#Sugarcane Empire

[nacaratgames]

Happy lunar new years! I loved the writing in Teahouse of the God and have been wondering if there is more of your published work? Because Iwould definitely read that :)

Happy Lunar New Year! May the Year-of-the-Rabbit find you and yours in good health.

Thank you for the helpful question~ You can find my quotidian musings on Twitter (@NacaratStories). My side project Sugarcane Empire is online—I recommend the text version here. Keep posted as I start a discord server, where I'll post some work-in-progress.

[sugarcane-of-helianthia]

Shoutout to morally ambiguous Australians with beige-and-brown wood-like hair and a snarky sense of humor and loyalty to their loved ones. And their red counterparts

[fatehbaz]

British ships carrying plants and seeds from around the world arrived in Botany Bay on January 20 1788. This story is overshadowed by convict ships and Royal Navy vessels, but the cargo on board also had a lasting impact. Colonists, convicts and Indigenous Australians were all affected [...]. Some of these plants [...] were food sources [...]. Others were attempts to expand the British Empire. Could the new territory be exploited as a tropical plantation? In the parliamentary debate over destinations for convict transportation [considering potential locations for sending prisoners], Sir Joseph Banks and James Matra, both members of James Cook’s 1770 expedition [to the South Pacific], spruiked the potential of the new colony as an extension of the empire. Matra claimed the colony was “fitted for production” of “sugar-cane, tea, coffee, silk, cotton, indigo and tobacco”. Banks claimed Botany Bay was an “advantageous” site, with fertile soil [...].

Two plants carried by the First Fleet stand out as examples of botanical imperialism: prickly pear cactus (Opuntia) and sugarcane.

Banks, as head of the Royal Society of London [and as a close adviser to King George, and also as a plant-collecting botanist who turned the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London into the world's leading botanical garden], selected these species as experiments to compete with European trade rivals. His goal was to break a Spanish monopoly in producing fabric dye and to expand British cultivation of sugar outside the West Indies.

Prickly pear cactus was imported because it is the preferred food of the cochineal insect.

Dried cochineal were crushed to make a vibrant, colourfast scarlet dye for textiles. Discovered in the New World by Spanish colonists, cochineal replaced kermes, another insect that had provided red dye since antiquity. Cochineal dye was ten times stronger than kermes or vegetable dyes.

From cardinals’ capes to British officers’ red coats, cochineal was a product for elite consumers signifying power, wealth and prestige.

New Spain, based in Mexico, had a monopoly on cochineal. Banks wanted to break the stranglehold on the scarlet dye by establishing production in New South Wales.

Plants infested with the precious insects were imported from Brazil in 1788. The project soon failed when the cochineal died, but the cacti survived. Colonists used cacti as natural fences and drought-resistant animal fodder.

Without insects to feed on them the plants spread, uncontrolled, to cover more than 60 million acres of eastern Australia by the 1920s. Poison, crushing and fire failed to stop the cactus. [...] Opuntia cacti remain an environmental hazard. [...] The roots of these early imperial projects are deeply embedded in Australian culture and history, with an enduring legacy.

---

All text above by: Garritt C. Van Dyk. "The botanical imperialism of weeds and crops: how alien plant species on the First Fleet changed Australia". The Conversation. 25 January 2024. [Some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Italicized text within brackets added by me for clarity and context.

[niftukkun]

New from RECAP Weekly!!! An Exclusive Interview from Hermitopia's Emperor?!?

for the third week of @shepscapades ’s hermitcraft character design event, i offer grian as an empires smp member!

ok so first off, that head. thats just p03 from inscryption. but grian. it fits! but also! go play inscryption go go its on sale Right Now (until june 30) go play it its so good then go watch this video afterwards join my fandom please please please join us

ok back to hermpires! so i originally was gonna take an empire from s2 and just insert grian into it, but while browsing through the esmp s2 wiki i came across/remembered hermitopia and my brain went yep! this one. so i thought a bit about what grian would do if he was an empires smp member and how hermitopia would happen, and i think grian would crash the economy on purpose. i mean it almost already happened when the hermitpires crossover happened so i dont think im too far off. i think grian originally exported something simple, like maybe sugarcanes or mud, something easy to farm yknow, but then i dunno got bored or something so he made a couple more farms. then kept making more farms. then the hermitopia we all know and love happened!

