#especially after the past and what we did to ukraine

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

Moment of signing the security agreement with Germany

#🥹❤️🥹❤️🥹❤️🥹❤️🥹❤️🥹❤️🥹❤️🥹❤️ #this is such a huge HISTORIC moment #especially after the past and what we did to ukraine #you have to understand that something like this never ever existed before in the germany ukraine relationship #this is BIG #we said as long as it takes and ukraines victory and we mean it #this also means were not going to pressure ukraine again into a minsk whatever #also nice to see ze so happy ❤️ #after the very hard weeks and months and the depressing second half of 2023 this is a well need good news #and france will follow today #ze has all the reason to smile today ❤️ #also on step closer to integrate ukraine in eu and nato until their officially part of it #and we even gave ze a big military package in addition #with lots of stuff they really need #germany you can be so motherfucking awesome if you want #some (!!!) kudos to olaf #mostly kudos to baerbock and pistorius and makeiiev and everyone in their teams who worked for that #same for the Ukrainian side

[mariacallous]

Oleg Orlov began his career by protesting against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. At about the same time, he joined Memorial, Russia’s first and most important historical and human-rights organization—in Russia, the two subjects are organically connected—while it was still an underground, dissident operation. In the 1990s, Memorial emerged into the open and began publishing books detailing the mass arrests and murders committed by the Soviet Union. During the decade I spent researching the history of the Soviet Gulag, I ran into Memorial historians and activists all over Russia, including in their one-person “office” in Syktyvkar and in the spectacular museum, now dismantled, that they built on the site of a former concentration camp near Perm.

Memorial is dedicated to both revealing the truth about the past and preventing that past from repeating itself in the future. Its activists work in archives, but they also monitor human-rights violations in modern Russia. Orlov, who became Memorial’s co-chair, worked especially hard to expose the horrors of Russia’s wars in Chechnya, and the cultural and political destruction that followed. He did so because he wanted to live in a different kind of Russia. Now he will pay a high price for his patriotism.

On the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the regime shut down Memorial, after 30 years of operation. The same regime arrested Orlov, who had criticized the invasion with the same unsparing language he had used for the previous four decades. “This brutal war,” he wrote in an article, is “not only mass murder of people and destruction of the infrastructure, economy, and cultural sites” of Ukraine but also “a severe blow to the future of Russia,” a country that “is now pushed back into totalitarianism, but this time into a fascist totalitarianism.” Like Alexei Navalny, whose funeral took place in Moscow on Friday, Orlov was extraordinarily brave—brave enough to publish his criticism of the war, of President Vladimir Putin, and of Putin’s regime.

On February 27, Orlov received a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for “discrediting the Russian army.” Following in a long tradition of Soviet dissidents before him, Orlov made a courtroom speech, addressed to those in the room and beyond. Joseph Brodsky, who later won the Nobel Prize in Literature, sparred in 1964 with a Soviet judge who asked him by what right he dared state “poet” as his occupation: Who ranked you among poets?” Brodsky replied, “No one. Who ranked me as a member of the human race?” That exchange circulated throughout the Soviet Union in handwritten and retyped versions, teaching an earlier generation about bravery and civic courage.

Orlov’s speech will also be reprinted and reread, and someday it will have the same impact too. Here are excerpts, translated by one of his colleagues:

On the first day of my trial, terrible news shocked Russia and the entire world: Alexey Navalny was dead. I, too, was in shock. At first, I even wanted to give up on making a final statement. Who cares about words today, when we have not recovered from the shock of this news? But then I thought: These are all links in the same chain.  Alexey’s death or, rather, murder; the trials of other critics of the regime including myself; the suffocation of freedom in the country; the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army. So I have decided to speak. I have not committed any crime. I am being tried for writing a newspaper article that described the political regime in Russia as totalitarian and fascist. I wrote this article over a year ago. Some of my acquaintances thought back then that I had exaggerated the gravity of the situation. Now, however, it is clear that I did not exaggerate. The government in our country not only controls all public, political, and economic life, but also aspires to exert control over culture and scientific thought … There isn’t a sphere of art where free artistic expression is possible, there are no free academic humanitarian sciences, and there is no more private life either.

Orlov continued by reflecting on the absurdity of his case, of the legalistic rigamarole in Russia that conceals the regime’s lawlessness. In fact, the law is whatever Putin dictates. Everything else, the lawyers, prosecutors, and judges, are just there for show, to pretend that there is rule of law when there is not.

Let me now speak about my current trial. When it began, I refused to participate. Thanks to that, I had the opportunity to reread The Trial, a novel by Franz Kafka, during the court sessions. The current situation in our country has a lot in common with the world that Kafka’s protagonist inhabits in the book. We live with the same absurdity and arbitrariness, camouflaged by a formal adherence to some pseudo-legal procedures. Here we are accused of “discrediting the military,” but no one explains what this means or how it differs from legitimate criticism. We are accused of “spreading deliberately false information” without anyone bothering to prove that it is indeed false. The Soviet regime used exactly the same methods when it branded any criticism as lies. Our attempts to prove the veracity of this information are punished as crimes … We are being given prison sentences for doubting that aggression against a neighboring country is being carried out for the sake of international peace and security. This is absurd. Kafka’s hero has no idea, until the end of the novel, of the nature of the accusation against him. He is ruled guilty and executed anyway. In Russia, the accusation is formally announced, but it is impossible to understand it within the framework of law and logic. Unlike Kafka’s hero, we do understand why we are being detained, arrested, sentenced, or killed: We are being punished for daring to criticize the authority. That is completely banned in modern Russia.

Orlov listed a few of the thousands of Russians who have been detained for criticizing the Russian government and the war, and then continued:

In recent days, they have grabbed, punished, and even imprisoned people only for coming to memorials to victims of political purges to pay tribute to the murdered Alexey Navalny, a remarkable man, brave and honest. He never lost optimism and faith in our country’s future even in the extremely hard conditions that had been set up especially for him. The authorities are fighting against Navalny even when he is dead; they are afraid of him even after his death, and they are right to be afraid. They are destroying people’s memorials to his memory. They do this because they hope to demoralize that part of the Russian society that still takes responsibility for their country. This is a false hope. We remember Alexey’s appeal: “Don’t give up.” I will add to this: Don’t lose your spirits, don’t lose your optimism. The truth is on our side. Those who have led our country into this hole represent the old, the frail, the outdated. They do not clearly see the future, only false images from the past, mirages of “imperial grandeur.”

Finally, Orlov addressed the court itself, the government officials and clerks, the judges, and the prosecutors. Of course, he knows, as any student of Soviet history knows, that a single dictator cannot enforce an authoritarian regime by himself. Thousands of  collaborators are required. Orlov’s last words were for them.

Not all of you believed in this repressive system, of course. You sometimes regret that you are forced to participate in all of this. But you tell yourself: And what can I do? I am only following the instructions from my superiors. The law is the law. I am speaking to you, your honor, and the others accusing me: Are you yourselves not afraid? Are you not afraid to watch what our country is becoming, our country that you, too, probably love? Are you not afraid that not only you, but also your children and, God forbid, your grandchildren, will have to live in this absurdity, this dystopia? Do you not acknowledge the obvious truth, that the repressive machine will sooner or later also flatten those who launched it and promoted it? This has happened many times in history … I am not completely sure that those who have created and implemented Russia’s  illegal, anti-constitutional “laws” will face judicial persecution. But the punishment will definitely come. Your children or grandchildren will be ashamed to talk about the work and the deeds of their fathers, mothers, grandfathers, and grandmothers. The same will happen to those now committing crimes in the Ukraine. This, I think, is the most terrible punishment. And it is inevitable … I regret nothing.

[thechembow]

Rainy Morning, Days Away from the Gifting Trip

Oct. 11, 2023

It rained overnight and into the morning. The radar is not showing any rain, which is strange. We have been under heavy energetic attack for the past month because of the unprecedented gifting we are about to embark on. Yesterday was a very difficult day, for others as well as ourselves.

I am very aware that our small problems are nothing compared with the parasitic attacks against the people in Israel, which is very reminiscent of the sudden and senseless attacks on Ukraine. The parasites have always used war as a tool to generate DOR. They are losing "food" as their death towers are neutralized and they are desperately doing what they can to bring death, destruction, and misery.

We also have an intuition that the gifting of Denver, Albuquerque, and Tucson are more than just about the weather, although we do expect monumental results in snowfall this winter. There is something more going on in this region, which will soon make itself clear. There is no way the nefarious and deranged "art" in the airport in Denver is for no reason. It is clearly an important place for the parasites. All I know is that one particular issue keeps coming up in the media; abduction of children and young people for sex trafficking. The parasites do not want this being exposed or stopped.

There was a recent video post by Vigilant Citizen about a "crazy" woman being arrested in Ohio. She was not really crazy, just extremely traumatized, and the meathead cops did not have the psychiatric training to handle the situation properly. They even ignored obvious clues like her handler showing up on the scene and her hints that she was being trafficked. She mentioned specifically not wanting to be sent back to New Mexico. She talked about the abduction of many girls. I feel strongly that gifting in Colorado and new parts of New Mexico we haven't yet covered, especially Albuquerque, are important to stopping this abuse.

As a side note to the video, the skies in Ohio were remarkably high in OR, even though I know of no orgonite gifters there. It is close to Pennsylvania where there are gifters, so this may be having a very widespread effect. The energy of this world is shifting due to orgonite gifting and there is nothing the parasites can do about it. As usual, the parasites turn everything around on us, and in the case of this lady, named Grace, they are arresting the victim rather than going after the people who hurt her, imprisoned her, and made her go "crazy." This has to stop and the only way to make a sweeping change is with orgonite gifting.

#orgone #orgone energy #orgonite #orgonite gifting #planetary healing #geo-restoration #free energy #denver #colorado #albuquerque #new mexico #arizona #tucson #ohio #rain #weather

[userparamore]

Maybe it’s cause tour is starting soon and I’m just baffled by all of it so I’m sorry for ranting. But I genuinely don’t understand how paramore thinks all of us fans are just gonna ignore and move on with the fact that they’ve been silent about a genocide when a lot of aspects of their concerts have speeches about the state of the world and the second song of the setlist is literally called “the news” which they wrote about the Ukraine war. I’m sorry but their silence is so cowardly and embarrassing like imagine spending a whole album cycle saying shit like “very comfortable at talking politics” and promoting different congressmen and us representatives and now there’s an ethnic cleansing funded by US taxes and you’re gonna promote an interview?? promote a podcast?? like do they not realize how every single one of their past activism just seems so performative now? 

I love the band and I’m gonna be at the NZ show but it’s crazy that this political and environmentally conscious band is just not gonna call out the government for playing a part in one of the worst crimes ever committed in human history. They’re gonna donate portions of their concert money to KiwiHarvest so I know they care about feeding people and making sure it’s all healthy so where’s the outrage for Palestinians who don’t have clean water and are all eating very little cause the bakeries got bomb. Where’s their cry for the environmental damages that Palestinians are going through with the white phosphorus bomb and fires all around sacred olive trees? 

I hope they know that thousands marched for Palestine here in NZ and I know many people from the protest are also going to the paramore concert. I really hope the band don’t pull those “we just want peace and Israel has the right to defend itself” type of shit cause we booed a member of the NZ parliament off stage for saying something like that and as much as I admire this band, I will not hesitate to do it for them too 

hi anon <3 don't worry you can rant if you want!

their silence have been extremely disappointing and have honestly turned me off them a little. maybe it would be better if they were completely silent between tours – completely on social media hiatus – but when we see them promote stuff and be active it just makes it worse. they're actively not saying anything. if they're going to be political this era they can't pick and choose which causes makes them look the best.

in the dolly parton interview hayley just did also made me more disappointed:

her saying that her speaking out and trying to make a difference doesn’t do much in the way of action. her saying this is very confusing to me especially after making a statement like “very comfortable with talking politics”, and them supporting different organizations like support + feed, and kiwiharvest. it's crazy to think that them speaking out or supporting these organizations doesn't make a difference. it does. it would make a difference if they spoke out about the genocides happening right now. they have the power.

i'm happy for you being able to attend the NZ show and i hope you have a great time. my guess is they'll keep their mouths shut and not say anything at all before they would show support for isreal (if that's what their beliefs are).

#as always i don't know if what i'm saying makes any sense #stole the screenshots from ivie (paramoreisrare) btw #it's just so crazy to me for her to say this and then later in the interview talk about all the good dolly har done #with the imagination library and the funding she did for the covid vaccine #dolly made chance happen. she made a difference #paramore have the same power #ask #anon

[zvaigzdelasas]

Rising tensions between Greece and Turkey over a simple goodwill tweet indicates how alarmingly volatile the relations between two NATO allies are becoming. 

