#Third World Approaches to International Law

[diaryofaphilosopher]

What are the features, knowledges, values, representations, practices, infrastructures, institutions, and governance modes of a just world that fits within planetary boundaries? How can we imagine them in a way that acknowledges the deep entanglements between human and non-human worlds while addressing the ubiquity of entrenched asymmetrical power relations that structure global societies?

— Ivana Isailovic, "Introduction" in "Radical Imagining of ‘Just & Green’ Futures."

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[philosophika]

"It is not a coincidence that the legacy of five hundred years of settler colonialism, genocide, slavery, apartheid, and systemic racial discrimination is climate change, mass extinction, desertification, deforestation, and the increasing toxicity of the air, water, and land." ~Usha Natarajan

[siriusblack-the-third]

Matching Misfortunes: Edmund Pevensie

He's arguably my favourite character right alongside Caspian the Tenth. Let's hope I did his character justice. The other parts for the pevensies are up on my blog.

.

Edmund stalks into the debate hall with his notes in his hands, and the room falls into a hush.

The students cease their muttering, their eyes tracking the lanky, too-thin boy as he walks with far too much grace for someone who is fifteen-almost-sixteen years old and has yet to get his final growth spurt.

His limbs are too long for his blazer-adorned torso and he is not yet old enough to put on muscle, and still he moves with thrice as much control and precision as the royalty of the country.

Edmund remembers the months After.

He remembers stumbling and falling and breaking bone because he was a twenty-nine year old man in the body of a ten year old child, falling till he got sick of it and asked Susan to help him learn how to walk again, remembers tear-soaked cheeks and trembling callous-less hands and bitten-off screams after being woken up by a nightmare in the middle of the night, feeling too thin, too short, too young, too weak, too cold Peter, please, it’s too cold, help me—

Never again, he had told himself.

He feels their stares settle over his strange unscarred skin like a layer of cold gel, and he ignores them in favour of holding his head high and walking towards the desk with his name tag on it. He relaxes into the seat as much as he can, back straight and shoulders pulled back and breathing even, and then moves his gaze to meet the eyes of everyone that is looking at him.

Most students hurriedly look away, flushes staining their cheeks bright red out of the embarrassment of getting caught staring so blatantly. A select few stare back, holding his gaze for a couple of seconds before they, too, lower their eyes and turn back to their conversation.

It both does and does not feel like the Royal Court that he once presided over.

There too, conversations used to stop when he entered the Throne Room. There, too, people used to follow him with their eyes as he moved towards his throne beside Peter’s. There, too, he used to keep his back straight and roll his shoulders back and breathe evenly to prepare himself for the approaching war of words that he was certain he would win.

He lounges in his seat like he’s lounging in his throne, and watches the faculty walk into the room and take their seats. He does not bother to stand up like the rest of the students do, and ignores the disapproving looks Professor Jasmine throws at him for his supposed insolence.

What do they know of debates, he thinks with a hidden sneer.

He was the one that sat with bloodthirsty Kings and Warlords, manipulative Queens and Bandit Chiefs, and aided his older sister in hammering out treaties and ceasefires and surrenders from their enemies’ lips without having to lift a sword. He wrote the laws for his world and presided over the Supreme Court of Justice of his kingdom, solved internal disputes and planned war strategies and invented new tactics for external conflicts. He was renowned for his excellence with double swords and double-edged words alike, in Narnia.

In Narnia, he was King Edmund the Just, the Serpent Tongued Diplomat King, Third of the Beloved Four, Representative of the People.

Here in post War England, he is just Edmund Pevensie, with sharp glares and sharper words, as dangerous with his tongue as his older brother was with his fists and his older sister with her smiles.

Unlike Peter who swings between two worlds without control over his thoughts and memories, and Susan who tries (and fails miserably) to not think about their world at all, it is comparatively easy for Edmund to maintain the two different worlds as different experiences. For him, Narnia exists in one part of his mind and England in the other— separated from each other by a solid stone wall that Edmund has built up and strengthened over the five and a half years that have passed since he and the others fell out of that thrice-damned wardrobe, in bodies that were no longer theirs.

And yet, his nail beds itch.

He remembers the feel of digging his nails into flesh, remembers the feel of blood welling up under his fingers as he dug deeper, remembers the feel of being older, taller, stronger, wiser. He remembers being powerful.

Around him, the debate competition begins. He dimly registers the names of the students from the seventeen participating schools as they are introduced, and recognises more than half of them.

He treats debate competitions in schools just as he did political meets back when he used to be King. There are always three things one must know— the topic that you are to speak on, the questions that you may be asked, and the people who will be attending. About the people, you must know their agendas, their strengths and their weaknesses, and how to use that to gain what you desire. As simple, and as difficult, as that.

Here, he recognises twelve out of the seventeen opponents, and feels his lips curve into a small smirk. The participants seated on either side of him lean away from him, and it only makes his smirk grow wider with vindication.

He misses attending and holding Court. He misses the gratification in verbally ripping apart nobles and bloodthirsty warlords alike, he misses the satisfaction he felt while sinking his two swords into flesh on the battlefield in case the peace talks went wrong.

He misses being covered in blood after a victory, misses the annual Royal debate competitions, the mock arguments he had with Susan and the members of the Royal Court of Narnia, the vindictive smugness he felt when he put the fear of the Narnian Royalty in the hearts of warlords seeking to destroy his kingdom with nothing but his words and occasionally his swords.

Here, Edmund has to remind himself that he is arguing with children.

He has to remind himself that the people he is debating with are not warlords and power-hungry rulers out to conquer his kingdom.

He has to remind himself to not turn into the Serpent Tongued Diplomat King, to keep that vicious and twisted part of him safely locked up in the Narnian part of his memories. He has to keep the whole of his true self at bay, because he knows that they will not understand his metaphorical bloodlust when it comes to the art of wordplay.

He knows that they will not understand what it is like, to be an adult in a child’s body forced to play pretend politics where he has no real influence on the country’s government.

However, he thinks as the debate competition commences and a girl in a smart navy blue suit walks onto stage and starts giving her speech, he can allow certain attributes from his Kingly self through into his teenage self. In controlled amounts, he can allow himself a little ruthlessness, a little edge to his words, a little confidence, a little dignity and grace.

He can allow himself to indulge a little, to employ a few of his Kingly attributes into his teenage identity so he can get through secondary school without being given as hard a time as normal teenagers are.

That is one benefit of having been King— he might not have grown up in this world, but he had grown up before. As uncomfortable it was to grow up again, he knows what to expect this time.

He is better prepared than he was last time.

He leans forward and notes down a question for a statement the girl makes, and he feels the stares of the students on his back again. The vindication rises in his body; he is a force to be reckoned with and his opponents know it, and Edmund revels in the effect he has on them, revels in the way they cannot meet his eyes properly without having to look down. It almost feels like he is King again and they are his enemies— forced to bow to him after being defeated time and again, forced to grudgingly admit that he is superior to them.

