#Concept of The FATHERLAND
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Concept of The FATHERLAND
FATHERLAND reveals how a group of people is bound geographically, culturally, linguistically, religiously, and economically in the challenging world for Africans and African Descendants. Fatherland sees itself as a voice for the African communities, serving all interests.
#Concept of The FATHERLAND#Africans and African Descendants Community Hub#Fatherlandglobal#African Art and culture#African Tradition#african history#Issuu#Fatherland badagry lagos
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the early zionists knew very well that they were colonisers terrorising and stealing land from the native palestinians, words of vladimir jabotinsky in 1923:
There can be no voluntary agreement between ourselves and the Palestine Arabs. Not now, nor in the prospective future. I say this with such conviction, not because I want to hurt the moderate Zionists. I do not believe that they will be hurt. Except for those who were born blind, they realised long ago that it is utterly impossible to obtain the voluntary consent of the Palestine Arabs for converting "Palestine" from an Arab country into a country with a Jewish majority.
My readers have a general idea of the history of colonisation in other countries. I suggest that they consider all the precedents with which they are acquainted, and see whether there is one solitary instance of any colonisation being carried on with the consent of the native population. There is no such precedent.
The native populations, civilised or uncivilised, have always stubbornly resisted the colonists, irrespective of whether they were civilised or savage.
And it made no difference whatever whether the colonists behaved decently or not. The companions of Cortez and Pizzaro or ( as some people will remind us ) our own ancestors under Joshua Ben Nun, behaved like brigands; but the Pilgrim Fathers, the first real pioneers of North America, were people of the highest morality, who did not want to do harm to anyone, least of all to the Red Indians, and they honestly believed that there was room enough in the prairies both for the Paleface and the Redskin. Yet the native population fought with the same ferocity against the good colonists as against the bad.
Every native population, civilised or not, regards its lands as its national home, of which it is the sole master, and it wants to retain that mastery always; it will refuse to admit not only new masters but, even new partners or collaborators.
This is equally true of the Arabs. Our Peace-mongers are trying to persuade us that the Arabs are either fools, whom we can deceive by masking our real aims, or that they are corrupt and can be bribed to abandon to us their claim to priority in Palestine , in return for cultural and economic advantages. I repudiate this conception of the Palestinian Arabs. Culturally they are five hundred years behind us, they have neither our endurance nor our determination; but they are just as good psychologists as we are, and their minds have been sharpened like ours by centuries of fine-spun logomachy. We may tell them whatever we like about the innocence of our aims, watering them down and sweetening them with honeyed words to make them palatable, but they know what we want, as well as we know what they do not want. They feel at least the same instinctive jealous love of Palestine, as the old Aztecs felt for ancient Mexico, and the Sioux for their rolling Prairies.
To imagine, as our Arabophiles do, that they will voluntarily consent to the realisation of Zionism, in return for the moral and material conveniences which the Jewish colonist brings with him, is a childish notion, which has at bottom a kind of contempt for the Arab people; it means that they despise the Arab race, which they regard as a corrupt mob that can be bought and sold, and are willing to give up their fatherland for a good railway system.
There is no justification for such a belief. It may be that some individual Arabs take bribes. But that does not mean that the Arab people of Palestine as a whole will sell that fervent patriotism that they guard so jealously, and which even the Papuans will never sell. Every native population in the world resists colonists as long as it has the slightest hope of being able to rid itself of the danger of being colonised.
That is what the Arabs in Palestine are doing, and what they will persist in doing as long as there remains a solitary spark of hope that they will be able to prevent the transformation of "Palestine" into the "Land of Israel."
and then again, in 1941 (with more racism!):
Let us consider for a moment the point of view of those to whom this seems immoral. We shall trace the root of the evil to this – that we are seeking to colonise a country against the wishes of its population, in other words, by force. Everything else that is undesirable grows out of this root with axiomatic inevitability. What then is to be done?
The simplest way out would be to look for a different country to colonise. Like Uganda. But if we look more closely into the matter we shall find that the same evil exists there, too. Uganda also has a native population, which consciously or unconsciously as in every other instance in history, will resist the coming of the colonisers. It is true that these natives happen to be black. But that does not alter the essential fact. If it is immoral to colonise a country against the will of its native population, the same morality must apply equally to the black man as to the white. Of course, the blackman may not be sufficiently advanced to think of sending delegations to London, but he will soon find some kindhearted white friends, who will instruct him. Though should these natives even prove utterly helpless, like children, the matter would only become worse. Then if colonisation is invasion and robbery, the greatest crime of all would be to rob helpless children. Consequently, colonisation in Uganda is also immoral, and colonisation in any other place in the world, whatever it may be called, is immoral. There are no more uninhabited islands in the world. In every oasis there is a native population settled from times immemorial, who will not tolerate an immigrant majority or an invasion of outsiders. So that if there is any landless people in the world, even its dream of a national home must be an immoral dream. . Those who are landless must remain landless to all eternity. The whole earth has been allocated. Basta: Morality has said so
this was never about native people returning to their native land. the early european zionists were very aware that there already was a native population, the palestinians, and that they were european colonisers similar to the colonisers of north america
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La mort de Gavroche / Gavroche’s death
Oh it's here, the chapter that breaks my heart to pieces every time. If you haven't heard it before I highly encourage listening to the Original French Concept Album version of Gavroche's death. In my opinion, it is by far the saddest and most impactful version. Below you'll find my translation of the lyrics with annotations. The PDF can be found here: La Mort de Gavroche translation
youtube
Gavroche Cette fois, Javert, t’arrêteras plus personne La mort t’a coffré à perpétuité J’espère qu’là-haut, on s’ra pas dans l’même cachot Sur terre déjà, on n’était pas du même combat¹
Gavroche This time, Javert, you’ll no longer be arresting anyone Death has locked you up for good I hope up there, we won’t be in the same dungeon On earth already, we weren’t in the same fight¹
NOTES 1. “du même combat” literally means “of the same fight” but I believe this is using “même combat!” which is an expression of solidarity meaning “we’re on the same side.” I kept the translation in the lyrics more literal since “to be in the same fight” in English can also convey the idea of solidarity.
Courfeyrac Sacré Gavroche, t’as toujours l’mot pour rire² C’est pas la parlotte³ qui te f’ra guérir Marius Ah les salauds, ils ont tiré sur un enfant Ils ont, sans savoir, abattu le printemps Quel dieu cruel s’abreuve du sang des innocents Et combien faudra-t-il pleurer d’combattants?
Courfeyrac Blasted Gavroche, you always have something funny to say² It’s not the gift of the gab³ that will heal you Marius Ah the bastards, they’ve shot at a kid They have, without knowing, shot down spring What cruel god drinks the blood of innocents And how many fighters will we have to cry over?
NOTES 2. “avoir le mot pour rire” is an expression that literally means “always have the word for laughing / a laugh” and is translated as “to make jokes, be funny.”
