#Rural Development Minister

[townpostin]

Jharkhand Launches Ambitious Women's Welfare Scheme - Mainyan Yojana

Mainya Samman Yojana to Benefit Millions of Women Across the State A new welfare initiative in Jharkhand aims to empower women through monthly financial support, with widespread participation expected. RANCHI – Jharkhand’s government has introduced the Mukhya Mantri Mainya Samman Yojana, a scheme set to provide monthly financial assistance to eligible women across the state. The program targets…

[directsellingnow]

Direct Selling Industry: FEDSI ने मोदी सरकार से की बजट में राहत और सुधारों की मांग

Direct Selling Industry: फेडरेशन ऑफ इंडियन डायरेक्ट सेलिंग इंडस्ट्रीज (FIDSI) ने माननीय प्रधानमत्री  नरेंद्र मोदी को डायरेक्ट सेलिंग इंडस्ट्री के संदर्भ में आगामी बजट के लिए कुछ सुझाव प्रस्तुत किए। FIDSI का मुख्य उद्देश्य सरकार और डायरेक्ट सेलिंग व्यवसायों के बीच एक ब्रिज के रूप में कार्य करना है।  Direct Selling Industry FIDSI ने निम्नलिखित सुझाव दिए हैं: . 5 लाख तक की आय के लिए TDS की छूट: छोटे…

[uttarakhand-jagran]

अमृत सरोवर योजना को लागू करने में उत्तराखंड ने पाया तीसरा

उत्तराखंड:-  उत्तराखंड के लिए अच्छी खबर अमृत सरोवर योजना को लागू करने में उत्तराखंड ने तीसरा स्थान पाया हैं। वहीं देशभर में जलाशयों के पुनरुद्धार के लिए प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी की पहल पर शुरू की गई महत्वाकांक्षी अमृत सरोवर योजना को लागू करने में उत्तराखंड ने तीसरा स्थान पाया है। इसमें पहले स्थान पर उत्तर प्रदेश और दूसरे स्थान पर जम्मू-कश्मीर हैं। प्रदेश में इस योजना के लागू होने से जहां…

[pebblegalaxy]

Comparing the Political Styles and Achievements of Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi in India #NarendraModi #RahulGandhi #IndianPolitics #EconomicReforms

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi are two prominent political figures in India. Narendra Modi is the current Prime Minister of India and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while Rahul Gandhi is a member of the Indian National Congress (INC) and a former Member of Parliament. Modi has been in office since May 2014 and is widely credited for implementing several important…

[leviathan-supersystem]

BEIJING — China’s struggling real estate developers won’t be getting a major bailout, Chinese authorities have indicated, warning that those who “harm the interests of the masses” will be punished.

“For real estate companies that are seriously insolvent and have lost the ability to operate, those that must go bankrupt should go bankrupt, or be restructured, in accordance with the law and market principles,” Ni Hong, Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said at a press conference Saturday.

“Those who commit acts that harm the interests of the masses will be resolutely investigated and punished in accordance with the law,” he said. “They will be made to pay the due price.”

That’s according to a CNBC translation of his Mandarin-language remarks published in an official transcript of the press conference, held alongside China’s annual parliamentary meetings.

Ni’s comments come as major real estate developers from Evergrande to Country Garden have defaulted on their debt, while plunging new home sales have put future business into question.

In 2020, Beijing cracked down on developers’ high reliance on debt for growth in an attempt to clamp down on property market speculation. But many developers soon ran out of money to finish building apartments, which are typically sold to homebuyers in China ahead of completion. Some buyers stopped paying their mortgages in a boycott.

Authorities have since announced measures to provide some developers with financing. But the national stance on reducing the role of real estate in the economy hasn’t changed.

This year’s annual government gathering has emphasized the country’s focus on investing in and building up high-end manufacturing capabilities. In contrast, the leadership has not mentioned the massive real estate sector as much.

Real estate barely came up during a press conference focused on the economy last week, while Ni was speaking during a meeting that focused on “people’s livelihoods.”

Ni said authorities would promote housing sales and the development of affordable housing, while emphasizing the need to consider the longer term.

Near-term changes in the property sector have a significant impact on China’s overall economy.

Real estate was once about 25% of China’s GDP, when including related sectors such as construction. UBS analysts estimated late last year that property now accounts for about 22% of the economy.