actually maybe hermitopia isnt grians first empire. i think grian has a separate empire but decided to invite his friends to help him make some farms and then it just kept going. then hermitopia happened. i like the collaboration aspect of hermitopia so i think thats how that happens. hermitopia isnt necessarily grian's but its under his command so it gets called his. (isnt there a word for this? was it vassalage? i think its vassalage)

with that in mind i went with a robot-y grian because grumbot and a snazzy cool suit because business man (sidenote im looking over my pre art notes and one of them is just capitalism man and. yeah! not wrong). i gave him more steampunk-y wings than the usual feathery ones cause that fit better. i gave him a crown not really sure why but it fits since without it the design was more Just A Guy but with it he's more Emperor yknow. the buttons have a g on it because he would and an (attempted) gold trim cause that looked nice and fancy. originally he was gonna have four wings cause fun fact four wings is part of my base grian design but four wings kind of crowded the drawing so i didnt include them (sad) and i also didnt include the tail hes supposed to have because i couldnt find a good way to add it in with the pose. but in my heart he has both four wings and a tail

now why magazine style artwork? i 'unno. i thought itd look cool. and it does!! it looks SO cool!!! im so proud of it. recap magazine!! because of course im gonna make a hermitcraft recap reference are you kidding me recap is practically already a magazine reporting what gossip is happening on the hermitcraft server on any given week. its very specifically volume 9 issue 34 because thats when the crossover happened season 9 week 34 babey we love little esoteric details hell yeah!! i looked up how magazine covers work and its supposed to be like, main article big and smaller supporting side articles just kinda floating around so i did that!! and i made them funney references because of course i did! local bard catches scurvy because you cannot convince me that oli orionsound would not catch scurvy he would. does god is gay is a reference to that does bruno mars is gay nonsense article that makes me laugh everytime specifically in reference about mr smallish bean because he. has so many children. and none of them as far as i know from the lady server members theyre all lovechilds from gay lovers its hysterical and hilarious. quit your job join our sun cult is about the dawn empire because thatse the vibe that empire gives me and i think its funny. also!! thats hermitopia!! in the background!! i got the image off of the empires smp wiki and just Biggen'd it and it makes a bomb ass background hell yeah ^-^!!

also version with no text here lookit it!!

[flagellant]

hey so, I understand if this is out of your wheelhouse, but have you found anything to suggest why Kikkomen is always the brand of soy sauce you find in restaurants? I can't stand the stuff, but I also can't escape those little pour jars of it.

It's because Kikkoman was one of the first soy brewing companies to exist in Japan, to organize and to unify its brand image nationally, and then was able to profit off of the Dutch port and the first-year immigrants to Hawaii from Japan who were treated horrendously on 3-year contract sugarcane plantations, and THEN was able to work directly with the American government for its postwar soy formulas and therefore had a great reputation to start exporting agaun to San Francisco in 1957 once sakoku was fully abolished. From there it fucked over Japanese Americans for not being Japanese enough, did a PR/propaganda stunt that fucked over non-Kikkoman competitors by claiming they weren't Japanese enough AND were also TOO Japanese, and from there it's been expanding ever since as the iconic name brand soy sauce internationally by using that image of it as the apparent gold standard despite anyone who knows anything about shoyu thinking it's shit.

Kikkoman has become an empire by basically making itself into the foreigner's soy sauce. You can read all this in a specific thesis paper I'll link when I get back home from being out. Interestingly, the Kikkoman capitol of America is no longer San Francisco.

It's a town in Wisconsin. Wanna guess what the name of the town is?

I'll give you a hint: It starts with an A, and it ends with an N.

[transmutationisms]

original anon here tysm for the recs ! if the marxist frameworks was too limiting im also completely fine w general postcolonial botany readings on the topic :0

A Spiteful Campaign: Agriculture, Forests, and Administering the Environment in Imperial Singapore and Malaya (2022). Barnard, Timothy P. & Joanna W. C. Lee. Environmental History Volume: 27 Issue: 3 Pages: 467-490. DOI: 10.1086/719685

Planting Empire, Cultivating Subjects: British Malaya, 1786–1941 (2018). Lynn Hollen Lees

The Plantation Paradigm: Colonial Agronomy, African Farmers, and the Global Cocoa Boom, 1870s--1940s (2014). Ross, Corey. Journal of Global History Volume: 9 Issue: 1 Pages: 49-71. DOI: 10.1017/S1740022813000491

Cultivating “Care”: Colonial Botany and the Moral Lives of Oil Palm at the Twentieth Century’s Turn (2022). Alice Rudge. Comparative Studies in Society and History Volume: 64 Issue: 4 Pages: 878-909. DOI: 10.1017/S0010417522000354

Pacific Forests: A History of Resource Control and Contest in Solomon Islands, c. 1800-1997 (2000). Bennett, Judith A.

