#Resource Monopoly

[fuzzysharkprincess]

Resources and Power: The Global History of Resource Monopoly and Inequality - Medieval Africa (Gold, Salt, and Trade Routes) 2024-10/20

Resources and Power: The Global History of Resource Monopoly and Inequality - Medieval Africa (Gold, Salt, and Trade Routes) 2024-10/20

Resources and Power: The Global History of Resource Monopoly and Inequality – Medieval Africa (Gold, Salt, and Trade Routes) 1. Summary Overview In medieval Africa, empires like Mali and Ghana used gold and salt to build vast networks of power and wealth, controlling key trade routes across the Sahara. This resource monopoly not only empowered these kingdoms but also entrenched inequality,…

[fatehbaz]

Ecologies of Imperialism in Algeria, by Brock Cutler, begins with an account of food poisoning in nineteenth-century French Algeria. A deep rural crisis of drought and famine in the late 1860s had reduced the amount of fuelwood coming into the city of Algiers, leading one baker to use construction debris shipped to the colony from Paris to fire his bread oven in early 1869. The lead paint on that metropolitan rubble, product of Baron Haussmann’s transformation of the French capital, became a toxic element in the bread that sickened settlers in the colony. The author [...] treats this small episode as a microcosm of the divides, the unruly circulations, and the nonhuman actants and processes that characterized the early decades of colonial rule in Algeria, which the French invaded in 1830.

These divisions and circulations include those between metropole and colony, between modern and not modern, between person and environment, between human and nonhuman, and across the colonial frontier with Tunisia. [...]

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The first [of three major narrative veins in Cutler's study involves] [...] bread [...], the consumption of wheat grown on the Mediterranean plains of Algeria [...]. The toxic bread affair of 1869, however, was a reminder that the distance between metropole and colony was not so great. [...] The second vein examines the production of new ecosystem relations [...]. [T]he violence of decades of uneven conquest and the confiscation, appropriation, and enclosure of land and its reorientation toward regional and international [European] markets between 1830 and 1870 thoroughly destabilized rural Algerian life. This fragility turned lethal in the final years of the 1860s, when a series of environmental crises - locust plagues and drought - caused widespread famine and ultimately the deaths of up to eight hundred thousand Algerians. [...] The emptied land and cheap labor that were outcomes of the environmental crises enabled [France] to complete the capitalist transformation of rural Algeria [...]. Another outcome of the environmental crisis was an increase in the number of rural Algerians migrating to cities, where they were perceived as both a threat to public order and a reservoir of potential labor energy. [...]

[D]ivisionary logics, including the line between city and countryside and the modern gendered subject, were being performed, produced, and reproduced in the context of environmental crisis.

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[Another] major element [in Cutler's scholarship] [...] is an exploration of the complex politics of policing French Algeria’s eastern border with Tunisia, in the era before French colonial rule began in the latter polity in 1881. [...] [T]his border, officially demarcated in 1846, was only integrated into local ecosystem relations over the course of subsequent decades. Repeated performance of sovereignty through patrols and taxation of pastoral communities that lived and worked in the frontier commons instantiated the border, but the border region remained resistant to the forms of modern statecraft, such as standardization, bureaucratization, and written transactions, that French authorities preferred. [...] [Cutler] draws on intentionally “mundane” examples to show how they were critical to the steady reproduction of a modern imperial border (p. 47). [...] [A specific] episode of transborder [dispute] [...] in 1869 [...] became a referndum within the settler community on the virtues of military rule and a reminder for that [European] community of [supposed] indigenous incompatability with modernity. [...]

[T]he various divisions illuminated by the story - between modern and not, between inside and outside, and between European and Algerian - were performances staged at various times and places, not eternal features of the society or landscape. The repetition of “divisionary logics,” in the author’s telling, were at the heart of French colonial modernity (p. 149). [...]

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[T]horough reading of the French colonial archive, from official sources as well as memoirs, newspapers, and periodicals [...], [t]he first two narrative threads, on bread and disaster, demonstrate the significance of moments of crisis [...] in actually changing the course of history [...] [and] longer-term [...] ecological transformations. The other thread, however, examines how the mundane performance of modern sovereign power and its divisionary logics, over time, made real or even naturalized the new imperial frontier between Algeria and Tunisia. Both [...] society-wide crises or the steady performance of the mundane logics of power [...].

