#accounting and finance training institute

[gtiaindia]

Top-Rated Accounting & Finance Courses in Kolkata | 100% Job Guaranteed

Enroll in top-rated Accounting & Finance courses in Kolkata. Join the best accounts training institute offering comprehensive accounting training and accounts courses for your career growth.

[thegeorgetelegraph]

Get The Best Certificate Accounting and Finance Course in Kolkata

If you are looking for the best financial accounting training college in kolkata for your finance and accounting courses? then you should visit at George Telegraph now for your professional diploma certificate courses.

https://www.georgetelegraph.com/accounts-and-finance-department.aspx

[vibeeducationae]

Are you looking to launch a career in the exciting and ever-changing field of information technology? A UK diploma in information technology can provide you with the skills and knowledge you need to succeed in this rapidly growing industry.

[eleganttrainingcenter]

Benefits of Taking a Graphic Designing Course in Dubai - Elegant Training Institute

    Graphic design is a crucial component in today's world, where visual communication is key. The Elegant Training Center of this course involves creating and combining symbols, images, and text to convey a message to a target audience. The importance of graphic design has led to the emergence of numerous graphic design courses across the world. 

One of the major hubs for Graphic Design Education and Training in Dubai. Dubai offers a variety of graphic designing courses that are recognized worldwide and offer students the opportunity to learn from industry professionals. 

Benefits of taking a Graphic Designing Course in Dubai

There are several benefits of taking a Graphic Designing Course in Dubai

Some of these benefits include:

Access to Industry Professionals: Dubai is home to many multinational companies that are actively involved in the design industry. By studying graphic design in Dubai, students have access to a wide range of industry professionals. This means that they can learn from the best in the business and gain valuable insights into the industry.

Exposure to Global Design Trends: Dubai is a multicultural city that attracts people from all over the world. This means that students studying graphic design in Dubai get exposed to global design trends. This exposure is important as it helps students to keep up with the latest design trends and techniques.

Multicultural Learning Environment: Dubai is a diverse city with people from different parts of the world. This means that Students studying Graphic Designing Course in Dubai get to interact with people from different cultures and backgrounds. This multicultural learning environment is important as it helps students to appreciate diversity and develop a global perspective.

Recognition of International Certifications: Dubai is known for its high standards of education. Therefore, graphic designing courses offered in Dubai are recognized worldwide. This recognition is important as it increases the employability of students who complete their courses in Dubai.

Opportunities for Networking: Dubai is a hub for design-related events such as conferences and exhibitions. By studying Graphic Designing Course in Dubai, students have opportunities to attend these events and network with professionals in the industry. This networking is important as it can lead to job opportunities and collaborations in the future.

In conclusion, studying graphic design in Dubai offers numerous benefits that can lead to a successful career in the design industry. From access to industry professionals to exposure to global design trends, Dubai is a great place to learn graphic design.

In conclusion, these are some of the top graphic designing courses in Dubai. Each course is designed to equip students with the skills needed to succeed in the graphic design industry. It is important to choose a course that aligns with your career goals and interests.

Career Opportunities

Graphic design is a crucial component in today's world, where visual communication is key. A career in graphic design can be both challenging and rewarding. Dubai offers a variety of career opportunities for graphic designers. Some of the career opportunities in graphic design in Dubai include:

Graphic Designer: A graphic designer creates visual concepts using computer software or by hand. They develop the overall layout and production design for advertisements, brochures, magazines, and corporate reports. Graphic designers can work in design agencies, advertising agencies, or in-house design teams.

Web Designer: A web designer is responsible for creating visually appealing and user-friendly websites. They use various software and tools to create the design and layout of a website.

Multimedia Designer: A multimedia designer creates visual and audio content for use in various media, such as websites, advertisements, and video games. They use computer software to create and edit images, audio, and video.

Brand Identity Designer: A brand identity designer is responsible for creating a visual identity for a company or product. They create logos, typography, and color schemes that represent the company or product.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Dubai is a great place to pursue a career in graphic design. Dubai offers several courses that are recognized worldwide, providing students with access to the best education and industry professionals. Studying graphic design in Dubai also offers a multicultural learning environment, exposure to global design trends, and opportunities for networking.

The city provides a range of career opportunities in graphic design, including graphic designers, art directors, web designers, multimedia designers, packaging designers, and brand identity designers. Pursuing a career in Graphic Designing Course in Dubai can be both challenging and rewarding. 

For more details visit our website: Graphic Designing Course in Dubai

Contact: +971 54 749 5664

Address: Office Number 620, Al Attar Business Center, Beside Ibis Hotel, Al Barsha 1 Near Mashreq Metro Station, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai, UAE

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElegantTrainingAE/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EPMDTDUBAI

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eleganttraining/

[queer-scots-geordie-dyke]

I've posted about this before but in the current climate, especially, a signal boost can only be a good thing.

There is an excellent organisation here in the UK that I have an ongoing donation to, Campaign Against Antisemitism.

From their website:

"HOW WE FIGHT ANTISEMITISM

Campaign Against Antisemitism consists of eight directorates which collaborate closely to expose and counter antisemitism through education and zero-tolerance enforcement of the law:

1. Investigations and Enforcement

We work closely with police forces around the country, the Crown Prosecution Service, regulatory bodies and the government to ensure that antisemitism is detected, investigated and punished with the full force of the law. We focus on criminal antisemitism and antisemitic acts committed by professionals or institutions which are subject to special regulation, such as lawyers, teachers, sportspeople and charities. We also provide training and advice to the authorities, whilst also scrutinising their performance and holding them to account when they fall short.

2. Awareness and Communication

Working closely with senior journalists and advertising professionals, we run proactive campaigns to ensure that the public is aware of anti-Jewish racism and the immense societal danger that it poses. Through our advocacy work we seek to mobilise public support for the fight against antisemitism, whilst also generating pressure on the authorities to pursue a policy of zero tolerance for antisemitism. We also provide information and comment to the media through our media centre.

3. Outreach and Education

We strive to reduce anti-Jewish prejudice by providing education and training to all in society who wish to find out more about being Jewish, antisemitism, and fighting racism. We also reach out to other minority communities and anti-racist groups so that we can work to strengthen each other.

4. Public Affairs

We have forged links with the government, local authorities, regulators, police forces and the Crown Prosecution Service, as well as with companies such as the major social networks. We meet at the highest levels to tackle the roots of antisemitism and ensure that the law is upheld effectively, consistently and firmly.

5. Mobilisation

Antisemitism is a societal problem and we believe that individuals should be at the forefront of the fight against antisemitism. We recruit, train and mobilise volunteers, empowering them to leverage their talent and expertise against antisemitism.

6. Litigation

We have recruited some of Britain’s most formidable and acclaimed legal minds. Our lawyers give their time to provide guidance on specific cases and also takes action to hold the authorities and private companies to account when they fail to act against antisemitism effectively. Our legal experts include specialists in criminal law, charity law, regulatory law, administrative law, employment law, media law and litigation.

7. Organisation and Finance

Our volunteers need central support in every area from systems administration to finance. Working with senior professionals, we ensure that our volunteers receive the support they need, and that our charity complies strictly with regulatory and financial requirements.