3. “la parlotte” means “chitchat, chatter, chinwag, talking shop, etc.” I decided to translate it as “the gift of the gab” because that felt like a more appropriate term given the previous line which implies that Gavroche is good at always making jokes.
Gavroche Notre drapeau était par terre Rouge de honte et bleu sali Moi, j’ai bondi blanc⁴ de colère “Allons, enfants de la patrie”⁵
Gavroche Our flag was on the ground Red with shame and dirtied blue Me, I leapt up, white⁴ with anger “Allons, enfants de la patrie”⁵
NOTES 4. “Rouge de honte … blanc de colère” This sequence uses expressions that incorporate the colors of the French flag (blue, white, red). “Rouge de honte” means “red with shame,” as in “blushing with shame” or a “flush of shame” but can also simply be translated as “ashamed.” I haven’t been able to figure out if “bleu sali” is an expression or is simply referring to the dirtied blue of the flag on the ground. “Blanc de colère” is, as in English, “white with anger.”
5. “Allons, enfants de la patrie!” is a reference to the first line of the Marseillaise, the national anthem of France. It means “Let’s go, children of the fatherland/motherland!”
Un mec m’a vu, qui m’a crié : “Qui vive!”⁶ J’ai dit : "Révolution française" Ça lui a pas plu ma franchise M’a mis un pruneau⁷ dans la fraise⁸ C’est comme ça, on gagne pas à chaque fois
A guy saw me, shouted at me “Who lives?”⁶ I said : “The French revolution” That didn’t please him, my frankness, Put a slug⁷ in my face⁸ It’s like that, you don’t win every time
NOTES 6. “Qui vive!” is an expression that literally means “who lives?” but is translated as “who goes there?” Just like the English expression, it has same the context of someone on watch or in a military environment asking an unknown person to identify themselves. However, I chose to keep the literal translation in the lyrics because it ties the pun in the response together. The response is “Révolution française (the French Revolution),” because a common refrain is “Vive la revolution française!” literally, “Live the French revolution!”
7. “pruneau” is argot (slang). The word “pruneau” means “prune” but it was used as slang for a bullet.
8. “fraise” is another argot word. This time the word for “strawberry” means “face / mug.”
Donnez, donnez⁹, ma casquette aux copains C’est tout c’que j’ai et j’en n’ai plus besoin Je suis tombé par terre, C’est la faute à Voltaire¹⁰ Le nez dans le ruisseau, C’est la faute à...
Give, give⁹, my cap to my friends It’s all I have, and I don’t need it anymore I fell to the ground It’s the fault of Voltaire¹⁰ Nose in the gutter, It’s the fault of…
NOTES 9. “Donnez, donnez” is a callback to the refrain used in Gavroche’s introductory song on the Original Concept Album (the equivalent of Look Down).
10. “C’est la faute à Voltaire” – I would have preferred to translate these lines as “It’s Voltaire’s/Rousseau’s fault” but I kept the French wording of “It’s the fault of Voltaire/Rousseau” so that the final line cuts off in the same manner.
As usual, corrections and commentaries are welcome!
#lm 5.1.15#gavroche#les mis musical#mytranslation#les mis original french concept album#concept album translations#la mort de gavroche#Youtube
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Okay but like. What if we whumped personified places
(This isn’t directed towards most of my follower base so that’s why I sound different)
I say ‘whumped’ but they could fulfill pretty much any role. Of course there’s the usual stuff about sensitive issues and whatnot, but also, royal/political/iron curtain whump (@dresden-syndrome) are already established things and so is the existence of multiple fandoms dedicated to personifications that contain HEAVY angst. Countryhumans may be a cautionary tale but hers is not the only one we should tell.
She/her is the default for personifs who are not primarily located on the internet (such as fandoms), and all personifs accept being referred to with she/her by humans, regardless of their gender(s).
Personification as Whumpee:
-countryspirit trying to survive under the rule of a monarch who is incredibly oblivious to her needs, or a paranoid dictator carrying out purges of her best at random and leaving her confused and disoriented.
-Personif bodies are composed of the feelings and memories of the people they, well, embody. Removing a memory is removing a physical part of themself. Enter a dictator trying to rewrite history.
-environmental whump, as the victim of a natural disaster. ‘fire season fic’ is a whole ass genre in Welcome to the Table and it absolutely decimated me, go read When The Fires Burn by TWolf_XD on AO3 if you haven’t already.
-eternally, conquests and invasion.
-the personification’s own people persecuting her as a witch, or similar undesirable.
-cityspirit of fame struggling to keep up with the cameras.
-personification completely dependent on one person. extra spice if it’s the founder. (shameless plug for my Ira and Aaron series)
-unrecognized personification suffering under the weight of not being considered real.
-cityspirit in the process of being demolished.
-the victim of sacrificial rituals. they are the whole life of the community and can be beheaded as many times as is necessary, as they will not die, at least permanently.
-their ruler-to-be’s whipping boy (gender neutral).
-places where the government and society are conceptualized as a family—with the absolute monarch as father.
-personification forced to marry her despot. capital cities were once considered the wives of their patron gods.
Personification as Whumper:
-eternally, conquests and invasions.
-exploiting exchange with her leader to the point where they collapse from somatic burnout.
-laughing at the miseries of those she has outcasted.
-the ‘mother country’ and her ‘children’.
-the private torment of the ruler-to-be.
-cause of environmental whump; leaving her least favorite people quite literally out in the cold.
Personification as Caretaker:
-the entire concept of the mother/fatherland. she will be there, welcoming you home.
-the anger of a personification when you hurt someone she loves is *not* something you want to be in the way of.
-cityspirit becoming surrogate mother to an orphaned child.
-countryspirits sending aid to one of their own.
-personiftranslate Operation Yellow Ribbon.
-countryspirit taking care of her wounded ruler-to-be, providing them with solace and a window to the lives of the common people.
-personification literally just existing in a space where she is needed. she is made of the feeling of belonging the way we are made of connective tissue, so long as she accepts you.
-human finding a fandomspirit and answers to why they are the way they are (me).
I just finished a book about SA during wartime and I have Brainrot but I’m not sure if I should elaborate.
#personifposting#whump#whump prompt#whump ideas#otj#NTJ#personif gen#personif meta#*inhales*#wttt#countryhumans#hetalia#not sure what I should tw this with#uh#tw colonialism#?#is that right
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So, I would like to sketch this someday. And I have no one to ask. If there was a boss in the Fatherland Follies level, what would it be?
You came to the right place! Not only have I thought about this before, but I actually have a concept for a short fic centered on a boss in Gristol's mind.
The boss I've thought up is Puppetmaster Malik, very much based on this:
Puppetmaster Malik is a gigantic Gristol, just like the other bosses in Psychonauts.
