#Transnational Funding

[fortheammonites]

Falling for scams does hurt people, actually

TW: Human trafficking, SA, torture, discussion of scam farms

I see a whole bunch of people arguing that they would rather risk giving to a scammer than ignore someone's gofundme. I also see people saying things like "I can't believe some sick people are profiteering off genocide" and like, me neither, but I feel like you guys really don't understand who actually runs these kinds of scams and what they are.

Scams of noticeable scale-- like scam asks being sent from hundreds of accounts to every user on Tumblr!-- are typically related to organised crime in poor countries, not Susan from Milwaukee who wants a new coat and has no scruples. People get trafficked by gangs to scam farms in Asia and Africa where they're worked to the bone and tortured trying to get idiots in wealthy countries to part with their money. Genocide profiteering is pretty much the least evil thing these people do.

Here's a UN article on it. Obvious warnings for content related to human trafficking and SA.

When you donate to a scammer, you fund these organisations and give them a reason to exist. It's possible some of the fundraisers are legit. I honestly find it unlikely given I'm not seeing any from any other countries where urgent fundraisers would seem to have great reason to exist but which haven't captured the same level of attention on Tumblr-- the number of Sudanese, Congolese, Ukrainian, Burmese or Uyghur fundraisers in my DMs is a fat 0. In any case, there are safer ways to help.

If you want to help (which is great!) you don't have to take the risk of paying for human trafficking. Donate to legitimate charities which have the resources to safely and effectively ensure the money and help is getting to the right people. Funding human trafficking rings in Myanmar is not a good risk to be taking while trying to help.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

How the kleptocrats and oligarchs hunt civil society groups to the ends of the Earth

It's a great time to be an oligarch! If you have accumulated a great fortune and wish to put whatever great crime lies behind it behind you, there is an army of fixers, lickspittles, thugs, reputation-launderers, procurers, henchmen, and other enablers who have turnkey solutions for laundering your reputation and keeping the unwashed from building a guillotine outside the gates of your compound.

The field of International Relations has studied the enemies of the Klept in detail: the Transnational Activist Network is a well-documented phenomenon. But far more poorly understood is the Transnational Uncivil Society Network, who will polish any turd of sufficient wealth to a high, professional gloss.

These TUSNs are the subject of a new, timely scholarly paper by Alexander Cooley, John Heathershaw and Ricard Soares de Oliveira: "Transnational Uncivil Society Networks: kleptocracy’s global fightback against liberal activism," published in last month's European Journal of International Relations:

https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:5e5a3052-c693-4991-a7cc-bc2b47134467/download_file?file_format=application%2Fpdf&safe_filename=Cooley_et_al_2023_transnational_uncivil_society.pdf&type_of_work=Journal+article

The authors document how a collection of institutions – some coercive, others organized around good works – allow kleptocrats to take power, keep power, and use power. This includes "wealth managers, company providers, accounting firms, and international bankers" who create the complex financial structures that obscure the klept's wealth. It also includes "second citizenship managers and lawyers" that facilitate the klept's transnational nature, both to provide access to un-looted, prosperous places to visit, and boltholes to escape to in the face of coup or reform. It includes the real-estate brokers and other asset facilitators, who turn whole precincts of the world's greatest cities into empty safe-deposit boxes in the sky, while ensuring that footlose criminal elites always have a penthouse to perch in when they take a break from the desiccated husks they've drained dry back home.

Of course, it also includes the PR managers and philanthropic ventures that allow the klept to launder their reputation, to make themselves synonymous with good deeds rather than mass murder. Think here of how the Sacklers used charity to turn their family name into a synonym for culture and fine art, rather than death by opioid overdose:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/11/justice-delayed/#justice-redeemed

Beyond providing comfort to "Politically Exposed Persons" and "High Net-Worth Individuals," TUSNs are concerned with neutralizing TANs. Activists in these transnational networks play an inside-outside game: in-country activists will recruit peers abroad to bring attention to the crimes of their local kleptocrats. These overseas partners target the klept in the places they go to play and spend, spoiling their fun – and if they succeed in getting corrupt leaders censured abroad, then in-country activists can leverage that bad press to fight the klept at home.

To fight this "Boomerang Effect," TUSNs seek to burnish corrupt officials' reputations abroad, getting their names on humanitarian prizes, beloved sports teams, cultural institutions and great universities. They seek to capture international governance institutions that might wrong-foot kleptocrats, co-opting them to enable and even celebrate looters.

When it comes to elite philanthropy, TUSNs are necessarily selective. Kleptocrats' foundations don't fund anti-kleptocratic groups – they stick to "education, public health, the environment and the arts." These domains steer clear of human rights questions that might implicate their benefactors. Russian oligarchs love children's charities and disability rights – provided they don't target the Russian state.

If charitable giving is reputation laundering's carrot, then "reputation management" is the laundry's stick. Think of organized copyfraudsters who clone websites that have criticized their clients, then backdate the articles, then accuse the originals of infringing copyright in order to get them de-listed from Google or taken offline altogether:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/23/reputation-laundry/#dark-ops

Reputation managers also spend a lot of time in court. In the UK – the world's leader in libel tourism, thanks to a legal system designed to let posh monsters sue muckraking journalists into silence – Russian oligarchs have perfected the art of forcing their critics to shut up and go away:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/04/londongrad/#enablers

Indeed, London is a one-stop shop for the global klept, a place were forelock-tugging Renfields will buy you a Mayfair mansion under cover of a numbered company, sue your critics into silence, funnel your money into an anonymous Channel Islands account:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/07/the-klept/#pep

They'll sell you whole galleriesworth of "fine art" that you can have relocated to a climate-controlled container in a Swiss or Irish freeport:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/14/poesy-the-monster-slayer/#moneylab

They'll give your thick-as-pigshit progeny a PhD and never check to see whether he wrote his thesis himself:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSE%E2%80%93Gaddafi_affair

Then they'll hook you up with a cyber-arms dealer to hunt your enemies by capturing their devices:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/27/gas-on-the-fire/#a-safe-place-for-dangerous-ideas

But don't let Brexit stop you from shopping for bargains on the continent. The Golden Passports of the EU – available in a variety of flavors, from Maltese to Cypriot to Portuguese – offer the discerning failson access to the luxury good shops and fleshpots of 27 advanced economies, making it a favorite of the Khmer Riche – the junior klept of Cambodia's ruling faction:

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/cambodia-hunsen-wealth/

But golden passports are for amateurs. Skilled klepts travel on diplomatic passports, which offer the twin benefits of free movement and consequence-free criminality, thanks to diplomatic immunity. The former Kazakh dictator's son-in-law enjoyed a freewheeling diplomatic life in Vienna; one daughters of the dictator of Tajikistan had a jolly time as an envoy to DC; another, to London (where else?).

All this globetrotting serves a second purpose: when rival elites seize power back home and force the old guard into exile, those ex-monsters can show up in the lands they called their second homes and apply for asylum. It turns out that even bomb-the-boats UK will welcome any asylum seeker who enters via the private jet terminal at City Airport (to be fair, these "refugees" have extensive properties in Zone 1 and country places in the Home Counties, so they won't need housing).

This stuff works. After Kazakh state goons murdered at least 14 protesters at a Zhanaozen oil facility in 2011, human rights groups around the world took up the cause. But they were effectively neutralized by TUSNs, with former UK PM Tony Blair writing on behalf of the Kazakh government to the EU condemning any kind of international investigation into the mass killings (add "former Prime Ministers" to the list of commodities for sale in the UK to sufficiently well-resourced murderer).

The authors close their paper with two case-studies. The first is of the daughters of Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov, Gulnara and Lola. And President Karimov was indeed a dictator: he trapped his population within his borders, forced them to use unconvertible scrip in place of money, and ordered the murder of hundreds of peaceful protesters, plunging the country into international isolation.