8. Fundraising

We are proud to operate with extremely low overheads, relying almost entirely on volunteers, however our work costs money, whether it is to pay court fees when we litigate, or to commission important research. We fundraise throughout the year to raise the sums needed to enable our work to continue."

They also have a podcast that recently aired its 100th episode, that I highly recommend. They talk about the current work they're doing, media bias, representation, and over 5 seasons have included interviews with Jewish public figures, Holocaust survivors, and more recently, survivors of Oct. 7 and family members of hostages:

https://antisemitism.org/podcast/

[ptseti]

NIGERIAN MINISTER DROPS BOKO HARAM USAID BOMBSHELL

On 18 February, former Nigerian Foreign Minister Bolaji Akinyemi dropped a bombshell amidst revelations that the recently dismantled US International Agency for Development (USAID) had allegedly been funding terrorist groups like Boko Haram.

Akinyemi told Nigerian TV network Arise News that during an investigation into Boko Haram’s reign of terror in northeastern Nigeria, villagers reported seeing foreign pilots operating helicopters that delivered weapons and supplies to the insurgents.

During a congressional Oversight and Accountability Committee meeting on 13 February, US Congressman Scott Perry accused the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) of financing terrorist organisations. He claimed that the US funnelled nearly $697 million into initiatives that supported militant factions worldwide. Perry asserted that USAID’s funds, allegedly intended for humanitarian and educational purposes, had been directed to finance madrassas (Arabic for ‘school,’ though often referring to Islamic institutions), terrorist training facilities, and extremist groups like Boko Haram, ISIS and Al-Qaeda.

On 19 February, the US embassy in Nigeria issued a statement that the US had officially designated Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on 14 November 2013, including freezing its assets.

Akinyemi, who returned to academia after his time as foreign minister (1985-87), said the Obama administration tied Nigeria’s hands in the fight against terrorism when it refused to sell arms to Nigeria in 2014, citing concerns over human rights violations by the Nigerian military in its fight against Boko Haram. In July 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari accused the US of indirectly supporting Boko Haram’s extremist agenda by invoking the Leahy Law, which restricts arms sales to militaries accused of human rights abuses.

Boko Haram has been active since 2009, aiming to overthrow the Nigerian government and impose a radical interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, whilst displacing 2.4 million people in the broader region.

SMH- USAID giving terrorism to countries under the guise of charity.

Fvck the USA

[darkmaga-returns]

USAID Falls, Exposing a Giant Network of US-Funded ‘Independent’ Media

by Alan MacLeod | Feb 19, 2025

The Trump administration’s decision to pause USAID funding has plunged hundreds of so-called “independent media” outlets into crisis, thereby exposing a worldwide network of thousands of journalists, all working to promote U.S. interests in their home countries.

In late January, President Trump—along with help from the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk—began implementing sweeping changes to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on the premise that the organization’s promotion of liberal and progressive causes was a gigantic waste of money. The group’s website and Twitter account have disappeared amid widespread speculation that it will cease to exist or be folded into Marco Rubio’s State Department.

The pausing of aid immediately sent shockwaves across the planet, not least in the international media, many of which, unbeknownst to their readers, are totally dependent on financing from Washington.

In total, USAID spends over a quarter of a billion dollars yearly training and funding a vast, sprawling network of more than 6,200 reporters at nearly 1,000 news outlets or journalism organizations, all under the rubric of promoting “independent media.”

With the money tap unexpectedly turned off, outlets around the world are panicking, turning to their readers for donations, and thereby outing themselves as fronts for U.S. power.

[theroyalhouseofwindenburg]

Echos of Solitude

The months that ensued after Cordelia's return showed promising signs. The King frequently joined her on walks, finding solace in the altered landscapes that aided her recovery. King Edward transcended his role as a mere sovereign; he evolved into a beacon of hope. His benevolence and generosity starkly contrasted with his father's legacy. Edward's court was a realm open to all, where nobles and peasants found equal footing. He earned the title of "The White King," deeply revered and cherished by his people.

King Edward was also renowned for his extreme piety and unwavering devotion to the Jacoban Church, a faith deeply instilled in him by his mother, Queen Cordelia. His faith permeated every aspect of his rule, beginning each day with hours of prayer and attending Mass daily. After banishing the previous clergy involved in the conspiracy against his mother, Edward sought to restore the church's integrity. He replaced them with devout and learned men, instituted rigorous training and educational programs, and founded seminaries to ensure a well-rounded and ethical clergy. He also reformed church finances, promoting transparency and accountability. Through these measures, Edward revitalized the Jacoban clergy, restoring its sanctity and earning respect and faith from the people of Windenburg.

While residing in Windenburg, Margaery and her daughter, Empress Mary, deliberated on a potential union for Mary's son, Prince Fernando of Tartosa. After thorough consideration, they concluded that Princess Augusta would be an ideal match. At 21 years old, Princess Augusta was prepared for marriage and welcomed the proposal with joy. Subsequently, they presented their decision to the king for approval.

King Edward sat in his office, deeply engrossed in state affairs, when Queen Margaery, Princess Augusta, and Empress Mary of Tartosa entered the room. Edward looked up, a faint smile gracing his features as he acknowledged their presence.

"Good day, Your Majesty," Mary greeted with a respectful nod, her demeanor poised and regal.

Edward returned the greeting with a nod, "What brings you all to my chambers today?" he inquired, curious about their unexpected visit.

Margaery spoke first, her voice gentle yet firm. "My dear grandson, we have come to discuss an important matter regarding Princess Augusta."

Edward's interest piqued, and he turned his attention towards Augusta, awaiting her words.

"Brother," Augusta began, her tone earnest, "Empress Mary has expressed an interest in a potential alliance between our kingdoms through a marriage proposal."

Edward's brows furrowed slightly, processing the information. "I see," he responded thoughtfully. "And who is the intended groom for such an alliance?"

Empress Mary spoke up, her voice carrying a sense of diplomacy. "Your Majesty, I humbly request the honor of Princess Augusta's hand in marriage for my son, Prince Fernando of Tartosa."

Edward nodded, acknowledging the strategic advantages of such an alliance. "I appreciate your candor, Empress Mary," he said. "However, my sister's happiness and well-being are paramount. Augusta, how do you feel about this proposal?"

Augusta smiled warmly, her eyes reflecting a mix of excitement and gratitude. "I would be honored to ," she replied, stepping forward to embrace her brother in a heartfelt hug.

Edward returned the embrace, a proud smile gracing his features. "You will make a fine empress one day," he remarked, his tone filled with confidence and affection. "I look forward to working alongside you throughout my reign, sister."

Windenburg appeared to be finding its footing, yet the saying held true: where light shone, shadows lurked close behind.

In the autumn of 1354, King Edward presided over court at Windenburg Castle. Among those who approached him was the Countess of Westfield, Lady Dorthea, who performed a graceful curtsy as she addressed him.

"Your Majesty," she began with a tremble in her voice, "I implore you to release my son Richard from his confinement. He has suffered greatly, and my heart longs for his freedom."