Allegations that Greece’s Russian-made S-300 air defense batteries locked on Turkish jet fighters during a NATO mission in the Mediterranean Aug. 28 increased tensions between Turkey and Greece. The bickering morphed into a more serious escalation on Twitter a few days later.

On Aug. 30, NATO’s Allied Land Command (LANDCOM), the organization’s headquarters that is tasked with coordinating allied nations’ armies and based in the western Turkish city of Izmir, sent a tweet to congratulate the centennial of Turkey's Victory Day. But the LANDCOM account soon deleted the tweet after protests from the Greek government. [...]

One hundred years ago on Aug. 30, the Turkish military had destroyed [...] Greek forces in western Anatolia, marking the end of what became Greece's “Asia Minor catastrophe” and the military victory of Turkey’s “National Struggle/War of Liberation.”

Back to Sept. 1, 2022, a new tweet from LANDCOM said that the account had congratulated Turkey's Victory Day, even though the original tweet was gone. The second tweet inflamed Turkish social media. Adding insult to injury, Turkish Twitterati found the LANDCOM account's tweet from March 25 celebrating Greece’s Independence Day.

Defense and security analyst Arda Mevlutoglu tweeted back to LANDCOM on Sept. 1: “Why did you need to state that you celebrated on [Aug. 30]?” — pointing out the absence of the original tweet. Mevlutoglu followed up in successive tweets, also tagging the main NATO account: “Are you going to issue a statement on this [LANDCOM]? What is the reason for the deletion of the original message and posting a new one two days later?”

Even the Turkish Ministry of National Defense got into the fray: “It is unacceptable for [LANDCOM] to delete the social media post celebrating the August 30 Victory and Turkish Armed Forces Day by giving up its will upon a selfish and spoiled attitude of another NATO member,” referring to Greece. The tweet came with a much longer press statement that mentioned the Greek radar lock on Turkish jets on Aug. 28.

The affair has led some Turkish foreign policy experts to believe that Greece is trying to benefit from Turkey’s poor image in Western media circles. [...]

Meanwhile, Erdogan dialed things up on Sept. 3. Speaking at a technology festival in the Black Sea town of Samsun, Erdogan criticized Greece’s amassing of weapons into its eastern Aegean islands that are a stone's throw away from the Turkish mainland. In recent months, Ankara has upped the ante by disputing Greek sovereignty over the islands, arguing that arms buildup on the islands violates Athens’ past treaty commitments. Even more worrisome for the Greeks and the Americans, Erdogan uttered his now famed phrase on Sept. 3, “We may suddenly come one night,” a signal he uses whenever he has considered to mobilize the Turkish military — especially in Syria.

A senior Turkish official who is intimately involved in NATO affairs struck an even tougher line. Speaking to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, the official stressed Turkey's contributions to NATO for 70 years. [...]

While there are clear indications that the United States is siding with Greece (Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s speech to the US Congress in May is a case in point), and Washington is the most powerful force in NATO, Ankara is not without its friends. In the last two decades, Spain and Italy have provided key support for Turkish military modernization projects such as the amphibious assault ship TCG Anadolu and the T-129 attack helicopters. Turkey is now exporting the latter to third-party countries.

In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Turkey has intensified its cooperation with the United Kingdom and Poland, which are vigorous in their support of Ukraine. British defense giant BAE Systems has provided critical support for Ankara's fifth-generation fighter jet, the TF-X / MMU. In 2021, Poland became the first NATO country to buy the famed Bayraktar TB-2 drones. Romania is also likely to purchase Bayraktar TB-2s.

Just this week, Turkish Minister of National Defense Hulusi Akar visited the MSPO defense expo in Kielce, Poland, and toured the Turkish pavilion with Polish President Andrzej Duda. Along with Bayraktar, Turkish defense heavyweights ASELSAN and ROKETSAN showcased their hardware.[...]

One positive note on that front is that LANDCOM has not posted any new tweets since Sept. 1.

9 Sep 22

[scribbling-stiks]

Spring - XXXII - Minor Annoyance

Russia stares forward before he jumps at a ringing from one of the phones. Virginia picks it up before handing it to Nebraska, saying something that’s covered by the sounds of the sewing machines.

Nebraska wheels over to Russia, handing over the phone. She says something to him, but he can’t hear it.

He takes the phone and brings it up to his face.

“Hello?”

“Hello,” Soviet says, “a meeting is going on right now. You should be online.”

“What’s goin’ on?” Dixie asks, looking up from the papers in his hands.

“We’re supposed to be attending a meeting,” Russia replies before returning his attention to the phone, “We will log in.”

“Good,” Soviet replies, “I will see you there.” Then, he hangs up.

Russia drops the phone on the arm of the couch and Dixie shouts for a computer and for everyone to gather in the living room.

New York walks in, his hair ruffled.

‘Was he sleeping?’

Dixie reaches forward before New Jersey pushes him back.

“No, we’ll get you logged in.”

Dixie huffs but falls back.

“What is going on?” Egypt asks.

“We have a meeting to attend,” Russia replies, taking the laptop and holding it in his lap.

“I’ve got a table!” Ohio shouts.

Russia turns to see Ohio holding a solid wood end table over his head, walking into the room. Delaware is helping America to the couch, and America is put down next to Russia. America takes the computer from Russia’s hands and begins typing, logging into the meeting room.

‘I hope I don’t hear any comments about being late.’

“Move!” Ohio shouts as California shuffles around him, pushing people out of the way.

“Get off of me.”

“Then move yourself!”

Ohio sets it down in front of the couch before taking a step back. “That should work as a desk thing,” he says, hands on his hips.

“Thank you, Ohio,” America says, not looking up from the computer.

Mexico sits down beside Dixie and Phillippines sits on the floor beside the table. Egypt and Nigeria stand beside the couch and Finland sits on the arm. Canada sits beside America, fidgeting with his hands. Ukraine leans in, flicking Russia’s head.

“Shut off the sewing machines,” America demands, “We need to be able to hear the meeting.”

Suddenly, all the room's ambient noise fades, and Russia can hear the computer’s loading noise.

“Come on, you stupid thing,” America says to the computer, tapping the table aggressively.

“America,” Russia mumbles.

America grumbles something back, but it falls below the ringing in his ears.

Then, the screen is filled with video call boxes. Russia takes a quick look over them, and it's not long before the computer explodes with noise.

“Finland?” Sweden asks, “Finland!”

“What happened to your arm?” Norway asks, with horror in his tone.

Russia sees his father sigh with relief. He looks to the other screens and sees England with Wales, Scotland, and both Irelands, but not UK.

‘Where is he?’

Russia can’t pretend that he misses UK’s chatter or comments, but the question sticks in his mind. Especially paired with England’s fidgeting. Soon, England is the only one left on his square of the screen, raising his hand with an open mouth, but is talked over by the others.

Russia swaps his attention to his father, only to see a flash of light purple from behind a partially open door. Soviet sighs and Russia catches a glimpse of Kazakhstan running past the doorway.

Memories of Kazakhstan chasing Russia after he would use his magic fill his mind, and he looks to the side to see America also staring at Soviet’s screen, a question on his face. Then, Ukraine prods Russia’s shoulder.

Russia meets his gaze and can see the question in his eyes of “Did you see that too?” He nods, and Ukraine seems to hum before looking back at the screen.

UN begins talking, and Russia can’t force himself to listen. 

Then, Ukraine shoves his shoulder, and he looks up with a frown when he sees Ukraine gesturing to the screen. Russia finds his father’s screen only to see another flash of purple and his father getting up.

“Soviet Union!” UN scolds, “this is important.”

Soviet glares at the screen, and Russia sees his brother look away while avoiding the screen himself.

‘I wonder if UN will light on fire.’

‘I hope so. Maybe it will end the meeting early.’

Soviet leaves the room, closing the door behind him, and Russia mentally notes that it’s muted. The room remains empty for a moment before Belarus walks in, shutting the door behind her. She unmutes her microphone.

“What was that?” UN demands.

“Nothing you need to worry about,” Belarus replies bluntly.

“Why did your father need to leave?”

Russia flinches, and everyone goes quiet, staring into their screens.

“My father had something he needed to deal with,” Belarus replies, her tone unchanging.

Russia whips around to stare at an equally startled Ukraine.

‘Since when did she call him her father?’

UN stares unabashedly for a moment before shaking his head.

“What did he have to deal with?” UN pushes.

“Nothing you have to think about,” Belarus replies, her gaze morphing into a glare, her arms crossed across her chest.

‘She learns that from our father,’ Russia thinks, avoiding looking at the screen.

“Uhm,” England says, “I have an announcement.”

Russia’s attention returns to the meeting, curious.

‘Does this involve UK?’

“And what would that be?” UN replies, trying to shake away a scowl.

“UK is missing.”

“Really?” America asks, his tone sharp.

“He went outside earlier to get away from Ireland,” England explains, “and we can’t find him.”

“Great!” America exclaims, a forced smile on his face as he throws his hands in the air, “now he’s gonna be our problem. Hooray.”

“America,” UN calls.

“What?” 

“Why are you being so disrespectful?”

“Why not? UK gets away with it,” America bites, “besides, this makes him our problem now.”

“What are you talking about? No one should be trying to retrieve countries.”

“Oh shut up,” America snaps, “what’s your plan then? What are you going to do then? Just abandon people?”

“Amy, you gotta calm down,” Dixie says, reaching out.

“That reminds me,” UN says swiftly, “Who are you?”

“Me?” Dixie asks, his eyes wide.

“Yes, you’re a personification, but you aren’t a state. Who are you?”

Dixie reaches over and wordlessly exits the meeting.

“You know he’s gonna ask again, right?” America asks.

“Yeah, I know, but I ain’t answering him right now.”

Russia sighs.

“Did anyone mention that we’re going home?” Egypt asks.

‘Oops.’

~

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[a---fire---inside]

Hi, as s suporter of Ukrain and a metamoro fan, I'd like to know what happened that made you so angry at them? You mentioned fab 24th? I don't understand Italian and haven't been following them closely lately, so I'm a bit out of data.

Hi! My rant wasn't clear actually, so I'll explain you. Sorry if I'll be long btw.

First of all I was disappointed by both Meta and Moro's musical and generally professional choices in the last 2 years, especially Fab cause the last Ermal thing I liked was No Satisfaction, after which I stopped following him.

As for Fab I told myself that it was my personal taste, since I am a fan of rock and not of very melodic voice+guitar only songs, so I disliked his love songs album but told myself it made sense for him to release again songs the public didn't pay attention to when he was less famous, after all I'd do the same with my fanfictions lol. I also disliked his acoustic tour because after covid there were a lot of protests from concert workers who were left out by economic help from the state, and making an acoustic tour meant not employing many workers, which imo sounded stingy, which, for an artist who so far had respected work so much, was disappointing. I didn't like his Sanremo song very much either, but I was ok with it cause he was hot and I could connect it to my fanfictions/headcanons lol (not to anything real, let's specify this just in case) and I was disappointed by his 'album' cause the songs were average, boring and even the rock ones felt weak, like technically the production was not as powerful as in the past. I didn't particularly care for his movie Ghiaccio because I don't watch realistic movies, so I decided to not pay attention to the fact that the producer was the daughter of one of Berlusconi's collaborators and Salvini's girlfriend (idk if you know anything about Italian politics but Fab used to speak against Berlusconi, a bad guy, and Salvini is a bad guy too), telling myself that he wanted his movie to exist so he accepted the compromise to have it done because maybe the leftist producers who usually promote movies weren't interested in him.

But all this was until February 23rd.

On February 24th ruzzia invaded Ukraine, this changed my whole perspective on everything. I informed myself about it, I followed Ukrainian channels/accounts, I listened to what my girlfriend, who knows more about ruzzia because she's from a post-soviet union country too, and I learned how badly ruzzia propaganda worked in Italy since forever, how my perception of it was affected, because since school we are taught that soviet union was a good thing where magically neighbouring country just joined (not like they were conquered by force and their ppl were killed, deported and so on), as opposing to the USA that just creates wars in random countries.

It was and it is a painful process to unlearn what I took as a fact, and it's painful when I see that my country keeps spreading ruzzian propaganda in different ways because those bastards promote different versions for different kinds of ppl, so we have only a few group that actively supports ruzzia and putin, but we have many who blame NATO saying that ruzzia was provoked by it and the USA, and many who are 'pacifists' and want the war to end in an abstract way, never blaming ruzzia but instead indirectly saying that Ukraine should surrender and give them their territories.