The fight takes place on a giant stage with an audience comprised of Grulovian citizens. The closer Raz gets to defeating the Puppetmaster, the angrier the audience becomes, jeering louder and louder. They also throw things onto the stage at various points. (Not sure what they throw yet, but it's thematically appropriate.)
As for his attacks, Puppetmaster Malik controls three marionettes; Maligula, Truman, and Loboto (I'm open to suggestions for alternatives.) Each marionette has a different attack; Maligula floods the stage, Truman summons underlings (censors and such), and Loboto... well, I'm not sure about his yet.
Raz then has to counter the marionettes in appropriate ways. To avoid Maligula's flood, he can climb onto the items the audience throws. Truman's stage is straightforward - wipe out the summoned enemies. Again, I'm not sure about Loboto.
To defeat the Puppetmaster, Raz has to sever the strings on each marionette, separating them from Gristol's influence. I don't have the full details for how he accomplishes this though.
That's about all my thoughts on the subject.
A sort of prototype of this boss appears in my fic "Another Part of..." I wanted a big finish, so I was thinking about what a boss fight would look like with Gristol. I came up with both Puppetmaster Malik and the character who actually appears in the fic at the same time, so they share similarities.
#came up with a lot of this as I was typing but I have thought about it before#oh and also#yes yes yes please draw this it would be so awesome#gristol malik#i tried to keep puppetmaster in line with the other bosses#like how they have three phases
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Hello! I wanted to ask if you knew what where the Montagnards views on Cosmopolitanism and foreigners like! Also was Orientalism as strong (? Popular? I don’t know if that is the right word sorry! My English is a bit wonky) in the late 18th century as it was in the 19th century? Thank you so very much <3
It’s hard to talk about montagnards/girondins/thermidorians etc as holding a collective view on something, as these groups were not like modern political parties with a firm set of goals and values neatly presented in a party program. But looking over the Constitution of 1793, which it must be said was mainly worked out by montagnards, we find the following part, which suggests that, at least ideally, the montagnards held a positive (or at least not negative) view on foreigners:
On reports between the French Republic and Foreign Nations
The French people are the natural friend and ally of free people
It does not interfere in the government of other nations, even if other nations interfere in their own.
It will offer asylum to foreigners banished from their fatherland for the sake of liberty. It will refuse this asylum to tyrants.
It will not make peace with an enemy occupying its territory.
The key word here is of course ideally, as this constitution was never actually never put into place due to the situation France was currently in. And on April 16 1794 we instead find Décret sur la police générale de la République: du 27 germinal, l’an II de la République française une et indivisible which declared that any foreigner (with a few exceptions, like children and elders) from nations France was currently at war with should get out of the country’s urban areas if they knew what was best for them:
No ex-noble, no foreigner from the countries with which the Republic is at war, can live in Paris, nor the strongholds, nor the maritime towns during the war. Any noble or foreigner in the above case who is found there in ten days is outlawed.
The idea that every counterrevolutionary within France was actually a paid agent of a big foreign conspiracy was of course also a thing (and not only among the montagnards). Though this still might be best viewed as ”mistrust of foreign nations you’re currently at war with” (which at one point was basically all of Europe) rather than ”mistrust of foreigners in general.”
As for Orientalism in the 18th century, according to Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978): ”What is distinctive about the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, which is where this study assumes modern Orientalism to have begun, is that an Oriental renaissance took place. […] This awareness was partly the result of newly discovered and translated Oriental texts in-languages like Sanskrit, Zend and Arabic. It was also the result of a newly perceived relationship between the Orient and the West. For my purpose here, the keynote of the relationship was set for the near East and Europe by the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt in 1798, an invasion which in many ways was the modem of a truly scientific appropriation of one culture over another, apparently stronger one.” (page 42)
In Said’s view, what we today call Orientalism did in other words not really exist until the late 1790s, which leads me to believe it was not strong during the 18th century overall… On the other hand, I’m far from an expert when it comes to the concept, so I don’t know if this is a controversial issue or whatever. The same thing goes for cosmopolitanism, though I did find an article and a blog post about this topic specifically in relation to the French revolution.
#a bit of an anticlimactic answer with how long I’ve had this in my inbox…#but yeah this is far from my territory sorry#frev#ask
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Review: Ensiferum - Winter Storm
It's been four years since folk metal icons Ensiferum released an album, 2020's Thalassic. This is not an intolerable amount of time to wait for new music but it is the longest of Ensiferum's career. Fortunately, the wait was worth it, as the band is releasing its new opus, Winter Storm, on Oct. 18.
The nautical-themed, and at times pirate metal, stylings of Thalassic brought some changes to the band's lineup and sound, with the addition of keyboardist and clean vocalist Pekka Montin giving the band a one-two vocal punch. If you enjoyed the changes, then Winter Storm will be an album for you as Montin's participation in the band has only increased and his epic screams have only gotten louder.
This time out, Ensiferum has ditched the open waters as an album theme and has instead turned to the realm of fantasy. All but one song was written by founding guitarist Markus Toivonen from a fantasy novel concept written by bassist Sami Hinkka (who wrote the album's one other song, “Fatherland”). This gives the album the feel of a rock opera, weaving a coherent narrative about two warring factions of Northern armies and the relationship between a nomadic shaman and a mysterious widow. In true rock opera form, everything is bigger on Winter Storm. The choruses swell, the harsh vocals belt out with an increased ferocity, and Montin at times channels Manowar's Eric Adams with his soaring vocals.
One of the album's anthemic highlights is “Winter Vigilantes.” Introducing the audience to one of the two warring factions that make up the story, “Winter Vigilantes” begins with harsh vocalist Petri Lindroos doing his best throat-ripping scream before belting the opening verse. Then Montin comes in with that epic scream and it just cements the viciousness of both the track and the tribe it portrays.
“Fatherland” is notable for being the album's most anthemic song. With an almost Steve Harris-esque bass gallop from Hinkka to anchor, “Fatherland” best features the big choruses where the entire band harmonizes and sounds like a Viking chorus singing an ode to Odin.
Another highlight track doesn't feature Montin or Lindroos on vocals, but Madeleine Liljestam from Eleine, who plays the part of The Widow and takes vocal leads on the entire song. Liljestam has always sung like an angel and her voice here anchors what is as close to a ballad as you get on Winter Storm.