Last week, Premier Li Qiang said in his government work report that in the year ahead, China would “move faster to foster a new development model for real estate.”

“We will scale up the building and supply of government-subsidized housing and improve the basic systems for commodity housing to meet people’s essential need for a home to live in and their different demands for better housing,” an English-language version of the report said.

next time you complain about how things are in America, consider that if you lived in some kind of scary communist country like China, you wouldn't even get to fund a bailout for the real estate company owners who ruined the economy like you can (whether you like it or not) in the good old US of A! 🇺🇲

[najia-cooks]

[ID: Sweet potatoes with black, charred skin on a decorative plate. One has been opened to show bright orange flesh, sprinkled with sugar. End ID]

بطاطا حلوة مشوية / Batata hiluwa mashwiyya (Roasted sweet potatoes)

Sweet potatoes are considered a traditional and nostalgic food in Palestine—a gift from the land, a seasonal delicacy, a potentially profitable crop, "red gold." Every fall and winter, as they are grilled in taboon ovens throughout Gaza, their smell fills the air.

This recipe uses a method of preparation common in rural Palestine, which applies direct heat to char the potatoes; the black, crackly skin is then peeled off, leaving tender, steaming, sweet flesh with a roasted aroma. The peeled sweet potato is eaten on its own, or sprinkled with sugar.

The recent history of sweet potatoes in Gaza is a microcosm of Israel's economic control of the region during that time. Though they grow well in Gaza's soil, they are a risky commitment for its farmers, as the seeds or seedlings must be imported from Israel at considerable expense (about 40 shekels, or $10, per plantlet), and they need to be weeded every day and irrigated every other day. Water for irrigation is scarce in Gaza, as Israel drains and contaminates much of the supply.

Nevertheless, the crop would be a profitable one if Gazan farmers were allowed to export it. In the shmita year of 2014, for the first time since the Israeli military's deadly 51-day invasion two months prior, restrictions briefly eased to allow Gazans to export some agricultural products to Europe; the first shipment contained 30 tons of sweet potatoes. However, an estimated 90% of the sweet potato crop was at that time unsuitable for export, having been damaged by Israeli shrapnel. The Gazan Ministry of Agriculture estimated that damages of this kind cost the agricultural sector about 550 million USD during this year.

Gazan economist Maher al-Taba’a holds that Israel temporarily allowing export of a token amount of sweet potatoes “is nothing more than media propaganda which is meant to confuse international audiences" by giving the impression that the siege on Gaza was looser than it had been before the 2014 ceasefire agreement; meanwhile, the number of allowed exports had actually decreased since before the invasion occurred. Gazan farmers, in fact, were not even allowed to export produce to Palestinians in the West Bank until 2017.

The next shmita year (an agricultural sabbath during which ultra-Orthodox Jews allow their fields to lie fallow) began in September of 2021, around the same time as the beginning of the sweet potato harvest. In anticipation of the shmita year, and in keeping with the trickle of Gazan exports that had been allowed into Israel in the intervening years, many farmers had planted more than they otherwise would have. But Israel delayed accepting the imports, leading many farmers to throw away rotting produce, or to sell their produce in the local market for far lower prices than they had been expecting.

Israel's habit of closing off Gaza's exports arbitrarily and without notice recurred during the harvest season of 2022. When Israeli former MK Yaakov Litzman called on Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Oded Forer to import sweet potatoes from Gaza due to a shortage of the produce in Israel, Forer refused, citing Israeli soldiers whom Palestinian resistance fighters had taken hostage as rationale for his decision. Other officials were surprised at the linking of an agricultural matter to a political one.

Farmers had no choice but to enter the harvest season hoping that the decision would be reversed and that their time, labor, money, and scarce water resources would not go to waste. With these last-minute decisions that cause Gazan farmers to be unable to fulfill their contracts, Israel damages the future viability of Gazan exports to European markets.

Support Palestinian resistance by calling Elbit System’s (Israel’s primary weapons manufacturer) landlord and donating to Palestine Action’s bail fund.

Equipment:

A fire, wood-burning oven, gas stove, or broiler

A baking sheet

Ingredients:

Sweet potatoes. Choose a variety with red or orange skin and orange flesh, such as garnet or jewel.

Sugar, cinnamon, date syrup, or tahina, to serve.