Sorry for digressing, I really am very opinionated about Ukraine cause I suffer very much because of the injustice and pain that it's happening to those people who imo they are being betrayed twice, also by these wrong bullshit opinions.

So when the war started I started also looking for the opinion of celebrities I cared about and I was disappointed by the lack of strong reactions. A few Italian artists did some charity concert or some initiative to help refugees, one female I liked mentioned 'a dictator' doing bad things, but like what dictator? where? It's not like there is only one, and why tf you don't say his name? Others were generally sorry for refugees but never saying what horror they were escaping from.

Ermal wrote a vague post about how bad it is that in 2022 in Europe there is a war...like. he didn't mention who invaded who, he didn't say who was the aggressor and who the victim, and this is very bad. It makes 'the war' look like something both countries wanted, it makes it abstract especially not mentioning the names of the countries. It makes ruzzia less responsible for its terrorist actions.

Fab didn't say anything. He was invited as a guest to Mara Venier's show I think in March or smth, and he sang NOn Mi Avete Fatto Niente and on the screen behind him there were images of a child refugee singing, the presenter (Mara) was moved and he was kinda moved too but he didn't say a single word about it, let alone mentioning who was the enemy. And he posted an instagram story with an image of the world map, particularly of ruzzia and USA territories between the Bering Strait...I saw that image reposted by others, the meaning was that ruzzia and the USA should fight in their own territories, there, instead of involving a third country. Imo this means he believes the war was provoked by NATO...which is fake and also it dehumanizes Ukrainians protecting their country and fighting for their freedom, and for me someone who sang about 'libero', about freedom, someone who used to fight for human rights, should be 100% supporting Ukraine.

In June there was a Metamoro reunion and it was very beautiful, their interaction was cute and I kinda put all my negative feelings aside because I'm a fan, after all, and we had new content after ages. They sang NMAFN again, and wow it would have been the perfect time to say some f*cking words of support for Ukraine. At least. Because they could have done some fundraising. Or told ppl to donate, not necessarily to the Ukrainian Army but to help refugees, children, animals even. There is so much to do for help...but nothing. And every time something horrible happens I open their accounts to see if they said something about it...still nothing.

And it's not like their song was about love or whatever. It was against terrorism...and what ruzzia is doing in Ukraine every single day is terrorism. For me it's offensive that they didn't say anything. It's offensive that artists who sang in Eurovision a song against terrorist, moving the whole Europe, are silent about the horrors happening in Ukraine. It's shameful actually, for me, an Italian.

Because not saying anything means not helping Ukraine and helping ruzzia indirectly. ("In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends" Martin Luther King)

Also, they donated the copyright of their song to Emergency, the NGO, because back then they wanted to help ppl in need, I remember an interview where Ermal said that Fab was so passionate about it that he wanted to do something much earlier than in September 2018 when they had the concert in Trento and did this donation. So wow, what changed now that Ukraine is so unimportant? Is it connected to the fact that Emergency itself, like Red Cross and Amnesty International, is supporting indirectly ruzzia instead of Ukraine?

(Emergency asked Italy to stop sending weapons to Ukraine 'to achieve peace'...not considering that if Ukraine stops fighting Ukraine will stop existing. It's ruzzia that, if it stops fighting, will make peace possible. Or considering this, and manipulating public opinion in ruzzian propaganda style)

I am not a fan of Maneskin but they were clear on where they stand. They said Fuck putin more times, they made a song (Gasoline) against him and gave the money to Ukraine. And I wish Fab did the same. Also because we have a very big Ukrainian community in Italy. They are our neighbours, our coworkers, our classmates. They are fans of Metamoro, or Ermal, of Fab. They are part of our country so if they suffer we should suffer for them. I do. And I thought a sensitive person like Fab would have too.I thought he (and Ermal) maybe does help Ukraine privately with donations like we do, but you know how it works with celebrities, they donate and move fans to donate too. It's like after they donated the NMAFN copyright to Emergency in Trento a group of Metamoro fans donated money to them the same day. It's good example.

A lot of US singers did the same. Metallica, Dropkick Murphys, Gogol Bordello (they're Ukrainian-Americans like the actress Mila Kunis but ok)...so I felt bad because why some musicians know what is the right side and some don't? And I felt ashamed because it's musicians from my same country, musicians I thought were clever, sensitive, not just like meta and moro but also like Max Gazzé, Daniele Silvestri...all ppl who are openly leftists, and not leftists from the current party (which supports Ukraine) but leftists from 80s and 90s communist party, which was heavily influenced by ruzzian propaganda. The same propaganda I was fed in school. And I vote left parties ofc, because ofc, but I am careful of who I vote, especially these elections, I was careful to not vote parties which were against sending weapons to Ukraine. I also convinced my mother, a leftist from old times communist party, that this NATO bullshit is bullshit, I didn't stop until she was convinced, because we must fight against ruzzian propaganda and make ppl understand the truth. Our grandparents fought in the Resistance against german occupiers, we should support Ukraine whoich is doing the same.

So now in december there will be a Fab concert in Rome and I wanted to go, with my girlfriend, whom I met in the metamoro fandom and with whom we went to Fab's concert in 2019...it would have been a kind of anniversary celebration. BUT I can't. I can't give my money to someone whose ethical choices I disagree with.

So you know what I'll do with the 35 euros of the ticket I would have bought? I'll use them for Ukraine. It's not much but still. I can donate them to the Ukrainian Army or humanitarian aid (same link) in case I feel against weapons (spoiler: I am not when it's for defending the country). I can donate them to buy an army of drones to counter iran shitty drones that are destroying civilian buildings and targeting ppl in the streets. I can donate them to uanimals.org, they save and feed Ukrainian animals, because animals are silent victims of war too.

Or with basically the same money I can look into this wishlist where I can buy, among other things, thermal intimate clothes for Ukrainian soldiers, because winter is coming and it's going to be very cold for them.

And if I have to decide who is more important between #1an Italian singer who sings about freedom and human rights and good things but but who for some reason is being silent on a GENOCIDE that is happening right now by the bloody hands of ruzzia, and #2a random soldier who's fighting to protect his freedom and his people's from an evil imperialistic country, I choose #2. Always.

***

(on a different note, I keep on posting some photos I might like of Fab. And I keep on revising my fanfictions and sharing headcanons with my girlfriend about metamoro. Because that's not about the real them! It's all related to my headcanons. Now I can proudly say it, it's FANON! I don't care about their real lives because we don't share the same ethics! lol this fanon thing finally becomes useful to me)

#metamoro #fabrizio moro #ermal meta #eurovision #ukraine #russia is a terrorist state #arm ukraine now

[bookoformon]

Mormon Chapter 2, Part 6. "The Potent Sayings."

Ammaron means "the utterances of strength." We all know what they are. The Power of the Volcano is the comeupance due to the sins of the past from the times we chose not to obey the Utterances.

At this time, America is struggling to decide if Donald Trump, who staged an insurrection against- not within- the government using the forces he recruited from an all Mormon militia. They were well prepared, heavily armed they had planned the attack in detail. Large numbers of people could have gotten hurt, and some did.

There are no arguments for the continued candidacy of Donald Trump for the Office of the President nor for the ongoing operation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or for the Republican Party which did not cooperate with law enforcement during the investigation and is therefore unforgiven of its suspected involvement.

Sane persons with healthy brains would have decided this matter right after the Capitol Coup, determined Donald Trump et al were guilty of treason and put them all to death, and we would all be having nice lives right about now. Instead we are entrenched in a Third World War Joe Biden will not fight, he will not fight Donald Trump, or the Supreme Court, or the Republicans or the illegal agenda of the their freaky spooky religious friends. We are already postulating the complete loss of the free world in eight months because we are apparently too helpless to do anything about it.

And this has happened before, it has happened over and over in human history. This time, there are alternatives. President Biden has to enforce the law and get rid of Donald Trump he is a cunt, a liar, a cheater a pedophile, a murderer, a pervert, a criminal hundreds of times over, and there is no way to properly digest his presence on yet another presidential ballot.

The Republican Party is at it again, trying to force other people to obey their religion instead of doing their jobs, the job which the Constitution defines using pristine secular terms. Very clear.

Fortunately, we do not need to retread the issues. America is protected from abuses of power, from bigotry, homophobia, anti-semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and from Pro-Life by the United Nations Charter and Declaration of Human Rights and we have agreed by ratifying their treaties to carry them out. Every civilized nation on this planet obeys the UN Charter and Declaration.

Joe Biden is not doing his job, he cannot possibly do it properly until Donald Trump is in prison, the Republican Party is closed, it has a rap sheet as long as a roll of toilet paper, and America is freed from the grip religious zealots have placed around its throat. There is far too much unfinished business, the dividends of which the world does not deserve to inherit.

One would be a perennially gridlocked government that prevents appropriate, timely, professional, and humane responses to crisis, such as we learned when we didn't properly anticipate Putin's war on Ukraine might actually be worthy of our attention.

The organizational design for the United States Government found in the Constitution does not specify a dual party system, meaning the gridlock can be legally attended to at any time, especially since one of the parties with members holding office consists for the most part of whores and criminals.

17 And now, the city of Jashon "the power of the volcano" was near the land where Ammaron had deposited the records unto the Lord, that they might not be destroyed. And behold I had gone according to the word of Ammaron, and taken the plates of Nephi, and did make a record according to the words of Ammaron.

18 And upon the plates of Nephi I did make a full account of all the wickedness and abominations; but upon these plates I did forbear to make a full account of their wickedness and abominations, for behold, a continual scene of wickedness and abominations has been before mine eyes ever since I have been sufficient to behold the ways of man.

The Values in Gematria are:

v17a: And now the City of Jashon was near the land of Ammaron. The Value in Gematria is 10504, י‎האֶפֶסד‎ ‎ "I will lose."

v17b: And behold I had gone according to the word of Ammaron. The Value in Gematria is 5011, האֶפֶסאא‎ ‎ ‎"the Ephesus."

v18: And upon these plates I did make a full account. The Value in Gematria is 7769, זזוט‎‎, move, budge, go away.

As I have said, have ranted almost every day for years, evil is optional, we do not have to stand for it, it has too high a price to pay. We have no future so long as the Republican Party exists. The persons manning it are cruel, ruthless, uneducated, strange, they don't grasp reality, have no purchase with the Spirit of God and they are not going to do right by humanity. They have disappointed the world at every opportunity. Further, they are dangerous especially since they appear as an orgnanization to lack a conscience.

We are being called by the Scripture to close the curtain on a wearying Age of Agony and try something new, but they are in the way.

As for the rest of the unhappy world, the way forward can be found here, within the Sacred Utterances called the Sermon on the Mount.

I simply can't believe we wouldn't want to give these a try. It is so disappointing.

[kinematografiayevsyd]

Reflection

Ross and I worked together on a 5-minute short film called Views of Home. It is a documentary, made in the form of me and Ross interviewing each other about what home means to us. It was a troublesome production, but I am overall quite satisfied with the end result, even if there are things I would have done differently now.

I chose to use Sony FX6, as it is known to be an ultimate documentary camera, especially considering that I had previous experience working with it on another personal documentary project. To light the scene, I used two roto lights and a reflected led light I order to light the faces. Reflecting was especially important for the bright light of the led not to distress or distract the interviewees, as we wanted to have a relaxed conversation. Ross aided me in setting up the lighting equipment as we arrived on set. The lighting in the interviews is intentionally soft and the white background creates a neutral but thoughtful infinity effect.

The most difficult aspect of the production was communication with our initial subjects. First, as a co-producer of the film, I contacted some people well in advance and was able to secure three subjects who agreed to be interviewed on the same day. I successfully created a schedule. Little did I know that it would not go as planned. Two of the subjects dropped out the day before filming and one had travelling issues on the day of filming. This is why we had to make a quick and efficient decision to interview each other. It is a simple film with only three types of framings used: long shots of us walking into the shot and sitting down, close-ups of the interviews and mid-close-ups of the projection shots.

The overall black and white film includes some colour footage of the subjects with images projected onto their faces. These are the images I took in Kyiv region, city of Kyiv in Ukraine, and the town of Hawick in the Scottish Borders. We decided for these images to be intercut with the interview footage. Their contrast from the rest of the footage signifies the vividness of memories and fantasies of home and past, romanticised by the distance of days and kilometres. Filming digital screens and projections always poses a technical issue. In order to get a high-quality image, I adjusted iris, ISO and shutter speed.