Thomas Potts of Canterbury: Colonist and Conservationist (2020). Star, Paul

Colonialism and Green Science: History of Colonial Scientific Forestry in South India, 1820--1920 (2012). Kumar, V. M. Ravi. Indian Journal of History of Science Volume: 47 Issue 2 Pages: 241-259

Plantation Botany: Slavery and the Infrastructure of Government Science in the St. Vincent Botanic Garden, 1765–1820 (2021). Williams, J'Nese. Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte Volume: 44 Issue: 2 Pages: 137-158. DOI: 10.1002/bewi.202100011

Angel in the House, Angel in the Scientific Empire: Women and Colonial Botany During the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (2020). Hong, Jiang. Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science Volume: 75 Issue: 3 Pages: 415-438. DOI: 10.1098/rsnr.2020.0046

From Ethnobotany to Emancipation: Slaves, Plant Knowledge, and Gardens on Eighteenth-Century Isle de France (2019). Brixius, Dorit. History of Science Volume: 58 Issue: 1 Pages: 51-75. DOI: 10.1177/0073275319835431

African Oil Palms, Colonial Socioecological Transformation and the Making of an Afro-Brazilian Landscape in Bahia, Brazil (2015). Watkins, Case. Environment and History Volume: 21 Issue: 1 Pages: 13-42. DOI: 10.3197/096734015X14183179969700

The East India Company and the Natural World (2015). Ed. Damodaran, Vinita; Winterbottom, Anna; Lester, Alan

Colonising Plants in Bihar (1760-1950): Tobacco Betwixt Indigo and Sugarcane (2014). Kerkhoff, Kathinka Sinha

Science in the Service of Colonial Agro-Industrialism: The Case of Cinchona Cultivation in the Dutch and British East Indies, 1852--1900 (2014). Hoogte, Arjo Roersch van der & Pieters, Toine. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences Volume: 47 Issue: Part A Pages: 12-22

Trading Nature: Tahitians, Europeans, and Ecological Exchange (2010). Newell, Jennifer

The Colonial Machine: French Science and Overseas Expansion in the Old Regime (2011). McClellan, James E. & Regourd, François

Colonial Botany: Science, Commerce, and Politics in the Early Modern World (2005). Ed. Schiebinger, Londa L. & Swan, Claudia

Plants and Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World (2004). Schiebinger, Londa L.

[kemetic-dreams]

What do great civilizations have in common?

"What common attributes do great civilizations share? They typically possess access to both local and global markets, the capacity to attract a diverse population eager to settle for the purposes of commerce and education, accepting influence and reflecting influence, I will use African examples, but this is true the world over.

There was a saying "To cure mange for a camel, use bitumen; to cure poverty, go to the Sudan." this was said at the time of the Wagadu or Ghana empire when great trading trains were crisscrossing the Sahara, both the Wagdau and Gao were mentioned as the richest kingdoms in the world and their Kings the most wealthiest beyond compare, this was hundreds of yrs before the now famous Mansa Musa of Mali, it’s ultimate successor.

These conceptions do not need to extend outside the continent although the more extensive the better, example.

These connections between West and West-Central Africa to the world are anathema to historical traditions in which ‘Africa” s isolation from the rest of the world, before contact began with Europeans, is assumed. But they emerge from a number of factors. As the historian Jan Vansina showed, similar techniques in wood-carving found from Yorùbá regions as far south as Loango suggest shared techniques and exchanges. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century carvings from the Kuba kingdoms depict the playing of warri, a game found widely further north in West Africa, as well as in East Africa.

Other evidence suggests that these exchanges then interconnected with the long-distance routes linked to the Sahara – and these patterns may in turn have influenced how the Kongolese reacted when the Portuguese first arrived in the 1480s.

Kongo’s connection to long-distance trade routes is the only logical explanation for how sugarcane – long cultivated in the eastern Mediterranean and in the Arab worlds – grew in Kongo before the Portuguese arrival.

Long-distance trade can also help to explain the use of a shell currency in Kongo (the nzimbu), for the use of the nzimbu surely was not unrelated to the experience of the use of the cowrie-shell currency in West Africa and the Sahel; the Kalahari regions to the south were connected to the Indian Ocean trade by perhaps the ninth or tenth century, and cowries may have been involved in this trade – which offered a route for this influence to spread to Kongo addition, there seems to have been an important spiritual dimension that connected the forest Kingdom of Kongo with that of Benin to the north, for it is noteworthy that both Edo and Kongo peoples (and, indeed, peoples of the Kingdom of Ndongo in northern Angola) used diamond-shaped crosses as a religious symbol prior to the arrival of the Portuguese. In Kongo, the ‘cosmogram’ connected the worlds of the living and the dead, and was used widely on textiles and bowls used for daily life, as well as later in Christian art.