Instructions:

1. Wash sweet potatoes. Place them at the bottom of a taboon oven, or on a baking sheet or griddle laid over a cooking fire or gas burner. You may also place them on a baking sheet or cast-iron pan inside an oven with a broiler setting.

2. Turn the gas burner on medium-high, or the broiler on low. Heat the sweet potatoes, occasionally rotating them, until their skin is blistered and blackened in multiple places and they are tender all the way through.

3. Remove potatoes and allow them to cool slightly. Slice each potato open lengthwise, or peel away its skin, and eat the interior.

Roasted sweet potatoes may be eaten on their own, or sprinkled with sugar or cinnamon-sugar, or drizzled with date syrup, tahina, chocolate sauce, etc.

[zvaigzdelasas]

China revealed this week it aims to spend more than a billion dollars to bolster manufacturing and domestic tech in a bid to remain globally competitive, while divulging little new support for the struggling real estate market.

Industrial support clearly ranked first on Beijing’s priority list for the year ahead, according to three major plans released this week as part of China’s annual parliamentary meetings.

One of those reports, from the Ministry of Finance, said the central government would allocate 10.4 billion yuan ($1.45 billion) “to rebuild industrial foundations and promote high-quality development of the manufacturing sector.”

While that’s down from the 13.3 billion yuan earmarked for the same category last year, the sector overall gained greater prominence. In 2023, plans to spend on industrial development came second to support for consumption.

“Unlike other economies that went through a wrenching adjustment in their housing market, China’s investment rate isn’t falling,” HSBC’s chief Asia economist Frederic Neumann and a team said in a report Friday. “Instead, [capital expenditure] is shifting towards infrastructure and, importantly, manufacturing.”[...]

Chinese authorities in 2020 intensified a crackdown on real estate developers’ high reliance on debt for growth. Property sales have since plunged while developers have run out of money to finish many projects, cutting into what was once about 25% of China’s GDP when including related sectors such as construction.[...]

Despite widespread attention on whether Beijing would bail out the property sector, real estate got no mention in the finance ministry’s spending plans, and limited attention in a ministry-level press conference about the economy during the parliamentary meetings. Instead, the housing minister was included in the lineup for a press conference about people’s livelihoods.

“Supporting the modernization of the industrial system” came first in the finance ministry’s report, followed by “supporting the implementation of the strategy of invigorating China through science and education.”

Within that second priority, the finance ministry said it would allocate 31.3 billion yuan for improving vocational education. Amid high youth unemployment, especially for university graduates, electric car company BYD and battery maker CATL are among those working with vocational schools to train staff for their expanding workforce.[...]

The report from the National Development and Reform Commission, the top economic planner, reiterated government plans to support some developers’ financing needs — under the eighth item on the priority list that called for preventing financial risks. The government work report presented by Premier Li Qiang gave real estate a similar level of prominence.

8 Mar 24

China will improve home sales in a "forceful" and "orderly" way, Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Ni Hong said on Saturday (Mar 9), as weak demand in the country's beleaguered residential property market persists.[...]

Some developers should be allowed to go bankrupt or restructured according to legal and market-based rules, Ni said told a press conference on the sidelines of the annual meeting of parliament in Beijing.

Premier Li Qiang said this week that China will quicken the development of "a new model" for the troubled sector, focussing on building more affordable housing and meeting demand for homes.

But China will insist that "housing is for living in, not for speculation" when formulating a new development model for the sector, Ni said, reiterating an official line against property speculation.

9 Mar 24

[capybaracorn]

Satellite photos show Egypt building Gaza buffer zone as Rafah push looms

Despite its opposition to displacement of Palestinians, Cairo appears to be preparing for a scenario forced by Israel.

A satellite image shows the construction of a wall along the Egypt-Gaza border near Rafah on February 15, 2024 [Maxar Technologies/Handout via Reuters]

Egypt is building a fortified buffer zone near its border with the Gaza Strip as fears mount of an imminent Israeli ground invasion of the southern city of Rafah, which could displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians across the frontier, according to satellite images and media reports.

Footage from the site in the Sinai desert and satellite photos show that an area that could offer basic shelter to tens of thousands of Palestinians is being constructed with concrete walls being set up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, the only non-Israeli-controlled crossing to and from Gaza.

The new compound is part of contingency plans if large numbers of Palestinians manage to cross into Egypt and could accommodate more than 100,000 people, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing Egyptian officials.