If I were to make a similar film again, I would already be more familiar with how to film interviews and potentially would have avoided centre-framing. It might look slightly unprofessional at times. I would also ask for somebody to be an assistant camera, even for such a small production. If we had an AC on set, I would be slightly more flexible and confident as an interviewee and interviewer, as there would be somebody to look after light, camera setting and all the other visual techniques I had set up.

Overall, I am happy with how we managed to achieve a decent result in a short time span and with limited resources in addition to the unpredicted circumstances.

[mariacallous]

Years ago, the late Russian writer Elena Gremina correctly predicted that her country was growing worse by the day. “I don’t want to live in an Orthodox Iran,” she told me back in 2013, after Russia passed a reactionary law criminalizing offending “religious feelings of believers.”

Now that the Russian Federation has fully embraced fascism, more parallels with Iran and other autocratic states like China are emerging. One of the biggest is hostage-taking. And that means that for Americans and other Westerners from countries helping fight Russia’s brutality, it’s past time to get out.

Ever since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the rules of the game have changed. Denunciations are on the rise. As it slaughters people abroad, the Kremlin is increasingly more paranoid at home. And an American passport won’t protect you from the Russian authorities. In fact, it’s likely to draw their attention.

After detaining Americans such as Brittney Griner and Trevor Reed in order to use them as bargaining chips, the Russians have decided to go after an American journalist, the first such case since the Cold War. This journalist is the Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich, currently detained in Russia on ludicrous espionage charges.

Gershkovich came to Russia the same year that I finally left, and we haven’t had much interaction, but I’ve always known him to be a stand-up individual and a terrific writer. He had a lot of affection for Russia, because he was interested in the stories of its people—even as he was more than aware of the darkness at its center.

Before he was grabbed, Gershkovich knew that Russia was growing more dangerous. You could see that from some of his tweets. His social media presence was smartly low-key—you can’t get the job done in Russia if you’re railing against its government on Twitter, certainly not anymore—but what is left unsaid is sometimes more obvious than what is articulated.

I believe that Gershkovich stayed because he is a brave man who is committed to his work. I have seen some victim-blaming of him on social media, which is gross and appalling. As Jason Rezaian, another brave man who knows what it’s like to be a political hostage, recently put it, we should all avoid “repeating the Russian narrative” when it comes to this story. Rezaian was held in Iran and understands how depressingly similar both country’s playbooks are. Gershkovich is likely in it for the long haul. The Russians will hold onto him until it is useful to trade him.

Politically combustible situations require nuanced thinking. What is happening to Gershkovich is sickening, but it also should serve as a very clear signal to any Americans remaining in Russia. These people need to get out.

Americans making plans to travel to Russia for whatever reason should cancel those plans, even—perhaps especially—if they have Russian heritage. Russia was never particularly safe, but now it is a minefield. There’s no need to place yourself in harm’s way if you can avoid it.

I know from experience that it is hard to break personal ties with a country like Russia. I gave birth to my son in Moscow (and wrote about it for this very publication). There are many tough, principled people in Moscow and elsewhere whom I miss. There is the legacy of artists and writers like Gremina herself—a group that has immense talent and pure grit. Gremina, a ferociously brave and funny woman, passed away in 2018, and in that, I suppose, she has been spared the worst of seeing what happened to her country, though she did predict it.

Yet the Russian government has repeatedly shown us what it is. The mask has been off for some time now. The Kremlin is uncivilized. Its political strategies are written and implemented by thugs.

Globally, Americans are being snatched and held hostage at an alarming rate. There are a few countries where that’s particularly likely to happen, Russia being just one of them. But in recent years China has seen the hostage-taking of two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, the detention of Australians like Cheng Lei on trumped-up espionage charges, and even the kidnapping of its dissidents, including foreign passport holders, from other countries such as Thailand.

Russia has slid downhill even faster, however. The problem with the Russian government is that it talked a good game for a number of years. Until an all-out war in which Russia sees itself as battling the “evil West,” a lot of Americans, especially ones who couldn’t care less about Ukraine, could afford to be fooled by it. We cannot afford that anymore.

This goes for everyone, even the useful idiots—or, as the Soviets used to call them, the “shit-eaters.” There are Americans and others who to this day come to Russia to sing its praises. Some are political extremists. Some are sex tourists. Some are Steven Seagal. These people assume themselves to be safe, because they breathlessly support Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It’s a dangerous strategy, though, because if there is one thing to admire about Russian political culture, it’s this: They hate a traitor, and they view pro-Russian Americans as fundamentally traitorous to their own nation. As such, pro-Russian Americans are useful to the Russian regime, but they are not trusted or respected. It’s a bit like striking a deal with a fairy tale monster—the terms might seem OK on the surface, but there is always a risk, and a catch.

Of course, journalists still need to report on what is happening in Russia. But the danger now has become immense. There are no easy answers or platitudes I can offer here. There is just the cold, hard reality of a violent, fascist regime that despises Americans and will use them in its endless tit-for-tat games as much as it is able.

Do not give that regime what it wants. Don’t feed the monster. Stay out of Russia.

[ailtrahq]

Ever since the word investing existed, gold has been among the most popular (if not the most popular) investment tools for wealth preservation. This is because of its unique characteristics like limited supply (scarcity) and lack of central authority behind its creation (kind of). However, its performance on weekly, yearly, and even 10-yearly scales is not all that impressive. At the same time, BTC is a much newer concept that takes gold’s unique qualities a step further. And, even though it has disadvantages of its own, it has performed much better lately. Gold’s Price Dumps Being a less volatile and risky asset, gold’s price performance has typically blossomed during economic uncertainty. This can be seen during (and mostly after) several previous global financial crises, including the one from 2008. The precious metal soared to new peaks a few years later but never managed to near the coveted $2,000 mark. The following eight years (2012-2020) were among the most prosperous in terms of global economic growth, which resulted in skyrocketing prices of risky assets, such as stocks and, yes, you guessed it – bitcoin. But more on BTC later. Within this timeframe, gold disappeared from the vocabulary of investors, and its price dumped from over $1,900 to under $1,100 during its worst days. It went on the offensive by the time the decade was coming to its end, and when COVID-19 surprised the world, it exploded due to the new wave of uncertainty and economic turmoil. The same thing happened once again when the Russia-Ukraine “special military operation” (also known as war) broke out. The US government shutdown speculations and the country’s inability to pay its own debts resulted in similar developments. However, the past few weeks have been rather painful for the bullion, which is down by 7% (more than $130). Its price against the dollar, which has been quite solid (against other currencies), is at $1,820 as of Friday’s closing price. This leads to a few compelling conclusions – 1) gold lost all of its yearly gains with its latest price drop, and 2) the metal is currently valued less than it was over a decade ago when it peaked after the 2008 banking crisis. At the same time, it’s no surprise to anyone that the dollar has lost a massive amount of its purchasing power, especially after the pandemic and following the numerous special relief packages (meaning mindblowing amounts of the greenback being printed and sent out to people for questionable reasons). XAUUSD Weekly. Source: TradingView As such, the question arises whether gold is still the undisputed leader in terms of safe haven investment assets. Also, is the yellow metal’s performance still related to the US interest rates? “The whole narrative of holding rates higher for longer is the big reason why people are removing positions from gold as the opportunity cost of holding it has risen,” – said Bart Melek, head of commodity strategies at TD Securities. What About Bitcoin? So, gold’s performance against the USD was quite impressive until around 2012, when it peaked at over $1,900, as it did during the previous massive economic crashes. What changed? Although there could be a number of reasons why gold no longer seems to serve as a safe haven, we would focus on a particular one – the existence of bitcoin. The cryptocurrency was created during that aforementioned 2008 banking crisis, carried a designated message for the billions and trillions of fiat money that was printed back then in its initial code, and also contains numerous of gold’s qualities but also takes them to a whole other level. While it’s also scarce (but with proven scarcity, unlike gold’s), it also lacks central authority that can inflate the circulating amount for reasons known only to itself. But it’s also censorship-resistant, easy to access, doesn’t discriminate, and it’s digital. That last part made it especially lucrative during the pandemic when the world shutdown halted gold production and restricted transportation.

People were unable to get their hands on physical gold. At the same time, BTC is all digital; transfers take a few minutes and are generally very cheap. BTC’s price performance was quite spectacular and highly volatile up to 2020 but skyrocketed in the year after the pandemic and shot up from $8,000 to $69,000. Although 2022 carried an entirely different sentiment, due to the ongoing war, industry crashes, and growing interest rates, the network operates on all cylinders. 2023 has so far been quite positive as well, with BTC trading 65% higher than January 1, unlike the precious metal. Of course, it would be considered quite arrogant and (perhaps) not true to claim that BTC has outplaced gold as the most preferred hedge against inflation and economic turmoil. Nevertheless, its name should find a place among the noteworthy successors or alternatives of the yellow metal, as many financial gurus and prominent investors have asserted over the past few years.

[jdgo51]

What Next?

Today's inspiration comes from:

Don't Look Back

by Christine Caine

"'When the war in Ukraine started, it seemed like a continuation of all that had been happening for the past couple of years. After all, starting in 2020, in addition to moving through a global pandemic, we had experienced natural disasters on most every continent — hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes, drought, and flooding.1 The ground warmed enough in the mid-Atlantic region for billions of cicadas to emerge — after seventeen years of being underground.2 It was reminiscent of a plague of biblical proportions. We saw protests and riots in major cities in more than sixty countries, drawing attention to racial injustice.3 It was easy to understand why some people wanted to throw their hands up in the air and ask, “What’s next?” — because it did feel like one thing after another just kept happening. When people questioned whether it was the end of the world, it was — even though we’re all still here — because it was the end of the world as we once knew it.

Like most everyone, I was tempted to look back. To want to go back. To 2019. Or any year of our lives before 2020. To go back to normal, whatever our normal was. To forget the new normal that we were all desperately trying to create. Yet, no matter how much I longed to go back to normal, there was no going back. That world as we knew it was finished, and God was beckoning me, along with everyone else, to move forward, to lay hold of His purpose and promises in the future.

Sorting through the tension of not looking back and trying to move forward — including trying to figure out how to move at all in a locked-down world —

I began reminding myself that while the world had changed, God had not. He was the same as He’d always been, and I could depend on Him to guide me forward.4

During that same season of doing my best not to look back and instead to keep moving forward, I was reminded of a woman in the Bible who looked back when she wasn’t supposed to, and it didn’t go well for her. [Lot’s wife] was the woman running for her life with her family in Genesis 19. As they ran, destruction was raining down on their hometown of Sodom, and despite being told by an angel not to look back, she turned and looked back. Scripture tells us,

But Lot’s wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.5

What makes Lot’s wife especially significant is that Jesus said for us to remember her. In the middle of an eschatological discourse in the New Testament, Jesus dropped in three words: “Remember Lot’s wife.”6

If you’ve ever read Luke 17, it’s all too easy to miss these three words. I know because I did for years. I read them, of course, but that’s all. I flew past them. But Jesus never wastes a word, let alone three, so there must be some significance in this second-shortest verse in the Bible. (If you didn’t know that fun fact, now you do. Perhaps it will help you win your next Bible quiz.) These three words began to show me the importance of not looking back. Of always moving forward. Even in the midst of a pandemic or a war or something far more normal. They became words I couldn’t forget and words that showed me the way forward.

Remember Lot’s wife.

For thirty-plus years now, I’ve been going to women’s conferences, and I don’t remember ever hearing a message on Lot’s wife, nor do I remember teaching one. And yet, of the possible 170 women mentioned in Scripture,7 she is the only one that Jesus tells us to remember. Why her? Why not Eve, Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Ruth, Rahab, Esther, Elizabeth, or even Mary, His own mother? Of all the women Jesus could have told us to remember, He mentioned only one: Lot’s wife. (For all the Bible scholars reading this, Jesus did tell us that the deed of the woman who poured oil over Him would be remembered forever,8 but He told us to remember only one woman — Lot’s wife.) This is astonishing to me. Why her? There had to be a reason.

Longingly She Lingered

Lot’s wife gets one cameo in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament. That’s it. That’s all Scripture records. Why would Jesus tell us to remember a woman who appears on the pages of Scripture only long enough to disappear? A woman who has the shortest bio ever. A woman whose proper name we don’t even know. What is it about her that we’re to remember?