The use of the cross as a religious symbol among the Edo also suggests some cultural and perhaps commercial connection between Edo and Kongo peoples, as does the shared use of shell currencies, similar wood-carving techniques and the presence of sugarcane in Kongo, since all had likewise existed in Benin prior to the Portuguese arrival.

Yet how did these connections develop, in a region famous for its thick forests and swamps? As we have seen in other parts of the continent, rivers and seaways were roads. Many peoples along the coasts of West-Central Africa were good boat-builders, with the Vili of Loango remarked upon as such by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. There were fishing groups to be found everywhere, and their skill in making seagoing ships is shown by the presence of Bubi peoples on the Island of Bioko by the time the Portuguese arrived in the fifteenth century.

But The idea that Europeans ‘brought’ seafaring to Africa must also, therefore, be challenged. Thus, it was most likely through African navigators that related religious and aesthetic practices grew up; and when the manikongo Afonso I wrote in 1526 of a number of traders from Benin resident in the Kongolese port of Mpinda, it is possible that they found their way there in local embarkations rather than through Portuguese networks.

The Kongo ‘cosmogram’ Kongo may not, therefore, have been as isolated from other parts of West Africa as has hitherto been supposed.

From the book A Fist Full Of Shells, By Toby Green 

[simaddix]

Crop Fields - Download

Round 6 - Sugarcane

The crop that took over the world - sugar. Before this rare and indulgent spice was in popular trade, honey was King. However, with the growing popularity and availability of sugar, the trade empire exploded with the need for the spice all over the growing world.

[Notes will be copied to further posts, considering they're all the same facts]

Notes:

These are UPDATED versions of my previous crop fields - If you have the old fields in your game, they will still work as they are separate plants, but please consider that the new fields are much lower in poly (game weight/size) than the old fields, and reworked to look better over large areas as they are fuller and circular in shape rather than an odd triangle. Please consider replacing them in your games.

These are giant fields. They are meant to fill empty space in CAW/Edit town - you can use them on lots, but as stated they are quite large so if you decide to use them as lot decoration hold onto your hat because they're gonna take up a chunk of ground.

I will be making smaller/single plants to match the fields, but it takes time so please be patient.

These are speedtree plants, so they'll "follow you" when you move around. However consider that any recolors of these plants will become a default replacement unless you make the package unique. So if you would like to recolor them to suit your current world, feel free to, but please make it it's own package so they don't override the original.

These are fairly large but have low polycount - coming in at 330 polys each. That means you can have several of these in one area without weighing down your game too much. That's a win for everyone.

Please feel free to tag me if you use them in your world, I love to see them in your games! <3

[historyfiles]

Modern Barbados: after the British empire abolished slavery in 1834, emancipation was granted in Barbados in 1838, although a host of factors contributed towards economic suffering and reduced income from sugarcane.

[syn4k]

He sat in his chair in front of his newly minted desk with a slight stretch upwards, facing the shining planks and gentle orange glow of the rest of house. A well-worn pen lay on the surface of the desk, next to a new notebook and a small cordial of black ink. Out of a small leather pouch came a small box, inside which rested a nib, which was then screwed onto the pen in place of the old one.

After months of travel, Pixl figured he'd take the long way round with his journaling tonight.

He hadn't had much time to jot things down ever since he'd shown up here- between running from spiders, trying to cobble (hah) enough diamonds together to craft a pickaxe, running from spiders, and visiting the Nether to make some horribly time-consuming roof tiles, he'd been a bit busy. But new worlds were always lots of work, after all, and he'd thrown himself into the hustle and bustle of getting started so many times that the routine was more like supple leather: worn and familiar, the actions practiced and almost a dance.

Ah. There his mind went, wandering again as it often did when he wasn't able to access a pen or paper or (more commonly) a reliable power source to plug his laptop or phone into. Some worlds didn't even *have* electricity as Earth knew it- redstone was just a crude spark of magic dust to them, but he'd gotten lucky this time. At least he'd be able to actually contact people without resorting to magical means.

The pen hovered over the paper, words momentarily forgotten, and with a sigh Pix set it to the paper and starting writing.