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All text above by: Jackson Perry. "Review of Cutler, Brock. Ecologies of Imperialism in Algeria". H-Environment, H-Net Reviews. April 2024. Published online at: h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=59842. [Text within brackets added by me for clarity. Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[guardbo]

Watching 3rd life for the first time is scar the descendent of an American politician

[bogkeep]

complaining about gender clinic again

mid-may: coincidentally finds out that the gender clinic offers [resource] they never informed me or nearly anyone else about, gets help from one of the nurses to order [resource] except she's going to send me more info over email first :)

(late july: my GP can also order [resource] for me and does so, it's different than the one i ordered through gender clinic because i wasn't sure if gender clinic was going to send me the [resource i ordered] or not. GP order goes through immediately)

early august, back from travelling: well i haven't received any emails nor word about [resource] so i'll shoot them a message

mid-august: well i haven't received any replies to my message so i'll call them even though their call times are a scarce two hours every weekday. i'm told they'll call me back over the week

this monday: over a week has passed and i received no call. i will call them again! the lady on the phone says i should contact the regional centre because that's where they send [resource orders] :) and if i don't want to do that i should call [different number that has call times only twice a week]

today: "hello special gender clinic number i really want a follow up about this thing one of your nurses promised but i have been completely unable to get a single word about despite contacting you multiple times"

"oh no!! i see you sent us a message weeks ago and nobody answered it! this isn't supposed to happen!"

"one would think"

(and then she actually emailed me!!!!! yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS TIME IT BETTER GO THROUGH I SWEAR TO GOD.)

[moomoocowmaid]

I love ancient Mesopotamia Monopoly (Catan)!!!

[titsoutfornature]

the idea that climate change is 100% or mostly caused by fossil fuels and plastic completely misses the point & instills the false belief that infrastructure based on solar or whatever energy will solve everything.

[musical-chick-13]

Another funny D&D story: I mentioned like...months ago, in a session, that my character didn't trust the NPC serving as a travel liaison to our party. I had pretty much forgotten it a while back, mainly because we hadn't been interacting with him and had a host of immediate, much more pressing problems to solve. Today's session ended with my character overhearing him trying to set up a pact with an evil god being. vindication.gif

[n-x-black]

everyone keeps fucking talking about "stealing resources" its the same fucking argument over and over again even by people who get it used against them WHAT RESOURCES . WHAT RESOURCES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[thatscarletflycatcher]

*looks at the notes on this post*

You were right, OP, people were not ready for this conversation.

Edit: reasons why I hardly ever talk economics/politics/ethics on this website.

I don’t think you’re ready to have an adult conversation about politics until you’re able to admit that there are things you love and enjoy that would not and should not exist in a just world. $8 billion dollar budget movies every other month don’t exist in a just world. New 900 GB AAA video games every year don’t exist in a just world. Next day delivery doesn’t exist in a just world. 80 different soda brands don’t exist in a just world. 

All of those things come from exploitation on some level, and if you wouldn’t trade those for a world where everyone can eat and have a home no matter who they are or what they do, I don’t know what to tell you. 

Edit: I made this comment a few days ago, but since it’s been buried in the 40k notes this post got since then, I’ll repeat it here. I agree that delivery of  medications and other vital supplies are essential! The “Next day delivery” I’m talking about is shit like Amazon that relies on incredibly awful national supply chains. If I had known this post was going to get this much attention, I would have been more explicit. 

[handleerz]

[oetscop]

is anyone else not able to add videos to ur watch later on youtube?? literally nothing happens when i try and its been like this for weeks. ugh

[immaculatasknight]

Old bastards with shovels

[tedrakitty]

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-google-monopolizing-digital-advertising-technologies

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/12/1198558372/doj-google-monopoly-antitrust-trial-search-engine#:~:text=After%20the%20Justice%20Department%20filed,trial%20kicking%20off%20on%20Tuesday.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/why-is-us-suing-google-antitrust-violations-2023-09-11/

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/03/not-feeling-lucky/#fundamental-laws-of-economics

https://www.tumblr.com/thesoulofthebeautiful/731274818307178496/note-the-suit-is-specifically-about-google-having

DON'T LET THIS GO OUT OF CIRCULATION. ADD MORE ONTO IT. QUEUE IT. DON'T LET THIS SITE FUCKING FORGET. THIS TRIAL COULD HAVE MASSIVE CONSEQUENCES FOR THE WHOLE INTERNET.