As I began to study her life, I noted something very important. This woman was told one thing:

Don’t look back. And the one thing she was told not to do is the one thing she did. Furthermore, I found that understanding how she looked back quite possibly held a clue as to why she looked back:

But Lot’s wife, from behind him, [foolishly, longingly] looked [back toward Sodom in an act of disobedience], and she became a pillar of salt.9

She looked back longingly in an act of disobedience. I don’t want to be harsh about Lot’s wife. We all make mistakes, and we all disobey, and to think she looked back longingly causes me to feel for her. Here she was, living her life as usual, and suddenly she’s told to pack up and run for her life. All the while an angel is holding her hand and guiding her.

Even reading her story afresh while writing, compassion overtook me.

I can imagine Lot’s wife having deep-seated feelings. It’s no wonder she looked back longingly. Maybe how she looked back has as much to do with it as the mere fact that she looked back at all.

To look back longingly is to look back with a yearning desire.10 What was it she longed for exactly? What did she so deeply desire? Putting myself in her shoes, I can imagine any number of things. Maybe it was her home. Maybe it was the way her home made her feel safe and secure. Maybe it was the way she’d gotten everything arranged and decorated just so. Maybe it was the way her home welcomed her each time she ran errands and came back to it. Did she long for her belongings? Her friends? Her routine? Her extended family? If you have ever moved from one city to another, then perhaps you know firsthand how easy it is to long for what was, compared to the work involved in adjusting to all that’s new.

Maybe she had a position in the community, a place of prominence. After all, Sodom wasn’t an impoverished city, and she was married to a wealthy man.11 Could it be that she looked back longingly at everything she had grown attached to and was being forced to abandon? She appeared to be torn between what she was leaving and where she was going. Have you ever been there? Isn’t this our challenge in everything God invites us to do? To move forward or stop and look back? And not just to the tangible things that can slip through our fingers but to places in time, to memories, and to the feelings those memories evoke. It can be any of that or all of that, can’t it?

Maybe Lot’s wife was trying to preserve the past, something that’s all too easy to do. When we work at preserving the past, lingering in nostalgia, we can keep ourselves from the truth of the present and the pain of reality.12

If we linger in the past, we run the risk of it becoming an idealized version of what really was. While the world has changed, God has not.

Memories can easily be distorted, can’t they?13 Of all the things that could have happened to Lot’s wife when she looked back, she turned into a pillar of salt, a substance that has been used as a preservative for centuries and is still used to this day.14 The irony doesn’t escape me. What’s more, Lot’s wife became the very substance that Jesus said we are. Matthew recorded Jesus saying that we are the salt of the earth.15 Perhaps we need to ensure that we don’t get stuck in a place trying to preserve the past, where we are no longer moving forward, and where we are no longer salting the world around us.

Lot’s wife looked back longingly. I have found that if we linger too long where we’re not supposed to be, we’ll start longing for what we are supposed to no longer be lingering in. When we linger, we hesitate. The literal meaning of linger is “to be slow in parting. To remain in existence although waning in strength. It’s to procrastinate.” And it includes one more eerily accurate depiction: “To remain alive although gradually dying.”16 Lot’s wife might not have had any idea that looking back would cause her death, but it did, didn’t it?

Are you longing for something that once was? That is no more? That can never be again?

Are you lingering there in that place where you should no longer be lingering?

Are you lingering in a place and longing for what was, all the while tolerating what is, in hopes that if you linger long enough, you might get back what God told you to leave?

When Lot’s wife longed and lingered, she stopped and looked back toward Sodom in an act of disobedience. Then she became calcified and stuck, frozen in time, paralyzed for eternity as a pillar of salt. I’m Greek, and because I was raised to salt food generously, I love salt. But I don’t want to get stuck and turn into a pillar of salt. I imagine you don’t either. But in a sense, I find that getting stuck like she did is so easy to do.

We can get stuck in:

our emotions our thoughts our attitudes our opinions our possessions our plans our desires our habits our comfort our pain our wounds our relationships our past our present our future hopes There are myriad ways and places we can get stuck, and it is my prayer that as we journey together through the pages of this book, we will discover where we may have gotten stuck and uncover ways to get unstuck — so we can move forward into the purpose and promises of God for our future.

It’s not always easy to move on when God beckons us forward, especially when things are safe, comfortable, and just the way we like it. Equally, it is often difficult to move on when we have experienced deep trauma, pain, or suffering and we feel utterly hopeless and helpless. Moving on is something we know we should do, what we often want to do, and at times what we refuse to do, but it remains something God eagerly wants for us. Wherever you may be on this continuum, I hope you will be able to identify places where you are prone to be stuck, or maybe are stuck, and that you will be infused with the strength of the Holy Spirit to take the next step to getting unstuck."'

Kaia Hubbard, “Here Are 10 of the Deadliest Natural Disasters in 2020,” U.S. News & World Report, December 22, 2020, https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/slideshows /here-are-10-of-the-deadliest-natural-disasters-in-2020?slide=12. Michelle Stoddart, “Cicada Invasion: After 17 Years Underground, Billions to Emerge This Spring,” ABC News, April 10, 2021, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/cicada-invasion -17-years-underground-billions-emerge-spring/story?id =76921532. Frank Jordans and Pan Pylas, “Detentions, Injuries at Anti- Racism Protests Across Europe in Solidarity with US,” Times of Israel, June 7, 2020, https://www.timesofisrael.com/detentions -injuries-at-anti-racism-protests-across-europe-in-solidarity -with-us; Savannah Smith, Jiachuan Wu, and Joe Murphy, “Map: George Floyd Protests Around the World,” NBC News, June 9, 2020, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/map -george-f loyd-protests-countries-worldwide-n1228391. Hebrews 13:8. Genesis 19:26. Luke 17:32. Jeremy Thompson, ed., Lists of Biblical People, Places, Things, and Events (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2020). Matthew 26:13. Genesis 19:26 AMP. Merriam-Webster, s.v. “longing (n.),” accessed January 19, 2023, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/longing. Genesis 13:6. Lauren Martin, “The Science Behind Nostalgia and Why We’re So Obsessed with the Past,” Elite Daily, July 17, 2014, https://www.elitedaily.com/life/science-behind-nostalgia -love-much/673184. Martin, “Science Behind Nostalgia.” Stephanie Butler, “Off the Spice Rack: The History of Salt,” History.com, updated August 22, 2018, https://www.history .com/news/off-the-spice-rack-the-story-of-salt. Matthew 5:13. Merriam-Webster, s.v. “linger (v.),” accessed January 19, 2023, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/linger. Excerpted with permission from Don’t Look Back by Christine Caine, copyright Caso Writing LLC.

[jacquievandegeer]

First letter to Masha

Dear Masha,

Yesterday I wore the same dress I was wearing in Cyprus when we first met. The dress still fits me, my stomach is a bit rounder now that I'm older, the fabric stretches. I remember the photo series: me with you, me with your husband Petr. I remember your little house on the island. The summer weather. I remember the sidewalk step we sat on. I remember how nice it was to discover that we were programmed in the same building to offer our performances there. My performance was based on memories, on what we remember through time, and especially on what we have as a cultural past in our respective countries of origin. Your performance was a variation on this theme. We all played with memories, old objects, souvenirs, photos, etc. It was very hot on the island. My hair was tightly braided and your hair was still very long and wild back then. Loose. Peter had a long beard. Does he still have a beard?

I believe you were still living in Moscow at the time. Later I understood through the photos on Facebook that you had settled in Siberia, in a small house in a small village. It looked rough with a lot of snow and ice. It also had a certain allure, the white icy cold world you inhabited then. I never thought we would meet in Berlin this winter. It was glad to see you, your hair is shorter. The reason we could see each other in Berlin was sad. The war. The dirty mean war. The border that was closed just after you fled your homeland with your dog. Petr is still in Istanbul. Waiting for a visa. Your dog too. Has that changed now? He had been waiting for more than six months. This war, a year now. Who would have thought that a war would be raging at this time in Europe? I remember the wall. Yes, I live long enough to remember that Europe was organized differently. No European Union. An Iron Curtain, Russia was called USSR. A large territory. Many countries annexed. Everything had started after the second world war, a war with a huge impact on how the world was divided after the signed peace. I wasn't there then. But my parents did. And my family. The stories and of course the huge impact on Rotterdam, my hometown, bombed flat twice. By the Germans, while the Netherlands had already capitulated. By the English, a mistaken bombardment.

Now I read daily in the newspapers about the bombing in the Ukraine, it feels strange and sad, powerless too.

Oh my dear Masha, I have friends there, they are all fantastic artists, just like you two.

I don't know how to express the sadness I feel inside me. Sometimes I cry in the morning, like a child that has lost its mother in a crowd. Masha,  I am so thankful that you are all still alive. It has become a diaspora again. You are now studying in Halle. Small student town in the vicinity of Leipzig. Leipzig, former East German city full of punks, trees and art. Halle with her Wunderkammer. This Wunderkammer, have you already visited it dear Masha? All colonial souvenirs crammed together in a tiny show room. Sawfish dried, hanging in space. A very popular souvenir at the time, the sawfish were already extinct after a few years. That's how it goes. We travel and take things with us. Collect.

Today I started an artist residency in Mexico City. It is International Women's Day today. I admire the solidarity of the women here, a big demonstration is being organized this afternoon in the center and many institutions are closing their doors for this afternoon. I remember my first women's day, long ago in Rotterdam. All women took to the streets in solidarity. Now the women's day has become a small celebration there. It seems that the need is no longer there. I doubt that: there is still so much to do, what to think about femicide, rape, sexual deprivation, women trafficking, inequality in pay for work, the areas where women are still married off and have no education and training, cannot walk around without male guidance etc. It all seems so okay in Western countries, but we are not there yet. I think. I feel. Dear Masha I am writing to you and by writing to you I am actually writing to myself. I will be 65 this year. Sixty five years. A whole age. It feels strange, this number. It is the year in which many retire. Or start thinking about it. An age that cuts many off from the bustling life: in the eyes of many, being senior means no longer being seen, no longer being heard and filling your time with family, grandchildren and, above all, doing fun things.

Help. I don't want to retire, I love my job, I don't have small children and I live far from my family. I'm already doing fun things. Help. I know I'm exaggerating but still…I still feel young and strong and actually I'm only now feeling a little better about my aging skin. That is confrontational. The body that ages and timidly shows the first signs. Difficult for me, because I've focused so much on my body since childhood, the almost anorexic time since I was fourteen. Always think about being skinny enough. Never been really happy with my body, my skin, my face, my hair and now suddenly I realize that what people generally say is true: Jacquie you are beautiful. I am beautiful. Finally.

I am beautiful with my wrinkles. Yet I still buy the creams that promise me that this process can be stopped, and sometimes I look in the mirror with surprise in the morning. How did this happen? Millimetre by millimetre, gravity does its job. Still, I think I'm more beautiful than when I was so much more. My veins swell, my hands show a river landscape of blue swollen veins, they twist anarchically on the back of my big white hands with her long fingers. My hands are a combination of my parents' hands. The size is my father's, the shape and length of my fingers too. And the nails are sometimes on my father's side and sometimes on my mother's side. But my middle fingers definitely belong to my mother: crooked at the end, yes, the last part is definitely crooked. With her middle fingers too. My mother is no longer alive. Neither does my father. I am orphan. Only child. Alone on the world. I realize that I am next in line: I live on the way to my mortality, death, which awaits me. I get it out of my consciousness but it's quite difficult.