It is surrounded by concrete walls and far from any Egyptian settlements. Large numbers of tents have been delivered to the site, the report said.

Videos taken by the United Kingdom-based Sinai Foundation for Human Rights show trucks and bulldozers clearing debris from a plot of land of about 8sq miles (21sq km), according to The Washington Post, which obtained satellite images that show 2sq miles (5sq km) was cleared between February 6 and Wednesday.

Mohamed Abdelfadil Shousha, the governor of North Sinai, the Egyptian governorate that borders Gaza and Israel, has reportedly denied that Egypt is building a refugee camp along the border in case of an exodus by Palestinians forced by the Israeli military.

The Sinai Foundation, an activist organisation that has a monitoring team in northern Sinai, said in a report this week that the gated area will be surrounded by 7-metre-high (23ft-high) cement walls.

Israel has said it wants to take over the Philadelphi Corridor, the fortified border area between Gaza and Egypt, to secure it. Egypt has threatened that this would jeopardise the peace treaty the two countries signed four decades ago.

Cairo has emphasised that it does not want Palestinians to be displaced from their land by Israel, comparing such a scenario to the 1948 Nakba, the forced displacement of about 750,000 Palestinians from their homes in the war that led to Israel’s creation.

Tel Aviv’s insistence on going ahead with its planned attack on Rafah despite international pressure has been unshaken even though the area is where 1.4 million Palestinians are living, the vast majority of whom have been forcibly displaced – some multiple times – by Israeli bombardments and ground operations.

Palestinians displaced to Rafah are suffering from a lack of sufficient shelter, food, water and medicine, and the United Nations and human rights groups have warned that the humanitarian disaster in the besieged enclave is rapidly worsening.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the army to work on a plan of evacuation for more than half of the 2.3 million people of the Gaza Strip who are now crammed into Rafah, but has provided no detailed steps.

He has suggested Palestinians could be sent to areas north of Rafah that the Israeli military has already cleared through a ground invasion backed by bombings.

Avi Dichter, Israel’s minister of agriculture and rural development, has suggested areas west of Rafah and the bombed al-Mawasi refugee camp near the Mediterranean coast, where many are already sheltering.

A satellite image shows new construction and earth grading along the Egypt-Gaza border near Rafah on February 10, 2024 [Maxar Technologies/Handout via Reuters]

The United States and a number of other key allies of Israel have said they oppose a ground assault on Rafah, some warning it would be “catastrophic”.

US President Joe Biden “has been clear that we do not support the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza”, the Reuters news agency quoted a US Department of State spokesperson as saying on Friday. “The US is not funding camps in Egypt for displaced Palestinians.”

Israel on Wednesday pulled out of US- and Arab-mediated talks with Hamas because it said the Palestinian armed group has had “ludicrous demands” that have included Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.

Netanyahu and the Israeli war cabinet have continued to push for “total victory” with the prime minister calling Rafah the “last bastion” of Hamas.

For weeks, the fiercest fighting in the Gaza Strip has been taking place in Khan Younis, also located in southern Gaza, with the Israeli military claiming its attacks are aimed at destroying Hamas battalions in the area.

Using shelling, sniper fire and drones, the Israeli army has also for weeks been laying siege to Nasser Hospital, the largest medical facility in the area, which has hundreds of patients and staff and has been a shelter for thousands of displaced Palestinians.

Dr Nahed Abu Taima, the hospital’s director, told Al Jazeera on Friday that Israeli forces were rounding up patients and civilians and had cut off electricity to the medical complex.

“We stand helpless, unable to provide any form of medical assistance to the patients inside the hospital or the victims flooding into the hospital every single minute,” he said.

Israel’s attacks on Gaza have killed at least 28,775 Palestinians and wounded 68,552 since October 7, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. Several thousand more are missing, presumably buried under rubble.

