naturally should be, and try to adjust reality to the fake model in their head, ugly things happen.

Homogenous groups on a fixed patch of land are not the reality of how cultures work, but if ppl think they are, they enact violence to artificially create those homogenous patches neatly delineated by lines. You get silly disputes about "who was there first", expulsion of minorities and conflicts when people try drawing lines in areas with mixed populations.

The Nazis, the Balkan wars & Israel represent the peak excesses of the madness that can lead to. (and note that 20 years or so after the Nazis fell, tons of immigrants moved into Germany & the artificial homogenity collapsed again, because it's just not natural. Israel will never suceed at their homogenous country either.)

It leads to generalization

There's a really shitty trope in european newspapers sometimes that has much been criticised.

If the article says "Guy robs bank" then people will think he's a bad guy.

If the article says "Turkish guy robs bank" it will get ppl frothing about how immigrants are bad guys. In case of the non-immigrant robber, they don't even bother to write "German guy robbs bank"

That's how you see these shitty responses that when there's a war, random ppl from the involved countries get attacked. China does shit & ppl bother random Chinese.

With the current war, jews & arabs around the world are being harassed.

What can some ordinary shopkeeper Yacob Shmitz in New York do about Netanyahu? What does Khalil Mansoor in Berlin got to do with October 7th? Nothing at all.

This leads ppl to completely overlook all context to look at some ppl as always being victims or perps or otherwise all the same, regardless of context. For example I once heard an Indian acquaintance raving about "the muslims" & how they "want everything" & making wild conflations. A Palestinian living in Al-Quds/Jerusalem wants it probably because he lives there & probably doesn't even know about the contentious site in India, and he was treating as the same people that are wildly different: Powerful elites in Saudi Arabia & persecuted minorities in India & Palestine, arabs in the ME and southeast asians in Pakistan.

Later he went to a Pakistan-themes party & was surprised to wind that culturally they got more in common wit him than arabs despite the different religions. They liked similar music, food & sports.

Or people today feeling guilty & ashamed now for what the Nazis did. Did you, personally, throw people in gas chambers? No? Then what shame is it of yours? Everyone who did it is dead & buried & being roasted in hell if it exists.

To me, this completely destroys the very system of morality. Morality only makes sense if a person can only be blamed or held responsible for what they can personally influence & change. If you're deemed "bad" based on things you can't control, what's the incentive of being good?

Or, you can't criticize some countries cause people take it personally - it's an insult to their identity, their whole culture... which brings me to the next & imho main point.

It conflates people, culture & government

A wise guy in Iran once said that "the difference between you & me is much smaller than you & your government, and our governments are much the same". I wish more ppl listened to him.

There have been greedy leaders looking to enrich themselves pretty much since they invented agriculture. but they spoke for themselves or their supporters.

With Nation-States, it gets assumed that the government speaks not only for the people, but that is somehow represents their values & culture.

All this political & war propaganda isn't really what culture is. Culture is conventions and books and food and little stories and sayings and values that give things meaning. But when someone says "fuck the Muslims/USA/jews/Germans" etc the other side feels like the actual culture, the small & beautiful & meaningful & enlightened things are what's being attacked. Because it's conflated.

Leaders will of course claim to justiy their actions by whatever values are popular with their subjects, but that doesn't mean they actually represent those values.

Look at your own leaders: How much do they support the values you believe in? How much do they do lip-service to that culture without really living up to it?

So you get ppl seeing governments do shit & thinking "fuck all those jews/americans/westerners, they must be demons" and Israelis killing all the ppl in Gaza because of "Hamas".

It's that same logical leap of not just leaders = people, but leaders = culture & values.

Now leaders of course have coalitions of supporters whether it's a bunch of oligarch or a popular movement - active supporters are 100% on the hook for what the government does. The mocking song singers are to blame for Netanyahu & the red hat guys for Trump, and Biden... I mean, it's probably the DNC & some political establishment ppl who wanted him cause no one else really did.

But political coalitions =/= all the people =/= all the "culture".

The evil acts of government are usually the products of greedy leaders and a coalition of supporters, not whole populations or cultures.

The difference between people & political establishment has never been more obvious than now

Case in point: Mainstream news outlets are struggling to explain away why there is 15 times more pro-palestine content being posted on the internet, some getting conspiratorial or frantically attributing it to "iran propaganda", but the true reason is that, as surveys also show, no one outside of Israel wants this fucking war but a few old men with imperialist ambitions & weapons companies.

much of it is ignorance, inertia, & propaganda calculated to work on influential because because theyre influential & fear looking bad.

our cultures may differ but very few cultures would last long if they condoned this kinda shit. Different cultures may give different reasons & many have their flaws of bothersome elements, but i dare say most would on average come down on rejecting this.

Let's not believe the lie that being for this is based on any kind of values, not western ones or any other. They might say it is to sell their bullshit but it's just liars & cowards adapting their lies to the audience.

#feelings #nation state #state #countries #nationalism #culture #israel hamas war #israel palestine war #i/p #free gaza #free palestine #gaza #palestine #israel #germany #deutschland

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