My right leg has all that my mother had: the veins teeming lush and blue, fine network, interspersed with larger veins on the surface of my skin. They sometimes knock a warning sign to me: 'Yes, we are already here, enjoy every day, know that the time you have left is precious.' Time. I was so young and of course never thought about the time. Whole days, whole weeks even I faltered. Smoking. Staring into the distance. How were you dear Masha when you were young? What was it like growing up under communist rule? I was in a family who were immensely grateful to Canadians and Americans. My parents who had been through a war, had known hunger, and they met during a dance evening with music from a dance orchestra: Glenn Miller's In the mood, American music was popular. The music I grew up with: Peggy Lee, Fats Domino, Tommy Dorsey, Ella Fitzgerald and the Ink Spots. A little later Tom Jones, big sex idol, from my mother. The black and white television with two channels. Tom Jones singing on a catwalk, screeching the women and tugging at his tie, leaning benignly over to let them do so. Mama was glued to the tube drooling and I, as a little girl, was so amazed at all this excitement. Later, also on television, Frank Zappa in concert, with groupies showing their naked breasts, my mother laughing on the couch. The years of the sexual revolution, the man with long hair and the women on the anti-conception pill. I timid and prudish. Times of great change. Working women. Birth control. Nudist beach. Pop music. Youth culture. Study possible for the working class. Traveling with the Magic Bus, without a toilet, rocking and sweating to Portugal, three days on each other's lips. The news from all over the world on a small moving black and white square in the living room. I remember the moon landing, I was still young and already in bed. My father woke me up. “You have to see this,” he said, I sat on the chair in front of the television, drowsy. A vague image as it was then. We didn't need sharpness and pixels yet. A man in a white suit, an inverted fishbowl on his head and stumbling through the landscape of the lunar craters with a flag in his hands: stripes and stars. I think the USSR planted a flag there too, didn't you dear Masha? I can google it for us. Google knows everything.  I used to think that if it came to the year 2000, we would stop eating fruits and vegetables and bread and cheese and nuts and so on. I thought we'd get three pills a day on a plate and robots would be all over the city, silver shapes with angular movements. haha. The robots, the future as it was visualized at the time. Wi-Fi. That's it. Computers everywhere. The first, plump plastic beige cube with a gray screen and strange sounds. Even weirder what you saw, I couldn't imagine it. Incomparable to the slim stylized lab-tops we know today. The cell phone. I still remember the first time I saw someone with a big piece of plastic in his hand, screaming in the street, it seemed to no one. I thought, "Oh dear, this gentleman needs help, a psychiatrist or something." But no, it was progress. It seemed like a failure to me, this project of communicating without a cord anywhere in a telephone screaming. Intrusive conversations, way too loud. I couldn't imagine people would want this, it would certainly quickly disappear from the street scene. Hahaha. I spend at least a good three hours a day on my phone or computer Masha. You too? And now we have the white chunks of plastic in the ears, cellphone in hand, eyes fixed on a hazy infinity. Sight and sound shielded. What will follow? It is clear to me, probably one day I will stop following all the new technologies being developed. That's allowed, as an excuse I have my age, hihihi. Or not. Who knows. I’ll write you more tomorrow dear Masha, I'm going to find our photos and hug you from afar, you in Halle, me in Mexico City.

Until then!

With love,

Jacquie

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS EUROVISION SPECIAL: 20/05/2023 (+ Lil Durk/J. Cole & Ed Sheeran)

Content warning: Discussions of Israel-Palestine conflict, death/grieving and brief mentions of r*pe, homophobia and Drake

Welp... it’s a big one. Despite all of the movement and a hefty competition, “Miracle” by Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding reigns for a sixth week. This’ll be fun to run through... welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

Rundown

As always, we start with the notable dropouts and as you’d expect, there are a lot this week, mostly because we have 16 new songs to cover... which may be a record. What I consider notable dropouts are songs that exit the UK Top 75 – which is what I cover – after five weeks in the region or a peak in the top 40, which means we say farewell to “Scrap the Monarchy” by The Krown Jewelz, “Favela” by Nines featuring J. Styles, “Boat” by Ed Sheeran, “Alone” by Kim Petras and Nicki Minaj, “Make Me” by Borai and Denham Audio, “Peaches” by Jack Black, “Here” by Tom Grennan, “Snooze” by SZA, “Us Against the World” by Strandz, “Players” by Coi Leray, both “Mother” and “Made You Look” by Meghan Trainor (not her best week), “Pointless” by Lewis Capaldi and of course, some of the long-time bottom-feeders – “Afraid to Feel” by LF SYSTEM, “Another Love” by Tom Odell and finally, “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers, because of course.

It’s a busy week... yet somehow, Lewis Capaldi’s “Someone You Loved” found time to return. 16 new arrivals and we have “Someone You Loved” at #75... the UK Singles Chart, everyone. We also have a ton of other random re-entries, like “CUFF IT” by Beyoncé after her tour announcement – it previously peaked at #5 – as well as “Creep” by Radiohead getting a Guardians of the Galaxy-related surge to #41 (it peaked at #7 in 1993, and Thom Yorke is right about it – it sucks). As for our notable gains... I mean, we did see some boosts for “Waffle House” by the Jonas Brothers at #37, “MATHEMATICAL DISRESPECT” by Lil Mabu at #27... this is all terrible news. Outside of that, we have “Dancing is Healing” by Rudimental, Vibe Chemistry and Charlotte Plank at #23, “Dog Days are Over” by Florence + the Machine at #21, “Giving Me” by Jazzy at #14 and Mae Muller copping her first top 10 with “I Wrote a Song” at #9 after a particularly bad closing performance at the You-Know-What contest.

The top five on this week’s UK Singles Chart consists of a mix of your standard, expected tracks from past weeks and at least one surprise. We have “Wish You the Best” by Lewis Capaldi at #5, “Eyes Closed” by Ed Sheeran at #4, “Daylight” by David Kushner at #3, “Tattoo” by Loreen at #2 – we’ll get to that soon, don’t worry – and of course, “Miracle” at the very top. Now to cover the big story I haven’t been mentioning by name:

Eurovision Song Contest 2023

This year’s Eurovision Song Contest broadcast included a video presented by Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA that bragged about the recent success Eurovision acts had been having on the charts, which we saw ourselves on this show – if I can call it that – with Maneskin, “Arcade”, “SNAP”, and I’m sure I’m missing some. Eurovision songs always appear on the chart if they do well, but prolonged success is rare and the streaming success as of recent is pretty good for the contest’s longevity. Of course, Eurovision was hosted in Liverpool – on behalf of Ukraine – this year, so there was a lot more buzz about the final in the UK than usual, with me myself getting back into the hype for this year. I did enjoy it, for the record – I don’t do Eurovision reviews because a lot of it ends up in the top 75 the week after but if I did, I’d be pretty positive since I liked the minimalism of some of the staging, especially the more inventive or sparse-looking performances, as well as appreciating a lot of the songs. My favourites were Luke Black from Serbia and Slovenia’s Joker Out, but they did not get far in the competition or on Spotify at least in the UK, so we’ll have some of the lesser songs – but at least not any of the dull ballads – debuting here instead, and since I did it last year I may as well cover them separately once again. As with the new songs, the numbers represent the debut position and I’ll note which country the song is representing instead of the production credit – but don’t worry, I’ll weave them into the review as with last year. Oh, and I’ll keep the #2 debut for last just like Sam Ryder for consistency’s sake; Loreen will not be in this section. As for who will be, well...

#63 – “Because of You” – Gustaph

REPRESENTING: Belgium

Landing at the seventh spot in the song contest is Belgian singer Gustaph, who self-produced this cute little dance-pop track alongside Willem Vanderstichele – awesome name. Cribbing from Jamiroquai’s fondness for both big hats and funky beats, we have a groovy house track on our hands wherein Gustaph honestly carries himself as a diva over an infectious synth bass and more generic house production that sounds as 90s as it could possibly sound. It’s a love song where Gustaph carries on because of his partner, and whilst the drop doesn’t do much justice to the celebratory tone of the song in my opinion, it has really grown on me due to the live performance, which was fantastic, and the notable anti-homophobia undertones are obviously going to resonate in the current... LGBTQ hellscape in the western world. It’s a defiant song that makes up for its shortcomings in pure charisma – I wish there was more to it, but that final crescendo with the fizzling percussion and strings does a whole lot to sell me on it. It’s a song that’s absolutely fit for the burst of energy format that Eurovision tends to allow for.

#56 – “Solo” – BLANKA

REPRESENTING: Poland (controversially)

Yeah, there were some issues surrounding this one. Apparently, there were accusations of rigged votes due to connections the jury had with BLANKA... and I hope 19th place was worth the corruption, guys. It’s not like the end result of it, produced by Tribbs and Maciej Puchalski, is all that good. You wouldn’t be able to tell a Pole made it considering the generic European pop sound reliant on a reggae-esque beat that somehow gets stiffer the more percussion is added, sounding like a modern version of Ace of Base that nobody asked for. BLANKA celebrates how she’s better off without this partner, and I don’t really care because she doesn’t sound like she does either, with the entire song sounding as processed as possible. Eurovision is at its worst when it’s boring, and BLANKA absolutely was, with the performance being just as dull as the song is. BLANKA even released extra remixes – and this is not like Ukraine, wherein TVORCHI released an original mix and a Eurovision mix (the song – and especially the genius performance – were great, by the way, and it’s a shame it did not chart). No, it has a nightcore version, several producer-led remixes (they’re both cheap garbage but the Audiosouls slap house remix kind of works for what it is), a live acoustic version that does her pronunciation absolutely no favours and a Goddamn Christmas version. It adds jingle bells. Next.

#48 – “Who the Hell is Edgar?” – TEYA and SELENA

REPRESENTING: Austria

I guess we had to be on a strictly first-name basis with the entrants this year, and despite coming 15th with a surprisingly minimal and drab performance, I at least like the song’s conceit. It’s about ghostwriting, and takes a pretty comical approach with the two suddenly having this hit song on their hands, being possessed by the ghost of Edgar Allen Poe because... of course, and ending up not being able to pay rent still despite the song’s popularity, making a point about how little artists get royalties-wise from streaming services. It makes a decent point and is pretty goofy doing so, making little cute references to the business side of the industry... though that may be why the juries were unwilling to give it the time of day. With that said, it’s an alright song, though it’s kind of soured on me – the warping synths, staccato bass and rollicking guitars in the verses are great, but it doesn’t entirely mesh once we get to the hypnotic chorus, especially with the bass distracting from the hypnotism of it if anything. In fact, it gets a little too bombastic for me especially with the choir interludes and some of the delivery feeling a bit noxious, but that’s kind of expected with this goofy premise. It’s alright, but not one of the Eurovision tracks from this year that I come back to often.

#45 – “Unicorn” – Noa Kirel

REPRESENTING: Israel

You know, to an extent, Eurovision is about representing countries and their public image. This has always been necessary for Europe, as we have committed some of the worst crimes against humanity known to, well, humanity, and to be seen as fun-loving and progressive is just what we want to look like in the face of growing discontent and awareness of the bloodied history of these nations thanks to the war in Ukraine. Produced by Yinon Yahel and placing third, this song tells the story of Israel, and whilst Kirel has said it represents harnessing the feminine power of the unicorn and that she’s promoting “togetherness”, don’t be fooled: she’s lovey-dovey with President Herzog, and this song is a bitter, bitter version of the story of Israel sang by someone who didn’t get the memo that Kesha wasn’t being 100% serious. Kirel dismisses believing in old stories – which, for someone with family that survived the Holocaust, you’d think she’d be more open to hearing – calling them “fairytales” whilst making references to her DNA and professing the “independent” power of Israel amidst other people “calling them names”, with an extra touch of condescension to, you know, native people fighting for their freedom? She does the whole patronising motivational aspect, which could come off okay if she weren’t representing Israel – say what you want about what the song truly means and it’s going to mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people (which is great!) but to me, this is sly propaganda written off as a girl-power anthem. When the continued oppression and murder is ongoing, current and brainwashed into Israelis in their youth, it’s hard to compare it to a motivational song from many of these other countries that are not so explicitly murderous, especially due to how pissy and defensive this is lyrically. To make it this danceable and kitsch is just the genocidal cherry on top of the cake of ethnic cleansing. Screw this song, free Palestine, and let’s move on.

#10 – “Queen of Kings” – Alessandra

REPRESENTING: Norway

I mean, if we’re getting political still, there are some Queens and Kings here in England I wouldn’t mind to see gone. This song placed fifth and is the first top 10 hit by Alessandra, the part-Italian singer, alongside production from Henning Olerud and Stanley Fernandez, who I think are the main issues here. I did think the performance was completely fine, if a bit disappointing, but this girl-power anthem is not about genocide – thank God – but instead is kind of a Game of Thrones escapist fantasy acting as a release for the struggle that it was for Alessandra to grow up bisexual in Italy. It’s not immediately obvious in the lyrics but it’s Eurovision – it’s usually AGAP (as gay as possible). Her breathy belting is impressive and rapid, even if it didn’t translate that well live, but I don’t like the dramatic swell of this, mostly since it feels really cheap and over-produced, which really muddies Alessandra’s performance: she just has no space here, especially with the bass at the front of the mix that gives it a nauseating, headache-inducing feel that shreds it of a lot of its genuinely promising elements. It’s a shame because the high note is impressive and the song is catchy as sin, but the first of our Eurovision top 10s doesn’t impress me that much. At least it’s better than Mae Muller, and with this, her and Loreen, as well as the next song, we actually have four Eurovision songs simultaneously in the top 10, showing an unexpectedly large impact for the contest this year. Oh, and by the way, I’m sure you know but “I Wrote a Song” placed 25th... hey, it could have been worse. We could have been Germany.