[ptseti]

MAURICE BISHOP’S MESSAGE TO AFRICANS IN THE UNITED STATES Today, the 13th of March, marks 45 years since the New JEWEL Movement ousted the corrupt dictatorship of Prime Minister Eric Gairy through a bloodless coup in Grenada. It is an excellent time to bring back the revolutionary prime minister, Maurice Bishop’s, address in New York about the danger Grenada’s revolution posed to the United States. The New JEWEL Movement—New Joint Endeavor for Welfare, Education and Liberation—swiftly established the People’s Revolutionary Government, ushering in a new era of socialist ideals. Under Bishop’s leadership, Grenada underwent a profound socioeconomic transformation marked by extensive reforms and initiatives to uplift the primarily poor population. By 1982, the following occurred: a literacy campaign, the construction of new schools, and the establishment of agricultural cooperatives that particularly benefitted unemployed youth in rural areas. Cuban aid bolstered these efforts, providing expertise in education, healthcare, and infrastructure development, notably constructing a modern international airport to replace the hazardous existing airstrip. Unemployment plummeted from 49 per cent to 14 per cent within four years. Symbolising the shift in priorities, vibrant billboards promoting education adorned the island, signalling a departure from those that had advertised cigarettes and alcohol. Grenada’s revolution sparked tangible social progress and economic development, leaving a lasting legacy of change and empowerment among its populace.

They HAD t o kill him ...SIGH #JewelMovement #Corrupt #Dictatorship #Grenada

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Landless Rural Workers and Indigenous peoples take joint action in reforestation activity in Brazil

The activity, part of the Landless Rural Workers' Nature Day, was joined by Minister Sônia Guajajara

In a joint action, the Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST, in Portuguese), Kaingang and Guarani Mbya Indigenous peoples airdropped three tons of juçara and araucaria palm seeds. The activity in Rio das Cobras Indigenous Land in the state of Paraná, southern Brazil, is part of MST's Nature Day.  

The event held on Tuesday (4) was attended by the Minister for Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guajajara; the head of the Presidency's General Secretariat, Márcio Macêdo; and the interim Minister for Agrarian Development, Fernanda Machiaveli.  

Indigenous leaders from different regions of the state came to personally hand over their demands to federal government representatives. This is the first time Sonia Guajajara has visited an Indigenous land in Paraná as minister.

In a document drawn up after a meeting of Indigenous leaders the previous night, they demand the demarcation of lands, public policies to promote agriculture, policies for access to housing and improvements in Indigenous health and education. 

Continue reading.

[townpostin]

Jugsalai MLA Secures Approval for ₹10 Crore Road Projects

Five new roads totaling 10 km to boost rural connectivity in Jugsalai constituency Minister Irfan Ansari approves construction of five roads in Jugsalai Assembly constituency, spanning approximately 10 kilometers. JAMSHEDPUR – Mangal Kalindi, the MLA for Jugsalai, has effectively obtained Minister Irfan Ansari’s approval for road construction projects in his constituency with a value of ₹10…

[transthadymacdermot]

image in the middle my art, all others except for that of the belfast 14th july celebrations from pinterest

WIP Reintro: Red and Riotous Light

Status: seven morbillionth draft

Genre: historical fiction, gothic horror

Content warnings: gore, death, cannibalism, place & time typical bigotry, &c

The year is 1796 and the island of Ireland, once considered peaceable, is awash with sedition. In Belfast, the arrival of a mysterious Englishwoman whose defection to the French makes her a target of both curiosity and suspicion brings with her tidings of a prospective deal between a local United Irish cell and the French government: guns, and ammunition, sold at a premium price, delivered by a French ship. The only problem? The ship is arriving at the opposite side of the country, and these would-be insurgents need it where they are -- and the French said nothing about transport. Additionally, the committee seems to have had a suspicious number of brushes with authority lately. More than they used to. Hopefully someone isn't getting cold feet...

Meanwhile, in the isolated townland of Áth Síomóin, the arrival of a hapless new schoolmaster sparks the powder-keg the two sides of the area's sectarian divide have long been sitting on and leads, inadvertently, to the death of a Catholic of some consequence -- and, crucially, does not lead to the punishment of his killer. The resulting crackdown on Defender activity, facilitated by the arrival of another English visitor, is to be expected at first. However, as the situation deteriorates, it becomes clear that local agrarian resistance leaders have neither intent nor indeed means to capitulate, and all sides begin to adopt increasingly extreme measures in an attempt to win the seemingly endless feud. And there's also something off about some of the local children -- hearing voices, saying funny things. It can't be good for them, after all. All this bloodshed.