The debate progresses, he gives his speech, gets asked questions and answers them as best as he can. He scratches his itching nails over his palms as he listens to the rest of their speeches and asks them questions, and sits back with his dissatisfaction very visible on his face when he does not receive the answers he was hoping for.

In the end, he lifts the trophy up with fingers that despair for the feel of his swords gripped in them, a satisfied gleam in his piercing blue eyes and a badge that proclaims him as the first ranker pinned to the front of his school blazer.

Dozens of eyes follow him as he steps off the stage and strides out of the room, and he lets them settle on his proud shoulders. Lets them turn into the weight he once carried in the form of a silver crown.

Let them see, he thinks viciously. His nails itch, and he wishes to sink them into flesh and rip it apart. He wishes to drench himself in the blood of his enemies.

Let them be witness to merely a fraction of the power I used to possess. Let them understand that I am dangerous, and not to be underestimated. Let them see that I am not a mere child.

He is a boy, arguing politics, modern and ancient war tactics and ethics with professors in his free time, having rumours of being a genius follow him around like obedient dogs at their master’s heels.

He is a King, shackled and hidden in the corner of a mind that belongs to a too-lanky teenage boy halfway through puberty.

He refuses to reach too deep into the memories. He refuses to forget the memories. He refuses to let himself sink into his own mind. He refuses to forget himself, and he refuses to be his entire self.

He cannot. He will not.

[third-world-punks]

✦ THIRD-WORLD PUNKS ✦ INTRODUCTION

“Who are we? We are the global South, that large set of creations and creatures that has been sacrificed to the infinite voracity of capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy, and all their satellite-oppressions. We are present at every cardinal point because our geography is the geography of injustice and oppression. We are not everyone; we are those who do not resign themselves to sacrifice and therefore resist. We have dignity. We are all indigenous peoples because we are where we have always been, before we had owners, masters, or bosses, or because we are where we were taken against our will and where owners, masters, or bosses were imposed on us. They want to impose on us the fear of having a boss and the fear of not having a boss, so that we may not imagine ourselves without fear. We resist. We are widely diverse human beings united by the idea that the understanding of the world is much larger than the Western understanding of the world. We believe that the transformation of the world may also occur in ways not foreseen by the global North. We are animals and plants, biodiversity and water, earth and Pachamama, ancestors and future generations—whose suffering appears less in the news than the suffering of humans but is closely linked to theirs, even though they may be unaware of it.” — Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Epistemologies of the South: Justice Against Epistemicide.

We are THIRD-WORLD PUNKS, a blog devoted to cultivating a dark-academia aesthetic inspired by Latin America and the UK Punk Scene. I'm your host, PHILOSOPHIKA, a 33-year-old British and Colombian philosopher specialising in aesthetics (the branch of philosophy that studies concepts such as beauty and ugliness and investigates the nature of art and the senses) and anti-totalitarian ethics. Keep reading to learn more about the aesthetic's main goals, sources of inspiration, and suggested hashtags.

✦ OUR MISSION

To create a Latin American take on the 'dark academia' aesthetic from the perspective of the region's actual inhabitants. The T.W.P. aesthetic actively avoids depicting the region as a holiday destination (fruity drinks, trendy hotels, sexy pool boys, designer sunglasses, etc.) or representing the culture through a tourist's eyes (for example, as exclusively consisting of festivals or big public events). This aesthetic should provide the viewer with an intimate portrait of what it's actually like to call this region home. Images of local food, daily customs, traditional clothing, distinctive architecture, weather patterns, etc., are encouraged.

To provide a modern fusion between Latin American (principally Colombian) and UK culture that does not reproduce the aesthetics of British colonialism. To this end, the T.W.P. aesthetic steers clear of antique botanical prints, colonial uniforms, overly beige colour palettes, floral chintz wallpapers or decorative accents, leather trunks, and/or anything even faintly reminiscent of a plantation. Emphasis is placed instead on UK Punk fashion and culture (think Camden Market and Vivienne Westwood), extravagant and eclectic UK (& European) architecture and interior design, and Oxbridge academia vibes.

To challenge what traditional academia looks and feels like, as well as its core tenets (eurocentrism, US-centrism, elitism, abelism, etc.). The T.W.P aesthetic celebrates and encourages out-of-the-box thinking, ethnic and racial diversity, neurodivergent and LGBTQIA+ higher education experiences, as well as discussions of postcolonial, queer, and feminist theory, among others (think TWAIL: Third-World Approaches to International Law). Quotations, reading lists, book recommendations or reviews, and catchphrases along these lines are welcome.

✦ SOURCES OF INSPIRATION

— art deco/decopunk — art nouveau — solarpunk— steampunk — gutterpunk — latin american geography, flora & fauna — latin american culture — spanish colonial architecture — pre-columbian latin america — 70's & 80's uk punk scene — elements of cyberpunk — alternative fashion — maximalism — haute boheme aesthetic

✦ RELEVANT HASHTAGS

Do you want to tag something with this aesthetic on your blog? Check out the suggestions below:

#TWP —   #TWPs —   #TWP Aesthetic —   #TWPs Aesthetic | #Third-World Punks —  #Third World Punks —  #Third-World Punks Aesthetic —

[mariacallous]

In the increasingly insular sphere of U.S. domestic politics, few analysts seem to be aware that it has been quite some time since the United States has done much to improve its reputation in the world.

To the contrary, European countries, whose esteem seems to matter most to Americans, have looked on with disquiet and alarm at the growing divisiveness and dysfunction in U.S. society and especially at the decay of the country’s political system since the 2016 election of Donald Trump, who on Thursday became the first former U.S. president to be convicted on criminal charges.

But it is in the wider world—particularly in the regions that get lumped together as the so-called global south or developing world—that Washington’s image has taken the biggest hit. This is why it’s particularly ironic that Trump, along with the politicians and media infrastructure that support him, have responded to the verdict and past court rulings with accusations that the United States has become a “Third World” country. In their upside-down logic, the fact that a man of such wealth, power, and privilege has to respond to criminal charges and face a jury of his peers is a sign of the country’s irremediable decline.

For that reason, it is worth trying to imagine how the ongoing spectacle of the United States in the era of Trump might appear to the global majority: the inhabitants of the non-rich world who live for the most part in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

To be clear, as large as Trump looms in U.S. politics, the country’s image problems are not a matter of Trump alone. Under the Biden administration, much of the world has watched aghast as the United States has assisted Israel in an offensive in Gaza that some highly reputable Jewish intellectuals think has crossed the threshold into genocide.

Supplying financial backing and weaponry to Israel throughout this crisis may not even be the most important form of U.S. support as Palestinians have edged into famine and Gaza’s women and children have been killed in horrendous numbers. Washington’s political support for Israel may be even more significant, as it has effectively blocked any United Nations action on this crisis with teeth and written off statements and gestures by the U.N. General Assembly, individual member states, and coalitions of countries that have criticized Israel or lodged legal complaints against it as unhelpful.