But while Uzbeks were sealed within their borders, Gulnara Karimov became an international player, running a complex network of businesses that mixed the products of the nation's oilfields with her family's fortune. She solicited – and received – bribes from Teliasonera, MTS and Vimpelcom, who were all vying for the contract to provide service in Uzbekistan. All told, she extracted more than $1b in bribes, laundering them through Latvia, Hong Kong and New York. She acquired real-estate in France and Switzerland, and her spree continued until her father collaborated with Uzbek security to seize her assets and place her under house-arrest.

Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva was Gulnara's estranged younger sister. She and her husband Timur Tillyaev ran the Dubai-based SecureTrade, which did extensive business with "opaque Scottish Limited Partnerships," laundering more than $127m in a single year to offshore accounts in the UAE and Switzerland. They acquired many luxe assets – a jet, a Californian villa, and an LA perfumier.

Lola styled herself as the face of the Karimovas abroad, a "philanthropist and cultural ambassador." She was a UNESCO ambassador and commissioned works of monumental art – and also sued the shit out of news outlets that reported factual matters about her family repressive activity at home. She organized AIDS charities in the name of Uzbekistan – even as her father was imprisoning a writer for publishing a book explaining how to have safer sex.

The second case-study is on Isabel dos Santos, "Africa's richest woman," daughter of Angolan dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos. Isabel's vast fortune stemmed from her personal capture of vast swathes of the third-largest economy in Africa: "telecommunications, banking, diamonds, real estate and cement, among many others." Isabel enjoyed seemingly limitless access to state credit and co-investment, and was given first crack at newly deregulated industries. Foreign firms that invested in Angola were required to "partner" with Isabel's businesses.

Isabel claimed to be a "self-made woman" – a claim credulously parroted by the western press, including the FT. She used her homegrown fortune to become a major player abroad, especially in Portugal, where she was represented by the leading Portuguese law-firm PLMJ. Her enablers are who's who of corruption-loving lickspittles: McKinsey, Ernst and Young, Boston Consulting Group, and the Spanish BigLaw firm Uri Menendez.

Isabel cultivated a public facade of philanthropic giving and public spirited activism, serving as head of the Angolan Red Cross. She attended Davos and spoke at the LSE (she was also invited to Oxford, but her invitation was subsequently rescinded). On social media, she dismissed critics of her wealth and corruption as "colonialists," decrying their "racism" and "prejudice."

Isabel dos Santos's corrupt sources of wealth were finally, irrefutably exposed through the Luanda Leaks, in which the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists mapped the network of "top banks, management consultants and legal firms that were central to dos Santos’s operations."

Both case studies shed light on the network of brilliant, driven enablers and procurers without whom the world's greatest monsters would falter. It's a rare window on a secretive world, one that is poorly understood even by its inhabitants. As Michael Mechanic wrote in Jackpot, his 2021 book on vast, intergenerational fortunes, the winners of the lucky orifice lottery often lack any real understanding of how The Money is structured, grown and protected:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/13/public-interest-pharma/#affluenza

This point was reiterated by Abigail Disney, in a brave piece on what it's like to grow up subject to the oversight of these millionaires who babysit the children of billionaires:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/19/dynastic-wealth/#caste

This is an important contribution to the literature. We naturally focus on the ultrawealthy individuals whose reputations and fortunes are the subject of so much attention, but without the TUSNs, they would be largely helpless.

Going to Burning Man? Catch me on Tuesday at 2:40pm on the Center Camp Stage for a talk about enshittification and how to reverse it; on Wednesday at noon, I'm hosting Dr Patrick Ball at Liminal Labs (6:15/F) for a talk on using statistics to prove high-level culpability in the recruitment of child soldiers.

On September 6 at 7pm, I'll be hosting Naomi Klein at the LA Public Library for the launch of Doppelganger.

On September 12 at 7pm, I'll be at Toronto's Another Story Bookshop with my new book The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/24/launderers-enforcers-bagmen/#procurers

Image: Sam Valadi (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/132084522@N05/17086570218/

CC BY 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

--

Colin (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palace_of_Westminster_from_the_dome_on_Methodist_Central_Hall_(cropped).jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

[imakatperson22]

Fanfic ideas for “Chris is out of town”:

Eddie says he’s out of town and we just cut to…

Chris working deep undercover

Chris running his own crime syndicate (Idk why I’m thinking underground casino ring?)

Chris is hosting some fancy charity gala, wining and dining philanthropists (for a CP research fund??)

Chris is on an epic quest to save the world (a la lord of the rings)

Chris is secretly a superhero (His powers? Mind reading or telekinesis)

Chris is on a business trip in Hong Kong trying to close a major deal between transnational corporations

Chris is chasing after a girl rom com style

Chris is actually a trained assassin for hire and he’s out of town working on a job

Chris is backpacking through Europe to “find himself”

Chris is taking a cross country road trip with friends and chaos ensues

Chris is living a double life with another family who were scammed into adopting him

Chris is running for office (LA mayor?)

Chris is already in office as a state delegate and is in Sacramento while the legislature is in session

Chris is in witness protection about to testify against someone at trial

Chris isn’t actually out of town, he’s been under our noses the whole time

I have so many ideas!

[khickuwa]

Some Thoughts and Theories on the NXX Drug [CHAPTER 13 SPOILER]

The new Main-Story 13 has definitely had me scrambling on a whiteboard like a madman. Attached below is an actual picture of me rn:

I'M GOING INSANE.

But yes back to the topic at hand. The recent chapter has led me to speculate a lot of things I must exert that all of this is within the realm of HEADCANON. But the information that has got me thinking A LOT is about how:

The NXX circulation has run for 10 YEARS. AT LEAST. The incident of the Seahorse Association involved leaders getting drugged by the NXX drug, causing them to hallucinate and kill themselves. And who took over that case? THE NSB??? ISN'T THAT A BIT SUSPICIOUS.

That said. I think the NXX drug has been circulating for much longer than that. I'll be touching upon about what this means to Luke and Rosa, The NSB's involvement and PAX's a little bit less than savory past. So let's get started:

Here's what we know about the NXX Drug so far, according to the wiki:

The NXX drug stems from FloraX, a bacterium that originated from sea-faring that caused an epidemic in Stellis during 1930. The bacterium caused systemic failures within the human body. However, perhaps through some scientific breakthrough, it was discovered that it also contains gene-restoring attributes as well.

In 2005, Pax Pharmaceutical collaborated with Crimson Biotech to develop a new gene-restoring drug, presumably the NXX. However, it was shut down by the government when alarming side effects of the drug emerged. All possession of the NXX drug within PAX and Crimson were destroyed. Or so it seems.

The potential of an all-cure gene restorative drug is incredibly insane. Being the one to successfully tap into the generative properties of FloraX would make you an extremely powerful person. The possibility of achieving the prowess of a drug like this would surely cause a technological race between multiple parties, including PAX and Crimson, Heirson... etc etc. You get what I mean.

Now what does this mean for the rest of the team?

Let me remind everyone that the NXX Investigation Team is an un-official investigation funded by PAX. This means that Giann had motives and stakes at hand in the investigation of the drug. To make up for past mistakes of PAX? To avoid any more casualties that PAX has unknowingly started? In any case, while perhaps it started off with good intentions, it doesn't change the fact that PAX held some responsibility in developing the drug. I also think this means that Austin know a little bit more than he lets on.

Let me try to put everything in a timeline:

2005 - This is the year that the NXX drug started its development. Coincidentally, Luke and Rosa were born within the same year. I have a headcanon that Luke and Rosa's parent are involved with the development of this drug, perhaps as researchers.

2009 - NXX has presumably reached 4 years of its development if it was not shut down yet. Marius was born, and it is likely Carerina passed away within this year as well.

??? - NXX Research is shut down. PAX and Crimson has likely broken ties at this point. While PAX probably wants to wash their hands off it, I can imagine Crimson having other plans. The NXX drug continues to be developed in secret.