"June 6th-

The long gap between this update and the last has an actual explanation this time: I've finally found the world that Fwhip sent the details of, after weeks of getting lost. Walking out of time and space is really weird. I got there in the end, though, hence the new journal and the first entry.

It seems the universe is not done with Pixl the archaeologist, not yet. I arrived- (fashionably) late as I often am) -not in my regular outfit, but something very close to what I'd worn in the second world of Empires. I've discovered that I can pull some rather strange and downright improbable things out of gravel, including lapis lazuli, carrots, and once an entire cake that I refuse to touch. Shelby says it tastes fine, with a faint aftertaste of dirt. I have not asked why she knows what dirt tastes like, nor will I because I do as well.

This world is populated with most of the people who were on Empires but with a couple new faces as well. I'm familiar with Scar, of course, but I've heard of Owen- a pilot who crash landed here and is on a quest to get an origin of his own beyond human. Sausage told me that, and also cheerfully informed me that he blew up the poor lad's camera. I'll have to figure out how to make a new one and also inform him when we inevitably cross paths that being human isn't quite a bad thing.

I myself have spent the past few days seperated from contact with the rest of the world, though, busy running around and gathering samples of literally every cool looking rock I could get my hands on and unfamiliar fauna, including Nether reeds- the lava equivalent of sugarcane- and proceeded to spend the next three days weaving it into roof tiles. No regrets.

I know I'll be here a while, so I've gone ahead and built myself a nice little house on a stony outcrop. It has four wings with things like tinkering tables, my desk, a loft with my bed, and of course, the front door, because I'm not interested in phasing through walls. Again. That was a difficult month and a half.

That's about everything, I suppose. I've been building for two days. I'm going to go to bed now and probably sleep in."

The journal snapped shut with a satisfying thock, glass dinged as the cap was screwed back onto the jar of ink, wood creaked as two feet climbed the ladder, and then the little house was silent for the rest of the night and well into the morning.

[wearethewinx]

MAGIC DIMENSION CUISINE for @je-ne-sais-p1s

take 4 of this fucking post jfkds;jakfld;sa. NOTE 1: planets are big and trade is everywhere. this really just represents the most traditional food in the specific regions where the winx grew up. NOTE 2: for brevity's sake i will encourage you, the reader, to assume that when i say, like, 'bananas,' what i MEAN is 'native fruits that are contextually similar to earth bananas.' cool? cool. let's go

SOLARIA: Snakes, scorpions, lizards, oh my! The hot, dry climate means plant matter is at a premium. Small reptiles and large insects make up the caloric bulk, along with a fair amount of milk. Cacti and palms provide the only substantial fruit, which, when fermented with honey, creates Solaria's most famous beverage. Flatbread is another staple, especially when combined with UNBELIEVABLY HOT PEPPERS. Most Solarian food is either sickeningly sweet or painfully spicy by non-Solarian standards.

ANDROS: Fish, obviously. Regular fish, shellfish, lots of shrimp, octopus, some saltwater snails. Lots of grilled/kebab'd* food, and acid marinating like ceviche. Fruits are mostly small and hardy, like figs, dates, olives, and thick-skinned grapes, and herbs/leafy spices are the main source of flavor enhancement. The warmest parts of Andros produce sugarcane, but the overall climate is too mild for much capsaicin and too wet for solid salt deposits, so the flavor profiles are mainly sweet and savory with a bit of acid.

LINPHEA: Large, soft-bodied fruits first and bugs second, baby. Papaya, mangoes, bananas, aaaall that good stuff, mostly eaten raw, and also a few leaves and edible flowers. Huge beetles and wild chickens are plentiful in Linphea's jungles, and large freshwater eels are rarer but highly prized. There's a wealth of rich spices like cinnamon, cacao, and vanilla, and peppers, so Linphean food is full of strong flavors and heat, but only mild sweetness.

ZENITH: MEAT. Zenith is so cold that the only significant vegetation on most of the planet is algae, which is eaten both as a paste and smoke dried as a papery film. Other than that it's a very whale-meat-heavy diet, with roe and crab for some variety. Their extremely advanced technology means Zenith has state-of-the-art hydroponics across the whole planet though, and there's obviously interplanetary trade, so they make heavy use of those to branch out. Zenethi bitches love bread and sour candy.