The corrosive effects of Washington’s approach to the Gaza crisis may have peaked in the last week or so, when the Biden administration denounced a decision by the top prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to seek arrest warrants for three Hamas and two Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The United States, long the world’s loudest proponent of the rule of law, essentially declared the ICC to be irrelevant in this matter. Worse still, as members of Congress clamored for action against the ICC, Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted that the administration might support sanctions against the court. This idea was soon quietly abandoned, but in terms of the United States’ reputation, the damage was already done.

What the global south likely took away from this was that the emperor has no clothes: Washington lectures others with scant inhibition about the preciousness of a so-called rules-based order but is ever more conspicuously unwilling to live by this order itself.

The United States has suffered additional reputational damage this century as China has become the global leader in lending and investment worldwide. Over the past 22 years, China has disbursed $1.34 trillion in international development finance, surpassing both the United States and the World Bank, which Washington traditionally leads. By 2021, China outpaced the United States in this kind of lending by $20 billion, according to AidData, a research lab at William & Mary. China has its own global image problems, which are linked in part to its hardening authoritarianism under President Xi Jinping, but data like this suggests the United States has largely relinquished the role its once enjoyed as a force for global development.

The greatest harm to Washington’s image, however, has accompanied Trump’s arrival on the national political scene. In 2015, Trump began his first campaign using utterly racist rhetoric about immigrants from nonwhite countries whom he blamed then and now for destroying the United States. Part of this involves his habitual use of slur and slander—claiming that Mexicans are rapists, for instance—but another aspect of his attack on immigrants is, if anything, even more disturbing. Trump’s language has frequently flirted with the idea that the United States is a white people’s country, that white people principally built it, and that changing the nation’s racial composition threatens at once white privilege and the future of a country built on that principle.

Trump doubled down on this anti-immigrant speech when he walked out of a Manhattan courtroom looking shocked over his conviction on Thursday and again at a press conference full of unhinged and unsupported claims on Friday, where he said that “millions and millions of people are flowing in from all parts of the world, not just South America—from Africa, from Asia, from the Middle East—and they’re coming in from jails and prisons, and they’re coming in from mental institutions and insane asylums.”

As I write this column, I am putting the finishing touches on a book about how African countries won their independence from European rule in the 1950s and ’60s. One of the most striking features of that era was how hard the United States and the Soviet Union competed with each other to shine in the eyes of the many new countries that were coming into creation. Americans have forgotten how intense this struggle was. A triumphalist distortion of how the country understands this part of its past, which dates at least to the late Cold War, imagines that Washington was always incomparably superior and bound to triumph in its rivalry with Moscow. In fact, up until the late 1960s, the most widely used U.S. economics textbook of its time—Economics by Paul A. Samuelson—projected that the Soviet Union would surpass U.S. production per head well before 2000.

Under the pressure of the Cold War, competition with the Soviet Union took many forms, not all of them involving weapons systems or economic performance. Washington felt impelled to address social injustices such as long-standing racial inequality and formal segregation, lest Moscow make hay from them too easily in the so-called Third World. In a different sphere of competition, U.S. ambitions to send rockets into space were only partially about trying to match and eventually outdo the Soviets in this specialized arena of technological prowess; they were also a way to tout the relative virtues of the U.S. system.

It is in this context that I often think about Washington’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and how it might be perceived in the routinely denigrated Third World. To be sure, the United States was a leader in the production of breakthrough vaccine technologies, but the shabbiness and disarray of its health care system contributed to death on a staggering scale. In Canada, right next door, the death rate per capita from COVID-19 was roughly one-third of that in the wealthier United States. Trump, of course, led the country in the crucial first year of the pandemic, during which time he alternately downplayed its threat, blamed others for its spread, derided scientists, promoted fake treatments such as ivermectin and the injection of bleach, and was slow in mounting a global distribution of vaccines.

Importantly, in encouraging an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump engaged in the very kind of activity that pro-democracy discourse in the United States has long lectured against in the so-called Third World. Accepting defeat at the polls and the peaceful alternation of power are hallmark principles of democratic life, but Trump and his most fanatic supporters have become some of the most flagrant and persistent objectors to this bedrock notion in the world today.

There are many countries in the Caribbean and Africa that are immeasurably poorer than the United States in dry statistical terms but that handle elections much more democratically than Trump and his backers. Ghana, for example, has experienced multiple nail-biter elections, including those in which incumbent parties have lost power, with nary an insurrection or any other major unrest. After this week’s elections in South Africa, the long-ruling African National Congress looks set to lose its parliamentary majority with hardly a whimper.

Trump, by contrast, denounces every charge against him as a hoax and an injustice. Since the verdict, he has complained unconvincingly that the court system in New York was rigged against him, even as his lawyers were notably unable to persuade even the juror who listed Trump’s own Truth Social platform as his leading source of news to vote against a single one of the 34 charges against him. Meanwhile, Trump clamors for changes to the country’s laws that would make it virtually impossible to charge him with any crime past or future. This reflects a desire for power almost beyond checks—a unified Reich, one might say, to employ an ominous phrase that Trump recently used in a social media post.

The Third World has never deserved the sort of blanket calumny that Trump and his most avid apologists cast toward it. But if the United States is hurtling toward the kind of dictatorship and lawlessness they lazily ascribe to less developed parts of the world, they hold most of the blame.

[crooked-wasteland]

What's the point of making Ozzie a demon if he's not going to be evil, dangerous and deadly like demons are supposed to be? Vivziepop sucks at making demon characters.not only do her characters look nothing like demons and now they don't act like ones??? Hazbin Hotel is doomed,might as well make Hazbin a preschool show at this point.its also embarrassing that the king of hell (Lucifer) is just Stolas 2.0 from reading the leaked scripts.Id like to add more but im far too tired because this is getting absurdly painful.

I think there is valid criticism in this critique, but I also feel that, in a way, it is rather exaggerated outrage.

When it comes to demons behaving any specific way, that mainly comes down to poor world building. Spindlehorse has done very little to actually dictate how this world of hers works, and many times, it appears she actively contradicts values previously assumed.

Are there vastly different laws and social expectations between rings?

Loo Loo Land, and once again in Oops, Greed is shown to have an extremely lax approach to crimes of violence.

However, in Harvest Moon, having previously killed people results in Millie being banned from participating in the episode.

Stolas being in public with Blitz gets no notice or response of attention in Harvest Moon and again later in Ozzie's. But then the internal logic contradicts that same episode with Walley acting like it is actually a huge deal. And then for a third time the series presents an about face with Beelzebub dating Tex as if there is nothing special going on there.

Stolas cheats, but he is not wrong for that, which makes it not a flaw.

Then, the world building tries to reinforce the idea that this relationship would be a problem by trying to highlight a demon racial and status divide in Western Energy. Only for Queen Bee and Oops to backtrack again and make it extremely normalized with Beelzebub dating a common Hell Hound and Asmodeus' conflict not being about who he is dating, but the act of dating in the first place.