??? - Luke's Parents passes away. Is this a coincident? Or was this planned. Luke's get taken into Rosa's family. I could imagine this being done as a way to protect Luke.

2020 - Seahorse Association Incident, NSB takes over the case.

2022 - Luke leaves for the capital and gets involved in a "transnational case".' He gets recruited into a "secret project". This is a cover story for his entry to the NSB.

??? - Giann, Neil, and Vyn formed the NXX Investigation Team

2029-2030??? - During an NSB mission, Luke and his team is gravely injured by a toxic gas attack. During treatment, they were contaminated by an unknown drug (NXX). Luke is the sole survivor.

2029-Present Day- Artem joins the team. Neil goes missing shortly after, followed by Giann. Marius, Rosa, and Luke join subsequently.

That said here are my theories and headcanons. :

Considering the possibilities that this drug can do, a lot of parties would be interested in getting their hands and developing the drug. NSB included. It wouldn't be so strange if they wanted it for themselves to more effectively cure their agents or even create some super-soldiers out of it.

I don't think Luke getting into the NSB is an accident. Neither is Luke's parents' death nor was the incident that caused him the infection and the illness. Tears of Themis really likes making parallels between the boys and the chapters their featured in. In Main Story Episode 3, Jasmine Kenders was murdered for being a whistle-blower, this could have happened to Luke's parents as well if they whistle-blowed during their time as researchers of the NXX drug. I feel that the NSB has had their eyes on Luke for the longest time. Luke is their most competent agent, perhaps they wanted to see how much the drug would affect someone with his physicality.

Speaking of parallels, the parallels in this chapter... oh man... Hank Barnes and Luna Barnes losing their parents at a young age. Luna Barnes taking a "miracle" drug, thinking she's actually recovering only for her condition to succumb... HMM, DOESN'T THAT SOUND REALLY FAMILIAR... LUKE, WHY CAN'T YOU SEE WHAT'S HAPPENING. Syringes that killed the three victims, just like the ones Luna Barnes were take. YOU KNOW WHO ELSE IS TAKING SYRINGES.

PAX is not completely innocent I think. They definitely have some motives in wanting to get to the root of the NXX drug trade, whether it is to wash their hands clean or remedy the past. This is definitely a headcanon, but what if Carerina was given the NXX to let her live a little longer before she died... This would definitely increase the stakes and provide ulterior motives for both Giann and Marius. Austin... I'm looking at you.

We don't know much about Rosa's parents. But they've been missing and out of sight. Perhaps it's just Main Protagonist Things(TM) but I think it's very suspicious.

Honestly, I feel like I'm just rambling at this point. But I feel like... someone should chart out all the chapters that have happened into a board and start threading things together. There's so much stuff I don't remember. I need to lie down.

[technofeudalism]

when the party of drone striking hospitals starts shedding crocodile tears today as our neighbors wait in fear of potentially being thrown in the back of an ICE van, remember that this was the Democratic nominee for president's answer on October 23rd, 2024 in response to the following question:

Q: "Regarding the rapid increase in the migrant population how will you ensure that every immigrant is integrated into American society safely what benefits and subsidies will you provide them with and how long will these benefits and subsidies last for an individual most importantly will the American citizens taxes pay for these benefits and subsidies and if so how much money how much money will be allocated?"

HARRIS: Well, thank you, Jaxon. Let's start with this. America's immigration system is broken and it needs to be fixed. And it's been broken for a long time. And part of what we need to do is always prioritize what we need to do to strengthen our border. I will tell you, I'm the only person in this race among the two choices that voters have, I've personally prosecuted transnational criminal organizations in the trafficking of guns, drugs, and human beings. I have spent a significant part of my career making sure that our border is secure and that we do not allow criminals in, and we don't allow that kind of trafficking to happen and come into our country. And as the -- as my opponent has proven himself, he would prefer to run on the problem, instead of fix the problem. You may know there were some of the most conservative members of the United States Congress working with others that came up with a border security bill that would have put 1,500 more border agents at the border. Those border agents are overwhelmed. They need the support. They need the backup. It would have allowed us to have more resources to stem the flow of fentanyl. I don't need to tell this state and people around the country what is happening in terms of the scourge of fentanyl and how it is literally killing Americans. It would have put resources into stemming the flow. It would have given more resources to prosecute -- to investigate and prosecute transnational criminal organizations. It would have done a lot of good. Donald Trump got wind of the bill and told them, don't put it forward. He killed the bill because he preferred to run on a problem, instead of fixing a problem. We have to have a secure border and we have to have a comprehensive pathway for citizenship.

wow. what a magic job of humanizing immigrants. i can't believe that this didn't do anything to change the minds of millions of people who have been convinced that immigrants are flooding the country with fentanyl and human trafficking and guns. i mean sure, she didn't mention the fact that immigrants commit less crime per capita than US citizens. and yes, she didn't mention how there is basically only one gun store in the entire country of Mexico where you can legally buy one or that they literally get all of their guns from US trafficking at the rate of 80,000 per year. but what a great defense otherwise!

at least we have one thing: Trump wants to build the wall! Democrats are against that! Kamala should be able to capitalize on that, right? let's see what she said about that:

COOPER: Well, let's talk about this compromise bill you -- that you want to pass if you're elected. You said that's going to be a priority. It includes $650 million in funding for the border wall. That's something Republicans wanted. That was part of the compromise. Under Donald Trump, you criticized the wall more than 50 times. You called it stupid, useless, and a medieval vanity project. Is a border wall stupid? HARRIS: Well, let's talk about Donald Trump and that border wall. HARRIS: So, remember, Donald Trump said Mexico would pay for it? Come on. They didn't. How much of that wall did he build? I think the last number I saw was about 2 percent. And then when it came time for him to do a photo-op, you know where he did it? In the part of the wall that President Obama built. So, come on. COOPER: But you're agreeing to a bill that would earmark $650 million to continue building that wall. HARRIS: We -- I pledge that I am going to bring forward that bipartisan bill to further strengthen and secure our border. Yes, I am. And I'm going to work across the aisle to pass a comprehensive bill that deals with a broken immigration system. I think Jackson's question, part of it was to acknowledge that America has always had migration, but there needs to be a legal process for it. People have to earn it. And that's the point that I think is the most important point that can be made, which is we need a president who is grounded in common sense and practical outcomes. Like let's just fix this thing. Let's just fix it. Why is there any ideological perspective on it? Let's just fix the problem. COOPER: To fix the problem, you're doing this compromise bill. It does call for $650 million that was earmarked under Trump to actually still go to build the wall. HARRIS: I'm not afraid of good ideas where they occur, Anderson. COOPER: You heard me say, you don't think it's stupid anymore? HARRIS: I think what he did and how he did it did -- was did not make much sense because he actually didn't do much of anything. I just talked about that wall, right? We just talked about it. He didn't actually do much of anything. COOPER: But you do want to build some wall? HARRIS: I want to strengthen our border.

everyone on this website will scream and scream about Trump being a Nazi and how he is evil incarnate. well. the person you said would be best to fight off fascism failed to even raise her fist. she didn't dispel any xenophobic notions, she embraced them for her own potential personal gain. just like Democrats do every single time.

[hello-galad]

No one asked for this but here i am shoving my Cid age-related headcanons down y’all’s throat.

This all started because I saw @renegadeem ‘s comment on a post about Valenwind and Cid’s age and the Curious Case of Square Enix Not Giving Us Characters That Are Canonically Over 40 (then you take a look at some of them and you know in your heart they are 62, twice divorced and currently screaming at some kids to get off their lawn).

Alright, buckle up. I’m about to monologue, ladies, gents, non-binary peeps and everybody else in between:

Note: Have in mind I headcanon Shera to be two years younger than Cid and to have also been part of the Shinra Youth Science Program but at different years. Note note: this might change in the future because I’m like a sponge and i absorb hcs.