MELODY: The famous floating islands necessitate heavy reliance on fowl. Melody has several domesticated bird species, and more than a hundred ways to prepare eggs. The very dry earth means most of the plants are tough and unappetizing, but roots like potatoes, carrots, ginseng, etc are staples, and fungi are both plentiful and popular. Between the salmonella and the Textures, very, very little is eaten raw, almost everything being either cooked or fermented. Melodic cuisine has a very earthy/umami flavor profile in general.

DOMINO: You'd think this would be the spicy planet, but no! Lots of grains, gourds, melons, and berries, and yes, of course they had an equivalent to pumpkin pie. Roses and their cousins (plums, peaches, apples) were favorites, with whole, candied roses being an upperclass delicacy. Meat is considered optional except for special events, largely as a product of the ceremonial significance of hunting, and just like all the best declining empires, Domic nobility were EXTREMELY adventurous with food. They made some crazy cheeses.

MAGIX: Known for its pastry! Magix' fully synthetic geography and climate make it the ideal home for several delicate grains and fruits like pawpaws, so if you want baked goods or unique pastas, there is simply no better planet. They have a booming 'designer fruit' industry (rivaled only by Zenith's) and are constantly debuting new hybrids. On an artificial planet with no native animals, meat requires animal agriculture, and starting a population of animals is just harder than bringing a bag of seeds, so Magix really doesn't prioritize meat. However, as a massive trade hub, basically everything you can think of is readily available.

*i do not know how to conjugate the word 'kebab'

Thanks so much for this question!! It was really fun to answer, despite all the rewrites lol

[omnipol]

Under the hegemonic imperative to pursue happiness by way of the “excess intake” of endless consumption, the sovereign, immune, “Western” self becomes autoimmune and dissolves in the very enjoyment of its “pursuit of happiness,” which, as Antonia Majaca writes, is nothing but a US liberal, Jeffersonian nickname for the Lockean “pursuit of property.”35 The self-destruction evidenced by such self-interested pursuit reveals autoimmunity as the very “illogical logic” of immunity, as Derrida suggested.36 But the slippage of immunity into autoimmunity can also be seen as a historical succession. If immunity is understood as the social and political logic of sovereignty grounded in the nineteenth-century redefinition of healing as war by other means (the Hobbseian natural right to self-defense), then both the Freudian death drive and autoimmunity suggested the dark side of immunity at two historical moments starkly marked by death and catastrophe. The Freudian death drive signaled the final blow to the aggressive libido of the modern, bourgeois, rationalist cogito of European capitalist coloniality following World War I and the end of the “age of empire.”37 Following World War II, and the devastating seek-and-destroy immunitarian logic of Auschwitz and Hiroshima, the discovery of autoimmunity extended this beyond-pleasurable hit to this cogito’s surviving body, which then dissolved in the “excess intake” of “pleasure” over the course of the global capitalist expansion. In contrast to this suicidal, (auto)immunitarian logic, international socialist and decolonial movements, as twentieth-century alternatives to global capitalism, have proposed and practiced more constructive ways for the dissolution of the prison of the liberal-capitalist self and its key tenet, private property. But by 1989, “Western affluence,” meaning capitalist scarcity disguised as abundance, was everywhere, and the riddle of the autoimmune condition now a global problem.

This slippage of immunity into autoimmunity is more immediately obvious in concrete examples that mark contemporary reality in the social and geopolitical peripheries of global capital. The devastating story that Sharmila Rudrappa tells of southern Indian farmers who committed suicide by poisoning themselves with the same pesticide used to protect their sugarcane crops speaks to the autoimmune logic of capital, which forced farmers to kill themselves so as not to suffer the even worse consequences of not being able to pay off their high-interest loans once their crops remained unpaid-for or unsold.

[sugarcane-of-helianthia]

The Soap Festival & Soap's Symbolism in Gilded Helianthia | Headcanons

(I wrote a short one-shot based around this! You can read it on https://archiveofourown.org/works/52711750)

Hello! First, I want to say this was inspired off of @.deathricedrawn's (now scrapped) idea for Empires Festivals!! She came up with it back in 2022, I think? Back when I was a Twitter user.

So. What is the Soap Festival? It's a New Year's Celebration held in Gilded Helianthia that lasts 3 days; the first day is made to gather ingredients, such as glowberries and lye and oil and honey and whatever one wants to add to their soap. On the second day, New Year’s Eve, everyone makes two bars of soap with their ingredients in the morning, and leave them to set, while they enjoy fireworks, festivities, and fresh fruit in the afternoon and night. Many also take this opportunity to clean their homes and fields for the new year, as the Soap Festival is about cleansing the old year and leaving room for the new to flourish. The New Year arrives, and in the morning, citizens of Helianthia will wrap one bar in string and paper to gift to someone they love and cherish, as good luck for the coming year, and take the other bar and bury it in their fields, using it as fertilizer. Many will bury it near a special tree or crop, in hopes that it’ll be blessed.