#6 – “Cha Cha Cha” – Kaarija

REPRESENTING: Finland

Now this one is probably our strangest: as expected, the vast majority of the charting Eurovision tracks are 90% to 100% in English, but this one is by a formerly practically unknown rapper whose vocals are solely in Finnish. Whilst it came second overall, it won the televote and there were a lot of fans in the audience that night, I imagine partly because of how over-the-top and outwardly quirky it all is. It was a rather populist track in that regard, and I’m not surprised that despite its inaccessibility, it’s in the top 10... and it’s not just the language: it’s really out there. Produced by Aleksi Nurmi and Ki-RO, I wouldn’t be all too surprised to hear 100 gecs over this, combining hypnotising bass and intimidating techno rhythms with a creepily layered vocal in between a perking siren that eventually takes us headfirst into a dance-rock jam, with a charismatic chant vocal Keith Flint would be proud to hear still near the top of the charts. I have no idea what the song is about and I don’t think I’m supposed to: the “cha cha cha” is there to make sure I don’t need to care, and the guitars smash into the mix to ensure the only important element of the song shines: it goes hard. It goes intensely hard... and then it goes really 100 gecs on us and turns into a full-on trance song, still using the “cha cha cha” motif but otherwise ditching the chorus for a completely new one and it’s just Goddamn brilliant. With an utterly seamless transition, Kaarija’s yell dampens into an Auto-Tuned croon fit for 90s bubblegum dance, and every flash of synth has so much colour over the still pulsating dance beat that you almost forget this is one song until the crowd cheering comes in like this is “Zombie Nation” and a soaring guitar leads us into the final refrain. It’s adorable, it’s aggressive, it’s bizarre and honestly, with the ending callback to the original hook and siren loop, it’s kind of genius. Of course it won the televote, and whilst it wasn’t my favourite, it absolutely deserved to win the contest as a whole. We’ll get to the true winner after a not-so-brief interruption from songs that may actually last.

NEW ARRIVALS

#72 – “Real Back in Style” – Potter Payper

Produced by Jason Julian and Kyle Evans

Potter Payper was blocked by Ed Sheeran for the #1 on this week’s albums chart, with the album of the same name as this track debuting at #2, which is still his highest peak yet. I’ve never really been impressed by Mr. Payper, but his guest verse from last week was alright so I had some hopes for this and honestly, it’s not bad at all. The filtered gospel choir-sounding vocal sample is pretty airy with how it’s edited and it leads to a levitating foundation which fits Mr. Payper’s yelling delivery since it makes him stand out even more as he makes his entrance before the pounding drums come in and he finds his pocket a bit more tightly. The rhyme schemes are pretty good, with a flubbed rhyme actually being used for tension purposes, which is a sick decision, and the soaring chipmunk vocal behind the hard military-esque drums is a nice touch too. Sadly, he focuses from Recovery-era Eminem melodrama syndrome with an unnecessary, cheap-sounding electric guitar but it’s not that distracting when Mr. Payper is going so hard delivery-wise. He’s barely adding much groove or rhythm as much as he’s just yelling into the clouds about his life, and it’s kind of endearing due to the sheer passion. The beat switch could have been pulled off a bit better – the build-up feels a bit too long for what is essentially just a trap beat, and not one that goes consistently hard either. It sounds like Mr. Payper wrote and rapped over a beat with no drums and the producers just jumped the percussion in afterwards. With that said, the second beat is where Potter gets the most profound – if he hadn’t been placed in prison and mistreated by police, if he didn’t get involved in drug trafficking, if he wasn’t impoverished, he wouldn’t be able to receive the praise and success he does now... and that’s a sad existence when laid out as explicitly as it is here. Maybe this guy really is improving, though it may take another single for me to really be convinced to check out that album. Regardless, I’m impressed it charted. Speaking of album cuts charting, however...

#71 – “Satellite” – Harry Styles

Produced by Tyler Johnson and Kid Harpoon

We’re basically a year on from the release of Harry’s House and man, I still think it’s pretty terrible. I don’t like this one at all but it’s probably one of the better tracks, and now it’s got a video, it barely made its way here. Maybe it’s grown on me? I mean, no, it really hasn’t. It’s the track I want to like the most, with its progressive electronic swirl at the start furthered by Styles’ ambient humming, but the cosmic sparseness of it doesn’t allow for Harry to actually dive in as much as he clearly wants to. He feels a bit unambiguous to his own instrumental, which may fit due to the song being about him orbiting, just waiting for his love interest to bring him in... but then why does it have a corny dance beat in the chorus? Why is there a pitch-shifted post-chorus interlude that only plays once before being a distracting layer of some of the lines in the chorus? That chorus never changes like I feel like it should – it’s one of those songs that demands a bit of a narrative switch but it’s constantly stuck in flux, adding nothing of interest except for a brief crash of guitars that sounds great, especially with the distant reverb on Harry’s voice and the soaring synths, but it really is too little too late and there’s something about the guitars combined with a continued unchanging chorus that prevents it from ever feeling cathartic. I would have preferred it maybe go into a half-time breakdown or you know, he finally gets the girl, making more of a moment of the song instead of flindering off into nothingness, but I guess that would mean it doesn’t fit into the numb void of Harry’s House. If he played into it more with the songwriting, maybe it’d actually be interesting.

#70 – “TMO (Turn Me On)” – Luude and Bru-C featuring Kevin Lyttle

Produced by Chase & Status and Luude

...What? Were we really in need for a remix of “Turn Me On” by Kevin Lyttle by the “Down Under” guy with vocals from... Bru-C of all people? Why aren’t Chase & Status credited but the sample is? For what it’s worth, I really like the original. If I ignore the backing vocals from a BTEC Sean Paul, I can get into Lyttle’s unique falsetto that makes the song feel really cute, especially with the upbeat dancehall rhythm and extra synth inflections added by RedOne. It’s additionally VERY catchy, and has not left my head since it peaked at #2 in 2003 – he was blocked by Sugababes, which was a surprise to me. I assumed this had got to have gone #1, but alas, here we have Luude, Bru-C and Chase & Status taking the song to a new generation of listeners and is the remix any good? To be fair, Luude tried his best to make sure the general vibe – even if not genre – was replicated, with an uncredited emcee hyping up the track before it starts, and the dancehall rhythm being replicated with breakbeat stabs... and Goddamn it, it’s really good and I have no idea how to feel about that. It doesn’t do much to the original other than changing the sound – in convention, it’s very similar, with rubbery synth glitches reflecting the jerkier synth strings in the original. That’s probably for the best in this case, as making this any darker would completely ruin the naive, fun-loving spirit Lyttle has, and Bru-C’s “desperately trying to be cool” cadence fits perfectly, especially with a slicker-than-usual rhyme scheme and flow that sounds pretty sick over the pulsating drum and bass beat. This song is one that absolutely knows its intentions and completely succeeds with flying colours. It didn’t really exceed my expectations but... it’s a drum and bass remix of “Turn Me On” by Kevin Lyttle, what should even BE my expectations?

#69 – “hotline” (Edit) – Billie Eilish

Produced by FINNEAS

This is a one-minute cover of “Hotline Bling” by Drake. There is a full version of the cover, which was recorded in 2018, and released on her SoundCloud as well as a physical single, but she noticed it going viral on TikTok and released this tiny edit of it onto streaming services. You can barely tell that it’s a cover, given its acoustic guitars and her whispered delivery that phases into the cloudy production... and uh, that’s kind of it. I don’t like the original song because it’s a tad whiny, and Eilish’s version definitely isn’t but I don’t get much obvious emotion from it at all. This is essentially just a nicely-produced snippet of an acoustic instrumental that features barely audible Drake lyrics in the background, and it sounds like it would make a good background track for a scene in a particularly pastoral film set in a forest, or a dream sequence. That’s probably more analysis than this tiny snippet will ever have. I like the sound, though, and if Billie’s going this direction with the next album and this re-release is a reflection of it – I wouldn’t put it past her to include this on it – I’m pretty excited for what might be next.

#66 – “Area Codes” – Kali

Produced by Tate Kobang and YG! Beats

Ludacris’ “Area Codes” featuring Nate Dogg is a classic, lighthearted jam that sadly never charted in the UK. It has Luda’s signature brash fun and carefree bars alongside Nate’s rich voice dripping in untouched swag and charisma. It’s full of hooks, and I recommend you hear it if you like this interpretation by Kali, a rapper who I know (and liked) from XXL but have otherwise heard not much else from. I expected a more fun, swaggering track reminiscent of the funky R&B hook of the original, but this is such a bare snap track wherein Kali’s rapid whispering is at the front of the mix as she raps about taking advantage of all these men she’s with. The minimal, eerie nature of the beat alongside the soaring sound effects in the back allow for it to sound really dark, and it’s a shame that Kali doesn’t fully play into that, as I’d prefer it to fully give in to the evil seductress vibe implied by the laughing and flow than keep in this awkward middle stage. This is especially an issue with the song’s length, as it just kind of flounders off into an instrumental... which doesn’t serve much of a purpose when there’s practically nothing to said instrumental. This is far from bad, and I’m pretty impressed by Kali’s presence here, especially on the call-and-response chorus where she throws in that her hoes might even include your dad, but I’m not fully on board because there just isn’t much here.

#53 – “Side Effects” – Becky Hill and Lewis Thompson

Produced by Jon Shave and Lewis Thompson

Man, I’m not even close to finishing this episode, am I? Well, at least the charts are somewhat making it easy – I can’t say much about one-minute snippets or really even Becky Hill tracks. This sounds like any of her others for the most part but there is an interestingly darker tinge to this that would be interesting... but the flashier swell and the sing-songy chorus kind of ruins that vibe for me. Becky actually fits very well on darker production here, so I’m pretty disappointed they didn’t go that route fully, as again, I’d like her to play the villain more – framing it as a moving on or breakup song is just less compelling and less fitting production-wise than going into full cheating, regretless one-night stand mode. With all of that said, this song is still very much functional, and Lewis Thompson’s production has enough quirky sound effects to differentiate it slightly from the typical slap house, with the vocaloid drop being a tad more ethereal helping with this quite a bit. Also ever since I mentioned them in the “TMO (Turn Me On)” review, Sugababes must be on the mind because the chorus of this song, even just the first line, immediately reminded me of their version of “Freak Like Me”. Honestly, Becky Hill could kill that. Now that’s a cover I want to hear more than one minute of.

#35 – “Mountain” – Sam Ryder

Produced by Jimbo Barry, Lewis Allen and Sam Ryder

During the performance at Eurovision, Sam Ryder brought out Roger Taylor of Queen. A legend, of course, he deserved to be there and he was even given a little camera pan and acknowledgement by aging homosexual Graham Norton. He played drums on this song. That was it. Ryder didn’t come out and cover a Queen song, which is beyond me since when I think about British music, Queen is one of the first acts to cross my mind. Roger Taylor was just... there. He doesn’t even play drums on the official version, so that felt like a massive wasted potential. Regardless, the performance raked up some sales for this song and I’ve not been diagnosed with narcolepsy so it’s clearly not my fault that I immediately felt the urge to fall fast asleep when I pressed play on this one, right? Ryder has a nice voice but this song has no weight or grit to it, just a whole lot of fake handclaps and a surprisingly weak chorus when it comes to a recognisable melody. It just feels very staccato and also very reminiscent of Katy Perry’s “Roar” which had that exact same problem. There’s an instrumental break that consists of a single drum fill and what sounds like the start of a guitar solo... before it just creeps below the final chorus in the mix. If I were to soundtrack an advert for cars that I didn’t actually want anyone to buy since I kind of liked having them, and I’m not going to make much of a profit anyway since they’re not great-looking or designed by expensive companies, they’re just kind of middle-of-the-road cars that couldn’t be afforded by the average person but also is below the price range of the kind of person who would flex a car collection, so I’m just kind of showing off the cars in well-shot ads that clearly cost a lot to produce so I should probably try and sell the cars, but there’s not much of a demographic for them anyway so it might be cheaper to keep them since I rented this sent to film so I definitely have the space at least for now, and Hell, I might be able to coerce the person who owns the property I used to film the semi-professional-looking car adverts to take at least two off of my hands for his troubles... this is my first choice.