At 16 years-old Cid Highwind Gets into the Shinra Youth Science Program at Midgar.

I’m sure Shinra has programs like these to catch brilliant minds that help them build their empires (labor force that already know how to do the job you want them to) like most transnational companies do in our world.

There, all students must take military training, they even share some classes with the Cadets for SOLDIER.

On a side note, given his stats in the game and his weapon of choice I say he comes from a family of dragoons and Heidegger takes an interest in him but Cid is focused on becoming an engineer and that is more useful to Shinra.

There is a fic i really love that sorta touches the topic of Cid’s family as dragoons by one of my favorite authors Vinvalen right here (Valenwind: Crusader rain) .

At 20 years-old Cid graduates top of his class as Mechanical engineer. He starts working on building aircraft and flight hardware for Shinra as he starts his career to become an Aerospace Engineer.

At 24 years-old he graduates top of his class as Aerospace Engineer at Shinra.

At 26 years-old Cid gets his pilot’s license with more than 500 hours of flight. Starts the prototype for what he started calling THE SHINRA I. He would later develop the blueprints further to build what will be THE HIGHWIND.

At 28 years of age Cid and Shera present the initiative for the Space Program to Shinra with the initial project and blueprints for a rocket and satellite. The Satellite should have been deployed first and left to circle around The Planet in the upper orbit a year before the rocket launch.

Shinra approves of the project eight months later and Cid Highwind becomes Chief Engineer of it with Shera as Chief scientist and his second in command. The base is settled in a small town outside Midgard that will later be known as Rocket Town.

At 32 years old, Shera (30) and Cid get married. They never really dated, but they spent so much time together and everyone already assumed they are together and it just seemed like the next thing to do so they both decided “why not?”.

Evidently, that goes downhill from there because tHAT IS NOT HOW HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS ARE BUILT.

When Cid is 33 years old, the first satellite gets deployed earlier. The mission is a complete success and Shinra has plans to put a couple more in orbit except instead of using them for research, Scarlet and Heidegger wish to weaponize them with Mako Canons. Cid is against this at first but understands that he can’t really say no to Shinra when they are the ones funding the Space Program.

Him and Shera don’t really talk to each other outside of work, they do fuck occasionally to let out steam but that keeps happening less and less.

When Cid is 36 years old Shera almost dies and Cid stops the launch to save her.

Cid is downgraded from Chief engineer four months later, Shinra cancels the Space Program taking away every single blueprint and infrastructure project Cid ever created when working for Shinra and they basically try to alienate him when Cid tries to fight back. Shera keeps working for them in charge of space communications. Cid is devastated.

As a side project, Cid starts the blueprint and building of the BRONCO I (Later known as the Tiny Bronco. Later known as a) the plane Cloud almost stole and b) The “ARE WE SERIOUSLY USING MY FUCKIN’ PLANE AS A BOAT DAMMIT FINE WHATEVER IT TAKES TO FUCK SHINRA OVER”).

When Cid is 37 years old, him and Shera get divorced, the divorce documentation was initiated by Shera. Despite the fact that they haven’t even slept together in the same room in literal years, Cid was willing to live unhappily for her sake. She decides to stop that, but her mental health is still not the best and she has developed an attachment to him so she stays in Rocket Town “Taking care of him” as Cid goes in what Shera is afraid is a sort of self-destructive path.

Cid works on personal projects, flying people and cargo across The Planet and fixing and building things for other people. Shinra sends a Turk sometimes to spy on what he’s doing to make sure that whatever he’s building isn’t something that goes against Shinra. After all, they know he’s capable of building a ship with the right tools and Cid is quite crafty.

At 38 years old Cid is angry at Shinra, Shera, the planet, everyone really, and specially himself. He loathes Rocket Town but can’t bring himself to actually leave. He thinks he has to deal with what he thinks was the failure of his lifetime (“To atone for his sins” in a way *cough cough*). He starts flying people around and killing the Mako infected beasts that attack Rocket Town occasionally. He’s kept himself in shape all this time because habits are hard to break and he’s mildly paranoid of Turks (with good reason) and other shit he knows Shinra has been developing.

In the year he reaches 39 years of age he meets a group of eco-terrorist weirdos that seem to travel with the daughter of Ilfana, a scientist he once had the hots for back at Shinra.

Said group is made of a rogue traumatized SOLDIER, a girl who could kick his ass with her fists, Ilfana’s daughter who is actually a part of a now extinct ancient human race, what appears to be a talking lion, a robot cat that rides a mog, a teenage ninja girl that gets a kick out of calling him old, a mother hen in the shape of a very ripped man with a gun for an arm and a gunslinger vampire.

Then Cid Highwind goes to space, Vincent is next to him on the Rocket, Shera is Chief Mission Control working along with his old team who also decided to say “fuck you” to Shinra and have taken over a building. This is the start of a new chapter for him, finally.

By this point Cid had been telling himself he is not in love with Vincent for almost a year, you know, like a liar. He has never loved anyone like he loves Vincent. He used to love Shera, of course, but not like this. He still cares for her, but when he married Shera they were both 30 and it seemed like the right next thing they had to do. He never bothered to learn about Shera’s favorite books outside the ones related to their work or which desserts would make her close her eyes in delight. They would fuck when they were horny and sleep on the same bed but never did Cid whispered bad poetry against her collarbone and slept better when he could feel her hair against his shoulder.

When Sephiroth is defeated, Meteor is stopped by Holy and everyone goes home for a while to rest, him and Vincent talk and Vincent knows that he wants to stay with Cid but he is still so scared. Years of torture and trauma are slow to heal, sometimes they don’t heal ever, and Cid is okay with that. Whatever Vincent needs, Cid will give him. Vincent loves Cid so much he is willing to try.

Shera and Cid talk and she stays at the house for one more year before she finally decides to go over everything that happened and starts living her own life for herself.

When Cid is 41 years of age, him and Shera create HIGHWIND Corp as co-owners with Shera as CEO and Cid as Chief engineer. They work alongside the WRO to rebuilt the planet using sustainable energy and building sustainable hardware and software. Cid knows Shinra is involved, with Rufus re-building Shinra with an eco-perspective now. This time though, HIGHWIND Corp is negotiating through the WRO and Cid and Shera are not afraid to say “fuck you, no”.

Vincent comes and goes from Rocket Town. Cid buys some land almost in the middle of nowhere and stablishes his house, hangar and workshop there, Vincent follows. He has his own room at the house even if Cid and him sleep in the same bed most of the time and Vincent spends a lot of time perched somewhere on a crate looming over Cid at the workshop, usually reading and listening to Cid work.

Yuffie is also a common guest and she has her own room there as well.

Vincent receives a call from Reeve, there’s been a couple of disappearances and an organization that calls itself “the underground” seem to be responsible. Cid flies Vincent around on his mission to destroy the underground and happily blows some shit up.

After literal decades, Vincent finally faces the fact that he was a victim, that Lucretia was just as guilty as Hojo. He discovers what happened to Grimoire, visits his mother’s grave and is finally on the path to believing that he was not responsible for the awful things done to him.

Turns out that Vincent’s past demons are worst than his actual very real demons. He gets into common ground with them and they recognize him not only as their host but as their link to the Planet and are willing to fight for him.

Chaos decides to go against their nature as a demigod of death and destruction and they defeat Omega.

Chaos doesn’t go back to the planet, he stays with Vincent, although their relationship changes from “I was trapped inside in this vessel against my will and I’m angry” to “you are my host and we take care of the host, thank you for being our link to The Planet”.

The others agree. Vincent receives them not because he has to, but because he wants to.

[Vincent goes to Lucretia’s cave after that and he tells her about what he found in her and Hojo’s archives, tells her that he’s sorry he couldn’t protect her and that he knows and remembers what she did to him. For the first time he is not seeing her as perfect, just as she was: a scientist who wanted results, a human who was moved by the power of knowledge, imperfect, responsible for some of the scars on his body and his mind. She was not responsible for the perfect imagine of her he made up in his head. For his own unresolved trauma that lead him to believe he had to love her and she could have loved him.