If you enjoyed the addition of clean vocals and the move toward more of a power metal sound than their traditional folk metal, then Winter Storm is an album you're going to love. It takes everything that the band added on Thalassic and cranks it up to 11, leading to a
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" For Our Fatherland"
I don't really care if Lila never gets a backstory at this point, like IDC if her backstory is " she was born evil!", because honestly, I really don't mind if she's a psychopath or something. BUT I think they should really lean on that or something, I'm gonna be pissed if Lila has a sad backstory or something, because I feel like it's gonna be a repeat of Gabriel. Like she's gonna have the same miraculous and stuff, so just make her crazy! Here's a drawing of her but like Tanya the evil. If you never watched/read it, you should! The concept is so funny lol, and the songs are SO good. They make me want to fight for Germany ( not MY country, GERMANY)
Here's the same drawing but different:
#lila rossi#lila#miraculous lila#miraculous#miraculous ladybug#miraculous tales of ladybug and chat noir#digital art#digital painting#fanart#tanya the evil#lila the evil au#i guess lol
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the lovely fatherland
(continuation of this post>>>)
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Very interesting quote from Gustave Flaubert about Napoleon and the Empire:
"When you observe life with a little attention, you see cedars as being a little less tall and bushes somewhat higher. All the same, I don't like the habit some people have of disparaging great enthusiasms or minimizing sublime impulses that surpass nature. Thus Vigny's book, Servitude et grandeur militaires, shocked me a little at first glance because I saw in it a systematic depreciation of blind devotion (the cult of the Emperor, for example), of man's fanaticism for man, in favor of the abstract, dry idea of duty, a concept I've never been able to grasp and which does not seem to me inherent in human entrails. What is noble in the Empire is adoration of the Emperor, a love that is exclusive, absurd, sublime, truly human. That is why I have little understanding of what la Patrie, the fatherland, is for us today."
Letter to Louise Colet, [Rouen], [December 11, 1846]
(Bold letters by me)
#Gustave Flaubert#Flaubert#quote#quotes#letter#french romanticism#romanticism#1800s#1800s literature#19th century#19th century literature#French lit#french literature#Napoleon#napoleon bonaparte#Vigny#Louise Colet#Colet#bonaparte#The Letters of GUSTAVE FLAUBERT 1830-1857#SELECTED EDITED AND TRANSLATED BY Francis Steegmuller
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What is Africa to me? Once I should have answered the question simply: I should have said 'fatherland' or perhaps better 'motherland' because I was born in the century when walls of race were clear and straight; when the world consisted of mutually exclusive races; and even though the edges might be blurred, there was no question of exact definition and understanding of the meaning of the word. […] Since then the concept of race has so changed and presented so much of contradiction that as I face Africa I ask myself: what is it between us that constitutes a tie which I can feel better than I can explain? Africa is, of course, my fatherland. Yet neither my father nor my father's father ever saw Africa or knew its meaning or cared overmuch for it. My mother's folk were closer and yet their direct connection, in culture and race, became tenuous; still, my tie to Africa is strong. On this vast continent were born and lived a large portion of my direct ancestors going back a thousand years or more. The mark of their heritage is upon me in color and hair. These are obvious things, but of little meaning in themselves; only important as they stand for real and more subtle differences from other men. Whether they do or not, I do not know nor does science know today. But one thing is sure and that is the fact that since the fifteenth century these ancestors of mine and their other descendants have had a common history; have suffered a common disaster and have one long memory. The actual ties of heritage between the individuals of this group, vary with the ancestors that they have in common and many others: Europeans and Semites, perhaps Mongolians, certainly American Indians. But the physical bond is least and the badge of color relatively unimportant save as a badge; the real essence of this kinship is its social heritage of slavery; the discrimination and insult; and this heritage binds together not simply the children of Africa, but extends through yellow Asia and into the South Seas. It is this unity that draws me to Africa.
W. E. B. Du Bois, Dusk of Dawn: An Essay Toward an Autobiography of a Race Concept (1940)
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Holidays 12.9
Holidays
Anna's Day (Finland, Sweden)
Armed Forces Day (Peru)
Ball-Bearing Roller Skates Day
Battle of Ayacucho Day (Peru)
Christmas Card Day
Christmas Gift Memory Day
Cremation Day
Eggsmas (from “The League”)
Fatherland’s Heroes Day (Russia)
Fiesta of the Mother of Health (Mexico)
Genocide Prevention Day
Grace Hopper Day
Heroes Day (Antigua and Barbuda)
Homemade Gift Day
International Anti-Corruption Day (UN)
International Day of Commemoration & Dignity of the Victims of the Crimes of Genocide & of the Prevention of this Crime
International Day of Veterinary Medicine
International Human Rights Defenders Day
Lady Gaga Day
Mail Your Cards Day
National Blake Day
National Heroes Day (Antigua & Barbuda)
National Llama Day
Navy Day (Sri Lanka)
Petrified Forest Day
Public Transit Day
Savin Juniper Day (French Republic)
V.C. Bird Day (Antigua & Barbuda)
Weary Willie Day
World Alliance for Patient Safety Day
World Day of Computing
World Genocide Commemoration Day (UN)
World Patient Safety Day
World Smallpox Eradication Day
World SIUGR (Selective Intrauterine Growth Restriction) Awareness Day
World Techno Day
Yuri's Day in the Autumn (Russia)
Food & Drink Celebrations
Mariscada Day (Spain)
National Opal Apples Day
National Pastry Day
Pepparkakans Dag (Gingerbread Cookie Day; Sweden)
Search High and Low For Your Gingerbread Recipe Day
2nd Saturday in December
Army & Navy Union Day (Massachusetts) [2nd Saturday]
Bath & Body Works’ Body Care Day [2nd Saturday]
Bring Your Christmas Tree Home Day [2nd Saturday]
Day of the Horse [2nd Saturday; also 12.13]
Gingerbread Decorating Day [2nd Saturday]
Hakiadaore Ichi (Shoe Festival; Japan) [Begins 2nd Saturday]
Hantoro begins (Flower & Light Festival; Japan) [2nd Saturday to 23rd]
International Shareware Day [2nd Saturday]
Le Foire aux Noix begins (Nuts Fair; Bastogne, Belgium) [2nd Saturday]
Independence Days
Rino Island (Declared; 2009) [unrecognized]
Tanzania (f.k.a. Tanganyika; from UK, 1961)
Feast Days
Evergreen Day (Pagan)
Feast of the Conception of the Most Holy Theotokos by St. Anne (Eastern Orthodox Church)
Galileo (Positivist; Saint)
Hanukkah Day #2 (Judaism) [thru Dec. 15th]
Juan Diego (Christian; Saint)
Leocadia (Christian; Saint)
Ljubica Sokić (Artology)
The Martyrdom of St. Kenny (Church of the SubGenius)
Nectarius of Auvergne (Christian; Saint)
Noodle Ring Day (Pastafarian)
Peter Fourier (Christian; Saint)
Remembrance for Egill Skallagrimsson (Troth/Asatru/Norse Pagan)
The Seven Martyrs at Samosata (Christian; Martyrs)
This Day Deliberately Left Blank (Pastafarian)
Tropical Grossbill (Muppetism)
Wulfhilde (Christian; Saint)
Yuri’s Day in the Autumn (Russian Orthodox Church)
Lucky & Unlucky Days
Shakku (赤口 Japan) [Bad luck all day, except at noon.]