Going into the idea of "good" and "evil," I don't really think that is a good argument to make. There has to be some sense of conflict for a story to maintain interest, and if the idea of "evil" is the norm was played to a logical conclusion, it would feel more like a joke than anything else. Like in Good Omens, where Hell is dictated by doing the worst thing possible and anything that produces a moral positive is bad. It would completely isolate the audience from the values of the cast, which is why Crowley is depicted as having a personality and values more aligned to humans. As such, it doesn't feel like a good faith platform to stand on when criticizing the show.

What I will say is fair, however, is that Medrano has achieved an Olympic medal in trying to make her characters entirely flawless. There is no consistent character flaw that any of her cast maintains out of what is deemed necessary by the plot or depicted as not a flaw by context.

Asmodeus is quite literally perfect for Vivienne's standards. His whole life revolves around his partner, and he is willing to do whatever it takes for that partner, including murder. But that is good, actually.

Blitz is inconsistently too insecure in his relationships. He's insecure when it comes to FizzaRolli and Stolas, resulting in him burning down his own family home and violently rejecting Stolas after the night at Ozzie's. But he's so secure in other relationships that: (1) despite knowing Barbie doesn't want to see him, he tracks her down, (2) he is overbearing of Loona despite feeling like she hates him, (3) abuses Moxxie, despite having issues with losing people.

And I think that's what this criticism is actually addressing. A lack of understanding the stakes and values the world plays on while simultaneously being handed characters who are so volatile in their own values every time we see them that it is pretty much impossible to defer those values passively.

[girlactionfigure]

*ISRAEL REALTIME* - "Connecting the World to Israel in Realtime"

HAPPY CHANUKAH !!! Chanukah night 7 TONIGHT 🕎🕎🕎🕎🕎🕎🕎

◾️MORE SHIP ATTACKS BY THE HOUTHIS… a Marshall islands-flagged chemical tanker reported an "exchange of fire" with a speedboat 55 nautical miles (around 102 kilometres) off Yemen.  A speedboat with armed men aboard approached two vessels transiting off the coast of Yemen's Red Sea port of Hodeidah.  (AP) the Houthis launched two missiles at a commercial ship in the Bab al-Mandab Strait but missed, according to US officials. An American vessel intercepted another drone launched by the Houthis. (The ship that the Houthis tried to hit is the Ardmore Encounter tanker that carries the flag of the Marshall Islands.

Also reports of a shipping attack on the other Yemen coast near Oman.  Quickly becoming a major disruption to world shipping.

◾️THE TOLL… we previously reported on 8 lost in battle, two more are reported killed yesterday as well - the worst day since the first day of the war.  https://www.timesofisrael.com/ten-soldiers-including-two-senior-officers-killed-in-gaza-fighting-and-deadly-ambush/

◾️JENIN… (Arab city, West Bank, terror center)  Firefights with IDF forces still going on, day and half continuous.

◾️FALSE ALERT - MODI’IN MACCABIM REUT… siren alert malfunction.  Homefront Command is working to fix.

◾️INCREASING RESERVE AGE… the Ministry of Defense distributed a memorandum of law to increase the exemption age from reserve service to be raised in order to prevent damage to the IDF's combat capability in the midst of war. According to the plan, the exemption age will be increased by one year for regular soldiers, officers and certain positions. 

◾️GAZA, WEAPONS EVERYWHERE (no innocent / civilian spaces)… Lt. Col. Oz, Nahal's 931st Brigade: We entered about 500 houses in Jabaliya. In 90% of them we found weapons, inside wardrobes, in the kitchen, in UNWRA sacks and under babies' beds. There were grenades, weapons, guns, rifles, RPGs and many other weapons.  We arrived at the mosque, which apparently looked innocent. When we broke the door on the third floor, we were surprised to discover an advanced combat space there: they built a training facility there, like we train in the bases, they managed to build it in the mosque! We killed more than ten terrorists there.

◾️SOLDIERS MOTHER’S SAY… ( https://m.facebook.com/Mothers.Soldier ) "Our sons in battle, not Biden's son or Blinken's son - our soldier's life comes before the enemy's citizens.”  Ilanit Dedosh, mother of a commander in Golani "Don't be influenced by foreign considerations - bomb from above.” 

“We are in the most just war, against a cruel enemy who slaughtered, raped, massacred babies, women and hundreds of our brothers and sisters. We must trample him, and kill them to the last - and not stop until victory! We call on the IDF and the government - do not endanger our soldiers without a real operational need, do not put before your eyes any other consideration, not legal, not humanitarian or international pressure, Our sons are the ones in battle, not Biden's son nor Blinken's son, tell everyone in a clear voice - the lives of our soldiers come before the citizens of the enemy. We as mothers will not accept any risk to our soldiers that is not from operational considerations only. Loving, trusting, and strong - we are behind you! Fight until victory!" added the mothers.  “You promised that you would not surrender and that you would not change the plan of action, do not endanger fighters in vain!”

[2bpoliticallycurious]

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis criticized laws that criminalize homosexuality as “unjust,” saying God loves all his children just as they are and called on Catholic bishops who support the laws to welcome LGBTQ people into the church.

“Being homosexual isn’t a crime,” Francis said during an exclusive interview Tuesday with The Associated Press.

Francis acknowledged that Catholic bishops in some parts of the world support laws that criminalize homosexuality or discriminate against LGBTQ people, and he himself referred to the issue in terms of “sin.” But he attributed such attitudes to cultural backgrounds, and said bishops in particular need to undergo a process of change to recognize the dignity of everyone.

“These bishops have to have a process of conversion,” he said, adding that they should apply “tenderness, please, as God has for each one of us.”

Francis’ comments, which were hailed by gay rights advocates as a milestone, are the first uttered by a pope about such laws. But they are also consistent with his overall approach to LGBTQ people and belief that the Catholic Church should welcome everyone and not discriminate.

Some 67 countries or jurisdictions worldwide criminalize consensual same-sex sexual activity, 11 of which can or do impose the death penalty, according to The Human Dignity Trust, which works to end such laws. Experts say even where the laws are not enforced, they contribute to harassment, stigmatization and violence against LGBTQ people.

In the U.S., more than a dozen states still have anti-sodomy laws on the books, despite a 2003 Supreme Court ruling declaring them unconstitutional. Gay rights advocates say the antiquated laws are used to justify harassment, and point to new legislation, such as the “Don’t say gay” law in Florida, which forbids instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, as evidence of continued efforts to marginalize LGBTQ people.

The United Nations has repeatedly called for an end to laws criminalizing homosexuality outright, saying they violate rights to privacy and freedom from discrimination and are a breach of countries’ obligations under international law to protect the human rights of all people, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Declaring such laws “unjust,” Francis said the Catholic Church can and should work to put an end to them. “It must do this. It must do this,” he said.