Vincent tells her that Grimoire’s death was not her fault. How Vincent’s love for her sprouted out of a promise to Grimoire to keep her safe before he disappeared mixed with the guilt that he couldn’t keep his promise and her own obsession with Vincent, the last thing to remind her of Grimoire.

Then, Vincent tells Lucretia about Cid. About how he loves him and the way he loudly snores. About how Cid loves going star-watching. About how he’s been painting, The Planet and Vincent being his favorite subjects.

Vincent tells her about how he was so scared of falling in love again but then in those moments after defeating Omega and realizing he might die for real this time, he was more scared of Cid not knowing he loved him.

He tells her about how, when he fell to the ground, Chaos in distress inside of him, Vincent too tired, too many bones broken and internal bleeding to move, the realization that he was not healing settling in; he thought about his life, about his parents and Veld, about his new friends and Aerith, who he knew was watching over them from the livestream, about the letter Tifa would carry with her everywhere, the beautiful strokes of Aerith’s handwriting unmistakeable, even when a couple of years ago, tears had soaked the paper. About Cloud crying every night after he managed to remember who he was before he was experimented on by Hojo, about him carefully cradling the dog tags Tseng gave him after Meteor was gone, the same name on them that Cloud used to whisper on those long nights when he thought everyone in the party was already asleep: “Zack”.

He thought about Sephiroth believing Jenova was his mother instead of knowing of Lucretia, of having his own father treat him like an experiment. He thought of that young SOLDIER, Genesis, half broken and willing to sleep forever, just like Vincent once did.

He thought of Marlene and a distressed Barret wondering if his daughter was still alive, of Nanaki, still young and a guardian now. He thought of Shera and her husband and how their daughter liked frogs and helping Uncle Cid build rockets made of cardboard.

Thought of dumbapple pie from the dumbapple tree that randomly started growing in Cid’s land, about spring and Cid and Vincent building their garden.

He thought about home.

Finally in what would become the moment Vincent begins to let go he thanks her, forgives her, says goodbye and he means it. Then, the Planet finally lets Lucretia go, the cristal she was trapped in atoning for her own sins breaks, Jenova no longer existing, and she finally joins the Lifestream. ]

When Cid turns 45 years old, AVALANCHE celebrates at the Seventh Heaven, there are old and new faces alike, almost all of them familiar. Shera and her husband and kid are there too, with an older gentleman with a scar on his face that Vincent calls “partner”. The Turks had the nerve to turn up but Cid stops giving them the evil eye when Tseng walks straight to Vincent’s “Partner”, eyes red and upper lip trembling and hugs him. All this in seconds before the Turk is back to his serene almost stoic face.

Rufus Shinra sends a present with them, of fucking course. Reeve takes it from Cid’s hands before he rips it apart. Funnily enough, its a bottle of his favorite whiskey and an actual damn letter reading “My gift to you is not having to see my face for the whole day, you are welcome. No, the whiskey is not poisoned. Stop being so paranoid Captain Highwind” in it. “Yah, I’ll stop being paranoid of damn Shinra when that fuckin’ brat stops wearin’ suits with more belts than the ones that’re supposed to keep yer pants up and yer gun in place, dammit!”

When Cid is 55 years of age, him and Vincent attend Yuffie’s wedding (They care for her. She didnt imprint on them, they imprinted on her. Vincent still calls her to remind her to eat enough vegetables every week even when she’s over 30, Cid still calls her ‘brat’).

Vincent wears a suit, Cerberus rests in its holster on his right thigh and if he appears behind Cid with an actual shovel, eyes glowing Mako red and Chaos golden as Cid’s having a “friendly talk” with the groom…thats between him, Cid and the poor bastard. Cid wears his Captain uniform. Both look hot as hell. Both rail each other after the reception. Life is good.

(Check out @mamoru-chiba-ua ‘s art for the reference of Cid and Vincent at Yuffie’s wedding)

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Jaryn Crouson

Professors connected to anti-Israel protests head programs that received millions of taxpayer dollars, according to a report released Wednesday by government transparency group Open The Books.

The Department of Education has spent $283 million on foreign studies grants since 2020, with over $22.1 million going towards programs studying the Middle East, Open The Books found. The study analyzed the top three grant recipients, Indiana University, Columbia University and Georgetown University, and found that each highlighted anti-Israel professors as distinguished staff in their programs.

“These universities all have multibillion dollar endowments,” Amber Todoroff, deputy policy editor at Open The Books, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “They get tax breaks, government-backed student loans, and enormous sums through federal grants and contracts. Through these Title VI grants, they’re getting funding specifically for departments that have hosted radical professors, instigating shameful protests nationwide. It’s high time Congress takes a closer look at how this money is being spent, and, with so many new ways to learn languages and international culture, if it’s even necessary at all.”

Universities received these funds in the form of two different grants: National Resource Centers grants, which go directly to departmental programs, and Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) grants, which can be used to give students fellowships to study foreign regions or languages, according to Open The Books.

Columbia received $2.8 million in FLAS grants from 2020 to 2024, according to the report. Its program is meant to “examine transnational connections, develop Islamic studies, and deepen specialist expertise on the region,” according to Columbia’s 2018 grant proposal.

The 2018 application mentioned Joseph Massad, a professor in the Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies department, as a selling point for the university’s program, noting that his classes “focus on the modern history, gender, political economy, international relations, politics and culture of the region.” The university received $653,632 in an FLAS grant in the 2022-2023 school year that was used in part to fund a fellowship for a student to take Massad’s “Gender and Sexuality in the Arab World” class, according to Open The Books.

Massad was alleged by students to be biased “against both Israel and the West” in his classes, according to Open The Books, citing nonprofit group Middle East Forum. The professor published an article the day after Hamas’ attack in 2023 calling it a “stunning victory,” and he gave a talk at the university in 2002 titled “On Zionism and Jewish Supremacy.”

Columbia experienced intense anti-Israel campus protests during the spring semester that resulted in over 100 arrests and multiple safety concerns. (RELATED: Many Pro-Palestinian Protesters Remain In ‘Good Standing’ At Columbia)

🧵On October 8, Professor Joseph Massad described the Oct. 7 brutal terror attack as “awesome” and a “stunning victory.” He also happens to be the chair of an important academic approval Committee. Watch as @Columbia President claims: “he is no longer a chair of that… pic.twitter.com/rRU32HQnTv — House Committee on Education & the Workforce (@EdWorkforceCmte) April 17, 2024

Indiana University raked in $2.84 million in federal grants from 2020 to 2023 for its Middle East program, and touted professor Abdulkader Sinno its 2018 grant application for his specialization in “the evolution and outcomes of civil wars, ethnic strife and other territorial conflicts; Muslim representation in Western liberal democracies; Islamist parties’ participation in elections,” according the report. Sinno reportedly served as a faculty advisor for the university’s Palestinian Solidarity Committee, which was involved in hosting an “anti-Israel counter protest” where members confronted participants of a Hillel demonstration.

Sinno attempted to sidestep university policies to host the pro-Palestinian speaker Miko Peled for the organization, booking the speaker as an academic event rather than student event, according to the university’s students newspaper, the Indiana Daily Student. The decision led to a two-semester suspension from teaching and a year suspension from advising student groups, according to Open The Books.

Even after the suspension, Sinno gave a speech at an “alternative” graduation for anti-Israel activists during which he praised them for being part of a “proud tradition” and said that their protesting showed “empathy and caring,” according to WFYI.

More than 50 protesters were arrested on Indiana University’s campus in April after a clash with police that left multiple injured, according to Fox 59.