Edward's gaze softened with understanding, though his tone remained firm. "Lady Dorthea, I cannot grant that request. I have already extended great mercy to Lord Richard by sparing his life."

Dorthea persisted, her desperation evident. "Since Princess Corrine and my grandchildren left Westfield, Richard has been my sole comfort. Please, Your Majesty, allow me to see my son."

Edward's reply was gentle but resolute. "Richard is currently confined, and I cannot permit any visitors at this time."

Overcome by emotion, Lady Dorthea dropped to her knees, her voice filled with anguish. "Please, Your Majesty, just a moment with him. I beg of you."

Edward rose from his throne, his hand resting reassuringly on her shoulder. "We will discuss this matter further at a later time, Lady Dorthea. Rest assured that your pleas have been heard."

With a heavy heart, Lady Dorthea rose solemnly and left the throne room abruptly. Edward watched her departure with a mixture of concern and empathy, understanding the depth of a mother's love and the weight of his responsibilities as a ruler.

As the golden hues of dawn painted the horizon over Westfield Manor, one of Lady Dorthea's devoted servants approached her bedroom door, a sense of duty driving her actions. She knocked softly, awaiting permission to enter. Minutes ticked by in unnerving silence, and the servant's concern grew with each passing second.

With a heavy heart and a growing sense of dread, the servant cautiously pushed open the door. What greeted her shattered the tranquility of the morning. Lady Dorthea's lifeless form hung from a makeshift noose, she had taken her own life.

The servant's screams echoed through the room, mingling with the sound of her pounding heart.

The evening sun cast a warm glow through the stained glass windows of Windenburg Castle's chapel as the royal family attended their nightly prayers. Among the solemn hymns and flickering candlelight, Sir Walter Arnold, The King's hand and Dorthea's cousin, quietly entered and made his way towards King Edward with a heavy heart.

"Your Majesty," Sir Walter's voice trembled with sadness as he approached the king. "I bear grave news. Lady Dorthea… she has passed."

Edward's expression shifted from serene contemplation to one of shock and devastation. "What? How can this be?" His disbelief was palpable, having just spoken with Dorthea the day before.

As the weight of the news settled upon them, the men exited the chapel to address the sudden tragedy. Margaery, Edward's grandmother, followed with a troubled expression, hoping against hope that she had misheard. "What is it, Walter? Please tell me it's not true," she pleaded, her voice trembling.

Sir Walter's solemn nod confirmed the heartbreaking truth. "I'm afraid it is, Your Grace. Lady Dorthea has taken her own life."

Margaery's grief poured forth in tears, her hands covering her mouth in shock. "Oh, Dorthea… my dearest friend," she whispered between sobs, her heart heavy with sorrow at the loss of a cherished companion.

[lair-of-the-white-worm]

You mentioned in a post that you headcanon Glukkon families are made up of adopted children. Do you think glukkon couples adopt? Or do you think that all glukkons are single fathers?

God THANK YOU for asking me this, holy shit. I love talking about Glukkon headcanons.

For those curious, this is the post anon is talking about (I think).

ANYWAYYYY here we go. AHEM!!!!!!

Glukkon family units are a reflection of their industrialist/hyper-capitalist society, so it's also steeped in rigid heteronormativity and ""traditional"" gender roles. Unlike human familial structures, the concept of a nuclear family is largely absent among the Glukkons. Instead, their approach to family and reproduction is shaped by their cultural priorities of wealth, status, and efficiency, creating a dynamic that is absurdly exaggerated.

It is exceedingly common for Glukkon men to be single fathers, a phenomenon driven by the distinct lifestyle choices of Glukkon women. Female Glukkons typically lead opulent, high-end private lives, separate from their male counterparts. They indulge in luxury, social climbing, and self-care to the extent that any direct involvement in family life is considered beneath them. This leaves the responsibility of raising young Glukkon males, or "frys," squarely on the fathers. However, Glukkon dads view childcare as a monumental waste of time, given their obsession with business and profit.

Instead of hands-on parenting, after adopting, they outsource childcare to specialized institutions. Daycares run by other species—ranging from Sligs for the more frugal fathers to Vykkers for the more affluent—serve as the primary caregivers during the workday. These establishments vary in quality and exclusivity, often reflecting the father’s social status rather than his level of care or concern.

In some cases, Glukkon males may co-raise a fry with other males, forming loose, communal parenting arrangements. However, these partnerships are not viewed through the lens of romantic or marital relationships. Instead, one Glukkon is always designated as the primary father, while the others are considered "uncles" or occasional babysitters. This structure ensures that the fry has a single figure of authority and inheritance while still benefiting from additional adult supervision—a practical arrangement more than an emotional one.

On the other side of the coin, female Glukkons operate within their own exclusive social sphere. Their approach to childcare reflects their disdain for direct involvement. Instead of Sligs, whom they consider vulgar and rowdy, female Glukkons employ Vykkers specializing in nursing or highly trained Mudokon slaves. These Mudokons, often selected for their appealing appearance, etiquette and submissiveness, serve as personal attendants and, occasionally, as nannies for young female Glukks.

The environment for female Glukkons and their offspring is one of refinement and decorum. Young girls are raised with an emphasis on poise, status, and social graces, preparing them to continue the cycle of separation from the male-dominated industrial world.

While male and female Glukkons absolutely DO experience attraction to one another, the idea of a "traditional family" is laughably rare. Marriage—with its implications of shared wealth and obligations—is generally avoided due to selfishness from both parties. Glukkons are fiercely individualistic when it comes to their finances and independence, and the thought of merging bank accounts is anathema to their cultural values. Instead, relationships are transactional or casual, with both genders preferring to keep their lives separate. This divide isn't really a source of tension but moreso a natural extension to each of their priorities.

Ultimately, the Glukkon approach to family and gender roles serves as a biting parody of industrialist and capitalist cultures. By enforcing exaggerated gender roles and prioritizing wealth and efficiency over personal connection, their society lampoons the cold, detached nature of hyper-capitalism. Their disinterest in traditional family structures highlights the absurdity of a system where profit reigns supreme, even at the expense of basic relationships the lower class on Oddworld consider essential to youth. The result is a society that is at once grotesque and darkly humorous, embodying the cynical worldview at the heart of Oddworld.

Feel free to ask me about more headcanons. I really love talking abt them!!

[camisoledadparis]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … December 15

boys, wear your pearls today!

1904 – W. Dorr Legg (d.1994), was a landscape architect and one of the founders of the United States gay rights movement, then called the homophile movement.

He trained as a landscape architect at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and from 1935 was professor of landscape architecture at Oregon State Agricultural College (now Oregon State University), but moved back to Michigan in the 1940s to care for his father and the family business. While there he fell in love with Merton Bird, an accountant.

Hoping to find a social environment more accepting of their interracial relationship, Legg, who was white, and Bird, an African American, moved to Los Angeles in 1949. Shortly thereafter the couple founded a social organization for interracial gay couples, the Knights of the Clocks, a name that Legg called "deliberately ambiguous." The society flourished for several years in the early 1950s.