Very Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [58 of 60]
Premieres
The Bishop’s Wife (Film; 1947)
Brokeback Mountain (Film; 2005)
Buddy’s Show Boat (WB LT Cartoon; 1933)
Charge of the Light Brigade (Poem; 1854)
A Charlie Brown Christmas (Animated TV Special; 1965)
Christine (Film; 1983)
Coronation Street (UK Soap Opera; 1960)
Dark Horse, by George Harrison (Album; 1974)
Disclosure (Film; 1994)
Fiesta Fiasco (WB LT Cartoon; 1967)
Fresh Cream, by Cream (Album; 1966)
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Animated Film; 2022)
Hot August Nights, by Neil Diamond (Live Album; 1972)
La La Land (Film; 2016)
Little Saint Nick, by The Beach Boys (Song; 1963)
A Love Supreme, recorded by the John Coltrane Quartet (Album; 1964)
Memories of a Geisha (Film; 2005)
Mississippi Burning (Film; 1988)
Office Christmas Party (Film; 2016)
Richard II, by William Shakespeare (Play; 1595)
R is for Rocket, by Ray Bradbury (Short Stories; 1962)
Salome, by Richard Strauss (Opera; 1905)
Scarface (Film; 1983)
SOS, by SZA (Album; 2022)
Soul Man, by The Blues Brothers (Song; 1978)
The Story of Babar, by Jean de Brunhoff (Children’s Book; 1931)
Sudden Impact (Film; 1983)
Syriana (Film; 2005)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Film; 2011)
Twins (Film; 1988)
The Whale (Film; 2022)
Words and Music (Film; 1948)
young Adult (Film; 2011)
Young at Heart, recorded by Frank Sinatra (Song; 1953)
Today’s Name Days
Liborius, Reinmar, Valerie (Austria)
Ana, Anna, Anushka, Nusha (Bulgaria)
Ciprijan, Diego, Liberan, Zdravka (Croatia)
Vratislav (Czech Republic)
Rudolph (Denmark)
Raid, Raido, Raidu, Raigo, Raigo, Raik, Raiko, Rait (Estonia)
Anna, Anne, Anneli, Anni, Annika, Annikki, Annu, Annukka, Anu (Finland)
Pierre (France)
Liborius, Reinmar, Valerie (Germany)
Ann, Anna (Greece)
Natália (Hungary)
Siro (Italy)
Joachims, Jukums, Sarmīte, Tabita (Latvia)
Gedenė, Leokadija, Vakaris, Valerija (Lithuania)
Annette, Anniken (Norway)
Delfina, Joachim, Joachima, Leokadia, Loda, Waleria, Wielisława, Wiesław (Poland)
Maria (Romania)
Izabela (Slovakia)
Diego, Juan, Leocadia (Spain)
Anna (Sweden)
Ambrose (Ukraine)
Delfina, Delfino, Delphina, Kirby, Kirk, Kirkwood (USA)
Today is Also…
Day of Year: Day 343 of 2024; 22 days remaining in the year
ISO: Day 6 of week 49 of 2023
Celtic Tree Calendar: Ruis (Elder) [Day 12 of 28]
Chinese: Month 10 (Gui-Hai), Day 27 (Xin-Chou)
Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)
Hebrew: 26 Kislev 5784
Islamic: 26 Jumada I 1445
J Cal: 13 Zima; Sixday [13 of 30]
Julian: 26 November 2023
Moon: 12%: Waning Crescent
Positivist: 7 Bichat (13th Month) [Galileo]
Runic Half Month: Is (Stasis) [Day 14 of 15]
Season: Autumn (Day 77 of 89)
Zodiac: Sagittarius (Day 18 of 30)
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Holidays 12.9
Holidays
Anna's Day (Finland, Sweden)
Armed Forces Day (Peru)
Ball-Bearing Roller Skates Day
Battle of Ayacucho Day (Peru)
Christmas Card Day
Christmas Gift Memory Day
Cremation Day
Eggsmas (from “The League”)
Fatherland’s Heroes Day (Russia)
Fiesta of the Mother of Health (Mexico)
Genocide Prevention Day
Grace Hopper Day
Heroes Day (Antigua and Barbuda)
Homemade Gift Day
International Anti-Corruption Day (UN)
International Day of Commemoration & Dignity of the Victims of the Crimes of Genocide & of the Prevention of this Crime
International Day of Veterinary Medicine
International Human Rights Defenders Day
Lady Gaga Day
Mail Your Cards Day
National Blake Day
National Heroes Day (Antigua & Barbuda)
National Llama Day
Navy Day (Sri Lanka)
Petrified Forest Day
Public Transit Day
Savin Juniper Day (French Republic)
V.C. Bird Day (Antigua & Barbuda)
Weary Willie Day
World Alliance for Patient Safety Day
World Day of Computing
World Genocide Commemoration Day (UN)
World Patient Safety Day
World Smallpox Eradication Day
World SIUGR (Selective Intrauterine Growth Restriction) Awareness Day
World Techno Day
Yuri's Day in the Autumn (Russia)
Food & Drink Celebrations
Mariscada Day (Spain)
National Opal Apples Day
National Pastry Day
Pepparkakans Dag (Gingerbread Cookie Day; Sweden)
Search High and Low For Your Gingerbread Recipe Day
2nd Saturday in December
Army & Navy Union Day (Massachusetts) [2nd Saturday]
Bath & Body Works’ Body Care Day [2nd Saturday]
Bring Your Christmas Tree Home Day [2nd Saturday]
Day of the Horse [2nd Saturday; also 12.13]
Gingerbread Decorating Day [2nd Saturday]
Hakiadaore Ichi (Shoe Festival; Japan) [Begins 2nd Saturday]
Hantoro begins (Flower & Light Festival; Japan) [2nd Saturday to 23rd]
International Shareware Day [2nd Saturday]
Le Foire aux Noix begins (Nuts Fair; Bastogne, Belgium) [2nd Saturday]
Independence Days
Rino Island (Declared; 2009) [unrecognized]
Tanzania (f.k.a. Tanganyika; from UK, 1961)
Feast Days
Evergreen Day (Pagan)
Feast of the Conception of the Most Holy Theotokos by St. Anne (Eastern Orthodox Church)
Galileo (Positivist; Saint)
Hanukkah Day #2 (Judaism) [thru Dec. 15th]
Juan Diego (Christian; Saint)
Leocadia (Christian; Saint)
Ljubica Sokić (Artology)
The Martyrdom of St. Kenny (Church of the SubGenius)
Nectarius of Auvergne (Christian; Saint)
Noodle Ring Day (Pastafarian)
Peter Fourier (Christian; Saint)
Remembrance for Egill Skallagrimsson (Troth/Asatru/Norse Pagan)
The Seven Martyrs at Samosata (Christian; Martyrs)
This Day Deliberately Left Blank (Pastafarian)
Tropical Grossbill (Muppetism)
Wulfhilde (Christian; Saint)
Yuri’s Day in the Autumn (Russian Orthodox Church)
Lucky & Unlucky Days
Shakku (赤口 Japan) [Bad luck all day, except at noon.]