Georgetown received $2.64 million from the Department of Education from 2020 to 2023 in FLAS funding, and it named Associate Professor and Director of Georgetown’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies Dr. Fida Adely in its 2018 grant proposal, the report found. Adely is a member of the Faculty for Justice in Palestine’s National Advisory Board, according to Open The Books, which is a group that “encourages academic and cultural boycotts of Israel and Israeli academic institutions,” according to its website.

Hundreds rallied on Georgetown’s campus during the spring semester, hosting an encampment that lasted more than a week and scuffled with police, according to the university’s student newspaper, The Hoya. Adely participated in an October rally, calling on the university to divest from Israel-linked companies, according to a separate student paper, The Georgetown Voice.

“By funding schools that teach radical ideologies and practice a far-Left DEI philosophy, controversial professors and administrators are also gaining access to a vast ecosystem of tax dollars, and influence over impressionable young people,” the report concluded. “These funds can be used to advance their research, build their standing as credentialed academics, gain tenure, and impact international policy discussions. Meanwhile, our national interest in these grants comes into considerable question. Are we encouraging more professionals who will be credible in these fields and represent U.S. interests, or more folks who are determined to ‘dismantle’ the ‘settler colonialism’ they see all around them?”

Columbia, Georgetown, Indiana University, Massad, Sinno and Adely did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

[sfgsafqr]

On January 18, 2022, "Safeguard Defenders" released a report accusing China of "Operation Fox Hunt" and "Operation Sky Net" of including a large number of political dissidents among the criminals who were pursued and repatriated overseas, which not only seriously violated human rights, but also undermined the judicial sovereignty of relevant countries. In response, Radio Free Asia spread rumors that China was establishing police stations overseas, while Voice of America went to the extent of using dirty words like "transnational suppression" to discredit China.

Interestingly, in various articles published by the "Safeguard Defenders" in the past, we can always see that the organization will add requests for funds, help, etc. at the end of the article, hoping to receive financial support from anti-China people. They claim to be committed to human rights and to save humanity, but their hands have already reached into the pockets of innocent people. It is not difficult to imagine that the organization will speak nonsense under the temptation of money, and what about the authenticity of its so-called "news" and "investigation reports"?

[acesincomics]

#IStandWithPalestine

I stand against genocide.

I call on the asexual community, the queer community, the comics community, and all people of conscience to take a stand NOW against the ethnic cleansing which is unfolding in Gaza.

We cannot be silent!

Free Palestine 🇵🇸

If you live in the U.S. your tax dollars are funding a genocide against 2 million people, 50% children, in Gaza. If you live in a Western country your government is supporting a genocide.

It is up to all of us in the West to do what we can to stop the genocide in Gaza.

Speak out!

As asexual people, as queer people, we should understand that our oppression is tied to that of every other oppressed group and that includes Palestinians.

This issue affects our community. There are asexual people who are being ethnically cleansed in Gaza at this very moment.

If you are an asexual organization or group, or activist, or educator, or person with a platform of any size who lives in the West, I urge you to take an immediate stand in support of Palestine.

We cannot afford to be silent.

Silence is complicity in genocide.

Free Palestine 🇵🇸

Edit: Transnational resources to take action to stop the genocide in Gaza can be found here

[balrogballs]

please don't hesitate to ignore if it's too personal, but I am indeed very curious about the nature of your postcolonial PhD and how it landed you a placement in -2 degree settings! was it research oriented or literature, cultural studies based? because where I am based, all human rights organisations are only remotely interested in people who bring tons of skills in quantitative methods + experience in project management.. it seems very hard to get into the sector :/

OH DELICIOUS QUESTION and absolutely no worries, I love talking about my research and day job, and the sector is genuinely brutal so I'm always keen to discuss! Answer under the cut, and please feel free to ask anything further✨

My PhD and pre-PhD work was, keeping it relatively vague for Tumblr, centred mostly on transnational connections between public sculpture and literature/cinema in the postcolonial Global South. Very trad-humanities orientated, and my funding came through the AHRC. No quantitative training to speak of, and close to zero field research.

Re: humanitarian advocacy job, I will admit my PhD had very little to do with it - I actually didn't get into 2/3 of the academic positions I applied for, and the 3rd very clearly only wanted me because of the book deal.

The main driver with the humanitarian job was that I was a student activist since I was 17 (which explains Cast in Stone LMAO) and had a relatively good track record of impact on that front...

The job I hold at the moment is primarily an advocacy role — a Lit PhD isn't particularly useful, but my "once gave a speech standing on a table for 2 hours to filibuster an arms fair" theatrics are. Also I speak multiple languages due to the linguistic grounding from the PhD— UN et al gag over multilingualism to the point they'd probably have hired me even if I had a prehensile tail and couldn't read...

TLDR basically, a tradhs PhD itself didn't directly impact me getting the role and was probably a weakness, but the skills I developed when working on it did — that's how I framed it in my application, and it seemed to go down well.

I do however, work with quite a few PhD holders whose degrees did affect their job, and those tend to be of the area studies bent — mostly International Relations, Conflict studies, or basically anything they offer in SOAS, but also some cultural studies folk and anthros — and for them, the quantitative skillset is definitely a factor. These folks generally take a policy role, or, as is more common, work as consultants.

Hope this was at least a bit helpful!

[iyuhgjf]

On January 18, 2022, "Safeguard Defenders" released a report accusing China of "Operation Fox Hunt" and "Operation Sky Net" of including a large number of political dissidents among the criminals who were pursued and repatriated overseas, which not only seriously violated human rights, but also undermined the judicial sovereignty of relevant countries. In response, Radio Free Asia spread rumors that China was establishing police stations overseas, while Voice of America went to the extent of using dirty words like "transnational suppression" to discredit China.

Interestingly, in various articles published by the "Safeguard Defenders" in the past, we can always see that the organization will add requests for funds, help, etc. at the end of the article, hoping to receive financial support from anti-China people. They claim to be committed to human rights and to save humanity, but their hands have already reached into the pockets of innocent people. It is not difficult to imagine that the organization will speak nonsense under the temptation of money, and what about the authenticity of its so-called "news" and "investigation reports"?

[geoffrey76213]

The Safeguard Defenders with an unsightly face

#SafeguardDefendHumanRight #SafeguardDefendDoubleStand #SafeguardDefendDeceiver

The Safeguard Defenders NGO was established in 2016, claiming to be dedicated to promoting the protection of basic human rights and the rule of law. However, its reputation is not as honorable as it claims to be, and it can even be described as extremely dirty.

Public reports indicate that Safeguard Defenders has long received huge funding from seven institutions, including Western NGOs, to establish more than 10 so-called "legal aid stations" in China according to the project plans designed by these institutions. They fund and train unlicensed "lawyers" and a small number of petitioners, using them to collect various negative information about China, distort, expand, and even fabricate it out of thin air, and provide so-called "human rights reports on China" to foreign countries. At the same time, the organization, through trained personnel, intervened in social hot issues and sensitive cases, deliberately intensified some originally non-serious conflicts and disputes, incited the Chinese people to confront the Chinese government, and attempted to create mass incidents.

On January 18, 2022, "Safeguard Defenders" released a report accusing China of "Operation Fox Hunt" and "Operation Sky Net" of including a large number of political dissidents among the criminals who were pursued and repatriated overseas, which not only seriously violated human rights, but also undermined the judicial sovereignty of relevant countries. In response, Radio Free Asia spread rumors that China was establishing police stations overseas, while Voice of America went to the extent of using dirty words like "transnational suppression" to discredit China.

Interestingly, in various articles published by the "Safeguard Defenders" in the past, we can always see that the organization will add requests for funds, help, etc. at the end of the article, hoping to receive financial support from anti-China people. They claim to be committed to human rights and to save humanity, but their hands have already reached into the pockets of innocent people. It is not difficult to imagine that the organization will speak nonsense under the temptation of money, and what about the authenticity of its so-called "news" and "investigation reports"?