Francis quoted the Catechism of the Catholic Church in saying gay people must be welcomed and respected, and should not be marginalized or discriminated against.

“We are all children of God, and God loves us as we are and for the strength that each of us fights for our dignity,” Francis said, speaking to the AP in the Vatican hotel where he lives.

Finally, some sanity regarding the LGBTQ+ community from a major Christian leader.

Hopefully the conservative Roman Catholics on the Supreme Court and other conservative Catholic politicians like Ron DeSantis pay attention to what Pope Francis said.

__________ NOTE: Photos were modified from their original source.

[thehoundera]

"Theorist Grégoire Chamayou has described the contemporary paradigm of drone warfare as having instigated a “crisis in military ethos,” transforming the terms and terrain of engagement altogether as it proposes an unstable approach to acceptable targets. In an era of the global war against terror, Chamayou writes:

Armed violence has lost its traditional limits: indefinite in time, it is also indefinite in space. The whole world, it is said, is a battlefield. But it would probably be more accurate to call it a hunting ground. For if the scope of armed violence has now become global, it is because the imperatives of hunting demand it.

In this description, the remote killing characteristic of drone warfare is not just a safe or expedient means of carrying out war as before—this technical innovation corresponds to a new and rapidly shifting geographical model, where violence is no longer limited to demarcated combat zones but simply licensed by the presence of an enemy prey, “who carries with it its own little mobile zone of hostility.” State sovereignty and territorial integrity are contingent features of this model of warfare, and can be violated at will by an imperial hunter whose technical power and jurisdiction operates vertically.

The geopolitical layers of this methodology are many and complex: for example, the MQ-9 Reaper drone that killed Soleimani was likely launched from Qatar, but operated from Clark County, Nevada, where self-proclaimed “hunter” pilots proceeded to attack a diplomatically protected target visiting a third country with whom they were not at war—at least nominally. At the very least, this is novel; but the legal ramifications must be known.

As noted, Israel’s assassination of Arouri strikingly coincides with the anniversary of the Trump administration’s killing of Soleimani, which was justified in turn with reference to Bush Jr.’s extralegal innovations. But these Republican presidencies flank the drastic expansion of jurisdictionally ambiguous drone warfare under President Obama, whose office presumed authority to use lethal force outside of legally defined combat zones on an unprecedented scale during a “global” war on terror. These policies drew heavy criticism from international legal observers, as the Obama administration authorized more than 500 drone strikes in Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, and beyond—locations where the situation, however grave, could hardly be described as one of armed conflict between organized groups. Lacking such criteria, the years of drone attacks around the world appear not only deadly, but illegal.

Even so, lawyers love an ignoble cause; and this remote assassin’s paradigm keeps many of them entertained. Legal scholar Michael W. Lewis argues that the application of international humanitarian law to the transnational deployment of drones constitutes an unacceptable constraint, where “it would effectively grant sanctuary to and confer an important strategic advantage upon unprivileged belligerents,” themselves apparently excepted from the protections of the Geneva Convention.

These are the sticking points of any legal theory of the drone, and the cause for which apologists must seek a portable state of exception, adhering to individual targets as they move about the world. Jonathan Horowitz and Naz Modirzadeh describe the seemingly contradictory situation of a “transnational non-international armed conflict,” where the law of armed conflict is analogized to a cloud, hovering above the head of an itinerant prey."

– cam scott, "israel's drone age"

[head-post]

Houthis hit another ship in Red Sea, Israel destroys Palestinian homes in West Bank

The UK Maritime Trade Operations Office (UKMTO) of the country’s UK Naval Forces (UKN) said on Tuesday it had received information about another incident in the Red Sea.

Another attack in the Red Sea

A vessel in the Red Sea was the target of a third attack allegedly carried out by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Tuesday as part of their campaign of attacks over the war between Israel and Hamas, officials said.

The attacks come as Iran, is considering retaliating against Israel for the assassination of Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh in July, heightening fears of a wider regional war in the Middle East.

The Houthi attacks have already disrupted the annual flow of $1 trillion worth of goods along a sea route crucial to trade between Asia, Europe and the Middle East, as well as sparking the most intense fighting for the US Navy since World War II.

The ship was attacked about 115 kilometres (70 miles) south of the port city of Hodeidah, controlled by Houthi militants, the UKMTO said. An explosive went off near the ship, then a small vessel “behaving suspiciously” lit a light next to the ship and approached it, followed by a second explosion, the UKMTO said.

Private security firm Ambrey also reported the attacks, saying the ship had experienced “two explosions in close proximity.”

The Houthis have been actively attacking ships in the Red Sea since November 2023 in a show of support for the Palestinians in their fight against Israel. They attack ships and vessels they believe are linked to the US, Britain and Israel.

Israel’s attacks take new lives

The Israeli army killed a Palestinian in clashes in the central occupied West Bank early Tuesday after destroying two residential flats belonging to Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa quoted security sources as saying that the Israeli army raided the flat of prisoner Aysar Barghouti in Ramallah’s Al-Tira neighbourhood and the flat of Khaled Al-Harouf in Al-Bireh town, after which both dwellings were destroyed.

The raids provoked clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli army in both cities, killing Palestinian Moataz Sarsour and injuring three others. Barghouti and Al-Harouf were detained by Israeli forces on January 8 on charges of opening fire on Israeli settlers in July previous year.

Israeli authorities have a policy of demolishing the homes of Palestinians accused of attacking Israeli soldiers and settlers, a practice widely condemned as a form of collective punishment prohibited under international law, as it often results in the displacement of entire families.

The Israeli military has regularly carried out raids in the West Bank in recent years, a campaign that has intensified since the Gaza war began on October 7, 2023. Palestinians have also faced increased violence by illegal Israeli settlers.

Read more HERE

[thevividgreenmoss]

Resnick previously worked at the State Department’s Political-Military Affairs bureau, which has approved billions in arms shipments to Israel during the Gaza war despite concerns from lawmakers and human rights groups that Israel is violating U.S. and international law in its use of American weaponry.

“Assigning [Resnick] ... reflects a doubling down on the administration’s determination to continue to provide unconditional material support for Israel’s genocidal campaign against civilians in Gaza,” argued Annelle Sheline, a former State Department official who quit the agency in protest over Biden’s approach earlier this year.

A State Department spokesperson declined to comment for this story.