Very Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [58 of 60]
Premieres
The Bishop’s Wife (Film; 1947)
Brokeback Mountain (Film; 2005)
Buddy’s Show Boat (WB LT Cartoon; 1933)
Charge of the Light Brigade (Poem; 1854)
A Charlie Brown Christmas (Animated TV Special; 1965)
Christine (Film; 1983)
Coronation Street (UK Soap Opera; 1960)
Dark Horse, by George Harrison (Album; 1974)
Disclosure (Film; 1994)
Fiesta Fiasco (WB LT Cartoon; 1967)
Fresh Cream, by Cream (Album; 1966)
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Animated Film; 2022)
Hot August Nights, by Neil Diamond (Live Album; 1972)
La La Land (Film; 2016)
Little Saint Nick, by The Beach Boys (Song; 1963)
A Love Supreme, recorded by the John Coltrane Quartet (Album; 1964)
Memories of a Geisha (Film; 2005)
Mississippi Burning (Film; 1988)
Office Christmas Party (Film; 2016)
Richard II, by William Shakespeare (Play; 1595)
R is for Rocket, by Ray Bradbury (Short Stories; 1962)
Salome, by Richard Strauss (Opera; 1905)
Scarface (Film; 1983)
SOS, by SZA (Album; 2022)
Soul Man, by The Blues Brothers (Song; 1978)
The Story of Babar, by Jean de Brunhoff (Children’s Book; 1931)
Sudden Impact (Film; 1983)
Syriana (Film; 2005)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Film; 2011)
Twins (Film; 1988)
The Whale (Film; 2022)
Words and Music (Film; 1948)
young Adult (Film; 2011)
Young at Heart, recorded by Frank Sinatra (Song; 1953)
Today’s Name Days
Liborius, Reinmar, Valerie (Austria)
Ana, Anna, Anushka, Nusha (Bulgaria)
Ciprijan, Diego, Liberan, Zdravka (Croatia)
Vratislav (Czech Republic)
Rudolph (Denmark)
Raid, Raido, Raidu, Raigo, Raigo, Raik, Raiko, Rait (Estonia)
Anna, Anne, Anneli, Anni, Annika, Annikki, Annu, Annukka, Anu (Finland)
Pierre (France)
Liborius, Reinmar, Valerie (Germany)
Ann, Anna (Greece)
Natália (Hungary)
Siro (Italy)
Joachims, Jukums, Sarmīte, Tabita (Latvia)
Gedenė, Leokadija, Vakaris, Valerija (Lithuania)
Annette, Anniken (Norway)
Delfina, Joachim, Joachima, Leokadia, Loda, Waleria, Wielisława, Wiesław (Poland)
Maria (Romania)
Izabela (Slovakia)
Diego, Juan, Leocadia (Spain)
Anna (Sweden)
Ambrose (Ukraine)
Delfina, Delfino, Delphina, Kirby, Kirk, Kirkwood (USA)
Today is Also…
Day of Year: Day 343 of 2024; 22 days remaining in the year
ISO: Day 6 of week 49 of 2023
Celtic Tree Calendar: Ruis (Elder) [Day 12 of 28]
Chinese: Month 10 (Gui-Hai), Day 27 (Xin-Chou)
Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)
Hebrew: 26 Kislev 5784
Islamic: 26 Jumada I 1445
J Cal: 13 Zima; Sixday [13 of 30]
Julian: 26 November 2023
Moon: 12%: Waning Crescent
Positivist: 7 Bichat (13th Month) [Galileo]
Runic Half Month: Is (Stasis) [Day 14 of 15]
Season: Autumn (Day 77 of 89)
Zodiac: Sagittarius (Day 18 of 30)
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Despite a series of blunders, miscalculations, and battlefield reversals that would have surely seen him thrown out of office in most normal countries, President Vladimir Putin is still at the pinnacle of power in Russia. He continues to define the contours of his country’s war against Ukraine. He is micromanaging the invasion even as generals beneath him appear to be in charge of the battlefield. (This deputizing is done to protect him from blowback if something goes badly wrong in the war.) Putin and those immediately around him directly work to mobilize Russians on the home front and manipulate public views of the invasion abroad. He has in some ways succeeded in this information warfare.
The war has revealed the full extent of Putin’s personalized political system. After what is now 23 years at the helm of the Russian state, there are no obvious checks on his power. Institutions beyond the Kremlin count for little. “I would never have imagined that I would miss the Politburo,” said Rene Nyberg, the former Finnish ambassador to Moscow. “There is no political organization in Russia that has the power to hold the president and commander in chief accountable.” Diplomats, policymakers, and analysts are stuck in a doom loop—an endless back-and-forth argument among themselves—to figure out what Putin wants and how the West can shape his behavior.
Determining Putin’s actual objectives can be difficult; as an anti-Western autocrat, he has little to gain by publicly disclosing his intentions. But the last year has made some answers clear enough. Since February 2022, the world has learned that Putin wants to create a new version of the Russian empire based on his Soviet-era preoccupations and his interpretations of history. The launching of the invasion itself has shown that his views of past events can provoke him to cause massive human suffering. It has become clear that there is little other states and actors can do to deter Putin from prosecuting a war if he is determined to do so and that the Russian president will adapt old narratives as well as adopt new ones to suit his purposes.
But the events of 2022 and early 2023 have demonstrated that there are ways to constrain Putin, especially if a broad enough coalition of states gets involved. They have also underscored that the West will need to redouble its efforts at strengthening such a diplomatic and military coalition. Because even now, after a year of carnage, Putin is still convinced he can prevail.
BACK IN THE USSR
One year in, the war in Ukraine has shown that Putin and his cohort’s beliefs are still rooted in Soviet frames and narratives, overlaid with a thick glaze of Russian imperialism. Soviet-era concepts of geopolitics, spheres of influence, East versus West, and us versus them shape the Kremlin’s mindset. To Putin, this war is in effect a struggle with Washington akin to the Korean War and other Cold War–era conflicts. The United States remains Russia’s principal opponent, not Ukraine. Putin wants to negotiate directly with Washington to “deliver” Ukraine, with the end goal of getting the U.S. president to sign away the future of the country. He has no desire to meet directly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. His goal remains the kind of settlement achieved in 1945 at Yalta, when U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill sat across the table from the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and accepted Moscow’s post–World War II dominance of Eastern Europe without consulting the countries affected by these decisions.