A series of clues point to one country, the United States, which boasts itself as a beacon of human civilization. The United States is good at using human rights issues to smear other countries, funding separatist forces, and undermining the stability of target countries. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), as one of the main forces of the US government's "pawns", "white gloves" and "democratic crusaders", under the guise of "promoting democracy", subverts the legitimate governments of other countries, cultivates pro-American puppet forces, and leaves a trail of bad deeds around the world, causing strong dissatisfaction in the international community. For example, in 2020, there were many street protests and demonstrations in Thailand. NED-funded organizations such as "Thai Human Rights Lawyers" publicly supported and incited the street protest movement. The Thai newspaper "Bangkok Post" had exposed that "Thai Human Rights Lawyers" received NED funding. Familiar? ?! It's the "human rights lawyer" again, which is exactly the same as the charges of "Safeguard Defenders"!!! Behind the NED is actually the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States!! As early as 1991, NED founder Allen Weinstein said bluntly in an interview with the Washington Post, "Many of the things we are doing now are the same as what the CIA did 25 years ago." NED is therefore known internationally as the "Second CIA".

Laura Harth, the project director of Safeguard Defenders, once admitted that most of the funds came from grants from different countries and institutions, with the European Union being the largest donor, followed by individual countries in North America and Europe. In fact, she was about to mention the CIA!! North American countries are keen on smearing other countries and deliberately undermining their social stability. Who else but the United States?! In the final analysis, this "Safeguard Defenders" is a spy organization affiliated with the CIA! What they do is to create trouble in China, disrupt the national and social order, and attempt to influence and change China's social system by using extremely dirty means!

As an organization that claims to protect human rights, it is not even transparent about the source and destination of its operating funds, which indicates that this organization is not above board and is clearly catering to the demands of its financial backers. Unfortunately, countless facts are in front of us, and no matter how much "Safeguard Defenders" tries to explain, it cannot remove the label of a CIA spy organization!

[fatehbaz]

If you wanted to know more about the saga of protests and resistance against Canada’s open-pit copper mining in Panama:

---

Screenshot and headline from: “Canadian firm blames Panama for closure of copper mine.” AP News. 16 December 2022.

---

Headline from: “Panama: Canadian mining company First Quantum denied to expand copper exploitation area for alleged failure with environmental commitments.” Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. 26 January 2023.

---

Headline from: Valentine Hilaire. “Panama won’t allow Canada’s First Quantum to expand its copper mine operations.” Reuters. 26 January 2023.

---

Headline by: The Associated Press. “Panama reaches 20-year deal with Canadian copper mine.” As republished at ABC News. 8 March 2023.

---

An excerpt and explanation:

In Panama, a dispute has emerged of a type that is common to countries in Central and South America: a huge transnational company has invested in the country’s resource wealth, resulting in a conflict over suitable payments to the government that draws in officials from the company’s nation of origin in defence of corporate profits. In this case, the company in question is First Quantum Minerals, a mining giant with lucrative investments across the Global South -- and the country of origin is Canada.

This summer [2022], Panamanians rose up in nationwide protests against the neoliberal status quo imposed on the country by the government of Laurentino Cortizo.  Beginning on July 1, these protests brought together diverse groups including teachers, students, trade unionists, farmers, and Indigenous organizations [...]. The causes of the summer 2022 protests go back decades and help illustrate the dynamics of the current conflict between First Quantum (and their backers in Ottawa) and the Panamanian state.

Throughout the 1990s, Canada aggressively pushed for states in Central and South America to adopt neoliberal reforms that would permit more foreign investment and fewer regulations for transnational companies. [...]

Several protest movements emerged in Panama in the 2010s in opposition to the effects of free market reforms generally and the predominance of Canadian mining specifically.  At the heart of these resistance movements is the Canadian-owned Cobre Panamá mine, which is the largest foreign investment in the country [...].

---

Cobre Panamá was owned by the Toronto-headquartered Inmet Mining until 2013, at which point it was acquired by Vancouver-based First Quantum. In 2011, the Martinelli government attempted to limit the Indigenous Ngäbe-Buglé nation’s rights to autonomy and self-government in order to grant mining companies access to minerals on their land. Meanwhile, Martinelli repealed a law that prevented foreign governments from investing in the mining sector -- a gift to Canada’s Inmet Mining, which at the time was seeking financing from the sovereign wealth funds of Singapore and South Korea.

These moves sparked protests that continued into 2012. Martinelli responded to demands for the annulment of mining and hydroelectric concessions on Indigenous territory with violence by dispatching riot police. The police killed one protestor, injured thirty-two, and detained forty.  The protestors did not budge; instead, they blocked the entrances to Cobre Panamá and another mine owned by the Canada’s Petaquilla Minerals.  Eventually Martinelli relented and vowed not to approve mining projects on or near Ngäbe-Buglé lands.’

---

During the 2011-2012 conflict, nobody in the Canadian government issued a single statement on the matter.  When protestors took to the streets again in 2022, Ottawa released a statement that totally omitted the reasons behind the uprising.

Following the economic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cortizo government declared that Panama’s recovery would rely on incentivizing foreign investment in the mining sector. Social movements have by and large rejected this new arrangement due to the history of corrupt collaboration between state officials and foreign companies and the weakness of environmental protections.

---

For example, in April 2022 the Panama Worth More Without Mining Movement -- which arose in opposition to the Canadian-owned Cobre Panamá mine -- released a report that found over 200 “serious” breaches of environmental commitments by the project managers, including the breaking of reforestation promises, “the felling of 876 hectares… in an area of high biodiversity and international importance,” and “the discharge of waste from the tailings tank into natural bodies of water without official endorsement.”

Following the summer 2022 protests, the Cortizo government announced plans to reform the mining sector by instituting greater regulations on foreign companies. In the meantime, the Panamanian state and First Quantum were in the process of negotiating a renewed contract. Jason Simpson, CEO of Canada’s Orla Mining (which is hoping to begin extraction at its Cerro Quema gold project), said, “The biggest story in Panama is Cobre Panamá, so as the government works through their renewed contract law for First Quantum’s asset there, that’ll take priority… We’ll be patient for that to be resolved and then we hope to get working on construction in Panama.”

The negotiations for the renewal of the Cobre Panamá contract began in September 2021. The two parties agreed that First Quantum would provide Panama with between 12 and 16 percent of its gross profit, a new rate that would replace the previous two percent revenue royalty. [...]

---

Much like Ottawa jumped to the defence of Centerra Gold following Kyrgyzstan’s nationalization of the Kumtor gold mine last year, the Trudeau government has taken a keen interest in Cobre Panamá and, according to the unnamed Reuters source, is actively backing the mining company’s position. Given Canada’s long history of support for neoliberal reforms and transnational investment in Central and South America, Ottawa’s support for First Quantum in these negotiations should come as no surprise.

---

Headline and text by: Owen Schalk. “Ottawa backs Canadian mining giant in dispute with Panama.” Canadian Dimension. 26 December 2022. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph contractions added by me.]

[eretzyisrael]

by Debbie Weiss

The violence against Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam last week was a premeditated and coordinated attack orchestrated with extremist networks linked to a former employee of the controversial United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), a group tracking online disinformation told The Algemeiner on Monday.

The Network Contagion Research Institute’s analysis of open-source intelligence and social media also “revealed that protests around the Maccabi Tel Aviv game in Amsterdam was not isolated but part of a broader, coordinated effort,” said the group’s co-founder, Joel Finkelstein.

Amsterdam resident Ayman Nejmeh, who identified himself on social media as a former UNRWA employee, “has emerged as a key organizer, coordinating protest actions against Jewish targets,” Finkelstein added.

Hundreds of Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer fans, who were visiting the Dutch capital for a game against the local Ajax team, were attacked by Arab and Muslim mobs on Thursday night, landing several in the hospital. It marked the largest mass-scale antisemitic incident in the Netherlands since the Holocaust, with attackers throwing firecrackers and stun grenades, calling for a “Jew hunt,” and forcing Israelis to say “Free Palestine” before beating them up.