As the new deputy assistant secretary for Israeli-Palestinian affairs in the department’s Middle East office, Resnick is replacing Andrew Miller, an official who left the State Department this summer and was known by fellow U.S. officials to be wary of Biden’s overwhelming support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Insatiable desire to fill the seats of power with ever more hawkish bloodthirsty psychopaths. Movement by democrats to replace Biden on the ticket needs to be seen in the same light. For party insiders and the bulk of their supporters, Biden's primary point of differentiation from Trump was never that he would for example stand in the way of perpetuating a genocide but that he and his party would more effectively carry out the same genocide, that their supoort for Israel is uncompromising and true in a way that Trump & his party's isn't. Does not necessarily mean that a democratic administration necessarily would be more effective, just that the party, its patrons, and base are motivated by and hoping for that potentiality. Same goes for Kalama as distinguished from Biden; the wave of Americans, (including Americans from Marginalized Communities including Americans who are themselves from the third world including Muslim americans) who already spend every second of their lives looking for excuses to give even less of a shit than they already do that dropped the pretense the second they subbed Kamala could be seen as confirmation only in the sense that the appearance of the moon on this particular night is proof that it exists at all. Same goes for this latest appointment to the democratic war cabinet. Very crudely put the american elections aren't like the Lakers vs the pistons it's Shaq vs Kobe fighting amongst themselves over alpha status on the same team its about who gets the ball in their hands during crunch time, who gets finals mvp, who gets the bigger contract from a shared patronage network. The expansion of colonial projects in general is an axiomatic shared goal.

[erastaffingsolutions]

The Small Business Guide to Employer of Record Companies

Navigating the complex world of international growth and human resources is a daunting task for any entrepreneur, especially when the expansion of your small business requires a deep understanding of local labor laws, payroll regulations, and compliance standards. This is where Employer of Record (EOR) services shine as the unsung heroes of global HR management. This guide, specifically crafted for small business owners, will illuminate the roles of EOR companies, detailing how they can streamline your HR operations and ensure your global growth is a success.

What Is An EOR Service?

Employee leasing, professional employer organizations (PEOs), and employer of record (EOR) services share a common goal – simplifying the employer's HR responsibilities. EOR steps in to become the legal employer for tax, payroll, benefits, and other HR purposes.

But what sets EOR apart from the other two is its international reach. When a small business expands overseas, the legal and administrative duties can be overwhelming. An EOR is the mechanism that allows companies to focus on their core business operations while a third party manages the legal nuances of international employment.

The key benefits of using an EOR company include:

Accelerated global expansion

Local compliance management

Mitigation of legal and financial risk

Comprehensive support for international payroll, taxes, and benefits

But with numerous EOR service providers in the market, it can be challenging to choose the right partner for your business. That’s why understanding the value proposition of each service is crucial.

Why Do You Need to Hire an Employer of Record Company?

Legal Compliance and Risk Management

When you're employing people in a new country, you need to adhere to unfamiliar labor laws and often complex regulatory requirements. Failure to do so can result in legal implications and financial penalties. EOR services ensure all aspects of employment meet local legal standards.

Payroll and Benefits Administration

Employee compensation and benefits vary greatly from one country to another. EOR companies have systems in place to keep you compliant and ensure your staff is fairly compensated according to local standards.

Global Expansion Support

EOR services remove the barriers of expansion, allowing you to tap into new markets without setting up a legal entity. This speed-to-market approach is critical for small businesses aiming to grow rapidly.

Focus on Core Business Activities

By outsourcing your HR administration to an EOR, you free up your time to concentrate on the activities that generate revenue and drive business growth.

Ongoing HR Expertise

EOR companies have a wealth of HR knowledge and can provide strategic advice and support for your international workforce.

9 Best EOR Companies to Smoothen Your HR Operations in 2024

Choosing the right EOR for your business is a significant decision that directly impacts your global operations. Here are the top nine EOR companies in 2024 that are well-equipped to support your small business in its international endeavors.

1. ERA Staffing Solutions

ERA Staffing Solutions focuses on creating customized employment solutions for companies of all sizes. With a strong presence in numerous international markets, ERA is known for its compliance expertise and hands-on approach to payroll and benefits administration.

2. Rippling

Rippling streamlines HR, IT, and Operations with an all-in-one seamless platform. Their focus on efficiency and automation makes them a favorite for companies looking to integrate global HR operations into their digital infrastructure.

3. Papaya

Papaya’s platform is designed to manage the entire EOR process from onboarding to payments. They place a strong emphasis on the user experience and have a user-friendly interface for both employer and employee engagement.

4. Multiplier

With a standout solution for high-growth startups and enterprise businesses, Multiplier takes a tech-forward approach to compliance and HR management. Their agile system adapts to the unique HR needs of your company as you expand globally.

5. Deel

Deel simplifies the complexity of employing a global workforce. It stands out for its user-friendly platform and comprehensive suite of services that cover every step of the employment process – making it a perfect fit for small businesses.

6. Oyster

Specializing in a human-touch approach to global HR, Oyster prioritizes the personal aspect of HR administration. Their clear and communicative service ensures that your employees feel supported in every location they’re based.

7. Remofirst

Through technology, expertise, and a strong emphasis on customer success, Remofirst ensures that companies achieve fast and compliant expansion into new territories. Their service is highly recommended for its structured and result-driven processes.

8. Globalization Partners

Globalization Partners offers a robust service that brings your international employees under one umbrella, providing a cohesive HR strategy that considers the unique cultural and legal aspects of different regions.

9. Remote

Remote values simplicity, enabling highly complex global employment setups with an intuitive and straightforward approach. Their customer service is lauded by clients for being responsive and helpful, guiding businesses through the complexities of overseas HR with ease.

In your pursuit of finding the best EOR company, always look for the one that best aligns with your small business's unique requirements and core values. The right EOR can be instrumental in not just managing your global human resources, but in driving your success in international markets.

@erastaffingsolutions

[mightyflamethrower]

Transgenders Dominate Multiple Women's Cycling Events

JOHN SIMMONS | AUGUST 24, 2023

We interrupt your workday to present to you yet another reason why transgendered females (who are men) should never be allowed to compete against women.

Within the past week, two separate biological men won cycling events against women - one in Switzerland, and one in Washington state. The first race took place in Zurich (the largest city in Switzerland) where Kiana Gysin took first place at the women’s fixed gear racing final, taking home a prize of roughly $556.

As a disclaimer, the X (formerly known as Twitter) user who published that tweet does not believe men should compete against women, so the wording of that tweet was written with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

Gysin had previously ridiculed the Union Cycliste International (UCI) for banning transgenders from the women’s division in any events that it oversees. But after witnessing how Gysin performed, it's easy to see why the UCI made this decision.

Elsewhere in our crazy world, another male pretending to be a female won a race against women in Richmond, WA. 

A 35-year-old man named Claire Law was competing against teenaged girls at the 1/2/3 Women’s Northwest Elimination Championship. This type of event means the last rider of each lap gets eliminated until only one is left. Unsurprisingly, the results apparently weren’t close.

Related: British Media: English Women's Soccer Team is Too White

“In a livestream of the event, Law was seen crushing his teenaged opponents,” Reduxx reported. “As the third place rider Lucy Dorer, 15, was eliminated, second place rider Lucy Scoville, aged 17 can be seen completely dropping back for the last lap, and not even bothering to compete with Law, who sailed ahead to what appeared to be an easy victory.”