The couple actively joined the national Mattachine Society, but Legg later led a split to co-found ONE, Inc.. Legg and Bird were among the six original members of ONE, which took its name from a line by Thomas Carlyle, "A mystic bond of brotherhood makes all men one."

Legg gave up his career as a landscape architect to become the business manager of the organization's monthly publication, also called ONE, the first issue of which appeared in 1953. It became the first widely distributed gay publication in the United States.

The magazine was a slim volume at first, typically running from twenty to thirty pages in length. The content initially consisted mainly of essays on topics of interest to the gay community but also included stories, poems, and book reviews. As time went on, the magazine grew, featuring articles on gay studies in the humanities, social and natural sciences, and medicine. By the end of the 1950s, the magazine had attained a distribution of five thousand copies.

The United States Post Office confiscated the October 1954 issue of ONE on the grounds that it was "lewd, obscene, lascivious and filthy" and could therefore not be sent through the mails.

ONE sued Los Angeles Postmaster Otto K. Olesen, who prevailed in the first round when in March 1956 U. S. District Judge Thurmond Clark agreed that the publication was obscene. He also stated that "the suggestion that homosexuals should be recognized as a segment of the populace is rejected."

ONE appealed the decision in the Ninth Circuit, which upheld the lower court's ruling in March 1957. The case next went to the United States Supreme Court.

The justices ruled in favor of ONE in January 1958. Their decision in ONE, Incorporated v. Olesen was per curiam, meaning that they held the issue to be so obvious that no lengthy written opinion was needed.

The news media gave the Supreme Court decision scant attention. Nevertheless, the case was a landmark, establishing the right to send gay and lesbian material through the mail. It had enormous consequence for the fledgling rights movement.

ONE remained in publication until 1969. Financing it had long been a problem. Donors had helped keep the magazine afloat, but the loss of their monetary support combined with a loss of readership to magazines of a more radical viewpoint made the enterprise no longer viable.

Legg traveled to Germany in the 1950s to recover the remains of the archives of the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft.

Legg died in Los Angeles on July 26, 1994 of natural causes. He was survived by his life partner of thirty years, John Najima.

In 2011 the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association announced that Legg would be inducted into its hall of fame.

1937 – In his explicitly gay works, Mutsuo Takahashi, internationally recognized poet and playwright, celebrates homosexual desire.

Takahashi was born in Japan on December 15, 1937, and educated at Fukuoka University of Education. He has published several volumes of poetry, including You Dirty Ones, Do Dirtier Things (1966),��Poems of A Penisist (1975), The Structure of The Kingdom (1982), A Bunch of Keys (1984), Practice/Drinking Eating (1988), The Garden of Rabbits (1988), and Sleeping Sinning Falling (1992).

As a child, Takahashi spent much time with extended family and other neighbors. Especially important to him during this time was an uncle that served a pivotal figure in Takahashi's development, serving as a masculine role model and object of love. However, historical fate intervened, and the uncle, whom Takahashi later described in many early poems, was sent to the battlefield in Burma, where illness claimed his life.

Takahashi and his mother went to live in the port of Moji, just as the bombings of the mainland by the Allied powers intensified. Takahashi's memoirs describe that although he hated the war, World War II provided a chaotic and frightening circus for his classmates, who would go to gawk at the wreckage of the B-29s that fell from the sky and to watch ships blow up at sea, destroyed by naval mines. Takahashi writes that when the war came to an end, he felt a great sense of relief.

In his memoirs and interviews, Takahashi has mentioned that in the time he spent with his schoolmates, he became increasingly aware of his own sexual preference for men. This became a common subject in the first book of poetry he published in 1959.

Few poets bring as much skill and passion to their poems, especially those that consider homosexual desire. His work in drama has also earned acclaim. He won the Yamamoto Kenkichi Prize in 1987 for his stage script called Princess Medea. Other works in drama include an adaptation of W. B. Yeats's play At The Hawk's Well and a noh play inspired by Georges Bataille's Le Procès de Gil de Rais.

Even in his earliest work, Takahashi writes with vitality and precision about homosexual desire. Although Japan does not outlaw homosexual relations, the homosexual there remains an outcast because often he does not engage in the rituals and practices of Japanese family life.

The "okama" ("queen") is laughed at and ostracized. The more he is ostracized, the easier it is to keep the laughter going—at the okama's expense. Takahashi's poems give dignity to the okama, celebrating both his sexual desires and his outcast status.

Homoeroticism was an important them in his poetry written in free verse through the 1970s, including the long poem Ode, which the publisher Winston Leyland has called "the great gay poem of the 20th century." Many of these early works have been translated into English by Hiroaki Sato and reprinted in the collection Partings at Dawn: An Anthology of Japanese Gay Literature.

About the same time, Takahashi started writing prose. In 1970, he published Twelve Views from the Distance about his early life and the novella The Sacred Promontory about his own erotic awakening. In 1972, he wrote A Legend of a Holy Place, a surrealistic novella inspired by his own experiences during a forty-day trip to New York City in which Donald Richie led him through the gay, underground spots of the city. In 1974, he released Zen's Pilgrimage of Virtue, a homoerotic and often extremely humorous reworking of a legend of Sudhana found in the Buddhist classic Avatamsaka Sutra.

Moreover, most of Takahashi's explicitly gay work celebrates desire, finding joy in the male body much as Walt Whitman's poems do. The poems eagerly name body parts as they probe desire and longing.

The speaker of Takahashi's masterful poem "Ode" celebrates his erotic and promiscuous life much as a priest celebrates the Eucharist. This 1,000-line poem begins with a parody of the Mass: "In the name of / Man, member, / and the holy fluid, / AMEN." As the speaker seeks out sex in the places most frowned on by his society, he is reborn, saved by each new encounter. The glory hole, for example, takes on spiritual significance. Only what is "made flesh" satisfies.

Poems of A Penisist is one of the most important collections of poetry on homosexual desire and sex written in this century. The personae in these poems do not compromise—they see the world as outsiders ("a faggot that fingers point at") but being outsiders brings them joy and meaning. As the majority society mocks and condemns them, their joy in their identity as gay men, as individuals who enjoy pleasure with other men, gives them strength.

1958 – Alfredo Ormando, Italian homosexual, who committed ritual suicide to protest Church policies toward homosexuality.

Ormando was one of eight children from an impoverished family, who had been struggling to make a success of a writing career, after spending two years in a seminary. He had been suffering from serious depression, which clearly had multiple causes.

In December 1997 he wrote this letter to a friend of his in Reggio Emilia:

Palermo, Christmas 1997 Dear Adriano, this year I can't feel it's Christmas anymore, it is indifferent to me like everything; nothing can bring me back to life. I keep on getting ready for my suicide day by day; I feel this is my fate, I've always been aware but never accepted, but this tragic fate is there, it's waiting for me with a patience of Job which looks incredible. I haven't been able to escape this idea of death, I feel I can't avoid it, nor can I pretend to live and plan a future I do not have; my future will just be a prosecution of this present. I live with the awareness of who's leaving this life and this doesn't look dreadful to me! No! I can't wait for the day I will bring this life of mine to an end; they will think I am mad because I have chosen Saint Peter Square to be the place where I'll set myself on fire, while I could do it here in Palermo as well. I hope they'll understand the message I want to convey; it is a form of protest against the Church which demonises homosexuality, demonising nature at the same time, because homosexuality is its daughter. Alfredo.