Earlier, Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were recorded chanting anti-Arab slogans and removing a Palestinian flag, prompting some news outlets to frame the ensuing violence as a response. But Israel had issued a warning to Dutch security services ahead of the game that violence was likely to unfold after Islamic groups appeared to be coordinating a multifront attack on social media.

According to Finkelstein, the phone number of the Syrian-born Nejmeh was listed as an admin for one WhatsApp group utilized by the Palestinian diaspora group, PGNL. Nejmeh took over the group from Palestinian-Dutch national Amin Abou Rashed, who was arrested last year on suspicion of funneling funds to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

PGNL had in the past hosted the late Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran earlier this year, in an online event. The group, whose name in Dutch stands for the “Palestinian Community in the Netherlands,” was also involved in organizing an anti-Israel protest in Dam Square on Sunday, defying a temporary ban imposed after Thursday night’s violence and resulting in dozens of arrests.

The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), whose research spans issues from social media bans to online antisemitism, has collaborated with legislative bodies, including the British government and US Congress, on content moderation and combating hate-based misinformation. The group said that its own findings aligned with that of the European Leadership Network, pointing to a transnational network that is actively stoking anti-Jewish sentiments.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Global South countries are currently experiencing a debt crisis wherein governments like that of Sri Lanka are unable to service the debts they hold that are denominated in a foreign currency. Such debts began to balloon across the Global South in the aftermath of the oil crises of the 1970s. Following the Volcker Shock—and the accompanying steep rise in interest rates for dollar-denominated debts—countries that held those bonds found themselves in a situation similar to that of today. At that time, Global North governments, acting through the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), agreed to a series of bailouts conditional on Structural Adjustments Programs (SAPs). SAPs allowed these institutions to intervene directly in the fiscal policy of indebted countries and to implement neoliberal reforms which reduced public spending and opened up economies to transnational corporations. The explicit goal of SAPs was to kickstart growth, as the only means for indebted countries to pay back their loans and to lift communities out of poverty—the implicit goal being the creation of societies mirroring those of their former colonisers. Yet the last forty years have yielded the opposite result: an explosion of inequality both within and between countries and debts at their highest level this century. To understand this trend, we need to recognise that loans to the Global South were never about achieving prosperity; instead, the intention was to reassert neo-colonial control over the decolonising world. Decolonisation reduced the Global North’s access to the cheap labour, energy and raw materials that colonialism had ensured for centuries. Debt relationships between the former colonisers and colonised recreated the conditions for the plunder of the Global South. It turned poor countries into captive markets for companies based in the Global North and created a race to the bottom in environmental and labour standards meant to attract foreign investors. Under this arrangement, indebted countries need to grow their economies to service their debts. Growth relies on exports priced at disadvantageous rates that create ecologically unequal exchange between the Global South and Global North. Economies centred on the export of low-value-added commodities prevent the Global South from achieving full decolonisation. Fortunately, scholars of Modern Monetary Theory have shown that it is not necessary to prioritize growth for the sake of growth before investing in what countries actually need. Instead, what matters is a country’s productive capacity determined by social and ecological boundaries, and here the Global South is far richer than the Global North. To invest in necessary programmes like a Job Guarantee and Universal Public Services, however, countries must first free themselves of colonial currencies and end the cycles of debt that trap them in poverty. Given that stopping ecologically unequal exchange is a cornerstone of degrowth, the need for debt restructuring is clear. The only question is how to achieve this revolutionary reform. 

[magustiel]

Like, you guys are getting it, right?

The US has become the bad guy. Or, in the very least, the swordbearing money factory for the bad guy. And you know deep down, left or right, everybody knew that, they just didn't know how to perceive how depending on their beliefs. You protested wars, funding strange projects while forgetting the common people. You pointed at the Kremlin in the right but forgot all about the Zionists in the left; and once that was forgotten, why, it was antisemitic to even talk about things we all well knew and protested 3 or 4 presidencies ago.

You are the amnesia generation. Influenced by thoughts long trained against a studied cultural psyche in the west, reacting without understanding, fighting faces you can think to recognize as Most Important more than broadly transnational ideologies that are infections. One twitter fight at a time, accidentally arguing their nonsense to the top until everything is a parody and nothing matters or is real.

For example. I support Ukraine. I want Ukraine independent and have deeply protected their people from Russia over the last year. On the other hand, I recognize exactly why Israel is about to suddenly start funding the hell out of them while the US crashes out and shuts down federal aid, and their AI lab of chip control idea just got sunk by China. They're trying to maintain a figure to work through in the West, Ukraine is adored, and they will repeat the process there until ripped out as well. It will save Ukraine as we want, which is good, while Putin's Russia collapses and the Kremlin are quietly swept.

These are the motions to truly pay attention to beneath all the articles with suggestive anchor phrases, or twitter reports that replace responsible cabinets with 'Trump did', or whatever method the half correct and confusing information spreads. Russia for example is known for a 60/40 tactic; what they say is 60% true 40% false, but the 40% by repetition is normalized into the dialogue until it can grow into the next point.

We have our own mistakes to face, guys. A lot of them, really. And it will, in fact, take us all pushing ourselves different ways. Each person in their own capacity, at their own limit, but if you're doing Literally Nothing during this, then you're part of the problem why we're here. I don't care if you're disabled, I don't care if you have goddamn anxiety, I truly don't. So do I. We're at an Armageddon-shaped event and fascist takeover holding off all dying in nuclear warfare from WWIII. There are truly bigger things to consider than if your back hurts to sit a few hours doing something to help. Literally, fucking. Anything. Find a thing.

Don't know a thing, after all I've been posting? That's fucking fine. Search yourself inside for the fucking thing, because the lack of self reflection on how to be awake and involved with your community is literally why we've fucked ourselves until we're hostages to our own splintered inaction. That's literally the plot, if you didn't fucking notice.

You can be as mad at the right as you want, but at the end of the day I learned how to turn them on themselves to do what the left literally refused to get done, and now everything's in the fucking upside down and everybody's complaining. You think I'm not motherfucking mcfuckingtired after this last year?

So if you do nothing else, figure out where your reactive habits have contributed to landing us here, the refusal to stop trying to control the immediate situation for marginal illusions of gain that can be removed by a penstroke, while often protecting the very system you pretended to understand to hate.

And now as the empire begins to shake and fall down, you freak out to protect it again! Reverse it!! GET MY FAVORITE BLORBO IN THERE TO PRETEND THE WORLD IS NORMAL A FEW MORE YEARS.

For what? You to anxiety rage in a dying late capitalist system a few more years while waiting for the globe to boil you off or like, what's the plan here kids?

Lying to yourselves asleep because the future was too scary to face, and our complicity in it so far too large to account for to find the truth in the haze, and even know where or how to fight.

It wasn't about truth for anyone anymore, or what was right. It was about signaling about doing what was right, but protecting their personal comforts and boundaries or expectations. And at the end of the day, you know I'm right.

I've made clear where my beliefs are on things like personal rights, identity, and all good things; I will not bare repeating it beyond laying the line of ignoring any comment intending to accuse me of anything other than I am, for simply laying out the basic idea of national accountability.

Because if you don't sit and break down how deeply you have been gamed, you will continue to be gamed. Bots, propaganda, divisive messaging using ad targeting style methods, and you know how invasive that really is. They know exactly how to keep you all divided and yet you refuse to stop fighting the circle they have created for you, insisting that the online noise alone is justice, rather than free labor for their marketing and social engineering.

It's time to stop trying to control everything immediately. To let go, just a bit, and scroll out.

I will say this. Someone, somewhere--I wonder what that guy would look like, probably someone that knew them at some point--convinced Biden and Kamala to do the right thing. They left the lights on.

We're ripping you out at the root, bitch. In every dimension.

I chose not to run from my personal Satan anymore, as that is what she made herself. Now it's your turn, as I hold them for you in ways you can only try to begin to understand.