Why someone in their 30s is being allowed to compete against teenagers in any division of any sport is beyond me, much less a man being allowed to compete against women.

But hey, since sports these days are all about inclusion, these events should be celebrated!

Just like the tweet above, that was filled with sarcasm, too.

Despite outcomes like this happening across a variety of sports, some people still believe transgenders in women’s sports won’t lead to anything bad happening. The group FemMess, which advocates for transgenders to be allied in the women’s division, also criticized the UCI’s decision to ban transgenders from women’s cycling events, saying:

We from FemMess CC strongly condemn UCI’s decision to essentially ban trans women from competitive cycling, this decision has no basis in scientific findings and has only been implemented because of the current transmisogynistic political climate and pressure from trans exclusionary organizations. We won’t be attending any event that follows UCI Guidelines as we won’t financially support organizations like this. “We stand for an intersectional feminist approach to the sport and bio essentialism is dangerous for everyone, they won’t stop with trans woman. F**k UCI!”

The fact that women are forced to compete against men is absurd, and that people like FemMess that want stuff like this to happen is even more so. While we have seen other instances of people showing a level of common sense regarding this issue, there is obviously still work to be done.

Follow MRCTV on Twitter/X!

I would feel sorry for the women, but by and large, they have been the most ardent supporters of Transmania. So.....it serves them right.

[whereareroo]

A NOBODY FROM SWEDEN

WF THOUGHTS (9/18/23).

Once upon a time in New York City, a few minutes after midnight on April 1, 1953, a sleeping diplomat was awakened by a phone call from a journalist and told that he had just been nominated to be the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Believing that the call was an April Fool’s joke, the diplomat hung up the phone and went back to sleep.

A good story needs an intriguing opening paragraph. The two sentences set forth above are the start of a good story. It’s a true story.

I learned the story in 1982, when I was attending law school in New York City. I was doing some research on some obscure international law issues. Thankfully, there were folks at the United Nations who were experts on these issues. Because I wanted my research to be perfect, I arranged to interview the experts. Over a period of months, I met with the various experts at their offices at the headquarters of the United Nations.

To get to the United Nations, I had to walk through a park called Dag Hammarskjold Plaza. It’s right next to the United Nations. After a few visits, I decided that I’d better learn something about the strange name for the park. That’s how I learned about the 1953 phone call and the subsequent events.

The man who received the midnight call was a Swedish diplomat named Dag Hammarskjold. He honestly believed that the call was a joke. At the United Nations, the top boss is called the Secretary-General. Hammarskjold was a nobody. He was a low level diplomat at the United Nations. By the time he was awakened for the third time, Dag figured that he better stay awake and find out what was happening.

In the aftermath of WWII, the UN started its operations in 1945. Originally, it didn’t have an official headquarters. The permanent headquarters in New York City didn’t open until 1952. From 1945 until 1952, the Secretary-General was a diplomat from Norway.

Late in 1952, the Norwegian announced his retirement. Who would be the next Secretary-General? That was a hotly debated issue for the next few months. Nobody thought that it was going to be Dag Hammarskjold.

The United Nations is a very political organization. Its nominating committee works in total secrecy. For months the committee considered, and secretly rejected, a series of candidates. As midnight approached on March 31st, the committee settled upon Dag Hammarskjold. He was acceptable because he was so unknown. Nobody had any reason to object to his nomination. When his name was first thrown into the ring, the officials from the U.S. had never even heard of him.

Because of the secrecy and his obscurity, Dag never knew that he was being considered for the top job. He was totally surprised by the phone calls that he received during the very early morning hours of April 1, 1953. By sunrise he was convinced that the calls weren’t a joke and that he was going to be the second Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Dag stayed in the top job until September of 1961. He built the UN, which was still in its infancy when he took the helm, into a serious and powerful international organization. Many say that he was the most important U.N. Secretary-General in history. He was particularly focused on maintaining world peace. Now you know why the park near the U.N. is named for Dag Hammarskjold.

This week, world leaders are meeting at the U.N. for the big General Assembly meeting. Today- -September 18th- -is also very important for another reason. On this day in 1961, under suspicious circumstances, Dag Hammarskjold died in a plane crash. He was on his way to the Congo to negotiate the settlement of an armed conflict. Many think that Dag’s plane was shot down by his enemies. There’s always somebody who is opposed to peace. Later in 1961, Dag Hammarskjold was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his outstanding work at the U.N. and his many contributions towards wold peace. He is the only person to ever receive the Peace Prize posthumously.

If you ever think that you’re a small person who can’t make a difference in the world, think about Dag Hammarskjold. It’s easy to remember his name. The nobody from Sweden made the world a better place. RIP, Dag Hammarskjold.

[cantillat-moved]

Persona 5 New Confidant: Yu Narukami (Le Fol)

Living in Tokyo since his senior year in high school, Narukami started attending Tokyo University’s Law School to be a prosecutor for many reasons: one that he would assist the police with the investigations, and see it through the end; and it was also a position that he would be able to assist Naoto and Chie if necessary. But also, as Mitsuru Kirijo’s Shadow Ops made him realize, there are other cases involving Persona-users and Shadows and there would be hard to prosecute these cases – so it could be important, if not crucial, to have somebody who knows about these ‘unusual circumstances’ when putting a case together.

At one occasion it dawned him: how some cases of the mental breakdowns on the news were similar to the events during the Love Meets Bonds Festival – the cases of people falling into comas after having their egos dragged away to the Midnight Stage by the Shadows after watching a cursed video on the event’s website. And the cases of people losing all their will to live and needing to be constantly watched were also similar to the Apathy Syndrome that both Naoto and Mitsuru-san told him many years ago. However, despite being a law student there was still many barriers he couldn’t cross and there was only so much information to be collected from witnesses. In fact, in most cases, they were seldom useful.

All he had was circumstantial evidence and gut feeling that these cases might be somehow related to Shadows, but he lacked the means to continue investigating as he couldn’t find the entrance point to the Shadow World, or whatever was called. Midnight Channel, Midnight Stage, Dark Hour…All different names for similar phenomena, and each with different characteristics and means to get in. If only he could figure out a way in…

Posted originally back on my Narukami blog steelbanchou

Yu would either see the Velvet Room and, as he couldn’t get in himself (Yu would assume that it’s because his original contract reached a conclusion, and he is no longer a guest) he would just wait for the new Wild Card to come in to approach and talk to him; or just overhear the Phantom Thieves talking (especially when they start to gather in the public overpass) and tails them, and at some point either end up dragged into the Metaverse by accident or approach them. A third way to approach the Phantom Thieves would be through Mishima, either by using the Phan-site or talking to him if they are acquainted in real life. Narukami could mention that he might have useful information and would like contacting the Phantom Thieves. Mishima did arrange a few meetings for the group in the game, so it could be yet one more encounter that would turn more than the Phantom Thieves’ leader could have bargained for. 