On 13 January 1998 he set himself on fire in Saint Peter's Square in Rome to protest the attitudes and policies of the Roman Catholic Church regarding homosexual Christians. After two policemen put out the flames, he was brought to Sant'Eugenio hospital in critical condition. He died there 11 days later.

After his death, the Vatican denied that this had anything to do with the Church or homosexuality. Through its spokesperson, Father Ciro Benedettini, the Church downplayed the significance of the act.

In 2000, the year of the Jubilee, Pope John-Paul II exhorted his followers in the same spot where Alfredo Ormando had set himself on fire two years prior, telling them that homosexuality was "unnatural," and that the Church had a "duty to distinguish between good and evil."

In 2005, the new Pope Benedict committed himself to even harsher anti-gay teachings, initiating what some see as a gay witchhunt within the Catholic clergy, fighting same-sex partnership legislation worldover, and sending the message that homosexuals have no place in God's kingdom.

However, in September 2013, Pope Francis said the church shouldn't "interfere spiritually" with the lives of LGBT people in a wide-ranging interview in which he also said the church cannot focus solely on opposing abortion, contraception, and marriage equality. A month earlier, the pope told a group of reporters that he wouldn't judge gay priests, asking, "If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with good will, who am I to judge?"

Change comes slowly in the Catholic church.

1961 – Jack Halberstam, also known as Judith Halberstam, is Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, Gender Studies, and Comparative Literature, as well as serving as the Director of The Center for Feminist Research at University of Southern California (USC). Halberstam was the Associate Professor in the Department of Literature at the University of California at San Diego before working at USC. He is a gender and queer theorist and author.

Halberstam, who accepts masculine and feminine pronouns, as well as the name "Judith," with regard to his gender identity, focuses on the topic of tomboys and female masculinity for his writings. His 1998 Female Masculinity book discusses a common by-product of gender binarism, termed "the bathroom problem" with outlining the dangerous and awkward dilemma of a perceived gender deviant's justification of presence in a gender-policed zone, such as a public bathroom, and the identity implications of "passing" therein.

Assigned female at birth, he uses the pronouns "he/his" with regard to his gender identity and goes by the name Jack, but says that "some people call me Jack, my sister calls me Jude, people I've known forever call me Judith" and "I try not to police any of it. A lot of people call me he, some people call me she, and I let it be a weird mix of things." The name "Judith Halberstam" has also accompanied "Jack" on some of Halberstam's later books.

Halberstam acknowledges that he is "a bit of a free floater" when it comes to pronouns. He said that "the back and forth between he and she sort of captures the form that my gender takes nowadays" and that the floating gender pronouns have captured his refusal to resolve his gender ambiguity. Halberstam does, however, state that "grouping me with someone else who seems to have a female embodiment and then calling us 'ladies', is never, ever ok!"

Jack is a popular speaker and gives lectures in the United States and internationally on queer failure, sex and media, subcultures, visual culture, gender variance, popular film and animation. Halberstam is currently working on several projects including a book on fascism and (homo)sexuality.

1974 – We're not sure of the exact date but sometime in December 1974, two Boston Gay rights activists, Bernie Toal and Tom Morganti, created a symbol of Gay pride. It was not to have lasting influence but it's damned cute and certainly speaks to the creativity that occurred in the years following the Stonewall uprising. The symbol was the purple rhino. The entire campaign was intended to bring Gay issues further into public view. The rhino started being displayed in subways in Boston , but since the creators didn't qualify for a public service advertising rate, the campaign soon became too expensive for the activists to handle. The ads disappeared, and the rhino never caught on anywhere else. As Toal put it, "The rhino is a much maligned and misunderstood animal and, in actuality, a gentle creature. But when a rhinoceros is angered, it fights ferociously." At the time, this seemed a fitting symbol for the Gay rights movement. Lavender was used because it was a widely recognized Gay pride color and the heart was added to represent love and the "common humanity of all people." The purple rhinoceros was never copyrighted and is in the public domain.

1994 – Jason Brown is an American figure skater. He is a nine-time Grand Prix medalist, a two-time Four Continents medalist (2020 silver, 2018 bronze), and the 2015 U.S. national champion. Earlier in his career, he became a two-time World Junior medalist (2013 silver, 2012 bronze), the 2011 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, and the 2010 junior national champion.

At only 19, Brown won a bronze medal in the team event at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, becoming one of the youngest male figure skating Olympic medalists.

He came out as gay via Instagram post on June 11, 2021.

2000 – The Supreme Court of Canada finds in favor of the Crown in the Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium v. Canada obscenity case. However, they found that the way the law was implemented by customs officials was discriminatory and should be remedied, an opinion they suggested would avail the bookstore in any further legal battles

[beardedmrbean]

Just days before beginning a prison sentence for her part in a $4.5 billion crypto heist, Heather Morgan — who, under the name Razzlekhan, went as viral for her rap videos as the outsized crime itself — is already determined to rewrite her story.

“People act like I’m some evil villain bitch or some dumb trophy wife,” Morgan, 34, told NYNext. “I can’t be both those things, but I can be neither.”

In an exclusive interview before she surrenders February 4 at a federal institute in Victorville, California, Morgan said she wanted to set the record straight about her involvement in the “Biggest Heist Ever” — as a recent Netflix documentary based on her and husband Ilya Lichtenstein’s story titles it.

“I’m not proud of the acts that led my husband and I to being arrested,” Morgan said. But she remains defiant in her choice not to rat him out for a better plea deal.

“I could have thrown him under the bus five different ways … I’d rather be a proud felon than a disloyal backstabbing wife … ,” she said. “As a dedicated wife, I didn’t want to do anything that would put him in a worse position.”

But her main message? “This was a media spectacle — but they were wrong about me.”

She has now launched a legal battle against Netflix, claiming the film is defamatory.

While it was Lichtenstein who hacked the Bitfinex exchange in 2016 and stole 119,754 Bitcoin (then worth $71 million), Morgan allowed her personal financial accounts to be used for laundering and helped set up numerous virtual currency exchange accounts to conceal the source of the money — something she believes any wife would do.

“What married couple doesn’t have intermingled finances?” shesaid of her involvement.

According to the criminal complaint, the couple — who rented a $1.5 million apartment in FiDi, reportedly decorated with animal pelts and a taxidermy alligator — spent the illegal proceeds on, among other things, gold and NFTs.

When the Bitcoin Bonnie and Clyde, as they’ve been dubbed, were arrested at their Manhattan home in 2022, prosecutors found a bag of burner phones and a file on Lichtenstein’s computer called “passport_ideas.”

They pleaded guilty to money laundering a year later. Morgan received 18 months. Lichtenstein was sentenced to five years and has already served over half of his time at a detention center.

Despite underscoring her loyalty to her husband and partner in crime, Morgan ironically wanted to make a new friend in prison: Caroline Ellison — the FTX executive who got a heavily shortened sentence for fraud thanks to ratting on her colleagues, including ex-boyfriend Sam Bankman-Fried.