Ask to be +/- from the taglist + main characters under the cut

William Hughes Rearden - an extremely driven and neurotic member of the Belfast United Irishmen hellbent on getting French arms for his men. he/him

Lady Maria Whittaker - an English reformer who defected to the French; Rearden's close friend. Her mission is to arm the UI and she doesn't care what she has to do to accomplish it. she/her; first name pronounced "mariah"

Seamus "Seamy" Breen - a small, unhappy Irish Catholic boy who, after he witnesses the death of a schoolmate, develops the ability to speak to the dead. he/him; nickname pronounced "shaymie"

Eoin O'Donnell - a womanising Defender leader in Áth Síomóin who has decided that he will also be taking and using some of these French arms, actually. he/him; first name pronounced "owen"

Sarah Connolly - a nihilistic Catholic peasant woman trapped in an unhappy relationship with an abusive boyfriend, who knows much more than she lets on. she/her

Edward "Lazarus" McClure - the loyalist owner of a rural inn who has lately betrayed his principles for a Catholic boyfriend who he seems disturbingly devoted to. he/him

Elizabeth "Eliza" Durham - the heiress to the fortune of an Anglo-Irish landowning family who runs her family's estate like it's the navy and suffers little dissent. she/her

Anthony Franklin - an actor, committed abolitionist, philosophy enthusiast, and London Corresponding Society delegate originally from the West Indies. he/him

Charles Nathaniel Maurice Irving-Hamilton, Lord Drenning - a foppish English soldier brought over by Eliza to help quell agrarian disturbances. Really really bad at his job. he/him

Eleanor "Ellie" Gage - a waif of uncertain background who lives with the Presbyterian minister in a neighbouring townland and works unofficially for the local regiment. she/her

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The British Columbia government is spending more money to recruit and retain health-science workers, while expanding an incentive program to dozens more rural communities.

Health Minister Adrian Dix says $155.7 million has been set aside at a time when B.C. has a “significantly increasing population” and more skilled health-care staff are needed, particularly in remote communities.

There are dozens of health occupations that will benefit from the funding, including audiologists, dietitians, lab technologists and radiation therapists.

Dix says $73.1 million will go toward keeping health and clinical support workers in rural areas and giving signing bonuses for those who fill high-priority health vacancies, while another $60 million will be set aside for professional development supports and mental health and wellness services for workers.

Dix says $15 million will be spent on peer support and mentorship for new health-care graduates and internationally-educated health professionals, and $7.6 million is slated for training, bursaries, and offsetting licensing and exam fees. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[manorpunk]

Teach Me, Maria-sensei! 4️⃣

Maria Lorraine is best known as the author of “Authoritarianism is Good when I Do It,” a sprawling tract which is supposedly about the relationship between philosophy, the creative arts, and imperialism, but also contains many odd tangents and suspiciously specific complaints. Maria is second-best known for ‘the Turk speech,’ in which she argued at a Poster’s Union meeting that “if there is, hypothetically, such a thing as a ‘master race’ or a people chosen by god, it would objectively have to be the Turks.” The meeting ended in a brawl that left several posters hospitalized. “If there is, hypothetically, such a thing as x” lives on as a popular meme to indicate an absurd or overly combative argument.

+++++

Maria Lorraine: Do you want to know the difference between Eastern and Western philosophy, Sunny?

President Sunny Roosevelt: Honestly, not really, but I’ve interrupted you enough already so I’ll let you have this one.

Maria: The origins of Western philosophy are found in the symposia, ancient Greek parties which revolved around wine, conversation, and sex, while the origins of Eastern philosophy are found in the shi, a class of itinerant advisors who would travel from region to region offering their services to local rulers and ministers, and writing treatises to show their administrative expertise. In other words, the origin of Eastern philosophy is the just and proper administration of a state, while the origin of Western philosophy is drunken pederasty.

Sunny: Hey, maybe both sides have a point.

Maria: Now, are you at all familiar with Taoism?

Sunny: Sure. You’ve got your Yin, and you’ve got your Yang, and they’re like opposites, right? Night and day, hot and cold, all that good stuff. And everything’s made up of Yin and Yang, and they’re always turning into each other, or something like that.

Maria: That is the popular perception - and it’s pronounced yang, rhymes with song.

Sunny: Correcting my pronunciation is such a - Wait, what does all that have to do with running a state?