Either way, Narukami would offer his assistance but not directly interfere. He would keep on investigating the mental breakouts, and share whatever information he may gather. Yu would also offer advice and different points of view to the Phantom Thieves’ leader, in exchange in being able to access the Metaverse (which the game suggests that after being dragged once the person with potential will get an app on their mobile). After a certain point, he would also offer to keep an eye on Sae Nijima and Goro Akechi — who would suspect an intern?

Gameplay-wise…Maybe he’d unlock new personas for the new confident, and a few new abilities as well. And having an extra team member that would support the group in critical moments.

As the Arcana… Persona 5 tarot is based on the Tarot of Marseilles, in which the fool is labeled both as “Le Mat” (literally ‘the madman’) or “Le Fol”, depending on the edition. As Igor is ‘Le Mat’, Narukami would be ‘Le Fol’. But he’d be numbered XXII or not given a number, unlike the others.

[mariacallous]

Unbeknownst to most Americans, for whom Africa scarcely registers as an afterthought, the United States has a long and deep history of special relations with Ghana.

I am not talking about the story of the Atlantic slave trade, which brought roughly a tenth of its overall traffic, or 1.2 million human beings in chains, to the Americas from the shores of what is now Ghana. The sourcing of bonded labor from Ghana lasted for hundreds of years but peaked in 18th century, when the sacrifice of African lives to brutal plantation work fed an explosion of wealth in the West.

The special relationship in question here involves none of that tragedy, and yet it lays bare cautionary tales for both parties. It began in earnest around 1992, when a new constitution in Ghana established an independent electoral commission—leading to a long period of stable democratic rule.

Since then, the country has conducted a string of highly competitive elections, including repeated nail-biters that have generated far less partisan disturbance about the results than, say, the United States. This has helped turn Ghana into a model to be embraced and upheld by Washington as an example of democracy worthy of emulation by nearby African countries in a neighborhood where democracy, always an up-and-down affair in the region, has suffered numerous setbacks in the past decade.

Over the years, Ghana’s democratic performance has repeatedly won it the favor of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), Western-dominated financial institutions in which the United States holds great sway. To them, it does not seem to have mattered so much that their economic policy advice and various financial support packages have not led to any lasting improvement in Ghana’s prospects as a nation. To acknowledge this would be to recognize the stark inherent weaknesses of their approach to international development.

Just as with elections, the West needs to have Ghana available for display as a good “pupil”—and in some sense, even though Ghana is only a medium-sized country by the standards of the continent, it has become too big, or at least too important, to fail.

More recently, a third plume has been added to Ghana’s cap: security. In the Sahel region, a broad, semi-arid area that lies to Ghana’s north, one weak and unstable landlocked country after another has sharply downgraded its relations with its former colonial power, France. For years, Paris had been helping them fight against the spread of Islamic insurgencies—and failing. In quick succession, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso have all cried “enough!”

Inviting French troops to leave, they have opted instead for a new approach, however uncertain, which consists of strengthening relations between themselves and inviting the help of new partners, Russia foremost among them.

This not only affects France, whose position in the world has long depended on the kind of aggrandizement that it enjoys by being the patron and sometimes master of a large clutch of still-dependent former African colonies. It could also affect Washington’s ability to station sizable drone forces in the region, both to support its own local intelligence operations and to combat Islamist groups without risky on-the-ground troop operations.

This is not all that the ongoing changes in the Sahel affect, though. The removal of Western anti-terrorist operations in the region inevitably leads to a greater reliance on generally richer and more stable coastal states (think Ghana and Ivory Coast in particular) for preventing the growing influence of al Qaeda and Islamic State affiliates.

Here, then, is yet another reason that for the West, Ghana has become too important to fail. If it doesn’t step up to help anchor a U.S. and European security presence in the region, or worse, if it should fall prey to spreading terrorism, then West Africa—a vast region that is home to a fast-growing population of hundreds of millions of people—risks becoming radically destabilized. The potential consequences of this, first for West Africans themselves but also for the West, are dire.

Violence and economic misery in the heavily populated coastal regions of this part of the continent will not only stunt lives and arrest improvements in living standards, but they will also likely spur a much greater wave of migration than hitherto seen in Europe or North America.

Now there is a new complication. Beginning even well before colonial times, Ghanaian culture has been deeply penetrated by that of the West. Up and down the coast, one of the ways this can be most readily seen is in the proliferation of evangelical churches, many of them influenced and supported by American evangelicals.

Recently, this influence has made itself felt through a successful push by the Ghanaian parliament to pass an abhorrent bill criminalizing people who identify as members of the LGBTQ community. In many ways, this mirrors evangelical influence in conservative U.S. states such as Florida, for example, where legislators have passed laws restricting the use of personal pronouns in public schools and prohibiting gender-affirming care for minors, among other measures targeting LGBTQ Floridians. In Ghana, conservative Christian groups were joined in supporting the new law by conservative Muslims and traditional leaders in the country.

Ghana’s outgoing president, Nana Akufo-Addo, has avoided making his intentions clear about whether he will sign the bill, saying that he is awaiting a ruling by the country’s Supreme Court on its legality first. Even without the president’s assent, the parliament can put the law into effect with a two-thirds vote.

The consequences of this could be devastating. The U.S. State Department has expressed its strong disapproval of the bill and warned that its adoption would harm bilateral relations as well as damage Ghana’s economy and international reputation. The World Bank and IMF have also suggested that their aid and loan packages might have to be reconsidered—and European Union countries could react similarly.

LGBTQ rights are as much a domestic political issue in the United States as they are in Ghana, though. Somehow, at some point soon, they could force a reckoning for both countries that their leaders had never imagined and are not prepared to confront.

In the past, most frontal clashes between the international security interests and human rights values of the United States have usually occurred in countries that Washington deems economically or strategically vital (say, Saudi Arabia, for historically restricting the rights of women) or Israel (which the United States has long avoided publicly pressuring over the rights of Palestinians).

But if Ghana begins jailing people for being gay, this would amount to such a clear violation of human rights that the United States could be obliged by law to sever much of its support for the country and would find it much more difficult to avoid doing so.

One must not lose sight of Ghana’s choices in this matter. It is not, as some claim, an issue of simply complying with American values or demands. Civil society groups in Ghana and even the country’s Catholic bishops have denounced the legislation, which one opposition politician, Samia Nkrumah—the daughter of Ghana’s first president—has called a “brutal, harsh, unjust” law. It is unclear how much weight voices like these will carry in the debate.

In a number of African countries, politicians have demagogically promoted the persecution of LGBTQ people on the specious basis that homosexuality was introduced by colonizers (who were, in reality, often the ones who introduced the idea of punishing it). This is a clear fallacy, though, meant to appeal to a bogus form of nativism.

The best reason for Ghana to oppose this law is not foreign pressure at all, even though it could have damaging consequences. The real reason is bound up in the ideals of the continent’s independence movements of seven decades ago: All of Africa’s people are fully-fledged human beings and should be allowed to live in freedom.