“I asked for Danbury prison, hoping I might get to know Caroline Ellison, as I thought it would be a fun plot twist,” she said. “And I figured she probably had the resources to pick a bougie facility.”

Morgan didn’t exactly grow up bougie. She was raised in a rural town in Northern California where, she once wrote on Instagram, “my dad literally trained me on how to hunt with a spear ‘in case a wild bore [sic] charged me.'”

After bouncing around Japan, she studied at the University of California Davis and the American University in Cairo before, at age 23, founding a sales tech company called SalesFolk. That’s how she met Lichtenstein, a Russia-born entrepreneur and crypto investor who had secured a $1.5 million investment from Mark Cuban and other investors for his sales start-up MixRank in 2011.

“I spent most of my twenties working my ass off to build a bootstrapped business by myself, which I turned into a million-dollar business,” Morgan said. “In the end, all the money I made from my first company went to paying legal bills for my husband and me.”

Before that happened, though, the “business ultimately left me burnt out and feeling unfulfilled, which is why I decided to create Razzlekhan.”

Perhaps the only thing more surprising than the heist’s enormous monetary sum was Morgan’s second life as a rapper who, according to her website, was “taking on everyone from big software companies to health care to finance bros.”

In a now-viral video for her song “Versace Bedouin,” Morgan promoted herself as the “crocodile of Wall Street” while jumping around FiDi landmarks in a gold jacket and cap that reads “0 F–ks,” as unwitting tourists gawp from the sidewalk.

The feds even quoted some of her lyrics in the case against her: “Spear phish your password / All your funds transferred,” their court filing read, adding that it was a reference to a hacking technique.

Now, Morgan said she’s tired of being depicted as a woman who found a rich guy to support her artistic aspirations.

“The government somehow managed to weaponize Razzlekhan to undermine all of my professional business accomplishments as an entrepreneur,” she told NYNext.

“No money from the heist was ever spent on Razzlekhan … people hear this huge sum of money but we’re not lavish. We’re eccentric.”

When Morgan and Lichtenstein married, friends carried her down the aisle atop a Moroccan-style bridal throne as the 1986 hair-metal anthem “The Final Countdown” played; at the reception after, Morgan performed one of her own songs, “Turkish Martha Stewart.”

Last Friday, Morgan released a song and music video, “DIPLOMAT P–$¥” about a jet-setting life: “Moved to Cairo from Hong Kong/ Late Night partying with tech moguls/ Hella stalkers, marriage proposals/ Dated a motherf–king crazy rich Asian.”

While it’s based in part on her story, Morgan insisted, “There is a huge contradiction between me and Razzlekhan” — adding that in real life, she’s Type A, while her alter ego is a party girl. “Razzlekhan was the first time in my life I was truly doing something for myself.”

She’s not happy with the way her story has been told in Netflix’s “The Biggest Heist Ever” and said her attorney has sent cease-and-desist letters to the streamer, producer Library Films, filmmaker Chris Smith and journalist Nick Bilton, who wrote the film.

Morgan’s attorney Serena Wu told NYNext: “We are reviewing our legal options but starting with these cease and desist letters,” adding that the film is disseminating “defamatory statements against Ms. Morgan.”

Morgan said she speaks to her husband, whom she hasn’t seen in three years, every day and plans to reunite with him when they are both out. The couple will also be reuniting with their Bengal cat Clarissa, who Morgan allegedly used to distract federal agents when their apartment was raided. The cat will spend the coming months with Morgan’s close friends and stay active on Instagram, she added.

And, “when I come out of prison, I look forward to continuing to pursue creative endeavors as Razzlekhan,” Morgan said. “The [prison] is conveniently located not too far from Hollywood, so let’s see what happens next.

“This is not the last the world will be hearing from me.”

[gtiaindia]

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[theculturedmarxist]

SHANGHAI — Over the past generation, China’s most important relationships were with the more developed world, the one that used to be called the “first world.” Mao Zedong proclaimed China to be the leader of a “third” (non-aligned) world back in the 1970s, and the term later came to be a byword for deprivation. The notion of China as a developing country continues to this day, even as it has become a superpower; as the tech analyst Dan Wang has joked, China will always remain developing — once you’re developed, you’re done. 

Fueled by exports to the first world, China became something different — something not of any of the three worlds. We’re still trying to figure out what that new China is and how it now relates to the world of deprivation — what is now called the Global South, where the majority of human beings alive today reside. But amid that uncertainty, Chinese exports to the Global South now exceed those to the Global North considerably — and they’re growing. 

The International Monetary Fund expects Asian countries to account for 70% of growth globally this year. China must “shape a new international system that is conducive to hedging against the negative impacts of the West’s decoupling,” the scholar and former People’s Liberation Army theorist Cheng Yawen wrote recently. That plan starts with Southeast Asia and extends throughout the Global South, a terrain that many Chinese intellectuals see as being on their side in the widening divide between the West and the rest. 

“The idea is that what China is today, fast-growing countries from Bangladesh to Brazil could be tomorrow.”

China isn’t exporting plastic trinkets to these places but rather the infrastructure for telecommunications, transportation and digitally driven “smart cities.” In other words, China is selling the developmental model that raised its people out of obscurity and poverty to developed global superpower status in a few short decades to countries with people who have decided that they want that too. 

The world China is reorienting itself to is a world that, in many respects, looks like China did a generation ago. On offer are the basics of development — education, health care, clean drinking water, housing. But also more than that — technology, communication and transportation.

Back in April, on the eve of a trip to China, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva sat down for an interview with Reuters. “I am going to invite Xi Jinping to come to Brazil,” he said, “to get to know Brazil, to show him the projects that we have of interest for Chinese investment. … What we want is for the Chinese to make investments to generate new jobs and generate new productive assets in Brazil.” After Lula and Xi had met, the Brazilian finance minister proclaimed that “President Lula wants a policy of reindustrialization. This visit starts a new challenge for Brazil: bringing direct investments from China.” Three months later, the battery and electric vehicle giant BYD announced a $624 million investment to build a factory in Brazil, its first outside Asia.

Across the Global South, fast-growing countries from Bangladesh to Brazil can send raw materials to China and get technological devices in exchange. The idea is that what China is today, they could be tomorrow.

At The Kunming Institute of Botany

In April, I went to Kunming to visit one of China’s most important environmental conservation outfits — the Kunming Institute of Botany. Like the British Museum’s antiquities collected from everywhere that the empire once extended, the seed bank here (China’s largest) aspires to acquire thousands of samples of various plant species and become a regional hub for future biotech research. 

From the Kunming train station, you can travel by Chinese high-speed rail to Vientiane; if all goes according to plan, the line will soon be extended to Bangkok. At Yunnan University across town, the economics department researches “frontier economics” with an eye to Southeast Asian neighboring states, while the international relations department focuses on trade pacts within the region and a community of anthropologists tries to figure out what it all means. 

Kunming is a bland, air-conditioned provincial capital in a province of startling ethnic and geographic diversity. In this respect, it is a template for Chinese development around Southeast Asia. Perhaps in the future, Dhaka, Naypyidaw and Phnom Penh will provide the reassuring boredom of a Kunming afternoon. 