Maria: Oh, you’re actually paying attention. As I said, that is the popular understanding of Taoism, but the truth is deeper - Taoism is not mere metaphysics, but a layered and intricate metaphor for the administrator’s craft. It is something one can ponder for a lifetime and not exhaust even a fraction of its implications. Two forces, so diametrically opposed that they cannot exist without the other, a syzygy…

Sunny: You’re making that up. No way is that a real word.

Maria: Night and day, hot and cold, male and female… urban and rural, centralized and decentralized, core and periphery. Do you see what I’m getting at?

Sunny: [nods] Not even a little.

Maria: Let me put it this way. Rural people complain about the rootless superficiality of the urban people, and urban people complain about the obstreperous traditionalism of the rural people. Both seek to shape the other to be more like themselves, but they are both products of their context. Rural areas exist because resource industries - logging, mining, agriculture - are spread out by their - pardon the pun - by their very nature, while the development and production of consumer goods and services requires factories and offices which leads to urbanization. The existence of one depends on the other, and it is that dichotomy which allows society to function. Theoretically.

Sunny: Ahhh, now I see. Urban and rural are like a siggy-ziggy.

Maria: Syzygy.

Sunny: Why does that matter, though?

Maria: Why does it matter? Half the country is one big cyberpunk megapole and the other half is a neo-feudal wasteland. The ideological conflict between these two extremes will be a defining challenge of your tenure. It…

Sunny: No, I mean why does it matter that I properly pronounce your stupid made up words?

Maria: Because all words are made up, and ‘syzygy’ is a lot faster than saying ‘a pair of forces which are diametrically opposed and yet interconnected because of their opposition,’ and understanding established terminology means you can actually engage with…

Sunny: Why not call it a beep-boop?

Maria: What?

Sunny: If you just need a word you can use to refer to the concept, why not call it a beep-boop? [Peace sign] Beep-boop!

Maria: Cease this whimsy, it sickens me physically.

Sunny: Beep-boop!

[mariacallous]

For almost 15 years, the sight of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban strutting into leaders’ summits in Brussels has been a constant of European Union politics. Leveraging his authoritarian grip on power in Hungary, Orban has pressured the EU into providing subsidies to patronage networks controlled by his Fidesz Party, while leading a populist onslaught against liberalism and the left. But even as Orban attracts fawning admiration from other anti-liberal populists in Europe and the United States, cracks are beginning to show in his own power base in Hungary.

The recent surge of infighting within Fidesz’s political machine has taken many observers in and outside Hungary by surprise. After the party’s initial massive election victory in 2010, the collapse of rival parties that had mismanaged the economy and become engulfed in scandal when in government provided Orban’s inner circle with the opportunity to seize control of state media, the central bank and appointments to all levels of the judiciary. Having secured complete control of the state, Orban and his Fidesz cronies used repressive tactics by the security services as well as aggressive disinformation to divide the opposition and intimidate business leaders and civil society networks.

The regime’s near-complete dominance of Hungarian-language media has enabled Orban as well as the party’s regional bosses to use a blend of anti-migrant xenophobia and hostility to LGBTQ rights to sustain a strong base of support in small towns and rural communities. Orban has been more careful in recent years when it comes to fueling irredentist hostility against Romania, Ukraine and Slovakia over territory lost to neighboring states after Hungary’s defeat in World War I. But the Fidesz machine still tries to present Orban as a protector of Hungarian minorities abroad to its right-wing domestic audience.

In part because of the divide and rule tactics used by Fidesz since the early 2010s, but also because they lack deep historical traditions and resilient structures, the Hungarian opposition has been paralyzed by squabbling among parties and movements as hostile to one another as they are to Fidesz. More recent efforts to construct a united front in the face of Orban’s authoritarianism have struggled to sustain the cohesion needed to keep supporters mobilized in the face of mounting state pressure.

Yet state capture, disinformation and virulent nationalism alone would not have been enough to enable the Fidesz machine to secure Orban’s lasting dominance. With Hungary’s accession to the EU in 2004, whoever was in power in the late 2000s was going to be able to take credit for the impact that huge flows of funding from Brussels had on infrastructure development and economic growth in the aftermath of the great financial crisis. For all the fierce populist rhetoric Orban directs against Brussels to court Trumpian nationalists in the U.S. and the far right in Europe, the extent to which Fidesz relies on the distribution of EU funds to sustain its dominance within Hungary has kept Orban from being too disruptive when it comes to European integration.