For Russia, World War II—the Great Fatherland War, as Russians call it—is the touchstone and central theme of the conflict in Ukraine. Putin’s emphasis a year ago on ridding Ukraine of Nazis has faded somewhat into the background. This year, the victorious outcome in 1945 is his primary focus. Putin’s message to Ukrainians, Russians, and the world is that victory will be Russia’s and that Moscow always wins, no matter how high the costs. Indeed, beginning with comments ahead of his 2023 New Year’s speech, Putin has cast off the depiction of the war in Ukraine as just a special military operation. According to him, Russia is locked in an existential battle for its survival against the West. He is once more digging deep into old Soviet tactics and practices from the 1940s to rally the Russian economy, political class, and society in support of the invasion.
Putin is capable of learning from setbacks and adapting his tactics in ways that are also reminiscent of Stalin’s approach in World War II, when the Soviet Union pushed back Nazi Germany in the epochal battle of Stalingrad. In September 2022, as Russia was clearly losing on the battlefield, Putin ordered the mobilization of 300,000 extra troops. He then declared that Russia had annexed four of Ukraine’s most fiercely fought-over territories: Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia, transforming the military and political picture on the ground and creating an artificial redline. Putin has repeatedly made changes in Russia’s military leadership at critical junctures, and he has worked fiercely to ensure his country has enough weapons for the war effort. When Russian forces began to run out of armaments, Putin purchased drones from Iran and ammunition from North Korea.
Putin has also shifted his narrative about the war several times to keep his opponents guessing about how far he might still go. He and other Russian officials, including his spokesman and foreign minister, have openly stated that the invasion of Ukraine is an imperial war and that Russia’s borders are expanding again. They have asserted that the four annexed Ukrainian territories are Russia’s “forever” but then suggested that some borders may still be negotiated with Ukraine. According to newspaper reports, they have pushed for the full conquest of Donetsk and Luhansk by March but also indicated that another assault on Kyiv could be in the offing. At this stage of the conflict, Russia’s actual war goals remain unclear.
What is clear is this: after more than two decades in power, Putin is practiced at playing people, groups, and countries against one another and using their weaknesses to his advantage. He understands the weak points of European and international institutions as well as the vulnerabilities of individual leaders. He knows how to exploit NATO’s debates and splits over military spending and procurement. He has taken advantage of European and American partisan divides (including the fact that only one third of Republicans think the United States should support Ukraine) to spread disinformation and manipulate public opinion.
At home in Russia, Putin has proved willing to allow some hawkish dissent and debate about the war, including the grumbling of pro-war commentators and bloggers who used to serve in the military. He seeks to use these debates to mobilize support for his policies. But although Putin is adept at managing quarrels, he cannot always control the content and tone of these disputes, just as he cannot control the battlefield. Some of the domestic commentary on the war has become shrill and even threatening to Putin’s position. There is speculation that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner paramilitary group, whose forces have been doing some of the war’s bloodiest fighting, could even seize power at some point in the future. Russia’s wartime casualties appear to be approaching 200,000. As many as one million people are estimated to have left Russia in the past year in response to the war, either because they oppose the invasion or simply to avoid being drafted. In this regard, the world has learned that there are some limits to Putin’s coercive capabilities, even if this mass exodus of dissenters seems to leave behind a more quiescent majority.
DISSUADABLE, NOT DETERRABLE
Russian opponents of the war may have had no chance of stopping Putin from invading Ukraine on February 24, 2022. And none of the United States and Europe’s mechanisms and practices for keeping the peace after World War II and the Cold War had much, if any, effect on his decision-making. The West clearly failed to stop Putin from contemplating or starting the invasion. Nevertheless, the United States’ release of declassified intelligence before February 24 clarified Russian aims and mobilization and helped the pro-Ukraine Western coalition quickly come together once the war started. Furthermore, this past year has shown that even if he cannot be deterred, Putin can be dissuaded from taking certain actions in specific contexts.
Strategic partners of Russia, such as China and India, have criticized Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons on the battlefield. He allowed grain shipments from Ukraine through the Black Sea after complaints from the United Nations, Turkey, and African countries. Putin and the Kremlin remain committed to maintaining partner countries’ support, as was demonstrated during the G-20 meeting in November 2022 in Bali, Indonesia. Russia still seems not to want a full-on fight with NATO. It has avoided expanding its military action outside Ukraine (at least so far), including by not shelling military supply convoys entering the country from Poland or Romania. But Moscow’s aggressive rhetoric has risen and ebbed throughout the war. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, once known as a moderate leader willing to engage with the West, now plays the role of Putin’s attack dog, periodically threatening a nuclear Armageddon.
The Kremlin is shameless in its rhetoric, and no one in Putin’s circle cares about narrative coherence. This brazenness is matched by domestic ruthlessness. Putin and his colleagues are willing to sacrifice Russian lives, not just Ukrainians’. They have no qualms about the methods Russia uses to enforce participation in the war, from murdering deserters with sledgehammers (and then releasing video footage of the killings) to assassinating recalcitrant businessmen who do not support the invasion. Putin is perfectly fine with imprisoning opposition figures while sweeping through prisons and the most impoverished Russian regions to collect people to use as cannon fodder on the frontlines.
The domestic ruthlessness is in turn exceeded by the brutality against Ukraine. Russia has declared total war on the country and its citizens, young and old. For a year, it has deliberately shelled Ukrainian civilian infrastructure and killed people in their kitchens, bedrooms, hospitals, schools, and shops. Russian forces have tortured, raped, and pillaged in the Ukrainian regions under their control.Putin and the Kremlin still believe they can pummel the country into submission while they wait out the United States and Europe.
The Kremlin is convinced that the West will eventually grow tired of supporting Ukraine. Putin believes, for example, that there will be political changes in the West that could be advantageous for Moscow. He hopes for the return of populists to power in these states who will back away from their countries’ support for Ukraine. Putin also remains confident that he can eventually restore Russia’s prewar relationship with Europe and that Russia can and will be part of Europe’s economic, energy, political, and security structures again if he holds out long enough (as Bashar al-Assad has in the Middle East by staying in power in Syria). This is why Russia is seemingly restrained in some policy arenas. For instance, it has vested interests in working with Norway and other Arctic countries in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard and the Barents Sea, where Moscow has been careful to comply with international agreements and bilateral treaties. Russia does not want its misadventure in Ukraine to embroil and spoil its entire foreign policy.
Putin is convinced that he can compartmentalize Moscow’s interests because Russia is not isolated internationally, despite the West’s best efforts. Only 34 countries have imposed sanctions on Russia since the war started. Russia still has leverage in its immediate neighborhood with many of the states that were once part of the Soviet Union, even though these countries want to keep their distance from Moscow and the war. Russia continues to build ties in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. China, along with India and other key states in the global South, have abstained on votes in favor of Ukraine at the United Nations even as their leaders have expressed occasional consternation and displeasure with Moscow’s behavior. Trade between Russia and these countries has increased—in some cases quite dramatically—since the beginning of the conflict. Similarly, 87 countries still offer Russian citizens visa-free entry, including Argentina, Egypt, Israel, Mexico, Thailand, Turkey, and Venezuela. Russian narratives about the war have gained traction in the global South, where Putin often seems to have more influence than the West has—and certainly more than Ukraine has.