In my own version of Gilded Helianthia, soap has a deep meaning behind it. Before Helianthia was given it’s name, back when it was a Smallholding of people wishing for freedom, the natives to the land had a tradition of hand making soap and washing each other as an act of respect, intimacy, and love. People would gift each other these handmade soaps with the belief that they would purify and heal the person that receives them. Nowadays, soap bars are easier to come by, but gifting someone soap in Helianthia still holds that meaning behind it; especially if one takes the time to make it themselves. Soap is given to children when they begin to come-of-age; as a housewarming gift to new neighbors; for people who are about to take on a new chapter of their life, or simply for good luck. It’s a way to say, “may your sums and your pieces be enough to make you whole”.

That’s the jist of it, anyway!

[arpov-blog-blog]

..."The goods these prisoners produce wind up in the supply chains of a dizzying array of products found in most American kitchens, from Frosted Flakes cereal and Ball Park hot dogs to Gold Medal flour, Coca-Cola and Riceland rice. They are on the shelves of virtually every supermarket in the country, including Kroger, Target, Aldi and Whole Foods. And some goods are exported, including to countries that have had products blocked from entering the U.S. for using forced or prison labor.

Many of the companies buying directly from prisons are violating their own policies against the use of such labor. But it’s completely legal, dating back largely to the need for labor to help rebuild the South’s shattered economy after the Civil War. Enshrined in the Constitution by the 13th Amendment, slavery and involuntary servitude are banned – except as punishment for a crime.

That clause is currently being challenged on the federal level, and efforts to remove similar language from state constitutions are expected to reach the ballot in about a dozen states this year.

Some prisoners work on the same plantation soil where slaves harvested cotton, tobacco and sugarcane more than 150 years ago, with some present-day images looking eerily similar to the past. In Louisiana, which has one of the country’s highest incarceration rates, men working on the “farm line” still stoop over crops stretching far into the distance.

Willie Ingram picked everything from cotton to okra during his 51 years in the state penitentiary, better known as Angola.

During his time in the fields, he was overseen by armed guards on horseback and recalled seeing men, working with little or no water, passing out in triple-digit heat. Some days, he said, workers would throw their tools in the air to protest, despite knowing the potential consequences.

“They’d come, maybe four in the truck, shields over their face, billy clubs, and they’d beat you right there in the field. They beat you, handcuff you and beat you again,” said Ingram, who received a life sentence after pleading guilty to a crime he said he didn’t commit. He was told he would serve 10 ½ years and avoid a possible death penalty, but it wasn’t until 2021 that a sympathetic judge finally released him. He was 73.

The number of people behind bars in the United States started to soar in the 1970s just as Ingram entered the system, disproportionately hitting people of color. Now, with about 2 million people locked up, U.S. prison labor from all sectors has morphed into a multibillion-dollar empire, extending far beyond the classic images of prisoners stamping license plates, working on road crews or battling wildfires.

Though almost every state has some kind of farming program, agriculture represents only a small fraction of the overall prison workforce. Still, an analysis of data amassed by the AP from correctional facilities nationwide traced nearly $200 million worth of sales of farmed goods and livestock to businesses over the past six years – a conservative figure that does not include tens of millions more in sales to state and government entities. Much of the data provided was incomplete, though it was clear that the biggest revenues came from sprawling operations in the South and leasing out prisoners to companies.

Corrections officials and other proponents note that not all work is forced and that prison jobs save taxpayers money. For example, in some cases, the food produced is served in prison kitchens or donated to those in need outside. They also say workers are learning skills that can be used when they’re released and given a sense of purpose, which could help ward off repeat offenses. In some places, it allows prisoners to also shave time off their sentences. And the jobs provide a way to repay a debt to society, they say.

While most critics don’t believe all jobs should be eliminated, they say incarcerated people should be paid fairly, treated humanely and that all work should be voluntary. Some note that even when people get specialized training, like firefighting, their criminal records can make it almost impossible to get hired on the outside.

“They are largely uncompensated, they are being forced to work, and it’s unsafe. They also aren’t learning skills that will help them when they are released,” said law professor Andrea Armstrong, an expert on prison labor at Loyola University New Orleans. “It raises the question of why we are still forcing people to work in the fields.”