#29 – “Life Goes On” – Ed Sheeran

Produced by Aaron Dessner

I have still yet to hear – (Subtract) in full, but this seems to the post-album release single Ed is pushing, considering it has the video and a duet version with Luke Combs. Sadly, Combs isn’t credited here, but this folkish tune was in his wheelhouse before he was on it. The song is an acoustic ballad about the death of his friend and entrepreneur Jamal Edwards. He says that he wanted the world to stop like it did for the Queen and he got some of that comfort through the traditional “Nine Night” custom where for eight nights, friends and family gather for drinks and recollection of memories they have with the deceased. The ninth night is a party to commemorate their life and acknowledge that things have to go back to normal, but Ed struggles with this idea, because it hit him so heavily initially that he can’t bring himself to do anything but sink and sulk. He continues the weather theme that’s present in some of the other singles and you can hear a lot of the raw emotion in Ed’s great vocals here, and since it’s mostly acoustic, he really shines, with a lot of the moments of swell seeming borderline sarcastic considering how he’s convinced himself that life must go on. The bridge leading into the final chorus is a really crushing moment and as someone who is still processing a very important loss, this hit me really hard. It’s a beautiful tribute whilst also serving as Ed passionately taking a grip on his own grieving process, which is very difficult to do, and because of how personal it is, I think the Luke Combs version, which take the same lyrics, doesn’t serve the song much purpose, even if I love his vocals as always on here. It just means a lot more to hear it from just Ed.

#17 – “All My Life” – Lil Durk featuring J. Cole

Produced by Dr. Luke

Sigh, one thing I really hate about J. Cole is his blistering ignorance of issues that don’t directly affect him. You can’t be a conscious rapper and be spitting on beats produced by rapists, Jermaine, and that same vitriol goes to any rapper who won’t admit their imperfections on wax. That’s why it’s particularly annoying that he’s present on this song about Durk actively trying to improve himself, with a motivational chorus led by a children’s choir (which rarely ever works and doesn’t here under the weak trap beat) and a verse that shows how despite some of the blame being on the system, and rightfully so, he’s going through a lot of his own trials to get himself out of the violence he had become so accustomed to. It’s a great verse, with the difficulty of keeping the balance reflected in the varying cadences that go from mellow, muted melodic snippets and nasal, unabashed yelling, as well as his crooning about how a lot of the problems are inherent and internal – he’s not trying to preach, he’s using this to remind himself more than anything. So why is J. Cole here? He’s flexing, mostly against other rappers which just feels misguided when half of the verse is about a murdered rapper he admits he’d never heard of until he died, then getting rightfully upset at the media for publicising it and attracting fake hype just because he was the victim of a murder. Without many specifics or any interesting imagery, he’s essentially saying nothing about this societal issue whilst attracting all of the issues towards his own orbit; it’s all about him, and how he’s above all of that, despite the fact that he continues to use weapons as imagery when describing how much better he is than all these reckless, clueless rappers. To have this holier-than-thou verse after Durk’s honest one about how he lived that life and it’s a difficult mental process to get out of it is completely tone-deaf, and the fact that he really isn’t showing much technical skill or even a good flow here makes it even more bitter. The hook was growing on me by the end as well, and the melancholy Rod Wave-esque beat is not bad at all... so piss off, Cole, find worse songs to ruin. This could have been good.

#2 – “Tattoo” – Loreen

REPRESENTING: Sweden

Produced by Jimmy Jansson, Peter Bostrom and Thomas G:son

FINALLY! Oh, my God, finally, this week is over. Let’s just get this 16th song over with – sorry if it’s anti-climactic but for a Eurovision-winning song, it feels more like jury bait than anything all that interesting. I like the filtered synths but both the 80s synthpop pastiche context and 2010s EDM sound are very much done to death nowadays, so the song feels more like placing two clichés together than actually playing with them all that much. The performance and staging was excellent, however, and Loreen looked and sounded as excellent as she does on record if not even rawer and more powerful. The song itself is Loreen fighting through a troubled relationship and the claustrophobia that could set in from that tension is definitely there, especially in the orchestrated breakdown, but it just doesn’t click with me, especially due to the abrupt ending. It’s her first top 10 since she last won Eurovision in 2012 in Baku with “Euphoria”, which means she’s only the second singer to win Eurovision twice after Johnny Logan from Ireland, which ALSO means Loreen is the highest-charting non-UK Eurovision winner since Mr. Logan. Sweden tired the Irish for the most wins in the contest with seven and bam! – there’s your chart stats, you got my opinion, you got the background. It’s a song review speedrun.

Conclusion

Fittingly for a week with 16 songs it was kind of a mixed bag, though one thing I found they had in common was a lack of things to say... which is a saving grace because again, 16 songs. As for what I give out at the end, well, Ed’s done it again. Sheeran gets Best of the Week for the second week in a row for “Life Goes On”, though a close Honourable Mention goes to “Cha Cha Cha” by Kaarija. As for the worst, it’s a shame but Eurovision kind of dominates. That J. Cole pissed me off but not nearly to the extent that Noa Kirel does so “Unicorn” grabs Worst of the Week – it’s not a political cop-out if the genocide’s in the lyrics – and I think Sam Ryder gets the Dishonourable Mention for “Mountain”. I talked about cars for the vast majority of that review, and I barely know anything about cars. As for what’s on the horizon, I really don’t expect the Eurovision stuff to stick around outside of maybe Loreen and hopefully Kaarija, so I imagine it would be a similar free-for-all next week... though especially with less songs. Please, Britain? I have a life to live. Regardless, thank you for reading – if you were able to make it this far – and I’ll see you next week!

[redvelvetwishtree]

Thought dump about my impression of Ukraine politics based on how America builds a narrative about Russia:

How much of an influence does the US have on Ukraine especially in ensuring that their conflict with Russia remains active? Because Zelensky does not seem like the kind of politician acting on his own for his country's good. Are Ukrainians happy with their current regime?

I have no clue what Ukraine politics is like but if their government is installed by the US and their politicians have bank accounts and properties in the West, this conflict in Russia is 100% for America's benefit and they're just using Ukraine.

Unrelated thought I had a while a back but now I think it adds up with other things. I liked how Russia, China, India and a few other countries I forget were choosing to trade in their own currencies rather than the dollar. I hope they team up together this time because the moment someone does anything not in the US interests, they make sure to degrade, invalidate, antagonise and demonise that person/country in front of the whole world in an incredibly convincing way to a very very extreme extent. I think Iraq tried to move away from the dollar many years back (I think it was Saddam Hussain??) and we saw the aftermath. In the past years, now that they've crippled that country, the US has been trying to actively build narratives about these other countries too. The dollar issue is just one of many things but just connecting a thought I had...

Note that no such narratives were allowed to be weaponised or validated when the US went to war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries or when their buddies Israel do anything to Palestine. But conflicts like Russia vs Ukraine are dramatised in their news to an extreme extent. How and why are they building such a different narrative and image this time...? The US is absolutely no different from Russia in this case. No different at all. These are all wars where innocent people die. Putin's justifications for his actions are no different from what Bush, Obama and Biden say although they have progressively learnt to say it in politically correct ways (idk about Trump, he seemed less interested in having military activities outside the US... also probably why his country's establishment hated him and made sure he became unpopular and did not come into power again).

Actually I'm almost fully convinced now that Zelensky and other Ukraine politicians have their lives set thanks to the US. I wonder what Ukrainians think about their government. Do they have any awareness or concept of US-installed governments and regime changes where the US plays an active part in shaping your government? How corrupt do you find your politicians to be or is this something that's not been of interest to the citizens there?

I got quite scared after the Kremlin news. I hope nothing serious happens as a result of this. We know how America retaliates against enemies (that they often just make up) who do something slightly inconvenient for the US...Russia will be no different. Except that this time everyone will be expected to celebrate America against Russia...even though it's probably really just America doing all the provoking through Ukraine.

#ukraine #russia #regime change #kremlin #Zelensky #putin #american government #global politics

[followtrendings]

Egypt Is Asking Its Citizen to Eat Chicken Feet

The food in Egypt has become so expensive that most of the citizens of Egypt are no longer in the situation to afford a chicken. By this, you can imagine what the situation of the country probably is. Egypt is going through a record currency crisis and also the highest inflation in the last five years. That is why the National Institute for Nutrition of Egypt is asking its people to eat chicken feet instead of chicken. The situation is so dire that the National Institute for Nutrition had to post on Facebook last month where it listed a number of protein-rich food items starting from chicken feet to cattle hooves. In the post, it wrote: “Are you looking for protein-rich food alternatives that will save your budget?”

To give you an idea of how expensive food has become, see the data provided by local state media. It said that poultry costs were only 30 Egyptian pounds($1.01) per kilogram in 2021 and now it has soared to 70 Egyptian pounds($2.36) as of Monday.  In Egypt, chicken feet are seen as consumable by the poor and many people don’t even consider it food. For them, it is animal waste. With such kind of post, many people were furious but they knew the harsh reality. Mohamed Al-Hashimi, a media personality, to his 400,000 followers  tweeted, “(We have entered) the age of chicken feet, the collapse of the Egyptian pound… and drowning in debt.” The post was itself so shameful that what it brought to the locals was like adding salt to the wound. After the post, the price of one kg of chicken doubled to 20 Egyptian pounds($0.67). You must be wondering how the situation turned out to be like this. Because still now if anyone has to imagine Egypt, no one would imagine it anywhere closer to the current situation. Let’s learn how it led to this. Also Read: How NRIs can make UPI payments living abroad

How did Egypt end up in such a financial crisis?

There is an International organization named International Monetary Fund(IMF) that lends money to countries. Whenever a country needs financial support, it can borrow from it and repay over the course of time. Other than IMF, there are also other international creditors. Egypt has suffered financial crises numerous times which led to borrowing money from IMF and Gulf Arab Allies each time. As we all know borrowing is a two-way thing. You can’t just keep borrowing and never repay. Soon Egypt got trapped in the process of borrowing and it became unsustainable. According to IMF, Egypt’s debt this year is equivalent to 85.6% of the total size of its GDP. This is a huge number and also the worst. Over the past year, the Egyptian pound has lost over half of its value. Last week, it briefly reached its all-time low exchange rate of 32 pounds to the US dollar. According to analysts, there are numerous factors that caused this crisis other than begging behavior. In the last two years, due to the Covid-19 outbreak, Egypt, its people, and especially the economy suffered a lot which set the economy way too back. Adding salt to the wound, Ukraine War diminished its foreign exchange reserve, and the increased price of fuel increased inflation.

According to Reuters, during the pandemic, the investors also did not help the cause. They pulled out 20 billion dollars from Egypt in 2020. The Ukraine War also made Egypt lose almost the same amount as investors last year.  These made the economy fall all of a sudden. Timothy Kaldas, a non-resident policy fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy in Washington, DC said that 20 billion dollars were equivalent to the total amount Egypt received since 2016 and it all vanished in a matter of few weeks last year. The excessive participation of the military in Egypt's economy, which critics claim hinders the private sector, as well as the allocation of large quantities of money to megaprojects, are some of the other contributing causes. The IMF provided Egypt with a $3 billion loan as part of its most recent bailout in December. Egypt also received an additional 14 billion dollars from its regional and international allies, especially oil-rich Gulf countries. Also Read: Ratification of the labor agreement by UC graduate student employees brings an end to the historic strike with significant salary increases

How exactly Military contributed to the financial crisis?

In Egypt, the most number of companies are owned as well as operated by the military. Military-owned businesses account for a major percentage of Egypt's economy, producing everything from pharmacies and petrol stations to livestock and dairy. Hence private company owners find it very difficult to compete with military companies. Military companies get a lot of privileges. They do not have to disclose their financial data to the public. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s vast national projects are also led by the military and critics say that they gobble up a huge amount of funds from these projects. Now in order to include the private sector in their administration, authorities have pledged to put state-owned businesses on the stock exchange, including those controlled by the military. Analysts are dubious about the strategy since it hasn't been completely implemented yet and because these firms often operate in secret. Also Read: How the world’s richest black man transformed a $3000 loan into a $19 billion empire- Aliko Dangote

So why should others be concerned about Egypt’s condition?

These kinds of situations can often convert into strong protests. More than a decade ago, Egypt and other middle eastern states protested which resulted in the overthrow of governments, the slowing of economies, and even the start of civil conflicts. After that, the emigration of millions of people from the area was seen. The US embassy in Cairo issued a "demonstration alert" in October, warning of probable violence after Egypt depreciated its currency. Read the full article

#egyptfinancialcrisis #egypttoeatchickenfeet