Though the European Commission’s concerns over the erosion of rule of law in Hungary remain a severe point of friction, Orban’s willingness to avoid escalation over other contentious issues—such as aid for Ukraine or environmental regulation—has made it difficult for the Hungarian opposition to take advantage of the tensions he has stoked with Brussels. The fact that Orban’s patronage network now reaches deep into the Hungarian banking sector and national oil company has also provided Fidesz with options beyond EU subsidies with which to shape economic conditions ahead of elections. In the face of Fidesz’s overwhelming strength and willingness to use security services to intimidate opponents, the inability of opposition parties to make any significant gains during the 2022 parliamentary elections seemed to bury any hopes of change in Hungary for the foreseeable future.

Yet even as Orban successfully cultivated enthusiasm for his project among the populist right in the U.S. and EU, tensions were building up within his own power structure that could prove a much greater threat to the survival of the Fidesz political machine than a cowed Hungarian opposition. After such a long record of dominance, many senior figures loyal to Orban had become complacent over the impact a wave of political scandals might have on the Hungarian public at a time when inflation and other economic pressures were generating frustration even among Fidesz’s core supporters.

With the shock resignation in early February of President Katalin Novak and former Justice Minister Judit Varga over efforts within the government to cover up a child abuse scandal, tensions within Orban’s power structure have now burst into the open. In response, Peter Magyar—a senior figure within the Orban regime as well as Varga’s ex-husband—resigned from his positions at state-owned enterprises and founded a new political movement with the aim of dismantling a corrupt status quo. By early April, Magyar’s new opposition Tizsa Party was leading mass protests in Budapest and rapidly preparing a nationwide network designed to peel off elected officials and voters among Orban’s political base in smalltown Hungary.

The sudden defection of a figure like Magyar, who had long worked at the heart of the Fidesz political machine, is not just the result of a sudden discovery of moral scruples. As with many similar semi- or fully authoritarian regimes, the longer Orban has remained in office, the more entrenched various figures within his inner circle have become at the highest levels of power. For ambitious mid-40s careerists like Magyar, the grim prospect of waiting another decade for Orban’s inner circle—all 60-70 years old—to finally leave the scene was already fueling impatient frustration even before the current wave of scandals engulfed Fidesz.

Orban’s channeling of tens of millions of euros into populist think tanks and conferences designed to impress self-declared national conservatives in the U.S. and U.K. also generated the image of a leader so engaged in the Anglosphere’s culture wars that he had become detached from the everyday concerns of Hungarian politics. For an insider like Magyar, fed up with both waiting for a turn at the top and Orban’s obsession with his world historical role, the time seemed ripe to break away and establish a new political machine.

Deploying messaging and mobilization techniques eerily similar to those used by Orban’s team before it took power in 2010, Magyar has tried to knit together an electoral coalition made up of liberal-leaning voters who had always opposed the current government and a large swathe of Fidesz voters tired of the rampant cronyism at the heart of Orban’s patronage networks. But while Fidesz defectors like Magyar may eventually help to restore the rule of law and work more constructively in EU institutions, they are also likely to continue embracing the populist themes that propelled Orban to power. Moreover, in working to entice Fidesz regional bosses to switch allegiance to his new movement, Magyar will likely replicate the clientelist structures Orban has used to secure the loyalty of smalltown elites through the distribution of state and EU funds.

Magyar is also now the target of a full onslaught of attacks from media loyal to Orban, so there is no guarantee he can capitalize on his rise to prominence to make significant electoral gains in upcoming European Parliament and local elections, which his movement needs to survive. To prevent the fracturing of his own power base, Orban may also do his utmost to offer financial incentives and senior positions to bring Magyar and other defectors back into the Fidesz political machine. Though Magyar’s ambitions will remain focused on replacing Orban as prime minister, business networks worried about instability that a clash between the two might bring will also try to broker a negotiated transfer of power that avoids any deeper reforms.

Even if Magyar falters, the speed with which Fidesz’s internal tensions have turned into an external challenge to its political machine is an indication of how brittle Orban’s grip on power has become. Even the most dominant authoritarian leader will always face dilemmas when it comes to rewarding ambitious young talent without alienating older cronies whose loyalty is the glue that holds a clientelist system together. If Orban is eventually toppled, it should surprise no one if the figures who were once closest to him turn out to be the ruthless operators that finally take him down.