BLURRING THE LINES
One reason the West has had limited success in countering Russia’s messaging and influence operations outside Europe is that it has yet to formulate its own coherent narrative about the war—and about why the West is supporting Kyiv. American and European policymakers talk frequently of the risks of stepping over Russia’s redlines and provoking Putin, but Russia itself not only overturned the post–Cold War settlement in Europe but also stepped over the world’s post-1945 redlines when it invaded Ukraine and annexed territory, attempting to forcibly change global borders. The West failed to state this clearly after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The tepid political response and the limited application of sanctions after that first Russian invasion convinced Moscow that its actions were not, in fact, a serious breach of post–World War II international norms. It made the Kremlin believe it could likely go further in taking Ukrainian territory. Western debates about the need to weaken Russia, the importance of overthrowing Putin to achieve peace, whether democracies should line up against autocracies, and whether other countries must choose sides have muddied what should be a clear message: Russia has violated the territorial integrity of an independent state that has been recognized by the entire international community, including Moscow, for more than 30 years. Russia has also violated the UN Charter and fundamental principles of international law. If it were to succeed in this invasion, the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other states, be they in the West or the global South, will be imperiled.
Yet the Western debate about the war has shifted little in a year. U.S. and European views still tend to be defined by how individual commentators see the United States and its global role rather than by Russian actions. Antiwar perspectives often reflect cynicism about the United States’ motivation and deep skepticism about Ukraine’s sovereign rights rather than a clear understanding or objective assessment of Russian actions toward Ukraine and what Putin wants in the neighboring region. When Russia was recognized as the only successor state to the Soviet Union after 1991, other former Soviet republics such as Belarus and Ukraine were left in a gray zone.
Some analysts posit that Russia’s security interests trump everyone else’s because of its size and historical status. They have argued that Moscow has a right to a recognized sphere of influence, just as the Soviet Union did after 1945. Using this framing, some commentators have suggested that NATO’s post–Cold War expansion and Ukraine’s reluctance to implement the Minsk agreements—accords brokered with Moscow after it annexed Crimea in 2014 that would have limited Ukraine’s sovereignty—are the war’s casus belli. They think that Ukraine is ultimately a former Russian region that should be forced to accept the loss of its territory.
In fact, the preoccupation of Russian leaders with bringing Ukraine back into the fold dates to the beginning of the 1990s, when Ukraine started to pull away from the Moscow-dominated Commonwealth of Independent States (a loose regional institution that had succeeded the Soviet Union). At that juncture, NATO’s enlargement was not even on the table for eastern Europe, and Ukraine’s affiliation with the European Union was an even more remote prospect. Since then, Europe has moved beyond the post-1945 concept of spheres of influence for East and West. Indeed, for most Europeans, Ukraine is clearly an independent state, one that is fighting a war for its survival after an unprovoked attack on its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The war is about more than Ukraine. Kyiv is also fighting to protect other countries. Indeed, for states such as Finland, which was attacked by the Soviet Union in 1939 after securing its independence from the Russian empire 20 years earlier, this invasion seems like a rerun of history. (In the so-called Winter War of 1939–40, Finland fought the Soviets without external support and lost nine percent of its territory.) The Ukrainians and countries supporting them understand that if Russia were to prevail in this bloody conflict, Putin’s appetite for expansion would not stop at the Ukrainian border. The Baltic states, Finland, Poland, and many other countries that were once part of Russia’s empire could be at risk of attack or subversion. Others could see challenges to their sovereignty in the future.
Western governments need to hone this narrative to counter the Kremlin’s. They must focus on bolstering Europe’s and NATO’s resilience alongside Ukraine’s to limit Putin’s coercive power. They must step up the West’s international diplomatic efforts, including at the UN, to dissuade Putin from taking specific actions such as the use of nuclear weapons, attacks on convoys to Ukraine, continued escalation on the battlefield to seize more territory, or a renewed assault on Kyiv. The West needs to make clear that Russia’s relations with Europe will soon be irreparable. There will be no return to prior relations if Putin presses ahead. The world cannot always contain Putin, but clear communications and stronger diplomatic measures may help push him to curtail some of his aggression and eventually agree to negotiations.
The events of the last year should also steer everyone away from making big predictions. Few people outside Ukraine, for example, expected the war or believed that Russia would perform so poorly in its invasion. No one knows exactly what 2023 has in store.
That includes Putin. He appears to be in control for now, but the Kremlin could be in for a surprise. Events often unfold in a dramatic fashion. As the war in Ukraine has shown, many things don’t go according to plan.
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Guillermo Del Toros Pinocchio Songs ranked
Been thinking about the songs in Pinocchio ,and how....I like them .Like I agree they arent the catchies ,but I feel they fit this take on the story and are more about mood and character .So here is a ranking from least favorite to most .Keep in mind I like all of them ,also keeping this as spoiler free as I can
Everything is new to me -Its a cute concept but I dunno it doesnt entirely work as a song on its own
My Bubblegum:Its very catchy but I had to put it low cause theres very little meat to it
Late Lamented : Only low cause it is hard to rank a dirge high ,but I think it is both haunting and comical .I especially love that it is a chorus of one guy ,Tim Blake Nelson
My Son :A beautiful lullaby.I was really taken aback by how lovely I found David Bradleys singing
Fatherland March /Big Baby Il Duce March :So this is a tie cause you cant have one without the other ,the first is a propaganda song but what makes it is the reprise which is a wonderful example of Pinocchios rebelious spirit ....Also it is funny in a way that speak to my inner 12 year old
Better Tomorrows :Probably the catchiest song ,sung by the wonderful Ewan McGregor.....And I love the build up to
We Were A King Once :I have been starved for a good villain song f in animation for a while ,this is wonderful and it is a great song to sum up the films main antagonist Count Volpe and sung with villainous glee by Christoph Waltz
Ciao Papa :I dont think I am being controvercial here,its a lovely, very beautiful song that is so emotional
@ariel-seagull-wings @metropolitan-mutant-of-ark @themousefromfantasyland @the-blue-fairie
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This image of England as mental mastery, inviolable insularity, self sufficient centrality, is in fact the image of a certain conception of man which will be progressively demystified throughout the novel that follows. But this pitiless demystification is narrated as a series of privations and unendurable sorrows. At each step, one loses again a fatherland which never existed.
Barbara Johnson on The Last Man (and on the failings of nationalism)
#reading#books#quotes#studying#academia#academic text#mary shelley#the last man#1800s#70s literary criticism
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