Imagine you work at the consulate of Bangladesh in Kunming. Why are you in Kunming? What does Kunming have that you want?

The Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore lyrically described Asia’s communities as organic and spiritual in contrast with the materialism of the West. As Tagore spoke of the liberatory powers of art, his Chinese listeners scoffed. The Chinese poet Wen Yiduo, who moved to Kunming during World War II and is commemorated with a statue at Yunnan Normal University in Kunming, wrote that Tagore’s work had no form: “The greatest fault in Tagore’s art is that he has no grasp of reality. Literature is an expression of life and even metaphysical poetry cannot be an exception. Everyday life is the basic stuff of literature, and the experiences of life are universal things.” 

“Xi Jinping famously said that China doesn’t export revolution. But what else do you call train lines, 5G connectivity and scientific research centers appearing in places that previously had none of these things?”

If Tagore’s Bengali modernism championed a spiritual lens for life rather than the materiality of Western colonialists, Chinese modernists decided that only by being more materialist than Westerners could they regain sovereignty. Mao had said rural deprivation was “一穷二白” — poor and empty; Wen accused Tagore’s poetry of being formless. Hegel sneered that Asia had no history, since the same phenomena simply repeated themselves again and again — the cycle of planting and harvest in agricultural societies. 

For modernists, such societies were devoid of historical meaning in addition to being poor and readily exploited. The amorphous realm of the spirit was for losers, the Chinese May 4th generation decided. Railroads, shipyards and electrification offered salvation.

Today, as Chinese roads, telecoms and entrepreneurs transform Bangladesh and its peers in the developing world, you could say that the argument has been won by the Chinese. Chinese infrastructure creates a new sort of blank generic urban template, one seen first in Shenzhen, then in Kunming and lately in Vientiane, Dhaka or Indonesian mining towns. 

The sleepy backwaters of Southeast Asia have seen previous waves of Chinese pollinators. Low Lan Pak, a tin miner from Guangdong, established a revolutionary state in Indonesia in the 18th century. Li Mi, a Kuomintang general, set up an independent republic in what is now northern Myanmar after World War II. 

New sorts of communities might walk on the new roads and make calls on the new telecom networks and find work in the new factories that have been built with Chinese technology and funded by Chinese money across Southeast Asia. One Bangladeshi investor told me that his government prefers direct investment to aid — aid organizations are incentivized to portray Bangladesh as eternally poor, while Huawei and Chinese investors play up the country’s development prospects and bright future. In the latter, Bangladeshis tend to agree.

“Is China a place, or is it a recipe for social structure that can be implemented generically anywhere?”

The majority of human beings alive today live in a world of not enough: not enough food; not enough security; not enough housing, education, health care; not enough rights for women; not enough potable water. They are desperate to get out of there, as China has. They might or might not like Chinese government policies or the transactional attitudes of Chinese entrepreneurs, but such concerns are usually of little importance to countries struggling to bootstrap their way out of poverty.

The first world tends to see the third as a rebuke and a threat. Most Southeast Asian countries have historically borne abuse in relationship to these American fears. Most American companies don’t tend to see Pakistan or Bangladesh or Sumatra as places they’d like invest money in. But opportunity beckons for Chinese companies seeking markets outside their nation’s borders and finding countries with rapidly growing populations and GDPs. Imagine a Huawei engineer in a rural Bangladeshi village, eating a bad lunch with the mayor, surrounded by rice paddies — he might remember the Hunan of his childhood.  

Xi Jinping famously said that China doesn’t export revolution. But what else do you call train lines, 5G connectivity and scientific research centers appearing in places that previously had none of these things? 

Across the vastness of a world that most first-worlders would not wish to visit, Chinese entrepreneurs are setting up electric vehicle and battery companies, installing broadband and building trains. The world that is looming into view on Huawei’s 2022 business report is one in which Asia is the center of the global economy and China sits at its core, the hub from which sophisticated and carbon-neutral technologies are distributed. Down the spokes the other way come soybeans, jute and nickel. Lenin’s term for this kind of political economy was imperialism. 

If the Chinese economy is the set of processes that created and create China, then its exports today are China — technologies, knowledge, communication networks, forms of organization. But is China a place, or is it a recipe for social structure that can be implemented generically anywhere?

Huawei Station

Huawei’s connections to the Chinese Communist Party remain unclear, but there is certainly a case of elective affinities. Huawei’s descriptions of selfless, nameless engineers working to bring telecoms to the countryside of Bangladesh is reminiscent of Party propaganda and “socialist realist” art. As a young man, Ren Zhengfei, Huawei’s CEO, spent time in the Chongqing of Mao’s “third front,” where resources were redistributed to develop new urban centers; the logic of starting in rural areas and working your way to the center, using infrastructure to rappel your way up, is embedded within the Maoist ideas that he studied at the time. Today, it underpins Huawei’s business development throughout the Global South. 

I stopped by the Huawei Analyst Summit in April to see if I could connect the company’s history to today. The Bildungsroman of Huawei’s corporate development includes battles against entrenched state-owned monopolies in the more developed parts of the country. The story goes that Huawei couldn’t make inroads in established markets against state-owned competitors, so got started in benighted rural areas where the original leaders had to brainstorm what to do if rats ate the cables or rainstorms swept power stations away; this story is mobilized today to explain their work overseas. 

Perhaps at one point, Huawei could have been just another boring corporation selling plastic objects to consumers across the developed world, but that time ended definitively with Western sanctions in 2019, effectively banning the company from doing business in the U.S. The sanctions didn’t kill Huawei, obviously, and they may have made it stronger. They certainly made it weirder, more militant and more focused on the markets largely scorned by the Ericssons and Nokias of the world. Huawei retrenched to its core strength: providing rural and remote areas with access to connectivity across difficult terrain with the intention that these networks will fuel telehealth and digital education and rapidly scale the heights of development.

Huawei used to do this with dial-up modems in China, but now it is building 5G networks across the Global South. The Chinese government is supportive of these efforts; Huawei’s HQ has a subway station named for the company, and in 2022 the government offered the company massive subsidies.

“For many countries in the Global South, the model of development exemplified by Shenzhen seems plausible and attainable.”

For years, the notion of an ideological struggle between the U.S. and China was dismissed; China is capitalist, they said. Just look at the Louis Vuitton bags. This misses a central truth of the economy of the 21st century. The means of production now are internet servers, which are used for digital communication, for data farms and blockchain, for AI and telehealth. Capitalists control the means of production in the United States, but the state controls the means of production in China. In the U.S. and countries that implicitly accept its tech dominance, private businesspeople dictate the rules of the internet, often to the displeasure of elected politicians who accuse them of rigging elections, fueling inequality or colluding with communists. The difference with China, in which the state has maintained clear regulatory control over the internet since the early days, couldn’t be clearer. 

The capitalist system pursues frontier technologies and profits, but companies like Huawei pursue scalability to the forgotten people of the world. For better or worse, it’s San Francisco or Shenzhen. For many countries in the Global South, the model of development exemplified by Shenzhen seems more plausible and attainable. Nobody thinks they can replicate Silicon Valley, but many seem to think they can replicate Chinese infrastructure-driven middle-class consumerism.