[justvincentorvinny]

Double life but with a twist 2 (DL x male Y/n)

Scott and Cleo looked at you in surprise. They didn't think you, out of everyone, wouldn't have a soulmate. You were always giving love advice to the Hermits and during Last Life. "I- I'm so sorry Y/n. Would you like to watch me and Scott break up with our soulmates?" Now you were confused. "Why would you break up, or in this case divorce, your soulmates?"

"Since Martyn and Pearl left for the Nether instead of staying to find us while knowing they weren't soulmates." Scott said, sounding upset. "Sure, Martyn also said he had a game so I do want to check that out." You three head to spawn where Martyn and Pearl were waiting and looked at you three.

"Hey Scott, Cleo, and Y/n! Also haven't found your soulmates yet?" Pearl asked. You looked away as Scott and Cleo looked at them in disbelief, but Martyn and Pearl didn't notice. "Yeah..... about that." Cleo started but got interrupted by Martyn explaining his 'genius way to find their soulmates.' You were promised to see people getting divorced and this was taking up your time. You decided to go to Scott and wispered something to him. "Scott, I want you to punch Martyn and if he doesn't get hurt, punch Pearl." He nodded and as Martyn was talking to Cleo, he hit him and Cleo took some minor damage.

Martyn looked baffled, to say the least. You snickered and held back a smile as Martyn started asking Cleo a bunch of things as Scott went up to Pearl but instead Pearl punched him and they both took damage. They started freaking out and you were observing this drama going on. You were known as the person to give advice for love, but also known to cause drama and chaos during 3rd Life and on Empires that one time you visited.

"We just came to say that we don't want to be soulmates with you cheaters." Scott nodded as you three saw the shocked and hurt faces of their ex soulmates. "Wha- why?!" "Because you left them for the Nether. Didn't even try to find them while everyone was looking for each other." You stepped in. "Why are you even here, Y/n? You're not part of this!" Pearl asked-yelled. "Because, I was allowed to come. But this isn't about me, it's about you four."

"So me and Cleo decided to be our own soulmates. You can do whatever you want." They both left Martyn and Pearl looking horrified and left walking away while you stayed back for a minute. "Wanna know something? That was the DUMBEST move anybody could do. Not cool. Even Jimmy has a better relationship than you two."

You left them on their own and decided to spread the news. First you went to Joel and Etho, then Impulse and Bdubs. They ended up spreading the news to everybody else and ten minutes later everybody knew. You were decorating your house and grabbing some sugarcane for some cake when you heard an explosion.

Impulse and Bdubs were fighting a creeper and it exploded. When they saw you, they rode their horses toward you. "Hey Y/n, guess what we heard?" "What happened?" "Pearl apparently started going to 5 a.m Pearl and Martyn is trying to win back Cleo's heart." Impulse informed me.

"Wow"

"Can't wait to see what happens next"

[makutalai]

My New Empire - Chapter 4

(Empires SMP fanfic)

Chapter 4 - Festival Preparations

It was time to prepare the festival of Sausageland. Mythical Sausage wanted everything to be big. Big fireworks, big food, big fun. The Emperor observed as Mythical Sausage cut down sugarcane to fold into paper which he then used the wrap gunpowder to form fireworks. Fascinating.

The Emperor assisted Smallishbeans and Lizzie with the task of procuring food. As they cooked, The Emperor couldn't help but ask a few questions to sate their curiosity.

"So the two of you are married, emperor and empress of the same land?" They asked.

"Yep. I'm the alpha emperor in case you were wondering," said Smallishbeans.

"Uh huh," said Lizzie, rolling her eyes with a slight smile.

"What is your empire called? I would love to visit after this festival is over," said The Emperor.

Before the couple could answer, they were interrupted by an explosion.

"Oops!" said Mythical Sausage as he flew past through the air.

"Nooo Sausage that's not how they work!" Scott said angrily, chasing after him. "You're supposed to do it the other way!"

As Scott chased after Mythical Sausage's body that was rapidly shrinking in the distance, he paused to look at The Emperor's cooking. A buffet of various meats such as pork and beef that had been roasted in a furnace.

"You know, I've got just the thing for this. You'll love this," said Scott.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a flower.

"This is an azalea flower. They make everything smell better. This one used to belong to my husband but I think you deserve it," said Scott.

"Oh, why doesn't your husband have it anymore? I would hate to take something of his," said The Emperor.

"Don't worry about that, he's dead," said Scott. "Anyway, I've got to go catch Sausage. Can't wait to taste the food, the flower's gonna make it so good!"