EDIT:

Originally I linked an MSN article. I was unaware they're not a trustworthy source, but many lovely people in the notes pointed it out and pointed out that the article I linked had issues, linking much better sources.

Here's an excellent addition to the post by @/thesoulofthebeautiful:

Also, I saw a lot of people freaking out in the notes like "Oh shit, is Google gonna get completely taken down????" No. It won't. Google's a trillion dollar company, this won't completely destroy it. What it'll hopefully do is keep them from having Google be the default engine EVERYWHERE. If Google loses, that is a good thing. This WILL shake up the internet, but it won't be the end.

Cool? Cool. Here's a Destiel meme:

IF YOU REPOST THIS MEME, LINK THE SOURCES

[agentromanoffsir]

neocities guide - why you should build your own html website

do you miss the charm of the 90s/00s web where sites had actual personality instead of the same minimalistic theme? are you feeling drained by social media and the constant corporate monopoly of your data and time? do you want to be excited about the internet again? try neocities!!

what is neocities?

neocities is a free hosting website that lets you build your own html website from scratch, with total creative control. in their own words: "we are tired of living in an online world where people are isolated from each other on boring, generic social networks that don't let us truly express ourselves. it's time we took back our personalities from these sterilized, lifeless, monetized, data mined, monitored addiction machines and let our creativity flourish again."

why should I make my own website?

web3 has been overtaken by capitalism & conformity. websites that once were meant to be fun online social spaces now exist solely to steal your data and sell you things. it sucks!! building a personal site is a great way to express yourself and take control of your online experience.

what would I even put on a website?

the best part about making your own site is that you can do literally whatever the hell you want! focus on a specific subject or make it a wild collection of all your interests. share your art! make a shrine for one of your interests! post a picture of every bird you see when you step outside! make a collection of your favorite blinkies! the world is your oyster !! here are some cool example sites to inspire you: recently updated neocities sites | it can be fun to just look through these and browse people's content! space bar | local interstellar dive bar creature feature | halloween & monsters big gulp supreme peanutbuttaz | personal site dragodiluna linwood | personal site patho grove | personal site

getting started: neocities/html guide

sound interesting? here are some guides to help you get started, especially if you aren't familiar with html/css sadgrl.online webmastery | a fantastic resource for getting started with html & web revival. also has a layout builder that you can use to start with in case starting from scratch is too intimidating web design in 4 minutes | good for learning coding basics w3schools | html tutorials templaterr | demo & html for basic web elements eggramen test pages | css page templates to get started with sadgrl background tiles | bg tiles rivendell background tiles | more free bg tiles

fun stuff to add to your site

want your site to be cool? here's some fun stuff that i've found blinkies-cafe | fantastic blinkie maker! (run by @transbro & @graphics-cafe) gificities | internet archive of 90s/00s web gifs internet bumper stickers | web bumper stickers momg | gif gallery 99 gif shop | 3d gifs 123 guestbook | add a guestbook for people to leave messages cbox | add a live chat box moon phases | track the phases of the moon gifypet | a little clickable page pet adopt a shroom | mushroom page pet tamaNOTchi | virtual pet crossword puzzle | daily crossword imood | track your mood neko | cute cat that chases your mouse pollcode | custom poll maker website hit counter | track how many visitors you have

web revival manifestos & communities

also, there's actually a pretty cool community of people out there who want to bring joy back to the web! melonland project | web project/community celebrating individual & joyful online experiences. Also has an online forum melonland intro to web revival | what is web revival? melonking manifesto | status cafe | share your current status nightfall city | online community onio.cafe | leave a message and enjoy the ambiance sadgrl internet manifesto | yesterweb internet manifesto | sadly defunct, still a great resource reclaiming online social spaces | great manifesto on cultivating your online experience

in conclusion

i want everyone to make a neocities site because it's fun af and i love seeing everyone's weird personal sites that they made outside of the control of capitalism :) say hi to me on neocities

[twcfaces]

honestly telltale harvey's idea about redistributing the wayne estate is dope i just think his ... uh. priorities. are wrong. because they're two-face's priorities. but. eat the rich, am i right?

[le-fils-de-lhomme]

Neocolonialism is alive and well in Africa. The issues of governments starting in debt and opportunistic countries jumping in and offering loans continues. It's also the same countries they're just different governments/economic systems.