As Deng Xiaoping said, it doesn’t matter if it is a black cat or a white cat, just get a cat that catches mice. Today, leaders of Global South countries complain about the ideological components of American aid; they just want a cat that can catch their mice. Chinese investment is blank — no ideological strings attached. But this begs the question: If China builds the future of Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Laos, then is their future Chinese?

Telecommunications and 5G is at the heart of this because connectivity can enable rapid upgrades in health and education via digital technology such as telehealth, whereby people in remote villages are able to consult with doctors and hospitals in more developed regions. For example, Huawei has retrofitted Thailand’s biggest and oldest hospital with 5G to communicate with villages in Thailand’s poor interior — the sort of places a new Chinese high-speed train line could potentially provide links with the outside world — offering Thai villagers without the ability to travel into town the opportunity to get medical treatments and consultations remotely. 

The IMF has proposed that Asia’s developing belt “should prioritize reforms that boost innovation and digitalization while accelerating the green energy transition,” but there is little detail about who exactly ought to be doing all of that building and connecting. In many cases and places, it’s Chinese infrastructure and companies like Huawei that are enabling Thai villagers to live as they do in Guizhou.

Chinese Style Modernization?

The People’s Republic of China is “infinitely stronger than the Soviet Union ever was,” the U.S. ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, told Politico in April. This prowess “is based on the extraordinary strength of the Chinese economy — its science and technology research base, its innovative capacity and its ambitions in the Indo-Pacific to be the dominant power in the future.” This increasingly feels more like the official position of the U.S. government than a random comment.

Ten years ago, Xi Jinping proposed the notion of a “maritime Silk Road” to the Indonesian Parliament. Today, Indonesia is building an entirely new capital — Nusantara — for which China is providing “smart city” technologies. Indonesia has a complex history with ethnic Chinese merchants, who played an intermediary role between Indigenous people and Western colonists in the 19th century and have been seen as CCP proxies for the past half century or so. But the country is nevertheless moving decisively towards China’s pole, adopting Chinese developmental rhythms and using Chinese technology and infrastructure to unlock the door to the future. “The internet, roads, ports, logistics — most of these were built by Chinese companies,” observed a local scholar. 

The months since the 20th Communist Party Congress have seen the introduction of what Chinese diplomats call “Chinese-style modernization,” a clunky slogan that can evoke the worst and most boring agitprop of the Soviet era. But the concept just means exporting Chinese bones to other social bodies around the world. 

If every apartment decorated with IKEA furniture looks the same, prepare for every city in booming Asia to start looking like Shenzhen. If you like clean streets, bullet trains, public safety and fast Wi-Fi, this may not be a bad thing. 

Chinese trade with Southeast Asia is roughly double that between China and the U.S., and Chinese technology infrastructure is spreading out from places like the “Huawei University” at Indonesia’s Bandung Institute of Technology, which plans to train 100,000 telecom engineers in the next five years. We’re about to see a generation of “barefoot doctors” throughout Southeast Asia traveling by moped across landscapes of underdevelopment connected to hubs of medical data built by Chinese companies with Chinese technology. 

In 1955, the year of the Bandung Conference in Indonesia, the non-aligned world was almost entirely poor, cut off from the means of production in a world where nearly 50% of GDP globally was in the U.S. Today, the logic of that landmark conference is alive today in Chinese informal networks across the Global South, with the key difference that China can now offer these countries the possibility of building their own future without talking to anyone from the Global North. 

Welcome to the Sinosphere, where the tides of Chinese development lap over its borders into the remote forests of tropical Asia, and beyond.

[prettyvintageafternoon]

Daily reminder that the anti-abortion position will never be a feminist, left-wing or progressive position, and the pathological need of pro-lifers to tokenize minorities and certain experiences that we have needs to be studied.

First off, I find it very funny that an organization known for having its white members engage in physical violence, trespassing and digging in the trash for fetal remains is now trying to lecture black women about intersectionality with regard to pregnancy and childbirth.

Reproductive justice is both a term and an ideology that black women specifically came up with in order to acknowledge how race and economic class play a role in reproductive access and decisions. The fact that an organization run and represented by white people pretending to be progressive is trying to check the women who came up with an actual progressive framework of beliefs to better represent their own interests is hilarious to me.

Second, PAAU is not a progressive organization. Its founder, Terrisa Bukovinac, is on the board of the Leadership Institute, a politically conservative training organization, and has gone to events hosted by the Heritage Foundation - a right-wing conservative think tank helping to drive anti-abortion legislation around the country by supporting conservative Republican politicians in various ways.

You even have members of this organization like @secularprolifeconspectus on Tumblr who will do interviews with people like Sebastian Gorka, who has had ties to the Order of Vitéz - a Hungarian order of merit which allied itself with Nazis during WWII.

(BTW, the IRONY of spending time talking about how Planned Parenthood is rooted in eugenics while talking about how conservatives are so much nicer than leftists to someone who has ties to a Nazi-sympathizing organization. Ma'am... 😬)

Then again, @secularprolifeconspectus also likes to spread lies like Abortion Pill Reversal™️, which isn't real, and repeats quotes from Abby Johnson, the famous anti-abortion activist who had two abortions and said that the police would be smart to racially profile her black sons in the wake of the Black Lives Matter Protests of 2020 following George Floyd's murder. 🙃

@secularprolifeconspectus has me blocked, but I'll just say this.

The irony of pretending to care about the interests of black people while rubbing shoulders with far-right political figures and reposting words from racist white women but also being confused as to why leftists don't like you is very telling.

Third, the information posted is wrong. It's very convenient that PAAU is "worried" about maternal morality in the DMV area when the U.S. states with the highest maternal mortality rates are Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina (CDC, 2023) - states with higher concentrations of black people that are also dominated by white, conservative political leadership which puts anti-abortion legislation in place. The DMV area is actually lower in comparison to these places, yet PAAU conveniently ignores that im order to paint a false narrative.

Source: Which states have the highest maternal mortality rates?, USA FACTS

Fourth, I also find it very funny that "progressive" pro-lifers have the audacity to accuse organizations run by minorities of hijacking progressive principles when that's all pro-lifers do by...

Using terms like "Abortion Industrial Complex" after anti-war advocates have been discussing the Military Industrial Complex for years

Acknowledging how finances and money plays a role in people choosing to get abortions but only every criticizing pro-choicers for supporting abortion access (*and conveniently never holding the very conservative anti-abortion movement accountable for the policy-making role they play in making people not want to have children in the first place)

Saying that abortion access is a part of Big Pharma, when forcing women to have children they don't want literally creates another patient pool for Big Pharma to subsist off of

Arguing that affordable healthcare, housing and clean water and nutrition - things that pro-choice activists have spent years advocated for (*and that conservative pro-lifers have spent years voting against), somehow cannot co-exist with abortion access

So yeah, removing abortion access from people who want it will never be progressive, and the fact that pro-lifers still try to tokenize minorities (and chastise us when we don't support their worldview) shows how little they actually care about those of us people of color.